Sneaky ways to save the pennies

shjo558

rosemary54 wrote: »

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

You mean pu$$ycats?;)

[Deleted User]

shjo558 wrote: »

You mean pu$$ycats?;)

or puddytats, mewsypoos, kittycats, lol

bev97

Quasar wrote: »

I've read all of the 3.651 posts now!!! :eek:

Forgot I'd posted the lemon face mask trick before.

My favourite tips here are the squashed loo roll, grating and liquidising soap bars (I used to collect them and have now over 80 bars ), and most of all, the fantastic idea of putting soup components in a flask and after a few hours you have lovely soup at the ready. Tried it and it worked a treat, and just by boiling a little more water when making tea, therefore saving making it in a pan on the cooker.

Love this idea of grating and liquidising soap bars.:T I could not find the original post about it - wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction? Does it matter what kind of soap, brand etc that is used. If you have many smaller bits of soap are you putting them together to make one large soap?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

Slinky

tara747 wrote: »

My folks still have years-old decs and I love them, they do evoke such lovely memories!! I collect good quality beautiful decorations each year, a few at a time, so that if I ever have children they will still be around.

The Christmas lights on our tree are the set my darling Dad bought for his parents one year when they couldn't find their lights. They came from the local Co-op and have 17/6 (17 shillings and sixpence) handwritten on the box. A lot of money in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

It's always given me great pleasure to know that my long-dead Grandparents enjoyed the lights. My Dad passed away last year, so even more reason keep the tradition going.

They've lasted so well as they are always placed delicately back in the box. I've got loads of spare bulbs too, purchased at Woolies over the years as we knew that one day we wouldn't be able to buy them anymore, simply because they'd stop making the bulbs (not forseeing the demise of Woolies).

At 50+ years old, are my Christmas lights the oldest?

tara747

Primrose wrote: »

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.

This does sound a bit drastic tbh.

ailz95

I've had to turn our heating down - on 18c it was working all the time to try and get it up to temperature - so it's now on 16c and it's finally taking a rest - means more clothes though - and as we have no water in the kitchen (it's frozen) there's no chance of doing any washing either :rotfl:

SusanC_2

consultant31 wrote: »

It amazes me that so many people buy new decorations every year. I haven't bought any since my children were tiny and the youngest is 26 in a fortnight. I have always taken them down with care and reboxed for the following year and since the children have homes of their own now, lots of the deccies have been rehomed with them - are ours the oldest deccies around?:rotfl:

My mum gave me some my grandparents decorations last year. Some are definitely 50's, some could be newer but have pre-decimal prices on those in original boxes so pre-1971 at least. Do people really throw decorations out every year? I even keep empty crackers to use as decorations.

SusanC_2

DdraigGoch wrote: »

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

That is a very clever idea for allocating jobs - I'll have to remember it for the future. Although we did have to teach our two year old not to turn off the socket with the doorbell chime in so maybe I won't need to.

SusanC_2

ailz95 wrote: »

I've had to turn our heating down - on 18c it was working all the time to try and get it up to temperature - so it's now on 16c and it's finally taking a rest - means more clothes though - and as we have no water in the kitchen (it's frozen) there's no chance of doing any washing either :rotfl:

You need hotwater bottles and blankets.

david_hellier

bev97 wrote: »

Love this idea of grating and liquidising soap bars.:T I could not find the original post about it - wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction? Does it matter what kind of soap, brand etc that is used. If you have many smaller bits of soap are you putting them together to make one large soap?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

I find that if you use an old soap dispenser and cut up old pieces of soap small enough to get through the neck and top up with water it turns to a goo. Shake regularly and add more water enough to make it pumpable. just keep topping up with soap pieces/water, any soap will do.

As solid soaps are becoming more unpopular it is often more cost effective to top up branded dispensers with the cheapest posiible shower gel. They'll never know!