Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Friday, 19 April 2013

30 Ways to Save £1.

No idea if I am too late to get the £30 from Moneysupermarket.com
but thought I would have a go at this, anyway :-)

This is what the Moneysupermaket.com website has to say

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the £1 coin, we're asking the UK's most talented and creative bloggers - that's you, by the way - to give us as many money saving tips as they can. We want 1,000, to be precise!

We realise that asking each of you to give us 1,000 ways is perhaps demanding a little too much, so we'd like to reach to the magic figure by getting up to 30 ways from each blogger.

To thank you for your hard work and inspiration we'll be giving away £1 for each money-saving tip (up to £30).



So here are my 30 tips to save at least £1 - in no particular order.

  1. Make compost if you can - it is free soil improver!
  2. Grow at least some of your own food - even without a garden you can grow a lot of food in pots outside and if you don't have an outside to grow in, you can grow herbs and salad leaves in pots on a windowsill.
  3. If you don't have a garden why not see if you can use someone else's?Or sign up for an allotment, or a scheme like Landshare?
  4.  Swap any glut of fruit/veg with other people for things you don't grow, or other items or services.
  5. Make wine, cider, flavoured spirits at home to save on alcohol purchases - they are lovely to give as gifts as well.

  6. Make jams, chutneys and store away- great as gifts and will save you money rather than buying shop ones.
  7. Make a meal plan.
  8. Make a shopping list based on the meal plan and what you already have left in the cupboard.
  9. Keep your fridge and freezer at the correct temperature, more efficient and avoids food spoilage. Keep the coils at the back free from dirt - helps with efficiency.
  10. Keep your freezer full - use bread or bags of ice cubes to fill any empty gaps - you will always use it sometime!
  11.  Cook only what you need to eat, unless you are deliberately cooking extras.
  12. Batch cook double ( or more!) quantities of casseroles, stews and freeze half for a quick meal from the freezer.
  13. Use a slow cooker - tasty, frugal as you can cook cheaper cuts of meat, and saves energy.
  14. Save leftovers and make another meal from them - or take them next day as lunch.
  15. If you have a meat joint, make stock with the bones after you have used all the meat and freeze in clean containers. Then you will always have stock ready to hand.
     
  16. Use up any "tired" veggies in home made soup - add a handful of lentils and it will be even more filling.
  17. Bake tray bakes, cakes and biscuits and cut up and open freeze - better and tastier than shop bought!
  18. Take a packed meal if you go out to save buying food .Or at least some snacks (which you have baked - see above!)
  19. Take a bottle of tap water with you to save buying expensive bottled water.
  20. Save money on Gym membership and get outside, digging the garden, going for a walk.
  21. Walk or cycle rather than drive, if you can. If you take a bus to work or college, get off a stop or more and walk - save money and get fitter.
  22. Get a railcard if you use the train or get a season ticket if you use the bus.
  23. Car share with colleagues, join a local scheme run by your work or council. If there isn't one, why not start one?
  24. Always have some change with you for car park, bus fare etc - so you won't have to make an unnecessary purchase just to get some change.
  25. If you need regular prescription medication buy a season ticket.
  26. Make your own soaps, balms, face oils and creams from raw materials cheaper and you know what you are feeding your skin!
  27. Learn to sew, and mend your clothes as soon as you see something in need of repair.
  28. Learn to change a car wheel, change a plug, unblock a drain etc, so you can make simple household repairs and not have to pay someone else.

  29. See if there is a local LETS or other barter system locally and join it.
  30. Use your local library to borrow books, games, cd's, dvd's rather than buying them.
  31. Try charity shops first if you need something as it is often cheaper. Or could you borrow it from someone you know? .
 I could go on, and on and on...but I will stop, now :-)

4 comments:

  1. Hi CW,
    It's the 17th May for the deadline so you should be fine. Lovely to get £30 for what we know anyway.

    FIB. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think they have an upper limit of bloggers they will pay? So if loads of us have joined in it will halt? Sensible, really.

      But a good deal for us and them I think :-)

      Delete
    2. Great tips! I think the website said they would pay the first 500 - I wondered if I would be too late when I posted mine yesterday morning, but by the afternoon the money was in my Paypal account. I was very impressed by their generosity and efficiency.

      Delete
  2. Some great tips. Like you I wondered if I was too late! We'll have to wait and see! Paying 1000 bloggers £30 each is £30,000 if my Maths is right...seems a lot of money to me but maybe not to Moneysupermarket.com for that kind of advertising.

    ReplyDelete

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