There are two things about January that make me vow every year I will book a sun holiday and just pretend like it's not happening. January is always going to be an unpopular month - it falls after the party month. Call it hangover month. You feel nothing but pain and wish it was all over. It's the adult month to your December child.
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Now that the snow has melted, it feels like Christmas is well and truly over. It seemed to hang on a little longer because of the weather but now the glistening, icing sugar covering is gone, it is back to the dirty, messy reality. (And in my case, very dirty since somehow cattle got into our garden and there are several large, still frozen, cow pats strategically dotted around the lawn).
This is going to be the year - the year we finally get on top of our personal finances. Yes, come January we'll all be making similar promises to ourselves but there is a way - and it's not even too painful. There will be no forced selling of unwanted Christmas pressies on eBay (though that's not a bad idea), there will be no flogging the second car or the apartment in Turkey.
In the run up to Christmas, it is oh so tempting to buy something that you don't have to start paying for until six months down the line. Yes June 2010 seems far away now but it will swing around surprisingly faster than you anticipate. Blowing €449.99 on a Roger Black AG-12501 Bike Cross Trainer Combo - and paying nothing now - seems like a great deal.
Here's some good news. We keep hearing about how our classrooms are lagging behind in the technology stakes and while many may go down the traditional route of a cake sale, there is an easier way to help out our children. HomeVision, an Irish company providing telephone, broadband and digital TV, and Promethean, a global-leading manufacturer of interactive classroom technology, have teamed up to offer an innovative programme.
Up to recently, credit unions were seen as the safer alternative to their evil cousins, the greedy banks. But now, that's all been thrown into question as credit unions come under a similar gaze to the banking sector.
In our continuing quest for savings we've taken a look at more ways to save your cash. Some you can even do in your sleep.
There's nothing worse than scrimping and scraping for your new home only to find that aside from a futon and a TV you can't afford to do it up.
It is time we all became tarts. Tarts make more money, have a better time and certainly live a more interesting life. No, we are not talking about promiscuous people, but rate tarts.
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