Recession busting ideas from retro recession days.

humberklog

1. Buy nothing at the cinema (other than ticket). Bring sambos, jellies from cheap shop and a bottle of diluted orange.


We did this. Queueing for Star Wars took hours and we'd all be famished by the time the curtain went up.

who007

buy old fashioned safety razors instead of expensive mach 3 stuff (see other thread here - very good one)

Thomas_S_Hunterson

rediscover religion:pac:

humberklog

"Stretch-out" packets of rich tea/digestive biscuits by putting them on bread and butter (or cheap marg preferably Blue Band).

who007

humberklog wrote: »

"Stretch-out" packets of rich tea/digestive biscuits by putting them on bread and butter (or cheap marg preferably Blue Band).

you're a northsider, aren't you?

blah

Make 2 cups of tea with 1 tea bag.
Make your lunch instead of buying it.
Drag your kids to some field in Meath where you all pick strawberries that you buy then make jam.
Buy a Toyota and use it as the family car for 10 years and your kid's friends laugh at you.

That's what I remember from the 80s

pipsqueak

Fire logs, chop em in half and get 2 fires instead of one!

stovelid

Stretch out your (purple) snack bar by nibbling round the edges, scraping off top and bottom chocolate layers with your teeth, before eating the exposed biscuit.

Recycle pron with your friends instead of bandwidth-hogging waste.

Actually deal with the, like, utter shame of not having a car at 21, and get a push-bike or fit-to-scrap Vespa/Lammy.

Steal Christmas trees.

Pigman II

humberklog wrote: »

"Stretch-out" packets of rich tea/digestive biscuits by putting them on bread and butter (or cheap marg preferably Blue Band).

Eh? I don't think they'd even do that in the 3rd world.

I smuggled food into the cinema in the good times and the bad times. Just makes sense.

Hard Larry

Don't go wasting your cash on expensive new clothes.

Start giving your kids the latest fashions from the re-emerging fashion designer...

Handmeh E. Downes

humberklog

Don't set the heating timer for the morning. Instead leave your clothes by the side of the bed and get dressed under the covers 10 minutes before venturing out of the sack.


Milk, sugar, ketchup and salt a freely available in MacDonald's.

Ann22

Splittng an ice cream from the ice cream van between two cones. My oh's mam had this idea. We rarely got ice creams:(. If you were lucky enough to be the only one in your house around you might get one.

humberklog

Ice skating rink my arse.
Find a good flat level lenght of concrete pavement (50m). Pour over with a number of pans of cold water then top off with a coating of one hot water. Let the cold weather do its job and bingo! A big icey slide. A big run up and then straight down onto one's hunkers for maximum effect.

kelle

humberklog wrote: »

Find a good flat level lenght of concrete pavement (50m). Pour over with a number of pans of cold water then top off with a coating of one hot water. Let the cold weather do its job and bingo! A big icey slide. A big run up and then straight down onto one's hunkers for maximum effect.

And don't sue the owners of the piece of ground if you fall and break your arm.

Have all children sleep in one double bed, you only need one set of sheets and blankets.

humberklog

Sheets! Extra blankets! That's just flagrant waste...throw a big smelly donkey jacket or crombie over the little blighters. Good enough.

Bearhunter

humberklog wrote: »

Sheets! Extra blankets! That's just flagrant waste...throw a big smelly donkey jacket or crombie over the little blighters. Good enough.

Heh. Mammy!!! Barry's after pissing in the pocket of the duvet!!!!

stovelid

humberklog wrote: »

Ice skating rink my arse.
Find a good flat level lenght of concrete pavement (50m). Pour over with a number of pans of cold water then top off with a coating of one hot water. Let the cold weather do its job and bingo! A big icey slide. A big run up and then straight down onto one's hunkers for maximum effect.

Add coal bag for flash, intrepid bobsleigh experience.

humberklog

Paper Mache firelogs. These really did exist. In the early 80's coal went through the roof. Collect up all your old news papers (and raid the next door's green bin). get yourself a big barrel, feck the ripped papers in whilst mulching up with a drop of water. Press out water and shape the mache in a mould. Leave to dry as one does with turf. Toasty, cheap and an excuse to nick stuff off neighbours. And it's better than Slack.

Lizzykins

My God I had forgotton most of that! Brings it all back. I remember getting an annual and a fifty pence piece taped to it for Christmas in about 1971 or 1972. The funny thing was our next door neighbours whose dad worked for Guinness, all got bikes!
A year or two later I got a Timex watch, two Enid Blyton books and a xylophone!

dbar

For xMas presents for the relations, buy 1 tin of USA biscuits, eat the chocolate biccys and reseal the lid with sellotape, you will never be caught out as
1) The relations will pass it on anyway and
2) If they do open it, they would be too polite and embarassed to bring it back.

