Miss Thrifty

Like lots of people, I keep my clothes away from flimsy wire hangers, which do nothing to help preserve a garment’s shape. I read somewhere that 75 per cent of wire hangers are thrown away, but doesn’t that seem like a waste?

Lisa Stickley has a eco-friendly, wallet-friendly solution – and has kindly agreed to let me share it with you. Lisa is a seamstress extraordinaire: her fans include Sarah Jessica Parker and Angelina Jolie, and her homewares are stocked by Selfridge’s, John Lewis and Liberty. (Apparently she is also creating a cheaper range for Designers at Debenham, which pleases me greatly.)

Over to Lisa:

There is nothing more infuriating than a tangle of wire coat hangers. Besides, they are not the best things in the wardrobe to look after your favourite silk dresses. These easy-to-make but extremely functional and rather attractive mini coats for those troublesome wire hangers will have your wardrobe organised and stylishly chic in no time. They are also a great way to use up odds and ends of vintage fabric! (more…)

I used to get really annoyed when I chipped a cup or mug, especially if it was one of my favourite Cath Kidston ones. This past few months it has been even more annoying, because of my New Year’s Resolution to fill just one bin bag every month. Every cubic centimetre inside that bin bag is precious space! So I have been turning chipped mugs into plant pots and plant pot holders for garden herbs…

1. Take your collection of chipped mugs in hand.

(more…)

“What is guerrilla gardening?

“Guerrilla gardening is the art of using a piece of land which you do not own to grow something. One step removed from actual guerrilla warfare, guerrilla gardening takes land not for the people, but for nature; returning misused or disused land and finding a purpose for it. Guerrilla gardeners come late in the night with watering cans, compost and gardening gloves, and turn rotting sods of grass outside some condemned building into a vegetable patch, a clump of daffodils, or a flowering rosebush. ”

tribe.net

My friends Erica and Rachel went guerrilla gardening this weekend. They made 100 seedbombs: wildflower seeds, sunflower seeds and herbs, mixed with mud, rolled into balls and coated with a thin layer of plaster of Paris.

Up here in the Dales, guerrilla gardening is fairly redundant – we’re surrounded by rolling green hills, and it’s difficult to move for hanging baskets, floral carpets and bedecked roundabouts in the run-up to the Yorkshire In Bloom competition every year – but I’m happy to think that down in London, a few grey corners and patches of scrub will soon be brightened up with lupins and/or sweet-smelling thyme.

More about seedbombs here.

A nice television lady called Katy asked if I knew anyone who fitted the bill for her production company’s new programme idea. She is looking for people who spend just £1 or £2 a day. I  said I’d put the word out* if Katy sent over her brief. And she did:

Do you lead the ultimate thrifty lifestyle? Is living off £1 a day second nature to you rather than a challenge?

If so, then Hotbed Media are keen to speak with people living the ultimate thrifty lifestyle. We want to talk to people whose budgets only allow them to spend no more than a couple of pounds per day because they believe in this lifestyle. We also want to hear from people who have enjoyed this frugal way of life for many years.

We are filming a taster tape on Wednesday 18th November 2009 and we’d like our presenter to spend a few hours with a person who lives on a few pounds a day. THIS IS NOT FOR TV – it’s for our development and researching purposes only. All footage we film will not be broadcast.

If you’re currently living the thrifty life, then please get in touch and speak to one of our team on T: 0121 248 3900 or email: development@hotbedmedia.co.uk
*I’m quite happy to do this when someone sends me a personalised request and is nice. I know this sounds like a no-brainer but seriously, you should see my inbox!

We ran out of floor cleaner so I’ve started making my own, out of some of the old-fashioned tricks and treats that now grace my cleaning cupboard. It costs pennies and works just as well as the relatively expensive, chemical equivalent. The tiled floors also seem to dry more quickly, although I don’t know why that is.

Here is the recipe (if you can call it that): (more…)

White vinegar comes in handy: it’s an ingredient in my thrifty leather food, and I also use it when I’m mixing up my own kitchen and bathroom cleaner. I buy the stuff in bulk: this five-litre vat (left) from Summer Naturals costs £4.19 and lasts forever. (Although, to my annoyance, it is sold out at the time of writing.)

Anyway, I’d read somewhere that white vinegar makes an excellent fabric softener, it had been playing on my mind ever since. It would be great if it worked – but how would it work, exactly? And what if it made my clothes smell of chip shop?

Right now I’m on a roll when it comes to laundry – I’m nuts about my eco-friendly soap nuts – so I decided to throw caution to the wind and try out the vinegar. I wasn’t going to test it on my own pretty garments, but my husband provided me with the ideal opportunity. He decided to do the laundry, carefully picked out all his own clothes for the machine, then left his wet washing mouldering inside the drum for a couple of days. Perfect! And if the clothes smelled of chip shop afterwards, so be it. I put the load through the machine again, and added a slosh of white vinegar into the fabric softener compartment. (more…)

I bought a packet of soap nuts from the Summer Naturals site, and I’m loving them. Soap nuts grow on sapindus trees in China and India; they are sticky and gooey with a surfactant called saponin. Forget laundry detergent; put a handful of these nuts into an old sock, chuck them into the washing machine and let them do their stuff. They really work! They are eco-friendly too, being reusable, biodegradable and lacking the potential environmental impact of shop-bought laundry detergent.

These sticky little nuts also work out very cheap – which surprised me, because I presumed that they would be relatively expensive, in the way that worthy, hippy-friendly things often are. (more…)

Hey, do you remember the other day, when I listed Secret Freegan (@Freegan ) as one of my Favourite Frugal Twitterers?

Well, it turns out that Secret Freegan also has a Secret Freegan blog, which makes for eyeopening reading.

Just look at this: (more…)

Yes, I know I’m really late to the party. I’d read all about Freecycle, which reduces waste by encouraging people to post their unwanted items online, and pass them on. But I hadn’t really paid much attention, because (a) Freecycle always popping up in those same rubbish “recessionista” features in the women’s pages. You know: those round-ups that tell us all to go out and stuff fallen fruit into our Lulu Guinness handbags, and take our clothes to “swap parties”. Also, (b) I’d presumed that Freecycle’s domains were eco-trendy places like Islington and Brighton, rather than my creaky Yorkshire backwater.

But lo! I looked Freecycle up, and it turns out that the little place in which I live (pop: 13,000) has its own, thriving Freecycle group. (more…)

Who’d have thunk that Woolies would be a magnet for frugal gardeners? It really shouldn’t surprise me – after all, that shop sells everything – but since discovering that it sells good gardening products at rock bottom prices, I’ve become a fan.

If you’re a super-organised gardener looking ahead to your Spring beds, I’d recommend that you check Woolworths out. The plants themselves are hit and miss – a forsythia I bought last year has done diddly squat – but the bulbs and seeds are great value for money. Cheaper than the supermarkets and discount stores, even. (more…)