The Frugal Life: Moneysaving tips

A Freecycle virgin no more

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:57:21 GMT

I am marvelling at the wonders of Freecycle today, which I have finally got into after months of meaning to.

Everybody has been telling me to register with it for ages – which unfortunately usually has the opposite effect with me. It’s the same with Facebook. People were endlessly inviting me to join it, but I resisted, until giving into the inevitable and signing up because I thought that it would help me keep in touch with friends while working from home. It sucked me in and to begin with I was almost evangelical about it, even persuading my Friends Reunite addicted mother to join. But now I can’t stand the thing and all the endless applications and daft quizzes people you barely know invite you to do all the time. OK…I’ll stop ranting now…!

So similarly I was wary of joining Freecycle. Not because I don’t agree with the fantastic idea of keeping your junk out of landfill by finding people who want it, but because I was afraid I would be tempted to fill our house up with even more rubbish - something which happened when I first started using Ebay three years ago. Watching too many antiques shows like Flog Your Grandmother convinced me I would be able to find bargain treasures online that would make me a fortune, which was of course nonsense. Instead I ended up with loads of cheap worthless tat which, when I came to my senses, ended up in a charity shop!

But after signing up to our local Freecycle and just safely reading the little digest messages without participating, I spotted one yesterday asking for a small computer table. Now I’ve been looking to get shot of an old Ikea one I’ve had for years which is cluttering up the spare room, and immediately emailed the lady back about it, who snapped it up in a flash. DJ and I had a bit of a job getting it down the stairs last night without scratching the paintwork. And I worried whether the lady would turn up and decide she didn’t want it after all, and we’d have to risk the wallpaper and hump it back up the stairs. But she showed up this morning with her daughter in tow, took one look at it and said “that’s just what I want!” and whisked it away. As I watched the two of them desperately try to fit in the back of their pristine white car, I felt a small pang of guilt at letting it go. I’m completely DIY-challenged and it was one of the few things I’ve ever managed to put together myself – although there was a lot of swearing and full volume Iron Maiden involved. But I’m sure it’s gone to a more appreciative home. And rather nicely, not a penny has ever really been paid for the table, as I first paid for it with an Ikea voucher someone gave me!

Now I’m sitting here wondering what other clutter I can get shot of through Freecycle. And whether this might be an ideal way of sourcing some items that we really need – like a kitchen spice rack and some much-needed garden furniture.

The only limiting factor will be what we can get into a Nissan Micra!

Do you use Freecycle? And do you find it useful? Do we throw away too much nowadays?

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Wedding wardrobe dilemma

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:31:07 GMT

When I think of the number of weddings I’ve been to over the past two years it’s scary. DJ and I sat and counted them the other day and realised it was ten. That’s a lot of cheesy best man speeches! Not to mention forking out for wedding presents and, on occasion, the odd night’s stay in a B&B. DJ has also spent a pretty penny in the past on stag dos, which all seem to cost a fortune these days. Gone is the old fashioned idea of just going to the pub – now mates have to fly abroad somewhere to embarrass the groom.

A couple of years ago we calculated that in 12 months DJ had spent £1,000 on other people’s stag dos. Frightening! Although we have, of course, sat down to some very nice wedding dinners, it has to be said.

Fortunately I can say truthfully that I’ve only bothered to buy a new outfit for one of them – a lilac suit which I’ve probably only worn twice and embarrassingly managed to put a hole in at a posh wedding in a chapel in Westminster Abbey last year. Mostly my faithful old red and black dress has been dragged out time and time again, and occasionally when the weather has been colder I’ve got away with wearing an old work trouser suit, brightened up with some home-made jewellery.

But I was wracking my brains as to what to wear to the wedding this weekend of our friends Tony & Liz. The weather has been so weird lately it was hard to know whether to go for style or comfort. Buying a new outfit wasn’t really a frugal option, so it was a straight choice between the strappy charity shop dress I bought for a party for £4.50 before Christmas or an old suit. But the suits required dry cleaning and one also needs the hem on the trouser leg fixed, and I didn’t want to pay out for that so the charity shop dress looked like the solution. The only problem was that the likely cold weather – torrential rain and hail stones were forecast for Saturday and I didn’t have a nice jacket or wrap to go with it. Well, I did have an old shawl but frankly it had begun to look like the chickens had been sleeping in it.

Fortunately I bumped into my very glamorous friend Rachel on Thursday and when I told her of my wardrobe predicament she suggested a great solution. She regularly goes to a lot of posh dos and has a whole collection of fancy wraps, which she very kindly dropped round for me to borrow. Fantastic! I picked a beautiful black see-through one with diamante detail on it, which looked gorgeous and it didn’t cost me a thing.