We did this for years to our Mother, and a few times we got the same tin back the year after, still 'Sealed'!

DublinWriter

Axe your expensive Cocaine habbit and sniff glue instead.

mike65

humberklog wrote: »

Paper Mache firelogs. These really did exist. In the early 80's coal went through the roof. Collect up all your old news papers (and raid the next door's green bin). get yourself a big barrel, feck the ripped papers in whilst mulching up with a drop of water. Press out water and shape the mache in a mould. Leave to dry as one does with turf. Toasty, cheap and an excuse to nick stuff off neighbours. And it's better than Slack.

We made them! /the shame of it\

+1 to two cuppas from one bag. Spread marge on one half of your sandwich. Make your own sandwich fillers from Lidl tuna and Mayo. Switch off lights when you leave the room is obvious enough. Watch tv with a duvet on not the heater on!

Jam jars for loose change. I seem to have 20-30 euro worth of 1/2/5/10p pieces every few months (bag it up with proper sacks or the bank teller will look angry at you).

big b

Mince & potatoes goes a lot further, and tastes just as good, if you add macaroni to the mince.

fastrac

Learn to cook.

Capt'n Midnight

humberklog wrote: »

Sheets! Extra blankets! That's just flagrant waste...throw a big smelly donkey jacket or crombie over the little blighters. Good enough.

http://www.ibras.dk/comedy/billy_connolly.htm

"Will you stop that, in there! I won't tell you... I won't tell you again."
"It's him, mommy, it's him again."
"What's his doing this time?"
"He is shoving his legs through the sleeves of the eiderdown."

Degsy

Buy your drink in Newry.
Buy sainsbury's own brand vodka and gin and smuggle it into pubs in a lucozade bottle.

humberklog

With the present cold snap and snow apon us don't go wasting good money on gloves for the kids when old socks can act as perfect mitts.

mike65

Plus paper insoles for the kids shoes!

Capt'n Midnight

mike65 wrote: »

Plus paper insoles for the kids shoes!

LOL

the old DIY shoe sole kits , you get a dodgy piece of rubber and some glue

humberklog

Keep that cold OUT! Burn anything! Time to put enviromental sensabilities aside folks and stoke up the burner. Burn shoes. Shoes are in fact one of the best super-boost heaters off the market. Better than a fire log. But for heat and fun try The Monkey Boot. Oodles of hot rubbery flames and little spitballs of burning rubber popping out. It's a fire and a fun volcano.


Earn extra cash in the evenings by nicking the neighbours' empty CalorGas and Mineral bottles from outside their backdoor and getting the return value off them. Keep fit, have fun, earn cash and get marked off xmas lists.

Degsy

humberklog wrote: »

Keep that cold OUT! Burn anything! Time to put enviromental sensabilities aside folks and stoke up the burner. Burn shoes. Shoes are in fact one of the best super-boost heaters off the market. Better than a fire log. But for heat and fun try The Monkey Boot. Oodles of hot rubbery flames and little spitballs of burning rubber popping out. It's a fire and a fun volcano.


Earn extra cash in the evenings by nicking the neighbours' empty CalorGas and Mineral bottles from outside their backdoor and getting the return value off them. Keep fit, have fun, earn cash and get marked off xmas lists.

Dont forget shopping trollies can be nicked and returned for the two euro deposit.
Also parents books can be stolen and sold door to door to get money for sweets,if they have a garden vegetables can also be sold in this way.

humberklog

My arse to paintball/airsoft bonding days!
Get yourself a length of wood a bag of elastic bands and nick a few clothes pegs off next door's line. Take out the metal spring from a peg and attach a few rubber bands. Attach a peg onto one end of the wood with some more bands. Take the spring/band combo and put the elastic on the end of the wood that has no peg and pull it back to insert the spring into the peg that's attach to the other end. You're cocked and loaded. Gather mates/colleagues and head to the nearest derelict building site.

humberklog

Throw good money after bad with a child shrink on your disfunctional kids?


My hole...give the little tear-aways a good clattering from an early age.

thebigcheese22

I'm sorry, of all the phrases being bandied about today I hate the term 'recession-busting' the most!!! Why do you use it in your post, oh why?!

humberklog

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

I'm sorry, of all the phrases being bandied about today I hate the term 'recession-busting' the most!!! Why do you use it in your post, oh why?!

I used it 1st and foremost to annoy you and a far off 2nd to explain the idea of the thread.

Wanna stay on topic now?

bobbbb

Have all your sh!ts at work. Free toilet paper and you get paid for sh!tting.

thebigcheese22

humberklog wrote: »

I used it 1st and foremost to annoy you and a far off 2nd to explain the idea of the thread.

