Great 'Embarrassing MoneySaving tips' Hunt

lilnell

I wonder if any one else Knows about 'Mooncup'? It's reusable, if you buy one it will probably last you your whole life and will save a fortune in tampax etc.
I've had mine for a year now and I wouldn't swap back although it was a little tricky getting the hang of it.

Carlakoala

Walking down an alley between some shops in our somerset town I could not help but look into the 3 hugh blue rubbish bins outside one of our charity shops. Yep, u guessed it. Things that they cant sell, except clothes, get put in there. Luckily this shop is happy for you to take what they dont want, unlike others that announce it is theft... ummm.

sample - working juicer, roberts radio in need a ariel - fixed. I960's plates., 1950's books (they dont get vintage) christmas cards, decorations, 1950's mirror, hand made garage for a little boy (ahhh so sweet) brand new modern photo album and books, books,.... cd's (they even bring them out to you have a sort), candle sticks - really it is getting silly. one fellow skip rat said his wife found a gold chain.

areia

jaydax wrote: »

When my cousin first got married she couldn't afford curtains and went round the house at night with an electric kettle steaming up the windows.

surely just got married the steamy windows shouldnt be from a kettle :rotfl:


as for the cat litter tray in the oven omg ok thats is a discusting one

diddly74

Oh how I wish we had a charity shop like that! But I can't moan we have some really good ones in our town - far too many some would say! My MIL bought me a fabulous punch bowl and glasses just before Xmas from one - yeah I know I will rarely use it for punch but it would make a huge trifel! lol

Snowy_Owl

Walking down an alley between some shops in our somerset town I could not help but look into the 3 hugh blue rubbish bins outside one of our charity shops. Yep, u guessed it. Things that they cant sell, except clothes, get put in there. Luckily this shop is happy for you to take what they dont want, unlike others that announce it is theft... ummm.

sample - working juicer, roberts radio in need a ariel - fixed. I960's plates., 1950's books (they dont get vintage) christmas cards, decorations, 1950's mirror, hand made garage for a little boy (ahhh so sweet) brand new modern photo album and books, books,.... cd's (they even bring them out to you have a sort), candle sticks - really it is getting silly. one fellow skip rat said his wife found a gold chain.


Makes you think about how much moey they're throwing away....

Uniscots97

diddly74 wrote: »

Oh how I wish we had a charity shop like that! But I can't moan we have some really good ones in our town - far too many some would say! My MIL bought me a fabulous punch bowl and glasses just before Xmas from one - yeah I know I will rarely use it for punch but it would make a huge trifel! lol

I worked in a charity shop for 6 months (yep, gave up 6 months of my life unpaid to go do this as its something I always felt was worthwhile). Anyway, most charity shops have a rag bin. These are items that have wear in them or a broken button. These items aren't sold and instead are collected en mass by the new style rag and bone men. If you ask (nicely) at the counter you can sometimes get a good bargain out of these as most shops will charge 5 or 10p per item. Great for jumpers, vests, t-shirts etc. I got a lovely pair of jeans (designer with a small pull in them) for 10p but I paid 50p. It always pays to ask!

Also the DVDs that are given away in magazine charity shops are not allowed to sell (as they were originally free) however you can (again if you ask nicely) have these bundled up for you in return for a small donation. Basically you get what you're given (no looking through). The bundle I got I gave the bulk to my grandparents, who passed them on to another neighbour once they watched them and the rest i kept for myself.

HappySad

Just read some of the posts..

I got an expensive Christmas present for my older son so we were definitely going to make the saving else where

• My present from partner were free as they were by one get one free specialist walking socks (Save £12)
• My youngest present was £free. Batman custom - recycled from a good friend's son. Helicopter recycled from another friend's son. (Save £50)
• All wrapping paper was decorated new paper.

We always reuse envelopes as it is good to recycle. I pull off stamps for charity shop and keep envelope for me. Reuse party/present bag too. We aim to reduce our rubbish as much as possible so we try to use everything until it dies a death and then reuse it around the house for something else... then it gets taken apart to be made into something..... then finally charity or recycle.

Ikea lovely duvet cover was getting worn but still good enough as a arm chair cover! Then when it got too worn even for the sofa it then became part of my youngest cow custom for Christmas play and then the rest was used the his playgroup to paint on.

When my lotions with pump run out I just turn it over in a basket and use the LAST drop. I dilute our location 50/50 with water. It is far too concentrated so gets wasted.

