Small money saving habits...petty even

[Buddy80]

Hi,

I was just thinking of some of the small habits i've gotten into from habit and though i'd share...

I know some of them have probably been mentioned before

Always break a dishwasher tab in half
Water down fabric conditioner to get 2 bottles instead of 1
Freeze unwanted bananas for cakes
Chop up apple cores for the birds
Save pumkin seeds for planting
Save envelopes for seeds from old calendars
Use old envelopes for shopping lists if not reused
This one is stingy [embarrassed]...intead of buying a calendar, I just print off monthly from on-line planner. It gets amended anyhow and easier just to put on pinboard
Save old flyers to make paper chains.
Add handful of porridge oats to make crumble go further

Does half a dishwasher tab work as well?

Does anyone use less then the recommended amount of washing powder/liquid?

Not petty - although some of those are not things I'd do anyway iyswim? (I'm too tight to feed birds, I just let the bottom of the garden be overgrown instead )

I'll add
Buy decent (persil for me) washing powder and mix it 50/50 with cheapo morrisons own. Clothes still get the smell of persil which I love but not at the same cost.
Same with beans, I mix heinz and morrisons/aldi to get a reasonable taste at half the cost (self confessed baked bean snob me!)
Make my own bread in machine, works out about 35p for a smallish loaf but again we are bread snobs in this house so much better than £1.90 or so every day.
Shop at aldis best grocery economy tip ever!

I'm sure I'll think of more. Your calander tip is not tight at all btw - its just sensible imo

Ooh, a response

1/2 a dishwasher tab works just fine for us. I thought it would be a hassle to break in half, but easy and tbh I have not noticed any difference.

That goes for fabric conditioner too

I only use 80mls of powder per wash and a spoon of soda crystals.

Excess just clogs the machine anyway.

Another one...

If my kids have wrecked any books that are beyond saving with tape. I keep them and the pages make good wrap or DIY party bags.

The party bags look nice. There is a tutorial on-line. But basically, you use the pages to wrap a box, leaving the top open. Slide out the box and you have your bag.

I'll try half a dishwasher tablet later on I think...

Also, NEVER buy white bin liners! I use old carrier bags and for the big kitchen bin I use value black bags which are a fraction of the cost.

I used to buy sandwich bags (cheapo ones) but now I clingfilm eveything for packed lunches.

For kids party bags I once bought a pack of paper sweetie bags (pick and mix style ones) from makro. They are still going strong years down the line.

I used to exchange all my old printer cartridges with boots for £1 in advantage points but they've recently stopped this. Staples will give me £1 voucher for each cartridge I return instead now.

I use hardly any washing liquid. I fill up the lid twice, and the lid is teeny tiny (think - the size of a 10p), sometimes a bit less than that, stuff comes out clean.

When I get near the very end of my conditioner I add water and shake the bottle, it seems to do the job just fine, you could really water it down to begin with and make it go twice as far.

I keep everything in terms of wrapping paper, ribbons, pins, saftey pins. Anything small that I know I can use again. If my clothing has huge annoying bits of ribbon in them - to hang on a hanger, i cut them out, and often keep them. It's amazing what you find in a drawer and use down the line. To decorate a card, or use as a handle on a home made gift bag. Or to repair something. I keep all jiffy bags that come in the post.

Lots of thing have other uses and I hang onto them - as long as its small and then I find myself using it and feeling very thrifty! :)

Spring onions can be chopped and frozen. Also, if the stems are kept in water they will re-grow.

Fresh herbs can be frozen in olive oil in ice-cube trays.

Too true IHeart

One of my children are having a party soon and one of the activities is make your own party hat. All those small craft snippets come in very handy.

oh - and I have been able to get some nice bits off my local facebook buy/sell/swap site for free :)

MissKeith thanks for the printer cartridge tip. Do you know of the cheapest to get them?

fresh herbs in olive oil in ice cube tray - wow, that just sounds fab! I think you can freeze bits of lemon in water in a similar way - for drinks.

