Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

sparrer

I'm very fortunate having a friend who lives in Greece and comes back to UK at fairly regular intervals, she brings me pure olive oil soap and I give her a roast dinner, a bed for the night before she heads up north and full English in the morning.

My daughter has lupus with the inevitable butterfly rash which causes very dry, red, flaky skin. After years of the GP experimenting with meds, cortisone creams etc, she's found that a tiny drop of olive oil on a cotton wool pad has almost cleared it up. Not ideal to use on a regular basis but if she has an event, dinner whatever coming up it's a great help, and boost to her morale . For the forum police, this is NOT a medical recommendation/suggestion!

Uniscots97

My latest tip has been a resounding success at home. I realise this may not be suitable for all but I wanted to make the most of heat and light I have at home. I'm trying to keep costs down as much as I can and with the damp cold weather back again I really didn't want the heating back on again. I've been opening curtains and blinds as wide as they will go on the sunniest side of the house. I kept those rooms closed until the warmth had built up and then opened the door and shared the heat with the rest of the house. The added advantage of this is that I don't need to put a light on (even in the kitchen when preparing a meal and its not a large window we have in there) so it's meant using less gas and electric :T. I also leave the oven door open after using it to let the heat filter through the house.

.........This has worked so well OH (who prefers wearing shorts and t-shirt in the house all year round and has an aversion to jumpers :mad:), is complaining its too warm......lol :rotfl:

Remember when it is chilly that a large candle will take the chill off a room.

Uniscots97

I am (now) a great fan of making my own pasties (savoury and sweet) and although I use ready made puff pastry. However, when making dinner tonight I realised I didn't have any eggs to do the egg wash (to give the pastry a nice glow and in pasties make the pastry stick), so I used milk mixed with a little water. To stick and brush over 4 large pasties I used only 1 dessert spoon of milk mixed with half a dessert spoonful of water. The result was just as good as the egg wash, and is definitely cheaper!

JayJay14

unixgirluk - I always seem to waste some of a pack of puff pastry as there are only two of us in the house and not a lot of freezer space, but I found a pack of 10 sheets of frozen puff pastry in Asda last week - they are about 5" square and just right for single portions and you can just take out as many as you need - £1 a box.
Perfect for fruit or savoury tarts and small pasties.

Katie22313

Wow I have just spent the last 2 days reading this whole post and i am addicted!!
It has made me reaslie there is alot more I can do to save money! I wish (or maybe there is) a book with all of these ideas in them so when ever I need something I can find it and make it? Any ideas?

I have never been one for crafts, I say i dont have it in me (maybe i have never really tried) but now I am going to try and make these tips work!

Keep it up guys I love listening to all the things u do.

Katie :-)

Uniscots97

Katie22313 wrote: »

Wow I have just spent the last 2 days reading this whole post and i am addicted!!
It has made me reaslie there is alot more I can do to save money! I wish (or maybe there is) a book with all of these ideas in them so when ever I need something I can find it and make it? Any ideas?

I have never been one for crafts, I say i dont have it in me (maybe i have never really tried) but now I am going to try and make these tips work!

Keep it up guys I love listening to all the things u do.

Katie :-)

Welcome Katie, glad you've enjoyed reading all the tips. You don't need to be good at crafts to save the pennies its more about being sensible, using what you have, swapping items you don't use for ones you will with friends/family or on freecycle etc and trying not to waste anything. This is sometimes easier said than done though

marmiterulesok

Katie22313 wrote: »

Wow I have just spent the last 2 days reading this whole post and i am addicted!!
It has made me reaslie there is alot more I can do to save money! I wish (or maybe there is) a book with all of these ideas in them so when ever I need something I can find it and make it? Any ideas?

I have never been one for crafts, I say i dont have it in me (maybe i have never really tried) but now I am going to try and make these tips work!

Keep it up guys I love listening to all the things u do.

Katie :-)

Hi Katie,

You could always note in a wee jotter any ideas that really appeal to you.You could even have a seperate page for food and drink/household/garden/clothing etc.I did this for a while and found it useful.

melanzana

And tonight, I have three little tips....

Make your own bleach spray. Three parts cheapo bleach, one part washing up liquid, and as much water that fills up the "branded" bottle of same. Give it a good shake, and Bobs your auntie! Aggie would be proud.

Make your cut flowers last and last....add a drop of bleach in the vase topped up with the usual water, it is amazing. I'm looking at chrysanthemums I bought two weeks ago that are still spot on.

Just boiled water will kill weeds. So if you've any lurking around, use it. Environmentally friendly, and it works.

Uniscots97

Here's a sneaky one for the ladies, before I invested in a pair of... ahem.. Bridget Jones pants for underneath evening dresses (I attend a lot of events), I used to cheat since a decent pair can be really expensive. I used to wear 2 pairs of tights, but even better if you got a rip in one pair of tights I used to cut the legs off them and cut the legs into bands, which I used to tie my hair back, this left the pants bit at the top which I wore with another pair of tights

(sorry if I have embarassed any blokes! )


I also sharpen my tweezers by closing them around an emery board and keeping them closed run the emery board through the tweezers, your tweezers should be as good as new now.

marmiterulesok

unixgirluk wrote: »

I also sharpen my tweezers by closing them around an emery board and keeping them closed run the emery board through the tweezers, your tweezers should be as good as new now.

That's very interesting.

On a similar note,you can sharpen a pair of scissors by cutting a piece of tin foil repeatedly with them.