Get a load of these Christmas crackers!
Prices are falling… but here’s how to get EVEN MORE bang for your buck
After two years of being battered by soaring prices, consumers had plenty of Christmas cheer this week. A major supplier cut energy bills, new rivals challenged Ireland’s abysmal bank deposit rates and the relentless rise in food costs eased as major supermarket chains dropped their festive food prices.
But prices are still high and we won’t benefit from any of these pressies unless we do something about it!
Here’s how to take full advantage of those festive deals:
FOOD
Grocery prices have fallen for a seventh month in a row.
They are still going up 8.6% but at least they’ve stopped shooting ahead in double figures – and analysts expect further falls in the inflation rate.
‘This is good news for consumers although the rate is still incredibly high,’ said Emer Healy, director at retail analyst Kantar, as grocery price inflation for November was announced this week
This is the lowest level of price hikes since August 2022 after a significant drop of 1.2 percentage points [since October],’ she said.
And she had good news for shoppers, ‘We expect to see this gradual decline to continue over the coming months’.
Meanwhile, Aldi announced another range of price cuts across 170 seasonal products that it says could save families a total of €2m across Christmas.
These include Christmas dinner staples like potatoes, sprouts and carrots that it says are down 75%. Some wines have also been reduced by 20%, while there’s 45% off zeroalcohol products and soft drinks are 30% less.
It’s hard to gauge just how cheap Aldi now is as all supermarkets also seem to be dropping prices on selective festive goodies.
But there are decent bargains to be had. For example, I sampled Aldi’s reduced-price Pouilly-Fumé French white wine for €11.99 last weekend and can recommend it as an upmarket Christmas dinner tipple that won’t break the bank. (It’s the same price in Lidl though it’s a different brand). Lidl and Aldi are both claiming sizeable price reductions.
Lidl has an Argentine Malbec red wine for an unusually low price of €7.99 and is claiming to knock 23% off its Pure Grenache, Languedoc, €9.99, which I snapped up but haven’t tried yet.
Aldi aren’t the only ones attempting to entice festive shoppers.
Other supermarkets are also cutting prices in an ongoing battle of the bottle.
Dunnes has plenty of decent wines for under a tenner, including Faustino reds and whites (Spanish wine is often good value) and an Argentine Malbec for €8.40.
It’s hard to beat Aldi and Lidl for turkey value with both offering 7kg whole turkeys for €29.99. The date for pre-ordering your turkey at Tesco and Dunnes – which had a turkey and ham deal for €40 and has €10 off every €50 spent up to €150 – passed this week though.
Don’t forget the middle aisles for last-minute presents that are probably as cheap as Amazon but are far more quickly and reliably delivered (into your shopping trolley).
I spotted a Skylux telescope in Lidl for €85, binoculars and lots of games to keep the children happy (even if you don’t have children, you’ll need to keep any that visit over for Christmas amused.)
Aldi has a wide range of stocking fillers, ranging from €4.99 for a paint-it-yourself moneybox, which gets approval from your Money pages – even if we weren’t in festive form!
When I visited Lidl during the week it still had a few dual-basket air fryers with a hefty 4.35L capacity per basket for €89.99, but don’t expect them to last long. The dualbasket fryers are all the rage now as you can divide up the Sunday roast instead of having to lump it all in together.
What to do: Snap up middle-aisle bargains before they’re gone. And, as ever at Christmas, it pays to make a list and ‘check it twice’ before going shopping. You can even check and compare prices online for most big stores before leaving the house.
ENERGY
‘Christmas comes early for SSE Airtricity customers as it drops its prices again,’ declared Daragh Cassidy of Bonkers.ie after the supplier (hopefully) triggered a round of energy cuts.
In a surprise move, SSE Airtricity said it will slash its energy prices for the second time in a few months. This follows a similar move by newcomer Yuno last month.
From February 1, variable rate SSE users will save 12.8% off electricity prices while its domestic gas rates will fall by 11.5%. This will save a dual-fuel customer €377 a year – or €760 when the November cut is included. New customers also benefit from lower prices.
Other suppliers are expected to follow suit. So watch this space.
‘There’s never been a better time
to switch to a cheaper supplier.
All the main suppliers are now offering big discounts, of up to 20% or more, to new customers meaning you could save hundreds on your bills,’ said Mr Cassidy
What to do: Review your energy bills on comparison sites like Bonkers or Switcher.ie. Is your contract over? Are you on a variable rate?
If so you may be able to switch plan or provider and save hundreds.
If switching is too much hassle for you, check out WeSwitchU, a service that reminds you when your contract is up and will do most of the work for you.
BANK RATES
The vast majority of Irish savers aren’t even bothering to put their massive €153bn stash of savings (among the biggest per capita in Europe) in fixedrate accounts, where even in this uncompetitive banking backwater, they can earn up to 4.25%.
They’re leaving most of it – a whopping €141bn – in demand deposit accounts, earning on average just 0.12% interest!
To have that much money earning so little interest when it could be earning 40 times more, means we’re losing billions.
As announced on these pages last week, Dutch bank Bunq has given Irish savers an early Christmas present with its new 2.46% rate for instant-access cash.
And another online bank Raisin.ie – which compiles the best rates across Europe – is reportedly close to launching a range of deposit rates that could see them hit 4% like many of its other deposit rates.
It already has an ‘instant access’ offering at 1.76% that ranks second in Ireland, where, as you can see from the table, our banks have pretty pathetic deals.
What to do: Get at least some of your banking online if you can. It’s not a big deal to open an account online.
Two million of us have done it with Revolut while keeping most traditional bank accounts open.
Also, look at longer term deals. You can get up to 4.25% in an account with Raisin over just one year, which isn’t that long.