Sneaky ways to save the pennies

orchid-96

I am only up to page 2 of this thread so far, but it is brilliant!! loads of great ideas at a time when we all need to save a few pennies - keep up the good work you lot - better grab a cuppa (and save the teabag for later lol) and get reading only 40 more pages to go :T

Aril

This works for me. When either my Mum or I are going away we give each other the left over food that won't last eg milk, yogurts and that way it's not wasted [there's never much as I'm not in the Gordon's £8 per week food wasting brigade:D]. This week I've had a cucumber from friends who came last night who are off on their hols and beans and fennel from my Mum for the same reason. I also froze all suitable veg before going to Canada for two weeks and am still finishing it off now.
Aril

MRS_TO_BE_2

Great thread....will be spending some time looking at these ideas!

Barneysmom

The solar shower seems to be garbage. I might take it back tomorrow, it's been out all day with no effect.
It was blazing sunshie when I put it out this morning.

FZwanab

I have no hesitation taking sachets of sauces or other condiments if I have purchased something in that establishment. Same way, if I was out and about, I'd have no hesitation if I needed to use a toilet to go into a pub/hotel/restaurant and use their toilet and use their toilet paper and soap!!!

miggy

sb44 wrote: »

We have a 10 month old puppy who gets a small treat if she comes in from the garden when called....

I tried her with a bran flake (don't laugh) and she absolutely loves them.

Now she gets a bran flake instead of a bit of chew.

What a tight mummy!

I discovered our rabbits and guinea pigs adore bread, so long as it's completely dried out, so rather than waste the ends of loaves that the children turn their noses up at (and I would nibble rather than waste them, which doesn't help the diet), I dry them out and add them to the pet food. As a sack of pet food is about £13 - for a variety they will eat not waste - it's worth stretching it and it gives the critters a treat. Oh, and Gordon Brown might be proud of me.

I have also discovered the same animals love stale digestive biscuits and cream crackers though we don't have those quite so often as the bread. They get ends of carrots, and various other bits of veg that don't make it to the table, too.

Needless to say (and I wonder if other rabbit keepers find the same thing?), the bunnies don't actually eat all the food they are meant to have. They always leave the oats and grass pellets. I don't worry about this as they get fresh grass, but I am quite annoyed with the pet food manufacturers for bulking the food up with stuff that clearly doesn't appeal to my animals. (It gets recycled as food for wild birds though, lol).

*thinks*... wonder if I could train my children to obey me for a bran flake?

Olliebeak

Is it possible to buy the ingredients that your bunnies DO eat - but separately so that you can 'mix your own' - bit like mixing your own muesli?

We used to have a cockatiel that would NOT eat the yellow dried corn that made up a large proportion of his standard feed. He found that he could 'fire' these out of his bill and did so very frequently at our dog - WHAT A SHOT!

Magentasue

miggy wrote: »

As a sack of pet food is about £13 - for a variety they will eat not waste - it's worth stretching it and it gives the critters a treat.

Needless to say (and I wonder if other rabbit keepers find the same thing?), the bunnies don't actually eat all the food they are meant to have. They always leave the oats and grass pellets. I don't worry about this as they get fresh grass, but I am quite annoyed with the pet food manufacturers for bulking the food up with stuff that clearly doesn't appeal to my animals.?

When we had rabbits, they would pick and choose but they would eat all of a feed that was molasses coated. Tried every type before we found that one. We used to give them porridge in the winter when there wasn't so much grass around. In the summer, they ate much less of the commercial food and we did feed a lot of greens - at that time Asda used to give away free bunny greens. Not sure if they still do but we get free leaves from the market now for our hens.

This page has a lot of interesting info and suggests that commercial food isn't essential if they have access to grass and hay.

BigMummaF

If we are talking pets, Pup has what we have but without onion, leek or dried fruit. He's a 15mth staffie/english bull terrier X of "ideal weight, extremely good condition & lovely white teeth" as quoted by the vet just last week!

Iggie is now 5 & enjoys a good variety of raw fruit & veg, with the occasional baked butternut squash & lately, cooked pasta. So both are easy to feed, often get the tail ends of appropriate goodies &--apart from a stand-by of a dried doogie food--not a specialist food in sight. Also means I get to be "inventive" about stretching meals that once fed four who-muns by including things like lentils & oats, & improving our diets to boot:T

Uniscots97

I stopped buying eye make up remover and have found that a flannel/muslin soaked in warm water does the same job, even my waterproof mascara (as long as its warm water). You don't need to rub, just press against your face and your eye make up softens and comes off really easily!