Miss Thrifty

Easy peasy! Keep cakes fresh for longer by bunging a large piece of fresh orange peel in the tin.

And if you don’t have any oranges to hand..? (more…)

I dare you not to be inspired by this greenhouse made from old windows. Apparently the windows were collected from local houses that were being torn down. (So it’s eco-friendly too!) The result is featured on the splendid MAKE:blog, which is fast becoming one of my favourite sources of inspiration for sumptuous moneysaving ideas.

Well, I say “inspiration”. I think I probably mean “aspiration”. I’d love to make something like this, but I’m not there… yet.

A week or so before Christmas, a medium-sized cardboard box filled with organic fruit and vegetables landed on the Thrifty Towers doorstep. (I know! Some bloggers have all the luck/freebies.) It was a pre-festive gift from the organic delivery service Abel & Cole, and was issued along with a challenge: (more…)

Welcome to The 157th Festival of Frugality: The Queen’s Speech Edition!  And a special welcome to all first-time visitors to the Miss Thrifty blog. If you would like to stick around, please feel free to put your feet up: some of the most popular posts include thrifty household tips, my beloved Thriftymobile and a hotlist of Frugal Twitter Users. For regular updates in your RSS reader, whack the big orange button to your right.

With the Festival on the other side of the pond this week and Christmas looming, I thought I’d go for a quintessentially British theme. As you may know, we take the seasonal festivities very, very seriously over here; Christmas Day is centred upon a vast lunchtime banquet at which we all wear paper crowns, eat until we pop and try to keep the flaming Christmas pudding from setting the curtains ablaze. After that it’s copious quantities of sherry and telly until bedtime. The day after Christmas Day is a public holiday, to give everyone time to recover.   

So there is plenty to choose from when it comes to selecting a theme. I was going to go with The 157th Festival of Frugality: The Alka-Seltzer Edition, but on reflection felt that this would provide an unfortunate impression of the scenes of carnage Dickensian delights for which the British Christmas is renowned.

Instead, I have plumped for another fine British Christmas tradition. (more…)

Believe it or not, this works a treat on old, tatty-looking wallpaper. Just rub a slice down the wall, and the bread will pick up the grime.

Cheap white bread seems to works best, for some reason - so even if you end up using the whole loaf, it will cost you no more than 80 pence or thereabouts.

I’m thinking about trying out Furoshiki gift wrapping this year. It’s simple (well, the finished results look simple), pretty and the wrapping can be recycled.  You use squares of fabric, rather than spangly paper and ribbons. Check it out:

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo. 

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has kindly provided a Furoshiki instruction sheet, with wrapping instructions for a variety of different-shaped gifts.

If my efforts come up trumps, I’ll post the photos. If I end up with pouchy knapsnack-style confections, let us never speak of this again…

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…)

If you are planning a trip to the Angels Vintage Sale  (aka The Clothes Sale of my Dreams) on Saturday 6 December, have you seen this?

Angels is running a prize draw to give a small number of vintage fans the opportunity to be the first people through the doors: (more…)

I’m back! I’m jetlagged and should be in bed in right now, but instead I’m trolling the net and I just came across this:

 
I love Angels: it’s an amazing theatrical costumier in London. The owner wants to clear some space and has filled a Wembley warehouse with boxes and bags full of vintage clothes from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, to be sold off at rock-bottom prices at a one-day sale next month.

Style blogger Mademoiselle Robot says:

It will feature items from the 1930s till now and they will not be priced individually but by bag. You will be able to get a medium bag for £10 (able to hold a suit and shirt, or three dresses) or a supersize one for £20 & then fill it with pieces from BIBA, Quorum, YSL, Bus Stop, Jaques Azagury, & Jean Muir or high street labels of the past thirty years like Chelsea Girl, Jaeger, Joseph, French Connection, Stirling Cooper, Artwork Blue & Stefanel.

Period military uniforms and costumes featured on BBC shows will also be for sale. Angels has published full details about its vintage clothing sale here, and here’s the skinny:

Date: 6 December 2008.

Time: 9 am to 5 pm (frankly, I’d get there early).

Venue: 3 Boundary Road, Wembley, HA9 7ND.

Map: voila!

I wouldn’t miss this for the world, but 6 December is also my husband’s birthday so I’m not sure how I’m going to work it…

UPDATE: See this later post about the Angels sale, for details of a prize draw plus their list of rules for would-be buyers.

I asked my Frugal Grandma if she would provide holiday cover while I am away on my Thrifty Roadtrip this week. Frugal Grandma can do anything…

When you make fruit pies put the bottom layer of pastry in the tin, paint with egg and leave to dry. This stops the bottom of the pie from becoming soggy with juice. Use the rest of the egg to paint over the top of the pie before you sprinkle with sugar, and this will make it nice and shiny. Try not to put too much juicy liquid into the pie as it will make its own when it cooks.

When you make a bread and butter pudding, put a smear of marmalade in the bottom of the dish. This greatly improves it.

At Christmas, mince pies are often a bit rich when you have been stuffing yourself. So in our family we always make a lot of little apple pies, which seem to go much faster. Don’t forget to make the tops of the mince and apple a bit different so you know which is which.

- Frugal Grandma