Sneaky ways to save the pennies

StrawberryYogurt

Oh just to say to any other new people that may have missed a tip I read that seems to be a great start!

I am new to trying to reign in our waste and live a lot more frugally. But as a starter, whilst I pick up more and more ways that suit my family, I read a tip that I am going to do and that is shop one day later every week I know its not a drumroll moment, but for us it will make a huge difference, being forced to use up stuff that just lives in the cupboard doing nothing will really help. I cant wait to see what meals I come up with on those days! LOL Poor hubby and Kids! haha!

It will be a bit of a pain as during the week we will have to go evenings shopping most likely..but its a start

Oh and happy to report ALL toilet rolls freshly squished! lol

Desperate+Depressed

Thanks for you ideas! :T

x

ceebeeby

StrawberryYogurt wrote: »

Oh and happy to report ALL toilet rolls freshly squished! lol

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: It's one of the first things we all do when we become members on this thread!

dizzyb99_2

:eek:

pennystretcher wrote: »

New ones every year? You are kidding! I have all old ones left and wouldn't dream of buying new ones every year. I buy ONE new decoration every now and then - to remind me of the year.

My parents still have (and use) silver candle holders for the Xmas tree - yes - they hold real candles and look very nice! And because they are so old, they have sentimental value....and they still hang up the decorations I made from sour dough when I was a toddler! :T I love old family stuff that has memories linked to it!!!!!!

I buy one new one each year for both of my DS's so that when they leave home they have their own decorations to start off their own trees. Quite often they have chosen them when we have been somewhere special so that they have their own memories attached to them. I also buy one for myself as I realised when they take their decs my tree will look pretty bare:o.
I have done this for the past ten years or so and thought it was a really neat idea until a friend pointed out that they may not fit the girlfriends colour scheme (my boys were about 5 and 7 at the time):eek:

Mrs_Thrify

I worked out yesterday that we are using about £5 in duel fuel per day with CH on for 4 hours per day.
I keep trying with the electric to cut down but with 4 adults that have diffrent views..... guess who pays the BILL?
I know, keep trying to educate everyone into turning the electric off.

This morning I did my usual trick of filling the kettle with a measure of 1 mug of water for 1 coffee for OH as he got up. Guess what? when MY BACK WAS TURNED HE FILLED THE KETTLE UP????
I questioned this when I relised what he had done and he said it was for if other people needed a cup - other 2 adults in house still asleep.

Keep trying and turning the lights off...Julie.

rosemary54

ceebeeby wrote: »

Hi D&D,

This is the Old Style Forum Link:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

but you can find it a number of different ways by going up to the Forums tab at the top as well.

All the people on there are hugely helpful, and could help you make a delicious meal out of a mouldy banana if necessary!!! Seriously, they're very very good!


If you wanted to have a peek at mine specifically, here's how I've managed the past 8 days and planned ahead until the 17th Jan for the total of I think about £14 out of my £60 budget - and that includes the cat food, which is my most expensive thing at the moment!!!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2176509

my fussy !!!!!!s only like felix so i am stocking up as it is on offer at Waitrose and tesco at the moment:j

rosemary54

rosemary54 wrote: »

my fussy !!!!!!s only like felix so i am stocking up as it is on offer at Waitrose and tesco at the moment:j

lo they have censored me again:mad: I wrote p*****s (cats) not anything rude!!!!

AGBAGB

julie_d wrote: »

I worked out yesterday that we are using about £5 in duel fuel per day with CH on for 4 hours per day.
I keep trying with the electric to cut down but with 4 adults that have diffrent views..... guess who pays the BILL?
I know, keep trying to educate everyone into turning the electric off.

.

You and me too. I've got three Kids + Wife all have a problem with off switches. I'm the bill payer and getting frustrated with lack of support on this score.
I've measured consumption around the house on various appliances and drawn up a spread sheet to try a highlight the problem areas. It's made no change. "Yes dad/dear" is what I hear followed by deafening in-action.

Some "sneaky tricks" on this subject could potentially save me hundreds per year. Before I invent individual room prepayment meters, has anyone got any "ninja" tips I could try?

DdraigGoch

LOL - unfortunately a] the spellchecker isn't a mind reader and b] not all posters are as nice as us on here!

Thank you all from a lurker

Might I suggest a way around the "excess water in the kettle" problem could possibly be semi-sorted out? It's by using a Thermos flask left right next to the kettle and topping up from that. What I did was to boil the kettle full, first thing, have my cuppa and fill up the flask. Thereafter ask everyone to get used to using just the right amount of the water from the flask - tell them it just makes it so much quicker for them! - and you may see some improvement. It worked for me.

I've often sneaked savings and green ideas into the house via, "It just makes it easier for you"

An idea which worked for me when the children were very young was "The Electricity Fairy", "The Fire Angel", etc- I gave each child the position of Fairy/Angel/Brownie/Imp etc for various moneysaving jobs around the house. For instance, the Electricity Fairy was resposible for turning out the lights around the house through the day/night and if s/he did it well then the naughty Pixie, who ate up all the electricity and made all Mummy's Treat Jar money go to the Electricty company instead, didn't get any electricity .... :rotfl: and we could go to the park and feed the ducks more often..... The Fire Angel's job was to make sure we always had a clean hearth and lots of suitable sticks, newspaper balls and newspaper spills - that way Jack Frost couldn't get down the chimney and make the house cold.... :j

Now, I realise that adults aren't exactly going to volunteer to be the Electric Light Fairy but I did find that allocating moneysaving jobs to people on the same basis worked wonders! I decided out of hand one day that I'd had ENOUGH and vaguely announced over dinner one evening that X would be responsible for turning off the lights, A would be responsible for making sure that the doors were all shut, B would etc etc. I then acted as though they were willing to do the job ..... It took a while for it to sink in, but when I pointed out that if the doors weren't shut then there wasn't enough money left to do x, y or z then the Door Fairy started to jump up and nag about the doors being left open, the Light Fairy ditto, the Socket Monitor was an absolute fiend about unplugging everything of everyone else's :rotfl:

Cause and effect worked for me, with some humour.

Hope that helps someone to have a giggle and get the message through!

Primrose

For those of you who have families who won't co-operate with switching electrical appliances off, could you creep out to where the main meter is and switch the whole darned lot off for half an hour, preferably in the middle of tea time/when their favourite TV programme is on or just when they're catching up with Facebook?

Obviously don't leave the electricity off for long enough for food in your freezer to start defrosting, but if you do this occasionally it might get the message across about what life would be like if you couldn't afford to pay the bills and how their lives would be greatly inconvenienced if the electricity was cut off.
I imagine that after a couple of occasions when the "If you won't switch it off individually I'll take the decision for everybody" is implemented, things might start to change.