Meet Britain’s most frugal pensioner … who makes guests bring own teabags!
IF you want to save money, look no further. But it might be tough to live as frugally as pensioner Ilona Richards.
Follow her tips and you will have to cook meals for no more than £1 each, brush your teeth with toothpaste once a day – even ask your friends to bring their own teabags when they visit.
And do not even think about leaving the heating on all day. Instead the retired lorry driver, 66, turns it off at 6pm at the latest and puts on extra layers.
She still treats herself by using
‘I never go mad’
the money saved to put fuel in her ‘decent’ car and going on holiday and days out. Miss Richards, who lives in Scunthorpe with her dog and three cats, said: ‘That’s the difference between being frugal and being penny-pinching. I don’t deny myself anything, but I never go mad. It’s all about prioritising what’s important.’
It all started when she was forced to take 12 weeks off work following an operation. She ended up stopping work and took on a more thrifty lifestyle.
Over the past ten years, Miss Richards has rarely paid full price for anything and now lives on an annual budget of around £2,400 a year. Central to her lifestyle is her supermarket shopping technique. She tends to go after 7.30pm when stores start labelling items with rock-bottom prices, meaning she forks out just £10 a week on food.
The only downside is she has to eat what is available in store, not what she fancies, and she has to eat it up quickly so it doesn’t go off. Inspecting recent purchases, she said: ‘I have to eat things in date order. I’ll have to get on to those raspberries and tomatoes soon or they will turn to mush.’
Miss Richards, who runs a blog called meanqueen-lifeaftermoney, ekes out bottles of washing up liquid for a year by mainly rinsing her dishes, and she saves toothpaste by using it only once in the morning then keeps her mouth fresh by brushing with water several times a day.
Other more unusual tips include buying men’s underwear which she says are stronger and last longer. All her other clothes come from charity shops. ÷