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!

Home made christmas presents. I did chilli Jam for everyone one year and, although the jam was nice, it was an enormous faff and cost the same in ingredients and jars as I would have spent on presents.

That how we all washed when I was a kid. Initially I lived in a house with no bathroom then when we did have a bathroom Friday night was bath night and the rest of the week was a flannel wash and as you say no need for buckets.

For people without a bathroom Friday night was busy at the local baths when you could have a hot bath, towel and piece of soap. I think it was 6d or a shilling.

@floogal disagree about buying things secondhand. Especially with furniture and clothes, you can get much better quality used stuff for the same price as flimsy new. Would much rather have secondhand furniture any day as if you choose carefully its just much better built and will last longer.

Bulk Buying - Used to do it as had the space to store it now no longer have the space t store it. realized then was using loads of it as in my head sure i have loads there in the press, now use up what i have write and only buy when runs out. No more three ofr two offers either unless its on the shopping list and i have run out. Tried to explain this to my mother ( who currently has 5 unopened fairy liquid in her press) Write the date on things when you open them to see how long they last. You be surprised
Also bought a new washing machine - splashed out on a BOSCH, it has an idsoing thing on it - so you load the washing liquid and fabric conditioner in the drum up to a litre and then each wash the machine allocates the amount of liquid required based on weight and wash. A real eye opener, the amount of washing powder i was wasting unreal, machine cost a bit however is now saving me money as not using as much washing powder plus will hopefully last me more than 10 years

Not everyone has a slow cooker and if you are struggling for every penny you probably can't afford one.

Completely agree. I was following that thread on twitter at the point where the protagonist suddenly locked their account and hid the tweets.

A recipe designed for people who have to work with whateve they get from foodbanks, who may be in temporary accommodation with little more than a kettle or microwave, was held up to ridicule by a bunch of smug, sneery, self satisfied people who wouldn't know want if they fell over it. It read like sheer malice and spite.

I hope it made them very pleased with themselves.

@miserablecat
@FrizzledFrazzle

Totally agree and I am a keen allotmenteer. It's a great inexpensive hobby. It gives us luxury at a bargain price: we grow vegetables, soft fruit, orchard fruit, flowers. It means we can have things we like such as good flavours, cut flowers. If we wanted economy we would go to the shops.

Growing your own is only an economy if you eat all the gluts.

We make our own cider but to do that we have had to invest in trees, scratter, fruit press, brewing equipment. Over time the return gets better and better. Initially it would be cheaper to go to the pub.

Making your own clothes is similar. Sewing machine, patterns, fabric all cost. It starts to get into savings territory when you do it regularly, reuse patterns and use up the spare bits of fabric.

On the whole it is another fairly inexpensive hobby.

cheap knives are abomnible as are saucepans

wool for knitting jumpers is i believe expensive

I think there are two groups of posts on here - one for people who have options but are economising and one for people who don’t.

”how is it cheaper to buy stock” it’s cheaper because in asda 12 stock cubes are 60p and you don’t need to have bought a chicken in the first place. Nor do you need hours of electricity and hopefully extra veg just to produce an ingredient.

IF you have all of those things already of course it costs more to buy stock cubes in addition and bin the carcass. But is it so hard to understand that that’s out if reach for many people?

I get what you are saying, but in the context of the article (recession/hardship) it would have been better to actually say "if you're clothes aren't falling to pieces you don't need to buy new ones"

I agree. I also agree with the remark I read on MN asking why are thrift tips ALWAYS about food ?

As was mentioned in the same thread is the aim short, medium or long term savings ?

I've made pasta sauce from left over ham and tinned mushroom soup. No doubt that could be sneered at as, 'hobby thrift.'

Not everyone can manage their money / budget effectively. Not everyone can cook. Low income households can't afford the cost savings of bulk buying or even the weekly shop. Might not be able to cook or have much in the way of cooking facilities.

The middle-class thrift tips are a real give away ! (No pun)

Oh and the advice to buy another fridge to put the yellow stickered/discounted groceries in just blew my mind !

Very true. I do lots of crochet as it is good for the arthritis in my hands but you need to try and look out for offers as it is expensive.

ancientgran That brings back happy memories of staying with my nan. She used to take us to the baths because she had no bathroom (1950s). At the time they seemed the height of luxury, lovely deep baths with loads of hot water. The decor was very nice as I recall, very Victorian/Edwardian with fully tiled walls.

As I plan my bathrooms these days I am definitely drawn to that style!

What lol 😆

The 50s were another world. I often think if my GC got transported to the 50s they would be totally mystified.

Not recognising your own lack of expertise in an area and trying to problem solve badly instead of outsourcing to experts.

Example: after decades of doing an ok but very erratic job using spreadsheets, scrapes of paper and my own own failing memory to organise money, we now spend £80 a year on YNAB. I do realise this is not a tip for when things are hand to mouth. But I think it's useful still. It's saved us far more than the annual cost, and given us more peace over finances than we've ever had.

It's painful and tedious and could be depressing, but putting some work into your budget might mean you identify ways to get help for specific costs and might even help plan so you CAN spend on something that will help save more in the long run.

My parents have started doing this, this year! I can't understand it! Whenever I pop by for tea, lunch, it's always 'use the flask!'.

They say the electricity used to boil the kettle every time one of them wants a hot drink is a lot. I've tried suggesting a hot water urn, plumbed in hot water for drinks tap etc but no, they're not having it! I think they secretly enjoy the penny pinching aspect!

Parents love to water their washing up liquid down. I don't and never have done.

And cheap coffee ☕

100% agree! You just end up having to use two.

Who doesn't do that? I do it if I have a whole chicken or half a carcass and so do other people.

Cleaning with a lemon. Have you seen the price of lemons? A little one is 10p. Some standard loo cleaner is a pound and will do 20+ cleans. Much cheaper to use cleaning products.

@SushiGo , @ArcheryAnnie , I've used rinsed baked beans to use in a recipe that had plain beans in it, but I agree that adding a bit of chilli or something makes more sense if you just want something quick and to hand.

Growing salads and spinach type veg definitely saves me money. Rocket and lettuce are very easy to grow as are spinach beet, pack choy and swiss chard, but they aren't cheap to buy. Fresh veg tastes a lot better than bought. Whoever has a glut of marrows, send them my way please.

The "Take your own coffee in a travel cup instead of buying Starbucks on the way to work" type of tips always piss me off. If I'm counting the pennies don't you think takeaways were one of the first things to go!? Besides which, I've never been a person who buys their hot drinks and lunches "out" all the time so that really doesn't help me.