Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Little things you do because actually you are a bit tight

138 replies

nappyaddict · 02/04/2014 15:58

Just noticed this thread I just posted on is a zombie thread, so I am starting a new one because I thought it was a good thread.

Buy value wrapping paper

Walk instead of using the car or bus.

Walk or get the bus instead of getting a taxi if we want to have a drink out.

Reuse wee-free night pants.

Changed wet nappies every 6 hours (reusuable)

Only buy clothes out of necessity and only 2nd hand or discounted. Same for shoes and accessories.

Buy presents for the year in the sales.

Ignore use by dates and eat it anyway if it looks, smells and tastes ok.

On days out in the summer, will try to find a supermarket nearby where I can buy boxes of ice creams instead of buying them singularly or from the ice cream van.

I use a mobile hair dresser.

Occasionally get nails/tan done as a treat but again use a mobile lady (£15 for nails, £8 for tan if I go to her, £10 if she comes to me)

Take my own food and drink to the cinema. My favourite is hot dogs cooked just before we leave the house and wrapped up in foil and a plastic glass of wine Wink

Essential oils and water for air/fabric freshener. Also spray onto vacuum filters and dab neat essential oil on radiators.

Only put the washer on between 10pm and 8:30am because it's cheaper.

Reuse gift bags.

Ask for nice Neals Yard stuff for birthdays and Christmas as could never justify buying it myself.

Rehome people's shower gel/shampoo at the swimming pool when they have left it behind.

I buy big bottles of castile liquid soap and dilute for hand wash, shower gel, bath soak, washing up liquid.

I only wash my hair once a week. I use coconut oil (the stuff you cook with) the night before as a conditioning treatment and shampoo out the next day.

limit non-hair washing showers to 5 mins. brush my teeth in the shower.

I don't buy fancy face cleansers. I use the oil cleansing method. (google if you haven't heard of it)

I use 1 tablespoon of laundry liquid for all loads and wash colours and darks on a 30 minute fast wash. wear things more than once until they are dirty.

I always try and park for free or hunt out the cheapest car parks.

I take a quick packed lunch for us if we are going out for the day. try and go out after mealtimes and eat at home first.

hand wash, wax and valet the car.

keep a list of products I buy regularly on my phone, the cheapest price I have seen them and where. update the list if I see it cheaper elsewhere not on an offer.

refuse to buy a tumbledryer because of energy costs.

turn lights off and all plugs off at switch. I want to get one of those things that tell you how much electricity you are using.

have an indoor thermometer and only turn heating off if it goes below 17 degrees c.

don't have heating on a timer. turn heating on when we come in/go out.

don't buy fancy cleaning products. everything gets cleaned with white wine vinegar, bleach, bicarbonate of soda, lemon/lime, microfibre cloths.

dp has switched to smoking an e cigarette type thing and is trying to quit.

dp and ds both take packed lunches to school and drink the free water available from the dispensers there.

dp drives to train station and gets the train into work. a monthly train pass was cheaper than driving and he parks there for free.

meal plan and try to batch cook and freeze so using energy costs to cook only once. buy cheap joints to coo in slow cooker which is mores energy efficient too. get 2 or 3 types of meals out of a joint for example a roast, a soup and a curry. I also look in the reduced section and freeze things from there. I only have 3 drawers in my freezer so don't buy much from the freezer section, freeing up the space for meat and batch cooked things.

slow cook a gammon joint, a beef brisket, a lamb breast, a whole chicken and slice/freeze for sandwich meat.

buy big pots of natural yoghurt instead of individual pots.

buy spices, veg, flours, rice etc from world cuisine shops.

snacks are hard boiled eggs, cheese, salad, cold meats, homemade meatballs, leftovers, yoghurt, fruit, breadsticks/crackers/rice cakes. i buy mr kipling cakes for lunchboxes from heron foods when they are 65p for 6. I stock up on lindt dark choc when its on offer and I buy a pudding and ice cream once a week. I find fresh fruit goes off and gets wasted so buy a mixture of fresh and frozen fruit and the little pots of pineapple from aldi.

we have fakeaway (homemade) curry/chinese/kebab nights and fake gastro pub lunches as a treat. we buy more expensive better quality food and drink than what we would normally have for example brie and crusty bread, matured steak and asparagus, a posh pudding, a bottle of chateau neuf de pape, a cheese platter, liquer coffees and chocolates. we make an afternoon of it, take our time between courses chatting perhaps playing a game. we take perhaps 3 or 4 hours over lunch.

cut flowers out of the garden instead of buying them.

grow our own herbs.

I want to plant some fruit trees and have a veg patch but that's on my to do list.

got a phone contract with unlimited texts and unlimited minutes and cancel house phone contract.

