How Tight Are You?

[Drago]

This week I've been beavering away making my own Waxoyl, of all things. I think I got the recipe down pat now.

I've clearly got too much time on my hands, but using only scrap materials and bits of shizzle I've saved myself about £60 (I cooked enough to do two cars).

So what money saving wheezes have you pulled? What home made devices, ungents or concoctions have you come up with?

 

[classic33]

Drain cleaner, from a batch of homebrew that didn't go right, following a power cut.

 

[simon.r]

I get my step-son to put his "empty" shampoo bottles on my shelf in the shower, then get about another 4 washes out of them.

 

[swee'pea99]

Tight as a gnat's arse, as my oul granny used to say. I buy everything apart from groceries on ebay; get groceries largely on yellow ticket or from £1 a bowl roadside stalls; and fix everything possible rather than call out the man, using YouTube to tell me how. Just this weekend I'm planning to fix the central heating by fitting a synchronous motorised valve I bought off ebay for £7.45 (delivered). I'd never heard of such a thing till the CH broke down, and anyone else would have called in the boiler man, but I knew that would cost me the thick end of a ton, so I did a bit of research online and hopefully all will be well. If not I'll drown my sorrows in discount booze while watching the rugby on my recently acquired (Black Friday) tv.

 

[Markymark]

I get my step-son to put his "empty" shampoo bottles on my shelf in the shower, then get about another 4 washes out of them.

I do the same but get 10 washes

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I get my step-son to put his "empty" shampoo bottles on my shelf in the shower, then get about another 4 washes out of them.

If you add a bit of water to the bottle you might get another two washes

 

[ColinJ]

I mend things that other people would just have chucked away ...

My first tape recorder was one I found in a junk shop going for a pittance because it didn't work. I discovered that one wire to the tapehead had broken. I soldered that back on and the machine worked for several years after that.

I took my old laptop to bits when the screen went blank recently. I discovered that a wire connected to the backlight had burned out. I replaced that and am using the repaired laptop now to type this post.

Oldfentiger gave me an old Garmin Etrex GPS which he had killed by leaving it in a drawer for years with batteries in it. The batteries had leaked and the nasty chemicals that spilled out had corroded the GPS's battery terminals. I have done a temporary repair which got it working, but it needs a bit more work to make it reliable and waterproof.

And so on ...

I prefer to think of it as being 'green' rather than 'tight' but I admit to doing more buying than repairing when I was earning a reasonable salary. I was cash rich and time poor then so that made sense. These days I am time rich and cash poor so my motto is now 'waste not, want not'.

 

[Hugh Manatee]

I used to use fine sandpaper to sand down the edges of the central heating timer pegs. This meant you could get them closer together thus reducing the time the central heating was on. Digital timers means that I can't do this now.

 

[Katherine]

Take our own drinks and snacks with us when we go out. I make a flask of coffee when we go on long jouneys or days out.

 

[fossyant]

Own drinks and snacks to the cinema. Frighteningly expensive.

 

[Drago]

[QUOTE 4676272, member: 9609"]so whats the recipe ?

I have seen people mixing old engine oil, bitumen and diesel then spraying it through a blast gun on to chasis and farm stuff - what a mess but iit does leave a good covering[/QUOTE]500g paraffin candles all grated up on a cheese grate, melted in a litre of white spirit, plus half a litre of duck oil and half a litre of new engine oil. Sprays on, looks, and semi dries like the real thing.

 

[beanzontoast]

I gut any defunct pc or laptop I encounter of every last part I can remove - memory, hard drives, DVD-RW drives, cables, processors, cooling and case fans, any removable cards and every nut and bolt possible. As a result, haven't had to buy anything of that kind in years. (A single SATA cable was between £7 and £10 one place I was looking last week. Admittedly a lot cheaper from a well-known internet site but not as cheap as free!).

 

[roadrash]

favourite expression.....tighter than a submarine door

 

[beanzontoast]

Also, Mrs Beanz and myself often cut a piece of cake in half and share when we are at a cafe. Not that the cakes are huge, but it makes us feel a bit better that we've saved money and not consumed as many calories

 

[roadrash]

cake and share in the same sentence