The Magical World of Quidco

I have finally joined Quidco- the cashback site- and I'm already beginning to wonder why I didn't do it long ago! If you haven't yet taken the plunge, or still believe (like I did for so long) that it was too good to be true, then I urge you to sign up, it only takes a few minutes and it's totally freeeee (and no, this is not a sponsored post!)

To give you an idea of how much you can save, here's what I've 'earned' so far:

2 x return train tickets for work, so I'll even be able to claim the cost of the tickets: £0.80 + £0.42 (purchase price: £53.33 + £27.80)

Theatre tickets for Mum's Birthday: £1.95 (purchase price: £65 of which £50 was a voucher)

Energy switch: £14 (purchase: none, in fact I'm saving money as I was paying too much for my electricity)

Hotel for black tie do in London: £11.57 (spend: £89 for a 4 star hotel on a Saturday night- Late Rooms are having an amazing sale)

House supplies from eBay (spend: £6.99)

So I've managed to make £28.91 without lifting a finger!

Home Made Make Up Remover

I've been waiting for my make up remover to run out so I could try this homemade eye make up remover by a thrifty mrs, one of my favourite bloggers.

You may remember I obtained the bottle in this post to use for the task (a Starbucks frapuccino bottle from my local supermarket, in case you're wondering). It's probably wholly impractical for the task as it's glass and I'm rather clumsy, but it looks great in the bathroom. Apologies for the quality of the photos, DIY Dave was at the new house with the camera, so I used my phone.

If your existing make up remover bottle is easy to fill (mine was not as it had a nozzle), you may find it easier to use that.

Anyway, a thrifty mrs' instructions were really easy to follow, so I did just that. The only thing I would add is to do a test run with plain water first to check your bottle is water tight, as you will need to shake it to mix the oil and water every day before use.

1. Pretty bottle, all cleaned up and ready to go:

2. There are just 3 ingredients: cooled boiled water, olive oil and rose water:

3. Stage one:

4. All of the 'ingredients' added:

5. Shaken up and ready to use:

Simples!

Fresh Egg Test

Whilst reading a pile of old magazines my Mum has given me, I came across this tip for checking whether your eggs are still fresh, which I thought I'd share. I hate throwing food away as it seems like such a waste, but eggs are something nobody really wants to chance, so I think this is a great tip.

'Place the egg in a bowl of water. If it: sinks and lies on its side- it's fresh; sinks and stands large-end up- it's on the turn so use within a couple of days; floats- bin it, it's gone off' (Woman & Home October 2011)

Looks like mine are still lovely and fresh:

To keep them fresh, we keep a few eggs out and ready for use in this lovely chicken basket:

And the rest in the fridge to stay fresh until they're ready to use.

Coffee Grounds in the Garden

The Lodge was renovated before we moved in and to give us a patch of garden, our landlord kindly planted these little fir trees:

 As you can see, some of them are feeling a bit sorry for themselves and they're all not quite tall enough to give us any privacy in the garden. So I'm trying to grow these little beauties into a garden hedge without spending any money on fancy fertiliser etc.

My first port of call is coffee grounds, which apparently contain nitrogen, as well as smaller quantities of magnesium, calcium, potassium and other trace minerals. See this article from The Gardening Channel for some of their uses.

I have been saving mine up this week, but I think when I'm next in a town with a Starbucks, I may need to pop in for some of their giveaway grounds, as this little pot probably won't be enough to spurt the growth of my little fir trees!

I have measured some trees as part of this highly scientific experiment (!) to test the benefit of coffee grounds, so watch this space for a tree update.

What do you use to help your garden grow?

Make Your Own Cake Board

This week it was my lovely friend Sarah's Birthday and I made a cake, which of course meant I needed something to transport and serve it on. Cue the need for a cake board, but not one of those foil ones (like this) that you buy from the supermarket, oh no, a thrifty home-made kind of one that's even better as it has 'lift out' sides to remove it from the tub. Perfect for a cake that needs to travel 37 miles to Bath in rush hour traffic.

How to Make Your Own Cereal Box Cake Board

The dimensions of my cereal box were 19 x 25cm (front) and my cake tin has a diameter of 19cm- perfect fit. You may want to use stronger cardboard if making a bigger/heavier cake, but this was fine for lifting it out, lighting the candles and cutting the cake.

Thrifty Tip: Making Moisturiser Last Longer

Today's Thrifty Tip is quite simple- when you can't squeeze out any more moisturiser from the tube, grab the scissors and chop off the end:

It even makes a neat lid to stop it drying up:

I managed an extra 8 days out of mine... thrifty result!