Super Scrimpers

mirry

Thats great news , can you tell me where your blog is pls .

toasterman

After watching last night's, I had a bit of a revelation. There aren't any men in this series, in an expert capacity. That's odd, isn't it?
Also, my girlfriend pointed out that almost all of the old tipsters' tips, are domestic. How to save money on cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc.

There's no tips on saving money on holiday, at work, travelling, on day trips. In fact apart from going to the dump, none of the old style tipsters ever leave their houses.
It's possibly due to the constant reinforcement that most of the women are from the war-era, but there's no mention of Internet shopping, Vouchercloud, Quidco, or anything like that. Aside from a few musical instruments last week, the overspenders aren't encouraged to eBay the whole lot to repay some of their debt.

Cutting old Christmas cards into gift tags? I never bother with gift tags at all.
Although I might be unusual in that I don't really do cards either. If I've gone out of my way to choose a gift for somebody, I don't think I need to back it up with a generic greetings card. I only send greetings cards to people I'd rather not speak to on the phone or in person.
The last few major presents I've bought people were experience days, which I sent via email (no wrapping required), and earned cashback on.

Save money on expensive Shake n Vac? Do people still use that stuff? Can you even still buy it?

Make a hanging basket from string, one of your old jumpers and a colander? I'm all for saving money, but a quick Google search finds you can buy a hanging basket from one of those big out of town DIY stores, for £3.98. I've found the metal components (not including the mossy insert bit) for £1.49. To buy a new jumper to replace the one I've ruined, would cost me more, and even when jumpers are falling apart, I still don't throw them out, normally. They're great around the house, on lazy sundays.

Someone on here asked a few pages ago when they would get around to doing white wine vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. It was last night.

They also showed what to do with half an onion, left over from making something.
My girlfriend shouted at the TV "why don't you just buy smaller onions in the first place?!"
It's a good point, really.

Still, one thing I will say is at least they didn't fill somebody's kitchen with carrier bags full of old rubbish again. They set up a mock market stall featuring all the clothes the overspender had purchased. That's a much more sensible way to show overspend - quantifying it with the actual items.
I was skeptical that they had done enough, by just asking her to think how many hours of employment each new item would cost her (before purchasing), but it seemed to do the trick.

The suggestion that she could get a loan from her bank because she has good past relationship is possibly a bit misleading. Past relationship counts for nothing these days. Do you even know the name of your bank manager? It'll surely be based on a credit check, her income, etc.

Anyway, all in all, not a terrible episode. The WW2 references are still getting on my nerves, but slightly better than last week's, in terms of advice and dealing with debt.

BitterAndTwisted

Considering that over-spending lady on the show last night had a pair of Jimmy Choo's in her stash I thought that being in £7k-worth of debt wasn't that much. Or at least it could have been much, much worse before the light began to dawn.

I thought she was going to faint when it was explained to her that it was going to take her until old age to pay off that debt (74 years, was it?). What I don't think they made clear was that the calculation was dependent on her making only the minimum repayments every month.

Mind you, being a whole year's salary in debt when you only work part-time is a bit shocking. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

culpepper

I watched this morning. If you go to youtube and type in super scrimpers it brings up all the episodes courtesy of 4OD also they had the Make Do and Mend episode mentioned above.
I am quite surprised they did not advise the overspender to put her balance on a 0% credit card for a year before trying to get herself a bank loan but maybe they preferred not to encourage more card acquisition.
I liked that they did not ask her to do a No Spend week because that isnt always a realistic option for some people so it is refreshing to see other alternatives.

FatVonD

culpepper wrote: »

I watched this morning. If you go to youtube and type in super scrimpers it brings up all the episodes courtesy of 4OD also they had the Make Do and Mend episode mentioned above.

Thanks for that, DH was watching Elvis Costello in Las Vegas and I was frantically designing leaflets before my InDesign trial runs out :eek: I looked for it on 4OD before I went to bed but it wasn't on there.

tori.k

I threw my cream egg wrapper at the telly when she told her to consolidate the cards, been better if she told her to cut all but one of her cards up and snowball the rest, looking how unshocked she was by seeing her clothes spread out, give it 12 months and she will have maxed out cards and a personal loan to contend with, i can't believe this woman works for the financial times.

Ida_Notion

toasterman wrote: »

The WW2 references are still getting on my nerves

Does this mean you won't be gracing your feet with old tyres cut into quarters then?

The programme has improved quite a bit since it started, and I get the impression that the makers are listening to feedback and are making small changes. I suppose a lot of material is already in the can, and they can only be so flexible before making changes starts to cost more money than it's worth.

I hadn't noticed the shortage of men (coming from me, that's unusual!). Super Scrimpers seems to like conveying the message that thrifty wisdom is something that can only be accquired by the elderly, and that if you're not old enough to have gleaned the knowledge that cutting up cards for gift tags and wrapping presents in magazine pages will buy you indulgences like sitting around in broad daylight with all your wall lights and lamps blazing then you can only be young, reckless and willing to pay two years wages to buy a pair of tights on credit. It seems that there's no middle road with Super Scrimpers.

In comparison, 'Make Do And Mend' (the other current thrifty TV offering) isn't looking to shock by making such stark and pointless contrasts, and shows experts of varying ages (all some years shy of a bus pass) giving tips to a variety of people in a way that leaves them better off without feeling the need to try to prove first that these people are really stupid.

What's really silly is that the unless you're already a lifestyle thrifty who will watch almost anything on the subject anyway, the Super Scrimper approach will eventually have all but the densest turning off in their droves. You don't have to be an all-round dimwit to discover to your benefit that you can feed your kids real ham rather than the plastic variety more cheaply, but you'd have to be very easily led to think that having the ability to cut a tag from a Christmas card or to grease half an onion is going to have much of a positive effect on your family's way of life.

Swings and roundabouts, time and money. I've got a knife and scissor sharpener. It cost me 99p. A shocking indulgence I know, but it was paid for in cash (fully!) and is going to save me from buttering up a heck of a lot of onions

BitterAndTwisted

I definitely think that some of the researchers on this series have been cribbing tips from the "Sneaky Ways" thread.

Spreading butter on an onion and wrapping it in foil? Why not just chop that half and bung it in the freezer? By the time you've buttered onions and wrapped them in foil for a year, it probably would have been cheaper to have thrown them out and used fresh ones. It's not like onions are expensive veggies like asparagus or jerusalem artichokes.

Ways to use up boiled potatoes? Are we a nation of morons who've never hard of sauteing or tater salad? I dunno, maybe we are.

Jennie_2

I wonder if some of us have been on here too long to enjoy the show? I haven't learnt anything new yet when it comes to the "saving money" tips.

I keep watching every week but to be honest I am not sure why:undecided

THIRZAH

I use a wide necked jar-the kind that salsa comes in-to store half onions in the fridge. It stops the onion drying out-and stops the fridge smelling of onion.

Gift tags are usually reduced after Christmas-my last lot cost me 15p a packet. Not quite as cheap as cutting up old cards but not far off.