Thanks too for all the great tips, which are going to prove very useful in the months to come. Here are some of my favourites:

Cut the bottom off a 2 litre pop bottle and use it as a mini-cloche (Kelly).

Save your old, laddered tights, cut them into strips and use them to tie up tomatoes, beans etc onto poles. They stretch much better than string and don’t cut into the stems as they grow (Claire).

Sow sweet peas and climbing beans inside the cardboard cylinders from loo rolls. Pack them into a recycled mushroom box and fill with compost. Any roots that grow through the tube grow safely in the surrounding compost, which makes them so easy to transplant (Lottie).

Buy organic seeds – you can then save the seeds to plant out the next year. Try to swap seeds and growing tips with friends and neighbours – it is worth knowing which varieties perform well in your local soil and growing conditions. In addition to the other comment about loo rolls, the middle of kitchen rolls or Pringle containers are great to grow leeks in (Andy Sowden).

Use crushed-up egg shells to keep slugs off. But not if you have hens, as they will eat the eggshells themselves and scratch up your plants in the process! (Deborah May)

Nettle and comfrey leaves left in a bucket with water makes great fertiliser; collect fallen tree leaves and store wet in bin bags for seed compost for next year; and the thing that saves me the most money is giving saved seeds and cuttings away, then being cheeky and asking fellow gardeners for theirs – they are usually more than willing to swap, and you end up with loads of different plants (Claire T).

Never overlook the cut-price plants or seeds at a nursery or garden centre… most plants will perk up with a good feed and some TLC; with seeds, if you soak them the night before you sow them you’d be surprised how many germinate even if they are past their so-called best before date! (Isabel R).

Image credit: BigTallGuy.

Why? Well, it is jam-packed with handy hints, which is good. But what makes this book great is that it spells out all the bits and bobs that you should be doing in the garden, on a week-by-week basis. It’s a bossy book!

For this reason I am grateful to the publisher who sent it to me, and hopeful that On The Plot With ‘Dirty Nails’ could be the missing link between my vegetable garden that exists in my head, and my vegetable garden that exists in real life. In my head: I stoop over a raised bed of lush vegetation, deciding which scrumptious fruits and vegetables will be going into my salad. THERE ARE NO SLUGS. My vegetable garden in reality, right now: a post-apocalyptic scenario featuring bare earth, howling wind and a few dead tomato and sweetcorn plants that I haven’t yet gotten round to composting. Help, please!

Would you like to win a copy? See below…

In the meantime, here are a couple of extracts from Dirty Nails’ advice and instructions for November Week 1:

The First Frost

As if prompted by the change in month, November dawned with the first frost of the winter. This pleases winter veg growers because it heralds the opening of parsnip season. With a 10-metre row of handsome nails in the ground, Mrs Nails and I have much to look forward to. It is by no means essential to wait for freezing temperatures before tucking into ’snips. However, because starches in this crop are turned into sugars as a result of the low temperatures, they are all the sweeter for it.

Jobs To Do This Week

In the greenhouse:

• Continue sorting and cleaning bit by bit if a whole weekend session is impossible.

On the plot:

• Swaddle wormeries with bubble wrap if the forecast is for freezing weather. (Note: the wormery is for the hygienic disposal of cooked food waste, and it looks like the non-squeamish amongst us get to make it in May Week 2.)
• Turn over the earth on open areas on heavy soils, or apply a mulch of bulky organic matter to lighter ground.
• Cut down and clear rank vegetation amongst the fruit trees. Keep the bases immediately around the trunks weed free.
• Sow green manures on open plots. Crimson clover is good; it will bind the soil and fix atmospheric nitrogen in the roots.
• Cut down nettles from around the compost heaps.
• Transplant biennial wild flowers that have sprouted in the veg patch, such as foxgloves and great mullien. They will flower next year and be an asset to pollinating insects so make room for them where they won’t interfere with edible crops.

This book is available from Amazon ; at the time of writing, prices begin at £6.65.

