Super Scrimpers

mmmsnow

I'm well known in my circle of friends for being thrifty and in the past few months, a couple of people have asked me to help them out with budgeting and meal planning (I've got a good head with numbers and I like to think I'm a good cook!). Those seem to be the two things that my friends struggle with (especially since some of them are living alone for the first time/getting married/having children).

I would like to see Mrs M sort through a normal household's finances (not someone who overspends on luxury holidays or who throws good food away every couple of days) and see how much she can save them. I would completely abandon the Superscrimping Army idea.

Sue14

I totally agree with what's been said about the man in this week's programme, and I had a feeling it would be a hot topic on here, lol! His wife should tell him that when he is paying for the food he can get what he wants, but until then she will get what they can afford! Hopefully he really has learned his lesson, and realised that brands are not always the best, because it has been proved in tests that value brands are often better than the 'best' brands, and he proved it himself by preferring the cheaper meal.

I've always found that with the majority of value/own brand products that I have used, the only difference is the amount of money you can save. I only get branded when there is no equivalent own brand, or if it's on offer and works out cheaper than the own brand. Luckily my OH is happy to eat anything I give him, and can't tell the difference between branded and non branded most of the time, although I did have to train him in the beginning, lol!

As for the girl with the patches on her cardi, it looked a mess and reminded me of a geography teacher's jacket, lol!

culpepper wrote: »

I think she was already firmly convinced that down branding was the way to go and just needed her OH to stop throwing a tantrum about it .
The safety pin trick was more interesting in that it would cost £60 for the mechanics to sort it out, I couldn't help thinking that mechanics probably charge you £60 and use a safety pin themselves.

I agree about her being ok to down brand, but not being able to because of his attitude. OH's godfather is a mechanic and he told OH years ago about how to do that, I didn't even know that they got blocked, lol, but it's a handy tip to know.

alfiesmum wrote: »

I found it an absolute insult to people who have GOT to spend no more than £50 a week on food , or in very many cases, a lot less.

He p'd me off right from the start, with his attitude, what a t*at!

luvvie wrote: »

Don't get me started on the bossy overbearing lizard lover with 90's throwback hair. He deserved a slap with a tin of basics beans.

I PMSLd when I read this, couldn't agree more!

luvvie wrote: »

Boot polish on your car? Mmmm lovely especially if you're wearing light clothes and you end up brushing up against your door and getting it all over your clothes.

When OH saw that tip he said that he doesn't have any black bits on his car, so I said he'd best not use that tip, lol!

tanyalbeck

hee hee - you guys are great!! I watched one or 2 episodes and got !!!!ed off as they were 'taking' my ideas!! I'm not a great scrimper or saver... my intentions are good, but then i see all these lovely things in the shops and go astray again. I HATE waste though, and am getting better at re-using and reinventing things!!

I'm glad I wasn;t the only one muttering and shouting at the telly...

London_Town

Just when you think this programme can't get any worse...well I watched it on Catch Up last night...oh dear.

I honestly didn't think people existed like that brand obsessed man. How on earth does the lady tolerate him??!!! Also, what a terrible example he's setting to his two boys, of bad money management and how to be exploited by advertisers.

I was taken aback at the size of the house, but as someone else pointed out, maybe it's rented. Even if they own it, maybe they have a 100% interest only mortgage from 2007 with no repayment vehicle. They also probably have no pension provision and lots of credit card debts. I can't imagine people like that making any financial decision in an informed or astute way.

As for borrowing money from family to "get by"...I would have to be reduced to eating dock leaves before I asked for financial help from a family member. How they have the nerve to do so with such a "boom years" bling lifestyle is beyond me. Have they no self respect?!

On a personal note, I found it really odd that they all had the same haircut, even though it only suited the mother. Most strange....

Also, as another poster has pointed out, Brindley Place in Birmingham is indeed very swanky. I did a three week course there last summer and it's really lovely and clearly quite afluent.

I suppose the idea of filming parts of the show in a really deprived area was a non starter due to the risk of Mrs Money Penny having to outrun a group of anti social youths in hoodies. I don't think she could waddle or pedal fast enough...

PipneyJane

Finally caught up on the last two episode of Superscrimpers and can agree with everything said to date on this thread. This is really badly researched, badly written television. And how much of it was staged? Showing someone moving into the bedroom of that family's house in Birmingham to become their lodger - give us a break! That was obviously a 2-second-room-makeover-borrow-the-tea-boy stunt.:eek:

Honestly, that segment on multi-level marketting? (a.k.a. "party selling") How stupid are they to push that? There were huge scandals in the late 1980's/early 1990's about multi-level marketting schemes and the people on the bottom rung getting ripped off. Surely everybody knows that SALES STAFF DON'T MAKE MONEY FROM MULTI-LEVEL MARKETTING. The only people who make money from it are the supervisors and the company. The supervisors because they take a cut from all their team's sales (and they have big teams); and the company because they charge a fortune for the start-up kit, then factor in at least a 100% mark-up into the "discount" prices they charge the sales staff. And that is before you alienate all your friends by begging them to hold parties for you.

