Money-Saving Tips: Saving Money on Cooking, Baking, Crafts, etc. / What comes to mind?

Dear users, dear authors,
If you want to save money on crafts , you can use the discount for your store credit account . You can use free patterns or affordable patterns , and of course, patterns for using up leftover yarn or patterns for scraps and leftovers .

What money-saving tips do you have for all areas of life that you’d like to share here?

Probably the simplest one:
Use up leftovers—no matter what you’re doing!
Don’t plan what you want to crochet/cook/bake/… and go shopping just for that; instead, see what materials or ingredients you already have on hand and then think about what you could make with them.
This boosts creativity, you might discover new ideas, and you save money.

When it comes to crafts, you also have the option to swap materials.
Who doesn’t have it at home—that gorgeous yarn you just had to buy because it’s sooo beautiful! And now it’s been sitting in your stash for 10 years… You see it again and again and think it’s far too good to just let it gather dust. But you just can’t seem to come up with the right idea. Maybe someone else has THE idea—but still has some yarn of their own they can’t seem to use up?! Just swap—and suddenly two people have saved money, and the yarn finally finds its purpose :) (This also applies to fabrics.)

Another popular way to save money is to repurpose old items. Especially when it comes to sewing, it’s sooo easy—for example, making kids’ clothes out of old adult clothes. Or patchwork quilts from all kinds of fabrics. Or, or :) 

Tina, those are really great tips!
We now only shop based on sales; to do that, we always study the flyers on the weekend and compare prices. Since we’re currently focusing especially on fruit and vegetables due to our diet/dietary changes, it’s definitely worth it.
We also planted a lot of tomatoes this year. Next year, we’ll add a greenhouse and a raised bed, so we’ll have even more of our own vegetables.
I also often cook enough food to last two or three days. 
I’m currently using up my leftover yarn to make a fidget blanket; it’s a wonderful way to use up both large and small scraps. I’m also participating in the swap package here this time; that way, yarn that has been living with me for a long time but doesn’t speak to me can be swapped for other yarn that will hopefully be more talkative 😄.

We only go shopping with a shopping list now. It’s tempting to pick up items on sale that you don’t actually need, but just stock up on them “just in case” for some time in the future.

  When it comes to groceries, use up leftovers and stored supplies before they go bad.

Go back to cooking and baking from scratch. Don’t buy ready-made meals. Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been baking my own bread and rolls. You wouldn’t believe how quickly you can actually have fresh Sunday rolls on the table.

  What works for a yarn swap also works for food. We have friends who have a large garden that they tend. We get vegetables in exchange for bread.

We ride our bikes a lot; the car stays put. People often think you’d be faster by car. But with heavy traffic, a 30 km/h speed limit, and traffic lights, I’m actually faster riding the 7 kilometers to my friend’s house by bike—and I get fresh air and exercise. 

To save energy, I now only use LED lights.
I either unplug electrical appliances when they’re not in use or turn them off using a power strip with a switch.
Large appliances like the washing machine and dryer (heat pump dryer) only run when they’re full. I usually set the washing machine to the Eco cycle. I now only use the dryer for large items of laundry and towels. The rest goes on the drying rack.
Since I don’t have a dishwasher, I wash dishes with cold water for as long as it’s comfortable for me.
I boil water in a kettle.
When using the stovetop, I use the residual heat indicator and turn off the burner a few minutes before the end of the cooking time.
When I bake, I skip the preheating step. Most of the time, I can also turn off the oven early and use the residual heat.
If the recipe allows it, I use the convection setting instead of top/bottom heat.
I bake or reheat two rolls and other small items in the air fryer.

Interesting to hear about everything you all do.
We don’t have a garden, so we rely on Lidl and REWE.
I went collecting apples in the meadow orchard. I process them into applesauce and apple compote. The jam is already cooked and in the cupboard. 
I made compote from a few blackberries.
For my rabbit, I gathered herbs and dried them for the winter. 

We don’t own a clothes dryer. The laundry goes on the drying rack to dry.

No car either. We’ve always walked everywhere.

Best, Gabi

Yes, a garden would really come in handy right now, but we don’t have one anymore. However, I always have herbs and tomatoes on the balcony—that’s all that fits, since it’s quite small.
Crafts are, in and of themselves, a way to save money; when I’m crocheting, I don’t need anything to eat, a computer, or a TV during that time....:-)
Otherwise, I’m very curious about what winter will bring, though I have somewhat mixed feelings about it. We really don’t overheat the house—at least not so far.... My husband now needs care; I have no idea what’s required or what’s possible, but we’ll figure it out somehow. In any case, I already have thick socks and wool blankets ready to go.

I’m still waiting for the pears, apples, and plums on the wild trees to ripen.

I think, over time, everyone has thought about where they can save money. That’s already quite a few tips.

If you go through your day mindfully and consider at every step whether there’s a different or more affordable way to do things, it all adds up—things you couldn’t even list individually. Just now, I printed out a sheet for a pattern I’m currently working on. I generally only print things in black-and-white using eco-ink mode now. That’s perfectly sufficient for me as a reference. My work printouts used to end up in the paper recycling bin. Now we cut them up into notepads. My husband always finds it amusing when a doll stares back at him from the back of the page.

We’re also making stews more often now. They’re cheaper than a prepared meal and last 2 to 3 days. They’re also easy to freeze. I like lentils, for example. They’re inexpensive, and when cooked with soup greens, potatoes, and a small piece of meat or sausage, you get a very tasty lunch that’s also healthy.

