Thrifty Tips. What's Yours? Or maybe you're a spendthrift instead?

HillyN and granfromafar, that's what Pears soap made the little dimple for. Brilliant.

I realised today that I really need to use my bus pass more. I arrived back at Heathrow after spending Christmas with my DD who lives in Dubai. I was planning to get home by train on the Elizabeth line but it wasn't running as there was a power failure. I asked the information desk what alternatives were available and was directed to the central bus station. Quite a long walk with heavy luggage but eventually got a suitable bus. It didn't get me near enough to walk home with luggage so I got off early intending to get a cab for the last bit but by then the train was running again so I had a one stop ride the last bit. The bus bit was completely free! I'm sure the exercise did me good, though my stress levels probably didn't! In future I need to plan ahead as I'm sure I can get to lots of places if I am organised. Sadly the bus services in my locality aren't what they used to be so I use the car a lot. I'd always assumed I'd use my bus pass loads when I got it but the regular bus to town from the end of my road has gone! The car is so easy but so bad for the environment too so new year resolution is to be more organised and use buses instead of the car some of the time.

HillyN

I'm impressed with the number of ways you all use up the last of the soap, but no-one has mentioned our method- to firmly press the last piece, while still damp, on to the side of the new bar.

HillyN, I have always done that too, just never thought to mention it!

When we open a bottle or two of champagne, never any left to worry about 😳🤣

Actually, we have used stainless steel teaspoons to great effect over the Christmas period.

I was always sceptical but its true, a silver spoon balanced in the neck of a champagne bottle does retain the fizz when you put it in the fridge door.

I'm impressed with the number of ways you all use up the last of the soap, but no-one has mentioned our method- to firmly press the last piece, while still damp, on to the side of the new bar.

Bella23 and Georgesgran

My grandfather worked down the pit after WWII. My nan said he used to bring home sacks of coal for all the neighbours

Georgesgran

The outside netties up here (Durham) not only had newspaper toilet paper, but a miners lamp in the corners to prevent the pipes from freezing.
After an underground accident, my GDad had to work in the pit head baths - it took me years to work out why our green toilet soap had Palmolive on one side and PHB stamped on the other! I’m sure the NCB didn’t miss the odd bar.

My dad didn't work at the pit so we had fabulous pink Camay.
We did have towels from the pit shop though, a relation came for a bath every Friday as we had an inside one and now and then he gave my mum a towel as a present.

Lizzypopbottle….I did the same with meal planning when my children were younger. It saved a fortune and it saved grief when they wanted to know what they were having to eat each day….they stopped complaining just accepting what the board had written on it.
However now I’m with Stansgran and I don’t want to spend my life fretting and scrimping.
I buy the modern microfibre cloths, they are good. The shiny ones for glass are super too.
All kinds of things need you to spend a little sometimes and I try now not to be afraid to spend, I am not wealthy at all but nor have I any wish to accumulate any wealth so I will spend what I have.

I have always cut the tubes of creams , lotions & potions . It is amazing to see what is left to be used for weeks more 👌

The outside netties up here (Durham) not only had newspaper toilet paper, but a miners lamp in the corners to prevent the pipes from freezing.
After an underground accident, my GDad had to work in the pit head baths - it took me years to work out why our green toilet soap had Palmolive on one side and PHB stamped on the other! I’m sure the NCB didn’t miss the odd bar.

Bella23, I too remember the newspaper 'toilet paper', only ours was usually a newspaper rolled up behind the loo and we had to pull bits off ourselves. I also recall my great aunt's outside loo. It terrified me. It had spiders lurking in corners, and was creepy after dark, although we did not have to venture out too late at night as we had a chamber pot underneath the bed when staying overnight.

Meal planning, doubling portions to freeze and left-overs days.
Taking a flask and a bite on a day out and recycling clothes into things - many a cushion cover in this house started off as a shrunken jumper and old curtains now seen happy enough to be an apron or tote bag.

