Save the pennies and....

DaisyL

Dry orange peel in the airing cupboard for firelighters, stick last sliver of soap to new bar, Secret Santa for Christmas so all grown ups only get one present, heating only on for a short time morning and evening and wear more clothes!

If you can dry orange peel in your airing cupboard then you tank is not properly insulated and will be costing money.

I launder at a warm temp, never hot water. To get around sanitizing items such as dish/wash cloths, socks, underwear, whatever you need treating - I first soak items in my sink with some bleach. Then I hand wring and place them in the washer with the rest of dry items (towels, t-shirts, pillow slips, etc) for a cycle. The little bit of bleach from wrung items adds to the disinfecting of all garments. Come out smelling uber clean.
Cheers!
USA Gundy

HannahLoisLuke

Vampire queen, I’ve used the pasta cooking trick and it works. Also works for potatoes, cut them into smaller chunks and leave them for half an hour before lifting the lid.

I have for many years cooked potatoes in the microwave. People have been horrified but on a tv program yesterday, the cooking presenter confirmed it was a lot cheaper way of cooking them.

I do rice and pasta in the microwave also. Had to one year when I didn’t have the use of a kitchen.

I tried cooking a quarter of a marguerita pizza in the microwave and the cheese caught fire.
Fire alarms all tested and working!

I do a large jacket potato 10 minutes in the microwave and eight minutes in the air fryer…

I remember telling my doctor after I had my first baby that ironing made my back ache, and he said "forget ironing and become an expert folder". I've followed his advice ever since.

leeds22

No 2 DS was a pain for turning up the heating, then going out. Now a (well off) homeowner himself, his house is like a fridge. We smuggle a fan heater into our bedroom when visiting but I think he suspects.....

Are you sure, absolutely sure, you aren't describing our son?

He was and is exactly the same! It is truly astonishing how much it helps when they have to pay the bills out of their own earnings, isn't it?

For years I have made draught excluders from old trousers. I have them at all my exterior doors.
Simply cut off one leg from an old pair of trousers and insert it into the other leg. Work out the width of the door. Use the top part of the trousers to bulk out where necessary and sew up the ends - as neatly or roughly as you wish.
Hey Presto .... a draught excluder.

kittylester

DaisyL

Dry orange peel in the airing cupboard for firelighters, stick last sliver of soap to new bar, Secret Santa for Christmas so all grown ups only get one present, heating only on for a short time morning and evening and wear more clothes!

If you can dry orange peel in your airing cupboard then you tank is not properly insulated and will be costing money.

It’s actually a really good idea to use dried orange peel though, I hadn’t heard that one before, I looked it up and apparently the natural oils in the peel get the temperature high when you light it - eco friendly too.

But our airing cupboard isn't warm enough to dry orange peel.

You can dry it anywhere though, surely? I was thinking of putting it in a wire basket on the windowsill in the spare room where it would dry naturally, it would make the room small nice too.

Rarely eat meat. No spray cleaning stuff, no conditioner in washing and buy giant bottles of washing up liquid to decant. I find that generally you tend to use more in bigger bottles, so decant into smaller ones. Hand soap instead of liquid soap.

I turn sauce bottles upside down and balance them carefully

on top of the new ones when you have used some. I do it with hand wash bottles and washing up bottles too. You get every little bit out.

Had our car renewal yesterday which was £901 per year (which is for a 3 year fixed term) which was a significant increase from last year. Rather than accepting and renewing it my dh made a phone call and just from talking to the advisor (who was so helpful and made useful suggestions) we eventually got it down to £560. I’m now the main policyholder as I’m 3 years younger than dh and we’ve reduced our annual mileage as we’re happy to keep it to 8k per annum together with a slight increase in the excess.

Casdon

You can dry it anywhere though, surely? I was thinking of putting it in a wire basket on the windowsill in the spare room where it would dry naturally, it would make the room small nice too.

Thst's a good idea.

My dd bought me a multi functional air fryer two Christmas’s ago. One with two compartments. Around that time my oven packed in, well I’ve never replaced my oven and can honestly say I’ve not really missed it that much, only for baking large cakes and pasta bakes and such but I do smaller ones in the air fryer.
Most things you fry you can do in the air fryer such as sausages, burgers, small pizzas or cut large pizzas in half. We’re vegan so have never cooked meat in it so don’t know how that would turn out. It’s very economical as most things only take around 10 to 15 minutes to cook depending on what temperature you use.

My tumble dryer also gave up the ghost two years ago and I’ve never replaced that. Instead I’ve set up a rotary washing line in the spare room which takes loads. I’ve got it in a huge plant pot filled with earth and pebbles around the top. It’s a bit wobbly sometimes but I’ve plans to fill it with cement instead. ?
Doesn’t take long to dry after a good spin on 1200.

I’ve not replaced my dishwasher after that stopped working.

GrannyBear1

I don't buy semi-skimmed milk any more, 1 pint packs (plastic supermarket bottles) are getting on for double the price they were a year ago. So now, I buy 1 pint of full cream milk and measure out half of what I need, using my kitchen scales and a small milk jug, then top up to the full amount with water. If there is any left over, I cover the milk jug with a bit of foil and pop it in the fridge for next time. It was a bit of a faff to begin with, but became second nature remarkably quickly.

Seriously??

Thanks Shinamae. I'll try it.

I have been using white vinegar in the rinse for months with complete success.

Shinamae, apologies for being a nuisance. Can you tell me if it's okay to put hard lumps of washing soda in the drawer in the machine ? Do hard lumps of washing soda dissolve? Do you know an easy way to break up washing soda that has gone solid?

caleo can you mix it with a drop of hot water? It’s going to get wet anyway.

Oopsadaisy, I will try that. It may work, as I sometimes put a large lump of it in the toilet pan before I scrub it. The main thing is I must not ever use a food container for dissolving washing soda.

Caleo

Shinamae, apologies for being a nuisance. Can you tell me if it's okay to put hard lumps of washing soda in the drawer in the machine ? Do hard lumps of washing soda dissolve? Do you know an easy way to break up washing soda that has gone solid?

The soda does tend to go hard so I just take the bag and give it a good bashing to soften it up. I think if I did a longer wash it would be fine but I don’t wanna risk it as I only do a 14 minute wash except for sheets when I do a 44 minute wash….? So it’s most of the fabric conditioner drawer with white vinegar then a splash of a nice strong smelling floral disinfectant although I usually try to use lemon which for some reason it’s very difficult to find at the moment…?

Blimey Suzyb what sort of car are you driving that would cost £901 a year to insure? I’m 71, drive a fairly powerful car, do a high-ish mileage and pay around £300.
I follow most of the ideas in this thread, including drying out orange peel for the fire, which my parents did years ago.

This really is pennies....
My bank has a 'round-up' option on my account, so if I spend between £2.01 and £2.99 on something, they'll round it up to £3.00 and put the extra into my savings account. But there's also the option to double the round-up amount, which I chose to do.
I don't actually spend a lot and only leave the house once a week so there aren't many transactions but in the 5 months I've been doing this, I've had an extra £38.87 transferred into my savings.