THERE’S NO TWO ways about it, the most expensive season of the year is on the horizon and we’re all feeling the pinch.

A recent* survey conducted by RaboDirect has shown that more and more people are willing to haggle to get a better price.

In fact, 75 per cent of Irish consumers have haggled before making a purchase.

Most people haggle when purchasing big ticket items, such as a car or household appliance (78 per cent). Another 83 per cent of respondents state that they negotiated over the cost of their home or car insurance.

Plenty of other interesting cost-saving measures were reported in the survey—for example, 36 per cent of participants have let a parent or friend cut their hair to save cash, 34 per cent of people haggle when they are buying jewellery and 21 per cent of people haggle when they buy clothes.

One in four (26 per cent) have pretended to be underage to get concession prices, while 29 per cent have layered up to save money on baggage while flying.

So tell us: Do you haggle before you buy?

Do you haggle – and when have you been successful?

Or do you have any other tips for saving money? Let us know in the comments. You can also submit your saving tips to ScabbyOrSmart.ie, where people are sharing their best saving tips and voting on whether they’re scabby or smart.

*Research conducted by Empathy Research in September 2013