Great Tips... one liners

mumoffour77

Use everything available from printable coupons, to leftover dinners!!!
Mse is great!!
preparing for winter....old style, yknow there are some great tips, frommaking your own draught excluders to making treats for the kids!!! Saves on buying sweeties, and i promise its so worthwhile when your kids go shopping with you and instead of saying mummy i want a sweet they are saying we need flour for muffins mummy!!! the best feeling in the world!!!

Pink.

Hi Cady,

There's a great thread where you can read lots of other Old Stylers tips so I've added your thread to it to keep the replies together.

Pink

mkbswimstar

Fairly obvious for most but wasn't for me until recently: Bulk out meat dishes like Chilli and Bolognaise with lentils and tinned beans. Great for helping you with your 5 a day too.

Have a day a week (or more if u can) where u aim to not spend a penny and not drive.

If you do weekly food shopping try to eek the week out by an extra day, so if you shopped on a monday, the following week you do it on the tues or weds. Really helps.

Buy most things at Lidl, u save a fortune and it tastes just as good. Their chocolate is divine (choc lover here!) and their nappies are great too.

Try to avoid introducing babies/toddlers to Squash, I was never keen on the additives so just kept to water and now thats all they drink (except Milk obviously). My eldest who is 3, turns his nose up at anything else. However my youngest will enjoy a squash at parties/friends. (know slightly off topic but great for health).

Treat kids to fruit, my youngest eats it like its sweets. My eldest who is far from a saint turns his nose up at proper sweets, he can't stand the sweetness. (Again, slightly off topic).

Keep reading this forum regularly, its an education.

Chris_Gregory

Roll your nearly-empty toothpaste tube hard with a short piece of half-inch dowell (or similar) towards the nozzle - you'll be amazed how many extra squeezes you can get. When it gets even more nearly empty then roll a sharp fold in it just below the 'shoulder' part to stop the toothepaste going back down the tube and get even more squeezes.

Chris_Gregory

Transfer you hair shampoo into a hand-cleanser-type dispenser bottle with a push down plunger, then experiment with how many (few) presses you need to get an adequate lather. You'll be amazed at how little shampoo you actually need to get the job done, OR putting it another way, how much shampoo you've been wasting all these years.

Ken68

That's what I do Chris, then I cut it open and dab at it with the toothbrush until squeaky clean.

Pink.

Hi Chris,

Welcome to MSE :hello:

Thanks, those are great tips. :T I've added them to the main thread on Old Style tips so everyone will be able to find them easily.

Pink

ButtonF1Fan

I was given a lot of cot sheets (thank you freecycle!) but my baby has a cotbed, which is bigger.
I get two sheets, the same colour prefereably, and i cut one in half. i then sew them togetherwith the rough edges on the top side, then turn it over and sew with straight stitch along the same jion, but about 1 cm across, so the frayable edges are hidden in a "tube" (i'm sure there is a technicall term for this sewing trick, but i'm no expert). You end up with a nice neat bit underneath (bed side).
Cot sheets are almost as wide as cot bed sheets i find, but never long enough. by using a whole one, then a half one, you jion line is under the area covered by blankets, so visitors in your babes room have no idea. I also did this when my other son was a baby, 6 years ago.

The spare can then be used as dusters... or for the real nappy users, washable wipes!

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

My Gran used to do something similar with worn bed sheets. She cut each sheet in half length-ways and the worn and thinner sheet in the centre became the outside edges. She did a flat seam so that it wouldn't be too bulky or irritating. The sheet is turned round so the seam goes across the bed and so isn't seen. Got lots more wear out of them - my mum still has them for spares! My Gran also made pillow cases from flour bags.

Seakay

Brilliant idea, and the "tube seam" is what is known as a French seam, so JulieJesta is obviously an expert seamstress without even realising!