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Would you like to win a brand new copy? I have one to give away. I will post to anywhere in the world – but I’d bear in mind that if you live in, say, the Sonoran Desert, the seasonal instructions may be a little out of whack for you.

The competition ends at 8 pm (GMT) on Sunday 8 November, when I’ll pick the winner out of an online hat.

To enter: simply leave a a comment below. If you have a thrifty gardening tip, I’d love to hear it; if you don’t, just leave a short message…

Actually, it’s the perfect time of year for a fireworks display. Diwali took place at the weekend; here in the UK, the  biggest fireworks event of the year is also looming. Fireworks Night – also known as Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes Night – takes place on 5 November.

So for overseas blog visitors, here are some insights into this much loved British institution. I have noticed that everyone in the UK (and New Zealand) thinks that Guy Fawkes Night is a traditional, jolly sort of affair put on for the children’s benefit; whereas everyone else thinks that we are savage oddballs inflicting psychological scars upon our innocent young. You can make your own mind up…

The Rockets

The night begins with a bonfire: the bigger, the better. In towns, villages and cities, giant community bonfires are held in local parks and areas of open land. There is always a tip top fireworks display. The better the show, the louder the “oohs!” and the “ahhhhs!”

The Rockets are this week’s Editor’s Picks: the colourful posts that soar into the sky and end with a BANG. (To keep with the frugal theme, the rockets pictured are from a discount fireworks store.)

Tyler presents Quit Worrying About 80% of Your Life posted at Frugally Green. He is looking at Pareto’s Principle, which will ring a bell with all those who have read the fantastical Four Hour Work Week book. A frugal blogger with a ken for Italian economists; what’s not to like?

Paul Williams presents Neuroeconomics: Helping Explain Why We Make Stupid Money Mistakes posted at Provident Planning. Neuroeconomics sounds like a really interesting book: it explores what is going on in our brains when we make financial decisions. (Goodness me: my Editor’s Picks this time round are taking on a rather cerebral theme!)

Wojciech Kulicki presents Navigating The 4 Stages of New Car Ownership posted at Fiscal Fizzle. A lot of thought has gone into this post – and some pertinent points have come out of it.

The Burning Guys

Except that it isn’t just a giant bonfire, with fireworks whizzing and going off in the skies above. It is also a pyre. Atop the pyre sits a lifesized effigy known as “Guy Fawkes”, or simply “the guy”. As the BBC explains:

Children make a Guy by stuffing some old clothes with newspapers, craft a head out of material, and either draw a face on it or buy a special cardboard Guy Fawkes mask. For a few days beforehand children are pushing guys around in prams, push chairs and go-carts, saying ‘A penny for the guy’. Adults then give them money – how much depends on how good the guy is.

As the pyre ignites and the guy goes up in flames, we all cheer – yes, the children included. (You think this is strange? In Ottery St. Mary in Devon, they spend Guy Fawkes Night running around the streets strapped to barrels of flaming tar.)

The guy isn’t just an effigy, of course; fashioned from rags and paper, he is also a monument to all things frugal and recyclable. The following posts stood out because of their shared, admirable commitment to the cause of Make Do And Mend.

Kristia presents Nine paper products to cross off of your grocery list. posted at Family Balance Sheet. Some really good ideas here.

Mama Squirrel presents Thrift and thanksgiving posted at Dewey’s Treehouse. She considers the fine line between thrift and cheapness.

Rachel presents A Simple, Frugal Christmas Part III posted at Life Off the Shelf. Starting early this year, Rachel!

FruGal presents Man alive, it’s nearly Christmas (keep it cheap) posted at FruGal. You too, FruGal?

Nicki presents Nearly Impossible: Cheap & Healthy posted at Domestic Cents. This is a post about frugal food.

The Happy Rock presents Frugal Family Traditions posted at The Happy Rock. This story revolves around a trip to a cherished park in autumn.

Katie presents Kitchen Tip: Leftover Pumpkin System posted at Kitchen Stewardship. I really enjoy this blog.

