Interesting tips re keeping costs down

pwurple · 07-03-2015 9:52pm

Yeah... Maybe reduce rather than pollute. Buy food without packaging. Don't buy heavily packaged stuff at all if possible. We have very little waste here. One minibin a month, and that's with two kids, one in nappies.

Grow yer own. Great way of keeping Veg costs down, plus you compost your clippings, egg shells etc to grow yet more veg.

Monitor costs. Get a bit of paper together and categorise all spends. Think of ways to reduce the bigger ones first for most impact. We can't do anything with childcare or mortgage, but vehicles were next on the list... Way ahead of food or power. Looking at how to reduce those now with more public transport, cycling etc.

Don't store things you've finished with. Sell them. Books, furniture, children's toys, any unwanted gifts you are holding onto for nostalgia reasons. Off onto a selling website... Gives you more room in your house AND makes some dosh.

brian_t · 08-03-2015 12:03am

Holy BoBo wrote: »

Not at all. It's just free fuel to warm the house and reduce bin charges to zero.

Free fuel and free toxins.

Burning waste is not only a nuisance to neighbours, it can release many harmful chemicals into the air you breathe.

Modern day waste has many toxic chemicals in it. Paper waste may contain synthetic materials, preservatives and even plastics. Disposable nappies contain gels, bleaches, plastics. Many wood products are treated with toxic chemicals to prevent rot.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/waste_management_and_recycling/burning_household_waste.html

Holy BoBo · 08-03-2015 12:36am

^^^
Stuff and nonsense. Don't believe all that aul PC nonsense. Be your own man.

dudara · 08-03-2015 10:01am

Holy BoBo infracted for promoting illegal activity. Please take time to become familiar with Boards before posting again.

dudara

Jellybaby1 · 08-03-2015 10:45am

pwurple wrote: »

Yeah... Maybe reduce rather than pollute. Buy food without packaging. Don't buy heavily packaged stuff at all if possible. We have very little waste here. One minibin a month, and that's with two kids, one in nappies.

Grow yer own. Great way of keeping Veg costs down, plus you compost your clippings, egg shells etc to grow yet more veg.

Monitor costs. Get a bit of paper together and categorise all spends. Think of ways to reduce the bigger ones first for most impact. We can't do anything with childcare or mortgage, but vehicles were next on the list... Way ahead of food or power. Looking at how to reduce those now with more public transport, cycling etc.

Don't store things you've finished with. Sell them. Books, furniture, children's toys, any unwanted gifts you are holding onto for nostalgia reasons. Off onto a selling website... Gives you more room in your house AND makes some dosh.

A lot of good tips there pwurple. But I'd like to know more about buying food without packaging. As far as I can see the only thing I can buy without packaging is fruit and veg. Any suggestions on this? Everything seems to come packaged these days, and most packaging can go in the recycle bin anyway which is free for us, so how would reducing packaging keep costs down?

_Tombstone_ · 08-03-2015 11:10am

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Everything seems to come packaged these days, and most packaging can go in the recycle bin anyway which is free for us, so how would reducing packaging keep costs down?

Its not free for everyone.

pwurple · 08-03-2015 5:51pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

A lot of good tips there pwurple. But I'd like to know more about buying food without packaging. As far as I can see the only thing I can buy without packaging is fruit and veg. Any suggestions on this? Everything seems to come packaged these days, and most packaging can go in the recycle bin anyway which is free for us, so how would reducing packaging keep costs down?

Buy meat from a butcher instead of the supermarket, saves the plastic carton and the revolting sanitary pad they sit it on.

Buy fish from the fishmonger etc. what else do you buy? Oats and flour we get in 5 kg bags or bigger. We use soap bars instead of plastic pump things... It's packed in paper and it goes down way slower.

Recycling has a cost because it's built into your bin charges... It's shipped abroad and hand sorted by some poor unfortunate. I flippen hate recycling if I'm honest when I think about what people have to do to recycle our waste.

