Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

LolaLemon · 28 November 2010 at 12:34AM

Just noticed my post didnt post before my net crashed

so ill start again.

I'm going to start (small) and do the penny jar, although there will be a fight between me and my 3year old son hehehe
I'm trying to sell all of our old stuff, but i hate using ebay for lots of stuff and gumtree isnt that great and we dont have many carboot sales round here been tempted to put up a sign saying INDOOR HOUSE SALE and put everything in a room that i want to keep (how very america lol) but i dont have locks on my doors and i cant move my tv n table myself lol
I spend an absolute fortune on food! thier is only the 2 of us in this house, me and a 3 year old. and i spend about £40 a week we both have a cows milk allergy - my sons extends to beef too... so i buy 5 litres of goats milk a week for us to use in the house, sometimes we drink this all others we have some left over at the end of the week PLUS i have to get both of my sons nurserys a carton each and each carton is costing me £1.38! (£9.66 a week for milk!) we've tried uht, but both cant stomach it, so is a waste in this house.
we eat a lot of fruit and veg and to save money and less waste ive started buying frozen veg, both for quickness when cooking and the nutritional quality
Im looking into getting hens/chickens, both for the eggs and as a teaching tool, I'd like my son to know where his food comes from (plus he wants a pet, but with me at uni most days its not fair on a cat or dog to be stuck in all day, so with hens i can sort them before i go out and see them when i get home) only thing thats putting me off is the possibility of rats, i dont want to be the one who 'brings them' to our door.
I crochet blankets, scarves, hats (i struggle with these) and just getting the hang of baby booties and mits. LOVE doing toys though, like toy cakes, mini cupcakes, fruit some veg, baby building blocks and some animals, but I am still only learning.

So im going to be on this post a LOT over the next few years till i fine tune my ways.

Doom_and_Gloom · 28 November 2010 at 12:42AM

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

-fill up flask with boiling water again in morning

I forgot we do that one as well. Not always the morning mind.
I also reuse teabags a few times before binning them. I'm sitting here with my 4th tea of the day made from the same teabag that I started with :rotfl:. It seems like a nutty thing to do but it works

.

Pink. · 28 November 2010 at 1:07AM

Hi strawberrypud,

If you take the time to read through this thread, it has lots of links with tips that will help save money:

Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

And this one has many quick tips that may be useful:

Great Tips... one liners

I'll add your thread to the first link later.

Pink

strawberrypud · 28 November 2010 at 9:28AM

I really am so grateful to you all for taking the time to pass on your fantastic tips. Thank you :beer:

jackieglasgow · 28 November 2010 at 10:00AM

Some fabulous posts on here, I just wanted to add to Primrose's tip at the start about the soap dispensers, I bought the foaming dispensers, and they get filled about a tenth with bubble bath and the rest water, I have a bottle of Tesco basics bubble bath in the cupboard which is over a year old, and we have three soap dispensers in the house!! They are a bit harder to find now, and the initial outlay can be high - although mine were originally from the local poundshop - but I think the bubble bath from Mr T was something like 28p, and it is still about half full!

[Deleted User] · 28 November 2010 at 11:00AM

I love the Sainsburys basic shampoo and conditioner .My hair is fairly short so it doesn' take much when I am it in the shower .I have two bottles that used to be from M&S that I had as a Christmas present last year and I just top them up as and when and no one knows that I haven't got smart M&S shampoo and conditioner on the my bathroom shelf. Not that I would give a fig anyway, but my eldedst DD is a bit 'label concious' Sainsbobs shampoo and conditioner is 28p &
24p respectively, and is perfectly good, and smells just as nice as the more expensive stuff.
Wilkinsons is very good for face wipes, non perfumed ones, as theirs are usually 2 for 97p.and I have used them for all sorts of things ,not just my fizog either.:):):)

seraphina · 28 November 2010 at 11:17AM

You DON'T NEED A SLOW COOKER!

Sorry for shouting but there are plenty of us who can't stand the wretched things. Def. see if you can try a friend's before you buy - or stick a post on freecycle as someone may have bought one and then discovered they are in the "hating slow cookers" camp! However, batch cooking is definitly the way forward.

Plan, plan and plan again. Also, sounds daft but if you're relying on a dish doing two meals, plate up tonight's serving and then put the rest away immediately. Otherwise people wander into the kitchen, help themselves to a wee piece here or there and the next thing you know next week's portion has vanished!

If you can't/won't compromise on some things, can you use a cheaper alternative for some things? So for example our towels and guest bedding get washed in Tesco Value Economy Cheapest bio washing powder, whilst clothes get Persil (only bought on offer!)

marmiterulesok · 28 November 2010 at 11:53AM

Hi,

A few of the things I do,though I think that most have already been mentioned:

Take a packed lunch to work.

Have a budget for the month,which I take out at the beginning of the month and put aside.Say it's a four week month,I'll take out 400 francs,for example,and put this money aside.I take out 100 francs for each week,one week at a time.It means that what I've got in my purse is all that I have to spend.Sometimes I overspend one week.It means I have less to spend the next week.This system works most of the time!
I only have my bank card on me to take money out at the beginning of the month and to pay bills.The rest of the time it sits at home,and I'm not tempted to use it.
I find that by doing this,I keep a better track of what I'm spending.

Taking advantage of special offers,BOGOFs.

Seeing what you have in your cupboards before buying more,using up open packets etc.

Cooking in bulk in order to freeze portions or reheat the next day.

Reading the paper on the internet.

Shop at the charity shops,apart from underwear!

Using a pump dispenser for shampoo,liquid soap,washing-up liquid etc.(making it go further).

Good luck!

Sparklyfairy · 28 November 2010 at 12:17PM

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

As another person has said knitting is good to do - my partner and I have taken up knitting recently and instead of being on our laptos (1 each) we knit instead. He's addicted to it already and can't wait to finish his first scarf :rotfl:.

Great ideas so far - but this has to be the cutest thing I have read for some time!

adelight · 28 November 2010 at 12:51PM

I'm really loving this thread, slurping up all the tips

Soap nuts are something I should definitely look at!

Vegetable peelings are so wasteful; do rustic mash or wedges, or save all your peel to use in a broth or the SC.

Never pay full price for toiletries(unless it's 8p shower gel!), go to home bargains, bodycare, buy the reduced shower gel with a broken lid and what's on offer. You can restock your make up bag with boujoirs 99p lipgloss, 99p duo eye shadow and £1.99 mascara from fragrancedirect.com, and make the postage worth while by getting lots of cheap xmas prezzies :j
Take advantage of offers and whoopsies but don't go over the top, lately supermarket offers which seem amazing really aren't that great because the price has been jacked before the bogof or there are still cheaper equivalents available.

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Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

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