best old style money saving christmas hints and tips

Spirit_2

I make my own wreath for the front door - we gather bits from the garden and on a walk in the woods and buy oasis wreath, wired ribbon and florist wire,(greenery yew, holly, ivy, other green leafy clippings) I spray walnuts gold and wire them in. Usually I will wire in a couple of statement items - a coupl of apples, or a cluster of dried hydrangea heads. Add wired ribbon to make bows and tails.

They always look good.

Above the fire I tie a big bunch of twiggy twigs - wired together in the middle and adorned with a bow and tails to match the front door wreath.

The wall lights have bows and tails wired onto them.

It gives the decorations a theme - even though our tree is decorated with a lovely jumble of ornaments collected over the years,

foxgloves

Last year I made cheat's Christmas hanging baskets to put on the front of our house. I took out the dead or nearly dead stuff that I put in early autumn, left the ivy in round the edges and added a bit more (not bought, just taken up from the copious supplies we have in back garden with a few roots). Leave compost in, no need to refill. Take a fairly narrow tall empty jam jar and insert it down the middle of the basket so that the rim is just slightly above the compost. Fill it with water. Now go around garden (you may need a little walk if you don't have much that's suitable in your garden) and cut a selection of anything evergreen or with red berries on. I used more ivy, bits of leyland cypress conifer, juniper, pyracantha (as covered in berries), even rosemary, and some holly. Cut the stems to size so they fit as a bunch in the jam jar. If you are generous with it no-one will be aware it's just some stuff in a jar, as it looks like it's lushly planted. Then tie ribbons onto the 4 chains just above the basket and hang it up. I save ribbons to recycle when wrapping presents and I hadn't got anything left, so I did buy a length of red & gold ribbon with the thin wire in from the market which I have saved to reuse this year. Later I added some fircones that I sprayed gold years ago & were lurking at the bottom of my tree decs box. I didn't take a photo, so hope you can tell what I mean from this description. Lots of people commented on how lovely my baskets looked, and no-one guessed they weren't even planted.

rosieben

timmmers wrote: »

My Mum used to have a "thrifty" old lady neighbour...

As a daily routine this old lady used to wash her face in a morning using the warm water from her hotwater bottle from bed

I know this is an old thread but this made me smile and reminded me of many years ago when I worked in an old people's home; one of our residents was Lady X (I won't give her family name) who stayed with us whilst her family were off on holiday. I was horrified to see her empty the water from her hot water bottle into the basin and proceed to wash her face with it; when I told my mother she said, if you'd had to wash in ice cold water in the morning then you wouldnt waste lovely warm water from a hot water bottle! We forget how lucky we are to have hot water literally 'on tap' these days

zippychick

Someone's been reading my OS christmas 2010 thread

I agree , we totally take it for granted. My boyfriend has to put the heating on for hot water, and to me that's insane - gas heating, ready as soon as you turn the tap on.

When i moved into this house i had no heating or hot water for weeks and it was christmas 2001 - 6 days before hand. That was a rough christmas !:eek::rotfl:

rosieben

I love your OS christmas thread :T lots of things on there that I'd forgotten about :santa2:

zippychick

Awesome ! I am genuinely pleased to hear that:j

[Deleted User]

Mrs_Thrify wrote: »

Layla, toilet roll tubes are a no, no. theese days after they have been in the bathroom. then you are putting food in them. You are not allowed to use them in any crafts because of hygine. You can cut down kitchen roll inners instead.

It wouldn't worry me. But if you were worried about it, you could give each toilet roll inner a wipe-over with a cloth dampened with something to make them 'hygienic'

Alison_Funnell

JackieO wrote: »

brilliant thread this, I am going to have a go with the sliced dried orange idea as my tree goes up on the 1st December the day before my eldest DDs birthday.
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My b/day is on the 2nd as well, and the decos always go up on the 1st too.