Jellybaby1 · 09-03-2015 12:46am

I usually buy meat from the butcher but to be honest these days it is hard to find a butcher who doesn't plastic-package meat. I was even told by a farming relative living outside the Pale who said her butcher has all his meat packed in plastic. I hate this because it tends to sweat the meat and it sits in a puddle of bloody water. In fact my two local butchers have reduced the amount of meat displayed openly in the glass counters and the majority of the meat is wrapped in plastic on polystyrene trays. One butcher told me most of their income is made by selling pre-packaged meals, so they are becoming just like the supermarkets. My local fishmonger closed down so I have to buy fish in the supermarket and when I do, they wrap it in two or three plastic bags, sitting on a polystyrene tray. My green bin is free because I pay for the brown and black bins. I no longer have an open fire so I can't burn anything away. I buy flour in as large quantities as the supermarket sells them but its still in a paper bag. We buy soap bars, also in paper or plastic packaging, I can't get them any other way. What I'm trying to say is, it is nigh impossible to buy anything without packaging and the ordinary customers have no other option. We all do what we can, but the shops and food producers are the ones who do the packaging, not the customers. I'm worn out trying to keep costs down but its a losing battle. As soon as I feel I'm edging ahead, some ruddy bill is increased! Sorry, I expect mods. will kill me as this is all unhelpful but I've been doing this all my life, not just for the last few years. I haven't changed, but everything else has.

pwurple · 09-03-2015 8:06am

I hate to say it, but those sound like they are not butchers at all, just retail sellers for some wholesaler. Sure how are you going to get the cheaper cuts at all if everything is prepacked? You won't be able to ask.

Same for the fishmonger. How can they bone and scale, or give you offcuts for a fishstock or pie if they only sell prepacked? And shellfish and mackeral suffer really badly from being prepacked. Mussels are only pence for enough for the family, but I wouldn't trust them at all prepacked. They'd all be dead and poisonous. Mackeral are 50cent each around here in season, but best nearly straight off the boat. If they've gone off to a packaging plant that's wrecked them.Q

I guess i am lucky to live in Cork, near the market so it's really easy to find great butchers and real fishmongers.

L1011 · 09-03-2015 11:04am

pwurple wrote: »

It's shipped abroad and hand sorted by some poor unfortunate.

Depending on your bin provider, its sorted in Ireland instead and a larger amount than before is sorted automatically (magnets, magnetic flux, compressed air, huge variety of things). Was a multi-page article on Thorntons in the Irish Times a few years back detailing what they do.

Thorntons now take any level of clean plastic film as well which has hugely reduced my black bin usage, but as I already pay by weight rather than lift - which everyone will have to from the summer - hasn't done much to those costs.

pwurple · 09-03-2015 11:43am

L1011 wrote: »

Depending on your bin provider, its sorted in Ireland instead and a larger amount than before is sorted automatically (magnets, magnetic flux, compressed air, huge variety of things). Was a multi-page article on Thorntons in the Irish Times a few years back detailing what they do.

Thorntons now take any level of clean plastic film as well which has hugely reduced my black bin usage, but as I already pay by weight rather than lift - which everyone will have to from the summer - hasn't done much to those costs.

That's great to hear!
Although reducing packaging is always going to be on my to-do list. It can't be free to provide it, so I'm paying for it somewhere, either in the quality of the product, or the price itself.

Jellybaby1 · 09-03-2015 12:21pm

Pwurple, I buy the fish in the supermarket from the fish counter (not prepackaged) but they can't hand it to me without any packaging, hence the plastic bags and polystrene tray!! To get to a 'real' butcher I'd have to spend money on petrol to drive to them so that doesn't work cost wise. And of course (slaps heads to forehead) you must shop in the English market, where only royalty shops!