I have started keeping a price book. If food costs are set to rise even further need to! Its a real eye opener. Esp trying to work out "deals".

Just basic things, cost of meat per kg or weight cost for fruit. The difference for instance between fresh and frozen pizza is shocking.

Butter wrappers kept in the fridge for greasing baking tins.

I think some of these tips are really good. Also the recycling ones are excellent.

I only use half the wash powder i used before. Engineer told me i had been using too much. our water is quite hard.

find frozen herbs very useful and saves buying fresh.

If you are buying school name tags for more than one child. No need to order separate name tags.

Just put one order through with one child's initial at the begining, the surname in the middle and the other child's initial at the end.

That way, you can just buy one set of tags and just tuck and sew the initail end which is not being used.

No Buddy I don't sorry! I am a shop-tart and buy cartridges whenever I see them at a good price. I have an HP at the mo, so fairly statndard and most places stock them.

I loved getting boots points for sending them in for recycling.

Of course, using a refilling service would be cheaper but my mum employer insists I use real ones weirdly. I don't argue anymore but I do shop around and have got 12 to take back to staple this week who apparently will give me £1 for each by way of voucher.

Good tip on the name tags - gutted I bought 300 a few weeks ago which will probably see my dc through til University, grrr!

Butter wrappers - yep, do this.

YY to the pizza thing! Why are fresh pizzas so much more than frozen?! I just defrost anyway and add loads of toppings to bulk them up, the bases on the frozen aldi ones are very generous so can take the extras.

A tip for cars, I only ever put washing up liquid in my windscreen wash bit. My Ex used to say I'd ruin it or it would freeze in winter, but so far neither has happened

I save all of my £2 coins and 50p coins. When get a tenners worth, i bung it into a small savings account.
Last Christmas i had saved £270, this Christmas i have £300, its a fab way of saving for Christmas without missing the coins very much.

Every time i have a spare £1 coin i get one of those stamps from Tesco, i now have £50 towards Christmas food shopping.

meal plan, meal plan, meal plan and make shopping list around this weekly plan. Stick to it rigidly.

Batch cook, make a bigger than usual curry/chilli/shepherds pie and freeze a portion of it. Eat "out of the freezer" once a week, its a free meal!

I have found that Daisy dishwasher powder from Tesco works out cheaper than even the value tablets. It comes in a huge 3kg box. I haven't bought any for ages but last time I was in I noticed the price had gone up a bit, so it might not be as good a deal as it was. I found it was easier to use a bit less powder than it was to chop a dishwasher tablet up.

My last daisy powder lasted me 11 months. I use one dessert spoon per wash, if a cups got a lot of tannin on it I spray it with bleach first.

I've not found it cheaper than tesco daisy on Amazon or Ebay.

I save the tat from party bags for the DCs Christmas Stockings. They are too young to realise that half has gone missing, only interested in the cake anyway!

Amazon Prime is brilliant. I don't live or work near any big shops and have small DC, so going to the shops is difficult and Amazon is my friend, so not having to pay for every single delivery is great.

My mum used to do that thing with the name tags! 'first name-surname-someone else's first name', haha. I had forgotten about that!!

Dublin I use 1/2 the recommended amount of washing powder, still works.

Off to cook now, recycling leftovers [hgrin] I'll read through later and see if I can add anything.

I freeze nearly everything, very few things can't be frozen. I'll often google 'can I freeze...' and somebody will have tried it and will say how it freezes and if not so well, any changes to taste or texture.
I keep all wrapping paper, birthday card etc as good for DDs glueing and sticking, as are old magazines (not that I buy them much now, but ones that come with the Sunday newspaper)
Yes to breadmaker.. it will pay for itself and the joy of home baked bread can't be beaten.
Sometimes I will have a cupboard / freezer week, where we must eat up stuff. Eg, I sometimes freeze the sauce from an Indian takeaway as they are always swimming in sauce and make my own curry with it. This might be a step too far, DP does not know I do this!!!!