You can get 40% off these selected items (DVDs and Games)  at Play.com.
Use the Promotional Discount Code SECRETSANTA40 to get the discount.  It is valid until December 6th 2009 and can only be used on the items shown on this page . All come with free delivery to Ireland.

More Online Shopping Discounts Here

Flooding in parts of Cork, Galway and Clare could result in large household  insurance  claims  – hopefully most , if not all,  people affected had home insurance.

Insurance firms have been dealing with as many as 1,000 claims a day since the flooding began and it is expected that claims could exceed  €100m.

Advice for people whose homes have been affected by flooding:

If your home has already been hit by flooding  you should contact your home insurer as soon as possible. Most of them will have 24-hour emergency helplines, and will have trained staff to deal with urgent enquiries.

Try to photograph the  damage to your building and  contents.
Don’t throw away any damaged items you wish to claim for -  they might need to be assessed.

If you need to move to alternative accommodation then check with your insurer whether the cost for this is covered under your policy.
Get and keep receipts for any flood related costs – such as any emergency repairs.

When the flood water has receded, floors and furniture should be disinfected. You should also dispose the food from your fridge and freezer .  Keep a list of the disposed items – and take photographs if possible – as you may be able to claim on them.

Get an expert to check  the electricity and gas services before you turn them back on. The damage caused by the flood may not be obvious and switching on a service could be very dangerous.

It may be a good idea to have  the damage professionally assessed by a surveyor or engineer. You might be able to claim back the cost of any fees off the insurance company – but check  beforehand.

The Sunday Tribune asked some people to give their ideas on what the December Budget should contain.
Michael O’Leary of Ryanair was always going to make controversial suggestions  – but are they really that crazy or are there  some sensible ideas in there?

Some of his Budget  2010 suggestions are:

Close all the government quangos which currently exist, making all of the useless bureaucrats who populate them redundant and saving €8bn per annum.

Make  all public-sector employees (including the Dáil and Seanad) to work a minimum 40 hour week, with a maximum of 20 days annual leave. Since this would improve productivity in the public sector by at least 20%, every fifth public servant would be made redundant and this would save €5bn.

Implement the McCarthy report in full and save €5bn a year.

Reduce all social-welfare benefits, including children’s allowance, by 20% saving €4bn a year.

See his full list of suggestions along with those from some others here

Books are usually a common choice for gifts at Christmas – but where is the cheapest place to buy books online for people living in Ireland?
Easons recently announced free delivery on orders over €25 after Amazon started offering free delivery to Ireland on orders over £25 GBP.
Prompted by these free delivery offers – we did a quick price comparison on 7 books  at Amazon , Easons and The Book Depository. The prices were checked in the first week of November 2009 – so may have changed since then. The books were randomly chosen  – although there were a couple of  Irish interest books thrown in to possibly give Easons a better chance – it still didn’t help them….
All prices are based on getting free delivery.
Amazon offer free delivery to Ireland on orders over £25.
Easons offer free delivery in Ireland on orders over €25 just until Christmas
The Book Depository offer free delivery to Ireland  on all orders.

The Total Amazon price includes the extra Irish VAT and a conversion rate of €1.12 to the Pound
Easons had a 3 for 2 offer – so Twilight was free

As you can see from the list above – Amazon came out as the cheapest online bookshop of the 3 we compared.
It was €26.16 cheaper than Easons (  over 25% cheaper) and €36.05 cheaper than The Book Depository.
If anything – the selection was  probably biased towards Easons – because we selected two books on purpose that Easons had on special offer -  but  they still came out more expensive than Amazon.
Obviously – a selection of 7  books  cannot be treated as a full and proper comparison – but it is a good guide to where you are likely to make big savings on books this Christmas.

(Figures amended on Nov 24th to take account of Easons 3 for 2 offer that was missed)

A few more details of likely 2010 Budget changes have started to sneak out – but the full scale of the expected €4 billion worth of cuts in spending and increases in taxation will not be known until  December 9th 2009.

In the past week the following ideas have been mentioned :

The introduction of Prescription Charges of 0.50c for Medical Card holders.

Means testing of Child Benefit payments.

Lowering of taxation thresholds to bring more people into the Income Tax “net”.

Introduction of  a site valuation tax.

Budget day on December 9th will probably bring bad financial news for many people in Ireland.  After Thierry Henry’s handball – the mood of many  Irish people is bad enough and we don’t expect the Budget to help make it any better.

Anglo Irish Bank have reduced the interest rate on their Regular Saver Account this week
The rate – which  was 5% has now been dropped to 4%

See Best Regular Savings Rates here

Amazon are doing some special offers of cashback on certain brands of  digital cameras and camcorders.
You can get as much as £70 cashback on Sony Alpha SLR cameras.
Cashback ranging from £20 to £50 is available on other top makes like Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony.  These cashback offers are on cameras that are already selling below the RRP. The Cash Back deals are running up until Chrismas 2009  – and some run on until January 2010.
Not all the cashback offers are  available on  Irish purchases  – See the full details of the Amazon Cashback deals Here

More Amazon Discounts Here

The introduction of a scrappage scheme for cars in Ireland is looking more likely.  (Update – See this Dec 2009 link for the  – Irish Scrappage Scheme Details)

A  recent review  of the Irish motor industry by Peter Bacon -    proposed a new two-year scrappage scheme on all cars over nine years old.  He suggested  a €2,000 rebate on new cars with carbon emissions of less than 140g/km, when old cars that qualify for the scheme are traded in.

This week 20 Fianna Fail backbenchers will lobby Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to introduce a car scrappage scheme in the December Budget . A motion by Sean Connick TD , calling for the introduction of a scrappage scheme,  has been backed by 20 TDs on the basis that it makes “economic sense” and has been done in 12 other European countries.

The UK scrappage scheme  gives buyers of new cars £2000 if they scrap their old car . Under the UK scheme the old car must  be registered in the United Kingdom on or before 29 February 2000 and be registered to the buyer continuously for 12 calendar months before the order date of the new vehicle. It also must have a current MOT test certificate , insurance and a current tax disc when the order for the new vehicle is placed .
The scrappage scheme is being credited as helping  increase new car sales in the UK . A total of 168,942 new UK cars were registered in October, up 31.6% from a year ago.
Here in Ireland – Renault have been advertising a scrappage scheme – which is available on all new models . The old car has to be 8 years old or more and it gets you €1500 off the price of  a new car.
December 9th – Budget Day – could bring some good news for the car dealers in Ireland if the scrappage scheme is introduced.

Update – See Scrappage Scheme  2010 Details Here