Great Tips... one liners

lilmisskitkat

daisiegg wrote: »

I have always meal planned but I have made two big change recently.

I leave at least two nights a week out of the meal plan. I was finding that inevitably, plans were changing and most weeks I wasn't managing to make at least one of the meals I had planned, which sometimes resulted in food being thrown away if it couldn't be frozen.

Now, I only plan five meals a week. The only rule is, the other two have to come from leftovers/the freezer/ the cupboards, so I don't just end up buying more food! It works really well and we are finally starting to run down the freezer contents (there are only two of us so our freezer fills very quickly - if a recipe feeds 4 or 6 I still make it and freeze the remaining portions). It has really helped slash our food bill and we aren't throwing food away anymore.

I've recently started to do this too, don't know why it's taken me so long to think of it lol, a bit slow on the uptake me :rotfl:

DH works away usually 2/3 nights a week but not on the same days each week which makes meal-planning difficult, plus the kids go to my parents twice a week for their tea but again not always the same nights so similar to you i now plan and shop for 4 evening meals and the other 3 meals are storecupboard/freezer/leftovers. Eg. Tuna & sweetcorn pasta, spanish omelette, jacket spuds with toppings, soup & pudding, egg and chips etc

K xx

bigsmoke

kirbz12: re borax substitute being too expensive to make laundry gloop once you've had it delivered...

My local boots (which is only a small one) has started selling it next to the travel wash - it's a square white box (like a mini box of washing powder) and I think it's called 'household cleaner' or something similar. It's £1.39 for 500g - perhaps not as cheap as some people get it but I think that's enough for for about 20 litres of gloop so not too bad? Might be worth a look if you have one locally.

hth

bigsmoke x

life_unexpected_2

Chipps wrote: »

One thing I don't think has been mentioned is the re-use of gift bags for birthday & Christmas presents. We are not the only ones to do it in our family, which means that they sometimes do the rounds & you get them back on another occasion!
.

I also use the brown paper bag when we get take away or have been know to collect them of colleagues when they get lunch in them as gift bags. When DD and DS were younger they use to potato print them. Now I make gingerbread cookies (which doubles as gift tag) and attach with ribbon.

Take packed lunch to work/college. Also take flask to college and refilled water bottle. Trying to get DD to do this as well.

danetastic

When I lived with Parents I had hot water bottle put in bed to warm it . Cuddled it during the night and in the morning the water was used for a wash at the sink - it was always warm enough .

[Deleted User]

I also have an empty jam jar that I use to put any scraps or slithers of soap in.My two Dds laugh at me but once its three quarters full I put a wee bit of water in it and melt the whole lot in the microwave to a thick sludge which I then stir with an old pencil until thoroughly mixed and pour into a small round glass dish and when its all hardened off (I usually put it in the airing cupboard) it is a new small bar of soap.I collect thier scraps of soap and have done for many years as I just think its wasteful to throw something out if it can be resued.I have at the moment in my downstairs bathroom a small round lavender streaked bar which smells really nice and has cost me nothing but time

flubberyzing

I also make next years gift tags out of this years xmas cards! You can get a tag reasonably decent out of most cards, as long as you aren't fussy about the shape!
My mum takes it a stage further! She takes the gift tags off the used wrapping paper once the presents are opened and saves the tags for next year!
I also recycle/regift gift bags and just cut the tag off if it's been written on. I think though that more and more people are getting clued in to re-using them because I get quite a lot these days where the tag isn't written on!
When I'm shopping for wrapping paper, I try and find paper that will pass for both Christmas and birthday paper. Pretty easy to do actually!

vanoonoo

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

If you have access to the pat tester. USB usage is often forbidden too. Maybe it was just where I worked, but I doubt it. TBH I still wouldn't do it, for me it would be the same as stealing stationary or office supplies.

I asked the IT dept if it was ok from a computer point of view and my supervisor from a draw down point of view and both were fine with it, I've got a usb charger so dont need to pat test. last place I had a regular charger and again checked with my boss if it was ok and he was fine with it and I just got the charger pat tested on the next round of testing (it was a new phone when I started there so the charger was pretty much new outta the box), it also meant that I always had a charger on site so other people could borrow it too, like the MD and the FD lol

It's a good point to make alison funnell - petty thieving in the work place (or anywhere for that matter) should not be encouraged - I always check its ok to use things like the phone and the internet and the photocopier if I need to use them for personal use and even then its really infrequent for anything other than charging the phone on the usb

DawnW

vanoonoo wrote: »

I asked the IT dept if it was ok from a computer point of view and my supervisor from a draw down point of view and both were fine with it, I've got a usb charger so dont need to pat test. last place I had a regular charger and again checked with my boss if it was ok and he was fine with it and I just got the charger pat tested on the next round of testing (it was a new phone when I started there so the charger was pretty much new outta the box), it also meant that I always had a charger on site so other people could borrow it too, like the MD and the FD lol

It's a good point to make alison funnell - petty thieving in the work place (or anywhere for that matter) should not be encouraged - I always check its ok to use things like the phone and the internet and the photocopier if I need to use them for personal use and even then its really infrequent for anything other than charging the phone on the usb

It is also worth mentioning that many phones etc charged in the workplace either directly belong to them or they depend upon access to you via this channel.

floss2

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

If you have access to the pat tester. USB usage is often forbidden too.

I work in local government and USB chargers are classed as external hardware and forbidden. A wall charger is acceptable, as long as it's PAT tested. Our big boss often needs to borrow mine as it fits his phone and I've drilled into him to switch it off at the plug

marmiterulesok

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

If you have access to the pat tester. USB usage is often forbidden too. Maybe it was just where I worked, but I doubt it. TBH I still wouldn't do it, for me it would be the same as stealing stationary or office supplies.

I had queried this once too on a post here (charging phone etc. at work) and the person replied saying that the phone etc was used a lot at work and for work purposes,so it seems fair enough to me in the end.

pinkypig wrote: »

Also, when hob or oven have been on for cooking i fill pans or casserole dishes with cold water and put them back on the hob or in the oven and by the time you have eaten the water is warm enough to wash up.

I'm going to start doing this,thanks for the idea.

Off the top of my head,my tips are:

-always use a shopping list
-meal planning
-always take a packed lunch to work
-if going out for a few hours,even into town,take a drink with you and even a snack.