Money Saving gone TOO far?

helyg

Miss_Piggy wrote: »

Ok, I've been scanning threads, picking up tips, asking questions etc. All in the aim of saving money in the coming winter.

BUT tonight I actually asked my OH to cut the plug off the tumble dryer! I fugure I use it too much, its the easy option. So...no more!!!

My rotary line is in the lawn which is in a shaded area of the garden. No way of moving it. So I'm going to get a retractable line to go from the garage to the fence...an area which always catches the sun.

Just makes me wonder though....has anyone else done anything extreme to save money???

Miss P
xx

Wouldn't it be more MSE to sell it than keep it in the house doing nothing?

I have to admit that I have a tumble dryer, but I use it as little as possible. It is handy to have in emergencies, but most of the time I can get my washing dry either outside or on airers in the kitchen and over the bath. Bear in mind we are a family of 5 living in rainy wales!

anguk

nannyboo1 wrote: »

Very drastic but I think I may have to resort to that as since I have had a tumbler my electric bill has been huge over a winter and i am tempted to see it for easiness apart from in the summer as I hate drying on the radiators.

We went last year to Wales to the Centre for Alternative Technology and saw a brilliant thing a cover for the rotary dryer. I have a link but am not sure if I am allowed to post links to products so I won't but if I am trying to save money it seems wrong paying out about £40 - £50 but then I think of what I could save if I bought one

Was it one of these:
http://www.rotaire.com/

They seem like a really good idea and while they are quite expensive I'm sure you'd save that amount by not using a tumbler for a year. I've got a line in the back yard but next year I'm going to get a high fence around my small front garden (it's on a main road but south facing) so I think I'll get a rotary airer and one of those covers.

MrsBartolozzi

I like the look of the cover for the washing line, but I'm not so sure how good it would be against the horizontal rain we get here!!
I also imagine the splashing of the rain on muddy grass might dirty longer items?
I'd be interested in hearing from someone who owns one. Anyone?

helyg

I don't know if was that one, but if they are using it at the Centre for Alternative Energy (which is just up the road from me) then it must be able to contend with serious and often horizontal rain!

PS just had a look on the site and it does seem to be that one: http://www.rotaire.com/FAQ.htm#

nannyboo1

anguk wrote: »

Was it one of these:
http://www.rotaire.com/

They seem like a really good idea and while they are quite expensive I'm sure you'd save that amount by not using a tumbler for a year. I've got a line in the back yard but next year I'm going to get a high fence around my small front garden (it's on a main road but south facing) so I think I'll get a rotary airer and one of those covers.

Yes that the one I am seriously thinking about it as I am not supposed to have the tumble dryer working in the kitchen due to being a childminder health and safety blah blah so logically use one of these and finish off overnight if needed on the clothes horse and then just use the tumble dryer for towels and bedding and cut the use down by half a third just need to get some more children in to pay for the thing (what's the betting it doesn't fit my dryer lol)

twiglet98

Olliebeak wrote: »

I had kept lots of veg peelings in a bag in the freezer (carrots, swede, parsnips, trimmings from broccoli, cauli, leeks, outside leaves from cabbage - you need to make sure that there's nothing 'yukky' about them though.

Same with the chicken carcasses, just keep adding them to the bag when I've finished with them after a roast meal. I wait till I've got about four of them, break them up into the SC and add boiling water and leave them all day. At the end of the day, I remove the bones and pick off any decent pieces of chicken remaining. Let the stock cool, put into large margarine tubs and then freeze till I want to use it. Some people like to roast the chicken carcasses for a while before boiling them, as it's supposed to intensify the chicken flavour.

When I'm ready to make my soup, I defrost everything overnight. Sweat the veggie bits in vegetable oil in a large pan to soften them/start the cooking process, then put the veggie bits into the SC (or a big deep pan), bring the chicken stock to the boil and pour over the veggies - you can also add any extra veggies that are going past their best - especially celery. If it's the SC I leave them all day (if it's on the hob you can check after about half an hour to see if everything is cooked). If it looks too watery, you can add some lentils to it as these help to thicken up any soups.

Worth checking the seasoning at this stage to see if it 'needs anything' added. Salt, pepper, peppercorns, dried mixed herbs (or fresh herbs) and my favourite - celery salt.

When it's all cooked, I allow it to cool and then 'whizzie' it in small batches.



Another soup that I make is Pea and Ham from the stock off a cooked gammon shank along with a box of dried peas (the kind you buy for mushy peas)that have been soaked overnight, half a pack of yellow split peas and a couple of chopped onions.

Oooh, thank you so much, I'm going to get a slow cooker - what size for 4 greedy adults and a picky teenage girl? Is it best to get a big one, say 6.5 litre, and be able to have leftovers for next day's lunch, or freezing, or to get a 4.5 litre and pad out with side vegetables? I am pushed for cupboard space as it is, but I don't suppose a small one will be much easier to find room for than a big one. Any preference between chrome or white (or black) - do they get hot on the outside? Are they a pain to clean?

Only problem I foresee is that having taken AGES to train the 'kids' (in their 20s) to put veg peelings in the bowl that gets emptied into the compost bin, I may have great trouble getting them round to the concept of freezing the peelings instead...!

Olliebeak

I'd go for the 6.5 if I were you. You may get some left-overs for the freezer - on the other hand with hungry adults around, you may not :rotfl:.

Good Luck . - Ollie xx

laurel7172

We had some runner beans in the veg delivery this week.

I loathe runner beans. But I decided not to waste them, so I cut them up small and stewed them overnight in the slow cooker with tomatoes and garlic.

In the morning, they were still tough, stringy and completely inedible. But I was so annoyed at myself for having thrown good food after bad that I rubbed the whole lot through a sieve and used the beany tomatoey stocky thing that resulted to make some (finally) rather yummy home made baked beans. It took ages...muttering all the while. I've made sure runner beans are on my "don't want ever" list now...

culpepper

I was going through the compost bins at the weekend and found that the potato peelings had sprouted since the spring and there were a collection of dinky little new potatoes that had grown from them.
Anyway I rescued them for tomorrows stew.
On sunday in Asdas I notice rather smugly,that the woman in front had a package of new potatoes just like them only they would have cost about 100 times more :P

Justamum

culpepper wrote: »

I was going through the compost bins at the weekend and found that the potato peelings had sprouted since the spring and there were a collection of dinky little new potatoes that had grown from them.
Anyway I rescued them for tomorrows stew.

I read somewhere that during the war people used to grow potatoes from peelings which had the eye left in them. A friend of mine has done this before now too.