Great 'Embarrassing MoneySaving tips' Hunt

Dippypud

savingqueen wrote: »

kids are already trained at 4 & 6 to retrieve "shiny good luck" pennies from the ground for their piggy banks. they get quite a few.

Happy Christmas!

When my kids were at secondary school, other kids wouldn't pick-up any coppers they dropped at the ice-cream van for instance. Also some had a game of throwing 2p coins at coins propped up the wall IYKWIM, some of the thrown ones rolled away and were left. My DS2 came home one day with £17,:eek:, other kids took the mick and said he must be poor. But he just ignored them.

millie

wyebird wrote: »

I found an old valentine card I previously gave to OH, and have given it back to him for the past two valentines....he doesn't appear to have noticed

My OH has had the same xmas card for 3 years, he forgets what he did last week so a year is a safe bet. I will probably use it again next year.

boots_babe

vikki_louise wrote: »

Quidco- Got £200 in my account there atm.

In light of other cashback sites having gone bust recently, it's prob not advisable to keep your cash in your Quidco account. Get you settings changed to payout at a lower amount so that you know your money is safe.

At least if Quidco go bust you hopefully shouldn't lose out too much.

HTH.

shaz22

janetmw wrote: »

I rarely buy bubble wrap.

This can be obtained from supermarkets who use it between the layers of fruit and veg on display. I'm sure it is already in the crates when delivered and then thrown out when empty.

Janet

I also do this as I often see supermarkets stashing it in trolleys ready to throw. Instead of using the provided plastic bags, I put a layer of bubble wrap in the trolley and rest the loose fruit on it so it doesn't bruise in transit. The plastic bag doesn't go to landfill and I re-use the bubble wrap for eBay and present packaging.
I also use the free postcards they give away at the cinema to protect any postcards I sell on eBay. The buyer gets the old/ vintage/scenic postcard they bid on plus two free unused cards they can use or collect. Good feedback plus the designs are usually novel and appeal to both the UK or foreign country buyer.
A work colleague of mine drinks a lot of coca-cola so I've been nabbing the bottles she gets through and bins (it's a wastepaper basket so no unsavoury surprises when I retrieve it!) and entering the code to get points on Coke Zone. She's contributing to me picking up some £5 shopping vouchers with her frequent 2 point gifts! Plus, I recycle the plastic bottle so it doesn't go to landfill.
I also sometimes put on a pair of gloves and retrieve any aluminium drink cans left strewn on the ground thus helping the council better the neighbourhood and, err, feeding them into the Tesco Aluminium Drink Can Recycling Machine and earning Clubcard points. I do try to do this when there are not too many people around! But every little helps especially when converting to the Deals.

Solarjunkie

My parents were faced with a Christmas card list of over 100. "If we don't send a card every year people think we're dead!". So instead of buying over £40 worth of stamps, they used their free evening phone calls and rang and actually spoke to people such as former neighbours that they hadn't actually spoken to for years. Much more informative than the usual Christmas interchange of "Best wishes, John & Jane" and more enjoyable too.
They have certainly saved money on Christmas decorations - their Christmas lights are 85 years old. Yes really. Does anyone know of any others still working any older?

RecycleBin

Primrose wrote: »

How do you re-use them? Put a clean label over your own address, add a new stamp and re-use as an envelope, or simply use them as scrap paper for shopping lists, notes, etc.?

For security reasons we shred the front of all envelopes showing our address. Any A4 or A5 ones which have a plain back to them are cut up into small squares to use as refills for the note-block containers we have dotted around the house.

I always write lightly in pencil, don't glue them, and I hope the recipient notices and re-uses the envelope. Obviously not with the posted ones. I always re-use envelopes - they are usualy stronger paper and recycling must take lots of energy to remake a new envelope, and I write on them "100% Recycled!!". Someone once returned my envelope and wrote 200% recycled after it.

I also make my own cards although these are a great effort, it isn't done to save money and everyone looks forward to receiving them.
Looking around at the piles of bags around peoples dustbins after Christmas I feel ashamed of the rubbish we generate as a nation. I always re-use Christmas paper where feasible, and birthday paper too. We wrap Christmas/birthday presents in tissue (no sellotape), put them in a sparkly bag, and this all goes back into the box for re-use the next time. It's quicker for wrapping too. That only works for immediate family.

We also make beautifully decorated chocolates, and recycle chocolate boxes that we have been given although I usually wrap the lids in beautiful paper, and put a square on the base to cover previous contents. This all takes so long to do that I hope people don't think it is penny pinching, just re-using the worlds precious resources, and having fun creating beautiful and delicous personal gifts with my (now older) children. I'm not sure everyone sees homemade in the same way, but for those who do it it isn't the easy way out, it is very personal and takes hours. Well done to those who make their own gifts and opt out of the Keeping up with the Jones's rat race.

