Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

Aril

Aswell as casseroles etc I have just discovered that a recipe that allows me to make lemon curd in mine which would save me both time and electricity.
Arilx

Montmorencymon

Recharge "normal" batteries

By "normal", I mean alkali batteries which are sold as non-rechargeables, e.g. in AA, AAA, "C cell" or "D cell" sizes.

I was told this by a respected and long-standing physicist, so he should know what he's talking about.

You can recharge "normal" alkali batteries in one of the older types of recharger meant for NiCad or NiMH officially rechargeable batteries.

It takes about 3 hours, and you shouldn't leave them in too long. Not so much because it's dangerous (I don't think it is), but it's simply a waste of mains electricity. 3 hours should be enough.

It helps if you have a voltmeter, then you can check the voltage level, which shouldn't be too far from the nominal (usually) 1.5 volts. (But I wouldn't buy one especially for this job if you are trying to save money).

However, it's only worth doing this about 2 times. After that, you are spending too long to get it up to charge, and it stops being cost-effective.


The same would be true of Zinc batteries (which I notice the pound shops are selling a lot of these days). You could recharge them, but it's just not worth it (apparently).


A word on the charger: The more modern sort of charger intended for rechargeable batteries has special detector equipment built-in to stop charging when it thinks the battery is fully charged. This works fine for rechargeable batteries, but if you are trying to recharge a conventional battery on it, it will think it is charged up when it isn't, and switch off. This is because the characteristics of rechargeable and "normal" batteries are different. So, you need a "dumb" charger, not a "smart charger", like the older, (or perhaps cheaper ones) were (or maybe still are).

Don't forget to turn the charger off when you've finished (and unplug it if the socket doesn't have a switch), to be sure you aren't wasting mains electricity.

Montmorencymon

sparrer wrote: »

Don't throw away the white spirit you've cleaned paint brushes in. After removing the brush allow the white spirit to stand for a couple of weeks or so and the paint will sink to the bottom and form a jelly-like blob. Pour off the white spirit into a screw topped jar, it can be used again and again, and the blob can be removed in one by just tipping it out of the jar. You can then take this to the tip where they'll dispose of it for you.

Interesting. I've done something similar when cleaning bicycle chains. Remove the chain and fully immerse it in white spirit, and swill it around or whatever until it's as clean as it's going to get.

Then what I have done in the past is either just leave the used WS in a lidded jar to settle down for a few weeks, or sometimes, I've filtered it through a coffee filter paper, or sometimes a combination of the two. (We don't actually use coffee filter papers, but I bought some years ago, and we still have them in the pantry ...). Perhaps an old pair of tights might work as well, or some other forms of stiffish paper. I use a plastic cone or funnel, and line it with the filter paper. (You can usually buy those funnels at pound shops or similar).

Montmorencymon

loveandlight wrote: »

Some people have more charge in their own bodies than others. So you can actually charge your own batteries by holding them in your hands and mentally charging them. Sound bonkers I know but it does work for some people. My mum used to do this all the time as there was nine of us in our family and we were brought up in severe poverty.

It makes me laugh how the media in general and TV nowadays look to other third world countries and say they are shocked at how poor people in the third world live but a lot of large poor families in the UK lived like that as well many years ago. Although those memories never leave you it does teach you brilliant ways of making money last and the importance of looking after your things and really appreciating what you have.

It is second nature to me now to to see if I can mentally recharge batteries when they run out before giving in and buying new. I've saved myself money over the years by doing this. It doesn't always work but it has worked lots of times as well.

I kind of believe this, because I know that we are normally at some non-zero potential unless we take steps to alter it. I've been looking at something called "grounding" or "earthing" to actually bring our potential back down to the same as earth, which is supposed to have health benefits. Sounds a bit new-agey, but I think there is something in it. Google if interested.

But anyway, let's say your body is at some non-zero potential, then you'd have to apply that to just one of the terminals on the battery, and thereby apply a potential difference (also known as a voltage) across the battery as a whole. Presumably you'd have to connect the other terminal to earth in some way, in order to get the potential difference .

I might experiment with this and report back!


