2022 Frugal Living Challenge

RateTartExtraordinaire

@willow_loulou The plant pot idea for gifts it a good one.

Glad to hear you are picking up bread from your Olio lady

I'm sure you can freeze avocados. I've not tried it but I would cut them open and take out the stone first.

Primrose

I,ve never frozen avocados either but would certainly  also recommend opening them first to check they,re ok.   Several  of those we,ve bought recently, although looking perfectly fine on the outside, have had black flesh inside which was totally inedible. You don't want to be wasting freezer space on foods which are not fit for purpose. 

Hopefuljoy

@willow_loulou. It worked out really well! She went round pointing out things she would normally buy and I added them up on my phone. At the end it came to 64.99 for a shop for 4 people including cleaning and personal hygiene and she said that is a whopping 30% saving per week! She is converted and is going to shop there from now on. She was really surprised and impressed. 

Floss

bargainbetty said:

Wraithlady said:

zafiro1984 said:

We have several lights on sensors, downstairs cloakroom, all the bathrooms, freezer room, hall, landing. I'm sure there are more. When you open the door a sensor detects you and the light automatically goes on, after leaving the room it stays on for a couple of minutes and then goes off. The downside to this is that if you keep still for a period of time, the light goes off. 

I do have memories of staying with a friend in a student house and every 30 minutes or so they would stand up and wave their arms then sit down - the landlord had installed that type of light in the sitting/common room and the students had quickly developed this behaviour to prevent suddenly being sat in the dark

I worked in a law firm with these sensor lights, and it was hilarious watching the solicitors do it. 

We have them in our office - cue much wheeling backwards / around on their chairs by the Deputy CEO & Exec Board to trigger the sensors 😁

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Apparently avocado flesh can be frozen - I was very pleased to hear that as it makes making guacamole easier & less wasteful 🙂

newlywed

RateTartExtraodinaire said:

I picked up an Olio sm pick up from Tsco  from another volunteer as a one-off.
I am looking to save it all from landfill but only one person has picked up anything so far and there was a bumper load of bread and baguettes.
Baguettes stay don't fresh past the day for me, but how long is it reasonable to list it for on Olio? One day/ two days?

I'm thinking I can use some of the bread for lunch, bread crumbs and maybe baguette pizza tonight if no one picks it up. I've got a v. small freezer so only room for a couple of loaves.

Stale baguettes make lovely bread pudding and bread and butter pudding too. Lovely and chewy!

cw18

2Scratters said:

@cw18 when your lovely machine arrives OR before if there is access to the technical instructions about the WM please read them. I've only just read mine 11 months down the line  why would you we know how these machines work right? Clearly not. When reading all the programmes and some "quick programmes" mine does not take the full load - only half  that explains some issues I have had. We are on water meter and that was to be factored in too. However the "energi" labels say different to the information booklet. We are talking 15 litres different per wash on the programme you expect will be using the most. I will be sending them an email and the local shop I purchased from too are to get a visit 

Read (and downloaded for re-reading) before I ordered

Also downloaded the manual for my 22 year-old machine as I started to look for a replacement, so that I had data to compare against.   An awful lot in it that I didn't recall - if I'd ever read it before!!!    The machine before that was the same make, and just a smaller capacity model of the model I'm now replacing, so it's possible I relied on remembering the manual for that one (which I'd had for about 5 years).


Is it possible your machine is using more water than you'd expected because you're putting in more washing than the load is supposed to take for the cycle?  Both my current and new machines weigh the load to decide how much water to add to the drum.

spudsmum

Hi all, 

Been AWOL as super busy but Still frugaling on here. 

Car goes in for Mot on Wednesday and I'm pretty nervous - I had a pre mot done and he found a few things but some were little niggly bits so hoping it's not going to cost a fortune. He did say that taking into account the mileage, age and general condition it was still worth having it done in his opinion so I have to trust that and hope he's right. After previous repairs I have only £160 in my car account and £200 in my emergency fund so anything above will sadly need to go on Cc. 

Twins birthday is almost sorted - spent about 10 on some Poundland tat (they love balloons, glowsticks and bubbles so bought those and some sweets) just so they'll have something to open on the day. After school we'll put the music on, turn out the lights and have a bit of a glow party which they'll love and then we're away for the night at the weekend - providing I get my car back of course. Nanna and both aunties are giving money so they can treat themselves while we're away so hopefully it will be minimal outlay for me. . 

I got some plain bunting which I'll jazz up with some stickers we already have to decorate the lounge and I'll also be making a cake but other than the icing I have all the ingredients in my stores. Luckily they are still of the age where they are not want big expensive presents and parties. 

In other news got myself a gorgeous NEXT pink Hoodie from charity shop - unworn and only 50p - bargain! 

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,
@cw18 -thanks for your response. I probably didn't make it very clear about the water consumption (I do get what you are saying about the overload and it using more as needed) my point was about the stickers that are stuck on the machines in store advertising the features that gives  brief information i.e on performance, cost and others. I still have mine that would have been used and it is indicative that an 8kg load would use 47 litres of water when in the booklet it states it using 62 litres for that programme, hope that helps.

2Scratters xx

willow_loulou

Can anyone suggest a food container that’s for wet food like soups. I can’t open takeaway type containers easily. I’m sure they used to do a screw top type thing. Doesn’t need to be thermal