Sneaky ways to save the pennies

freezspirit

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought oh thats interesting then it reminded me of what my mum used to do when I was in primary school:

Dad was the breadwinner in the family but had to hand over all his wages to mum, she would then give him his pocket money for the week usually in £5 notes around £20. But here's how clever mum was would gave him his pocket money on monday by the weekend she would go through his clothes pockets to take back all the lose coin change.

Then with the lose change, the coppers would go in the jar ready for a charity, 5p-10p coins were put in a jar for my pocket money, 20p-50p-£1 would go in a jar for my school meals/school trip fund.

It worked really well. Then as the years went on the idea got modificed depending on the needs. Now jump many years it still sort of happens with dad's pension that goes into the joint account then he asks mum for his spending money, now he puts the coppers straight into the charity jar everytime he comes back from shopping etc but gets to keep all the over coinage.

Some people on the thread mentioned putting store brand food in branded packaging. Dad doesn't mind mum buying store branded goods but his bread has to be a particular brand and he doesn't mind paying £1.70 for it.

minimee_2

If you need to just cook something small in the oven, like chips, or a pasta meal etc, fill the rest of the oven up with pans and baking trays etc. This stops the oven using as much energy to fill such a large space.

If your potatoes are starting to go a bit soft, peel them, and dice them, and freeze them in a bag. Then when you make a curry, or lasagne, fry them off, and plop them in!

angela110660

freezspirit wrote: »

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought oh thats interesting then it reminded me of what my mum used to do when I was in primary school:

Dad was the breadwinner in the family but had to hand over all his wages to mum, she would then give him his pocket money for the week usually in £5 notes around £20. But here's how clever mum was would gave him his pocket money on monday by the weekend she would go through his clothes pockets to take back all the lose coin change.

Then with the lose change, the coppers would go in the jar ready for a charity, 5p-10p coins were put in a jar for my pocket money, 20p-50p-£1 would go in a jar for my school meals/school trip fund.

It worked really well. Then as the years went on the idea got modificed depending on the needs. Now jump many years it still sort of happens with dad's pension that goes into the joint account then he asks mum for his spending money, now he puts the coppers straight into the charity jar everytime he comes back from shopping etc but gets to keep all the over coinage.

Some people on the thread mentioned putting store brand food in branded packaging. Dad doesn't mind mum buying store branded goods but his bread has to be a particular brand and he doesn't mind paying £1.70 for it.

I knew someone who saved out of his pension each week for the grandkids birthdays by putting pound coins in Steradent tubes for each of them.

shazzle

angela110660 wrote: »

I knew someone who saved out of his pension each week for the grandkids birthdays by putting pound coins in Steradent tubes for each of them.

My Grandy used to do that too... it bought a tear to my eye x

Aril

When you are baking make sure you've done as much prep as possible before switching the oven on. This morning I had already fully made my flapjacks so they were ready to go in, greased and lined all the necessary trays and got out all the equipment and ingredients for my cake before I turned it on. That way it took me as long as the oven needed to heat up to make my cake mix and as the light went off as it reached temperature I was able to fill all the trays:j
Aril

DdraigGoch

We are in the process of renovating our home, so, instead of installing an ensuite loo/washbasin the normal way, which would cost £thousands and £thousands, due to vast electrical/plumbing/sewage alterations, we're considering setting up a "caravan bathroom". As the fitments will not be connected to either water or electricity, this one bright idea will help enable us to get work done! [Any suggestions about layout/products very welcome]

Confuzzled

so how is everyone enjoying the 'hottest day of the year' (according to the weatherman!)?

we've been out heavily watering the peas and tomatoes... the peas are full of flowers and i just can't wait for there to be peas to eat, alas no matter how i tried searching i couldnt' come up with even an approximation of how long between flowers and edible peas... anyone know?

also in my googlings today i found a great site on foraging called Eat Weeds http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/ if you look on the right hand side he offers his Classic Wild Foods Collection, just put in your email (it signs you up to the newsletter for his blog) and you get an email with the link to the pdf files that you can save or just read from there. absolutely free and no spam mail so i thought i'd share it with you.

also feeling inspired by this i decided to go ahead and use some of the amazon vouchers i have earned from surveys to buy the big version (with drawings AND photos ) of richard mabey's "foods for free' book
i already have the pocket guide but i wanted the big one because of the photos, just to be on the safe side

i've placed another order from approved foods and one from asda online and after that i vow to not spend more than 5 quid a week (for fresh fruit and eggs when we run out) for as long as i can get away with it. my cupboards are now well stocked and i'm hoping that i can get away with my inital spend of 55quid from asda, 25 from approved foods. that coupled with what i have at home already should mean i can live on my 5 quid a week for i'm hoping at least 8 weeks thereafter (if i've judged well enough to order enough uht milk) thats for me and a very fruit frenzied nearly 8 year old daughter.

after the 8 weeks i may need a top up spend for bulk items like milk but it won't be that much, i'm hoping to eventually get us down to shopping online once every 6 weeks and then living on 3-5 quid top ups of fresh fruit per week (i'm content with our home grown veg and frozen veg as part of the asda shops online)

so, i'm hoping that the foods for free book will help with the fresh things a bit even if it's mostly veg and it will be a good lesson for my home educated daughter as well, and hey i like foraging it's a mini adventure so it's fun!

anyway i found out today that ash keys are edible and i was wondering if anyone knows if sycamore and/or field maple keys are also edible? i know of a few sycamores and field maples nearby (not sure about the ash) and had already been wondering if one could eat them or not....

Stephen_Leak

SunnyGirl wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I've not posted on this thread for ages but I have been reading it. The thing about your DS's jeans made me laugh. My DS1 & DS2 both wear jeans like that and also halfway down their behinds - I always tell them that I don't want to see their boxers :rolleyes: I just get the 'oh Mum you've no idea about fashion' look from them.

Tell them where the "fashion" comes from. It's US prisons, and indicates that they - how can I put this delicately - "take it up the *rs*". :eek:

grandmasam

SunnyGirl wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I've not posted on this thread for ages but I have been reading it. The thing about your DS's jeans made me laugh. My DS1 & DS2 both wear jeans like that and also halfway down their behinds - I always tell them that I don't want to see their boxers :rolleyes: I just get the 'oh Mum you've no idea about fashion' look from them.

Oh i love that others feel the same! walking down the local high st ,a lad about 20 came out of a shop in front of me, as he turned to walk in front ,i couldn't help but burst out laughing. He turned and i quickly apologised and explained that he looked just like my grandson,[18mths]from the back ,who has 'soggy saggy nappy syndrome' :rotfl::rotfl:

He pulled up his jeans very fast,grinned sheepishly, and walked off!
I think he will be on the lookout for me in future.:D

caz

Shortie

grandmasam wrote: »

he looked just like my grandson,[18mths]from the back ,who has 'soggy saggy nappy syndrome' :rotfl::rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl:

I love it' - think I'll have to refert o my 23 month old like that now too!

:rotfl::rotfl: