Are you ever embarassed by your money-saving ways?

JayneC

Hi all,

I would have taken the cheese too but sometimes do adjust my ways depending on the company i'm in!!

I went down to the beach on bonfire night and lots of people had taken down wood for the various bonfires there. There was a piece of wood that would've been ideal to finish of my chicken shed - need a door and this piece had chicken wire over half of it and a flap at the bottom - DD2 manged to talk me out of snaffling it tho! So it went on the fire, still haven't quite gotton over it, lol!

DS1 is a student and works part time at a football ground in the hospitality suite. They put out cheese boards at half time and it's hardly touched - it all goes staright into the bin, he's not allowed to bring it home. He's a bit of a cheese monster and it almost makes him cry to put all this cheese in the bin! One time he served dinners and one of the guys decided his lamb shank wasn't big enough and demanded a whole new meal, despite DS1's protestations that the meal he was sending back would have to be thrown in the bin!!!!

I also take home sachets of sauces etc, although one DD who I persuaded to put some in her handbag had an unfortunate incident when the ketchup sachet burst and covered the inside of her bag!

I always take the toiletiries and biscuits, t-bags etc from hotel rooms if I have to stay over (with work-don't usually stay in hotels). Infact when DD2 went into hospital to have DGS I packed her toiletry bag with hotel goodies - just the right size!

Last year I took DD2 and a friend to London to see Billy Elliott - got the tickets with Tesco clubcard vouchers and also paid to stay in a YHA hostel with clubcard vouchers too, got a deal on coach travel £5 each return from Leeds. Infact I think the tube fares cost the most of the whole trip!!! Also paid for a weeks holiday at Haven (7 of us) with clubcard vouchers last year too.

I get loads of stuff from freecycle and CS and very rarely buy anything new. As much for ethical reasons as MS. ( I do regularly give back too )

I'm afraid I get quite evangelical about it at work - tho my collegues take it in good humour and they now like to tell me about there latest attempts at baking, how much they've made through quidco, etc and one just recently told me how I'd be proud of her cos she'd just paid for a weekend away with her clubcard vouchers.

Keep it up I say!!

X

mama67

katholicos wrote: »

I'm not at all embarrassed by my money saving ways. Maybe i embarrass others though?

The most recent of my money saving ventures is to make my own fat balls for the birds, they love my creations and last week i made 28 fat balls for less than £1.60! The birds have been really snarky with each other trying to get a look in with the fat balls i put on the bird feeder

Oh i forgot, cheese....yes i would have taken the cheese....though i might have said aloud that it was for my pet! (because i am one of those apologetic-feel-the-need-to-explain-myself-and-my-actions-type-of-people)

sounds daft but do you have a recipe for the fat balls pls. I buy loads during the winter for all the birds that come into our garden.
tia

Frugalista

drinkupretty wrote: »

sure its my own variation on a recipe I found on the vegetarian society website.

ingredients:

Serves 4-6
300g leeks (trimmed)
2 baking potatoes peeled and cubed
400ml light stock
100ml single cream
125g blue cheese
Flour and butter for crumble topping

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Pre-heat oven to Gas 6/200C/400F[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]1. Add the chopped potatoes to a large saucepan with the stock, cream and mustard. Cook gently for until starting to soften. Then add the chopped leeks and keep cooking until the veggies are cooked[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]2. Transfer to a ceramic baking dish.[/SIZE][/FONT]
3. Cut the blue cheese into small bits and scatter over the leek and potato mixture.
4. Add the crumble topping to the top of the dish and place in the oven for 20 - 30 mins or until the crumble topping is golden in colour.

Thank you so much for this recipe - will definately try it .

Just one little question - how much mustard and of what type?

Thanks in advance .

Soapy955

Frugalista wrote: »

Thank you so much for this recipe - will definately try it .

Just one little question - how much mustard and of what type?

Thanks in advance .

