Cooking oil
Once, when I was completely and utterly skint, I couldn't afford diesel for my car - so I decided to put cooking oil in, at £1 for 3 litres.

The problem is, it didn't just work - it worked very well. My car smoked less, had more oomph and smelt nicer.

So from that day forth, every time I filled that car up, I filled it up with £20 worth of cooking oil instead of £60 worth of diesel. The engine never missed a beat and was still going strong, with 150,000 miles on it, when the bodywork fell apart around it.

I scrapped that car for £50. I bought it for £50 in the first place, too. That's a bit tight.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:36, 26 replies)

that's not tightwad-ish
that's great. It's just a pity cooking oil has gone up in price. And it's a pity my diesel car had to be scrapped.

And there's nothing wrong with a 50 quid car. That's damn good too.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:38, closed)

Stupid thing is
It's illegal too. You have to pay 25p a litre fuel duty, and register yourself as a "fuel processor" or "Fuel distributor" to do that. And the government has all these emissions targets. Idiots.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:40, closed)

^^^ WRONG!
Get up to date. Last year the government issued a taxation waver on people self producing fuel and you can now make and use I believe 2500 litres of fuel a year without paying a penny in tax on it.

In other words it's a green light from Mr Brown to fill your car full of veg oil.

Just do your research as not all diesel cars will like this!!!!

Useful reading
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:42, closed)

Yay! You've made me very happy!
Apart from the general insult of shouting "Wrong" at me. Bastard.

Agree about the careful bit. But if your car cost £50 in the first place, why worry? I will be upgrading to a cheap, nasty diesel car in the new year, and fitting it with additional heaters for starting up.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:44, closed)

Sorry
Wanted it to be eye catching for the wannabe savers out there who might have given up after reading your post.

Save the planet & money in one go! :-)
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:46, closed)

Well, big thanks for that.
Any idea where I buy the cheapest veg. oil?
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:53, closed)

Costco
Were doing a box of 20 x 1 litre bottles (NOT 1 x 20 ltr!) which worked out about 80p a bottle. That was 3 months ago though.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:01, closed)

you don't have to pay duty
if you use less than 2,500 litres per year.

(Edit: beaten to it.)

Bosch pumps can handle it so you're totally in luck if you've already got one in your car. If you mix the veg oil with diesel you don't have to worry about it congealing and freezing in the winter.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:43, closed)

At least you have good manners.

(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:45, closed)

it's nice of you to say so, thank you.
Normally I'm a complete harpy.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:46, closed)

I never figured out what a harpy was.
I'm from a small town in the Midlands. Perhaps the word is redundant there. Like the fact that Eskimos don't have a word for "snow", but 27 words that finely distinguish different types of snow.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:53, closed)

's a big, screechy
bird, innit?

EDIT Not that I'm calling CHCB a big, screechy bird. I've met her, and she's even lovelier in the flesh than she is on here, and I, like most of us, definitely WOULD.

Three cheers for CHCB!
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:55, closed)

*checks CHCB profile photo*
*agrees* (in principle. Would upset partner if actually did).
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:00, closed)

Pfffft
She's changed her profile pic! She used to look like an angry mong in her other one, but even then, we all still would have.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:02, closed)

you love the angry mongs, eh Bert?
A harpy is a vulture with the head and the breast of a woman. Note that in my profile pic you can only see the head and the breast of a woman.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:04, closed)

I certainly do
sometimes, I poke them with sticks, just so I can spaff in their lovely, pudgey faces.

Hmmm... breast.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:06, closed)

That's not tight.
It's frugal and rather bloody brilliant.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:40, closed)

By the way
Don't just go out and put cooking oil in your car. It tends to work best on older diesels with mechanical injection systems - generally if you have a Bosch injection pump, it'll work.

I've actually run this in three cars with Bosch pumps and they've all been fine.

Trouble is, as Cecil pointed out, cooking oil is now more expensive than diesel. Unless you recycle used stuff.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:45, closed)

Presumably it's still cheaper from a cash-n-carry
in giant 20l cans?

Edit: Cheapest oil from Booker is about £1 a litre. So now oil has come down again, diesel is marginally cheaper. Damn.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:54, closed)

Tesco
Some largers branches of Tesco do it in 15L drums for 98p/litre - which goes straight into my £100 205.
Best to use a splash of diesel in there to help with start up problems - as the oil has a higher flash point it sometimes takes a little encouragement to get going, but once the engine has warmed up you should be alright.
(spankfrencer, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:01, closed)

'course, if you're friendly with your local chippy
or other purveyor of deep-fried junk, you might be able to relieve him of his used cooking oil. Strain out the bits of dead fish and it should work just as well...
(julius, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:19, closed)

^
Diesel for a quid a litre? Where? Unleaded is 99.9p/litre and diesel ~£1.13/litre in Hull.
(SalRossi Laughter the best medicine? Nurse, penicillin....., Fri 24 Oct 2008, 20:50, closed)

I'm all in favour of it.
The government takes far too much IMHO, while we revile oil companies for their "immoral" profits, it's worth remembering that they don't mark up the price by a factor of 2.7.

The taxman does.

Anyone who bends the taxman over and stiffs him is a hero to me.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:42, closed)

I know a bit about oil and the like...
as I am currently working for a big (like BIG) petrochemical concern. Tehy are happy if they make 1p per litre profit on maingrade fuel and 3-5p per litre on the "premium" stuff. The rest of the price at the pump is duty - about 70% of the cost at the pump is added by Mr Brown in varying duties, taxes and VAT. Twat
(Chad, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 11:05, closed)

Err yeah...
...because of course Mr Brown spends the money on hookers and crack-parties, rather than spending it on schools, hospitals, roads, etc.
(stalinism, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 22:59, closed)

Is this classified as being a tightwad?
Now that I've read here that diesel is cheaper than cooking oil, I'll be cooking my fish with Esso's finest tonight... mmm!
(Jester_, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:37, closed)