I know people who have cancelled their tv license and watch tv via online catch up.

I would cancel virgin/sky tv and get a freeview+ box and netflix but dp won't.

OP posts:
Ragwort · 03/04/2014 21:20

Does anyone else go to 'model nights' at the hairdresser? I always do and it's usually free or very cheap. I never spend any money on my hair - just tie it up in a pony tail and use whatever shampoo is the cheapest. Never bother with conditioner or any 'product' and only wash it once a week as well.

Clothes are always charity shop, haven't bought a new pair of shoes for ten years Grin.

I think we all have certain things we don't mind economising on but other 'essential' items that we couldn't bear to be without, for me it is decent ground coffee - must spend at least £10 a week on the coffee I drink at home. Blush

Ragwort · 03/04/2014 21:22

I was brought up to think being that tight with money when you don't need to is a bad thing - is it a bad thing or is it deciding what is good value to you?

I have just sponsored a child's education in Africa for £50 for a term - yes, I could use that money for a decent hair cut or pair of shoes but those things don't bother me, I prefer to choose how I spend my money and am perfectly happy being 'tight' in some areas so I can spend money on things that matter to me.

nappyaddict · 03/04/2014 21:23

nancy75 For me properly dirty is having a visible mark on them, not wearing them until they are filthy, but equally not putting them in the wash just because they have been worn once.

OP posts:
KikiShack · 03/04/2014 21:43

nancy75 I completely disagree! Why waste money/food/stuff if you don't have to just because you can afford to? I'd rather keep my extra cash and buy myself more treats or give it to charity than give more profit to all the tax dodging fatcats.
Plus there aren't actually endless resources on the planet, so it's really bad to waste in my opinion.
My sadly decreased aunt was a millionaire and she reused tinfoil, she was brought up in the second world war and kept that mentality throughout which I really admired. And she was very generous with charitable giving, partly because she didn't waste money on food and housekeeping.

Mine are:
Sweeping the breadboard and any old thin crusts into a freezer bag to use as breadcrumbs (DP loves chicken escalope sandwiches)
Making my own mayo- takes seconds, tastes so good, and costs pennies even though organic
Making stock out of old bones
Taking leftover meat from pub meals etc home to my cat (never my leftovers, but friends etc don't mind if it's for the cat, it seems less weird. I've never eaten it myself...yet...)
Brushing teeth in the shower! It feels fun. I brush half them while twirling myself around to get wet, stop and soap up, then so three second half while rinsing.
I have hundreds more, can't think.

HollaAtMeBaby · 03/04/2014 22:34

Kiki how do you make mayonnaise in seconds? Please post your recipe!

Mintyy · 03/04/2014 22:36

I do love to hear people's personal money saving tips (and we all know we are only talking about a few pence here) but brushing teeth in the shower is just beyond the pale! Brushing your teeth in hot water??? Where do you spit out? All your spit and toothpaste mingling around in the water at your feet. Its just a bit gross, sorry.

It would appear I save quite a lot of money by not going out always armed with snacks. Surely snacks are totally unnecessary and so you can save yourself a fortune by never buying them Confused.

nappyaddict · 03/04/2014 22:48

It's better for you to eat 3 smaller meals and 3 lots of healthy snacks than 3 larger meals.

I spit out in the shower, over the plug. It doesn't stay swirling around your feet, it goes down straightaway with the rest of the water. I don't wet my toothbrush because I find it creates too much foam.

OP posts:
Rommell · 03/04/2014 22:51

This thread has opened up a whole new world of tight-fistedness for me. Presumably you are 'happy' and it all works for you, OP, but I just couldn't live like that. Joyless doesn't even come close. (Not to mention neglectful and dirty.)

KikiShack · 03/04/2014 22:59

Mayo. I do the measurements etc by eye/taste so I'm guessing what they are. And you need some kind of blender. I have a kenwood chef but I used to have smaller food processor and it worked fine in the liquidiser part of that too.
Crack an egg into the liquidiser, give it s 2 second blast.
Add seasoning- half a teaspoon of salt, same of pepper, some mustard powder, blast again for 2 seconds.
Add a tablespoon of vinegar or half vinegar half lemon juice. Blast again, maybe 5 seconds this time.
Then set the liquidiser running and SLOWLY pour oil in. I use a sunflower oil, you can use some olive if you want but not too much. Keep pouring in until you have mayo! It'll reach a natural limit at some point and thicken right up. It can be good to stop halfway to taste it. if it's a bit bland then I'd probably add more vinegar to the finished mayo .
If it splits you've added the oil too quick, so pour the mess into a jug and start again with another egg,, then add your mess as the first bit of oil.
I really hope that works!!!

