Spill the beans ... what's the most embarrassing MoneySaving thing you do?

sharalee99

Oh my! I am loving this thread
It's a quiet spell at work just now and I'm heartily laughing at some of these (not in a bad way). Hope no one walks in the office, they're gonna think I'm a bit mad. But I have to say, I've picked up some rather good tips. Particularly like the pre addressed envelope one, just great! :T

oldtractor

I get about 8 cups out of a teabag. This started with my late father,he kept putting less and less sugar in tea until we all got used to it and then non, then he did the same with milk. He and me, used to drink black tea very weak with no milk or sugar. [my mother resisted]. I still drink tea like this, I brew it in a teapot, 1 teabag and full up the pot. lasts ages,just keep pouring out and topping up with hot water from the kettle if necessary. I really should buy loose tea,but cant resist the offers "get 80 bags free" sort of thing.

trelly

decant washing up liquid into an empty hand wash pump and use just two doses for a full bowl. The liquid lasts at least 4 times as long:j

Carriannelouise

[quote=[Deleted User];47837693]Now this is what I dont agree with. Hotels sachets fair enough they put enough for you to use, but do you say you grab handfuls from a cafe?

This is not on - this cafe could possibly be family owned rather than a large corp and its they;re money paying for these things - they do cost money.

If I owned a small cafe and saw someone pocketing piles of sugar sachets or whatever, it'd be the last time they'd be welcome (and they'd be out the door pretty quickly too having put the sachets back!)[/QUOTE]

i used to work in a cafe and the number of people that would pocket hand fulls of plastic spoons, salt, pepper, vinegar, sauces and sugar was awful so my boss switched to sugar bowls and salt and pepper pots and vinegar bottles and kept the sauces under the till we lost about 20 of each salt pepper vinegar & sugar pots / bottles a year after that but my boss always said it saved a fortune on sachets even with the losses that's how bad people are with being light fingered in cafes!

my nana wedged the ball bit in the loo cistern so that it wouldnt fill when it was flushed and used to pour in water that she collected from her bath water, water used to wash the hands and veg water to fill the cistern to flush the loo for free every time i didnt realise why she did this untill i was about 19 :') i might start doing that myself (as long as we dont have visitors) we must spend plenty on flushes x

oldtractor

trelly wrote: »

decant washing up liquid into an empty hand wash pump and use just two doses for a full bowl. The liquid lasts at least 4 times as long:j

I must try this what a brilliant idea.:j

Justamum

katiecoodle wrote: »

a lady at church who used to be a missionary told me once that when she was away, she used to receive parcels of used, dried teabags & she really looked forward to them. it was the only tea she had.
I felt really sorry for her.

Saving teabags to re-use yourself is one thing, but to actually donate them to be sent abroad? The mind boggles :eek:

jonnythurston

Frugal wrote: »

This has got to be a wind up.

If its not then its frankly dangerous as drinks have been known to be spiked - I know from past experience :eek: (not from minesweeping I might add) Luckily my friend realised what had happened and made sure I went home with her.

Afraid my minesweeping is not a wind up. I only take drinks that have been quite obviously left by someone. Normally quite easy to spot.

As for the spiking issue. I just gamble they're fine. The way I look at it if you are going to spike a drink it's pretty pointless spiking a drink no one is drinking!

shandyclover

I had written down some embarrassing things I've done in Asia to save money or just out of pure necessity on my own thread - but it went off topic a bit.

I thought I'd jot them down here.

Middle of the gulf war we were living in Pakistan, due to anti-western sentiment the embassy told us to stay indoors. This meant we weren't able to buy the fuel needed for our generator, which is needed to power the water pump. So OH detached all the ubends from the hand basins in our community centre, all waste water went into a bucket, which was then poured into the toilet cistern, and reused to flush the toilets. The Washing machine pipe was rigged up to pump the waste water into a huge steel tank with a tap on, which was then reused to wash cars, the driveway etc. We weren't sure how long we'd have to stay 'holed up', but neighbors rallied round and took turns doing our shopping etc. Six weeks later everything was back to normal.

Nepal proved to be the most challenging country to live with small children. There was one supermarket in Katmandu selling most things you could get in a Spar in UK, at UK prices though! For anyone not being paid an international salary it was out of the question! For everyone else a lot of products were imported from China. There was 1 (I mean one!) brand of toilet paper, bright pink and resembling crepe paper. Was fine for us but I soon found out my kiddos were allergic to the dye in the paper. OH often had meetings in the 5 * hotels with potential sponsors. They were usually owned by Indian companies and would import their supplies from India including soft white toilet paper. I used to get OH to always make sure he used the bathrooms and brought me home 5-6 pieces which I would ferret away just for the littlies noses!

givememoney

Why use wipes for children. We used to use a damp flannel in a polythene bag to take out with us.

My husband goes to local library to read the Telegraph motoring section on a Saturday. Mind you he has to get there early as someone else nicks it if he leaves it too late.

stilernin

trelly wrote: »

decant washing up liquid into an empty hand wash pump and use just two doses for a full bowl. The liquid lasts at least 4 times as long:j

Not only have I done this for years, but I dilute a decent brand 1:1 with water. Rather than pump into the washing up water, I put a pea sized amount onto a sponge. Whilst washing the dishes I soap around the dishes and put the sponge into the water as little as possible IYSWIM. The sponge is reloaded with a blob of liquid only when necessary for a load of dishes. The dishes are dunked into the water to rinse off.

This makes the washing up liquid last even longer.