We haven’t been to the hair salon since the pandemic started either. Back then, we weren’t allowed to go. So my husband watched a few videos on YouTube. Now we’re perfectly capable of cutting each other’s hair. I no longer have to spend those 50 euros every month.

Just like others, we only run the washing machine when it’s full. We dry everything outside in the fresh air. It smells so much fresher that way. That’s why we don’t need fabric softener either.

For dish soap and laundry detergent, I bought a large canister of concentrate for each. That lasts me about two years. I pour some out as needed and mix it with water. If you look at how much a single box of laundry detergent costs, it pays for itself very quickly. In the long run, buying small packages is usually much more expensive than buying in bulk. Of course, you need storage space.

We use the squeezed-out lemons to make our kettle sparkle again and remove the limescale. Afterward, they go on the compost pile.

So, 1,000 little things that we’ve actually always done, just now we’re doing them more consciously.

Today we had braised cucumbers for lunch. They grow tirelessly in my greenhouse. I’ve also resown some dill—or rather, the dill has reseeded itself. That way, there’s always something green for the kitchen.

I wish all readers a wonderful day… and don’t forget to enjoy life while you’re saving. You can’t deny yourself everything; otherwise, you’ll end up in a bad mood. You have to enjoy the nice things, too—just a little less of them.

Warm regards, Ina

You can also save money on clothes.
I was at the thrift store the other day. There, I picked up a sweater and a set of underwear for very little money.
I also found an outdoor jacket for Lisa.

We save a lot on electricity—that is, when my husband and I are online, we’re usually using a laptop running Linux, which saves us up to 500 watts per hour. On my desktop PC, the monitor alone uses about 150–200 watts; my laptop uses only 30–50 watts, and just 10 watts in sleep mode—these are all hourly figures, and when extrapolated over a day, it really adds up. In the hallway, we have motion-sensor lights that turn off when no one’s around. We only turn on the TV in the evening, around 8 p.m. for the news; after that, it runs for a maximum of 2 hours, and then there’s nothing else on that keeps us glued to the screen. We often leave it off entirely because there’s nothing that interests us. We have LED lights in every room; for the TV, we only have a small table lamp on, since I don’t do any crafts while watching TV. We only shower every 2–3 days. We’ve had our new fridge for a year now; the washing machine only runs when it’s full; the dryer just sits in the kitchen taking up space ;-) because with a power consumption of 3.9 kW, I think twice—or rather three times—before turning it on versus air-drying. We usually do our grocery shopping for 2–3 weeks at a time; our car spends more time in the garage than on the road—in the two years we’ve had it, we’ve only filled it up 5 or 6 times. First, the pandemic kept us from driving, and now the high gas prices

are keeping us from it. Best regards, Inge

Best regards, Inge

That reminds me—I always take the books I’ve finished reading to our book-swap phone booth and trade them for others. I haven’t bought any books in years; instead, I let the selection available for exchange inspire me.

Best regards, Ina

We already do most of what you’ve written—at least 95% of it. We make almost everything ourselves. I love getting creative in the kitchen with whatever’s on hand. An 80-year-old friend of ours brings us delicacies from her garden every week. She has too many vegetables and can’t use them all. So we have a brunch with her—with homemade bread, our own spreads, and jam. She loves it, and it’s become a lovely ritual.

We only go shopping once a week, including a trip to the market, where I buy most of our groceries.

I haven’t bought any clothes for many years. I get them as gifts from my friend or from my swap group.

I’ve also been skipping the hair salon for a long time. I’ve always cut my husband’s hair myself. And since the pandemic, I’ve even been cutting my own.

Of course, laundry is always dried on the air dryer or in the basement. In general, our electricity bill is quite low compared to what I usually hear. At night, we turn off the DSL router. And we only turn on Wi-Fi when we’re using the computer—it uses a huge amount of electricity. We don’t have a TV; we watch movies on our laptop every now and then.

In the winter, we keep the heat turned down pretty low and just dress warmer instead. That also has the advantage of keeping the air from getting too dry, which can easily happen in overheated rooms. Since last winter, we’ve added some flowerpot heaters. They actually add 1–2 degrees of warmth. We use little warmers, each with two tea lights. We place a larger clay flower pot (without a hole in the bottom) upside down on top of them, and it warms up. I order the tea lights in bulk from a sustainable mail-order company to restock. They need to have a thicker wick; otherwise, they don’t generate enough heat. This has helped us get through the winter just fine.

Speaking of books—tomorrow I’m going to renew our library cards.
The good thing is: I can also use Onleihe.

The last time I went to the hairdresser was in 2007.
I can trim the ends myself with the long hair we both have.

I’ve also started going to the library regularly again. I took a break during the pandemic. The selection at our library is very diverse. And you can browse knitting magazines online, as Marlene mentioned above. 

I was in town last week and I always stop by the charity shop. I browse a bit for craft books, clothing, etc. 

I found two T-shirts. Brand new, and on top of that, they were 50% off in the summer clearance sale. I think it’s worth looking for and buying secondhand items. Around here, people still donate more (unfortunately) than they buy. The shelves there are so full. 

Another advantage of secondhand clothing is that it’s already been washed. After all, new clothing contains quite a lot of toxins.

In the winter, we only use the wood-burning stove in the living room.
Since the chimney flue on the upper floor has ventilation grilles, the whole house gets heated.
Hot water is used only for showering, so gas consumption is kept to a minimum.

Since we only have a small apartment and no place to hang laundry outside, my husband built me a drying rack for the bathroom. I can fit three loads of laundry on this rack to dry, or two sets of bedding—it’s always cheaper and more eco-friendly than the dryer. Here’s the rest of what I washed yesterday :-)

Best regards, Inge