homemade?

skintmum2012

Hi everyone I want/need to tighten my purse strings this year which got me thinking it's got to be cheaper to hand make things instead of buying everything. I was wondering what does everyone hand make? I can knit I want to start making soap going to have a go and some washing gloop is there anything else you can do at home to safe money?

thriftwizard

There's a heck of a lot. The obvious thing is cooking, but there are also things like brewing your own beer & wine, growing some of for own food, making some of your own clothes, and more easily do-able, mending & altering stuff. Not just clothing - I'm quite chuffed with myself for mending our toaster at a third the price that taking it to the repair shop would have been; even less than buying a cheap one, which would only last a few weeks in this household. I was petrified, but looked up how to do it properly first, and it goes, so well worth it. Time is the best resource, when it comes to saving money!

ada1988

I think it is much complicated for making everything by yourself.
it is a waste of time,and i think stop eating out can save a lot.just cook by yourself.

rachbc

a lot of hm stuff is actually more expensive - clothes for example - pattersn and fabric are dearer than buying from primark - but you get a better product, same with knitting and making soap. For me that sort of thing is a hobby rather than money saving.

However cooking is an definately an area where you can make better for less money - bread especially, yoghurt, not using jars of sauce etc

Memory_Girl

.................. although if you get creative you get the best of both worlds.

Cook at home, pack lunches and hold dinner parties - base your meals around cheap seasonal food and stock up at Approved Food or a cheap local market. Our average food bill for last year was £18.70 for 1 adult, one eleven year old and a three year old.

Ask on Freecycle and people have wool you may be able to receive - my boys have actually had cones of Aran donated and jerseys made by Grandma for Christmas. Other stuff - well stripes feature heavily for littlie - but cost of 16 jerseys / cardigans / tank tops was zero.

Ask around for fabric - even for old clothes. DS2 has his size 3. 4 and 5 shorts and trousers and shirts made from men's trousers and shirts cut down and remade. Total cost last year £8.66 - mostly thread and elastic which I needed more of.

Our household soap costs £6 per year - we use it as regular soap, grated in the washing machine and as liquid soap for hand/dish washing.

Freezer - just a small chest one - but must have saved us hundreds as every scrap of appropriate leftovers is frozen to make into something else or incorporated into soup. Hot packed lunches are made for my boys by batch cooking stuff like chilli and freezing in a muffin tray for individual portions - quick microwave in the morning - much cheaper than school lunches.

Growing your own - bargain last year in the garden was a tray of "live salad" bought from LIDL for 50p. Planted in our narrow bed and kept us in a salad once a day for the whole summer. We are still eating the courgettes btw.

I've even done some pretty crazy challenges - I've upholstered my sofas in designer patchwork (cost £8.87), repainted various donated pine furniture "Gustavian Grey" to create a designer look bedroom for DS1 (cost £35 for all the paint) and am currently collecting fabric to make a whole new working wardrobe. (I asked one local Granny who asked all her friends and I have enough high quality wool / tweed / herringbone to make 8 fabulous skirts. I also found two "larger size" skirts in a jumble sale that I will be able to cut down and make neatly tailored. Cost for working wardrobe so far is 50p.

So get your "Blue Peter" eyes on and you can make some really substantial savings "Make Do and Mending"

Most of all - do it gradually and have fun

MG

valk_scot

Have to say that unless you want to knit things out of cheapest possible acrylic yarns it's usually far cheaper to go to Primark or wherever and buy a sweater. Ditto soap...supermarket stuff is cheaper.

culpepper

Make your own washable sanitary pads.
Buy the good washing up liquid and water it down,we used to buy a bottle, empty half into an empty one and fill both to the top. The cheapest stuff is too runny for this but the better stuff will work just as well when halved like this and it means you aren't wasting any.
You can often find cones of wool in charity shops.
If you are making kids clothes, you can buy adult garments from charity shops and take them apart for the material. The biggest sizes might have enough material for smaller sized adult clothes.

rinabean

Sometimes making is more expensive, but apart from the fact that you end up with a better product, I find that staying away from the shops is what saves the most money. For me, buying bread is slightly cheaper than making it (the specific loaves we eat and buy), but if I make it that can cut out one or two trips to the shops that are "just for bread" (where you come home with bags of food) every week. We made our own christmas decorations this year. Some were cheaper, some were more expensive, but again it kept us away from the shops and the "bargains" we didn't know we wanted.

Don't do it just for saving money - long term, yes, but not short term. At first you'll make mistakes and you'll lose money - your bread won't rise, you plant too much cabbage, you bought the wrong yarn, you didn't cure your soap/meat/cheese/garlic long enough, you didn't process your jam properly, you didn't measure your fabric/wood accurately, whatever it is that you attempt. But you'll learn quickly enough. And the feeling of self-sufficiency is wonderful.

oldtractor

making your own bread and scones and cakes. Save a fortune.

Flibsey

rachbc wrote: »

a lot of hm stuff is actually more expensive - clothes for example - pattersn and fabric are dearer than buying from primark -

I disagree.

for one thing if you look online there are loads of free patterns and tutprials (most don't require printing either) and second hand fabric can be found in almost all second hand stores. think outside the box. Duvet covers yield a lot of fabric and are often found in really funky colours and styles, great for shirts and summer dresses/trousers/shorts. I swear, you don't end up looking like the von trapp family either. I never buy vest tops for under jumpers any more. I can make them in very little time, they fit me perfectly (odd body shape) and cost me almost nothing. so far I've got 5 out of a "t shirt fabric" double duvet cover.

the true cost is more the time it takes, but if you do it well the items last longer than the crap from primark would.

I am currently wearing a second hand cotton top over some very mended leggings and nobody could tell looking at me that it wasn't all new.

take care of your clothes. and this is easier if you have less of them.

knitting and crochet is more expensive if you pay full price for your yarn. I followed a cardigan pattern (if you're interested, it's the DROPS circle crochet jacket) which said the average cost of yarn would be USD$100 approx. I got enough yarn for it for a fiver, from a family member AND had enough left over to make two preemie size cardigans and a pair of bootees for the local NICU. that was just a lucky buy though

a lot of second hand shops and jumbles have cones left from people who have bought a knitting machine and hated it, or balls and balls from people buying for a project they never do. Ebay is also excellent for yarn. I also trawl the hobbycraft january sales as it's near my house, and they often reduce their fashion yarns by more than 70%. I got £50 worth of Sidar Flirt bamboo & wool yarn for £10 this year in different colours. so far it's made a hat and scarf for me, a mug cover for my friend, some christmas stocking decorations for next year and I still have loads left.

knitting and crochet patters can be free online too. sign up to ravelry. again, if it's well made and well cared for, it will last. and if you get good enough and do enough patterns, you can work out your own patterns too. I do my own for the preemie stuff I make. I follow average sizes found online and work to those rather than an actual pattern.

"growing your own" for me has proved not to be a money saver, but I still do it as a cheap hobby.

Cazzdevil

I'm going for the same kind of thing this year too. Absolutely essential that I strip our spending back to the bare bones.

I'm doing things like:

1. Making damned sure I take a packed lunch every single day for work
2. Making my own cheap laundry powder (when current powder runs out)
3. Stripping back toiletries use - 80p Wrights Coal Tar soap instead of shower gel & facewash, and gonna switch to a shampoo soap bar when current shampoo runs out (I'm figuring a bar will last longer)
4. Making as much sweet stuff as possible from store cupboard ingredients rather than buying chocolate & biscuits

It's a short list at present, but I'm working on it...