You lucky ducky you! Pity and pray for us poor shoppers here in the big Dublin sprawl.

cerastes · 09-03-2015 12:40pm

L1011 wrote: »

Depending on your bin provider, its sorted in Ireland instead and a larger amount than before is sorted automatically (magnets, magnetic flux, compressed air, huge variety of things). Was a multi-page article on Thorntons in the Irish Times a few years back detailing what they do.

Thorntons now take any level of clean plastic film as well which has hugely reduced my black bin usage, but as I already pay by weight rather than lift - which everyone will have to from the summer - hasn't done much to those costs.

Is this for thorntons or everyone? I read something about this somewhere recently. Seems to fly in the face of recycling and turn a better profit, maybe its because people are recycling? Why would the weight of the same volume matter?, its not like they are hauling away lead (hopefully), no doubt my black bins weighs a lot when it goes out every 2 months as I am stamping it all down.
I filter everything out that can be put in the green bin, its cleaned and flattened, I used to do this believing it might make a difference, which I no longer believe, I do it now because it saves me on cost from filling my black bin and because I want to be trying to make an effort to do something, no matter how pointless it is in saving the planet.

charging by weight is just a reaction to people falling in line after abiding by recycling. So surely the weight being processed is the same or even less than before?

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Pwurple, I buy the fish in the supermarket from the fish counter (not prepackaged) but they can't hand it to me without any packaging, hence the plastic bags and polystrene tray!! To get to a 'real' butcher I'd have to spend money on petrol to drive to them so that doesn't work cost wise. And of course (slaps heads to forehead) you must shop in the English market, where only royalty shops! You lucky ducky you! Pity and pray for us poor shoppers here in the big Dublin sprawl.

They dont really need to supply a plastic tray or polystyrene though, do they?
Im sure thats just the format they do it in. I know superquinn used to do fish in heat sealed foil/paper/type material off a sheet or roll, although shopping there would eliminate any saving, you'd be doing you're bit for the environment.

I cant see how they can limit whats being processed anymore, I already only put the bin out between 6-8 weeks as Im filtering out recycleables, overall the weight is probably the same as if it was being removed fortnightly though as its just taking longer to fill.
I pay per lift so it pays for me to do it this way.

The only way to make further savings is to reduce the amount of packaging but this wont necessarily reduce the amount of non recycleable material.

Jellybaby1 · 09-03-2015 12:51pm

Same here pwurple. When we started recycling with the commercial companies (co. council gave it away!) we instinctively knew that we would do our utmost to save money by not putting the bins out every week, but we also knew that the more money we saved, the more the company would put the prices up, and they did!

L1011 · 09-03-2015 12:53pm

cerastes wrote: »

Is this for thorntons or everyone? I read something about this somewhere recently.

Everyone. EU directive I think, only covers non recycling. Not sure about food waste weight, I've not looked in to it extensively. What is the case is that near everyone will have to have a brown bin by this summer (areas over 1500 people I think) or next (areas over 150).

All the international comparisons, etc are done on weight not volume so that's why charges are based on it.

pwurple · 09-03-2015 12:57pm

Hah, yeah, me and the queen haggling over oxtail doncha know.

It might be worth your while to phone a few real butchers and ask about deliveries? I can think of two or three butchers around here who deliver for free, on orders over 30 quid. I sometimes order in bulk and freeze to do that.

And you can ask them to drop the polystyrene. What's that about.

Jellybaby1 · 09-03-2015 1:09pm

pwurple wrote: »

Hah, yeah, me and the queen haggling over oxtail doncha know.

It might be worth your while to phone a few real butchers and ask about deliveries? I can think of two or three butchers around here who deliver for free, on orders over 30 quid. I sometimes order in bulk and freeze to do that.

And you can ask them to drop the polystyrene. What's that about.

Naw, you won't get anything delivered free in our capital city (that I'm aware of). I used to get fish delivered but it was more expensive compared to the supermarket so I had to give it up, but also because by the time they got to me there was little choice left, even when I placed an order, so I found I was only getting the mangy bits of cod! I do pay for milk deliveries because we are a bit nostalgic that way and its always handy having someone calling so regularly, security-wise, especially with us older generation people. Ye don't know yer born down there with your free deliveries! Stop showing off.

