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!

also cheap cat litter…. Just no.

a bag of Catsan will last us 2 months. Own brand will be gone in a month because of the absorption.

Not exactly in keeping with the title but I do have a false false economy!

I've been looking at going back to cooking most things from scratch as both my shopping list and shopping budget is spiralling out of control - 3 young DC and work means I've been relying more and more since DC 3 was born on prepackaged snacks especially.

Did some research and read lots of posts saying the like of, it's not really cheaper to cook from scratch. But I did a huge shop that took much less time, was much less mentally draining to come up with, and was about £40 less than I have been spending in recent weeks.

The flip side is of course I have to cook more, but it's less effort because I mostly know the kind of things to cook that everyone will like. And once I get a slow cooker the economic benefits will be even more pronounced.

It's at least IME not cheaper if you're struggling to buy a load of cheap biscuits and sausage rolls etc and frozen processed food - which was my previous go to if I was struggling for money. Not to mention it's much more healthy to cook from scratch.

Don’t go to Aldi for anything other than cans or cleaning stuff

vegetables go off before you get home
chicken loses half its volume while cooking

My granny used to tell people to keep their tissues ( that they had already used for nose blowing) for reuse as toilet paper .
Apart from all the potential health issues anything else, I wonder if the bigger tissues would be more likely to block the cistern.

And tbf if it lasts a long time, especially with the energy crisis, I think it is worth it if you have a family. If you only cook for yourself maybe the savings are less so.

I'm only averagely poor though to be fair. I do think they would be really good for people who are in situations like limited housing - shared rooms, hostels, temp accommodation etc.

It's a shame there isn't more of a cooking culture in the UK so it's not very common place. People are more likely to suggest tins and packets of food rather than say, a cheap slow cooker and big bags of rice and tinned beans/legumes that can be cooked cheaply and are really nutritious.

@birdfeeders I think you've misunderstood @Supersimkin2's post . She's saying that most people struggle to keep white T shirts actually white -'therefore in the case of a white T shirt it's best to buy a cheap new one . She's also pointing out that sometimes it's cheaper to buy new in sales as some charity shops are quite expensive .

This is not poor-shaming .

All this 'turn the shower off while lathering or waiting for conditioner'

A better approach is to block every hole in the shower head but one and move about rapidly. This clever method reduces water usage whilst at the same time reduces one's weight with the constant jiggling about.

Cheap bin liners
You will need to use 2

Why would anyone be putting tissue of any kind in the cistern?

To save money on ballcocks.

Whittling your own wooden cooking spoons.

DH went through a whittling stage and the results are still in cutlery drawer. I grind my teeth every time I see them, they are like something from the medieval era - whereas he's as proud as punch .

It's become a catch phrase in our house

(Me:) ''DS needs new school shoes'
(DH:) 'I'll just whittle him some'.

I like to think I'm pretty frugal but there are limits.

I did save some money that was worth it. Sink leaking, water pouring out into cupboard. Had a look and the plug hole thing and the pipe underneath had come apart and the bolt holding them together had disintegrated. Phoned round couldn't find a plumber other than one of the emergency ones where they charge a fortune to come out.

So I go under the sink and dismantle everything and pop round to Howdens. Lovely young man said he could sell me a kit for £20 but I'd have bits I didn't need and sent me off two minutes away where I bought a replacement for £10. Checked if I needed any sealant or anything but told the rubber seal thing would be fine. Went home and cleaned it all off fitted the new parts. No leaks, no drips and saved myself quite alot of money.

I think finding my plumbing skills in time for my 70th birthday might be a bit late but still worth it. I felt ridiculously proud of myself.

