General Chat

They say you should plan what meals you are going to have and only buy the food for those. I haven't quite managed that one yet!

Some of my storecupboad stuff I won't buy until the old one has actually run out - like dried apricots - otherwise your cupboards get too full and you can end up with three packets if you forget. I tell myself (and OH, who is a devil for buying just in case we have run out :-D) that we don't actually need an uninterrupted supply - we could have prunes if the apricots run out before we shop, after all. :-D :-D

Also, something my Grandma did and my Mum: when I empty the bag of sugar into the jar or whatever I always open it up completely to make sure I haven't wasted even a grain.

I have a lot of tins and packets that were bought cheap..

I am still getting better as I realized that I was buying things that were on special in Lidl and Aldi and not using them before they were on special again. So I have stopped buying a lot of those things, sauces and things that stay , hanging around for ages.

Now that Fred is eating out three times a week, which costs me mega but is worth every penny, I am going to have to re-think the shopping because I don't have to cook as much. Back to the drawing-board!

most people have to reduce there spending these days,

if i can get a bargain then i will.,i keep a stock cupboard for dry and tinned goods(got 4 boxes of 260 pg tips for £2.80 odd from morrisons last wk, tea bags keep and we go through loads in our house,also have 4 jars nescafe also on special offer at £4)

dont like bogof because all they do is double the price and con you into believing ones free,always keep away from them.

always buy big boxes of soap powder 90 or 100 washes on offer for £10.99 if i see a good offer i will buy a few boxes.

watched super scrimpers the other night,did you see the woman who had a thousand pounds of food in her cupboards,most she would throw away.how can you buy so much food ,when yu have only 2 young children.people spend far to much on food and end up throwing it all away.

:-D

Didn't you do well.

The best I did today was to buy some reduced egg custards in Lidl.
I do like them but would not have bought them at full price.

just to let you all know that ive been out and bought stock for my store cupboard

6 tubes of pro-tech whitening toothpaste from tesco reduced from £1.99 a tube to 25p.
3 packs of pantene pro v repair and protect hair conditioner reduced from £6.50 to £1.05

6 colgate toothbrushes reduced from £1.99 each to 25p

6 packs of bacon sell by date 10 aug reduced from £2.50 to 60p (they will go in the freezer)
mince sell by date 9th aug reduced from £3.60 to 69p 4 packs,will make pasta sauce and freeze.

wish i lived in the US,all them coupons to reduce your food bills,it would be great to hardly pay anything for your food,wouldnt have to work. :-D

I used to collect the distillate from a shop airconditioner unit,to top up my fish tanks.......but it was too soft so I had to add minerals.......... also its good for topping up car batteries.............at least I do.........those lo maintenance ones CAN run dry........

My MIL wasn't a hoarder but what I called "A Just Incase" person.
If M&S didn't sell it... she didn't buy it!

She died a year ago, 4 yrs after her husband.
She bought stuff "just incase"

She stockpiled things like new PJs and slippers in all sizes
( just incase someone needed to go into hospital)
She also regularly bought shirts, socks and hankies for my OH... why I dont know?

OH wears suit, shirt and tie to work each day, yet a year on, the unopened shirts still outnumber the ones he currently wears!

Gosh so many of the tips remind me of when I was younger - a shiver ran down my spine.
Now my only real thrifty thing is to buy bulk items when they are on offer - coffee is cheap at the mo..

I often buy reduced items from the Supermarkets - Likewise pound shops have some good deals. Lidl's W5 brand is a great saving - 3 ltr bottles liquid soap for washing clothes is amazing and saves a bomb likewise the washing machine lime scale tabs.
Most of Lidl's products are good and save money.

However I refuse to by false economy cheap washing up liquid and loo rolls. Hate cheap shampoo and conditioner. I love wet wipes and J clothes and anything that makes life easy. The dreaded breach has long been banished from my life. Hate white towels and old fashioned dish clothes.

Can't say I deliberately waste money but don't make myself miserable by being over thrifty for the sake of. Having to train my mind not to hoard things in case they are needed.

<3

I forgot this, and I do it every day!

I don't spend money on expensive cleansers.... meaning the goop to take off makeup.

I do use an eyemakeup remover. For everything else I use sorbelene cream, but I make sure it is oil free.

Plus, I don't use tissues on my face ~ why would I scrape my face with wood pulp? I have a pile of discoloured face washers/flannels they don't get used for anything else... I get the sorbolene on my face while the face washer is in the basin in warm water (not hot!) and I press it to my face to remove the gunk.

Works for me.

I buy my face moisturiser from a local company, at their factory outlet. Costs me $12 and that lasts about 6 months.

