General Chat

Nearly forgot this one....

Liquid soap......... I don't buy it....... I buy the cheapest shampoo and put it into a nice soap dispenser.

:-)

Oh no, new Sloggi knickers straight in the bin?
tut tut :-( they make lovely dusters/cleaning cloths!

That's what I was thinking.

Well I do most of what's been said ...no Sloggies or hair cuts though .... but no one seems to share a tea bag OH and I like weaker tea so one bag two cups . Like the idea of cheap shampoo into a soap dispenser must try that. Did try window cleaning tip (from the programme with the two ladies (Aggie? and someone?) anyway it was mix cornflour with water and spray it on windows and yes it removes the grease and doesn't leave any film on windows...the only thing is I never got the required amount of cornflour to water but just mix a couple of des/spoons to half pt of water, worth a try. Always pop half lemon / lime / onion etc into freezer if they are left overs. Oh use a lot of foil to line baking trays and always wash foil after use :-D

When a garment like a blouse has come to the end of it's life, if it has nice buttons (or any other nice trimmings) I take them off and keep them in little bags.

Sometimes I've bought really cheap plain blouses from e.g. Asda or Tesco and then put the pretty buttons on - makes it look like it cost loads more.

what a great response to my thread.

some of your tips are great and i will be using tem in the future,

some tips i already use for instance,re-using plastic sandwich bags,and re-using plastic drinks bottles for days out.

we also have 6 adult clean clean freaks in our house,2 towels each per day adds to 12 towels each day,far to much,so i just put them out on the line to dry instead of washing them over and over again,we are not dirty when we get out of the shower so no need to wash towels after every use.

after watching super scrimpers on tv,i now use lemons to wash windows instead of expensive cleaning products,its works great giing me lovely clean windows. :-D

I remember my gran's eccentric brother used to polish his boots with the inside of a banana skin. He used to rub it all over them and then polish off (I think he used his shirt tail). Mind, he did always have shiny boots.

I don't know what he did if his boots were dirty and he didn't fancy a banana?

banana skins are also great to clean leather furniture,my sofa cms up lovely after cleaning with the inside of a banana skin,when finished with the skin put it in the compost bin,great for feeding fruit and veg in the spring. :-D

I forgot this, and I do it every day!

I don't spend money on expensive cleansers.... meaning the goop to take off makeup.

I do use an eyemakeup remover. For everything else I use sorbelene cream, but I make sure it is oil free.

Plus, I don't use tissues on my face ~ why would I scrape my face with wood pulp? I have a pile of discoloured face washers/flannels they don't get used for anything else... I get the sorbolene on my face while the face washer is in the basin in warm water (not hot!) and I press it to my face to remove the gunk.

Works for me.

I buy my face moisturiser from a local company, at their factory outlet. Costs me $12 and that lasts about 6 months.

:-D

Gosh so many of the tips remind me of when I was younger - a shiver ran down my spine.
Now my only real thrifty thing is to buy bulk items when they are on offer - coffee is cheap at the mo..

I often buy reduced items from the Supermarkets - Likewise pound shops have some good deals. Lidl's W5 brand is a great saving - 3 ltr bottles liquid soap for washing clothes is amazing and saves a bomb likewise the washing machine lime scale tabs.
Most of Lidl's products are good and save money.

However I refuse to by false economy cheap washing up liquid and loo rolls. Hate cheap shampoo and conditioner. I love wet wipes and J clothes and anything that makes life easy. The dreaded breach has long been banished from my life. Hate white towels and old fashioned dish clothes.

Can't say I deliberately waste money but don't make myself miserable by being over thrifty for the sake of. Having to train my mind not to hoard things in case they are needed.

<3

My MIL wasn't a hoarder but what I called "A Just Incase" person.
If M&S didn't sell it... she didn't buy it!

She died a year ago, 4 yrs after her husband.
She bought stuff "just incase"

She stockpiled things like new PJs and slippers in all sizes
( just incase someone needed to go into hospital)
She also regularly bought shirts, socks and hankies for my OH... why I dont know?

OH wears suit, shirt and tie to work each day, yet a year on, the unopened shirts still outnumber the ones he currently wears!

