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

brenda10

My husband is a council worker cleaning playgrounds etc where children appear to play a game of throw the loose change at each other and don't pick it up, he cleans up. Sometimes drunks leave bottles/cans of unopened beer etc which he brings home and we cook it in the meat, ie guinness stew, delicious.
I sit in the dark at night watching tv. I have a bath first then my husband uses the same water, its a large cast iron old time bath so luxuriously large and relaxing with plenty of bubbles. I use the tesco vegetable bags as food bags, lift a bundle of them when shopping. I use many tesco bags for packing groceries and get extra points. I use the tesco tokens to purchase my husband his National geographic and Readers digest yearly subscriptions. With the extra coupons I purchase my daughter a 18-26 yr travel card for £14 of coupons. I hand wash clothes and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing my clothes hanging on the line. I reuse tea bags, fresh one for 1st cup of tea then put it aside and double it up with another used one, then into our compost bin along with vegetable peelings for next years garden patch, sometimes I cook the skins for the birds to eat. My Father gives me his many old newspapers which I use to light the fire. In April my husband made me a large vegetable plot to grow veg and my daughter bought me the seeds including carrots, leeks, scallions, brussel sprouts, celery, parsley, strawberries so I have my favourite veg which I pick as needed, fresh from the garden. I spend weeks looking for and haggling for cheapest car insurance, house insurance etc. I shop in Lidl, collect all shop offer brochures and travel 4 mile to shop each week, collect last weeks weekly local newspaper from the library. My husband collected old wood scraps from the dumps and council skips and we put in a wood burning stove so no worry about heat. He also collected thrown out gas tanks which all sell for £6 to the retailer. If I want to make a stew I heat the wood burning stove let the fire go out and it will stay warm and simmer my stew for hours. My husband free wheels the car as much as possible as we live in a hilly area so it is free wheel downhill every time. My moto is like the Tesco that every little does help!! I love getting Martins Money tips as they are amazing and thank you Martin, you have been a life saver.:T:money:
I am never embarrassed to pick up tesco receipts with clubcard points available on them and go to the till and get them added on to my tesco clubcard, I don't care who stares as I never look at them. I owe them nothing. I print out every freebie voucher I can get my hands on. My daughter has learned the hard way being a student and is very savvy, she gets most of her items from bicyles, televisions etc second hand on Freecycle in her local area, all our second hand clothes and toys, books etc are given to Cancer charity shops and i purchase my new clothes there also.

sianlee

I am as 'mad' as everyone else on here .
When I boil the minimum amount of water in the kettle there is always at least a mugful left unused in the kettle. I pour that into a mini flask & my next cuppa is electric free! It saves me money on electric as I drink loads of tea.
I am a shopping tart with no loylty whatsoever to any shop/supermarket as my income doesn't allow for that luxury. I also cut the scouring pads in half, blitz granulated sugar in the food processor to make castor sugar, and forage for brambles etc in the autumn - love free food!

ailuro2

A bloke at work used to bring his rechargeable toothbrush into work to recharge it - most folks used to charge up their batteries for their personal radios, now charge up their nanos, but the bloke in question had to phone and ask for his toothbrush to be removed from the machine as he'd forgotten to take it home with him.

No, we didn't give him stick for that, not much!!:rotfl:

rachbc

geri1965 wrote: »

Technically theft.

Taking compinetary tea and coffee from a hotle room you have paid for is not theft -its no different from taking it to make a cup of tea in the room - they give it to you to use - or rtaher you have already paid for it in the cost of the room

leathersofa

In what sense is any of this mad or embarrassing? As long as it's legal (ie not cheating or stealing in any sense of the word). The ones who should be embarrassed are the ones who live extravagantly and then moan about having no money.

Volupturaptor

Flush the toilet only when it needs it, using a bucket and used bath water.
Washing up water for watering plants.
Water is very expensive here!

bonnie_bumpkins

Hear hear leathersofa :T I was just going to post was I the only one who doesn't find being frugal and saving money embarrassing?!! It's sensible and very necessary for a lot of people; suggesting it's embarrassing I feel is quite patronising. But most people seem really proud of their MS ways so keep it up folks

Katkin_2

I use the breast milk storage bags I had left over from when I had DD to freeze hm stock. Completely reuseable until they tear. DD is now 5.

Nicky2905

I share my bath with the kids (6yrs and 2 yrs) we have a big corner bath - it's much more fun for them too. Whenever I wipe ds' face with a baby wipe I turn it over and use the clean side to wipe down the nearest surface. I use disposable cleaning cloths but have a system - they start out on the left side of the sink to be used for wiping down food preparation surfaces, after a few uses they get moved to the right hand side to be used for the floor, after that they get put on the ubend and used for the loo before being thrown! Towels and tea towels get used to dry and shine surfaces before they are washed. My 6 yr old dd adds a little bit of water to handwash when it gets too near the bottom to be able to pump and uses it as bubble bath!!

As Flylady says - soap is soap, so I used spilt shampoo to clean the shower with!

Mrs_CB

Every morning I boil a full kettle of water, make my coffee then pour the rest into a Thermos flask for others in the household to use through the day.

I refill my shower gel container with supermarket own brand bubble bath, this works out a lot cheaper per litre than buying 'proper' shower gel.

I also refill my hand wash dispensers with SmartPrice/Value/Basics bath foam.