Us Yorkshire-born folk have a reputation for being a bit, well, stingy. In fact the world thinks we're a bunch of tight arses! Well, we disagree! We're simply money savvy, refuse to be taken for a ride and secretly laughing at you all for wasting your hard earned cash...
Us Yorkshire folk will do owt to save a few pennies…
1. Teabags
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You can get two brews out of one bag. Fact! It justs needs a bit of a squeeze. Only dare add a second (Yorkshire) teabag to the pot if you need a third cup, or there’s trouble. This saves loads of cash. We drink A LOT of tea!
2. Bottles for bath toys
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Growing up, Yorkshire kids rarely had cute little yellow rubber ducks. We had empty plastic drinks bottles. ‘They’re more fun,’ our mums told us. You can fill ’em up, tip ’em out, sink ’em, float ’em…the games are endless!
3. Put a jumper on!
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Chilly? Don’t even think about turning on that heating. Dig out your best woolly jumper. Or even better, keep a spare duvet next to the settee to snuggle under. ‘It’s cosier,’ we Yorkshire lasses tell our London-born boyfriends.
4. Tumbledryer?!
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No lad. Far too expensive, the leccy bill would sky-rocket. We stick it all on the radiators. But sometimes we’re waiting for our clothes to dry for a few days as we rarely actually turn them on! And if we’ve got gardens we use the washing line and SWEAR we can dry our washing outside for at least eight months of the year. Although we do often have to make a mad dash to bring it in when it starts raining!
5. Buy a round?
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Don’t think so! We stick to just buying our own drinks. No danger of ending up having to buy more ales than we’ve supped that way.
Or, if we do do, we make sure we buy the last round, so if it starts going round again there’s a chance we only have to buy one!
6. Homebrew
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Don’t pay offy prices. Make your own! You can get kits that tell you exactly how to do it. Some Yorkshire dads have it down to a T. It’s delicious, and not at all lethal, honest!
7. BYO restaurants
Yes, we’re very fond of places we can bring our homebrew.
8. Green fingered?
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Don’t bother with the local garden centre. When you’re visiting someone’s garden and their florals take your fancy, ask (or don’t!) to take a cutting home with you. You’ll soon have your own bargain (free!) blossoming flower beds
9. Brushing?
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Squeeze from the bottom of the tube! We don’t want any wastage costing us an extra few pence a year in toothpaste. It adds up.
Some Yorkshire dads even put the toothpaste on their children’s toothbrushes each night. The kids think dad’s being helpful and kind – but really it’s all to stop them using too much and save some cash!
10. Wiping?
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Toilet roll is rationed. One sheet for a wee, two for a poo!
Or, going to a hotel? We’ll nab the leftover loo roll so we don’t have to fork out for our own. It’s, like, 50p a roll these days ya know! (And the complimentary toiletries were in our bags the second we arrived in our room).
11. Switch off!
Everything! And we mean everything! The TV, the lights, the cooker, the microwave, the lamps. Anything plugged in should be switched off at the mains, just in case it drains a single drop of wasted leccy. That standby light on the TV?! Could cost a fortune over your lifetime.
As kids, our dads used to follow us around switching off lights and shutting doors to keep the heat in. (‘Money doesn’t grow on trees, lass.’) Now grown-ups we do the same!
12. Picnic!
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Picnics don’t have to be outside in the summer. Us Yorkshire folk know you can sneak a carefully concealed picnic into a museum, cinema, bowling alley… why spend cash on overpriced food when you can make cheese and pickle sarnies for next to nowt?!
13. Battery life
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Remote stopped working? We can get another year out of those batteries – we just need to take them out of the remote and roll them in our hands.
14. Charging
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Why on earth would you charge up your phone, laptop, Kindle, or tablet at home overnight? We charge them up at work! Free!
15. Celebrating?
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Wife’s birthday? Anniversary? Get out that card from a few years back you hid away. She’ll never notice. Works on your kids too!
16. Suffer in silence
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You’ll rarely spot a Yorkshireman enjoying air con in his car. And it’ll be windows down, parcel shelf removed as well as anything else that might add extra weight. Reduces drag, saves money! Worth sweating your arse off.
17. Toasty
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We love our toast up ‘ere. But spend money buying a toaster? When there’s a bloomin good grill built into the oven? Madness!
18. Fix it!
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Duct Tape is magical – it fixes everything. Glasses, dodgy plugs, furniture, slippers – your car. We’ll tape everything back together for as long as possible before having to put our hand in our pocket!
19. Satchet away
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When eating in a fast-food outlet, a seasoned Yorkshireman will stuff his pockets with salt, pepper and sauce sachets. Savvy.
20. Rags
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Yorkshire blokes will wear a pair jeans for years, and years, and years. Eventually, when they’re very faded and torn they get relegated to gardening/decorating jeans. Then when they’re just too holey to be decent, they become rags to wash the car with.
21. Postage
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We always keep our eyes peeled for stamps that have snuck through the post unfranked! Boil the kettle, use the steam to peel them off, then – free stamp! Yay! We keep hold of ‘postage paid’ envelopes too – great for paying cheques and bills.
What do you reckon? Do you have any more Yorkshire ways to save money?