[northfifeduckling]

do not live with teenagers  I am buying more tights in a month than I bought for myself in all my 40odd years 
ebay, gumtree, freecycle, freegle, moneysavingexpert forum, grow your own, especially expensive veg like salads and courgettes....combine journeys, car share Tesco deals (shame on me but they pay my RAC membership mostly on petrol alone), find out the times supermarkets reduce their fresh food or raid their bins if you are brave ,barter and swap 

[suziequeue]

Toothpaste!!!

Pumps, whitening toothpaste and Colgate "Total" toothpaste is twice the price of normal toothpaste in a tube.

As long as there is flouride in the toothpaste then everything else is superfluous and hasn't been shown to make any difference.

[northfifeduckling]

http://thyroid.about.com/cs/toxicchemicalsan/a/flouride_2.htm

I did not let fluoride toothpaste near my children after the school nurse told them not to rinse but to swallow. One has never had a cavity since (nor me in the 20 odd flouride free years) and the other just eats too many sweets. Flouride free does the same job .

[ellisr]

Well today I have been tidying up around the place and found some fleeces from last years shearing so I am going to wash them and start felting slippers and boot liners for winter I normally manage to sell some and barter so that gets me things I may need.
The chicks are just hatching in the inci so my new egg layers for next year and some for sale to pay for costs. I have found you can get things that balance out financially so that you may not be in profit but you haven't lost money and do gain in food stuffs

[suziequeue]

Well NFD - if I was given that advice I would do exactly the same!!!

[Sandy]

Had a wonderful posh tea tonight that was sooo cheap, Salmon en cruit!!! Fish always gets reduced in supermarkets and so do salad leaves!!!
I used my twin tub today again, that is money saving too as I filled it, washed the white stuff then spun, put things to the side, put the coloured stuff in and then pumped the soapy water over the yard that our four Labs use and so cleaned it and then wrinsed and spun stuff nearly dry and used only one wash...great things twin tubs but not to use for dog bedding as the last time I did that it blocked the pump!!! Old can be good 

[northfifeduckling]

I agree , Sandy. Any washing machine I bought second hand lasted longer than when I thought I needed a real new one! Anything that can or could be fixed we tend to keep (at least for a while), that's why our house looks like a scrapyard - not to mention the garden...

[ellisr]

I fix my washing machine myself with a little help from the web. I really can't afford the ridiculous prices the proffesionals charge just to come out never mind fix it. I have a dishwasher that has broken down and I am still searching for a way to fix it as it is a god send to me as I work full time and run the holding as well as my craft projects.

[Sandy]

I admire the fact that you  mend stuff yourself, I try but dare not do too much with electrics and motors!! Our newish washing machine died durring the winter as the water pipe broke and leaked onto the circuit board, we are hopefuly getting my brother in law to put a new one in but to get  us washing i was sold an old washing machine thats OK but takes a lot longer to wash as the old one had a 30 min cycle, of course as it was in the garage it also was unusable for ages but then, just after christmas and the horrid weather, I found a twin tub, that way I can still wash in the garage when its freezing as it can be filled with a bucket.  I love gadgets of all kinds but they seem to cost far more to keep them going than they are worth!! So, back to my thoughts that not haveing an excess of money makes us all more economical in our homes and in our world!!!! the government then ARE doing thier bit to reduce the carbon footprint!!

[northfifeduckling]

always look at the bright side of life dodo dodo dodododo dodo 

[Sandy]

  All you can do 

[ellisr]

I belive in good investments and buying the best quality I can. With the money I save with living a bit more frugal I can normally afford a luxury item a couple of times a year. My next goal is a new sofa as the one I bought from a charity shop 5 years ago is now a bit worse for wear, I suppose I could get the sewing machine out and recover it but it is a bit saggy now.
I have just found some very very cheap teatowels in a cheap shop and thought they would make idea shopping bags (wouldn't dry my dishes with them) as they are 4 for £1 that will work out at 50p per bag with a bit of additional thick webbing I have in my craft box.

[Sandy]

Wow, I had a free sewing machine that was hardly used but a cheap model and it fell to bits and I could not get it back together so gave it to someone else!!! We bought some sofas a few years ago from Ikea, trouble is there is nothing wrong with them at all but I would love some different ones, those sofas will last and if we downsize we will end up taking them and not our huge chesterfiedl chairs and red chesterfiels sofa!!! Sometimes things last a bit too long!! I love the Salvatin Army furniture shop on DUmbarton Road in Glasgow, there were often huge expensive pieces of furniture and sofas for around £30-£40, too far for the shop to deliver so you needed to  hire a man and van to collect, trouble is, its a bit far for a trip just to see whats in the shop but certainly good for furniture!!

[ellisr]

I used to make dresses for my little one out of cotton teatowels I used to find pretty pink with polka dots and 2 could make a dress much cheaper than buying material

[lazybee]

Hi,
There's some good tips on here. BUT if you want to save thousands. Buy a Haynes workshop manual for your car, you can do a full service for about 15quid. Do your own plumbing you can do the whole job for the cost of their call out charge, learn household electrics and repair all you own stuff. I grudge paying someone handsomely for something I can (with a bit of research and effort) do myself. I have NEVER put a car in a garage for work. Never had someone fix a household appliance. I have installed central heating in my house. Rewired it (and my daughters) For example if I need something welded I bought a welding machine once it's been used a couple of times (I made all the lintels for a house extension) it's paid for itself. I never scrimp on tools and equipment, like I said, once used they are free to use over and over. I've re-roofed two houses, built a barn, built stables, I must admit it's a bit of an obsession of mine to do everything myself, but I do hate to be ripped off and taken for a ride. I suppose I'm obsessively independent. It's probably a condition    I have honestly, literally saved many tens of thousands over the years. If in doubt do it. Get stuck in. Just do plenty of reading first.