Unfortunately I was still a bit chilly in the end as the weather wasn’t great. It stayed dry in time for the bride (who looked gorgeous, by the way) to walk up the aisle, but then the heavens opened during the ceremony. But these are the sacrifices you have to make for fashion!

Do you have any frugal tips for dressing up? Where do you get discount Sunday best clothes?

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An eggcellent swap

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:04:12 GMT

“You’ve got chickens!” exclaimed a workman called John who came to our house recently, in awe and disbelief. “I’ve never been to a house around here with chickens! Can I buy some eggs?”

Never actually having sold any of our eggs before, I hesitated and then hastily had to come up with a price for him on the spot. Not the most professional of starts! But he’s already been back to buy more eggs for his Dad. Apparently the whole family are sold on them – especially due to DJ’s cute habit of writing the names of the chicken who laid them in pencil on the egg (he can tell who laid which one by the size, shape and colour, I do my best but I can’t always!).

This morning John rang up asking for more. And now I’m seriously wondering if we should get some more chickens! It’s a bit tricky as John likes to buy a dozen at a time which, despite having three hens, we don’t always have to hand. Thelma has had an eye infection and a dose of antibiotics and you can’t eat the eggs for a while after they’ve been on them, so effectively we’re one chicken down at the moment. Don’t tell her but we’ve had to throw her eggs away. She’d be very hurt if she knew.

Plus we like to give some to our neighbours – they all take it in turns to look after our pets when we go on holiday and that smoothes the way for us. But John is raving about the eggs and thinks we should go into business selling them! Anyway, I’m praying that by Friday the girls will have rustled up enough eggs for him for the week.

Although, alternatively the whole episode has thrown up a slightly different opportunity – a chance to barter! After a bit of a chat, we discovered that John is a dab hand at shooting rabbits, which he does in his spare time to help out the odd farmer. So we suggested that we could do a straight swap the next time he has a rabbit on his hands. I’ve only had rabbit meat once – at the wild food course we went to last year – and it was really nice. Thankfully DJ is happy to do the honours of skinning it – not sure my delicate stomach is up to it! I watched two rabbits being skinned at the course and had trouble holding my lunch down, but there you go, I’m a self-confessed wimp. Unfortunately John hasn’t had the opportunity to go shooting yet but promises we will get the first poor bunny he bags. I just hope he doesn’t leave it on the doorstep and frighten the life out of our next door neighbour’s little girl who…er…has a pet rabbit…!

I’m also wondering if we can take the bartering idea further. I’ve just signed up to our local Freecycle group in the hope of finding a good home for some of the junk cluttering up the cupboards. But I wonder if it’s possible to get something going among our neighbours and friends. I know there are local bartering schemes in some areas but there doesn't seem to be one in ours. It would be great if I could find somebody to cut my hair, for example, in exchange for some eggs etc. The ultimate in thrift!

Do you barter goods or services with friends or neighbours? Do you find it works? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Tax, tax and more tax

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:03:44 GMT

I’m a lot happier – and warmer - now our heating is back working. It’s amazing how you take these things for granted when they’re running smoothly. My mother rang this morning and told me off for not remembering to get it serviced this year – she is quite right though. I hang my head in shame for that and all the clutter in the cupboard. Sadly most of it is rubbish and, unlike Christine suggested, not worth selling on ebay to claw back some cash. The £75 bill wasn’t exactly a frugal success but I was relieved it wasn’t a new boiler we had to pay for.

We got our council tax bill last week too and it didn’t exactly put a smile on my face. Our local authority is raising council tax by 4.3 per cent, way above the consumer prices index, - 2.5 per cent in February - and just above the retail price index, which was 4.1 per cent last month. I guess we should be grateful it’s not as high as 5 per cent as some councils have raised theirs by.

Fortunately, while the hike won’t help our attempts to be frugal, we can afford to absorb the extra costs. But what about people out there who are already teetering on the edge of financial difficulty, with energy and other bills soaring? And it’s hard to see what the benefits are of all this increased council spending. OK, I have noticed a few extra bobbies on the beat in our neighbourhood attempting to keep the hoodies at bay, but I don’t feel that services have really improved by 4.3 per cent. What’s more, according to the Times Online, the council tax burden has doubled since Labour came to power in 1997. Maybe it’s about time these councils – and Alistair Darling! - started being frugal themselves. That is – saving money on unnecessary spending rather than cutting back on essential services for the elderly and disabled.

After all, it looks as though we’re in for some belt-tightening. For a while I’ve personally dismissed some of the tabloid headlines about the credit crunch as just scare-mongering and, of course, trying to sell papers. But it does seem that the credit problems and lack of economic confidence are really beginning to be felt by the man on the street.

The workmen I had round yesterday to fix the boiler said that for the first time in years they have begun to notice that work is slow and hard to come by. And apparently work for a local firm that they know which employs 20 workers has dried up altogether. Another workman I know told me that last week he had no work on but luckily things are better this week. Customers are thinking twice about spending money on repairs or services unless they are really necessary.

