Great 'Embarrassing MoneySaving tips' Hunt

elm

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

muting my cat

How do you mute your cat?! :silenced:

:rotfl:

JFD10

My mum has recently started needing to catch the train to work for her job and has discovered the joys of reading the Metro every morning.

After she left for work last week, I wandered down to the train station to pick up a few copies and used them to wrap up her presents! She thought it was a wonderful idea when she saw them under the tree after getting home!

By extending to the rest of the family, I haven't had to buy any wrapping paper at all this year

Showem

I remember hearing one TV presenter who quite happily said she wrapped her presents in newspaper for others. What she did was she tried to put a news story that would be of interest or related to the person who she was giving to as the paper.

I personally haven't bought wrapping paper since my daughter started preschool and started bringing home painted pictures by the armful. Everyone gets an original and it saves me the heartache of simply throwing them out when there are too many.

Bronnie

I sell all manner of ridiculously small odds and ends from around the house on ebay. Things like 10 curtain hooks, a spare beater from a redundant food mixer, odd handles from an old chest of drawers (sold individually, raised over £50:eek:), free sample sachets/sample pots of cosmetics/perfumes, etc. It's no hassle for me to get to the Post Office and I use recycled packaging mostly for them.

My ebay pot goes towards holidays and it's amazing, but most of it does sell and all the 99p's add up!

Riduna

I retrieved several of our neighbours wallpaper rolls from the wheelie bin which my 3 year old daughter uses to colour and paint whilst sellotaped to our dining room table. When she's finished, as above I have not the heart to throw out her masterpieces so I keep and use to wrap presents in her original artwork. Very pretty, loved and cheap.

pete_v

Can't say I find the KFC thing particularly disgusting. The chicken is no older than if you'd done a roast yourself, and turning that into soup is normal (though I have to admit I don't usually bother!). OK, people have gnawed on it, but it's going to be well boiled up so nothing nasty survives. When it was alive it probably had chicken sh 1 t all over it, when it was dead it had raw-chicken nasties, but with a crispy coating they were still happy to eat it. This is why we cook things, and after a good boiling into stock and then soup, those scraps will be absolutely fine.

The George Foreman candles on the other hand - ugh!

Pete

squeekymoo

I buy new or nearly new items in boot sales during the summer and use them as presents. especailly good for toys, toiletries, kitchen items including electrical.

I also re use gift bags as does everyone I know.

We have secret santa for my sisters, neices and nephews etc with an agreed limit of £15 so only have to buy 1 present each rather than 1 for each person which saves a lot of trekking round and a lot of stress. We send a 'round robin' email with sugestions for items we would like within that price range including sizes (and what we do NOT want), this works for us as we all have a present to unwrap and really enjoy getting together as a family rather then the hassle of shopping for the 'right' gift.
We did use to buy each person a £1 present but this was often a waste of £1 (not so bad but multiply those wasted £1 by each person on the list and it adds up and adds to landfill!)

viv0147

babyshoes wrote: »

I regularly re-gift pressies, but you have to remember who gave it to you so you don't accidentally give it back to the same person!

I have also previously bought a gift set of nice smellies when it was on special in the January sales, removed the perfume for myself and used the other smellies in a home made gift basket the following Christmas. Well, why not? The whole gift set on sale was cheaper than the perfume on its own!

Also, when making home made jams & chutneys (which get given away as gifts) we just use the top half of a 2l milk bottle as a funnel - it is free and works just as well as a real jam funnel and can be washed in a dishwasher. Plus, when it gets a bit tatty, you can just chuck it out and cut a new one!

Well, thats brilliant and so simple I had a funnel as one of the things I need to buy so thanks! thats another save for me.

Slinky

sloth_frattelli wrote: »

I would split a packet of chicken breasts into separate freezer bags and defrost as needed instead of the whole box at once. Either that or do the whole packet of chicken in a sauce and freeze whatever hasn't been used up.

Rather than putting them in separate bags, why not lay them out on a plastic chopping board, stick it in the freezer, when they have frozen you can take them off the board and stick them all in one bag as once frozen they wont stick together.

We do this with lemon slices for my G&T - chop a lemon up, lay all the bits flat on a chopping board, freeze them then bag up once frozen. No need to defrost when using!

livalot

This is a good and very enjoyable thread. However can someone please tell me why it has not been moved? Since most of it is all about recycling and reusing items surely it would get a better response from other recyclers on The Green & Ethical MoneySaving Board.

Recycling and reusing items is not only oldstyle it applies to everybody on the moneysaving website, so this thread should be moved to give everybody a chance to see it. Hope others agree.