RainyDay · 09-03-2015 1:54pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Naw, you won't get anything delivered free in our capital city (that I'm aware of).

I have to disagree. Different market, but very useful free delivery service:

https://healthwave.ie/free-prescription-delivery-with-healthpass/

Jellybaby1 · 09-03-2015 3:14pm

RainyDay wrote: »

I have to disagree. Different market, but very useful free delivery service:

https://healthwave.ie/free-prescription-delivery-with-healthpass/

Yep, different market, but good to know. Maybe we need a separate thread for companies offering free delivery but without increasing their prices. Have you used Healthwave? Do you know if they charge any extra for their products?

pwurple · 09-03-2015 3:22pm

It's an odd one. I can't speak for Dublin, but I've lived in large and small places and got deliveries arranged nearly everywhere I've lived. If we can get it in Cork, I'm not sure why Dublin suppliers wouldn't provide it. The dubs don't usually miss a trick.

Awesome money-savers to be had in any kind of garden. Apple trees, pear trees, fresh fruit and veg. You can even plant the stalks of some veg to buy, to regrow them. Spuds gone a bit sprouty? Whack em in the ground... wait a while... new spuds! Plant the base of a celery, it regrows into more celery. Same for onions, plant the root.

I know people with a pair of laying hens these days in urban areas. Hens are awesome for waste disposal, they hoover up kitchen waste and turn it into eggs! I'm not in the house enough to keep an eye on them, but if I was, I'd totally try it out.

Check out old war posters, they are full of tips for money saving.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/inf13-143131.jpg

L1011 · 09-03-2015 3:23pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Maybe we need a separate thread for companies offering free delivery but without increasing their prices. Have you used Healthwave? Do you know if they charge any extra for their products?

Its pretty much a given that "free" delivery is built in to prices. Something has to pay for it.

Healthwave's marketing is based on being cheaper than other pharmacies, but there's nobody else selling on an equivalent basis to compare prices with.

donegal. · 09-03-2015 3:31pm

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Its not free for everyone.

hang on, people are getting their recycling collected for free ?
where the hell is this ? it costs me €5.50 per bin :mad:

RainyDay · 09-03-2015 3:56pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Yep, different market, but good to know. Maybe we need a separate thread for companies offering free delivery but without increasing their prices. Have you used Healthwave? Do you know if they charge any extra for their products?

Yes, I've been a Healthwave customer for over a year now, saving over €200 on my annual medication bill.

L1011 wrote: »

Its pretty much a given that "free" delivery is built in to prices. Something has to pay for it.

The price is the same whether they deliver to your door or you call in to pick up. The only limitation is no more than four deliveries a year, so if you get 3 months supply of medication each time, it's a no brainer.

L1011 wrote: »

Healthwave's marketing is based on being cheaper than other pharmacies, but there's nobody else selling on an equivalent basis to compare prices with.

Apart from just about every other pharmacy in the country selling equivalent products at much higher prices?

L1011 · 09-03-2015 6:16pm

RainyDay wrote: »

The price is the same whether they deliver to your door or you call in to pick up. The only limitation is no more than four deliveries a year, so if you get 3 months supply of medication each time, it's a no brainer.

Apart from just about every other pharmacy in the country selling equivalent products at much higher prices?

Their prices still include the delivery - the vans don't get driven by volunteers and run on air. There is no such thing as a free delivery - you've paid for it, somewhere.

There isn't another pharmacy doing membership based pricing let alone one not offering shipping to compare to

RainyDay · 09-03-2015 8:46pm

L1011 wrote: »

Their prices still include the delivery - the vans don't get driven by volunteers and run on air. There is no such thing as a free delivery - you've paid for it, somewhere.

