What do you reuse?

hermum

Water, my bills are £120 a 1/4 for just me. Despite their site calculator coming up with £212pa for what I actually use. I've checked for leaks, don't have any. I have now got bottles & buckets of water everywhere.
When I need hot water any cold goes into milk bottles, clean the floor, use for the kettle, etc.
My shower's over the bath so I put the plug in & then use that water for flushing the loo.
Compost evrything I can
plastic bottles become cloches
cardboard tubes I'm saving for planting
Cans I'm saving & will tie them on to a pole screwed to the wall &plant up as a herb garden
ebay & freecycle
Old tops & track trousers become pj's
all plastic pots, bottles & tubs jars the same are kept & used for anything
The dogs hair after brushing him is put around the garden & the birds collect it, great to watch
all fat from meat is put in a dripping bowl for roasties

charlies-aunt

jexygirl wrote: »

On the note of stamps does it have to be stamps or can it be franked post labels as we get alot of these.

Jex

It has to be postage stamps Jexygirl

Please cut them off the envelope, leaving a half centimetre or so margin.

When I used to work in a shipping office which got a ton of letter every day, I would spend my coffee break going through the discarded envelopes salvaging stamps but the only envelopes that I see nowadays is the ones that come through my own post box so my collection ratio has gone down!

Bransby Rest Home for Horses take ponies, donkeys and Horses - many of them are cruelty cases referred by the RSPCA. It is staffed mainly by volunteers and relies heavily on donations to keep going.

If I won the lottery I would make sure that they got a very big donation

honey

charlies-aunt wrote: »

It has to be postage stamps Jexygirl

Please cut them off the envelope, leaving a half centimetre or so margin.

When I used to work in a shipping office which got a ton of letter every day, I would spend my coffee break going through the discarded envelopes salvaging stamps but the only envelopes that I see nowadays is the ones that come through my own post box so my collection ratio has gone down!

Bransby Rest Home for Horses take ponies, donkeys and Horses - many of them are cruelty cases referred by the RSPCA. It is staffed mainly by volunteers and relies heavily on donations to keep going.

If I won the lottery I would make sure that they got a very big donation

I've just cut out my first two stamps so I can start saving and send them in to them, thank you for the information.

I'm really enjoying this thread. I've recently started washing and reusing the bags from cereal for freezer bags.

I cut out the ribons from clothes that they put in for hanging, these are used for kids arts & crafts, bows for the littlies hair and pressie wrapping.

I keep all tubs, jars and tins for storage.

I reuse gift bags for other peoples gifts.

I reuse all envelopes that I can, just stick a label over the top

I'll keep reading to pick up lots more tips

babyshoes

Chips - size 18? Pshaw, I would love to be a size 18 again!
Well done on your weight loss though!

I must say I already do a lot of what others have suggested, though a few things I have found myself saying "oh, that's a good idea!", so thanks to everyone - keep them coming!

Olliebeak

babyshoes wrote: »

Chips - size 18? Pshaw, I would love to be a size 18 again!
Well done on your weight loss though!

Exactly my feelings too, babyshoes - At the moment I think of a size 18 as SMALL .

anniewoo

charlies-aunt wrote: »

It has to be postage stamps Jexygirl

Please cut them off the envelope, leaving a half centimetre or so margin.

When I used to work in a shipping office which got a ton of letter every day, I would spend my coffee break going through the discarded envelopes salvaging stamps but the only envelopes that I see nowadays is the ones that come through my own post box so my collection ratio has gone down!

Bransby Rest Home for Horses take ponies, donkeys and Horses - many of them are cruelty cases referred by the RSPCA. It is staffed mainly by volunteers and relies heavily on donations to keep going.

If I won the lottery I would make sure that they got a very big donation

Thanks for this information,I shall start saving all my stamps from now on :T

BenEvans

This year i saved some of my tin cans and made beautiful tea light holders out of them. I washed them out, removed the paper covering, filled them with water and froze them. When they are fozen you can easily, using a small screw and a hammer, hammer in any design. Once defrosted they make thrifty, recycled and thoughtful gifts - perfect!! I promise they look better than it sounds! Old jam jars also make lovely lanterns..

In my family we all reuse newspaper as wrapping paper for bday and xmas presents - it saves buying wrapping paper, surely one of the most wastfull and short lived items. You can also choose funny or personal pictures or stories, my brother inlaw insists on wrapping mine with page 3 girls!!

I thought i was quite good at reusing and would have lots of ideas, but you guys have all mine and many many more!

Good Luck!

medsdemon

• I use magazine and catalogue pages to make envelopes and gift bows with the pretty pages. Also cover used jiffy bags with magazine covers for posting my ebay sales in as looks more individual.
• use card from back of paperpads and cereal boxes for the base for making journal book covers, bookmarks etc
• make cushion covers with scarves and old clothes eg am at the moment making a suede skirt into one. will save the scraps to use in collage, or making patchwork etc.
• try not to buy new buttons, zips etc but reuse ones taken from old clothes etc
• make tin food cans into little lanterns for the garden by punching patterns in them. Or covering with fabric/paper etc for storing pens etc in
• this year i am really going to try to sort out my composting and growing my own veg so will be composting everything and using cardboard tubes for seedlings.
• I reuse alot of things for crafting eg tomato paste tubes, stamps, magazines, etc
• any mail printed on one side is cutup and made into notebooks for lists etc
• cut out the long hanging loops in clothes and use the ribbon for crafting, gift wrapping etc
• use old tights to filter my homemade flavoured vodka ( washed of course!!)
• reuse giftbags
• Felt old wool sweaters and make into containers
• I am hoping to have a go at making my own reusable shopping bags from coffee bags and duct tape

Hmm That's all I can think of at the moment.

sparrer

What they said

A couple I didn't see though I might have overlooked them so forgive me if they're in the list

Stamps that have been missed by the franking machine at the sorting office - I steam them off and glue them to the envelope I'm going to use. I also put a sticker over the previous address on the envelope to write the new one on.

Egg shells - crushed very finely with a rolling pin I scatter them on the garden to keep slugs away, and help feel the soil with calcium and protein.

Tibbie's_mum

julie_d wrote: »

To make paper pots I use a PAPER POTTER £9.95 from the ethical superstore (on line).

Alternatively, follow the instructions from this linky

http://www.feesworld.com/how2make/paperpots/index.html