To ask for your most ingenious money saving tips

[Toothiehurtie]

my Best one is…

a visit to the card factory for cheap cards and gift bags and then picking up presents from car boot sales or charity shops. I have got some brilliant kids party presents for 50p so with the card and a cheap gift bag I have brought the cost of a present in for a pound before.

looking for any tips at all, obviously you can buy porridge oats in bulk cheaper than buying expensive kids cereal etc but anything clever or that people might not have thought of before.

don’t know how bad the fuel crisis will be but considering charging battery packs to charge phones at work and taking a thermos of boiled water home 😂

I don’t think it sounds nuts. I think it sounds environmentally sound.

In the winter when we have baths, we absolutely share water and we also decant the water into the toilet to flush it. It’s crazy using clean water to flush the toilet.

We also tip all unused water (E.g glasses not fully drunk etc) into a big bin outside the back door and use it for watering the plants.

But for someone who is really struggling for cash, this may really help them. Some may not be able to afford to pay double their water bill (great if you can) and this is someone else trying to help. Nothing wrong with that.

There are still so many people on here who have absolutely no grasp at all of how other people live right now. How an extra £20 a month even can make an enormous difference to their family. Some people just don't get it.

Cheaper still, when the hospital rings to say "sorry to tell you your beloved xxx has died", simply reply "oh that is a shame" and put the phone down.

Brilliant

Yes gyms rely on loads of membership fees being paid by people who never set foot through the door. If every member turns up for a shower every day they will triple their fees or go under. Or make the showers cold.

Sorry, I meant to quote this. There's nothing wrong with offering advice, you don't have to take it.

You don’t need to carry it down in a bucket. I have been using grey water for years in the garden. I identified where my downpipe was and collect it from that before it hits the drain. Same with water from the washing machine rather than putting the hose down the waste pipe I can hook it over a large bucket and reuse that in my garden. As long as you aren’t adding bleaching agents to you wash it is fine on plants and veg.

And as long as it doesn't have any faeces in it.

If you're cleaning poo-ey clothes or reusuable nappies, you shouldn't use grey water from your washing machine on any edible plants.

In fact grey water which might contain faeces is better not used above ground at all, because of the likelihood of being tracked around by humans/animals/birds. I suppose you could build a soakaway in a position your plants would enjoy, if you're hardcore, but unless water's at a real premium it's simpler to just not re-use the more dangerous grey water.

Picking up on what pp have said:

• expensive soap - I buy large bars from TKMaxx or the Nesti Dante bars on Amazon (prices seem to change a lot on these) and find they last longer than cheap bars. Everyone has a bag with their clean set of bedlinen and I store opened bars in these.
• PP who said stocking up is wasteful if you're disorganised - I agree you have to be organised, but food prices are heading in one direction this winter, so if you can afford to add an extra bag of pasta or a couple of tins to your shopping, it's worth doing. Also, if you're ill or supermarket deliveries get dodgy, it's good to have basics 'in stock'.
• Yes to vinegar and/or washing up liquid sprays. I wipe worktops down with washing up water before I start washing up, so they're easy to clean before leaving the kitchen.

I have never bought syrups for coffee, but my kids started and I was horrified at the cost for a tiny bottle. Youtube showed me how to make it - in a small/medium heavy pan, put a mug full of granulated sugar over a low heat. Don't stir until you can't see any sugar. It takes ages, so make it while you're doing other stuff but can watch it.

When the last of the sugar has melted, give it a minute, and then get a mug or slightly less of boiling water. Put the pan somewhere you can easily reach but back a bit - the syrup is going to bubble up. Very slowly pour in a tiny amount of water and stir - I use a pyrex jug for the water. Keep doing this until the water's used - you can add a bit faster once you've used half. You should have crystal free syrup - I had a couple of misses when I added the water too fast. Pour into a heatproof jug, and get the pan into soak before the syrup sets. I've tried making larger amounts, but a mug full of sugar is more manageable and the syrup fits nicely into one of those oil and vinegar bottles you can buy or an empty bottle of similar size.

Oh and cold showers! Exceptionally good for your mental health and you spend half the amount of time in there - saves water and electricity. I have yet to persuade the DC but DH and I routinely cold-shower.

I'm going to be clearing out the greenhouse to put clothes driers in there in the winter. Hopefully that'll cut down on tumble drier usage

I'd rather not have a shower than have a cold one..... even on a 40 degree day in Australia the most I can do is tepid.

