Getting through the austerity in an Old Style, practical way.

kezlou

nice idea for a new thread fuddle

This is the camping kettle i bought out of argos, i bought it initally for when we went camping. We've had it for two years and works a treat. Absolutely brilliant and keeps the water lovely and hot.

I regretted going back to the electric one!

Heres the link:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/CAMPING+KETTLE.htm

Mines the silver one, the handle also comes down and its quite cheap for £12.99.

FrugalFranny

Another cheeky one I like is re-using wrapping paper. A lot of people will just tear it off which is a lot of fun I'll admit, but if I get a gift with a really nice bit of paper I think I can use for someone else at a later date, I'll try to rescue and re-use it. I've ironed the real paper sort a few times for things like wedding/engagement gifts to get the lines out (low temp, towel on top and gentle pressure.). Ta da! 'new' paper
Also I had a gift sent to me from Am*zon a while ago that was packed with brown packing paper, armfuls of it! :eek:
So the few friends that still do the 'gift exchange' thing got gifts wrapped in brown paper this year, they are frugal themselves which helped.

As for gifts for most events, if you can bake a good cake you can usually get away with giving them as gifts to friends.
I'm going to try my hand at homemade Baileys and truffles at some point.

Bubble Glazing:
Managed to get 90% of the bubble wrap needed for free in the same package that was filled with brown paper!

cutestkids

I buy a cheap roll of wallpaper lining paper usually it is about £3.00 for an enormous roll that lasts ages.

The kids use this for drawing on and you can also cut it into sheets and get them to decorate it with paint stamps and use as wrapping paper, Granny in particular love this as the little darlings have made it.

Another thing don't go out and buy stamps for the kids, I make them from potatoes cut in half then a heart or star or whatever you can do carved out, My mum used to do this for us when we were little.

Keeps them occupied for ages and costs pennies.

katieowl_2

OK I have more wrapping paper tips.

When they do 3 for two or whatever on the xmas stuff, or reduce it after xmas, stock up on the plain stuff. They usually do several plain colours to co-ordinate with the christmassy papers, so buy gold, silver, pearl white, Red....etc.
You can use it all through the year, and dress it up with something like a flowery gift tag, or real ribbons.

Get Photo bags done at Mr T's photo shop. I got our dogs done on Hessian bags a year or so ago. Great pressie for Mum who lives miles away as easy to post, and I used DD's one as a gift bag. She keeps her knitting in it now. That way the wrapping becomes a useful item.

Use foreign newspapers. Seriously cheap if they are free anywhere near you, and they look nice with bright red ribbon. This is an ancient tip, but being featured again this year in the christmas edition of country living!!!

Brown paper always looks classy. You can print it yourself with a stamp or even simple potoato print design - be prepared to need acres of drying space or just use it as it is and tie with rustic string or raffia, with some nice bright gift tags. That's our packing for this year...Brown Paper, raffa, Old fashioned brown swing tags, and some shapes cut from red and gold papers (£3.99 for a huge packet from the works)

Kate

HariboJunkie

katieowl wrote: »

Brown paper always looks classy. You can print it yourself with a stamp or even simple potoato print design - be prepared to need acres of drying space or just use it as it is and tie with rustic string or raffia, with some nice bright gift tags. That's our packing for this year...Brown Paper, raffa, Old fashioned brown swing tags, and some shapes cut from red and gold papers (£3.99 for a huge packet from the works)

Kate

To save the acres of drying space I stamp the brown paper once the present is wrapped. It also means the design is better positioned.
Dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks tied with rafia look good in place of ribbon.

Another idea for Christmas decorations is paper chains. Old music sheets from the charity shop look great cut into strips and turned into paper chains and they are easy for children to make.

quintwins

I have a potbelly stove, I'm tempted to put a kettle on top of it for warm water....but it's not ours we rent this house so i'm worried i'll mark it, also i couldn't use it on my hob and our heating heats our water to boiling point so i guess i don't really need it.


My tip would be layer up, i do use my heat because of the kids (one has ashma and cold makes him really really bad) but i seem to feel cold alot more than everyone one else, so it's not uncommon for me to be wearing, legging/tights jeans, vest top, longsleved top,thin jumper and a fleece, then if i go outside i have the usually gloves, scarf and coat aswell. I buy cheap items to layer up, my charity shops are rubbish, but i like tesco's basic range, using codes you can get 20-25% off (either a 20% off code or £10 off when you spend £40/£50)

Thats another tip if you need to buy something check if it's cheaper online (i've lost my nail clippers so instead of buying 1 pair for £2 i bought 3 pairs for £1.75 off ebay) check for codes and cashback aswell.

maryb

I made my own candied peel this year because I couldn't get it in the supermarkets and I don't like the pots of ready chopped peel. It was really easy, didn't need much attention though there were stages to it that had to be done next day, and it used up what would otherwise have been thrown away so the only cost was a bag of sugar. I like adding extra peel to my mincemeat so doing this would make value mincemeat very lush. It makes more than you need just for mincemeat so what I have also done is cut the peel into long strips and dipped them in melted chocolate. Looks very expensive

cutestkids

HariboJunkie wrote: »

To save the acres of drying space I stamp the brown paper once the present is wrapped. It also means the design is better positioned.
Dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks tied with rafia look good in place of ribbon.

Another idea for Christmas decorations is paper chains. Old music sheets from the charity shop look great cut into strips and turned into paper chains and they are easy for children to make.

We used to do paper chains every year when we were kids, the house would be covered in them.

Really like the idea of using music sheets to make them it would give an old fashioned feel.

We strung popcorn one year and decorated the tree with it instead of using sparkly stuff was really nice and easy to do, just long lengths of thick thread and a darning needle and a huge pile of popcorn.

Only thing is not to do it too far in advance and you can only really use it the one year.

medusasmummy

hi all,
i made myself a draft excluder this morning out of an old pair of jeans and the stuffing from a pillow. it took 20mins in all. Quick, free and effective

on the preparing for winter IV thread some one posted a link to a site with instructions for making a folded blind out of cardboard. i made one and it is very effective. much of insulating than fabric. i haven't got round to it yet but im going to be gluing some fabric on the inner side to make it prettier.

http://www.instructables.com/id/folded-cardboard-window-blind/

tru

Another one here with a hob kettle I also have a husband who's a multi-boiler when it comes to electric kettles.

I repaired a pair of boots at the beginning of the year and they were fine for a couple of months. But the stitching has gone again (the upper is stitched into the side of the sole) and the material has gone shiny. So I'm using them as slippers.

I keep meaning to buy brown paper for present wrapping, it looks rustic and classy. But I love sparkly bright tat too so end up using garish red with cartoon reindeer I make cards so I've always got some printed A4 backgrounds, I use one I designed for very small gifts - it's white with black writing, says Noel, Yule, Merry Christmas etc. in different sized font and in different directions. Then use a poinsettia gift tag, I found the pic on a google search.