My partner makes beer - and thinks it is often better than that served in pubs. I cook all our meals from fresh meat and vegetables, and freeze the rest for other days - I'm sure that saves a tremendous amount, and it tastes better than the ready meals I have eaten, and less packaging.
And - yes - I also use the little bags that I have carried all my fresh vegetables home in to line a plastic box and freeze the extra meals in, labelled of course, and removed from the plastic box when frozen.
As for the KFC bones - I can't imagine anything surviving 40 mins of boiling, other than a very good stock. Probably better than the original!

Kitcaboodle

My in-laws were moving to a smaller house, so I asked my MIL if she had any old towels or sheets that I could use to put down when I had a home birth. In the end I didn't need them as the midwives bought a load of absorbant mats with them, so I made them into stuff instead.

I made my own breast pads with towel, flannel sheet & the fabric off an old, broken, Poundland umbrella! I also made DS a towelling robe and a terry towel sleep suit to act as an extra (100% cotton) layer when it's very cold. We also use the smaller towels as changing mat liners & the old flannels she gave us as booster pads in his cloth nappies. An old flannel sheet also made excelent home-made, re-usable wipes. Though we mostly use cut up fleece for cleaning and the flannel wipes for drying him off.

I'm contemplating making my own sanitary pads as well but I haven't had the time to do that yet!

I'm not embarrased by any of that though! Possibly my only embarrasing money saving act (though again, I don't find it particularly embarrasing but I know others might) is that, as I often have a permanant sniffle, I buy decent quality tissues and let them dry out... re-using them and then binning them when they fall apart. Only for my own use I might add! They just sit on the edge of my desk or bedside table, I'm not ironing them and sticking them back in the box!

Fruball

RecycleBin wrote: »

I always write lightly in pencil, don't glue them, and I hope the recipient notices and re-uses the envelope. Obviously not with the posted ones. I always re-use envelopes - they are usualy stronger paper and recycling must take lots of energy to remake a new envelope, and I write on them "100% Recycled!!". Someone once returned my envelope and wrote 200% recycled after it.

I also make my own cards although these are a great effort, it isn't done to save money and everyone looks forward to receiving them.
Looking around at the piles of bags around peoples dustbins after Christmas I feel ashamed of the rubbish we generate as a nation. I always re-use Christmas paper where feasible, and birthday paper too. We wrap Christmas/birthday presents in tissue (no sellotape), put them in a sparkly bag, and this all goes back into the box for re-use the next time. It's quicker for wrapping too. That only works for immediate family.

We also make beautifully decorated chocolates, and recycle chocolate boxes that we have been given although I usually wrap the lids in beautiful paper, and put a square on the base to cover previous contents. This all takes so long to do that I hope people don't think it is penny pinching, just re-using the worlds precious resources, and having fun creating beautiful and delicous personal gifts with my (now older) children. I'm not sure everyone sees homemade in the same way, but for those who do it it isn't the easy way out, it is very personal and takes hours. Well done to those who make their own gifts and opt out of the Keeping up with the Jones's rat race.

My partner makes beer - and thinks it is often better than that served in pubs. I cook all our meals from fresh meat and vegetables, and freeze the rest for other days - I'm sure that saves a tremendous amount, and it tastes better than the ready meals I have eaten, and less packaging.
And - yes - I also use the little bags that I have carried all my fresh vegetables home in to line a plastic box and freeze the extra meals in, labelled of course, and removed from the plastic box when frozen.
As for the KFC bones - I can't imagine anything surviving 40 mins of boiling, other than a very good stock. Probably better than the original!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Brilliant!!!

hismummy

1sue23 wrote: »

,elderly well of lady I know goes round the bus station and parking meters picking up loose coins ,she also goes round the recycling bins and takes magazines and books to read at home and takes them back when she has finished them ,she also goes round the local shops with a flask and asks them to top it up for her with coffee ,she keeps two flasks and they last her all day ,she gets away with it because she looks like a bag lady ,if only they knew she is one of the richest people in town .

thats maybe why she is so well off, if she lived like that all her life, she prob managed to save alot of money. good for her.

ceridwen

The old woman is probably not saving any money on getting her flask filled in a coffeeshop. I've done so before now - when I wanted a take-out coffee - in order to save them using an environmentally-UNfriendly disposable mug to put it in. They still charged me the same price - as I expected. Cost-saving wasnt my reason for doing this. She WILL be saving money on her reading by taking magazines from the recycling to read and then putting them back in recycling - I don't go looking specially - but if I spot some of a type I want to read put separately (so nice and clean!) then I do this too.

Re embarrassing savings - well freezer bags and those green "keep 'em fresh" food storage bags seem to last forever. I just keep washing and re-using them. I found the ideal thing to hang them on to dry out recently - one of those little "smalls" clothesdryer racks (available at discount shops for £1 or similar).

Another one - hanging sheets over the bannisters to finish drying. I dry all my washing naturally (don't even have a tumbledryer any more) - so sheets do sometimes have to go over the bannisters, because I've used up all my clothes rack drying space. With having a good-quality washing machine - I find that my washing is very nearly dry anyway when its finished its spin cycle - so its only a matter of hours to let it hang finishing itself off.