A financial whiz kid I know told me that right now the best thing people can do is – if they’re lucky enough to have them - use their savings to pay off any debts they have. Of course, that’s all very well if you have any! Luckily I paid off my credit card recently and avoid using it if I can, although annoyingly my paypal account is linked to it.

Anyway – if you’re feeling sore about your council tax bill check out this nifty guide on Martin Lewis’ Moneysavingexpert.com site which helps you to check if your council tax band is correct. It’s probably worth checking with your neighbours to see if they are in a different band to you, although the risk is that the council could decide you should be in a higher band. I’m going to check with my neighbours, although as a C I think it’s unlikely we’ll be in a lower band.

As the cost of living rises, it’s clear we still need your thrifty tips coming! I got some good ones from this American website today. The tip about putting salt into a carton of milk to keep it fresh longer is really useful – I’m going to try that out. Oh, and the message from a user asking whether she should get a Mohawk haircut made my day!

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The wonders of bicarb

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:12:20 GMT

I would be lying if I said bicarbonate of soda is my favourite thing in the whole world. That honour – predictably - would probably be reserved for chocolate or small furry animals. Or, of course, DJ! But of all the items in my kitchen cupboard I confess I have a newfound respect for good old bicarb and its uses. And not just for relieving indigestion.

Still in spring cleaning mode, I’ve been struggling with trying to make our bathroom gleam. We had a lovely new white enamel suite put in two years ago, but every now and then the bath just starts looking really grubby. I’ve been trying to be greener with my cleaning products and using an Ecover all purpose cleaner. Admittedly it’s not designed specifically for bathrooms – I bought it ages ago for the kitchen and never used it. So I thought I’d use it in the bathroom instead when our previous cleaner ran out - but it hasn’t made much difference. I went over the bath yesterday without my glasses on and thought I’d given it a good clean, but when I stepped into have a shower this morning I realised the bottom of the bath still had a layer of ground-in dirt on it that I hadn’t noticed. Yik. Obviously not enough elbow grease. Tutting, I had another go with the Ecover and a fresh new sponge but it didn’t make much difference. True, for a minute I was tempted just to blitz it with Cillit Bang – awful stuff I know – from the kitchen but when I read the instructions it said ‘avoid ceramics’. Mmm. Probably not worth it.

Anyway. I’d been wondering for a while about trying out an old-fashioned natural cleaner like bicarbonate of soda. I already use a mixture of vinegar and water in an old coffee jar to clean my pet lizards’ tank windows. It’s actually very effective – much more so than the usual window cleaning products, which you can’t use because the chemicals in it are potentially dangerous for bearded dragons. It’s so good in fact that I’ve used it to clean other glass around the house.

So this morning I gave the bicarb a go. I mixed one part bicarb with four parts water and quickly ran out of the mixture and had to make far more than I thought I’d need. I can’t say I held out a lot of hope it would really work, but I was pleasantly surprised. The solution was thick and slightly abrasive so it really cut through the ground-in dirt in the bath (oh dear, I’m sounding like one of those boring cleaning ads already…!) and it was quite literally gleaming by the end of it. In fact, it was so good that I don’t think I’d bother buying a conventional bathroom cleaner again. As long as I can find plenty of bicarb cheap somewhere, because the Supercook bicarb I’d used for making cakes is already running out after a few cleans. But I’m sure I’ve seen a massive bottle of it for sale for a pound in a cheap shop near me. I’ve also read somewhere that you should buy it from the chemist as you get more and it’s much cheaper.

If you haven’t tried cleaning with bicarb before, what I would say is CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES before you start cleaning! I stupidly wore black jeans and ended up with white marks all over them.

Right. I’m off now to try de-scaling the kettle with vinegar. Oh joy! I’ll let you know how I get on. Do you have any other thrifty cleaning tips? Thanks so much for all your thrifty tips by the way - and keep them coming!

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Get thrifty!

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:23:19 GMT

You’ve caught me in spring cleaning mode. When the daffodils start waving their cheerful heads around and the scent of hyacinths wafts through the garden, happiness for me is a warm duster. I feel compelled to run about the house wiping away cobwebs and clearing out any old clutter that’s been getting under my feet all winter. It’s a terrible affliction and needless to say DJ, who is still labouring under the impression that the floor is a wardrobe, thinks I’m insane…and he’s probably right. While other, more sensible people were relaxing, I spent most of Sunday with a black bin bag and recycling bag in each hand, recycling old magazines, throwing out rubbish and collecting together any items that I don’t want or need anymore.

