I'm sure we had a thread along these lines some time ago.

I bet she pinched loads of her tips from GN!

Agreed Ana
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...and it's not mean to be frugal. Sometimes it's a necessity, sometimes it's a lifestyle choice.

Meanness is a character trait, not a financial state. #crossaboutheading

"Meanies" is a silly name for using things with flare and care so as not to waste stuff. It's on a par with all those books for "dummies". Such a negative way of looking at life. Why do we do this? Why do people think it is amusing?

Candle ends are very useful for strengthening cotton sewing thread. Who else was taught that at school? Who else has a candle end in their sewing basket?

Grans, we need a different name for this flare and care behaviour. Suggestions?

Candle ends are also very useful for unsticking drawers (as in chest-of, not the underwear )

I am not 'mean'.

I am 'not wasteful'.

All my old candle stubs get melted down and put into old pots to make new ones.

My candle stubs are what I call tea-lights...

Household Tips?

and this one puzzles me:
or that it’s better value to fill up your tank in the cold because the petrol will be more dense?

So what happens if it is a hot summer or you live in a warm climate anyway (puzzled).
Just run out I suppose.

Why is decanting your breakfast cereal into Tupperware mean?
Just don't get it.

I always considered 'mean' to refer more to being mean minded or mean of spirit. I.e. just not very nice. IMHO

I was told off by a boyfriend when we were cooking together in a student dump flat for throwing away a match after using it once to light the gas.

Needless to say he did not stay the course.

Surely we are thrifty and not meanies?

Look! The poor woman's got a book to flog! Be nice.

When I'm not being profligate, I am economical - never mean!

Rosequartz Did he think it was a magic match that would light twice?

Being careful/not wasteful/environmentally sound is a fine characteristic and to be applauded. Being mean is a horrid character trait and is often accompanied by a lack of humour. Not a person I would wish to spend time with. However, if this thread was about saving money as a pleasing side effect of not being wasteful I am happy to read about it! On thing we always do is snaffle the free shower caps in hotel rooms, they are great bowl covers when proving bread dough. Always got gift bags in the drawer, carefully folded ready for recycling.

I claim the title of thriftiest Gransnetter. I have just saved £6.99 without any effort whatsoever.

Oh how right you are Granny 23 we could all make money by publishing everyone elses money saving tips and charging for them. Very clever idea.

I can't bear people who are mean (this is different from being careful).

When I go out with two old friends for supper twice a year the one with the most money never wants to give the waiter/waitress a proper tip. My other friend and myself make the tip up to the correct amount.

I always say 'these young people are not paid much you know' to no avail. Maybe that's why she is rich in comparison with us two.

I have just made a salt cellar filling funnel with an empty and washed out piece of plastic toothpaste tube. I already have a larger funnel made of the top end of a two litre Ribena bottle.

I will let you know if everything tastes of toothpaste.

This is not meanness. It is problem-solving inventiveness.

Granny23

This is a useful thread (don't like the meanie title, though). Like Gill I always ask family to bring back hotel shower caps for proving my bread dough. I save gift bags to recycle, and when I buy new ones I don't always write on the tags, expecting the recipients to want to use them again, also. Candles are good for sticking zips, too.

When nail polish is getting too low to reach with the brush, I add the contents of another almost empty bottle, swilled round with a few drops of nail polish remover to make it more fluid again. I wash out plastic trays with lids from takeaways - they're handy for putting leftovers in.

MoneySavingExpert.com has great forums with saving tips. You don't need to spend £6.99 on a book. Alternatively, pick it up in a charity shop next year when it's 50p

Ingenuity by Gransnetters seems to be the theme (more ideas for her next book?)

And I like Granny23's money saving tip.

Elegran I think his thinking was that, if one gas was lit you could relight the match from the hob and light the others when you needed to.

And light the end of your fingers with it too.

You can prick out seedlings in yoghurt pots with a hole or two stabbed in the bottom, and plant sweet pea seeds singly in toilet roll inners stood upright in rows in a plastic box and filled with compost (and extra ones in the spaces between the rolls) Plastic milk bottles with the base cut off can be pushed into the soil upside down beside plants for directed watering.

Surely it is a moral duty to be economic with the world's resources. They are finite.

I agree with FlicketyB. When we are thrifty it not only helps us but helps the worlds resources to last longer too. There is a huge difference between being careful and being mean.
I love being thrifty, I was brought up that way, and I find today's materialism and extravagance hard to understand. But, life is for living so don't take thriftiness too far.
I love some of the above tips, so thanks girls.