They don't have vans, they use a courier. They are paying something between €8-€10 per shipment (ex-vat), depending on volume, based on my recent experience.

You pay the same price for the product, with or without delivery.

L1011 wrote: »

There isn't another pharmacy doing membership based pricing let alone one not offering shipping to compare to

L1011 wrote: »

Healthwave's marketing is based on being cheaper than other pharmacies, but there's nobody else selling on an equivalent basis to compare prices with.

Are you just trying to be pedantic, or argumentative? They are cheaper than any other pharmacy in the State. They have cut my drugs bill in half, saving €200 pa. A family member is saving €1,000 over what he used to pay to his local chemist. You can spin it however you like, but they are cheaper than any other pharmacy in the State. That's the information that consumers need to know.

pwurple · 09-03-2015 8:55pm

L1011 wrote: »

Their prices still include the delivery - the vans don't get driven by volunteers and run on air. There is no such thing as a free delivery - you've paid for it, somewhere.

yes of course, but sometimes you have to weigh up whether it is cheaper for the delivery cost, or for you to drive there, spend time getting your stuff and drive home again. There may be economies to be had with their van going out to 30 people in one area doing a delivery, rather than those 30 individual people driving 30 times back and forth to the shop.

L1011 · 09-03-2015 9:39pm

RainyDay wrote: »

They don't have vans, they use a courier. They are paying something between €8-€10 per shipment (ex-vat), depending on volume, based on my recent experience.

You pay the same price for the product, with or without delivery.

Meaning that every single product sold to anyone is subsidising the cost of delivery.

RainyDay wrote: »

Are you just trying to be pedantic, or argumentative? They are cheaper than any other pharmacy in the State. They have cut my drugs bill in half, saving €200 pa. A family member is saving €1,000 over what he used to pay to his local chemist. You can spin it however you like, but they are cheaper than any other pharmacy in the State. That's the information that consumers need to know.

No, I'm trying to point out that no matter how much there is a claim of "free delivery", you're paying for it in the price. A Healthwave clone that didn't offer free delivery would be able to charge cheaper prices - latching on the fact that there isn't a clone doesn't change this.

Takeaways with "free delivery" have higher prices than takeaways without, online retailers with "free delivery" are dearer than those that charge, etc. Can often be cheaper to use somewhere without "free" delivery and pay the going rate for both the items and the delivery.

RainyDay · 10-03-2015 12:03am

L1011 wrote: »

Meaning that every single product sold to anyone is subsidising the cost of delivery.

No, I'm trying to point out that no matter how much there is a claim of "free delivery", you're paying for it in the price. A Healthwave clone that didn't offer free delivery would be able to charge cheaper prices - latching on the fact that there isn't a clone doesn't change this.

Takeaways with "free delivery" have higher prices than takeaways without, online retailers with "free delivery" are dearer than those that charge, etc. Can often be cheaper to use somewhere without "free" delivery and pay the going rate for both the items and the delivery.

You can dance around it all you like, but the facts are that their costs haven't changed since they introduced the 'free delivery' service. The medication costs were the same before an after. Your theoretical 'Healthwave clone' doesn't exist, so the relevant comparison to any consumer is the price they pay at any other pharmacy, compared to the price they pay at Healthwave.

This isn't a Leaving Cert Biz Org question. It's the real world.

L1011 · 10-03-2015 10:13am

This seems like rather extreme pushing of Healthwave at this point and little else

RainyDay · 10-03-2015 5:35pm

L1011 wrote: »

This seems like rather extreme pushing of Healthwave at this point and little else

Just the facts, my friend - no more and no less.

evolving_doors · 13-03-2015 12:50am

L1011 wrote: »

This seems like rather extreme pushing of Healthwave at this point and little else

Eh! if they're cheaper then they're cheaper. I'm only reading illogical 'pushing against' here.

flutered · 17-03-2015 9:42pm

pwurple wrote: »

Hah, yeah, me and the queen haggling over oxtail doncha know.

It might be worth your while to phone a few real butchers and ask about deliveries? I can think of two or three butchers around here who deliver for free, on orders over 30 quid. I sometimes order in bulk and freeze to do that.

And you can ask them to drop the polystyrene. What's that about.

a butcher calls to us every thursday, he has a van set up especially for the job, he has a reasonable amount of meat, all pre packed h&s i assume

Capt'n Midnight · 20-03-2015 6:58pm

Cheese that's gone hard. Use a vegetable peeler to cut thin slices to top up a pizza.

Speaking of pizza's when Aldi/ Lidl do peppers or mushrooms or whatever you like on the cheap you can use them as a topping and freeze what you don't use for later. I go with Aldi's four cheese pizza yes it's a few cent more expensive than the three pack but IMHO it's worth it. You can also get a spice jar of oregano for 35c .

If you want lots of spices then head to eurasia supermarkets. A 100g bag of crushed chilli can make lots of pizza's spicy and IIRC was about 70c.

Beer is nice with a spicy pizza. The trick with cheap supermarket beer is to have it really,really cold.

If you turn a frozen pizza upside down and score deeply with a knife you can then break it in half. You don't always need to eat a whole pizza.

Saving a few pennies like that means you can then splash out on the Aldi smoked cheddar, but it's addictive.

Cheapest place to get anchovies was the small jars that supervalue used to sell but haven't seen them in a few months, otherwise pick up some in Lidl unless anyone knows better ?

Another tip is try to do all the shopping in one continuous loop

JJJJNR · 24-03-2015 7:30pm

Holy BoBo wrote: »

I don't have black bags as I am self sufficient when it comes to waste disposal as I have outlined.

Why are you flushing good dog food down the drain? I boil it all up and give it to the dog any waste from the dog gets flushed down the drain, or thrown into the local river, so its a win win.

pwurple · 26-03-2015 5:56pm

Coursera: Free online courses
https://www.coursera.org/

Free food from forest walks: Blackberries. Wild garlic. Wild strawberries. Hazelnuts. Mushrooms (if you know what you're doing). Plus it is a nice cheap day out with family and a bit of exercise. Who needs a gym.

Ditch tv subscriptions: I got a chromecast on sale. it plays youtube, netflix (which I share with my extended family), vevo to my tv. Don't need any aerial or sat dish for that lot. No sky subscription etc.

Library: They have way more than just books. DVDs, CDs, newspapers. All for the cost of your membership... mine is 2 euro per year.

Project gutenberg: Free ebooks
https://www.gutenberg.org/

Redhenrun · 09-04-2015 8:07am

I second Coursera. Or Futurelearn.com. And learning with massive open online courses in general. Check out mooc-list.com for more such terrific freebie courses. Great fun too. Well, if you're a swot like me!

And the library... They've improved so much. Even have free audio books in mp3, CD and other formats. Plus free wifi, of course. And newspapers and magazines. Oh, and books.

Charity shops often have great books-even vintage ones. And Chapters Bookshop in Parnell st has a superb secondhand bookshop upstairs.

Get a free kindle app for your phone/ipad and download free books from Gutenberg press. Or at least pay less for ebooks than paperbacks.

cerastes · 09-04-2015 9:57pm

JJJJNR wrote: »

Why are you flushing good dog food down the drain? I boil it all up and give it to the dog any waste from the dog gets flushed down the drain, or thrown into the local river, so its a win win.

You throw your dogs waste into the local river? :eek: why?
At that rate, we could advise people to burn their rubbish, saves on having it disposed of by paying for it to be removed, win win, I hear the engine oil goes in the drains too.

brian_t · 10-04-2015 10:36am

cerastes wrote: »

I hear the engine oil goes in the drains too.

Used engine oil is accepted free of charge by the Councils recycling centres.

cerastes · 10-04-2015 5:49pm

brian_t wrote: »

Used engine oil is accepted free of charge by the Councils recycling centres.

