Save the pennies and....

I wash most things now on a 14 minute wash, it is at 40° and I have it at the highest spin speed. I remember when there were no such thing as washing machines and I doubt many people spent 14 minutes doing a hand wash…?

I use the bags from cereal boxes to interleave items in the freezer. If you’re careful you can wash and re-use several times. Am using up shampoo that didn’t suit as hand wash. Looking forward to hearing other suggestions.

I batch cook a tomato and veg sauce for spaghetti chilli etc. I pre boil water for rice and leave it steeped to cook. Same as Vampire queen with pasta lentils etc. I add extra veg lentils beans etc to stews casseroles to cut down on the amount of meat. I make two pans of soup every week to be eaten over a couple of days.
I only do cold washes in the washing machine and I gave away my dishwasher. I thought it was pointless when our son and daughter left home.

Last year I thought the gas and electricity staggeringly went up this year
What ideas do you have for penny pinching this year
Well this year is three quarters over do you mean the coming year ! ??

How does a cold wash get anything clean ! I use 30 always have but cold !!

Not saving pennies but pounds, hundreds of them - a few years ago realised I was paying way over the odds for home contents insurance.

I'd been lazy and just went along with the automatic renewal each year - the new cost came in at almost half of what I was paying. Can't believe I'd been so daft!

Do check any automatic insurance renewals you may have.

My parsimonious tips include:

After using the oven leave the door open to warm the room.
Use a lip brush to get at the stump of favourite lipsticks.
Cut an empty tube of moisturiser or tinted face cream when you can’t squeeze any more out - what’s still available will amaze you and it’s expensive stuff.
I’m restricting the use of the tumble drier.
I believe it’s possible to sell one of your kidneys ...

Do not wash at 30 because for that to be successful you need to use detergents with harmful chemicals in. Have you noticed allthe warning signs on the packets/bottles.

Short term, small saving on energy is not worth long term damage to the environement. Just use your washing machine less and wear clothes longer and only wash them when they look or smell soiled. underpants and socks/tights are the only garments I automatically put to the wash after one day's wear.

I have started using an eco washing egg, 90 washes for £10.99, pellet refills approx £5 for 50 washes. Pleasantly surprised that it works even on grubby GC school uniform.

Saving money and the planet.

Will never get rid of my dishwasher but I do ensure it is fully loaded and use the eco programme.

Urmstongran

My parsimonious tips include:

After using the oven leave the door open to warm the room.
Use a lip brush to get at the stump of favourite lipsticks.
Cut an empty tube of moisturiser or tinted face cream when you can’t squeeze any more out - what’s still available will amaze you and it’s expensive stuff.
I’m restricting the use of the tumble drier.
I believe it’s possible to sell one of your kidneys ...

Cut an empty tube of moisturiser or tinted face cream when you can’t squeeze any more out - what’s still available will amaze you and it’s expensive stuff.

That is so true - the first time I did it (hand cream) I realised I'd been previously throwing away about another week's supply!

The trouble with looking after the pennies is that you have to be so disciplined. In that it's easy to negate what you've saved by one rash purchase.

Himself is like that, penny-wise and pound-foolish. He'll economise on his various tubes of DIY products and then buy something that "could be useful" but isn't and sits in the man-shed gathering dust along with all the other 'useful' items...

I have been doing most of these thrifty things all my life, as it were. DH thinks I am tight-fisted, but my mum was frugal. It is second nature. I do spend money when it is needed. DH is the spender, and he stays up very late using heat, light, TV much longer than I think is reasonable. No point trying to get him to change his ways.

An extra spin on your washing machine means clothes are a bit dryer, they are on mine anyway.

Yes Oops but that makes clothes more creased needing to get an iron out which rather defeats the object if ‘saving money’. A short spin 800rpm means clothes can be eased into shape, but on a maiden, no rush to dry hen hung straight back up in the wardrobe. I’ve done this for years. I very rarely use an iron. I’d have to think where it’s kept to be honest.

A heavy door curtain, absorbing draughts, cold, noise,
old fashioned but effective,
keeps the hallway cosy and quiet, keeps precious heat in the home.

Gosh, I do an extra fast spin every time and then give everything a good shake and pull. I virtually never iron anything.
Surely an 800 spin means clothes take forever to dry?

I give my clothes an extra spin.
Iron shirts with a dry iron instead of steam and hang in the airing cupboard on a hanger.
Buy sachets of hand wash to refill bottles, Caress or M&S.
Cut toothpaste tubes.
Use colour catcher sheets in the washing machine so I can do a mixed wash. They can often be used a few times.
Use dishwasher cleaner tablets that go in with a wash rather than running a separate cycle it works for us but soft water.
Buy basic rinse Aid seems to work as well as more expensive.
Leave the oven door open and try to cook everything in one oven ....doesn't always work.
Buy cheaper paper hankies and use less.
I did try getting rid of paper towels and found that DH had lots of uses for a good clean tea towel.
Stop calling DH Rohan man their clothes last forever.
Push my hair cuts further apart than the usual 6 weeks.
Don't buy anything on a whim DD taught me this.
Give in and put socks on instead of the Central heating.
I've also cancelled my online order of a plastic Halo.

I have always turned washing up liquid bottles upside down (with the top on!) when they look almost empty. Amazing how much trickles down, several days’ worth. I’ve cut hand cream tubes in half for years too when they seem empty. I will get the last bit out of anything!

Don’t shower everyday.
Wear clothes several times before washing.
Use a Bissell carpet sweeper (no electric)
Cook more than one item in the same saucepan.
Cuddle up to your dog or dh to keep warm.

The one my gran did which still makes me giggle is she had an empty Vim tin beside the cooker and put the used matches in from lighting the cooker. It must have taken her at least a year to fill it.

You can get clothes clean in cold water, if you either shoogle them back and forth or scrub them.

What cold water cannot do is kill germs - so items like dish cloths, tea towels, underpants might really need to be scalded if anyone is ill in the house.

You can wash floors in cold water too and by filling a basin with cold water and putting used dishes and cultlery into it to steep you will need less clean hot water to wash them.

If we get hard frosts, you can kill of germs by hanging the washing out, but viral infections are not killed by freezing.

Obviously, this penny-pinching is not saving great amounts, but every little helps.

linen and wool clothing for me, all hand made. No need to wash often, just air and they freshen up beautifully and last much longer

I am pretty sure that a good number of older grans switch off lights when they leave a room. I am always amazed the number of lights that are always on in younger peoples homes. Bedrooms, landings, hall, kitchen seem to be lit permanently. The only exception my family permitted when I was young was the kitchen lights which were fluorescent tubes, apparently it took more power to turn them on or off than it did to leave them on for a while. (I say apparently because as mentioned elsewhere I grew up with some customs others might consider a bit odd so I am unsure whether this was a truism). We who grew up with blackout curtains were taught well!

Urms I then put them on a clothes airer, which gets them nice and flat.
Although I have to admit that I Always iron T-shirts, trousers, jeans, doesn’t everybody??
TBH it never occurred to me to not iron stuff.

Even here on holiday I’m ironing …… is it me??

I am not sure about this washing at 20 degrees. Firstly, items such as underwear, towels, dish cloths can be full of bacteria which will not be dealt with at such a low temperature, and secondly, using detergents repeatedly at such low temperatures will likely end up bunging up your washing machine. It is becoming comically competitive on how mean people can be, to my mind. Just wait until your washing machine has a full load and wash it at an effective temperature.

So that’s how the trickle down economy works GSM ! Thanks for the tip. ?