Viviana presents The Lean Singleton Eats posted at The Lean Times.

The Conspirators

The real Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of plotters who planned to polish off the Royal Family by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament in 1605. The plot was leaked and the hapless Mr Fawkes was apprehended in a cellar below the House, guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder. He was executed for treason. Bonfires were lit around the country and songs were written, all to celebrate the King’s escape from assassination.

The 1605 plotters were fiendishly cunning; the following bloggers demonstrate cunning of the clever, frugal variety. My kind of conspirators? The latter.

Ray @ Financial Highway presents Probate- Why and How to Avoid Probate Fees posted at Financial Highway. This post does what it says on the tin.

debt kid presents Following up on Zero-Based Budgeting posted at Debt Kid. This is an ambitious new cashflow management plan, which seems to be working well.

Fabulously Broke presents Languages, prices and the ups and downs | Fabulously Broke in the City posted at Fabulously Broke ….in the City. Blogger FB has found that learning a new language can be free, if you find a way to use rewards and pull on your networks for help.

The Lewes Bonfire Party

One of the biggest – and strangest – Guy Fawkes Night events takes place in the town of Lewes, East Sussex. It draws crowds of 80,000 and more. The town centre is closed and a torchlight procession takes place through the streets. The effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned alongside effigies of Pope Paul V (he was Pope in 1605; the plotters wished to restore Catholicism to the country at large) and topical personalities. Here you can see our Prime Minister and Chancellor being marched to the bonfire; with the economy in a mess, they aren’t popular figures right now! Previous effigies have included George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden.

As you can imagine, this is a controversial event. No-one seems bothered about chucking Gordon Brown on the bonfire, but the historical head of a church – however much he may have been hated 400 years ago – is, erm, another matter entirely. The following posts were selected because they push the boundaries – the frugal boundaries, rather than the decency ones.

Mike @ GLBL presents Money Saving Monday: the problem with mass transit posted at Gather Little by Little. I have included Mike in this category because he weighs up the costs of private transport and mass transit and concludes that sometimes, just sometimes, your gas-guzzling, environmentally unsound car comes out on top.

Doctor S presents Frugal Vegas Vacation: No Hangover In Sight posted at Finance Your Life. Frugal and Vegas? Do those words really fit together? Good luck Doctor S!

Baker presents Is Christianity the Only Path to ‘True’ Financial Peace? posted at Man Vs. Debt. In this video post, Baker – who has a lovely blog header, by the way – takes issue with one of the revered Dave Ramsay’s guiding principles.

Kevin presents The Most Common Things People Steal posted at The Red Stapler Chronicles. His argument: that “the line between being extremely frugal and stealing is slowly being erased”. Yowzers.

Peak Personal Finance presents Teach Your Child About Responsible Credit Use posted at Peak Personal Finance. Blogger Miranda recommends adding your teenager to your credit card as an “authorised user”; a decision that is sure to ruffle a few feathers.

The Jacket Potatoes

The barbecues come out on Fireworks Night. Foods traditionally eaten include jacket potatoes, wrapped up in aluminium foil and left to roast in the barbecue’s embers. (Traditionalists roast them in the bonfire.) These posts are the jacket potatoes: some staple ideas for a good, frugal lifestyle.

KCLau presents What are Your Saving Habits? posted at KCLau’s Money Tips. Blogger Jacquelyn describes how the humble notebook can transform your spending and saving habits for the better.

Hannah presents Feeding Babies Frugally: The Early Months | Cooking Manager posted at Cooking Manager.

J.D. Roth presents Spend Less Than You Earn posted at Get Rich Slowly. J.D. says that this is his #1 piece of personal finance advice.

Miss M presents Fight Fatigue: Make Meals Ahead posted at M is for Money.

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog presents 10 Money Management Tips For Expectant Parents posted at The Canadian Finance Blog.

Manshu presents Prepaid debit card fees and facts posted at OneMint.

