Great Isn’t it Obvious MoneySaving Hunt: Tell us the secrets you didn't know you had

ninnoodle

morg_monster wrote: »

I must be a wuss or maybe its just too early in the morning... the collected leftovers into soup and Judith's idea above (both of which, from a money saving POV, seem excellent ideas)... have made me feel quite sick!

haha, me too! _pale_

Janeyboo

With cleaning products, you can get by with lemon juice, cheap white vinegar and bicarbonate of soday. Vinegar cleans windows really well, and gets off starch marks from the iron. A bit of bicarb mixed with lemon will clean most surfaces. Add some bicarb and water to a saucepan with burned on food, and the next day it will have disappeared (the burned bit, not the saucepan!) Finally - a half a lemon in a bowl of water will clean the nastiest looking microwave. Put on the microwave for 5 minutes and you can just wipe it clean.

Oh and vinegar or lemon juice makes great rinsing water.

And no I don't work for lemon, bicarb or vinegar manufacturers. I did see a programme while back on runnning a stately home and the housekeepers used mainly vinegar, lemon and bicarb. Said it worked better than most modern cleaning substances.

JimmyTheWig

Millennium wrote: »

Use the cold water from the hot tap to brush your teeth, rather than run the cold tap, don't use more water than needed, saving the remaining 'cold' water to water the plants.

I can't make any sense of this.
Surely using the hot tap (whether the water is hot or not) is a bad thing when you don't need it.

Sosh

Sharp_Eyes wrote: »

6. I've recently found that some special offers in supermarkets can also be found at the same price at Boots. If so, I buy at Boots first - 4 points per pound, then Sainsbury's - 2 points per pound, then Tesco - 1 point per pound rewards. Not close enough to an Asda or a Lidl to get there regularly enough but Lidl and Morrisons is always good for great fruit and veg as well. You get heaps more than the standard supermarket fare too!

Personally, I'd shop at Tesco before Sainsburys. 2 Nectar points are worth the same as 1 Tesco point used in store, but as I use all my Tesco points online, they're worth 4 times as much as shopping in sainsburys.

Chawkee

karendb wrote: »

Just wanted to add as well that I always keep a container with picnic blanket, paper plates, forks, & spoons, cups, sharp knife & kitchen roll in the car in case we're out longer than planned and can't get back for lunch etc. Then we just pop in to the nearest Tescos and buy some cooked chicken, french bread & drinks etc. to make a quick lunch - so much cheaper than eating out, even at KFC, and you get much better quality food and get a few more clubcard points to boot.

We carry tea and coffee etc in the car and then take a flask of hot water rather than tea or coffee with us wherever we go. If we don't use it we take it home for the next cuppa at home.

JimmyTheWig

Sharp_Eyes wrote: »

See ths article: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/loyalty-scheme-tricks#worth

I would prefer to shop at Asda or Lidl whose prices trump the savings at either Sainsbury's or Tesco from a loyalty card! However my nearest ones are over 7 miles away. My nearest Tesco is about 4 miles away and my nearest Sainsbury's (in the same compound as Boots) is less than a mile away. So, yes, it's worth it to me because I do most of my shopping there whereas I only visit Tesco about 3 or 4 times a year! I also get points on my Nectar card for other things...

Sainsbury's being closer is a good reason to shop there rather than Tescos.

But my point still remains that you can't say the points from spending £1 in Sainsbury's are worth more to you than the points from spending £1 in Tesco's - certainly not in the ratio of 2:1, anyway.
Fair enough if you don't get enough Tesco points to make the deals worthwhile, but they're still worth 1p off your shopping - making Tesco's and Sainsbury's about equal (unless you are spending your Nectar points on anything that gives you particularly good value).

sandrajean1955

When filling a bowl of water to wash up with (or do anything with that requires 'hottish' water, don't let the water run away until it's heated up and then ADD cold 'cos it's too hot. Put the cold water in first and the hot last (same difference but the other way round but you use less water). If you've got a long run from your water heater to your tap use some of the cold water to fill your kettle (or anything). I turn my hot tap off just enough to cut the water heater off but not enough to stop what hot water is left in the pipe from coming out. You end up heating the same water twice otherwise.

bockster

i can't claim this is my idea, but, in winter after a bath, don't pull the plug until the warm water has helped to heat the house and not the drains!

scrivette

Dont pull the plug on your bath water, use it to water your garden (or even to flush the loo!)

JimmyTheWig

scrivette wrote: »

Dont pull the plug on your bath water, use it to water your garden

What's the deal with this in terms of putting soap / bubble bath / etc on the garden.
Can't say I'd bother emptying the bath with a bucket just to do this (much more money- and energy- saving to be had for that amount of time and effort, methinks) but I often wonder the same about the washing up water. It's already in a bowl and right by the back door so would be very easy to do. But I don't really fancy tipping washing up liquid all over the plants.
(We're not on a meter, just interested in this case about saving water when it's in short supply - some hope at the moment!)