Superscrimpers.

[spider8]

Did anybody see the programme on CH4 called Superscrimpers? Wow! How can a family jointly earning over £100,000 be overspending by £24,000 a year!!! Didn't like that Moneypenny woman very much but some of the hints and tips were quite interesting.

[sarahkeast]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/supe ... od#3176994

Thanks for the heads up, watching it now

[happyhippy]

Yes I watched it and thought exactly the same thing!I was also surprised(and this is'nt this first time either!)that the family were "shocked"at how much waste they have in a year?It amazes me that the average family does'nt think about this issue!The guy was a phychologists was'nt he?Maybe he should look up "compulsive spending disorders"

[Milims]

According to the big numbers that appeared on the screen they over spent by £33,000 per year - that's not only about 1/3 of their combined incomes, but also 3 times our annual income and we live really quite well! Scary!

[crowsashes]

the waste bit shocked me too! how can some one not notice that they would effectivly be filling their wheelie bin up every week and then some! im lucky if i fill it every fortnight and even then i'd feel guilty for doing so!

[baldybloke]

Didn't put my bin out on Monday because there wasn't enough in there to bother with. I could still see the bottom of the bin and yes we do have fortnightly collections.

[PlainQB]

I do wonder if that family is more the norm accross the country though. Especially here in affluent Surrey I think there are a lot of families like that. I'll be watching next week for more scrimptin tips.

[Arbor]

I always look forward to these sorts of programmes but generally end up feeling a little disappointed.

I guess viewers like a 'riches to rags' story with the profligate family finally realising the error of their ways. I just find myself getting irritated and shouting at the television:

'What, taking a packed lunch to work will save you lots of money -really! Never thought of that!!!'

'Buy fewer things and you will save money-why did no one tell me this before!!!!'

Like a lot of people on this site I am a lifetime scrimper, waste very little and can't understand why anyone would knowingly waste their hard earned cash.

I want some 'Extreme' money saving tips - I enjoyed the saver tips in the story but piling up a huge amount of stuff in someones garden seems rather wasteful to me. How did they get the stuff there-must have taken several lorry loads.

Anyway the highlight for me was the decoupage tea tray that 'lots of people had commented on' I have several of those 'hand crafted' items in my home, unfortunately they usually receive guffaws of laughter and gentle ribbing about my old Hippy ways!!

[Milims]

I know what you mean I often watch this stuff and think "Ok so they have the extremes covered - but what about the rest of us?"

[Susie]

Just bumping this because I saw one of these last night (the one with the family where he used to earn £120K but had been made redundant and they bought pre-prepared mashed potato). There was a bit at the end where they were showing you you could make body butter (with palm oil ), and they said it would cost you £1 as opposed to £40 in the shops. Now I am quite convinced you could easily spend £40 on body butter but I am not convinced you could make it for £1. If you had all the ingredients already and were just counting the cost of them apportioned you might be able to, but someone who buys mashed potatoes ready made isn't going to have palm oil, beeswax and glycerine hanging about, so they would have to buy everything, and probably on the internet, so they would have to pay postage too. Also factor in wastage costs in case your first batch turned out dodgy.

It just annoys me when they say making things yourself is cheaper, because it seems unrealistic - yes it can be (and obvs. I think it's totally worth doing anyway) but in my experience the first time you do something it isn't - you have to do it reasonably regularly (and build up a bit of skill). Someone who didn't know what they were doing could easily spend loads of money on equipment/ stuff and then think, god, look what that's cost, I might as well have bought my usual pot of Crème de la Mer. I suppose it's a bit like cooking though - it might actually be cheaper on a day-to-day basis to just eat T***o Value ready meals if you never cooked and would have to buy pans and a wooden spoon to get started, but not so good in other ways.

[Green Aura]

Now I am quite convinced you could easily spend £40 on body butter but I am not convinced you could make it for £1.

I thought exactly the same thing! I buy some of these items in largish quantities for my business and they're not cheap. I pay less for quantity and I'm not sure I could make a jar of body butter for £1.

[MKG]

I watched this last night. Gobsmackingly silly. Instead of showing a braincell of a girl with far too much money and an over-generous mother how to cut down, why couldn't they simply advise the common-or-garden not-very-well-off student how to do a bit of effective scrimping?

And as for the carrot-in-the-light handyman ...

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

It's amusing and it's fun to feel smug occasionally.

[gregorach]

I watched this last night. Gobsmackingly silly. Instead of showing a braincell of a girl with far too much money and an over-generous mother how to cut down, why couldn't they simply advise the common-or-garden not-very-well-off student how to do a bit of effective scrimping?

And as for the carrot-in-the-light handyman ...

Mike

Remember, these shows aren't about imparting useful information, they're about that smug sense of superiority you get from gawping at freaks and incompetents.

[spider8]

Have to agree that if you are so thick to have to be shown how to save money by doing basic common sense things then there's probably no hope for you anyway