Selfsufficientish.com

you buy new clothes????!!!!! lol

diggernotdreamer wrote:you buy new clothes????!!!!! lol

I don't think I've ever bought anything with those little thingies on... I also don't generally do gift cards. Saves even more money!

Saying that, I bought a brand new jacket (M&S) from my favourite charity shop yesterday - pure wool, original labels, £5.95... Quite chuffed.

Not that often doofa!And when I do,I don't spend a lot! ;) I hadn't even considered cutting off those little hangy ribbon things before so I had a lot of older clothing that still had them on!lol

I keep my Xmas cards,and when Xmas is over,I store them until the following Xmas and re make them into gift cards!

clothes-first thing I do I cut the hangy ribbon, second the label, unless it is really soft and smooth.

There's nothing worse than a scratchy label at the back of your neck or, even worse, in your knickers.

I wish I could say that time on the allotment saves money around the house - well it does when you have crops to eat fresh and crops to freeze for the winter but it does make for dirty clothes. I like the runner beans and dwarf beans which can just be washed, sliced and frozen without blanching.

Still I have cooking apples which have stored thus far over the winter - the last ones are being cooked and frozen for pies and crumbles as they aren't doing too well raw now.

Instead of heating at night time, I use a hot water bottle, and I reuse the same water each time.
I made draught excluders for my doors.
I have rechargeable batteries so I don't have to keep buying new ones.
I only use my wall sconce lights, as they are eco bulbs with a long life span, as opposed to the spotlights I have, which are not very green, and heat your ceiling because the are inset.
I reuse my bath water for flushing the loo too, and even keep water in my bathroom sink from hand washing for the same reason.
I make my own sanitary products, so I wash and reuse those every month.
I keep my curtains closed most of the time, which means I'm a lot warmer indoors, then open them again when the sun comes around.
I turn plastic bottles into plant pots.
I cut toothpaste tubes in half when empty, to get my moneys worth from the inside.

I wonder if living in a tent might be cheaper.

It would save me 400 euro a month rent, that's for sure. Plus another 260 euro for 2 months electricity.
If it weren't so cold, wet and windy here 99% of the time, I would consider the tent more seriously.

You reminded me that I was looking at doing this at one point. I knew someone with a garden that I could pitch it. I was struggling to find a room or flat anywhere at the time.

I think I will try running one house instead of two - but there will be a differing opinion as to which one goes.
Yes, wasteful and expensive but it is where we are at for now.

Microfibre fleece blanket used as a sheet keeps the bed warm if you don't like to use the heating.
Plastic sheeting over the windows if you don't have double-glazing.
Cut open a tube to extract the most of the product.
Invest in a hand-held bidet if you're not metered to save on loo roll - or use cut up newspaper!
Depending on your household, use a carpet sweeper instead of the vacuum cleaner.
Look after everything you have, make do and mend.
This one can go against the grain for some, but some of the more expensive products can work out cheaper in the long run, a very little can go a long way. As you don't have to buy as many, tubes for example, the environment gets to benefit aswell.

Keeping the Covid restrictions! Not travelling to and from work saving 50l fuel a week, no cafe lunches on the run, less clothing (one change a day instead of two) and laundry, limited food supplies so stretch what you can get and use everything you grow, tradies working at realistic rates just to get a job, wild harvesting and so on - saving heaps each week.

Not sure about the Covid restrictions doing good for saving money around the house. I suspect that with cooking at home on a regular basis instead of supporting the local cafe culture as it is closed, I have used more water for washing up and more fuel for cooking.

On the other hand, a lot of stove top batch cooking has been done and the oven has been little used. The meals have also been, well, simple.

Not sure about less laundry either as I've spent most of the time on the allotments. Certainly fewer clothes required but need washing just as often if not more so.