Great 'Embarrassing MoneySaving tips' Hunt

secondhandhelen

dawnteabag wrote: »

I save all the pre-paid envelopes that come with bills - I pay online - and use them to send my son's school dinner money in to school.

I reuse the prepaid envelopes to send competition entries, ect through the post. I know they get there because I sent an emty envelope to my mum just to see if it got there and it did and my kids have won competitions with them as well.
I also use old tea bags, I make up some tea (without milk) put it in an old squirty bottle and then clean my windows with it. It works a treat and my hubby once said it was better than bought stuff for removing tree sap and bird poo!!

Spendless

MIL made sloe gin for Xmas for relatives, and has asked me to save all my mini bottles thru-out the year so she has enough to do everyone next year. I have 8 already and that's just from last night. (they were an xmas pressie to me before anyone says it's cheaper for me to buy bigger bottles).

diddly74

EmehEm2005 wrote: »

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!

Somehow I don't beleive you!!! If I lived in an area that had these things and didn't have children then I would like to think I would volunteer too.

Sassers

shaz22 wrote: »

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.
.

Thought you might like to see this plastic bottle greenhouse.....:A and this website has a `bottle' house....which I love, and the glass bottle wall...Might do this in our back garden, would be nicer, and cheaper than buying a shed.
PS: oops sorry forgot the link http://www.inspirationgreen.com/glassbottlewalls.html

witchwoopiggy

Sassers wrote: »

Thought you might like to see this plastic bottle greenhouse.....:A and this website has a `bottle' house....which I love, and the glass bottle wall...Might do this in our back garden, would be nicer, and cheaper than buying a shed.
PS: oops sorry forgot the link http://www.inspirationgreen.com/glassbottlewalls.html

this is a brill idea ...hmm i wonder how hot they get?

lostinrates

witchwoopiggy wrote: »

this is a brill idea ...hmm i wonder how hot they get?

I asked about this sometime ago on Greenfingered I think. The problem seems to be the decay rate of the bottles means that its not worth doing really. I've given up bottled water (I love different bottled waters and really can id them by taste and hate our tap water) for money saving and this Christmas dh got me two six pack big bottles of water. Its a treat, but I notice how much more hydrated I am. I do drink our tap water but less of it and with no relish, so I'm going to have to knuckle down to learning to develop a taste for it this year.

eckythump

latinaid wrote: »

I use those paper bags you use when buying mushrooms loose from the supermarket as sanitary bags.

Why not buy a sanitary cup?,it will save you a fortune.

eckythump

Filey wrote: »

safetygirl wrote: »

Not a good idea to reuse food that a) you haven't cooked yourself i.e. KFC etc., or b) has been previously chewed.... due to obvious hygiene reasons.

________________________________________

Maybe I've missed something here, but as long as the food is thoroughly cooked at a high temperature, like boiling to make stock, then any pathogenic bacteria will have been killed.

Not quite that simple I'm afraid,some bacteria produce endospores that can withstand very high prolonged temperatures.

Primrose

Sassers wrote: »

Thought you might like to see this plastic bottle greenhouse.....:A and this website has a `bottle' house....which I love, and the glass bottle wall...Might do this in our back garden, would be nicer, and cheaper than buying a shed.
PS: oops sorry forgot the link http://www.inspirationgreen.com/glassbottlewalls.html

Well, with all the air inside those bottles, it would be well insulated! Think what a splendid laundry drying room it would make! Just set your clothes dryer up in there in a sunny place and I would think everything would be dried pretty quickly.

jennyb_2

I've taken to reusing calendars in the last few years. I've bought some really beautiful ones over the years, and it seems a shame, having not had the heart to throw them out, for them just to sit accumulating year on year in a cupboard. It's brought a lot of pleasure revisiting old ones that I enjoyed when they were new, and because several years have to elapse before reusing them they don't grow stale. When it's a leap year (or if the calendar covers one) I just use two calendars that year.
My family are great hoarders, so the wrapping collection at my parents' house dates back to the 1970s, and paper is lovingly brought out and reused for birthdays and Christmas, only occasionally getting thrown out when it really gets too tatty (presents are opened carefully so it doesn't happen very quickly). I've married into a family of wrapping paper rippers though, so there's no point in spending money on nice wrapping paper for them!
One year I wrapped presents in brown paper decorated with a gold pen; it looked great though as the gold deteriorated fairly quickly it wasn't very reusable.
Virtually all of my 2-year-old daughter's clothes are bought on ebay, generally for a pound or two plus postage (most would retail for over £10). I get the occasional dud, but mostly they are in reasonable to excellent condition, often from desirable high-street shops, and we get lots of compliments (which I relish all the more as we live in quite a la-di-da area!). My best purchase was her favourite cardigan, which cost all of 30p and has been worn to death! To make ebay clothes shopping even more cost-effective, buy clothes for the opposite season as generally no-one else bids on them so you get them for a song.