What thrifty tips do you NOT recommend?

[ArcheryAnnie]

There's been discussion on other threads about some "thrifty tips" which don't seem all that sensible, like rinsing the sauce off spaghetti hoops to reuse the cooked pasta (wastes sauce and calories), or boiling soap to make shower gel (wastes electricity and soap - better just use the soap bar). What other thrifty tips have you either invented or tried, that you would warn other people off?

Here's mine: people have said a pinch of cheap curry powder helps elevate all kinds of dishes, including baked beans, tinned tomatoes, etc, and helps ring the changes in a monotonous diet. Here's what curry powder doesn't elevate, kids: porridge oats. Many, many years ago (pre DS), desperate for something other than plain porridge made with water, which had formed the bulk of our diet all week, we tried currying the porridge with an onion. Now, if I make or buy terrible food, I'll still usually eat it anyway, and just determine not to buy or cook it again. Not so this: oats, curry power and the onion all wasted. Don't ever repeat my mistake!

Just imagining rinsing purple shampoo off in the bath 🤣 I think it would dye my body Smurf blue.

Brings me back to that one winter I lived in a house with no shower or bath. Had to wash myself, including my very long (at the time) hair with a bucket. It was not fun, was like living in the middle ages, the water was heated in a cauldron (though that was quite economical - a few pieces of wood to heat about 100 litres of water, with the lid on it would stay warm for days)

Just name changed. Inspired by this thread

the water was heated in a cauldron

Grotbags, is that you? 😂

Currant bushes are a good example, once they've grown you don't need to do anything and they continue providing for years.

If you buy whole chickens, joint them, save up about 3 carcasses in freezer and roast then slow cook or pressure cook. Yes, a supermarket brand stock cube is cheaper but if your family have food allergies, stock cubes are usually not suitable.

i agree boiled carcass meat is not good.

In fact to make decent chicken stock you usually start with a fresh chicken or two rather than the bones from your roast, and purists will say to discard the meat and veg as all the flavour will have been boiled out into the stock. Which us kind of the whole point of it

Not that kind of cauldron!

I do find it hilarious when people suggest making your own clothes to save money. A mainstream sewing pattern, before you buy the fabric, thread, any buttons etc. is £10, and the learning curve is steep. If you're doing it purely to cut costs, then you could buy something in Primark for less of the cost of the pattern, never mind the fabric.

Same with yarn for knitting/crocheting - unless you're comparing knitting with cashmere to the cost of a shop's cashmere jumper, it's going to cost you considerably more and take weeks or months. A jumper in a charity shop here is at least £5, and the yarn in it might be too worn/mothed to withstand unwinding and reknitting, and even if it isn't it would take a very long time to unravel thin yarn knitted on a commercial machine, so I think these days that's a crappy thrift tip too.

Turning the shower on and off while you wash /wash hair etc if your shower is anything like mine by the time it’s warmed back up again you have probably used more water

Turning the shower on and off while you wash /wash hair etc if your shower is anything like mine by the time it’s warmed back up again you have probably used more water

Many decades years ago when I was starting out in my career, I had to be professionally dressed, but could only afford one pair of tights. I used to wash them through overnight, then put them in the microwave on defrost for a few seconds to finish drying them off next morning.

Naturally the day came along when I forgot to change the control, and they went in on roast... Bliddy things melted all over the oven. False economy people, false economy!

@SushiGo So I will always pop up and say it's cheaper not to make your own stock.

sorry, may have been covered, can’t be stayed trawling through 10 pages, but ????

I always make my own stock and it certainly is cheaper than buying it. Every night I put my veg offcuts in a container (onion ends, carrot ends, celery leaves, pepper middles etc). Then one day I roast a chook, after the meal we take the leftover meat off the bones for sandwich meat and I pop the carcass in with water and the veg offcuts I’ve saved up and it gives me several servings of stock which I freeze after I’ve cooled, skimmed and portioned. Same if I have meat bones, lamb or beef, after a meal I do the same. Sometimes if running low and we don’t have a chook carcass or meat bones as leftovers I just use the veg and make more concentrated veg stock. No idea how on earth this is meant to be dearer than buying stock? Tastes 100% better too.

I refill with the carex bags and add essential oils!

Why would I ever joint a chicken? Why not buy chicken thighs, drumsticks or even wings?

Never mind! I once shattered a lightbulb drying my socks on it. Don’t try that at home folks!

People who don't have a slow cooker?

In fact to make decent chicken stock you usually start with a fresh chicken or two rather than the bones from your roast, and purists will say to discard the meat and veg as all the flavour will have been boiled out into the stock. Which us kind of the whole point of it

I’m on a roll with the stock😁. Of course you discard the bones and veg as all the flavour has boiled out into the water now making it stock. That’s the whole point! You take a leftover carcass/bones after a meal where you have eaten the meat and you use tasty veg scraps, they boil their residual flavour into water and then you toss out the solids (which were waste in the first place), just keeping the stock. I slow cook mine overnight.

@MissyB1 oh I completely agree. Aldi's WUL smells awful, really chemically. Only bought/used it once, couldn't stand the smell.

'Growing marrows' is just a terrible tip all by itself. I have an allotment and this time of year 'tis like running a gauntlet to avoid being gifted marrows from every other plotholder. No, I don't grow them, for the good reason that they're horrible! Why does anyone grow them?

People who don't have a slow cooker?

I imagine they would use the stove, boil and long simmer. I have a no frills slow cooker that is approx 25yo and still going. Same vintage as my rice cooker.

Completely agree. The only times when it's cheaper is when you have some real luck with cheap fabric. I managed to get a glut of genuine Frugi fabric for less than 5 quid a metre. The equivalent clothes would be £££. Still with costs of all the gear I've not come ahead vs buying something from Primark or a charity shop.

That also doesn't work if your job involves working out in the community all day long, as mine used to.

I've yet to find a travel mug or Thermos that actually keeps a drink hot for 8 hours.

I don’t deliberately. They just magically appear from nowhere on a courgette plant.

I like them @willtheywontthey . I've pretty much given up on the garden this year as it's been too dry. Squashes are better though and keep well, and ones like crown prince and kabocha tend to be ££ in the shops. Butternut squash and pumpkins tends to be cheaper at peak season, so I don't grow them unless I feel like it.
It's been a good year for currants, strawberries and apples.

One thing that crosses my mind is, what on earth are farm animals are eating when there's so little grass?