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!

It doesn't mean they're not valid as thrifty tips, though. The thread isn't 'thrifty tips for people on a very low income'. People on more average incomes can suggest thrifty tips too. Few tips will benefit/be useable by all, for any number of reasons. Like the tips about boiling chicken carcasses (or not) will be useless to vegans, but they are still valid for others.

Well, before the crazy energy price increases I would have said replacing old ‘inefficient’ boilers or appliances that are still working. Also installing solar panels; even on the old generous tariffs I don’t think my parent has covered the installation and maintenance costs after 10 years. Might be different if you live in the sunny south with optimum roof positioning.

An engineer attempting to fix my central heating also told me it’s a false economy to only heat certain rooms as the radiators sludge up and need an expensive power flush. Not sure how true that is. I’ve always only heated the room I’m in and yes, there are systems problems but that is an n of 1.

my shower goes freezing cold when you turn it off. I’m sure I’m wasting water but I will waste more waiting for it to warm up enough I can get back in totally not economical for us and fed up of people giving this tip thinking all showers are the same

Radiators do sludge up, it makes them inefficient. We have them on in empty rooms on a low setting.
A power flush is approx £500.00, depending on number radiators.
My father in law was very tight fisted, he never turned the central heating on, ever. They had a gas fire in the lounge that was blasting away, that room was like a sauna but the rest of the house was like a fridge. He rigged up device consisting of a tumble dryer vent hose connected to a fan to take the hot air from the lounge through the wall into their bedroom. It didn’t work. By the time the ducted made its way into the bedroom it was cold.
His stinginess caused damp,m after he’d died we found new shoes, still boxed covered in mould and mouldy clothes hanging in the wardrobe.

I am absolutely boggling at the fact that people need instructions for getting a wash at the sink or washing hair in the bath

thanks for the other tips though!

When I was super-broke, about 50 years ago, I tried to dry socks in the oven. Caused a small fire.

My wife, age 81, washes her hair in the kitchen sink, a legacy from her chidhood. We've lived in houses with bath and shower for at least 50 years.

I was replying to someone's statement that it was categorically not cheaper - it definitely is for me but obviously not for someone who can't sew or buys fabric in John Lewis or Hobbycraft.

Similarly using a slow cooker isn't cheaper if you have to pay £30 to buy one but I have two. One was given to me and one was £8 about 10 years ago. Older people are more likely to have accumulated things like that and maybe to have acquired skills. I didn't have much equipment when I was 20 but I did learn to cook frugally and sew at school in the 60s.

Me too! We buy the cheap tea tree shampoo from lidl. Used by 4 of us. Lasts us a couple of weeks. Maybe even three?

Shampoo bars just for me last about 2 weeks and I really look after them.

Soft water here too

So that is a rubbish money saving tip but potentially a good eco tip.

I recycle the bottle - not as good as no bottle.

Similarly using a slow cooker isn't cheaper if you have to pay £30 to buy one

You can often find them much cheaper in charity shops that do electricals - £10 or less. I realise even £10 might be out of reach for some, but everything in a charity shop has been electrically tested so it's a good way to pick one up cheaply if you can spare a few £.

a kettle uses x amount of electricity to boil y volume of water. It takes 2x to boil 2y, 3x to boil 3y etc……

My older sister, in her mid seventies, still washes her hair in the sink when she comes to stay with us! There is a bath and a shower in the same room! Madness! 😊

Havent rtft but I would say not having a dishwasher and doing the washing up by hand. You waste a lot of water that way. And a dw is much more hygienic.

A dishwasher takes ages to wash and they stink. I dont see how it saves water 😕.

You need to wash your dishwasher? And it smells? Sounds like it might be broken.

I hear so much conflicting stuff about hand washing vs dishwasher. I don't see how a dishwasher cycle can use less water and energy than a sink or two full of hot water. I much prefer it, though.

It reminds me there was a thread recently where someone was outraged because the cleaning company had sent her two cleaners instead of one to do a deep clean therefore costing her double…

Dishwashers use far less water than washing up by hand, about half a sink full.

You can't do the amount of washing up you can fit in a dishwasher in that amount of water.

Plus you don't have to actually stand there while it's doing the washing up, so who cares how long it takes?

I know this is only to be funny, but I kid you not - a pair of boots I bought actually came with that exact message printed in the paperwork for "how to get the most life out of your boots".

I read it thinking "well no shit, Sherlock"!

Ha ha - been there 🤢

The advice is still out there Rest your shoes

Making your own clothes from scratch might not be cheaper than Primark but learning the skills to alter, mend and maintain clothes saves a lot. Accepted you ideally need a sewing machine, but a surprising amount of people do.

I've just realised I completely misread what you meant by "takes ages to wash". Sorry, I'm fucking shattered.

It really shouldn't smell, though. Are you cleaning out the catcher or whatever it's called?

Do not do this:
www.thesprucepets.com/remove-urine-odor-from-laundry-555190
My cat peed on the sofa and I did this vinegar trick and it made the smell go but vinegar smell for there forever.

Kids nicknamed it 'Stink chair' . In the end I ended up getting a new sofa.

And don't forget the lack of single use plastic in the packaging.

We (food bank's food club) share a sloco and we all make stock. Because we then get all the bits of meat off the carcass; all the goodness from the bones; use up all the squishy veg; have something to talk about, recipes, and stock ice cubes, to swap.

It seems daft, but we have found quite a few ways of making such things work.

And we offer swaps for spaghetti hoops and even baked beans. No need to rinse them.

My husband's grandfather used to use strips of newspaper - but I guess no one has a paper nowadays (note - he wasn't skint - just tight!)

Oats in mince dishes. For the love of Christ I’d rather go hungry I was picking meaty porridge out of my teeth all night.