Not-so-moneysaving anti-tips?

Pollycat

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I personally cannot be arrised to melt down manky old slivers of soap to make a new bar, and then have to clean the pan afterwards. Dove bars are invariably 2 for a quid in £ shops so it seems a lot of faff to save 50p.


I'm a vegetarian so slow cookers aren't relevant as they seem designed for getting the best out of cheap cuts of meat.


Cooking from scratch is generally a great principle, but I draw the line at making my own puff pastry or pasta. With enough time I've made my own guacamole and salsa, which definitely tastes better, but not sure home-made hummus is worth the effort?

Championing the slow cooker here (I've been using one for 45 years), you can do some tasty vegetarian dishes:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/vegetarian-slow-cooker-recipes

dreaming

Pollycat wrote: »

Championing the slow cooker here (I've been using one for 45 years), you can do some tasty vegetarian dishes:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/vegetarian-slow-cooker-recipes

Me too! I bought my slow cooker from a couple who had been given one as a wedding present but were selling as they were vegetarians. I do eat meat but also love a nice veggie stew orbean chilli so use it then, and also for lovely rice puddings etc.

I must admit I don't like a lot of the programmes that try to save money. The ideas are good but I often don't like the format (or the presenters). I also think it is a bit of a cheat when they compare something the families already have with a cheaper version (like the Le Creuset) but then still count that as part of the savings. The best bit of having catch-up tv (or recording the programmes) is that I can skip through the fake jeopardy. and the really dumber down bits. I will be watching the new Martin Lewis showthat starts tonight (on catch-up) though as I like the fact that he doesn't talk down to people, and I have learned a lot from him and this site.

SpikyHedgehog

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I personally cannot be arrised to melt down manky old slivers of soap to make a new bar, and then have to clean the pan afterwards. Dove bars are invariably 2 for a quid in £ shops so it seems a lot of faff to save 50p.


I'm a vegetarian so slow cookers aren't relevant as they seem designed for getting the best out of cheap cuts of meat.


Cooking from scratch is generally a great principle, but I draw the line at making my own puff pastry or pasta. With enough time I've made my own guacamole and salsa, which definitely tastes better, but not sure home-made hummus is worth the effort?

I think it's one of those things that depend on you having the ingredients in your store cupboard already, and using it enough to make it cost-effective to make your own.

I'm old enough to remember when the only way of getting hummus in the UK was to make your own, starting with soaking and cooking the chickpeas. Mum got a big (5kg, I think) tub of tahini from the healthfood shop, and we always had garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. So making a large amount of hummus at a time really was the way to go.

These days, I've been lazy, helped by DS2 being very picky about his hummus. (I was taking my brother & DS2 to my parents for Christmas lunch the other year, and brother and DS2 spent the journey talking about which brands of hummus they liked and how they could tell if you offered them reduced-fat hummus from the shop they liked the full fat hummus, and why they didn't like another shop's hummus... I decided not to suggest the main difference was the packaging as I suspected they were all made at some great hummus factory...!) DS2 now getting proper help for his depression, he is willing to try new things and ate homemade hummus recently

Buying tahini (£2 for a 270g jar in M0rris0ns), buying fresh lemons and garlic just for hummus, buying extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and peppercorns just for hummus and buying a can of brand name chickpeas (85p on T3sco's website) because you've got someone coming round who wants hummus - no, not worth it. Get a tub from the shelf of your supermarket at about £1.30.

Having the oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a big tub of tahini in anyway (currently getting a 1kg tub for about £7), bottled lemon juice unless I have a random glut of lemons, and L1dl chickpeas at 33p a can, (or 1/5 of a bag of dried chickpeas at 23p for 1/5 of the bag + water, fuel and time to cook them), and making twice as much as you get in the supermarket tub, that's pretty cost effective.

I personally wouldn't make hummus without a food processor (I said I was lazy!) but I worked with a Turkish lady a few years ago, who was quite amused at the notion of using a food processor and just mashed it all by hand. I don't know if she just made enough for each meal though?

happydays89

Primrose wrote: »

I do wonder what your immediate neighbours think about a constant flow of strangers coming to your property, or perhaps you don't worry about that?

In my experience, with an increasing number of burglaries etc taking place many people might feel uncomfortable about a regular flow of strangers coming to your property/road and might feel uneasy that the area in which they live may feel a little less secure.