:-D

banana skins are also great to clean leather furniture,my sofa cms up lovely after cleaning with the inside of a banana skin,when finished with the skin put it in the compost bin,great for feeding fruit and veg in the spring. :-D

I remember my gran's eccentric brother used to polish his boots with the inside of a banana skin. He used to rub it all over them and then polish off (I think he used his shirt tail). Mind, he did always have shiny boots.

I don't know what he did if his boots were dirty and he didn't fancy a banana?

what a great response to my thread.

some of your tips are great and i will be using tem in the future,

some tips i already use for instance,re-using plastic sandwich bags,and re-using plastic drinks bottles for days out.

we also have 6 adult clean clean freaks in our house,2 towels each per day adds to 12 towels each day,far to much,so i just put them out on the line to dry instead of washing them over and over again,we are not dirty when we get out of the shower so no need to wash towels after every use.

after watching super scrimpers on tv,i now use lemons to wash windows instead of expensive cleaning products,its works great giing me lovely clean windows. :-D

When a garment like a blouse has come to the end of it's life, if it has nice buttons (or any other nice trimmings) I take them off and keep them in little bags.

Sometimes I've bought really cheap plain blouses from e.g. Asda or Tesco and then put the pretty buttons on - makes it look like it cost loads more.

Well I do most of what's been said ...no Sloggies or hair cuts though .... but no one seems to share a tea bag OH and I like weaker tea so one bag two cups . Like the idea of cheap shampoo into a soap dispenser must try that. Did try window cleaning tip (from the programme with the two ladies (Aggie? and someone?) anyway it was mix cornflour with water and spray it on windows and yes it removes the grease and doesn't leave any film on windows...the only thing is I never got the required amount of cornflour to water but just mix a couple of des/spoons to half pt of water, worth a try. Always pop half lemon / lime / onion etc into freezer if they are left overs. Oh use a lot of foil to line baking trays and always wash foil after use :-D

That's what I was thinking.

Oh no, new Sloggi knickers straight in the bin?
tut tut :-( they make lovely dusters/cleaning cloths!

Nearly forgot this one....

Liquid soap......... I don't buy it....... I buy the cheapest shampoo and put it into a nice soap dispenser.

:-)

Then there is the false economy
ie cheap washing up liquid and loo rolls.

Cheap washing up liquid, you end up using more as its suds/cleansing properites just do not last the whole wash. We have one truly cheap bottle under the sink in case of an emergency (OH does not know but I use it to clean the cats bowls!!!)..

Cheap loo rolls, you just end up using more sheets to get the same thickness of regular priced ones...

Another thing mentioned:

Sloggi Knickers - bought these myself as recommended by sil. Yes they are lovely, but I have a very sensitive back and all sorts set off rashes, itches etc. and what I did not know when I bought them is that they only have 1 seam, up the middle of the back. Wore 1 pair (of a 4 pack) and by the time I got home my back felt like it was on fire as the seam drove me mad..... Straight in the bin........

However, as there are only 2 of us, we rarely waste food, only buy what we will eat. All our waste is sorted for re-cycling and because we waste so little food our compostible bin (bag) only goes out every 2/3 weeks. And I never use the little bin that is supposed to go by the sink (YUK).....

Like everyone else, when out shopping, it something we use regularly is on special offer then we will stock up. But even in our house space is limited. Though if he cleared out his glory hole under the stairs we could buy and store more. He must have every power tool going, and does NO DIY, I always have to get a man in!!!!! :-D :-D

I have already said that i'm not a thrify person, but was fed up replacing broken or worn out items.

Now, when I need to buy these things .... crockery, towels and bedding.... I buy only white things
If a plate gets smashed, it's easy to replace. Supermarkets also have cheaper serving dishes ect .... usually in white.
Recently, I bought a dozen fine ,white cofffee mugs @ 29p each

All towels are white... they can be bleached or boiled if necessary.

As a veggie, I try to bulk buy Quorn in Vegetarian Week when it is often reduced.

I have a supermarket delivery then and fill my freezer. I try to buy the things on that delivery that Aldi and Lidl don't sell like treacle, pudding rice, custard powder, lentils.

Used to try the made up Quorn things like escalops in a sauce but they used to get left in the freezer so it is mostly mince and basic ingredients now, and pies.

Used to make all our bread but Fred is not keen on it now and shopping for the bread is one of his jobs so I don't anymore. When I did make the bread, in the machine, I would buy a cwt sack of wholemeal flour from the mill. In this case the one at the open air museum.

Because we eat onions like the Chinese eat rice, I buy a big net from Lidl, it is not practical to go to the market or I would.

I go to another mill to buy bird seed. Fred sometimes has to stay in and the bird table is something to watch. While I was in there last time, I asked about cat litter.

They told me one of their customers who runs a cattery uses chick crumbs so I have been trying them. £8 odd for a bag and it has lasted at least twice as long as a bag of litter and there is still more than half the bag left.

So it is chick crumbs for pussy's botty in future.