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!

But not everyone who needs or just wants to save money is in a bedsit with no equipment, life skills or money whatsoever.

There's a huge majority between those with so little that they seriously struggle with day to day living and those who have plenty of money and never have to think about what they spend and those in the middle can pick and choose as to what works for them to make the most of the money they have, depending on their priorities, skills and resources.

So, taking stock as an example, it is^ something that I've given up with because, despite being a competent and resourceful cook who always gets a couple of meals out of a roast chicken, and leftover scraps of meat for the cats, I've never produced a stock with the bones that has been worth the effort of dealing with the mess it takes fishing about with drippy bones etc. So I just use Kallo cubes instead.

But I fully understand that it's something that works for others and it's not too aspirational for many, even those on quite limited incomes because you can get a couple of meals out of the chicken, cook it in a slow cooker or air fryer if you want to reduce fuel costs (both these appliances can be bought quite cheaply and are worth the investment, and remember we're not just talking about people with no money in bedsits, there's a lot of people with some money but not enough to never have to think about what they spend) so does work out quite economical, compared with takeaways, prepared food or even buying chicken breasts instead of the whole bird - the marginal cost of the latter is almost nothing over the price of the breasts alone and will provide at least one other meal when veg and carbs are added, and the ingredients for a roast dinner especially (potatoes, carrots, broccoli, flour, eggs and milk for Yorkshire puddings) are very cheap so a good way of making a good meal for not very much.

Did you make that up yourself or steal it from Viz Top Tips, if you remember them?

Although sometimes it was difficult to differentiate between the parodies in Viz and those in the trashy magazines that it was inspired by - eg use of sanitary towels as insoles.

Agree, there's different tips for people in different circumstances (and some tips that are good for everyone. And some that are bad for everyone!). We're lucky enough to be in the position to invest in things now that will save money in the long run (as who knows how long this will last, though electricity prices are predicted to crash in my country in the spring but maybe they'll go up again next winter?) so going to get a slow cooker, have ordered solar panels (but saving money by installing ourselves as OH is an electrician - that's a good tip, partner up with someone with useful skills like electricians or plumbers ) and a brick fireplace that has a baking oven built in so can cook for free while heating the house. All a big initial outlay but will save a lot over the years.

I can't imagine drinking stock as soup fullstop. I love homemade soup but making stock from a chicken carcass is not the same as making soup. Well it isn't like my chicken soup that's for sure.

@seperatedmum I'm struggling to figure out how anyone thinks freezing milk for tea is saving any money and who wants lukewarm tea? That was never going to work!
Other ideas were obviously bonkers - shaving soap for laundry? Ugh. The fat!
And I'm impressed how often so many people on here use stock, my mum did but can't say I do much at all (curry and goulash - which requires beef stock anyway - is all I can think of, which I make one maybe once a month).
As for washing at the sink - I'd never feel properly rinsed. I just skip a shower a couple times a week instead. At the moment I'm using that as a trade off for watering my newly planted garden!

I sometimes freeze milk when DP is working away.

We usually buy Farmers milk from Morrisons. It's £1.35 for 2 pints, but you can get 4 pints for £1.75 so hardly any more expensive for twice as much milk but more than I will use before it goes off.

So I buy the bigger bottle and pour some of it out into clippy tubs or similar and put them in the freezer. When I've run out of the main bottle, I'll get one of the frozen tubs out, it defrosts overnight on the draining board, and that's my milk for the next few days.

I save my ice cube trays for ice cubes for my G&Ts or freezing the rest of the jar of pesto or anything else that I don't use all of before it goes off.

So right! I was about to make the same point when I saw your post.

’How to Feed Your Family on £20/15/10 a Week’ kinds of articles. . Yes, I could probably do it for one week but eventually I would need to replace sauces, herbs, spices and al the ingredients which make plain food palatable and interesting.

Pressed ‘post’ too early…
I am well aware that many households have only £20/30 a week for food on a regular basis. I honestly don’t know how they do it. I count myself a s one of the lucky ones and I am not well off by any means.
PS can posters stop making this thread in to bought stock versus homemade stock? It is now very, very tiresome.

Wear a wig to avoid the cost of frequent visits to the hairdresser.

I am well aware that many households have only £20/30 a week for food on a regular basis. I honestly don’t know how they do it

DD and I spend less than that, we have no choice, it is miserable. Universal Credit is so low that it scarce covers anything to be honest. After rent and such they think £343 is enough to pay electric, gas, water, council tax, insurance etc
And have enough for food for a month.

I'm fortunate that I've avoided a foodbank visit this far, but.i can feel it coming... I can also feel homelessness coming and have a plan and bag ready packed should the day come.

I hope no one on this thread knows what it's like to look in a cupboard and see a back pack ready just in case you've no home soon. It's a horrible feeling. I also hope everyone on this thread opens a fridge and sees it containing food, I hope one day to know what that's like.

I hope one day that I can afford the electric and gas and supplies to make a decent meal, eating cold food because you don't have to spend ££ to cook it 90% of the time is dull. The little smart display makes me cry when I boil the kettle, let alone when I put the oven on, I'm down to one hot drink a day. I hope one day I can have a cup of nice coffee, not Aldi cheap instant, and a brand name biscuit... I haven't bought a brand name biscuit for as long as I can remember...