Now, in the old days I would merely stick these in a box or a carrier bag and head down to the nearest charity shop with them. But in the interests of frugality, I now have to consider whether it would be thriftier to claw back some cash by flogging them on Ebay or Amazon. Or – dare I say it - picking out a few of the items to see if they might represent...ahem...re-gifting opportunities for friends’ birthdays or for Christmas. That is – hoping they haven’t already spotted the items collecting dust around the house or – horror of horrors – accidentally giving them back to the same friend who purchased it…Eek! That would be a terrible social faux pas.

I’ve got a few reasonably new DVDs that I don’t think I really want anymore, so might I try to sell them on Amazon/ebay. Anybody want a box set of After Life – the creepy series with Lesley Sharp as a slightly batty medium? I’ve also got a lot of books that I’m unlikely to read again, including some novels and one or two cookbooks I don’t use. But I’m in two minds about selling some of them. I’ve sold books on Amazon before and it’s fairly easy, but the problem is there are often so many copies of certain books for sale that the prices are dirt cheap and the profit so slim it’s hardly worth the bother of going to the post office to send them. Especially now our local one has closed.

I was also a bit shocked by how often things seemed to go missing courtesy of lovely Royal Mail – that’s if my customers were telling the truth! I was tormented by emails from an overly keen customer demanding to know where her copy of You Are What You Eat by Gillian McKeith was, practically from the day she’d ordered it, and sure enough when I did post it, it disappeared. To be honest I think a small hole in a mailroom floor was the best place for it! But I refunded her the full amount of course, to ensure I got good feedback, which was a small pain in the wallet. Has anyone else sold stuff on ebay etc.? What were you experiences?

Meanwhile, with that spring feeling enveloping me, I’m compelled to have a real spring clean in terms of my frugal outlook and get thrifty. And I need your help. What I want to know is: what are your favourite thrifty tips/ideas? For example - one of my favourite ones from the living on a pension experiment, one reader suggested, was shaking the petrol pump hose when you finished filling up to get the eggcup sized amount still left in there! I always do that now when I fill up. All the best tips I’m going to compile in a rundown of the top 20 or 30 – depending on how frugal you are feeling. So get your frugal thinking caps on and get in touch!

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The Mother of all Days

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:33:38 GMT

If you’re reading this, Mum, I suggest you go to the kitchen, make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit down and relax and watch American Idol on video in the lounge….after all, you’re a great mother and you’ve earned yourself a treat, haven’t you? Take it easy for once…

Phew…that was close! As you might be aware from the endless adverts in retailers’ windows, it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday. I have no idea what to get my Mum and - in the frugal spirit of things – am somewhat heretically wondering why we celebrate it at all. Shssh! Don’t tell her!

That’s not to say that mothers don’t deserve to be recognised and celebrated. Far from it. Mums are fantastic. They should be adored and cherished all year round, not just with an overpriced card and ill-thought-out present the day of the year card shops command us to. But am I alone in suspecting that Mother’s Day is just another excuse by retailers to encourage us to open our wallets?

According to research group Mintel, the UK greeting card industry is now worth over £1.3bn a year, while the UK cut flower industry is worth £2.2bn annually. And Mother’s Day is one of the industries’ biggest revenue generators. No wonder they’re all trying to ensure we don’t forget it!

What’s more, the origins of mother’s day, in the UK at least, have little or nothing to do with mothers at all. The idea was that on the fourth Sunday of Lent, people were encouraged to return home to worship at the church where they were christened – known as their ‘mother church’. Eventually this became an opportunity for families in which the children were working away from home to be reunited, and children began bringing gifts of cakes or flowers home. Later in the 19^th century domestic servants were given the day off by their employers to visit their families.

In the US, the origins are more specific. When Anna Jarvis, the ninth of 11 children, lost her mother she campaigned, along with her church, for a day of the year which would be commemorated to all mothers and motherhood. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson granted her wish. But soon Jarvis was appalled by how quickly the day was commercialised by the retailers. She led protests against it, during one she was even arrested, and tried and failed to copyright the day to put an end to the commercialisation. No doubt she is spinning in her grave at the thought of Americans spending over $11bn in recent years to mark the day.

Interestingly, I was reading the money section of the Guardian I found discarded on a train at the weekend, and in it was a letter from a man who said he never buys friends or relatives presents or cards on their birthdays, Valentine’s Day or Father’s Day etc. He claims it’s because he feels it’s all a commercial conspiracy he'd rather not be a part of, but he said some of his friends say he’s a tightwad and wondered what the newspaper’s readers thought of it all. As you can imagine, there were some strong responses!

Unlike him I’m not sure I can bring myself to ignore Mother’s Day altogether – frankly life wouldn’t be worth living. But I am wondering if there’s a more heart-felt alternative to the usual overpriced box of chocolates or floral bouquet. Any ideas?

OK Mum, you can come out of the lounge now…

How do you think we should celebrate Mother’s Day? What will you be doing?

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