I just read your post, with the quoted recipe and thought it was the answer to the previous post; the recipe for fatballs!! I was thinking "Blimey, that's too good to put out for the birds!!!" :rotfl:

Primrose

The only time I've been really embarrassed by my money saving ways (mortified actually! ) was when I visited a local recycling centre in our local park and found some enormous plastic bottles at the bottom of the newly emptied plastic dump bin. Realising they would be great for cutting off the bottoms and using as cloches for my vegetable seedlings I over-reached when stretching out to grab them, toppled in and couldn't get myself out. I had to wait until a passing stranger came by to help me climb out. He couldn't move away quickly enough afterwards as the bin was somewhat smelly and I'm sure he didn't believe my excuse for being in there.

Tight_as_3

:jNot long after I got married we had to attend one of my husbands work do's the meal cost us £20.00 a head (which was a lot of money in 1976 ) so I made up my mind to get my moneys worth and put some of the left over in a napkin to bring home all was going well until we went to leave I picked up my napkin got to the door were I bumped into my husbands boss:eek: who wanted to shake my hand, in sheer panic I put the food in my pocket it took ages to get the chicken grease out of my pocket along with the smell, not so proud now!!!!!:rotfl::rotfl:

charlies-aunt

SlopingBird wrote: »

At work today I salvaged from the rubbish bin (with permission) a brand new fluorescent yellow jacket - my plan was to make a running vest from it for the dark winter night (they cost a fortune!). Very embarrassing trying to explain why I wanted it but worthwhile I thought. Now my 14-year old daughter has 'stolen' it - thinks it's cool and whisked it off to her bedroom. Perhaps they have another somewhere . . .

Keep your eyes peeled when out and about, I have picked up several of the waistcoat type ones at the road side. Guess they have blown off the back of trucks or just discarded by workmen... I use one myself and have remodelled the other to fit t'dog for after dark walks be seen and be safe ..... just have to watch out or the fashion police :rotfl:

tomtombeanie

THIRZAH wrote: »

I've just got back from a two night holiday with my two sisters-three of us in £19 Travel Inn room.

We had breakfast in Wetherspoons each morning-half the price of the Travel Inn.They put two mini tubs of jam on each plate of toast and we only used one each so we brought the unused ones home. We went into every charity shop we passed and bought stocking -fillers for our children from Primark and TK Maxx.My sisters even managed to get their train fares cheap but I couldn't. We are already planning next years trip.

There used to be a pub in Manchester that specialised in bread and cheese lunches-you got about 8 oz of cheese on each plate-they had plastic bags on the counter with the salt, napkins etc

ooh! was it the mark addy? i remember it - by some water...canal maybe, always had a spot of wine there as well so can't quite remember...

ETA: just finished reading through the thread - THIRZAH has already correctly identified the pub as the mark addy!

ceridwen

Primrose wrote: »

The only time I've been really embarrassed by my money saving ways (mortified actually! ) was when I visited a local recycling centre in our local park and found some enormous plastic bottles at the bottom of the newly emptied plastic dump bin. Realising they would be great for cutting off the bottoms and using as cloches for my vegetable seedlings I over-reached when stretching out to grab them, toppled in and couldn't get myself out. I had to wait until a passing stranger came by to help me climb out. He couldn't move away quickly enough afterwards as the bin was somewhat smelly and I'm sure he didn't believe my excuse for being in there.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:sorree....better get a tissue methinks....crying with laughter here....:rotfl:. Well I needed a good laugh - not at your expense I hasten to add..

Kittikins

I have my DD (aged 4) to thank for not being embarrassed anymore by being a frugalista.....for the harvest festival service at school, everyone was asked to bring in a tin of food or something fresh to be distributed. She decided she would like to take her favourite food in - baked beans. I was pretty sure I had one tin in the cupboard that might not have a reduced sticker/dent in it, but we realised we didn't.

I told her not to worry, and that we'd go and buy a "posh" tin of beans to which she quickly retorted that it didn't matter and we could just take the sticker off as the beans were just as good even if the tin didn't look pretty! We found the tin with the smallest dent and she carefully peeled the sticker off and told me it was perfect and reminded me that we are the "bargain girls".

How cool is that