I,m not suggesting any of your guests are undesirable or in any way dishonest, just that a constant flow of strangers into a residential area may make some of your neighbours feel u comfortable or somewhat more vulnerable, especially if they are elderly

We have lovely neighbours who all know what we do and because we are in the same house as the guests there are no parties or lots of noise and all our guests have been fantastic.

firebubble

I love this thread! Totally agree with the 'lemon juice cleans everything' :rotfl:
I find there are genuinely very few 'moneysaving tips' which genuinely save money, but which get repeated as if they are genuine wisdom which apply to all. Can I throw in:

- 'washing up liquid is the same as woolite'...Nah, it's nothing like it. And if you have a jumper expensive or delicate enough to merit special treatment, just spend the £2 on a bottle of woolite, which you will use up and it will keep your jumper beautiful.
- 'white vinegar can be used to sponge clothes instead of dry cleaning'. As per the woolite tip, you're much more likely to end up with the stain circled with a big ring. The real tip is 'don't buy clothes requiring dry cleaning if you can't afford to dry clean them'.
- any 'fashion' tip which involves gluing beads/crstals onto it. Nope, it's not fashionable, no one wears whatever you've made, and instead of passing the garment onto someone who could use or recycle it, you've just outlaid good money in order to cover it in plastic bits, so it can only go to landfill.
- cloth bags instead of plastic. Great, until they get filthy and then can't be washed (some can, but those that don't shrink/crumple and the design comes off). There is nothing else that can be done with them, so you'd actually be better off with a plastic bag which would still be going strong.
- make a huge pot of soup/make seven meals out of a single chicken and you'll have all your meals yadada. This works only if you're happy to eat the same soft mushy thing every day...otherwise it moulders in the fridge or freezer until you guiltily throw it out. Know thyself, and be honest!
- any tip that is predicated on you having plenty of anything, because if you have loads of it already, you probably don't really need to save money eg renting out spare rooms/wings of property etc.

Just my tuppence worth...:cool:

The only moneysaving tip I've found really useful: if you don't need it right now, don't buy it.

DigForVictory

My sister, when annoyed with me complaining of limited budget, snaps "says she eating off Denby".
Yes, decades ago when I was young single & relatively well paid, the local big store changed hands and in their desperation to keep the locals happy offered a 20% off everything & yet more if you used their storecard.
Reader, I went loco. I filled the hope chest with every single plate cup bowl dish pot and so forth, paid on the card, then paid off the card in full (before I'd even heard of MSE) & have been using it since. I dine off Denby as I bought it cheap & picked a hardwearing design in a frankly tricky to smash stoneware.

I'm strapped for cash as I have teenagers & only my aunt 'gets' that stoking those metabolic blast furnaces takes effort & a lot of calories. (Everyone else has daughters, who seem to eat less...)

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Pollycat wrote: »

Championing the slow cooker here (I've been using one for 45 years), you can do some tasty vegetarian dishes:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/vegetarian-slow-cooker-recipes

Thanks, I didn't think it would be suitable for veg dishes. Probably won't invest in one though as not sure I'd use it regularly.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

mmmm hummus mmmm

That's interesting thanks. I'd like to try it one day. The simplest dishes are probably the hardest to perfect though; no room for error.

firebubble

More 'festive money saving' tips that have come to mind:
- save Christmas card designs to cut up for present tags....or just write the name and the greeting on the parcel, and save yourself the effort and sellotape?
- a couple of years ago, home-made 'hampers' seemed to be very popular gifts on MSE, but I always wondered whether by the time you'd found a container, stuffing, bought all the little poundland bits to go in it and sealed it in clingfilm whether you'd actually saved any money - or just as important, given someone something that they actually wanted rather than landfill?
- getting young children to make homemade biscuits/sweets to give as presents. Why is it that when the kids proudly hand them over, they always have a runny nose/bad cold...do these really get eaten?
- ditto home made mince meat, which sits in the cupboard for a year because it's always received too late to be used up before Christmas.

VfM4meplse

DigForVictory wrote: »

I'm strapped for cash as I have teenagers & only my aunt 'gets' that stoking those metabolic blast furnaces takes effort & a lot of calories. (Everyone else has daughters, who seem to eat less...)

Its not the first time I have heard this. IME, men also seem more reluctant to slum it when it comes to meals than females.