2022 Frugal Living Challenge

bupster

@cw18 you're right, the 'flask trick' doesn't save anything at all. It costs about six pence to boil a litre of water which will fill a flask and give you 3-4 cups of lukewarm, funny tasting tea. It costs 1-2 pence to boil just enough for a cup. Lots of good ideas on this thread but making a flask of tea isn't one of them. Add in the cost of the flask and you've made an outright loss - even if you allow for reboiling some water every time you'd have to drink flasks of tea for two-three years to recoup the difference. 

willow_loulou

Flasks are great if like me you’re often unwell And in bed a lot of the day. It’s a blessing to have hot chocolate or coffee to hand. 

I have a large mug sized travel mug with a handle these days that serves me well.
But I agree the filling the flask is a bit of a false economy as tea particularly isn’t great in them. Obviously frugal for going out compared to coffee shops though. It’s worth having keeping one around if you have one. 

kayannie

A flask is useful for those (probably very few) times that you end up boiling more water than you need. Even a small amount is better saved in a flask to be used later, rather than letting it grow cold in the kettle. I keep a small flask by the kettle for that purpose.
KA

cw18

kayannie said:

A flask is useful for those (probably very few) times that you end up boiling more water than you need. Even a small amount is better saved in a flask to be used later, rather than letting it grow cold in the kettle. I keep a small flask by the kettle for that purpose.
KA

The problem with this is that a part filled flask cools down much more quickly than a full one, so the chances are I'd have to reboil the water anyway.   But yes, it would possibly be slightly warmer than had it been left in the kettle - and that would reduce the cost of boiling for the next brew by a tiny amount.    I'm not convinced it would benefit me much, given it's around 10 hours between my first and second kettle boils of the day (out at work between times).

willow_loulou said:

Flasks are great if like me you’re often unwell And in bed a lot of the day. It’s a blessing to have hot chocolate or coffee to hand.

That is a different situation to many though, and I fully accept the merit of a flask under those circumstances.

bupster said:

Add in the cost of the flask and you've made an outright loss

I own flasks anyway - we use them when we have long days out.   We tend to take a flask of freshly boiled water (having pre-warmed the flask before filling it which uses more hot water!), then a couple of Earl Grey tea bags (water doesn't need to be as hot, and no milk required) for the first brew and small tubs of instant coffee, and coffee whitener plus my sweeteners for a second (never hot enough for anything but coffee or hot squash once you've left the flask with a quantity of air in it).   I have several sizes as hubby used to take when he went out with a rambling club, and he had a smaller one when it was only him joined them, and larger ones for when he took one or more of the kids along.

zafiro1984

Hi everyone, I've just been working my way through the postings and sorry not to have joined in.

It's not been a good week, nothing to do with being frugal. My DH fell off a 'workmate' in the hall, just two feet and banged his head and neck. He was in A&E within 40mins, processed very quickly. He has a broken neck. It did not sever the spinal cord - fortunately. There's not a lot more to add except to say frugalism is not top of my list at the moment.  
I'm living on adrenalin and very tired. I've been quite humbled at the amount of help offered by friends to do with the animals but I don't want to impose unless I'm desperate.

I'll keep reading the postings. 

cw18

zafiro1984 said:

There's not a lot more to add except to say frugalism is not top of my list at the moment. 

Take care of yourself AND your DH.
Please accept offers of help.   I'm sure friends want to help and show you how much they care about you both, so accepting will be good for them as well as you.

Bluegreen143

@zafiro1984 I’m so sorry, sending love to you and I hope your husband is recovering. 

Please do accept help with your animals (if the help offered is of a useful sort - appreciate not all offered help IS useful). 

You are not imposing. Accepting offers of help bonds relationships together in difficult times and benefits the other person as much as it does you (nobody wants to stand by helplessly when someone they care about needs support), so you do not need to feel bad in any way. We were built to exist in community, not to try to manage alone. 

bear14

So sorry to hear about your husband @zafiro1984. Wishing him a speedy recovery. My dad managed to break his neck in a road accident and after surgery he is back to his old self. Just telling you this to show you there is hope. 

YoungBlueEyes

Sending hugs and hopes for a speedy recovery from me too. 

Another little story for you - years ago I worked in a rugby club and my boss took part in an iron man. I can’t remember now how it happened but he broke his neck and smashed his face in. The docs were more concerned about his shattered eye socket and the discs in his neck than his broken neck, because his spinal chord was ok. 

If you can, do accept the help offered by your friends. It might give them some peace to help, and frees you up for your husband 🙂

Edit - Sorry I should’ve said, ex boss is fine now! 

retiredinfrance

Big hugs, Zafiro1984, and Bon courage!