Yesterday’s Liveline was buzzing with angry callers complaining about an offer from petrol station Applegreen.
Since last year, customers who spend €10 in Applegreen get a stamp on their loyalty card. Once they accumulate 50 stamps, they can get a three night stay for two people for €19.99 in a choice of hotels around Ireland. I [...]

Cocktail offers have suckered me twice now. Last year, I was at a friend’s birthday and we all piled into Alfie’s on South William Street for the €5 cocktail deal. After ordering a round, we found that the alcohol content was pretty puny. One person went to complain to the barman and was met with [...]

An interesting email arrived from our reader Wendy Cullinane this morning:
I am on a mission because I was very disappointed to discover Lidl is attempting to pull the wool over my eyes.  I have been purchasing Lidl’s own brand of plain flour for more than 9 months.  The price averages at 82 cents per 2 [...]

Yesterday, I posted about some good fruit and veg deals at Superquinn. So good, I thought, that I stopped in the Ranelagh branch on the way home yesterday.
I went with a very specific intention: to pick up tomatoes, onions and peppers for the dinner, which were advertised as just €1 each. But as is the [...]

When I buy myself lunch in town now, it is usually because I’ve been very disorganised in the morning and not had a ton of porridge or made myself a healthy, nutritious packed lunch. This happens to me all the time, because while my intentions are recessionarily pure, the reality is a frantic mess punctuated [...]

I went for lunch the other day in Brambles Cafe, upstairs in the Stillorgan Shopping centre. I know there are a few Brambles outlets around Dublin but I hadn’t been to one before. I’m also aware that they use organic ingredients and are fair trade - good for them. However, offering organic produce is not [...]

Another interesting email about Tesco, this time from CheapEats reader Bill Gunter:
“I noticed more than a month ago that the Tesco at the Omni Park in Santry, Dublin was selling Epicure organic cannellini beans for €10.30 per tin. When I asked about they told me “if that’s what the price tag says then that must [...]

Some wallets have a weak spot for takeaway coffee. Mine has one for the multifarious, rubbish chocolate bars and crisps strangling the tills of newsagents.
They’re one of those costs I don’t tend to give much thought to: 85c here, €1.05 there. The shops know they can get away with charging us more or less what [...]

Do you ever get a craving for a crispy, white roll filled with ham and coleslaw? I decided to satisfy this craving at Spar in Clonskeagh yesterday, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Like a lot of things, you never query the price until you’re at the till, and your mouth has dropped [...]

Tesco in rip-off shock. Surprise, surprise. This morning’s Irish Times reports that Tesco, despite their much publicised Change for Good campaign, remain 18% dearer in the Republic of Ireland than across the border.
The survey carried out by the Consumer Choice magazine found that some items were up to 37% more expensive down south. In a [...]