I know, I wasn't being serious, although I saw someone doing that once

filbert the fox · 18-04-2015 6:03pm

PeterDuggan wrote: »

When boiling the kettle for a cuppa, use the excess hot water to wash a pot or pan. Saves on water, electricity, washing machine detergent pollution ...and time (You can do it while you're standing around waiting for the tea to brew).

Good frugallers wouldn't boil more than the bare cup!;)

rosieirl · 22-04-2015 7:14pm

JJJJNR wrote: »

If you like a boiled egg, don't throw out the water, use it to make your coffee.

NOOOOOO. Apparently our shop-bought eggs are not 'washed' so there is a bacteria on the shells which helps the longevity. American eggs are washed so they are told to store their eggs in a fridge.

I read this on the internet so it must be true.

Do you really want to take the chance that your coffee water may contain eggshell bacteria (albeit dead) and/or salmonella?

Jellybaby1 · 22-04-2015 8:30pm

I've often found feathers and gunk on my shop bought eggs so they are not scrupulously washed. Anyway, I'd say coffee or tea made with egg water would just taste manky. If you boil eggs and leave the water to go cold it definitely doesn't look crystal clear. Ugh, not for me.

amacca · 22-04-2015 9:44pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I've often found feathers and gunk on my shop bought eggs so they are not scrupulously washed. Anyway, I'd say coffee or tea made with egg water would just taste manky. If you boil eggs and leave the water to go cold it definitely doesn't look crystal clear. Ugh, not for me.

Don't know if its an old wives tale but my grandmother told me when i was a kid water left over from boiling eggs can give you warts!!!

monicaali · 22-04-2015 9:55pm

i put salt in the water to stop them cracking, so :eek:

Jellybaby1 · 23-04-2015 1:44am

amacca wrote: »

Don't know if its an old wives tale but my grandmother told me when i was a kid water left over from boiling eggs can give you warts!!!

I never heard that before. But I bet its true!

JJJJNR · 23-04-2015 10:27pm

Guys, I was only joking with the egg water and the dog poop in the rivers, don't know where it came from, just ignore me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wcFU5fZwY

madmaggie · 06-05-2015 1:03am

I put leftover gravy into ice cube trays and use the frozen gravy cubes in stews, soups and casseroles. Very tasty.

sunny 426 · 08-05-2015 2:52pm

I am not sure if the coffee tastes nice after the water was used for boiling eggs. Would not chance that. My father said to me if you want to save money - use the toilet paper on both sides. (He was joking).

KungPao · 08-05-2015 4:50pm

TV:
Unless you are a telly addict, ditch expensive subs. Alternatives are the old (and free generally) analogue signal via the UPC cable (surprisingly good quality), RTE player, ITV player etc, Film On (which have ITV...UPC don't even offer that any more...bloody UTV Ireland Grrr) + many other online options and of course Freesat...great free service if you can get a dish up, and Saorview.

Food:
Chicken. Never waste money buying fcking chicken dippers or even worse products like this such waste - even chicken breasts in a pack are bad value.
Buy a decent sized chicken for around 6-7 euro, roasted it, then rip all the meat off it...there is a lot of meat on a full chicken. And don't be a wally and only eat the breast, all chicken meat is good (actually the 'weird' bits are tastiest). That amount of chicken will make many a sandwich/salad/curry/with pasta etc. AND it will be way nicer than any pre-packed processed rubbish.
Then boil the bones and skin and the rest of the carcass and make a bad ass chicken soup...just google it. I made the nicest soup I ever had doing this.

Jellybaby1 · 08-05-2015 8:06pm

Are you hiding in my house KungPao? I've just done all that with a roast chicken. We had four plated dinners, then today I've just made a curry for two, and the boiled up bones and stock are this minute being strained into a bowl to make soup tomorrow, best ever value out of a €6.99 chicken!!

Interesting tips re keeping costs down

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