Money-saving tips from super scrimpers

By SEAN POULTER, CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR
Updated: 05:16 EST, 9 June 2009

Many of us will have grabbed an extra sachet of sugar when visiting a coffee shop to put in the kitchen cupboard for later.

Tightwad: 'Extreme saving' tips include cutting tea bags in two

This is a relatively innocent way of saving a few pennies, particularly if you have had to pay more than £3 for a frothy cappuccino.

But how about taking a shower with your smalls to save on using the washing machine or cutting tea bags in two to double the number of cuppas?

Money-saving tips that once might have seemed bizarre are now being recommended with the emergence of 'extreme saving'.

Simply re-using a tea bag is old hat. Top of the tips is using a sewing machine to run two lines of stitching down the middle of the bag so it can be cut in half to make two.

If coffee is your preference, you could loiter in the reception of certain bank branches where hot drinks are given out for free with the hard sell.

In the Third World, the washing might be taken down to the river, soaped up and bashed and rinsed.

But in extreme saving Britain, it is suggested that we pile our smalls into the bottom of the shower cubicle and trample them while washing ourselves.

The tips have been collated by the website Bview.co.uk, which directs users to money-off vouchers for leading retailers.

Some ideas are obvious: Take home free ketchup, salt, pepper and sugar sachets and pour them into your own branded bottles. You could also avoiding paying for lemonade in restaurants by ordering water with lemon slices.

Squeezing the juice into the water and adding sugar provides a budget alternative. A more sneaky suggestion advises those going out for drinks with friends to avoid buying a drink for the first three rounds.

By the fourth they will have forgotten or have switched to halves.

Another is to wash the car at the local petrol station using the forecourt's own soapy water and squeegee - even better to do it just before it rains to wash the soap off.

Some tips border on the illegal, like going to a lost property office and trying to acquire someone else's forgotten umbrella, though there is a small fee involved.

One man told relatives and friends he was going away for Christmas so he could buy their presents in the New Year sales and give them out in early January.

A spokesman for Bview said: 'It is not unusual to find people saving money during the current economic climate though most choose recognised and practical ways.

'But there are a few for whom no madcap money-saving scheme is too bizarre and it has even sparked a competitive edge to see who can come up with the most outrageous ideas. You might call these people daredevil Scrooges.'

Super scrimper: Click on the image to see Kath Kelly's Diary of a week - with just £7 to spend

Kath Kelly is one of the cheerleaders for the new way of life. She successfully completed the challenge of living on just £1 a day for 12 months.

Her rent and utility bills were already paid for the year, but her budget had to cover transport, food, clothes and social events.

Her tactics included finding free buffets, shopping at church jumble sales and visiting supermarkets an hour before closing time to pick up bargains.

She even picked fruit from bushes and trees beside a ring road and also managed to collect £117 in loose change dropped in the street.

Miss Kelly, 47, a teacher of English to foreign students in Bristol, said her friends thought she was mad. 'They imagined I would be living like a monk, never going out, or freeloading off them, but it was not like that at all,' she said.

'In fact, I was out all the time. I was the queen of the buffet. Every time there was a public event and a crowd was needed, I was there.'

>> Kath Kelly: How I lived on £1 a day for a year