I have had a good week on the money-saving front. Between the home insurance and the health insurance polices, the Weston family has managed to save more than €600. And there has been no loss of cover. In fact, we ended up with better benefits on our health insurance.

Home insurance
The family home and contents cover is with Axa Insurance. We were quoted €556 to renew the cover. The renewal date is early next month so we did the usual of ringing round for a few quotes and we went online to seek out a better deal.
We got a number of other insurance quotes but none of them were much better, until it struck me. I have been writing and broadcasting that many of us are over-insured on the rebuilding part of the insurance. Time to follow your own advice, Weston.
In our case we had, up until now, allowed for €300,000 for the rebuilding cost of our four-bed semi in north County Dublin. But that is too high, according to the Society of Chartered Surveyors, which provides a very useful table on the likely cost per square metre or square foot of rebuilding your house (see the website at www.scs.ie).
It transpired that we were vastly over-insured on this, and we had insured the contents for far more than their worth. With two young daughters we do not tend to buy too much expensive stuff for the home.
Radically adjusting the rebuilding cost and the value of the contents, we ended up knocking €130 off the cost of renewing our house insurance.

Average family can save €400 on healthcare
On our healthcare insurance, we managed a €484 annual saving. This is because we cut the cost of the health cover and increased the level of benefits by opting for a "corporate plan".
We are with VHI. Switching the adults to the Level Plus 1.1 corporate plan and away from Plan B Parents and Kids meant the annual premium is €665 per adult, compared with €907.
We got the VHI corporate plan at last year’s rate of €665 because we are not due to renew our health cover until August. If you are not so lucky you will be charged €775.
We left the children on Plan B Parents and Kids, because the children's rate for children on the corporate plan is higher.
Corporate plans are available to everyone, but healthcare providers do not advertise the fact that they are better value. These plans are only marketed to companies but by law must be made available to everyone.