(The only products that made money for the salesperson were Cambridge Diet - minimal start up costs - and Avon. Ditto. In both of those, you collect cash up front and deliver the goods a day or so later. )

My other rant is at their use of unit pricing to make things appear cheap on the show instead of the full price. For instance, that slot about making your own perfumes: we costed up the raw ingredients and they'd be around £25 (or £15 if we assume that we had a bottle of cooking vodka lying around gathering dust). Of course, for that price, you'd purchase the makings of dozens of bottles of perfume but it is hardly free or cheap.

And all that "free" stuff? For instance, the furniture renovated for "free". That slot was squarely aimed at people who won't have sandpaper or paint brushes lying around and who'd need to go out and buy them. Hardly free. (If they had paint, it'd be because the painter who decorated their house left it behind.)

My DH was apoplectic at the "long haired hippy" from this week's episode, with his own-brand phobia. (DH kept pausing the program to rant at the telly.:rotfl:) As everyone else noted, besides throwing out tons of fresh food, their biggest problem was that they didn't cook from scratch but used ready meals and packets for everything. I'd have liked to see them stopping him emptying the fridge before they did that supermarket shop.

My own apoplexy moment was the lesson in hemming a skirt. For a start, she didn't need to cut off the existing hem on that blue skirt - she just needed to fold it over, since she wasn't taking the skirt up that far. And as for using a running stitch on the sewing machine to secure it - surely everyone knows that hems are not meant to be seen from the right side of the garment? If you're going to use a sewing machine, use the hem stitch! And weren't the hem stitches wavy, as well as being visible? Very shoddy workmanship.:mad:

Personally, I'd love to see Mrs' Moneypenny's "army" come to try and make me over. They'd have real problems trying to find anything I'm not already doing/didn't already know.

PipneyJane

Sue14 wrote: »

As for the girl with the patches on her cardi, it looked a mess and reminded me of a geography teacher's jacket, lol!

Ooohhh... Yes. However, I wouldn't insult geography teachers by bringing them down to her level. At least they knew how to patch elbows so that they blended in.

She got paint on her cardi. Well, how about buying some paint thinner and using that to remove the paint? Honestly, some people lack common sense. (Athough, as I commented to DH, if the cardi was acrylic, it might dissolve. Ahhh, diddums!)

joedenise

If she loved the cardi as much as she said she did why wear it when painting? Certainly doesn't make sense to me, I just wear old clothes that I wouldn't be bothered about and if they got paint on then I'd just keep them for "knocking about the house, gardening and decorating".

Denise

Reverbe

This show makes me laugh. Aside from top tips that everyone has known for years ie freeze your leftover red wine in cube trays.. yawn.. the scrimpers are often rather well off. That new one Jazz for example looks to me to live in a rather nice middleclass large home with an exquisite range of clothing .. of course she looks almost exactly like a Jazz Domino Holly currently raking it on with a top tips book on crafts...AKA Joe Strummers privately educated daughter .. she doesnt seem the type to have to scrimp and save..Shame we dont see the likes of our own Ilona who actually DOES live a frugal lifestlye. I watch it so I can sit there and say been there. done that , ben doing that all my life, etc etc

Reverbe

PixieDust wrote: »

Just watching this now....that Welsh bloke needs a slapped @r$e, frankly. He's really irritated me! He clearly has childhood issues that need addressing.....

my issue with him was the i wont eat lower priced food attitude when he clearly has problems with paying for shampoo and haircuts..:p

saverholic

London_Town wrote: »

I suppose the idea of filming parts of the show in a really deprived area was a non starter due to the risk of Mrs Money Penny having to outrun a group of anti social youths in hoodies. I don't think she could waddle or pedal fast enough...

:rotfl::rotfl: Burst out laughing at this, thanks for the chuckle

I find superscrimper entertaining but not particularly useful. Its either stuff that I already know or stuff that I would just never do.

As PipneyJane pointed out earlier up the thread, it is really irritating when they work out costs per unit, most of us don't have multiple bottles of essential oils etc lying around and TBH if I had to go out and spend £25 on the ingredients I'd rather spend an extra £5 and get a bottle of my favourite perfume.

I like the bits from the 'army' (daft name) best, the bits with moneypenny are poor rip offs of MSE, can't imagine it takes long for them to research! I put her on mute.

The long haired chap from last week was just a bit weird. When they said they'd had to borrow money from family my jaw dropped. Can't believe they were throwing out food whilst borrowing cash from family. I'd be embarrassed to do that to my family.