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Anything new?

Making your money go further
johnstevens77
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Re: Anything new?

#114652

Postby johnstevens77 » January 31st, 2018, 6:18 pm

I learnt to be frugal with water early on in my working life. I started as a kitchen boy on the restaurant cars out of Paddington in January 1958 and at that time there were still some old Great Western Railway design cars in use. One type had very small water tanks, being intended for use on cross country trains, i.e. Bristol to Newcastle with frequent stops when the tank was replenished as required. However, they later on became general user cars and sometimes were to be found on non stop trains. I once worked on one on a Friday West Country extra to Paignton, first stop Taunton and we ran out of water. As kitchen boy, one of my jobs was the washing up. I remember taking a pan into the lavatory of the adjoining carriage and flushing the toilet to get washing up water. I had already rinsed the pots and pans with hot water from the boiled potatoes. In those days, everything was prepared and cooked on board from scratch, no frozen veg or ready peeled potatoes so we had to be very carefull on those old cars. The worst thing to hear was "out of water!"
I follow most of the ideas put foreward in previous posts and have nothing to add there.

john

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Re: Anything new?

#135263

Postby Pipsmum » April 28th, 2018, 12:27 am

Some suggestions. I'm sure you already do them.

Go shopping late, and especially the night the supermarket is stocking up for the weekend. Ours does it on Thursdays. Even the yellow stickers, sticker gets stickered. Loaves for 20p, planted herbs for 10p and the like. Then the meal plan gets organised around what there is.

Grow more expensive stuff in the garden like tomatoes or green beans, rather than spuds or carrots that are cheap. Plant things like gooseberry bushes, blackberries and raspberries that need very little maintenance. Fruits that cost a fortune in the supermarket.

Save a fortune not getting packet gardening seeds. Just buy the actual item you want to grow, eat it, and remove its seeds (within reason). We've got 18 Pink Lady apple trees growing because this cold winter meant the pips had already sprouted within the apples. My dad and I carefully rescued them and replanted them in compost. They're about 4" high now. No idea if they'll make any more apples or not. Fun trying, and theres always grafting if they don't. Just got to think of where to guerrilla plant them safely where no sheep will eat them, as we don't have room for a mini orchard. Pots will do for a bit.

For planting the above, we save the inner sleeve from the loo rolls, as we do with egg boxes. Both make excellent seed planters because they keep the roots from getting tangled with each other when you're planting out. The egg boxes can be ripped up easily with a seed in each egg compartment when they're damp. The cardboard just gets planted with it and the roots grow through when it's soft and wet. The loo roll inners for longer rooted things.

Buy washing detergent in bulk from suppliers then decant into smaller squeeze bottles. We buy 20l at a time and it lasts forever.

Making marmalade is false economy. The effort outweighs the result. Even though I make a mean marmalade, when it's under £2 in the supermarket for superb stuff, then I concede defeat there. I have contemplated re-labelling it but can't quite stoop that low (yet).

Jam, not so. Well worth making your own if you eat a lot of it. Good for gifts if not. Saves on a box of chocs each time and people prefer the effort given anyway.

Make your own wine/beer/ginger beer/lemonades/cordials etc etc. Very tasty and fun to do. Use 2l water bottles with the lid loosened instead of complicated kit. Or buy the huge water containers or glass gallon cider bottles.

Home baking for cakes and biscuits. Fun and tasty. With some 17p flour, baking powder and a few eggs then a fully stocked patisserie is yours to hand at all times. Makes the kids think a bit more about what they're eating, before just stuffing a whole packet of jammy dodgers.

Breadmaking is fun but laborious so you'd have to like doing it. Spelt bread only needs one proving if you're liking the idea in principle.

Jam tarts are superb for using up all the jam leftovers and clears up the jars for the next batch of jams.

If your jam has got a bit of mould on it, then just scrape it off. The rest of the jam is usually fine. If you're not eating it fast enough for it not to go mouldy again, then pour the jam back into a saucepan and reheat it to boiling. Let it cool and place it back into the cleaned jar. It won't go mouldy again so soon. Make tarts to use it up faster or decant into smaller jars. Warm them in the oven first before pouring hot jam in.

Get good at re-using leftovers into the next dish. Each main course must have a recipe chain it follows. Roast beef becomes cold beef and chips, then sarneys, then chopped up into a stir fry. Four in one. Sausages become cold sausages, then sausage and tomato stew. There should be very little food waste in that green bin.

If you don't drink the whole bottle of wine in one sitting, then decant the rest into a smaller CLEAN bottle with no airspace and then it won't spoil. Air is what oxidises it. Buy some glass water bottles and keep them for this. Then you can have white with the first course and red with the meat, guilt free.

Pipsmum
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Re: Anything new?

#143869

Postby Pipsmum » June 5th, 2018, 10:07 am

Keep meaning to do this one..... sell all the crappy clutter as wonderful treasures on ebay. MyHermes collect from the door so there's absolutely no excuse... but still haven't .... yet.

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Re: Anything new?

#143872

Postby neversay » June 5th, 2018, 10:20 am

Pipsmum wrote:Keep meaning to do this one..... sell all the crappy clutter as wonderful treasures on ebay. MyHermes collect from the door so there's absolutely no excuse... but still haven't .... yet.


Same here. I find Gumtree slightly less hassle (and more profitable) but it's hit and miss whether an item will sell. In both cases, I eventually have a burst of listing items but then have a nightmare arranging pick-ups or postage a week later when I'm usually overwhelmed with work. Overall the time involved, hassle and the ebay fees mean that my price 'watermark' for bothering has got so high that most of it now goes to the charity shops.

Pipsmum
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Re: Anything new?

#143931

Postby Pipsmum » June 5th, 2018, 2:46 pm

neversay wrote:
Same here. I find Gumtree slightly less hassle (and more profitable) but it's hit and miss whether an item will sell. In both cases, I eventually have a burst of listing items but then have a nightmare arranging pick-ups or postage a week later when I'm usually overwhelmed with work. Overall the time involved, hassle and the ebay fees mean that my price 'watermark' for bothering has got so high that most of it now goes to the charity shops.


Yep..and then because you're on ebay, you end up buying some more new clutter with the profit anyway.... hmmmmm... The charity shops donation boxes are right next door to the supermarket here. You have a very good point. The space and clarity would be nice and maybe give more time for doing things that are enjoyable.


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