Agree with this. Cold showers are good for getting my head into the right space... never even occurred to me it was cheaper!

You have to work your way up though, I started at 20 seconds and built up. But I'm a bit of a wuss!

I have bag clips that were given away with bags of coffee in the 90s. And others from Lakeland that I bought at a similar time. Have to admit the Ikea ones aren't so good, but they don't break.

😂

What about the increase in people's bills because of working from home or doesn't that count?

I try and batch cook a bit. If you are cutting onions for 1 spag bol, it's not too much effort to double or treble it to make a large pot of 2/3 dinners worth of spag bol. (In fact, if you are making a decent amount of stuff, it's worth getting out the food processor to dice things that you wouldn't for 1 meal). SO I try to make a big batch of spag bol and a big batch of a curry sauce in 1 afternoon, (or better yet, 2 or 3 different curries for a proper curry feast night) - and freeze leftovers for easy reheating other nights. We keep the plastic takeaway cartons for this purpose as they stack and freeze well, and are a good size. (And you can write the contents and date in sharpie on the lid).

If you have the oven on, try to fill it. If I am doing a roast, I'll have another tray of roast potatoes for sure. But I try to do some form of roasted veg to go along with that (mediteranean veggies in summer, roasted roots or butternut squash in winter). Med veg leftovers can be frozen to use in ratatouille, as a base for pasta sauce or just reheated as a side veg (and you can also freeze them raw, if you make a large batch and only want to roast some but have more ready to use another time). Roasted roots can be used in soup, but butternut squash makes great soup - sometimes I don't roast it for the actual roast dinner but to use for soup. And you can also do some bread or other baking while the oven is hot. Or make sausage rolls/quiche for lunches, apple pie or fruit crumble for dessert (that day or a later day) etc.

And stir fries are great for using up odds and sods of different bits of veggies lying in the fridge. Not necessarily a chinese stir fry - more as a method of cooking. If you have a half a pepper, a couple of florets of brocolli, 1 carrot, and a couple of inches of courgette, they are the basis of a great dish of veggies along with an onion and a clove of garlic. You can mix and match all sorts of veggies, there are lots of different seasonings that don't cost a lot but change it up to prevent boredom. You can add meat or fish if you want, have it as the veg on the side, serve with rice/noodles/pasta/potatoes as you want - it can be really versatile. And you can add various tins or frozen veg to bulk it out as well.

Cook food using the Hay box method.. I have a Wonderbag and one of these Sew Fab Thermal cooking bags
You just heat up your food and put into the bag .. A few hours later and its done... Great for casseroles curries etc. I have actually been using the Wonderbag for several years now .. its brilliant

Sorry if this has been mentioned already

If you have a shower in a bath, put the plug in. You can then siphon off the water with a length of hosepipe to water the garden

With 4 of us I have plenty for the plants (although I’m embarrassed at how much we use)

Strangely my washing machine engineer told me to always use the recommended dose as the powder contains anti limescale elements - he was telling me off for using too little powder. I had called him as my machine was faulty and he found my machine has a big limescale build up. ( we do live in hard water area though so it might just be ‘cause of that)

@MrsLargeEmbodied

Vinted is basically a site for buying and selling second hand clothes. It's similar to eBay but better. You don't get lots of people bidding on one item. You can but multiple items off one seller and get a bundle.

I haven't tried selling on it yet, so can't comment on that aspect.

Not only will large bottles fill up the space, they will defrost quite slowly so if there is a power cut, they will help keep the freezer cold longer and reduce the chance of loosing everything.

Or be useful as a coldblock in a coolbox to use as a fridge while power is out - put the milk, butter, cheese, juice, meat for today's dinner etc in the coolbox which is what you open regularly - and leave the fridge closed once the initial removing of frequently used items is done. So fridge stays cold for longer and you have less stress about DCs or others getting what they want from the "emergency fridge" while the power is out.

I don't know why you're getting so much grief for your water saving. I like a bath, I might start trying to reuse the water. It's better for the environment as well.

True, although I qualify for this government funeral grant so wouldn’t have to abandon a relative in the morgue. Thought I’d make you aware of it!
www.gov.uk/funeral-payments

Yup! As I found out accidentally...

I'd put the pasta on then realised I'll be late picking DC up if I waited until its cooked so switched it off and left it covered. I came back and I was surprised to find the pasta was cooked!

I'm not sure if it needs a quick boil first and whether hot water only would work, but worth a try. Also, I've found some brand pasta cook faster than others, has anyone else noticed this?