Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

[Deleted User]

A woodburner or multi-fuel stove can be used for more than heating your home. If you are lighting it anyway, make use of it in more ways than one.

A stove top kettle on the top will give you hot water for washing up. I don't find ours gets hot enough for making drinks but I put the hot water in the kettle and it boils very quickly so I suppose that saves electricity. Which is great as I have a real coffee addiction.

!!!!! potatoes with a skewer, wrap them in foil, put them in the (emptied out) ash box, light the fire and wait five hours at least. The resulting jacket potatoes are just delicious and no cooking costs. (We didn't replace our microwave when it broke so normally we would have used the oven for jacket potatoes). Nicer than with any other cooking method, I think.

The warmth of the hearth is also good for allowing food to defrost, dough to rise etc, and pans of food on the stove top will stay warm too.

As my OH is a self-employed furniture-maker we are lucky to be able to burn offcuts of wood that he has no use for, making this form of cooking/ heating extra cheap.

[Deleted User]

Primrose wrote: »

Can't remember if I mentioned this on the previous thread but if you have a garden, buy a £1 punnett of the Lidl or Waitrose Living Salad leaves and plant them out in a spare patch of earth. It's far cheaper than buying a packet of salad seeds or a strip of salad seedlings from a garden centre and you will get about 60 little mixed lettuce plants which will grow and keep you going in salads for ages.

I can vouch for this, I've done it for the past two years and it works really well. You just need to separate them out well and beware of slugs etc. It also makes me feel all Green Fingered and Good Life when actually I am a terrible gardener. I know that I can't fail with these lettuces at least!

givememoney

We go away a lot in our caravan. We always break the journey if it is a long one.


We worked out in tea alone we spend about £35 per year at the service areas. We bought a small flask and make tea to take with us now, saving all that cash. We always take a sandwich, crisps and a choc biscuit to save buying.

Wombatchops

I just have a motivational tip to save pennies or pounds. A lot of times, I fall off the MSE wagon. What I therefore try to use is the "nappy index" (this is a phrase that I have coined myself, but feel free to use it). I have two young children, one of them is still in nappies. When I'm trying to de-motivate myself from spending, I just think "how many nappies can I buy with that money" (for those of you who have never had to buy them, they ain't cheap). That often de-motivates me, and if it doesn't, that's because it's clearly something I really want, rather than something that's a particular frivolity.

For those of you, like me, who don't get put off by trying to work out how long they'd have to work to pay for that particular purchase, I hope that helped. Feel free to move this somewhere else if it's better suited in another thread.

Wombatchops

Edit: I was inspired to write this cos of the previous poster talking about saving £35, and all I could think was "that's a lot of nappies".

Uniscots97

Before buying something new, work out whether you have something that will serve the same purpose, if you only need to use it occasionally could you borrow it, or if you have to own it is it something that might be on freecycle etc (i.e. a wheelbarrow). Think carefully before spending your money.

Primrose

Don't peel supermarket carrots. Just wash them before slicing. If you weighed your carrot peelings over the years this would probably amount to the equivalent cost of many pounds of carrots you've had to buy and pay for.

hoglet121

I don't peel potatoes for the same reason Primrose. I give them a good scrub and even for mash the skin isn't overly noticeable - just a bit of texture really.

Frugalsod

hoglet121 wrote: »

I don't peel potatoes for the same reason Primrose. I give them a good scrub and even for mash the skin isn't overly noticeable - just a bit of texture really.

In fact I think a lot of the goodness is in or just under the skin. So by peeling you could be throwing away the best bits. Like others here I just wash and cut. Almost everything goes in to the pot.

[Deleted User]

The cost of bread has gone up I noticed as I did my online shop today and it's got me thinking about making my own bread again.

I used to make loaves using a breadmaking machine when we first got married (13 years ago) and they never ended up that great. A bit like house bricks... Even though I was very careful to weigh the ingredients, put them in the pan according to the instructions etc etc. I made them from scratch, not from packet mixes, in order to save money, but they were nothing like the fresh bakery bread I had hoped for.

I am wondering, has anyone had any real success with a breadmaker, and if so, what machine did you use, and do you have any tips please?