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

dalesmum

I think like everyone who had parents who lived through the war years, we've been brought up to not throw anything away without first giving it a long, hard look to see if it can be used for something else. Mum was a typist during the war and she had to warm her piece of carbon paper against the fire to get more copies out of it. She was also given a pencil holder so she could use the pencil right to the end. The Outlaws made their first furniture from orange boxes and even though they are very comfortably off now, their economy measures are still going strong. To Quote M-in-Law "it's suprising how the small economies add up."

When our fridge died, Himself removed the lighting mechanism and transferred it to the wardrobe which now lights up every time he's looking for his shirts! We have a whole attic full of things which don't work anymore but are too good to throw away and we might be able to (and have done several times) adapt them at some later stage. Now I have children, all my scraps of fabric and wool, wallpaper and cardboard have been turned into nativity costumes, fairy castles and collages without the expense of visiting the art shop!

I do most of the stuff listed above, but my own favourite is when I'm making spag bol or curry sauce is to cook double the quantity but divide it into three servings and pad it out with pasta/rice and veg.

pollys

Pizza Hut Salad. I use cucumber to make the bowl deeper, pile it high but just carry the cherry tomatoes, saves them rolling off:D

Softstuff

Pizza hut salad... you start with the potato salad, then raise the sides of the bowl with cucumber, put the rest of your choice on, top everything off with blue cheese sauce, this glues the combo together and give a nice sticky way to hold the tomatoes on. I would never waste the space with lettuce :rotfl:

For those embarrassed daughters, my mum went one worse...
when Deep pan pizza started doing their buffet mum used to take a large shopping bag with a tupperware container... oh the shame

rainbowrisin

Softstuff wrote:

Pizza hut salad... you start with the potato salad, then raise the sides of the bowl with cucumber, put the rest of your choice on, top everything off with blue cheese sauce, this glues the combo together and give a nice sticky way to hold the tomatoes on. I would never waste the space with lettuce :rotfl:

For those embarrassed daughters, my mum went one worse...
when Deep pan pizza started doing their buffet mum used to take a large shopping bag with a tupperware container... oh the shame

LMAO:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
I do that. I take tuperware containers everywhere with me incase i come across free food. It's amazing how many events have food left over at the end (I am a devoted supporter of community activities if free food is involved). I have no shame and ask if they want it and if not can I have it. Then i whip out my monster tupperware stack and get loading. It's criminal not to do it at "all you can eats" as well. I did get in trouble once though, and felt quite miffed, as for once i genuinely did take a couple of bits for the dog (the number of times i've used that excuse i could have kept battersea dogs home in pork pies) and the restaurant people got quite cross and said i should eat the bits on the premises and BANNED me - now that was actually quite shameful - how could i face the dog with no goodies?

josey1964

culpepper wrote:

When an electrical item breaks,I take it to bits for the parts.
My garden has fridge shelf tents to protect the plants from birds.
We have some huge magnets from an old microwave and the glass turntable is a serving dish.

I find the old glass turntables make great pizza plates.

in_my_wellies

At our last staff 'do' it was the two deputy heads who came with Tuperware boxes for the extra's from the buffet. The rest of us wern't so organised.

anniebooklover

rainbowrisin wrote:

I do that. I take tuperware containers everywhere with me incase i come across free food. It's amazing how many events have food left over at the end (I am a devoted supporter of community activities if free food is involved). I have no shame and ask if they want it and if not can I have it. Then i whip out my monster tupperware stack and get loading. It's criminal not to do it at "all you can eats" as well. I did get in trouble once though, and felt quite miffed, as for once i genuinely did take a couple of bits for the dog (the number of times i've used that excuse i could have kept battersea dogs home in pork pies) and the restaurant people got quite cross and said i should eat the bits on the premises and BANNED me - now that was actually quite shameful - how could i face the dog with no goodies?

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I wish I was so brave. My son would disown me if I even thought of taking a sandwich bag with me to an "all you can eat" buffet! I am always amazed at the ingenuity of the posters on this site. Let them loose on all those people who say they can't manage on £1000 per week.

JWN

I also water down full fat milk. My OH says he doesn't like semi skimmed and for years I bought both, often wasting a lot as we didn't use much, anyhow about a year ago I said I was going to start drinking full fat milk and started watering it down. One year later he hasn't realised whats happening.

rainbowrisin

anniebooklover wrote:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I wish I was so brave. My son would disown me if I even thought of taking a sandwich bag with me to an "all you can eat" buffet! I am always amazed at the ingenuity of the posters on this site. Let them loose on all those people who say they can't manage on £1000 per week.

My littlies are still too small to appreciate what a shameless horror their mother is! I am dreading it a little when they get old enough to realise that not everybody thinks it's okay to vulture in on leftovers, appraise bins and remove the contents if sellable or usable or walk an extra mile rather than pay for car parking.
There again, it's not illegal, immoral or fattening (well, some of the leftovers can be fattening i suppose), so I guess I worry unduly. I just don't want the littlies to get stick at school for having a bag lady mummy:eek:

superflygal

I pick lavender from my garden and dry it in cooling oven after i have cooked a meal. It makes gorgeous free pot pourri. If you put it in your bedroom, it helps you sleep too.

Also, i turn my iron off before your last item, so have enough heat to iron the last thing for free.