In the meantime, please see my earlier post on recharging normal batteries with a charger for "rechargeable" batteries.

Montmorencymon

moneypenny2k wrote: »

Reminded me of what I see as standard behaviour but others may not see it as so. When throwing out old clothes...
1 use them as dusters
2 Remove any zips and buttons

Then you will have zips and buttons to use as replacements when needed, also you can change buttons to change the look of outfits AND I can remember many happy hours playing with buttons as a kid, I know I'm THAT old.. lol

Oh yes, I can remember that too. My Mother's button tin was a source of delight, and I'm glad my wife still has one. :-)


One thing we used to do was find a button of the largest diameter possible, then thread some wool through the holes and tie up the ends. Make the wool long enough so when it's tied up, you can hold each end at about shoulder width. (You loop the wool through the button twice, by the way, once in each direction, before tying up.

Then, holding on tight at each end, use gravity to sort of wind up the the button around the wool so it becomes twisted and tight.

Then pull firmly at each end, and watch the button spin around, and if you are lucky, it makes a wonderful whizzing noise!
Then it should reverse and do the same thing again, and again ... :-)

I really must try this again, to see if it still works with modern wool (and modern buttons...)!

You could probably do similar with some very stiff cardboard. It would have to have a bit of weight to it I think.


Oh yes, "we made our own fun in those days...". Well, not always, and not as much as our parents, but we did a bit! :-)

Montmorencymon

Popperwell wrote: »

That brought back memories, I used to wear down the heels of my shoes too and have segs put in. However, back then Woolworths sold all kinds of items to do home repairs to shoes...and my father used to hammer segs in to shoes at home.

I don't know of any shops that sell all that stuff these days. As money is tight I am sure people would buy it again to save money. Though maybe it's a generational thing and today youngsters/young adults would not consider doing this anymore and would go to the cobblers or just buy some cheap footwear. I must admit I wear trainers all the time unless it's a special occasion.

Which reminds me. Can you still buy stick-on soles?
That was one thing Woolies was good for.
I really miss Woolies.

Montmorencymon

marmiterulesok wrote: »

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.

hmmm.....wonder if that would work with grass shears?


Actually, I bought a cheapish (£2-3) little gubbins from Homebase a few years ago for sharpening shears (might do scissors as well). You have to hold it firmly (e.g. in a vice, but I use a Workmate, which I have to keep one foot on the base of!) and push the shears through. That works quite well.

juno

spiralsb44 wrote: »

If anyone has the charcoal disposable hand warmers, you may want to try this tip.

Haven't tried it yet as I only bought a pair of these yesterday to see how they worked. My daughter always buys the gel ones (the ones with a metal disk inside that you click to activate) but we never bother re activating them, they always get left somewhere in their hardened state and then get lost.

Anyway, the disposable ones are supposed to keep you warm for at least 7 hrs but aren't as hot as the gel ones.

It says on the pack not reusable BUT, I just found this so may give this a try tomorrow.

http://www.wristies.com/HotHands_Hand_Warmers_p/hh40.htm

And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaCnTS3BPoo



I bought a pack of two for 79p from Home Bargains.

You can get packs of 4 from the poundshop or 99p stores

Montmorencymon

ALJA wrote: »

We also cut paper towels into quarters where we can to make them go further

(If there are no scissors handy) I've found paper towels will tear very easily along the natural curve (from its being wound around the cardboard core), but not across the curve

Montmorencymon

JackieO wrote: »

.School children seem to throw away 1's,2's & 5 ps outside newsagents with out a thought.To me 5p is still a shilling and I wouldn't throw a shilling away.I don't give a fig whether anyone sees me or not cash is cash and should be valued as such

It's amazing isn't it? My (actually grown up now) kids refer to such small change as "shrapnel", which is quite funny.

And both of them used to put "shrapnel" into a jar, and let it build up. We asked them what they did with it, and they said "nothing"!. So we took it to the bank for them.


I usually put found small change into a charity box though.


For my own change, I have a few old 35mm canisters around the house, and tend to accumulate silver coins from my change in these containers. Sometimes they end up just getting spent. At other times they go into the building society.