Super Scrimpers

Scottish_Saver

Instead of wasting half an hour watching absolute rubbish, I would rather spend the time reading the invaluable money saving tips and ideas on this site.

lauren_1

Not exactly groundbreaking is it? Its like they dragged up a thread from 5 years ago and used that......

Still I suppose its more like OS for amatures.

Every little helps.

BitterAndTwisted

toasterman wrote: »

I haven't bought a bar of soap in years, because it dries out my skin too much.
There's always one of the brands of shower gels on special offer, and you can easily rinse the last bit out the bottle at the end. Much easier than reforming soap in the microwave.

So true, but corners can be cut on the liquid soap/shower gels if you buy the Asda "Smart Price" Foam Bath which was on sale 18 pence for a litre. And it's pretty thick and gloopy so it can be watered down in one of those pump-dispensers if you like. That's what I use for hand-washing in the kitchen.

I think that hard soap-bars do last longer than some liquids if you don't keep them in a puddle to melt away. My local pound-shop is selling (I think) Knight's Castile at six bars for a quid. Keeping clean and fresh has never been so cheap. Now if only I could find a way of acquiring cheap hot water to bathe in!

ginnyknit

I found it all quite depressing really. He earned 100 grand a year was it? and got made redundant last year and is only panicking now- maybe if he had started on day one they would have been living well for less right away. Don't think I have heard anything new or sensible in the 2 programmes I watched - next week i will turn the tv off and make something useful. The microwaved soap looked dirty, I wouldnt wash the dog with it! Maybe grated up and mixed properly it would look better.

Ida_Notion

candygirl wrote: »

Loved the spoilt brats faces when she cut their spending money though:T:T:T

My favourite was the quickly disguised flicker of shock and disgust that crossed Mrs Moneypenny's face when she was asked to rub the tray down with sandpaper

BitterAndTwisted

ginnyknit wrote: »

I found it all quite depressing really. He earned 100 grand a year was it? and got made redundant last year and is only panicking now- maybe if he had started on day one they would have been living well for less right away.

If I remember correctly, that chap was on between £120k and £150k per annum. It may show a paucity of imagination on my part but I cannot conceive of how someone who had been on that kind of salary wouldn't have a nest-egg of savings of tens of thousands of pounds as an absolute minimum. And to continue to spend in excess of the three grand a month coming when that's only for a limited period shows either self-confidence on a massive scale or some kind of mental illness. Perhaps they weren't panicking because their savings hadn't been completely used up yet. That £22k per annum spending in excess of their income must have been coming from somewhere. TWENTY-TWO GRAND!

FatVonD

ginnyknit wrote: »

I found it all quite depressing really. He earned 100 grand a year was it? and got made redundant last year and is only panicking now- maybe if he had started on day one they would have been living well for less right away. Don't think I have heard anything new or sensible in the 2 programmes I watched - next week i will turn the tv off and make something useful. The microwaved soap looked dirty, I wouldnt wash the dog with it! Maybe grated up and mixed properly it would look better.

And if he earned 100K why were they living in that ugly house??!

Sparklyfairy

FatVonD wrote: »

And if he earned 100K why were they living in that ugly house??!

EXACTLY what I thought! I can't help but feel the family were actors...no one could be on that much money, made redundant a year ago & only just start thinking about saving money - waaayyyy too far fetched imho!

THIRZAH

Instead of hearing about dying underwear -again and decoupage trays-again, I'd have liked a bit more detail on the family's finances.Mrs Moneypenny seems very vague-she never mentions how much the family's monthly mortgage payment is-it could be enormous if they live in London

If they are having a "no-spend" week it would be more helpful for the audience if we were told what food they had in the house and how they used it up during the week.

Do they suddenly go cold-turkey on the spending or are they allowed to stock up on milk, fruit etc before the "no-spend" week starts?

I'm not sure how many people would want to rent a room in a house with four children.

RAS

Not watched this and may not bother, but do not be surprised by the financial savvy shown.

One of the more interesting threads on DFW, that I thought was a wind up at one stage, was a couple whose expenditure was £7,500 per month including a mortgage of about £3,500 and golf memberships at £250 each.

She had been made redundant 6 months previously, not claimed JSA, and he had just been handed his cards. They had accrued £25,000 credit card debt and she wanted advice on whether to pay this off with his redundancy or not.

With much heavy handling from DFW she could see how to get the monthly spends down £5,500 until they got the house sold.

Frightening when you consider that their joint income was going to be 2xJSA plus any CTB in the short term.

What was terrifying was that when they were both working their joint income was £6,500 - a full £1K less than their expenditure and that for the previous 6 nmonths since she had beem made redundant they had made no attempt to reduce their expenditure to match his £4,500 income.