MoneyNing presents Credit vs Debit Transactions with Your ATM Card posted at Money Ning. (Note to UK readers: in the USA the shop assistant asks, “Debit or Credit?” when you hand over your bank card. It’s almost as bemusing as when you get your US bank statement and realise that you have been charged a monthly service fee and charges for not-at-your-bank ATM withdrawals. Confusing.)

The Sparklers

Sparklers = happy kids (and happy big kids). These posts don’t just sparkle; they are little gems, filled with useful tips and quirky frugal ideas.

Francine Jay presents My Top Ten Frugal Pleasures posted at FRUGILLIONAIRE. Like me, she finds that the simplest pleasures can go a long way.

retirehappy presents Best Companies to Retire From posted at My Retirement Blog. Sadly, I fear that many of us will have to dream on!

Patrick @ Military Money presents 2009 Veterans Day Discounts posted at Military Finance Network.

Craig Ford presents 28 Tips for Organizing Your Finances posted at Money Help For Christians.

DR presents Chase Slate with Blueprint Credit Card Review posted at The Dough Roller.

PT presents 15 Surprising Places You Can Trim Your Budget posted at PT Money.

Mrs. Accountability presents We Found Some New Toilet Paper «Out of Debt Again posted at Out of Debt Again. You go, girl!

The Toasted Marshmallows

Ah, the humble, toasted marshmallow: it transcends national and cultural boundaries. Like marshmallows toasted over the bonfire, these posts are fun, moreish – and provide a sweet ending to any festival or fireworks night.

The Financial Blogger presents Tips on Budgeting for a Wedding – Getting Married Without Going Broke posted at The Financial Blogger. Everyone loves a wedding!

FMF presents Free Money Finance: Real-Life Money Saving Story posted at Free Money Finance. This one is about saving on car insurance.

Super Saver presents Eat Out for Less – Off Peak Dinner Deals posted at My Wealth Builder.

Bucksome presents Giving and Disney posted at Buck$ome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement. This post is about a new Disney promotion; definitely one with a happy ending!

Image credits: dominic’s pics (fireworks); docklandsboy (Gordon Brown effigy); unsung (jacket potatoes); audiotribe; (sparkler); ninahale (marshmallow).

When it comes to tea, I’m an out-and-out snob. I don’t cut corners. Economy teabags cost next to nothing, but they taste horrible. In fact, when I am at home I don’t tend to use teabags. I don’t like my tea leaves ground into thin dust. Instead I have a longstanding crush on Waitrose large leaf tea. I’ll drop by there, just to pick up a box of Assam or Kenya. It’s £1.49 for 125g – the same price as the teabags. Oh, but large leaf tea tastes so much nicer! Leave it to brew for a few minutes, and it has far more strength and flavour.

So why don’t more people drink leaf tea? It’s seen as a messy business: faff around with the leaves and tea strainers, find bits of leaf floating in the bottom of your bup and so on. Teabags, meanwhile, are soaked in convenience. Pop them in, pour on the water and whip them out again.

Me? I like the best of both worlds. That silver thing sticking out of my tea mug? It may look like a safety pin, but it’s a long-handled tea infuser. I’ve had it for years. You just pop half a teaspoon of leaves into the mesh ball at its end, pour on the water, leave it to brew and whip the infuser out again. Nice and easy! You don’t get many “bits” swirling round at bottom of the mug, either.

My lovely tea mug, by the way, is Cath Kidston for Churchill China. I like it because it is bone china, big – and inexpensive if you know where to look. You can buy these mugs in a variety of designs for just £3.20 apiece from Debenhams.

Here in Yorkshire there are plenty of entrepreneurs, plenty of people with big ideas and plenty of enthusiasm for saving cash. That’s a winning combination, in my book. It gives rise to super-thrifty initiatives such as BeTheMiddleman.com, a new property “portal” that is already attracting a good deal of attention. The online service, which aims to cut down on estate agents’ and letting agents’ eye-watering fees, is aimed at buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants and lodgers.