Wanna stay on topic now?

Not particularly, as it is a crap topic.

carrieb

Well then don't post on the thread!
I thinks it's great btw!
Adding a little water to washing up liquid thats nearly finished, cutting toothpaste in half at end, checking out 1 or 2 euro shops for cards instead of paying 5 euro in a newsagents, reading mags on line, join library! make coffee at home, buy flask......................

Degsy

Dont buy christmas trees.
Cut your own from forests.

stovelid

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

Not particularly, as it is a crap topic.

See you, then.

Capt'n Midnight

We need to resurect all the old Viz tips too.

Aisling99

Don't buy a new calendar next year; just write over either the days or dates of the 2009 one.

DublinWriter

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

We need to resurect all the old Viz tips too.

Like sueing the makers of 'safety' matches because you managed to burn your house down with them?....oh how I laughed...back in 1989, good ol' Viz.

Capt'n Midnight

Save a fortune on laundry bills. Give your dirty shirts to Oxfam. They
will wash and iron them and you can buy them back for fifty pence.
J B Cartland, Brighton.


Make cheap but effective baby rattles by gluing a lollipop stick to an
empty matchbox, then filling it with ten woodlice.
Ms. G. M. Dowd, Wigan.


Cant afford contact lenses? Simply cut out small circles of cling film
and press them into your eyes.
D. Stokes, Middlesex.


Stop bread from drying out by keeping it in a bucket of water.
P.J. Ruddock, London.



Save money on expensive personalised car number plates by simply
changing your name to match your existing plate.
Mr KVL 74IY, Lincoln


Don't waste money buying expensive binoculars. Simply stand closer to
the object you wish to view.
S Goldhanger, Fulchester.


Why pay the earth for expensive jigsaws? Just take a bag of frozen
chips from the freezer and try piercing together potatoes.
B Reastford, Iranville, Notts.



Avoid paying tax by going to work in a politically unstable Middle
East country inhabited by religious fanatics. Ignore British
Government advice to leave when a war looks imminent, then moan a
few weeks later when bombs start going off and there aren't any
planes home.
S Goblin, Middlesex.



Avoid losing contact lenses by drilling a small hole in each one and
attaching them with a length of nylon fishing line. This can then be
worn around the neck.
B Morgan, Criccieth.



Don't buy expensive "ribbed" condoms, just buy an ordinary one and
slip a handful of frozen peas inside it before you put it on.
D Duckham, Didford.



A next door neighbours car aerial, carefully folded, makes an ideal
coat hanger in an emergency.
Nick Jeggo, Adbaston, Staffs.


Always fart into the rings on top of your gas cooker. This will turn
back the gas meter, and save you pounds over a period of time.
C. Custer, Little Bighorn.



MAKE your own inexpensive mints by leaving blobs of toothpaste to dry on a window sill. Use striped toothpaste to make humbugs.


DOG owners. Don't waste money on a lead. Simply walk your dog backwards holding its tail.

humberklog

Don't take having a wash for granted. Celebrate it!! By having a 'bath night' once a week. It's plenty of washing one needs in a week. Showers were invented by protestants from Glasnevin in 1986 (FACT!) and pre that everything was grand.

Rob a bottle Mr. Matey off your neighbours.

Fiona500

humberklog wrote: »

Milk, sugar, ketchup and salt are freely available in MacDonald's.

..........and loo roll!

Run around your neighbourhood at 3 am the night before the bins are collected and put your rubbish in other peoples bins. Just make sure there is nothing in there with your name or address on it. The bins will most likely be collected before anyone has a chance to look into them.

Swap films and cds with friends instead of buying them yourself.

Walk or cycle to the shop across the road instead of driving.

Eat your leftovers instead of just binning them.

Buy store brand everything instead of the main brand, most of it is exactly the same and even produced in the same factory.

Don't buy shower gel or shaving cream, just use soap.

Don't buy coffee and tea in shops use the thermos that is sitting in the cupboard.

Sell everything that you never use on adverts.ie.

Don't buy water, just clean old bottles with Milton and refill them at home to bring with you.

Carpool to work/school.

Read the newspaper online.

Spending €5 a day on your lunch adds up to over €1100 a year, not including weekends and holidays. That's the cost of a fairly decent second hand car every year!

kelle

Run one bath, and the whole family can bath themselves one after the other in the same water. Saves on bubblebath too.

(That's the way it was done in my house in the 80s, though I was smart enough to be the one running the bath and getting in first for 10 minutes. Once I was dried and dressed, I would unlock the door and shout that the bath was free!)

BTW, good post Fiona500!