Sneaky ways to save the pennies

Olliebeak

Don't worrry about it Nomoneymummy! I don't actually shop in shops where you get to ask for things - BUT I'm straight in there when the bread is reduced in the supermarket at the end of the day.

I've now got built-in radar for yellow stickers/whoopsies - can sense one at 30 paces :rotfl: - head down, elbows out and straight ahead with the trolley .

Only joking really - I'm not THAT competitive when it comes to whoopsie hunting - I will share if there's somebody else after the same as me and there's more than one of something .

Nomoneymummy_2

Olliebeak, I'm not that far from Lpool (closest La Tasca to me... love that place)

But Newton is an odd little village/town place where a few shops still do "on tick" and theres a flea market every saturday etc, I lived in Manchester for years before having the kids and sometimes feels like a big step back in time round here!!

thursday

zombiecazz wrote: »

i often use 1 teabag for 2 cups of tea.
i hardly ever make burgers or meatballs , as I prefer to bulk out my mince with heaps of veg and beans.

I do 1 teabag for 2 sometimes 3 cups of tea; coleague of mine at work noted once "war is over, you know...":rolleyes:

Shereen

larmy16 wrote: »

Can anyone come up with another use for body lotion? I have quite a bit from old Christmas presents etc.

It can be used in place of shaving gel - you just need to rinse your razor well in between strokes.

Confuzzled

Nomoneymummy wrote: »

<slightly ashamed at cheapness now!!>

why should YOU be ashamed? i think companies (big ones at least) should be ashamed for throwing perfectly edible things in skips rather than giving them to shelters to feed the poor or marking things down cheap enough that they will def sell rather than be picked over all day...

you have nothing to be ashamed of, i'm sure i'm not the only one here that shares that sentiment

zippychick

Nomoneymummy wrote: »

Hoping this doesn't sound terribly nutty/cheap, asking in shops for brown bananas ( muffins and banana bread!) and OOD bread (toast, breadcrumbs b&b pudding and ducks!)

Most more than half price it or give away free, its never on display but if you find nice shop staff (obv not over mithered) there normally happy to help...

Most local shops round here specially put aside "duck bread!" for people who come in and ask.. and the farm shops do the same.

Never told the OH about this but did it with my mum in tow the other week and she looked at me like I'd lost the plot... then offered a loan if we were struggling.... did try to explain to her it drives me mad that it gets skipped at the end of the night but she really didn't get it.

Ohh farm shops also do this with most veg so if its for soups no one would notice!!!

<slightly ashamed at cheapness now!!>

That's a brilliant idea! Why shouldn't you ask? Although, I can imagine your Mothers face.:rotfl: Mine would probably run away incredibly embarassed and ask if I had money problems too! I wish i could activate the button inside my Mum that made her care about waste. But she thinks nothing of throwing food out. I made her watch Econ Gastronomy, and while she loved it, she thought it required too many odd ingredients (I was brought up on very simple hearty food , none of this herbs and spices business). :rolleyes:

She text me while it was on saying "isnt it funny, I was just binning grapes and there she says about using them up". I have challenged her to write down what she throws out for two weeks but she can't be bothered. I was trying to show her how much money she is throwing down the drain but she doesn't seem to get it! She goes shopping with no list, and tends to food shop in Marks (not that she can afford it), so I guess it would be fair to say she is a food snob. :mad:

One day we were in Marks and I spotted YS grapes. Then she seen them in my trolley "ooooo where did you get those?" So she got some - but text me days later to say they weren't that nice. I still had mine weeks later and thought they were lovely - but my Mum would have binned them on use by date. It's psychological - she knew they were YS. I've gave her portions of my stew/spag bol etc , and would never tell her I use value tomatoes, lentils to bulk out and frozen veg sometimes. She would "taste it" if she knew. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. As a kid she tried to con me into eating cheap stuff, now we seem to have reversed roles

Sorry, went into a bit of a rant there but i wish she could see the madness of how much she spends (and wastes) on food. Once I challenged her to buy value oats instead of the posh porridge oats in a box, but she wouldn't :rotfl:

Rant over.:D

Frugalista

Nomoneymummy wrote: »

Hoping this doesn't sound terribly nutty/cheap, asking in shops for brown bananas ( muffins and banana bread!) and OOD bread (toast, breadcrumbs b&b pudding and ducks!)

Most more than half price it or give away free, its never on display but if you find nice shop staff (obv not over mithered) there normally happy to help...

Most local shops round here specially put aside "duck bread!" for people who come in and ask.. and the farm shops do the same.

Never told the OH about this but did it with my mum in tow the other week and she looked at me like I'd lost the plot... then offered a loan if we were struggling.... did try to explain to her it drives me mad that it gets skipped at the end of the night but she really didn't get it.

Ohh farm shops also do this with most veg so if its for soups no one would notice!!!

<slightly ashamed at cheapness now!!>

Don't you dare feel ashamed - you should feel proud of your thriftiness :T.

Once, when we visited the Birmingham outdoor markets, I saw one of the stallholders chucking out loads of brown bananas - so I asked if I could have them . My OH, MIL and sister walked away because they were embarassed . They weren't too embarassed to ask me for one of the 24 jars of chutney I made with them though :rolleyes:.

pennystretcher

Nomoneymummy wrote: »

Most local shops round here specially put aside "duck bread!" for people who come in and ask.. and the farm shops do the same.

--
<slightly ashamed at cheapness now!!>

Great information - I never knew that! And 'duck bread' could also be used to make bread crumbs! :T :T

Definitely no need to be ashamed! :T

Nomoneymummy_2

Ohh its nice not to be thought of as crazy!!!

Find it really odd that frugal living seems to have skipped an entire genaration,
My nan would think nothing of going into charity shoops and using OOD food etc but both my mum and dad are really wastefull, where as I'm a cheap !!!!!! I'll gladly use up OOD stuff and go by smell/taste, not bothered if veg is past its best as will use that in soups or stews... do draw the line of cutting the mold of the bread though as a friend of mine mentioned she does, but then again I've normally used it up long before it has chance to mold because I meal plan....:rolleyes:

I asked my mum what her shopping bill is now and its £130 a week roughly, for 2 of them:eek:, SHe was shocked when I said we try to spend less than £60 on 4 of us esp as I cook big full meals every night whereas she'll use ready prep food etc.... plus I often have extra kids over for tea and send her dinner once a week!

She is a great cook though when she gets time and did do the frugal thing when me and siblings were younger so maybe she's just enjoying being able to spend now were all not draining her resources!!!!

Got toasted teacakes, crumpets and 2 loafs of brown bread that were just on there sell by date yesterday from work!! Were all meant for the skip but are now in my freezer ready for weekend treats!!!:T:rotfl:

Frugalista I'd have done the same over the brown bananas, the ones I got this week never made it into muffins as the youngest scoffed the lot within 3 days, someone told her the brown bits were better for her so she loves them!!!:rotfl:

Was told by the lady at the farm that they take home lots of veg that the mice have nibbled, she says they cant sell them so she just chops away the bits the mice have got to and uses the rest!!! Not sure if I'd do that but obv not doing her any harm she's been going years!!! :j

GettingHitched

^^^^

My mum is the same...Waitrose or nothing...yet when we were kids it was all Value...