Moneysaving tv programmes

Pollycat

Fiona236 said:

Best one was called scrimpers from the 80s or early 90s.  Its on youtube

Do you mean Superscrimpers?

Discussed further up this page.

MandM90

Pollycat said:

Fiona236 said:

Best one was called scrimpers from the 80s or early 90s.  Its on youtube

Do you mean Superscrimpers?

Discussed further up this page.

I think Fiona does mean 'scrimpers' if you search it on YouTube there is a show filmed early 90s of that very name!

thriftwizard

Scrimpers was good! I've been trying to remember the name of the series for ages. Wasn't there one where a guy had built a rather lovely country-style kitchen entirely out of pallet-wood? Asking as DD2's just built herself a bed out of bits of leftover timber she found in the garage; she'd find it quite inspiring.

firebubble

The Superscrimpers 'fashion' segments were always hilarious - I'm sure that was the one where a woman cut off the fraying cuffs of old jumpers for her husband, so he could continue wearing the jumper (overlooking that it was now too short in the sleeves), and this was supposed to be a moneysaving tip! They always seemed to do something on 'customising' old clothes, which involved taking a perfectly good item which could have gone to the charity shop, then making it unwashable by using superglue to stick rhinestones on it, then presenting it as 'upcycling' and 'fashionable'. Er, right....

Another silly one was Live Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny, which can be summarised as 'have a rich family who can let you live on their 'spare' land', and plenty of friends (ie your godfather's estate workers) to do the renovations, and then furnish it with antiques from 'skips' and 'old furniture your godfather had lying around in the barns', and ta-da! You're living mortgage free. 

I do love a good money programme, but there are very few about, so I'll check out Scrimpers and the Canadian one mentioned above, thank you!

Pollycat

Having Googled, I can't find Scrimpers.

Can anyone post a link please.

-taff

https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+scrimpers

pollyanna_26

thriftwizard said:

Scrimpers was good! I've been trying to remember the name of the series for ages. Wasn't there one where a guy had built a rather lovely country-style kitchen entirely out of pallet-wood? Asking as DD2's just built herself a bed out of bits of leftover timber she found in the garage; she'd find it quite inspiring.

This may be the answer to something I've been trying to remember for years. A series possibly 80s or 90s very much make do and mend. It was so long ago I recorded it on video which later went to the charity shop when dvd arrived.

It really was a useful series when you're an environmentalist trying to reuse , recycle and reduce.

I remember the sheer horror of Mrs Moneypenny in fact a certain member of the current cabinet reminds me of her. Singing "I've had the time of my life" at the conference in Manchester isn't a good look in the current situation.

I've watched some of Eat well for less but agree they usually feature families with more money than sense. Greg Wallace is pretty annoying imo. His sidekick seems to be the one putting all the effort in. I was flicking through the channels a while back and noticed a more normal episode with a mum with a son with disabilities who struggled with certain textures and tastes of food so she was buying ready meals etc.

The meal they made was a Vegetarian Lentil Cottage Pie which the son enjoyed. Enough servings for another day as it could be kept in the fridge for a few days. I actually copied that recipe from the BBC website with two veggies in the family,one of whom is practically vegan but not able to be 100% on Drs orders.

I initially watched Sarah Beeny when she was doing normal diy and decorating but as series went on it became obvious there was a lot more money invested in projects than we were led to believe and she was climbing the ladder to reach that huge home. I don't mind anyone moving up in life but don't portray it as something any of us could do.

I took away one useful tip from all her series the Christmas one and have used it ever since. I always make a Christmas wreath for the front door each year with garden greenery , ribbons and baubles. We're right on the coast with winds whipping in over the Irish Sea so often baubles would be flying all over the place.

Her solution was those big heavy duty paper clips, I bought the silver ones. Opened out threaded through the hole in a bauble then closed when on the wreath I haven't had a bauble come adrift since. 

I watched both Down to Earth and the following series when they were living somewhere else. The first series was good bringing the living lightly on the earth message to those not so aware years ago. I still have that book. The second building a water wheel and working on a huge site which wasn't their home wasn't so convincing. More like playing the gentleman farmer than anything i could relate to.

I still think the first series opened many peoples eyes but not the second. I remember two brothers from Manchester who had a blog then wrote a book  a sort of scrimpers guide to growing your own,making use of various things for planters etc and living lightly on the earth while foraging and making use of things they skip dived for rather than let them go to landfill. They are my kind of people.

Handy Andy was my kind of person too  along with Ana White whose blog I came across by accident. A woman in America making her own furniture very simply and cheaply. I bought her book and made some of those things for very little.

I'm going to be haunted by the orange outfit all day now. I thought I'd buried that a long time ago. At such times I'm grateful people like her aren't family. I'd have sailed away in a pea green boat long ago if they were.

 

if I hadn't been woken from sleep by the air,sea rescue helicopter I would probably have missed this thread. Thank you all for the memories. Whenever I hear the helicopter and sirens I don't settle until the Lifeboat station sends out the hopefully all clear.

My dad served in the Royal Navy during WW2 escorting the convoys before I was born. He used to take us to the annual memorial to those lost on convoy duty and we learned the words of "The Sailors Hymn" so  "For those in peril on the sea" always comes to mind.

pollyx

pollyanna_26

I've already edited my post once and my cog is missing now. Forgot to mention Down to Earth was the Strawbridge family.

pollyx

-taff

If you refresh the page, your cog comes back.

Rosa_Damascena

My favourite is BBC's Spendaholics, hands down! So entertaining but I only really watch these programmes (and Greg Wallace, tbf) through fascination at their stupidity. I once applied for such a show but was rejected by the researcher as my only real treat at the time was the occasional coffee out.

I've met Miss Moneypenny in real life and she's actually lovely.