Old style things that 'only you' do...

HappySad

I do what others do and it is good too see that it is not just my family that does this.
Collect old soap to make new soap. Tip ketchup upside down to get last drop out, cut bottle open for face cream (they are so expensive so you must do this", use old clothes-shoes for decorating & gardening...

sexymouse

Oooh, just thought of another one I do. Along the lines of not paying for parking, I also use the supermarket carparks, but if I need to go to another car park, I look out for people returning to their cars, and ask if they have any time left on their tickets. I have had hours worth of parking for free doing this before! Obviously this only works if the carpark is busy that day though.

CLARABEL

ok,
I am currently flat on the floor with a bad back and you guys have made me really laugh and feel not alone in my scrimping behaviour.

I do lots of those things but also use junk mail wrappers as food bags..haven't had to buy and since i discovered this one

i add soda crystals to the wash to reduce washng powder needed..great and stops limescale.

I refill soap bottles with ecover washing up liquid and a few drops of lavender oil..lovely.

i make my own squirty bathroom cleaners ( refill old bottles) from soda crystals, tea tree & lavender oil and hot water - very cheap.

keep this thread going it's fab!

Clara.x:j

carolbee

I wash out my 'bagless vacuum' (beginning with a D) filters, dry and reuse, also use the contents which is mainly pet fur in the compost. when I catch and dog and brush her, at the appropriate time of year I leave her fur in the garden for birds to use as nest material, am trying to encourage the pets to be old style!

tigsowner

[QUOTE=SusanCarter



...I use stones in the washing machine to save on washing liquid.[/QUOTE]


I just have to know more about this - with 4 kids in the house and a messy husband the poor washing machine does at least 2 loads a day!

(The machine itself is the biggest most econimical model I could find from a local shop but rented - worked out that we actually save on breakdown insurance or repair costs that way, support local business, get a better wash, save money on electricity and time but if things go wrong, get a replacement within 3 days. )

SusanCarter

I just put about six stones I collected from the beach into one of those bags for laundry tablets (my mum had millions of them because she used to get one with every box of persil tablets). I use about 1/8th of the liquid I would otherwise. It doesn't get the mud stains out of my husband's work clothes (he's a gardener) but tbh nothing does so I just give them a little rub of soap and the occasional soak.

Austin_Allegro

I store up earwax for re-proofing umbrellas...only joking!

Great thread! Some of the stuff I do:

1. Drain the twin-tub rinse water into watering cans to do the garden. One day I'm going to see if I can tap into the sink waste pipe and run a hose off it.

2. Water down full fat milk when the bottle is half empty. Cuts cost of milk by half and tastes just like semi-skimmed.

3. Re-use old teabags (keep in a sealed jar)

4. Mend rubber gloves with a bicycle puncture repair kit. If one glove of a pair is beyond fixing, keep the other one to make up a pair in future.

5. Keep old socks to put over my hand for polishing metal, silverware etc

6. Clean silver using salt and tinfoil method - saves polish

7. Keep dehumidifier water to use in iron

8. If batteries are running low I take them out and tap their sides on a hard surface. May be a myth but seems to make them last longer.

9. Keep paper from butter to grease frying pans with

skintmostofthetime

Not quite along the same vein but still as useful - if needing a new fence, check through skips for pallets - you need to remove some of the panels but we did this and are still using the fence 4 years later at the bottom of the garden. Also - great if you have an open fire and aren't in a smokeless zone, they burn a treat - and- watch out for tree cutting in your district - they will often agree to let you have any logs `cos they have to get rid of somehow. We have `nuff for next winter in our logpile what with the very (very) old shed too.

Sarahsaver

Not really moneysaving but a bit mad this one...I went into a neighbouring store for a trolley which didn't need £1 in it rather than put £1 in the one in Aldis when i didn't have the right change.

FZwanab

Stratford_Bill wrote:

I think I am one of the few people who do this nowadays, although I know people did this quite often in days gone by.

I am a self-taught bokbinder, and often I will take a pile of magazines, and bind them up - not in a patent binder, but properly bound like a hardback novel.

If there is a paperback book falling to bits I will repair it by turning it into a hardback. I also repair and restore hardbacks.

Sometimes I give these as Christmas presents.

And yes, in the past I have rebound The Complete Works of Shakespeare.

One of my kids hard back book is falling apart and it was a very expensive book. How would I go about repairing the binding?