I used to collect the distillate from a shop airconditioner unit,to top up my fish tanks.......but it was too soft so I had to add minerals.......... also its good for topping up car batteries.............at least I do.........those lo maintenance ones CAN run dry........

just to let you all know that ive been out and bought stock for my store cupboard

6 tubes of pro-tech whitening toothpaste from tesco reduced from £1.99 a tube to 25p.
3 packs of pantene pro v repair and protect hair conditioner reduced from £6.50 to £1.05

6 colgate toothbrushes reduced from £1.99 each to 25p

6 packs of bacon sell by date 10 aug reduced from £2.50 to 60p (they will go in the freezer)
mince sell by date 9th aug reduced from £3.60 to 69p 4 packs,will make pasta sauce and freeze.

wish i lived in the US,all them coupons to reduce your food bills,it would be great to hardly pay anything for your food,wouldnt have to work. :-D

Didn't you do well.

The best I did today was to buy some reduced egg custards in Lidl.
I do like them but would not have bought them at full price.

most people have to reduce there spending these days,

if i can get a bargain then i will.,i keep a stock cupboard for dry and tinned goods(got 4 boxes of 260 pg tips for £2.80 odd from morrisons last wk, tea bags keep and we go through loads in our house,also have 4 jars nescafe also on special offer at £4)

dont like bogof because all they do is double the price and con you into believing ones free,always keep away from them.

always buy big boxes of soap powder 90 or 100 washes on offer for £10.99 if i see a good offer i will buy a few boxes.

watched super scrimpers the other night,did you see the woman who had a thousand pounds of food in her cupboards,most she would throw away.how can you buy so much food ,when yu have only 2 young children.people spend far to much on food and end up throwing it all away.

:-D

I have a lot of tins and packets that were bought cheap..

I am still getting better as I realized that I was buying things that were on special in Lidl and Aldi and not using them before they were on special again. So I have stopped buying a lot of those things, sauces and things that stay , hanging around for ages.

Now that Fred is eating out three times a week, which costs me mega but is worth every penny, I am going to have to re-think the shopping because I don't have to cook as much. Back to the drawing-board!

They say you should plan what meals you are going to have and only buy the food for those. I haven't quite managed that one yet!

Some of my storecupboad stuff I won't buy until the old one has actually run out - like dried apricots - otherwise your cupboards get too full and you can end up with three packets if you forget. I tell myself (and OH, who is a devil for buying just in case we have run out :-D) that we don't actually need an uninterrupted supply - we could have prunes if the apricots run out before we shop, after all. :-D :-D

Also, something my Grandma did and my Mum: when I empty the bag of sugar into the jar or whatever I always open it up completely to make sure I haven't wasted even a grain.

I usually have a couple of packets of dried apricots in because I am not going to start Fred taking laxatives. He has a pot of dried apricots and prunes he eats when he thinks he might need them.

I had a friend whose father became obsessed with laxatives and, when his short term memory went, he would spend a fair bit of his time demanding them. OK, so we gave him a couple of Tic-Tacs with a glass of water but I wasn't going to risk Fred going that way.

There was some orange juice on reduced in Lidl. As luck would have it I had seen a recipe where you simmer 300g of chopped dried apricots in half a pint of orange juice for a quarter of an hour and put it through the liquidiser.

If you layer it in a glass with cold left-over rice pudding it makes a pudding that looks and tastes quite expensive.

If you like can make it taste good it doesn't matter how cheap the food is.

Sue Car Thought I was the only one to open up the sugar bag and get every last bit thanks to my Mum & G/ma ..think that was a war saver they also did that with pkt tea can't do that with the bags though :-D Talking about cheap washing up liquid we bought a huge container of it....it was dreadful hardly any bubbles so what do you do? got a nice dear one emptied half into another bottle and topped them up with the cheapie ...worked a treat still got half the cheap one so will use it up same way.
Buy of the day today from Fultons Typhoo 160 bags for the price of 80 so bought a couple couldn't carry any more had already 2 full bags of stuff!

I am a bit dubious about buying too much tea since we were invited to stay with somebody who was a coffee drinker.

They produced some loose tea, we always use loose at home because I don't like tea bags, which they must have had since the siege of Mafeking.

It was so horrible I have become particular about tea being fresh now.

They also produced a jar of Marmite that should have been in a museum.

I tend to take my own oose tea, tea pot and Marmite if I go anywhere now, or I would if I could go anywhere!