Any tips for OS saving from abroad?

terrimolo

I've been looking at the tips for recipies and meals under 50p etc online. I tend to save money all year round, so I can go on holiday somewhere special... was wondering if I could think of any ways they save money on this kind of thing abroad, that I've brought back with me.

I know that for almost every lunch and evening meal in most South American countries I've been to, they serve a starter of soup. Usually it will be a thin broth type soup with potatoes and a small piece of corn on the cob, as well as a small plate of plain rice served alongside it that you drop in to soak up the liquid. Now I've got a pretty big appetite, but that, combined with a main meal that included plantain,some sort of beans, rice, a small piece of meat and maybe some cassava root and veggies, I never finished one full meal the whole three months I was in Colombia.

Also, (we don't have a water meter so it doesn't apply to us) in Cuba, the houses I stayed at, to save on water, people fill a bucket with water and then use a small jug to wet themselves, lather up and rinse. If you've got long hair it can make it difficult, but we've switched to using this method at home too. (more of an environment thing for us)

I reckon we can probably learn from people in countries where theyre used to making the most of what they've got, not because they want to, but because they need to.

Just wondering if anyone had any other ideas to save cash that they'd learnt abroad, like cooking or cleaning or whatnot??

angchris

i was in canada last year and was really impressed with their supermarkets, it was so much easier to buy sacks of flour and big containers of things, it worked out much cheaper buying it that way then portioning it up and freezing or whatever to suit yourself. in this country its a geared up to a meal for 4 portions and you can buy hardly anything in bulk.
where we were staying they did an awful lot of hunting and fishing and they tended to fill up the freezer with "free meat" when they could, i was talking to one of the neighbours and he was just off to go bear hunting in the woods behind our house with his shotgun as he said he "liked bear in his crockpot" _pale_ they also bred bunny rabbits for the pot.
in canada my brother recycled everything as it was free to dispose of, any other rubbish cost him a dollar a bag to get rid of,this would immediatly solve alot of this countrys problems with too much rubbish to get rid of and would hopefully save me some dosh on my council tax (not likely :rotfl: )
i`d much rather just pay for the services i actually use in this country rather than subsidise alot of other peoples stupidity and waste (im thinking sat night drunk punch ups in the street = police timewasting/hospital visits)
i have a penpal in tunisia and have stayed with him and his extended family in one room all of us slept/ate/lived on the floor as they were so poor, it certainly was an eye opener, the greatest thing i learnt is that love for your family is worth far more than having loads in the bank and that oh doesn`t know how lucky he is when he moans about me buying value toilet roll :rolleyes: my tunisian family certainly made the most out of everything foodwise it was a case of having to and i think this is where i have picked up my hatred of waste of any kind.
i used to live in bermuda and there is no freshwater source on the island and by law every house has to collect at least 80% of the rainwater that falls on its roof, it is filtered and funnelled into buried cisterns ready for use. why has the uk got hosepipe bans every summer with the amount of rain we have?