Cheapskate tips for the credit crunch

[ChrisKH]

Ooh Arch said pants!

Sorry, I appear to have changed into Fnaar.

 

[Speicher]

How about clearing out any old alcoholic drinks you may have in the house. You know , the sort of things that you can't bring yourself to drink normally, which just hang around for years taking up space.
Think of new ways to present these otherwise unappealing substances. I have just discovered the delights of Cointreau & Sprite. Pretty soon I will have a space where that old Cointreau bottle used to be and I'll have saved the cost of what I would otherwise have bought , had I not had this great idea.
Better still , invite you friends round and tell them to bring their old bottles. When they arrive mix and match your old unwanted tack with theirs!

Merry Christmas

Snake

I have been doing that - drinking up the Port - very nice as a change.

Keeping the champagne for Christmas, as it would be a challenge to drink all by myself - or would it?

Red wine, which I do not drink, will be given to people like the plumber in the New Year if they are here for any reason.

 

[Arch]

Sit in the dark. Who needs lights anyway?

Funnily enough...

My bathroom has no windows, so the extractor comes on automatically when you turn the light on and with the door shut it's completely dark. Since I live alone, privacy isn't an issue, so quite often, I leave the bathroom door and the living room door open allowing light to spill into the bathroom - enough to see by certainly. The only drawback is that the living room door is on a spring - sometimes it stays wedged open by the carpet, sometimes it slides shut after a second or two leaving me sitting in the dark.... However the bathroom is small enough for me to be able to reach the light switch anyway if I need to.

I do bother with the light when I'm having a shower and so on, I just don't put it on every time I nip in....

 

[Landslide]

When cooking rice, bring to the boil, stir, cover, then turn off the heat. Saves energy and thus fuel bills.

 

[sheddy]

No need to buy expensive Cd presents. Just borrow them from the library and wrap them up

 

[barq]

Big supermarkets often have an aisle of "ethnic food". Goods like soy sauce, chickpeas and pickles are often available cheaper than the supermarket-branded versions available elsewhere in the store.

When buying fruit and veg always compare the packed price against loose items. The latter is often cheaper and has the benefit that you can pick nice ones and buy the exact quantity you want. Markets are cheaper still.

Avoid buying spices and herbs from supermarkets - you will get reamed. Find a Thai, Indian or South American (etc...) shop and you can buy a big bag of cumin seeds or dried chillies for 60p. Stock up on rice while you are there.

Keep extra virgin olive oil for dressing salads. The benefits of extra virgin oil are completely lost by heating it so use a plain olive oil for cooking.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Spit roast the neighbours Jack Russell for dinner?

 

[ACS]

Let the butler go, thats we are having to do, on Christmas eve of course. Cook is staying we simply could not do without her, well until the 3 of Jan 09 anyway.

 

[PaulB]

Let the butler go, thats we are having to do, on Christmas eve of course. Cook is staying we simply could not do without her, well until the 3 of Jan 09 anyway.

Can there really be such poverty in the world?

 

[wafflycat]

Baggy and I have been rocking the Russian peasant look at home. Thick jumpers, two pairs of leisure trousers, all cuffs and entry points well tucked in. I even wear a woolly hat in the kitchen (which is bloody cold). Anything rather than crank up the heating in our leaky old Victorian house.

...and tea is often a packet of chicken noodle soup augmented by extra stock, a tin of pulses and whatever veg happens to be around/growing in the garden.

Well that'll help you generate a lot of err... hot air heating... and it'll also explain Baggy's clothing situation

 

[PaulB]

I've found that bathing in cows' milk is just as good as asses' - and it's less than half the price!

Oh the sacrifices some poor souls are having to make! Maybe we could get some countries to do a Live Aid for us all?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

poo at work, and borrow a bog roll now and again…

 

[TVC]

Just have another kid, you'll get more social. Also offer Baz 'something special' and he'll let you have that knock off Wii for £20. (It's for Wayne, and there is a chance Wayne might be his anyway).

 

[wafflycat]

On to the more practical again..

If I get a joint of ham, when I boil it, I use the stock to make soup and pease pudding and then I've got several days worth of food from one joint of meat. Same with a chicken - roast, curry, stock for soup...

 

[TVC]

Pease pudding - food of the Gods.

Pease pudding butties are my not so secret pleasure