Let’s do this together
I’m so obsessed with turning off lights hts around the house that I often accidentally kill the bathroom light while my daughter’s still in there. I usually just hear a wail, and then a thump as a device falls out of her hand.
I consider that collateral damage in my bid to conserve energy and money, and frankly, it would also be cheaper if she just read books on the loo.
I was raised on a diet of my wartime granny’s sayings, like “Every mickle makes a muckle,” which I think is the Scots version of “Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves”. Although in my experience, the pounds tend to disappear out the window no matter how hard you save the pennies.
We regularly publish tips and kitchen hacks from our Lemon-Aid newsletter for younger families, but it seems some are considered spendthrift to Mirror readers.
Shocked at advice to soft boil eggs in the oven, Kim Crosby in Pimlico, London, writes:
“I wouldn’t put my oven on for just one thing! In these days of austerity, people should look to my parents’ generation for thriftiness.
“My late parents were born in the 1920s – lived through the Great Depression, the war and rationing. My mother drummed into me the need to conserve fuel and only put the oven on if cooking several things at once.
“So I’d roast meat and cook veg at the same time – then pop in a corned beef hash to eat in the week at the base of the oven, or bake pies.
“Then I’d turn the oven off before the end so the heat in the oven cooks the food. And after washing up, put damp trays in the oven to dry.”
I think my granny had that recipe for damp trays, Kim, she called it toad in the hole. Sadly her cooking was never as good as her proverbs.
I’d love to hear make do and mend tips from readers who know how to save a bob or two.
Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.
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