I asked Zoe Piper, Yorkshire entrepreneur and one of the founders of BeTheMiddleman.com, to give Miss Thrifty readers her best elevator pitch and provide five good reasons why they should buy and sell their homes online. Over to Zoe…

If you want to sell your house or buy a new one it’s going to cost an arm and a leg, right? Wrong! You can do it on the internet for free.

Free?

Yep. BeTheMiddleman.com lets you list your property for sale, completely free. There are no upfront costs (apart from buying your HIP), no monthly costs, and no commission costs when you complete the sale.

No Commission?

You normally pay your estate agent a commission fee, but selling your house without an agent means you don’t pay any commission. This could actually save you thousands. All an estate agent really does is market your property; if you put it online the website markets it for you and you don’t pay the website any commission.

Cheaper Documents

Did you know that estate agents mark up the price of documents they sell, such as your HIP? You need one by law to market your property, but if you buy it online you could save over £100. The same goes for other documents like your energy certificate – if you cut out the estate agent there are major savings to be made.

It’s Easy

BeTheMiddleman.com is designed by usability experts – it’s really easy to use and you can upload your property in minutes. You just need some good pictures, a description and away you go. Your ad can reach a wide online audience as soon as it goes live.

You Already Have An Agent?

You may still be able to dodge commission by selling online. If your contract is ‘Sole Agency’, it means that your estate agent is the only agent allowed to sell your home. You can still advertise your own house on the internet. If you find a buyer, you don’t have to pay your agent commission. It’s a no-brainer!

More and more people are looking to the internet to find their next home, and you can use the internet just as well as an estate agent. The savings to be made with a property portal like BeTheMiddleman.com are enormous too, so why not sell your own home online?

Zoe Piper

Co-founder, Bethemiddleman.com

www.bethemiddleman.com
zoe@bethemiddleman.com

Never having sold a house – jeepers, I’ve only just managed to buy one – I must admit that until I went onto  BeTheMiddleman.com, I hadn’t appreciated quite how dizzying those estate agent commission fees are. What do they do for that money, apart from print off a leaflet, pop a board outside your house and hobnob with Phil and Kirsty types? (Not a snide question; I’m genuinely curious.)

Although they didn’t have time to ripen before the colder weather came crashing in (thank you, British Summer), I’m rather proud of this year’s crop. Last year was a disaster: the plants went into the vegetable patch at the back of the garden, grew big and strong, sprouted tomatoes and then… the tomatoes all went bruised and watery on the vine before they were ripe. I don’t know the whats or the whys – none of the pictures of diseased tomatoes on t’interweb matched – but I guessed that it must have been something to do with the garden soil. (As previously noted, my garden isn’t exactly problem-free.) So this year the tomato plants all went into patio pots, and they were fine.

I already have a backup plan for next year. It’s this unassuming sliver of a book.

How To Grow Outdoor Tomatoes by R.P. Faulkner was published in 1949, when everyone was making do and mending, and rationing was still in force in the UK. The book must have been passed down the family; I picked it up at my mum’s house, idly, wondering how it was possible to produce an entire book on the subject. Well, now I know! And let me tell you now: next year, this little tome is going to be tucked under my arm as I produce sufficient tomatoes to feed all of North Yorkshire. I feel a future series coming on…

Take the pots, for example. This year, I filled them with compost and plopped the plants in. I don’t think that tomato fiend R.P. Faulkner would have approved, if the following counsel is anything to go by:

Into the bottom of the receptacle should go half an inch or so of broken pots or small pebbles with larger ones over the drainage holes to prevent the soil washing out, then a layer of coarse fibre from the loam to cover the drainage material and finally 1 1/2 inches of compost made by mixing 2 parts good medium loam, 1 part horticultural peat and 1 part coarse silver sand. Pass these through a 1/4 inch mesh sieve and to each bushel of the mixture add 1 1/2 oz Superphosphate and 3/4 oz Hydrated Lime.

