Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

chirpycheap

p00 said:

I remember making a hamper for a 60th birthday about 10 years or so ago. I put so much thought into it for her to say - I shared it with my daughter since it was her birthday as well. She had the little wines, I gave away the lavender toiletries because I dont like them, I shared the cake and biscuits with a friend. Did you want the basket back because I binned it.
I've never done a hamper since :0
P00 x

Sounds like a rude person without manners! I think most of us accept that some gifts we receive may not be to our taste but are grateful for the kind wishes that go with the gift. I was given a pair of hand knitted fingerless gloves in a awful shade of puce some years ago. I was going to pass them on but they have now become my winter bedtime reading gloves for when I wake up earlier than the central heating and want to read.
This year my family in an effort to avoid unnecessary clutter have agreed that for Christmas we will spend £5 on each other. The wrapping should be recyclable and the gifts edible, consumable or second hand.  We tried it last year and lots of books from charity shops were exchanged and we've been passing those around all year.

p00

chirpycheap said:

p00 said:

I remember making a hamper for a 60th birthday about 10 years or so ago. I put so much thought into it for her to say - I shared it with my daughter since it was her birthday as well. She had the little wines, I gave away the lavender toiletries because I dont like them, I shared the cake and biscuits with a friend. Did you want the basket back because I binned it.
I've never done a hamper since :0
P00 x

Sounds like a rude person without manners! I think most of us accept that some gifts we receive may not be to our taste but are grateful for the kind wishes that go with the gift. I was given a pair of hand knitted fingerless gloves in a awful shade of puce some years ago. I was going to pass them on but they have now become my winter bedtime reading gloves for when I wake up earlier than the central heating and want to read.
This year my family in an effort to avoid unnecessary clutter have agreed that for Christmas we will spend £5 on each other. The wrapping should be recyclable and the gifts edible, consumable or second hand.  We tried it last year and lots of books from charity shops were exchanged and we've been passing those around all year.

I think that's the perfect choice for Christmas gifts. We spend so much on things people don't actually want or we cant really afford. My daughter suggested that this year we don't exchange Christmas gift for the adults. I have been suggesting it for a good while but she's just come around to the idea herself. All the grandchildren get £10 in a gift card anyway.
I like to occasionally buy a gift if I just happen to see it, probably in a charity shop or on special offer, or a nice plant like a rose bush.. Its nice to give something just out of love rather than feeling as if you have to because its Christmas etc.
p00 x

Elisheba

carolinerunner said:

Elisheba said:

They are quite an expensive outlay at about £15/20 but I have found wax wrappers to be wonderful.  I can wrap cheese, bread, bowls of food, anything that I would have previously used cling film or aluminium foil for.  You can rewax them as they get older.  I look at them and think, wow - you are going to outlive me  .

Where could I get this kind of waxed wrappers?

I got them in a local plastic free shop.  I think I might have seen them in Oxfam as well?  Pretty certain I've seen them in garden centres where they sell pretty things, and I'm sure if you google Am@zon and other places will sell them.

Elisheba

newlywed said:

You can make them with cotton material and grate beeswax and then put in the oven so ot melts and soaks in….

keep meaning to….

That would certainly be cheaper!  

wort

I had wanted some and a few years ago my daughter got them for me . They were expensive and it was 2 in a pack . I only used them to take sandwiches to work and found they went funny, the wax seemed to go tacky maybe I washed them too hot ? 

Toonie

There is an easy to follow tutorial here for your own beeswax wraps

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-make-beeswax-wraps.html

p00

Unless you have the beeswax in or will use what you would have left it can be cheaper to just buy some wraps as not everyone likes using them. I have a large amount of beeswax already but for some reason I just dont fancy them at all.
p00 x

summertime_2

Some great tips on here, thank you everyone.
One tip l have is, if you find it hard to remember the money saving tip you have read, write it down and pin it on your fridge etc, where you can see it. l do this now and change them daily so l get a new 'money saving' tip next day.
 l pop the written notelet into a jar on widow sill. l was thinking this would make a great no spend present for a newly married housewife or even a live away student.  All those money saving tips in a jar for her/him to take out, one a day to stay motivated and try to follow..look how much they could save if she did them daily. Wish l had thought of that when l was first married.

summertime_2

This is a fantastic Alcohol recipe that l make every year for Winter. Its from the Shirley Goode recipe book called    ' Have a Goode Year' iv been making it for years and even made it to give as gift.
Its called Rumpot.
You use any fruit that you grow, starting in the summer, and layer the fruit into a light proof jar ie stoneware dish to 1lb fruit ( 450g) to 8oz (225g)  sugar, to 5 floz (150ml) White Rum. when you finished layers and poured over the rum ,seal it well with clingfilm then put on lid.Then store it away somewhere dark.

its not too late to make it as it can be made from supermarket frozen berries +citrus fruits, apples ,pears , grapes and peaches, but it  will hike the cost up to buy the fruit.

but mine is  from what we grow and its different every year as to what we have available.
  
This year mine will be morrella cherries,  apples, strawberries, black grapes, redcurrents, blackcurrents and blackberries.

 Mine will  also be from frozen this year,  as we harvested , l bagged them into the freezer.
To get the best fruit liqueur , let your Rumpot stand for a least 2 month, and 3 months is better.
Im late making mine , which im doing on Wed but it will still be delicious for the winter.

We have ours as a Winter night cap, strained from the fruit...
or warmed up if  we've been out in snow or frost..And the strained  Alcohol fruit  is put onto Swedish Pancakes that l make when my family come over for tea over the Winter.

It can be made with any fruit ie peaches, oranges  etc  but we like to make ours with what we grow to keep it cheaper. 
just remember if you your fruit mix has blackberries or blackcurrents,, it will darken the Rum.
Its yummy,...

Primrose

Aaah!  I still recall the one and only rum pot we made as a young married couple many years ago. I wasn,t used to alcohol in those days and my first few imbibements   had me staggering around the house like a drunken creature!   The fruit certainly livened up pancake day !