Lucyd, that reminds me of the woman who went shopping with her DH for his underwear. When he couldn't decide between two pairs of underpants she said, Have those, they will be better dusters when they wear out.

Also for January I’m not buying anything that isn’t a ‘need’.
All ‘wants’ are cancelled.
😊

If you are washing the odd bit of cutlery bat the brush on top of the washing up liquid and you get quite enough to do the job.

Our village uses the old telephone box as a book exchange.One in one out. Also, a coffee shop near us takes unwanted books and uses them as a lending library.
I know what you mean Stansgran there is only so much you can do. I remember my gran had an empty Vim tin beside the gas cooker and put spent matches in it it must have taken a year to get a log for the fire.
On a light-hearted note, no one has suggested cutting up newspapers into squares and putting a string loop through them for toilet paper ... anyone remember those? If you were lucky at Christmas time you got the nice soft paper off the clementines, I think the outside loos in my grans day were much more robust than ours.
Or the whole family using the same bath water starting with the cleanest and ending with the men from the mines before there were pit head baths.

I am guilty of wasting food. As I live alone and like to have lots of vegetables I find that even if I buy something like a small cauliflower then unless I have it every day for 4/5 days then it goes brownish & rubbery and has to be thrown away. Likewise with packs of vegetables although I do try to buy smaller quantities of loose ones.
I'm pretty careful with most other things and do hate waste.

I never thought of this GNW, thank you.
I had a lovely scented Christmas candle but the bottom bit of the wick was encased in metal with a good inch of wax beneath it left over.

I scrape out the residual layer of wax and use it in one of those ceramic burners with a tea light warming it from underneath. It’s surprising how much longer it lasts.

Rinse out sauce bottles with wine and add to stews.
Open teabags (all kinds) and add contents to soil.
Cut A4 papers used on one side, and use for shopping lists.
Recycle beads etc into jewellery for fund-raising.

I put the cut tubes in a small Tupperware container until I have used it all, this way it does not dry out, a clothes peg is another good idea as mentioned above. I too have done this all my life as my mother did the same. Never waste any food either. I eat it all.

I cut up old worn sheets to use as dusters. Old tee-shirt are worn under jumpers and eventually become dusters too.
I cut tubes open together the last drops out (it is amazing how much makeup is in a tube that appears finished!)
If the weather is dry I gather twigs for the woodburner (but it does rain a lot in Scotland!)
I visit the library weekly, swap books with a friend and buy books from the charity bookcase in the local supermarkets as I read at least 4 books each week.
Unfortunately the money I save does tend to get spend on chocolate and food treats!

nanna8

I’d like to collect the ends of soap bars and boil them up to make new cakes of soap but I don’t know how or what to add. Any one do that? Some of the soaps were pretty expensive gifts or hand made ones. I hate throwing the last bits out.
I try not to waste food and also if I have any wine left in the bottleI always add it to soups, casseroles etc. These days we only have one drink each at night, if that, so it happens quite often. A bottle lasts us 2 or 3 nights anyway but after that not so good to drink.

My grandmother melted down the ends of bars of soap when she had so many that they filled a small jam jar.

She added about half a tablespoon of cold water, then put the jar in a small saucepan with enough water to come a quarter of the way up the outside of the jar, and brought the saucepan to the boil, turned down the heat and let it simmer until all the soap was completely melted.

She added more hot water to the saucepan as and when it was needed.

When the soap had all melted she turned it out into a clean tin - either a round one from boiled salmon, or an old sardine tin and left it to set. The soap shrinks slightly as it sets, so it should be easy to turn out of the mould.

The only drawback is that the colour of the soap is sometimes not very nice.

I have economised all my life. I’ve been clever with leftovers and made my own clothes. I’m sick of it. Really sorry but I’m stopping now. There isn’t anything that you’ve all mentioned that I haven’t tried apart from standing on a tube to get the last out. I’m even very fed up with recycling. I hope I’m not alone.