TeaAndALemonTart · 03/04/2014 23:25

Fucking hell there are some misers on here.

stonehairbrush · 04/04/2014 00:20

I am Shock at these.

Onesleeptillwembley · 04/04/2014 00:24

I'm off to bed. But In answer to mintyy, brushing your teeth in the shower is fine by me. It washes away. But some of the filthy buggers on here sicken me. Bloody hell, some of you take all joy, dignity and decency out of life. Your own sweeties at the cinema? fuck yes. Pop too. But, I mix socially and professionally with people of all walks if life and all social standing (and nowadays especially those lines blur unbelievably). Ffs. I've not yet met anyone that moulds their own shit into a lampshade to cheaply replace one their molvanian nanny broke to pay for her dental services.
Google molvania dentistry. Or that have taken their own hot dogs into the cinema. Of your husband can smoke, that's just a really shit thing to do. Really, OP, why are you living this shit life with a smelly git? And it's scary you seem quite proud of being like this. I'm actually uncomfortable reading this. Your poor children.

Brabra · 04/04/2014 00:37

I think hotdogs and wine in the cinema is genius!

LuisSuarezTeeth · 04/04/2014 00:45

I can't find anything wrong with any of these things - OP does need to clarify the nappy thing though.

Some excellent tips and some utterly boggling vitriol.

50ShadesofGreyMatter · 04/04/2014 01:20

Being frugal with things that don't matter to you frees up money for things that do matter, why would you waste money just because you can?? Confused

White vinegar is a brilliant substitute for fabric conditioner and no your clothes don't smell of it afterwards, plus vinegar doesn't clog up your washing machine.

Keep the blade of your razor in oil means the blade stays sharp for months and months and months....... still waiting to change mine and it's been about 18 months so far Grin

Use the cheapest hair conditioner when you shave your legs instead of buying "special" shaving stuff.

When your handcream tubes seem empty cut the top 3rd of the tube off, there will be loads left at the other end, use it bit by bit and slot the cut off bit over the rest of the tube until it's all used.

Shampoo can be used as shower gel.

Chottie · 04/04/2014 01:45

Yuk to the 6 hour nappy changing and the weekly hair washing. Why do you need to take hot dogs to the cinema? can't you just eat at home instead? how is it an economy to be eating at the cinema?

I try very hard not to waste food. I make 'fridge soup' on Fridays. I dry fry some onions and add all the left over vegetables from the fridge, chopped up with some stock. Bring to the boil, simmer until veg are cooked and then liquidise.

glastocat · 04/04/2014 02:55

Some of these tips are minging (the nappy thing!)!

Chuckthefucklebrothers · 04/04/2014 06:56

Drinking, smoking, dirty hair, kids in overflowing nappies... Lovely.

upupupandaway · 04/04/2014 07:11

I have a present box. When I see something in a sale that I think would make a nice gift, I buy it. Reckon I save a few hundred quid a year.

NoArmaniNoPunani · 04/04/2014 07:12

Being frugal with things that don't matter to you frees up money for things that do matter, why would you waste money just because you can?

Because it's minging. If clean hair and clothes don't matter to you then stay at home with your pissy children. When leaving the house it's common courtesy to others who have to see and smell you to be clean

FloozeyLoozey · 04/04/2014 07:13

Apart from meat and washing tablets, I always try to buy from the tesco value range, where possible. Most of it is no different to the higher priced stuff.

slartybartfast · 04/04/2014 07:20

this is the credit crunch thread.
dont call people miserable misers
plenty of these hints are helpful

slartybartfast · 04/04/2014 07:22

but i dont like the hotdogs in the cinema purely because other punters might not appreciate the smell, nor the owners.

Artandco · 04/04/2014 07:36

This thread is weird

So your dh smokes and spends a fortune. If he gives up he will spend that money on a season ticket for himself? Not on changing nappy more often or washing children? Not even on a annual ticket to benefit everyone ie zoo/ swimming/ national trust.

Your spend a fortune on sky. Why not just ditch, use free tv/ or no tv and a few DVDs. You would have £50 ish a month extra to take the kids out / out yourselves

Smoking and sky must be what £200+ a month

£200... That's a lot of nappies/ warm hotdogs/ washing powder.

Most people just pop popcorn at home for 10p and take to cinema to save, rather than cold stinky hotdogs. The cinema is for a film anyway not primarily for eating.

VeryStressedMum · 04/04/2014 07:38

I would just change a nappy when it was wet there was no time set for it.
I sometimes brush my teeth in the shower but when I'm rinsing the conditioner out, I wouldn't just stand there and brush them as it costs £1.20 an hour to run the shower.
I try to save as much money as I can but end up spending it on little tests for us, or clothes for the dcs etc, cos life's miserable enough not to have any treats.

Swipe left for the next trending thread