Timesaving tip:

If the reader can come to friendly terms with a local nurseryman or, perhaps, the parks superintendent, to secure a supply [of good compost], the better growth will repay him.

I have never seen this city’s park superintendent – the flowers in the beds always look pretty and are suddenly there, as if by magic – but perhaps I should endeavour to track him/her down. Hmmm.

I was also tickled by this picture:

This is University College, Nottingham (now Nottingham University) in the 1940s. Evidently, the institution’s fine grounds have been turned into some sort of tomato metropolis. Bright young frugallers, kneeling in straight-cut slacks and rolled-up shirt sleeves, are overseeing things. Something tells me that Nottingham University’s grounds no longer look like this. What a shame.

Anyway.

In the book a couple of pages are given over to the ripening of green tomatoes.

The best results have been obtained by packing the fruit in layers in boxes, each layer being separated by a sheet of clean newspaper. The boxes should not contain more than five layers. An equable temperature of about 60 degrees fahrenheit is most conducive to steady ripening; violent fluctuations or extremes of heat and cold are generally unfavourable. If it is desired to keep some of the fruits for as long as possible the most perfect specimens should be chosen and packed separately, each fruit being placed in a small compartment to itself by partitions formed from paper and the container placed in a cool cellar. No guarantee can, however, be given of the success of this procedure and the prudent housewife will wiser to depend on her winter tomato supplies on preserving a proportion when they are plentiful in early autumn.

The fruits in store should be examined at intervals to make sure that all is well with them.

So this is what I have done. I have sorted my green tomatoes into this old shoebox, then removed the calyxes (the green star at each tomato’s “eye”) and packed them away. Don’t let me forget about them!

When you boil a Christmas pudding – or any pudding come to that – put a slice or two of lemon into the water. It will stop the saucepan turning black; in fact it will clean it!

If you have a discoloured saucepan, cook plums,  rhubarb or apples in it (always putting a slice of lemon in with the apples, for flavour).   These clean the saucepan beautifully.   I don’t know the effect on your insides when you eat the fruit, but I’m still alive and kicking.

F.G.    xx

You know, for the forthcoming Miss Thrifty blog revamp, I’m thinking of giving this septuagenarian superstar her own section; what do you think?

Image credit: audreyjm529.

Following my last post about love it! magazine, I’ve been directed to a rather splendid collection of top tips over at the Hero of Switzerland blog.

My favourites are the “talking point” party decorations (left), the giftwrapped stones and the tube of toothpaste that is left in the freezer, then chopped up into thrifty “after dinner mints” for people who can’t stretch to After Eights. Not forgetting the “designer toothbrush holder”…

This is one of the many magazines that Sue (my lovely next door neighbour) dropped round recently. I have kept it by, because the regular “top tips” page in this issue has, quite frankly, surpassed itself.

If you think that you have seen just about every money saving tip going, think again.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Exhibit 1:

If you can’t bear to chuck your stinky old flip-flops and you don’t mind having grimy footprints up your walls, this is the tip for you. Otherwise, I’d stick to rolled-up newspapers.

Exhibit 2:

I am actually intrigued by this one. I have my own method for cleaning silver and also (ahem) some unconventional uses for bread, but haven’t come across this one before. I don’t really wear gold jewellery, so if you try this and it works, please let me know…

Exhibit 3:

There is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly; I guess the thrifty version would be the Frugal, the Cheap and the WTF?

This offering slots neatly into the latter category.

The price comparison site Money Supermarket is running a video competition called Let’s Have The Savings! The winner gets £500 prize money.

To enter, you have to make a short video of yourself as you embark on a fun way to spend your savings. You then have to upload the video to YouTube and e-mail the URL to adair.cameron@moneysupermarket.com. Oh yes: while on screen, you have to say “LETS HAVE THE SAVINGS!” Very Lobby Lud.

The competition closes at midday on 9 October, and the winner will be the person whose video has the highest number of views.