I cook my chicken in the slow cooker and use the liquid as stock for soups as you aren’t using extra energy to reboil the bones

Re use plastic - yes to bread bags but when there greasy no... I’ve tried to wash them. Cheap coffee... tried with my father- he knows it’s not Nescafé

Watering it down only works if you water it down into an old spray bottle and only use that. I had a spray bottle left over when some cleaning fluid was used up, filled it with 80% water and 20% washing up liquid, and have been using washing up liquid like this ever since. You can go mad using tons and tons of spray foam, works beautifully in cleaning the dishes, but doesn't take 1,000 gallons of water to rinse off as there's hardly any soap in there. Saves washing up liquid (really a lot), water, and makes washing up itself a nicer experience

But just watering down the original bottle is nasty and a waste, as it all just tips out when you try to use it.

Yes of course if you absolutely can’t afford water it’s perhaps the only way. However, the replies I saw on that thread were suggesting multiple tubs of water, flannels for each separate area hot washed after use etc. And it made me think I’d like to know how much after all that you’d really actually save.

Why would you need buckets of water for each area? Obviously don't start with your feet or your fanny but face, arms and pits then fanny. I use a new flannel for feet. If you want fresh water for each area you just have to take the plug out, empty the sink and run some fresh water. Heaven knows what the tubs are for.

People need to go camping, really teaches you how to do these things.

Do people refill the bath for each area? Didn't think so.

Tissues and toilet roll may look very similar but in fact are not. Toilet roll is designed to disintegrate easily when it is flushed. Tissues are designed to hold together (otherwise they'd disintegrate as they were being used). So pipes and sewers will get clogged.

(Not the cistern. That's the tank that holds the water before you flush, the paper isn't going to get in there)

I didn’t say you did. I said that’s what people were suggesting, a bucket for rinsing then another for soaping etc, plus fresh flannels for different areas washed daily, which prompted me to think what’s the point as that would surely negate the minimal savings compared with a quick shower. That was my answer to a thrifty tip that wasn’t really thrifty since once the tips were taken into account it wasn’t much of a saving.

Although to be fair I don’t think people ‘really need to go camping’ since most of us do know how to wash with a cloth. I don’t think people shower out of ignorance, but more out of preference.

I have an Instant Pot pressure cooker. I cook the chicken in it, and save the liquid; then I add the carcass back in and re-cook it for stock.

You're not wrong. I find aldi (we have two in our town and it goes for both of them) to be horrendous for fruit and veg. Had fruit go off same day purchase when it'd been OK in the shop.

I wonder how long it will take for people to get back money when they buy a heat pump - given it's expensive and it needs electricity to run - which is also increasing in price.

I find payback time very interesting - money invested in the scheme to save energy versus the actual energy saved.

People struggling with shampoo bars, do you use the bar on your hair? That's a sure way to wear it away fast.

Rub it between your hands to make suds, then work the suds through your hair. Or swipe the bar down your scalp and rub that swipe across. You don't get a lot of suds, but you don't need them.

I have tried this so you don't have to 😂 I did indeed dye my skin purple 🤦🏼‍♀️ although I've never had a problem washing my hair in the bath, but my hair is very thin.

Did you give even 30 seconds thought as to why recipes which involve adapting the contents of cheap tins came into being? Do you really think the people who use these ideas do so because they are thick and lazy?

If you are stuck in your shitty bedsit (cooking facilities one kettle, one gas ring) or shitty temporary accommodation (b&b, cooking facilities kettle and maybe a microwave) and your kids hate the sauce on cheap spaghetti hoops/beans/steak chunks because the had them three times this week already, then washing off the cheap sauce and adding something different is one of the few things you can do to give them a change. That that is before you address the problems of fuel poverty.

This is the audience these recipe ideas are aimed at - people stuck with the choices middle class virtue signalers impose on them when they chuck those endless cheap tins of budget line spaghetti/beans/meat chunks into the foodbank crate -- products which they wouldn't dream of putting in their own cupboards.

The sheer spiteful glee I've read on MN recently as some of the regular middle class virtue signallers (one in particular who keeps leaving but always manages to find her name when mentioned) is shocking for a site supposedly about helping parents, not sneering at them for trying to pretend a cheap tin of spaghetti hoops isn't yet another cheap tin of spaghetti hoops when they have no choices.