I think I'm quite tight...
(stop sniggering at the back there).

It's been hammered into me that one should never waste anything. I'm not from a poor family, but my parents both were, and therefore are very good about saving money. After seeing my father tuck quite happily into mouldy dates, use squidgy lemons to make lemonade so sour it makes your eyes bleed, and drink half a jug of gravy so as not to have to throw it away, I've got the thrifty bug.

On music tours, the musicians get given a "per diem" to spend on food. However, most hotels do a buffet-style breakfast, consisting of cereals, fruit, ham, cheese, bread and yoghurts. Simply fill up on cereal, and make sandwiches out of the cheese/ham, and nick as many bits of fruit and pots of yoghurt as possible. Voila! Lunch and supper is taken care of, leaving one's per diem for the really important stuff: alcohol.

If I go to a gig (and I do go to quite a few), I tend not to drink too much. The beer is always overpriced and shit, and I'd rather enjoy the music relatively sober, and without having to dash to the loo every so often.

I buy most of my books and bags at Oxfam. There's a chain of shops called "The Book Warehouse" or something like that: they sell the Wordsworth Edition series of classic novels: 1 for two pounds, or 3 for a fiver, so I can get my literature fix there if Oxfam only has Jackie Collins on sale.

I don't like putting the heating on, when I have a lovely selection of wooly jumpers and thick socks that will do just as well. I turn all the lights off whenever I leave the room. I always prefer buying the shop's own version of basics, if they're as good as the expensive version (Tesco's chopped tomatos, kidney beans, rice etc). I don't eat out at expensive restaurants at all often (if we do eat out, we tend to go for dim sum, or to the local pizza place, which happily happens to be very good indeed).

Without fail, the day after I get back I pay the rent and put most of my money into savings, allowing myself a strictly governed amount of money to live on for the month. If I need to buy something expensive, I transfer the exact amount from my savings, and then "pay myself back" by adding the money back to my savings, a little bit each month.

However: I will always get my round in. I can afford to get nice presents for my friends and family. I can treat Mr Bob to lovely meals at expensive restaurants every so often (and he does the same for me). I invest in good pictures by emerging artists. The expensive clothes that I buy are well-made, well-looked-after, and last for ages. I've saved myself a respectable amount of money over the last 3 years, which is going to be a deposit for when I finally buy a house. Mr Bob and I share a bedroom in a flat (two other people live there as well, in their own rooms). It's crowded, but we pay very little rent (amazing in zone 2 in London), and restrict ourselves to buying only things that we definitely need, instead of splashing out on junk.

Yes, I'm thrifty, but I'm not inhuman about it.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 11:46, 11 replies)

Click
Just for your Dad & the half a jug of gravy.
(Worthless wishes he had the brains of a pigeon, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 11:53, closed)

Sounds very sensible, actually.
I also hate to see stuff going to waste. Something inside me gets very tense when I see food being dropped into a bin, and this has got worse since I started my compost heap (e.g., "you might not want that, but it could feed the worms and nourish my soil*")

And I'm intrigued by this Book Warehouse - looks like one of them is only a short detour from my walk home, so I think I'll have to investigate.

Edit: Oh yes, and my flatmate always makes a point of drinking any leftover gravy on a Sunday. I suppose if nothing else, it's a nutritious drink, being full of condensed cow and vegetable boilings...

_{*Fnarr fnarr?}
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 11:57, closed)

it's best to let the gravy congeal
and then have it on toast
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:07, closed)

Ooh, now there's an idea...
Although, with the amount of cornflour I tend to put in my gravy, it usually starts to congeal before dinner has even finished.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:09, closed)

Book Warehouse
You have to hunt around a bit (they seem to mostly display the books called "Madonna's Hair Styles 1981-1982", or "Feng Shui Your Way to a Better-Behaved Dog" - really pointless stuff), but you can find some very good things. The one at Waterloo also seems to do a good line in "Artistic photography" books - including quite a lot of porn.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:58, closed)

Did your dad drink the water that the vegetables were cooked in too?
A lot of my parents' peers did that. I usually keep it for stock or soup.

Or just drink it.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:09, closed)

Surely you use the vegetable water
as a base for the gravy?

Thus adding extra depth of flavour...and also minimising your water usage.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:11, closed)

Keep it for stock.
Whenever they have meat, they'll keep every single bone/scrap of fat, and then add the veg water and cook themselves up some good stock. My mother has filled the freezer with tupperware boxes full of stock.

To be fair, they buy expensive, local organic food. The local butcher gets his meat from the National Trust place up the road that has a rare breeds farm. The meat is expensive, but delicious. They eat sensibly, but well.

We always have goose at Christmas, and when my parents go on their "new year" tour of their various friends (they always do this, staying one or two nights with each, it's a great way to guarantee catching up with people at least once a year), they'll take them all a bottle of good wine and a tub of goose-fat as "thankyou for having me" presents. That's not tight, because the wine is very good, but goose-fat is always appreciated by the friends!
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:02, closed)

You're not tight
sensible, definitely. But not tight.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:19, closed)

I Only
Got as far as:

I'm think I'm quite tight

And then the line

I've had it hammered into me
/lolz
(never-right -getting it wrong since '78, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:16, closed)

click
for the fact that you have this bug a little and are sensible with money

my spendthrift ways mean im living abroad comforatbly (more than actually) on a piss poor wage...


id rather that than have to constantly worry about cash
(jenko83, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 13:34, closed)