Great 'Embarrassing MoneySaving tips' Hunt

laurenjs88

Love this thread your ideas are absolutley brilliant! I just told OH about the wrapping pressie in newspaper and got a disgusted look.... God I wish I could recycle him sometimes...

Will be subscribing to this thread!

Happy New year all!! xx

celyn90

Awwwh, I've wrapped pressies in an old copy of the FT before, tied up with raffia and handmade tags - they looked a lot better than the ones wrapped in gift wrap lol!

I also like to sketch on the pages too as it looks nice against the colour of ther pages if you use charcoal or sepia/sangine chalks and the print is uniform enough with few pictures.

cel x

apple_mint

laurenjs88 wrote: »

Love this thread your ideas are absolutley brilliant! I just told OH about the wrapping pressie in newspaper and got a disgusted look.... God I wish I could recycle him sometimes...

Will be subscribing to this thread!

Happy New year all!! xx

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I'm lucky my OH is completely on board with anything that saves us money He thinks our newspaper wrapped presents where absolutely brilliant this year.

celyn90 wrote: »

Awwwh, I've wrapped pressies in an old copy of the FT before, tied up with raffia and handmade tags - they looked a lot better than the ones wrapped in gift wrap lol!

I also like to sketch on the pages too as it looks nice against the colour of ther pages if you use charcoal or sepia/sangine chalks and the print is uniform enough with few pictures.

cel x

I love this idea of sketching on the pages, I think I'll do this next year.

I'm also planning to cut out some of the larger blocks of plain colour or pretty graphics from some of the junk mail to use as homemade tags or stick on pictures for parcels.

mollyeyre_2

ivorysky wrote: »

There's no need to buy sandwich bags as the supermarkets give them away for free in the fruit & veg aisles

Is this not theft?

elf06

mollyeyre wrote: »

Is this not theft?

I think this has already been covered - they might not mean taking handfulls but might mean the ones that they have used for fruit and veg? Or the ones left in the trolleys outside?? I work in a supermarket and as standard put tubs of cream, fresh meat and blueberries in little bags at the checkout so as to limit any damage if they split...............maybe they mean them??

ceridwen

Answer to above question - yes it is...theft that is...though obviously quite a common one for people to do I see:(

The difference is that its okay to take a bag per se to bag up there and then the type of items the bags are sitting by and are meant for. Taking away bags specially to use somewhere else is when it becomes theft.

..<wanders off thinking "Agh....bet that will be another downside to the Economic Crisis ....there will probably be a lot more of all these little "minor" thefts for the rest of us to have to pay for on our supermarket bills...grr.."

Spendless

When we've holidayed in America and Canada in the summer, we make a point of calling in their $1 stores and pick up bits to go in the kids stockings and also look round their stores for cheap items that you can't buy here. I've bought a candle circle with all the Disney villains around it as a birthday pressie for my sister. It cost a few dollars, and teddy bears that were an end of line wearing a 'designer' coat. I paid $5 for one each for my daughter, neice and nephew. My son's name is also very common over there, but here I can get nothing personalised for him, so I also pick up things like pens, sticker books again for stockings.

debbiel15

I too re-use all envelopes, padded or otherwise. I save all my cardboard packaging from Amazon and re-use those too. Another useful re-cycle is the tough plastic bags from online clothing companies. I turn them inside out and re-label which is particularly useful when sending items overseas to cut down on the weight (I use bubble wrap from other packs if it's particularly delicate). They also make good packaging when sending clothing ebay items. Another tip is to remove the reply envelopes from junk mail companies and just cover up the address with a re-cycle label. I actually can't remember when I last bought packaging because I reuse so much from stuff I receive!

EmehEm2005

I have in the past (for 13 years or so) volunteered as a Shift Leader or Deputy Shift Leader at a "Homeless at Christmas" charity (oh, and served on the committee and driven a van to transport donated clothing) - just to get a free Christmas dinner!

elf06

ceridwen wrote: »

Answer to above question - yes it is...theft that is...though obviously quite a common one for people to do I see:(

The difference is that its okay to take a bag per se to bag up there and then the type of items the bags are sitting by and are meant for. Taking away bags specially to use somewhere else is when it becomes theft.

I quite agree - taking anything thats isnt yours/been paid for by you IS THEFT. I was thinking along the lines that they may be re-using the bags that their veg was put in but then I do try to see the best in people and think everyone has the same morals as myself (although I may be living in a fantasy land at this point). Personally I dont even use the bags to put my veg in as (1) I hate plastic bags and try not to EVER use them and (2) they only make your veg all sweaty and horrible anyway (even if I manage to get woopsied veg I immediately take it out the horrible plastic bags and stored in a more suitable way.

As for the stamps.....................dont even get me started!!! I totally agreed with your post about them aswell Ceridwen.