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

Never listening to you stingy lot again. On the advice of this thread, I stopped using fabric conditioner. Now my clothes and mine and ds's hair full of static

ah, did you tumble dry them? [ smile]

I use fab soft but I dont tumble.

Tumble dryers packed in anyway.

Yes, tumble dried them

If you live in a really hard water area I think you need it, when we go somewhere with soft water I dont bother with it and the clothes seem fine to me.

You can use cheapo smartprice vinegar too but my sheets need fab soft.

jJust made coffee using hot water kept in a flask from when kettle boiled an hour ago. Great tip, thanks.

I live in a hard water area and I use one washing tablet instead of 2 and add 1/2 a water softening tablet (the waitrose own brand one breaks quite easily and disolves well I find).

Does anyone have a brilliant solution for making my boots more water resistant? They have a rubber sole which leaches any moisture off the pavement and into the boot so it doesn't even need to be raining for me to have wet feet and they can't be re-soled. Have googled waterproof insoles to no avail. Plastic bags inside?

IAmShe Can you get hold of some liquid latex? Maybe if you can coat the sole in it, and a little way up the side, it might help. (They used to sell it in a craft shop near me, for people to make their own plaster cast moulds, so it might be with looking in a craft shop if there is one near you.)

I thought of another money saving habit - I try to use my laptop from the battery when possible, and only plug it into the mains when it's running low.

Worth a try. Thanks

I plug in my laptop/mobile phone in to charge in the office. Use the office shredder for disposal of personal papers too so never had to invest in one for the house.

Unsubscribe from online alerts from shops. When you get a flash sale announcement it can be tempting to look for what you 'need'. Better not to get the tempting email in the first place, and just look for discount codes when you genuinely need something.

Good one rarely, Ive started doing this...unsubscribing when they land in inbox

I'm sure this has been mentioned upthread but - don't buy any more newspapers. Use the free online versions and news channels. I've saved any amount of money since I started using on-line versions, I'm arguably better informed and I still get plenty newspaper for domestic chores from the free ones that come round or are (neglected in piles) at the local library or supermarket. Friends and family are also only too happy to offload old newsprint on to me if needed.

P

About discount codes... where do you find them? Whenever I've googled anything like that I just come up with sites that look like they will bombard me with masses of spam, so I haven't bothered.

You have to go through all those sites and half the links you click on are expired links. It's mind numbingly tedious.

I tend to stick with quidco and topcashback now.

Here's another for water meter users/water savers. I have a jug by my sink for waste water like the end of glasses of water, DS's water bottle from preschool, other stuff that would normally go down the sink.. I use the water for cut flowers or to water plants.

Another one is to fill a jug and put it in the fridge instead of running the water until it's cold.

I fill kettle with cool water while running it hot enough for dishes, then use it to rinse cutlery container, dish-cloth, bowl etc when finishing.

Has saynoto0870 been mentioned? Doesn't always work and the site isn't that clear, but you can sometimes get the landline number for 0844, 0870, etc.

God yes to Mooncups. I'm gutted that I only discovered them just before I started using Mirena, so now I don't have any periods anyway.

Also, re-usable pads. Easy to wash. Started using them 6-months ago and really impressed.

At least you save on sanitary protection once you have reached the menopause (something to be grateful for ).

I thought of this thread this morning. I had some left over rice still in the pan so instead of throwing it out I added milk, sugar and a bit of cinnamon and DD will now be having rice pudding with a spoon full of jam tonight. Very petty in terms of money saving --