Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

lauren_1

Meal plan....it saves me a wad each month
Plan meals that can be turned in to other meals too.

Start off one night but cook twice as much as you need i.e spag boll with pasta twirls.

Remaining spag can be turned in to chilli with some chilli paste or powder for the next night.

Remaining pasta, add a can of condensed chicken soup and some sweetcorn to make a side dish or main part for lunch and store in the fridge.

lauren_1

Get rid of sky tv! best thing i did, stops kids glued to the telly all day but to compensate we have a dvd night once a month (the kids get to choose their own dvd's, usually less than a fiver at asda) and have a good old munch on the living room carpet as treat on its own as eating is not allowed in the living room.

got the kids a telly each off of freecycle for their rooms but all they can do is watch dvds and video's on them, video's are 20p a pop at most car boots.

Frugalista

cyclingyorkie wrote: »

when my DD's were throwing out their exfoliating gloves I grabbed them - they're fantastic for cleaning the bath with!

They're also brilliant for "scrubbing" new potatoes - just pop the gloves on and rub the potatoes between your hands - Simples!

berniesmaster

ohh, i wish i was organised enough to do meal plans for the week, instead i spend a fortune on shopping each week on bits and bobs, not really any meals in mind, at teatime i open the cupboars and see what we fancy and end up with mish-mash.
i think i need to start planning....

Queen-Bee_2

Have been looking at carpet sweepers following Mummyfrugal's post - are they better at picking up cat hairs than hoovers? I have a British Shorthair which has an astonishingly thick coat and she is shedding her winter coat at the moment - my carpets are felted!!!

mummyfrugal

Hi Queen Bee, yep the hairs get picked up quite easy more than the vac (but then my vac is over 10 years old)! I have a ginger and white cat so the hairs really stand out on the carpets and furniture!

Id defo recommend a sweeper. To get the hairs off the furniture use a rubber brush (look in pet stuff at the poundshops for one of those) just use the rubber brush the hairs onto the carpet and sweep up.

Only disadvantage is long human hair does clog up the wheels from time to time so you need to get them out, i usually vacuum out the sweeper when i put the vac on and use a pencil to pull the longer hairs out.

cyclingyorkie

Frugalista wrote: »

They're also brilliant for "scrubbing" new potatoes - just pop the gloves on and rub the potatoes between your hands - Simples!

ooohh thanks for that tip!

Thriftybynature

oh phew, finally at the end!! I have enjoyed this thread so much, picked up lots of tips and felt vindicated in the ones I do already. Maybe now I will actually get some work done!!

My tip is probably more about 'stock rotation' in my freezer. I batch cook & freeze, and also freeze whoopsies as many of you do on here. Everytime I add something to the freezer I add it to my list - if it's a multiple I add the relevant number of circles next to it and colour them in everytime I take a portion out. I also put the date they went into the freezer and try to use up things from the top of the list first. Since I've been doing this I have thrown away a lot less as now I know exactly how long something has been in the freezer and nothing has been forgotten.

BitterAndTwisted

I admire your organisational skills Thrifybynature: it sounds almost like a full-time job!

Just to say that if your freezer is efficient and set at a low enough temp nothing should be inedible once it's taken out, regardless of how long it's been hiding in there.

Nicoll

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Have been looking at carpet sweepers following Mummyfrugal's post - are they better at picking up cat hairs than hoovers? I have a British Shorthair which has an astonishingly thick coat and she is shedding her winter coat at the moment - my carpets are felted!!!

Great for dog hairs. My vacuum is fab at getting the dust and dirt out of the carpet but pretty useless for dog hairs. Carpet sweeper is great for dog hairs but pretty useless for dust and dirt so alternate between the two.