Poverty... So much fun it'll.male.you want to die.

That’s hilarious!

@AyeUpMeDuck I'm so sorry to read that it puts so many things into perspective. We were in town yesterday and a young lady was begging, I went over and gave her some money and said, "My husband is worried about you and wants you to have that." He's disabled and didn't want to walk up the bit of a hill. She waved at him and gave me a beaming smile and said not to worry. I asked if she had somewhere to sleep and she said, "I'm fine, I'm sleeping in a bin store so it is warm and dry." I must have looked upset and she added "Honestly I'm lucky, I've got a double mattress in there, it's fine."

I'm crying thinking about her, we gave her a few pounds but can't do much more.

The world is crap isn't it. I hope things improve for you and everyone who is struggling. I'm feeling ashamed as I've just got an estimate for some work on the car and was feeling sorry for myself about it but I need to think about priorities.

@AyeUpMeDuck I have pm'd you, if that's ok.

@AyeUpMeDuck wishing you better times soon. I loathe these false figures on food. It’s not been possible to eat for £20 for quite some years. It’s insulting when poverty becomes a ‘game’ or ‘challenge’ for likes or clicks. So much assumes a starting point of stability too. I’m sorry you are going through this.

I am so sorry, AyeUpMeDuck. I hope things improve for you soon. X

It will be a rare person who 'have no choice but to shop there' and most of those won't be price sensitive anyway because city centres tend to have higher housing prices than slightly further out, so people living there will generally be more affluent.

@BarbaraofSeville I agree with you about options, but you're forgetting inner city areas; the rough areas such as where I live, tower blocks etc but they're still in the centre of town.

@AyeUpMeDuck You will come out the other side I promise. In the meantime, could either of you claim for the Limited Capacity for Work extra bit of UC, or PIP?

The rucksack thing- usually people have some tangible warning that they're going to be made homeless (I've been there.) So it's not likely that you'll have to suddenly leave at a moment's notice.

It’s not been possible to eat for £20 for quite some years

@Zestro It is/was possible, I worked it out fairly recently on the Aldi website. I worked it out to meet all the dietary recommendations. Admittedly the diet is pretty boring and I don't succeed in implementing it.

I found a great money saver/convenience which is protein powder. I thought it was a pointless rip off but it actually works out a cheaper source of protein than virtually any 'real' food. It's a massive tub www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CCSJRP6 It's really filling too. I make either 'mousse' type stuff or a 'porridge' of this and fibre powder, or just add this to stuff. Yes it's £34 but it lasts ages and is really nutritious. UC is monthly- if I were ever on the basic I think I'd still buy this. Of course I'd want some other food too though.

Thanks for the well wishes those above :)

@Oldfan
My DWP assessment is next week as it happens. It's been 6 months I've been waiting for it.
I've mental issues and several physical problems, so I've no idea how it'll go tbh.

As for the bag, I know there's often a warning and such and I'm probably better off as I'm social housing too, but I keep it packed. Shelter, sleep bag, cooking kit, wood processing gear, spare socks, pants, leggings, t-shirts & just add water food for 3 days. Probably really daft to have it really, but I have it and I'm keeping it.

Weirdly, It's both depressing to see it but reassuring to know it's there.

Growing in pots is worse. Buy pots and compost and even more watering.

It is possible to eat for £20 a week though. As a one off it’s probably quite a fun challenge and if you have a well stocked spice rack you might even msje something that tastes nice.

And that means that the poverty tourists don’t think it’s all that bad as they don’t get the grinding crushing reality of no choice that comes with it.

I hope things pick up for anyone struggling.

I haven't forgotten about the 'rough inner city areas' but what most people seem to forget is that the people who live in these areas often travel to cheaper supermarkets slightly further away just like everyone else does.

I fully acknowledge that some people can't do this, but plenty can.

I live in a big city and have been the poor person living in an inner city area.

People walk, they use shopping trolleys, the pushchair/pram or rucksacks, share the load between all their DC (the norm for me when I was a child, DM took the 4 of us to walk the three mile round trip to the supermarket and the shopping came back with some of it under my baby brother's pram and me and my two sisters each carried a bag or I pulled the shopping trolley so we could bring a week's worth of groceries home on foot from the supermarket over a mile away) they come back in a taxi or on the bus, they get delivery, they get a lift with family/friends, they drive there in their car (the streets in these areas are always crammed with residents cars and there are parking problems because there are more cars than spaces so a reasonable proportion have cars) etc etc.

So I don't understand why people always talk on threads like these as if all lower income people are forced to do their shopping one day at a time from the convenience store on their doorstep. I know some people do this, but many won't.

One of the tips that often comes up is 'ask for more hours at work'. For many that simply isn't possible for many reasons:

• they are salaried so more hours doesn't mean more money
• childcare costs and availability
• the employer doesn't want to give more hours to individuals. Supermarkets frequently prefer to have more people on shorter shifts as it makes it easier for them to cover when someone is off/leaves