Office has food bottle and cans as pen holders, food packet clips are unused office bull dog clips, Hang up kids pictures to left over ribbon using clothes pegs, make large bar of soap using old left over small soap bits,

Asking friends & family if they have anything they no longer need that we could have... duck down luxury dovet, red modern leather sofa, 3 years amount in school uniform... Sometime I do feel a bit embarrassed to ask.

We also give stuff away to friends that we know would not feel embarrassed about us offering. Some friends we know would always want new things so we would never mention this to them. This is normal for my family to reuse stuff and now going green in later years we find it environmentally friendly too.

Etherelda

Primrose wrote: »

We have numerous fund raising events in our local community and last year I noticed that one particular bottle of blackcurrant licqueur kept re-appearing time after time in different raffles for different events. Perhaps somebody has actually drunk it by now rather than just passing it on!

Blackcurrant liquer/Cassis is great for adding to crap red wine, makes it taste drinkable.

vickycohen

Food shopping / cooking: We plan our food menu before going to the supermarket and cook to that, always making double the amount and freezing half for next week after all the fresh food is used up. This has halved our food shopping bills.

Body scrub: It's so expensive to buy this stuff in our favourite brands (£8 -£20 per pot), so I make my own out of brown sugar, groundnut oil and vanilla essence which costs under £1 per pot. It's absolutely wonderful, with no added chemicals, parabens or preservatives and also makes great little gifts.

Make simple household goods: I picked up a few pairs of plain curtains at a boot fair and turned them into three tablecloths + 18 napkins plus other bits and pieces such as carrier bag holders / peg bags / laundry bags. These have lasted me for years and I'm no seamstress - can only sew in straight lines.

Other normal stuff:

* recycling old Xmas cards into tags,
* keeping all ribbons to reuse on gifts, keeping all nice / branded paper bags to deliver gifts in,
* mix and match old wrapping paper - it looks great in a patchwork pattern,
* re-using old Xmas decorations in new ways rather than throwing them out,
* cutting all plugs and switches off broken electricals before disposing of them - to reuse them at need,
* saving empty wine bottles and using them in the garden as lawn-edging - bury them upside-down with only 4" of the bottom of the bottle sticking up out of the ground. They look great.
* Use Freecycle and Greencycle to pass on unwanted goods to your local community and request things that you need but would rather not buy if you don't have to. I love this community service.

Etherelda

ceridwen wrote: »

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.

As for this bag lady, rings true that 'look after the pennies.....

but back to the coffee shop thing

I have been cheeky with coffeeshops in the past, I ask them for a cup of hot water to heat 'my friend's baby food in', and then wonder off and plonk my herbal tea bag in it. Only usually works in a busy cafe with hiding places.

Carlakoala wrote: »

Walking down an alley between some shops in our somerset town I could not help but look into the 3 hugh blue rubbish bins outside one of our charity shops. Yep, u guessed it. Things that they cant sell, except clothes, get put in there. Luckily this shop is happy for you to take what they dont want, unlike others that announce it is theft... ummm.

sample - working juicer, roberts radio in need a ariel - fixed. I960's plates., 1950's books (they dont get vintage) christmas cards, decorations, 1950's mirror, hand made garage for a little boy (ahhh so sweet) brand new modern photo album and books, books,.... cd's (they even bring them out to you have a sort), candle sticks - really it is getting silly. one fellow skip rat said his wife found a gold chain.

It is sad that some charity shop workers consider old 'vintage' things as 'past it', these are the things that I actually hunt out, and the shops seem full of 90s tat. Tomorrow's vintage I suppose. Also annoying is when they have a brand new primark item for sale at a higher price than it originally was!.

It is even more sad about the whole electrical items issue. Perhaps I could volunteer in one, don't know how it works with getting first dabbs on stuff though.

areia wrote: »

surely just got married the steamy windows shouldnt be from a kettle :rotfl:


as for the cat litter tray in the oven omg ok thats is a discusting one

totally agree, eugh, proper cat lady.


Don't know if this is just plain devious, but once went to very snobby MILs for christmas, we received a M&S luxuries hamper from work, we unwrapped the christmas pudding, shortbread etc, and filled it with generic value equivalents, kept the nicer things for our more valued friends and family that were not so rude. Don't think they ever guessed.


As for 'stealing' fruit and veg bags for supermarkets, there are plenty floating round the car park and inside the trolleys. I gather these as a matter of 'environmental protection', the store should send their own litter pickers out rather than damaging the local environment. The ones I pick off the floor I use for poop bags, and the 'fresher'' ones in the trolleys, I use in the house.