Enrich your life list for under a fiver

Diflower

Enrich your life for under a fiver? Bird seed:)
We ran out a couple of days ago and I've felt so guilty, today I ventured out in the snow and it was top of my list.
The amount of pleasure those little birds give us is worth way more than a fiver:T

Kiwisaver_2

I just treated myself to a 2011 A5 Page-a-Day Size Diary, actually cost me nothing with some vouchers I had, but would have been less than a fiver had I paid for it. I'm hoping it will help me be more organised next year and somewhere to keep all my scribblings and plans in one place rather than all the lists and scraps of notes I currently have. :T

livalot

newlywed wrote: »

Silicone cup cake cases - saves OH moaning that the paper sticks to the cake - and I got mine in poundshop.

I've just treated myself to a silicone pastry brush too - as the left behind bristles annoy me!

I found silicone cup cake cases in the pound shop too they are absolutely fantastic...... I am baking so much more now and treating my family to all sorts of cakes and muffins as I don't have to faff about with paper cases, greasing heavy tins or washing them for that matter....:j:j

jcr16

very interesting thread.

i used this today and every time i use it i love it. I can't rememeber excatly when i bought it. but i hated using a pastry brush as you could gaurentee a bristle would always fall out when brushing your pastry with egg. so i bought this silicone one. it is amazing. never looses a bristle. dishwasher safe . i paid about £2 for mine. but it is excaltly the same as one in link. i love it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-New-Heat-Resistant-Silicone-Pastry-Brush-/120656956211?pt=UK_Kitchen_Accessories&hash=item1c17b70b33

sure i've got lots more to add to list. but i proberly take things for granted and just use them. so will have a think.

kippers

Diflower wrote: »

Enrich your life for under a fiver? Bird seed:)
We ran out a couple of days ago and I've felt so guilty, today I ventured out in the snow and it was top of my list.
The amount of pleasure those little birds give us is worth way more than a fiver:T

I spend ages watching the birds feeding from my kitchen window. Seed is worth every penny. It's such a small thing that always cheers me up when i watch the birds

Gers

My best buy was free - hope that counts.

Many many years ago (about 25 at least) I was visiting family in the south of Germany where we used to live. It was a small village but has now grown, anyway, the local butcher was giving away free knives and gave me one. It's a long thin serrated edge knife with a white handle and I have used it almost every day since. And every time I use it I can see myself in the butcher, smell the cooked meats and almost taste the samples he offered to all customers too.

So free, very useful and a bringer of memories. Bargain!

Pitlanepiglet

Hmm mixed views on this one....the slight issue for me is it's a bit of a slippery slope - a fiver here and a fiver there which I can justify to myself is enriching my life, leads to being £20 a month or £240 a year if I'm not careful! Maybe I just have no will power!

The thing I have bought that makes me smile daily is a blue enamelled colander from TK Maxx, we had a nasty plastic one previously and I wanted a nicer one, the ordinary metal one was I think £2.99 and the thing of beauty that is the blue colander was £3.99 so I justified the extra quid and it now makes both me and hubby smile when it comes out of the drawer! It's nice to be easily pleased I suppose!

Mainly I buy kitchen bits and pieces from the car boot sale - that's such a nice feeling of getting a bargain and getting quality things at the same time, plus it's recycling so it must be good!

apple_mint

Feeding the birds is top of our list too. We have three feeders up - seed, fat balls and peanuts. All heavily used and it's such a pleasure to see them and know that we are helping them.

I haven't anything specifically on my list to get. Over the years I've got bits and bobs as I've seen them on offer or at car boot sales. OH always says that you have to have the right tools for the job and the kitchen is our workshop for our lifestyle so a little bit of investment helps a good deal. Our purchases are financed out of our food budget savings.

Some of the best things under a fiver we have bought and use a good deal are:

• a set of measuring spoons. I think they were about £1.50 in Tesco's years ago. They all hang on one loop and so I have all the right measures to hand from a 1/4 of a teaspoon upwards. OH wanted to take them off the loop but I put a stop to that as it would have meant hunting for individual spoons across the kitchen drawer :eek:
• A Lakeland jam funnel. £4.99 and used for preserve making (filling the jars with hot jam) but also used all year round for filling the coffee jar from the large tub of coffee. Saves spilling coffee everywhere.
• Like everyone else - silicon baking cases. Not only because at £2.50 a pack (Asda) they save money in the long run but also because I can now bake muffins in the remoska and they make fantastic holders for the mini Yorkshire puddings I make in there too. (Same can be said for the silicon bread tin I bought which I put in the remoska with banana cake or tea loafs).
• The pack of jar busters I got from Lakeland (you can see a trend here can't you :rotfl: I like to get free postage on my lakeland orders and top up with a small purchase. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ) - I can get the last of the mayonnaise out of the jar, the last of the jam, clean the bowls out etc (though OH likes to use them to get the last of the cream out of tubs etc. - extra treat)
• Another Lakeland product - a little lidded microwave pan for £3.99. It was recommended on here. Takes a tin of beans, useful for reheating one portion of HM soup, or heating up some frozen peas. OK I could have used a pan on the hob but our gas hob is so badly designed that if I have a couple of large pans on it there isn't room to get a third. Plus the microwave uses less energy than hob.
• My biggest bargains from car boot sales - a stainless steel 3 tier steamer (£3) which I use almost daily (and it saves money by cooking 3 vegetables using one ring). It was an unwanted wedding present :eek: A set of copper bottomed stainless steel pans for £3 (the sellers were moving the non-stick, but I've never had anything stick to these), some mason and cash pudding bowls (10p each), a pasta maker for £3 (OH loves using this and we much prefer fresh pasta - again an unused wedding present), and my biggest bargain ever - a 1970s Kenwood Chef with a range of attachments (including a blender and a mincer) for just £5

All these (and other bits and bobs) have made our OS life much easier, but to be honest I would have juggled with what I had to do cooking from scratch and did so in the early days.

apple_mint

jcr16 wrote: »

very interesting thread.

i used this today and every time i use it i love it. I can't rememeber excatly when i bought it. but i hated using a pastry brush as you could gaurentee a bristle would always fall out when brushing your pastry with egg. so i bought this silicone one. it is amazing. never looses a bristle. dishwasher safe . i paid about £2 for mine. but it is excaltly the same as one in link. i love it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-New-Heat-Resistant-Silicone-Pastry-Brush-/120656956211?pt=UK_Kitchen_Accessories&hash=item1c17b70b33
.

I like the look of this. OH says that the bristle pastry brush we use is a germ trap so this could be my next purchase

mineallmine

rachbc wrote: »

I really want some little old fashioned scoops to got in big flour jars...they cost about £1 on amazon but the postage is about 4 times that so never buy them but never see them in the shops

I know what you mean, I love those too. I found some plasticly ones in Pets at home (if there is one near you):
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/scoop-for-food-litter-and-bedding-by-happy-pet-37551

Great thread :A

So "basically its a list of mostly low value small things that we consider we need that would improve our lives" - so I'd welcome:
- some flannel "wash mitts" from Dunelm Mill - they are only about £1 - and are lovely to use
- some charity bags coming through the door to help in the war on clutter (free!)