I’m a born and bred southside boy, but no stranger to the mean streets of Dublin north.
Back in the 70’s and early 80’s - when, like today, money was a scarce commodity - my dad made a weekly trek through ten feet of snow, volcanoes, solar flares, heatwaves, and floods to pick up fruit and [...]

I know for many, the idea of growing your own is just too damn daunting but there are certain vegetables and herbs that just won’t fail - I promise.
Mint is unbelievable. It is a weed and it will grow anywhere and all year round. It’s such a sturdy plant that if you’re not careful it [...]

Pasta and rice are notoriously hard to measure. At some stage, most of us end up with too much and it gets thrown in the bin. You might as well flush it down them toilet.
The internet is littered with useful pasta measuring tools, while you can also buy pasta measures in kitchen equipment shops or [...]

I moved to the country three years ago and I have been growing my own vegetables and herbs each year. It is so satisfying and you don’t need to live in the country, have a big garden or even have a garden at all.
When we lived in Dublin we had cabbage, mint and broccoli growing [...]

In today’s pricewatch, Conor Pope tackles the glamorous subject of coupon collecting and finds out the best way to use a loyalty card.
Popular in the US and UK, it would appear that Irish consumers are also getting into coupon clipping with 30 per cent more people using coupons than in 2008.
The Irish Independent Directory and [...]

For years, I’ve heard people banging on about the merits of loose-leaf tea versus tea bags and I thought to myself - surely there’s better things to talk about.
It turns out there isn’t! Loose tea is so much better than bagged and I want to tell the world - I can’t believe it’s taken me [...]

I’ve heard all the reasons for customers to dislike supermarket’s buy one, get one free offers. They can make us buy things we don’t really want or need. They can encourage us to overspend on products we’ll never get to eat. They’re often on perishable goods, and a lot of the food ends up in [...]

This has nothing to do with food, but given that CheapEats often features household offers (washing powder, toilet rolls, dishwasher tablets etc.) I think I can get away with this post. It’s a simple handy hint and it will save you a fortune on heating.
My rented house is pretty low on insulation, so we’ve been [...]

Mince pies and pudding are the quintessential Christmas treat. Both share many of the same ingredients so making your own will save you money.
Last year I made mince pies the easy way. I bought a jar of mince meat and filled some ready-made vole-au-vent cases and bunged them in the oven. They were tasty, light [...]

Like great prizes? In association with the Irish Independent’s LoveFood magazine, we’ve an amazing competition coming up on CheapEats tomorrow.
Here’s a sneaky preview article by LoveFood deputy editor and CheapEats contributor Jacqueline Strawbridge.