Do you have a secret trick?

gettingthrifty

Loving this thread 

JIL

If you want to impress guests, buy mini brownies, a pack of strawberries or raspberries and a bar of white chocolate in a 0plastic wrapper.
Top the brownies with a raspberry or piece of strawberry. Pop the white chocolate in its waterproof wrapper into warm water to melt it.
Snip the corner off the chocolate and go backwards and forwards making lines over the fruit and brownies.
You can also use this method to write names in chocolate.

Use an empty egg box with pieces of charcoal in where the eggs go, to light the bbq.

YoungBlueEyes

I used to work in an olde worlde pub that had 2 proper fires. For fire lighters we used loo roll inner tubes stuffed with tumble drier fluff. Customers would bring in their tubes, and one fellah brought in the dog hair he got after he’d brushed his huskie. I tried the hair once. Once. 

-taff

Put your flour in the freezer for a few daysto kill the beasties off, it will last for far longer than you think. Put it in a ziplock bag and you can leave it in there for months. And it's still dry when you take it out.

Keep a jar of odds and ends of packets of pasta, chuck it in soups or stews or make a macaroni cheese with it, doesn't really matter about the shape. Add some sweetcorn and smoked sausage if you feel daring...

Always check quidco or topcashback before you buy anything from anywhere...and watch out ofr 80% off ebay fees before you list anything, set your sales up to go live at a future date so they're already ready when the offer comes up.

Green_hopeful

We put our washing on hangers before hanging it out in the winter. Then hang them on the whirligig. If it rains it takes a couple of seconds to fetch it in. We then hang it in the airing cupboard to finish it off and then straight into the wardrobe for tops etc. also saves freezing to death whilst you peg it out. Mostly we can dry our washing outside and save adding moisture to the house. 

YoungBlueEyes

I like the odds and sods of pasta idea, I’m having that @taff 😊

Putting washing on hangers is such a time saver. I don’t iron anything, but I smooth and gently tug shirts + tops etc before I hang them out, really makes a difference. 

Longwalker

YoungBlueEyes said:

I used to work in an olde worlde pub that had 2 proper fires. For fire lighters we used loo roll inner tubes stuffed with tumble drier fluff. Customers would bring in their tubes, and one fellah brought in the dog hair he got after he’d brushed his huskie. I tried the hair once. Once. 

I do this, also if there really is nothing to light the fire, then a cotton wool ball doused in nail varnish remover 

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh I love the smell of nail varnish remover, the old acetone stuff. I could almost drink it ha haa!

Mistral001

I have a way of keeping savoy cabbages fresh.  The trick is to treat them like a bunch of  cut flowers.  Just half fill a large cereal bowl with water and put the cabbsge in it.  It will grow roots within a few days and stay fresh for weeks.  Great for people living alone as you can take a few leaves off whenever you want and not have to throw any of it out or have cabbage every day for a four or five days. 

It works best if the cabbage's stalk has not been cut right up to the leaves so that a little bit of the stalk is left.  The stalk only needs to be a few mm long for it to work perfectly.  The cabbage has also to be fairly fresh - if the end of the stalk is dry or discoloured, roots will not grow. 

I have actually put a cabbage in a bowl of water like this and left it in a room and forgotten about it for a month only to find that the cabbage is still fresh. 

YoungBlueEyes

Jeez that’s a good one. Have you tried it with something other than cabbage? Wondering if it’ll work for my lettuce…