Monthly Archives: September 2017

School holiday fun

School holidays are a great opportunity for frugal fun-time. Here are just some of the many no or low-cost activities to keep the kids entertained. • Go camping – at home! Pitch a tent on the lawn. An oily ragger writes that the best camping holiday they had was at home. Toasted marshmallows around a […]

Attention! Spring clean

Spring has sprung and that means it’s time to do those cleaning and clearing jobs that have been conveniently ignored throughout the winter. We know from your letters and experience that the best way to tackle the task is through a family social day – but with military-like discipline. Organise and arm the troops with […]

Slugs and snails and gardens

Oily raggers are getting busy in the garden, and so too are the slugs and snails. A reader has asked for ways to control these blighters, without having to resort to poison. A number of readers have commented about this problem previously, so we thought we would recap on the oily rag way to control […]

Brussel sprouts

Doug writes, last week I brought some Brussel sprouts that were really bitter so put a teaspoon of golden syrup in with them made them really sweet. Sugar did not work on these ones as they were really bitter.

Regular petrol

TB from Blenheim writes, on the face of it, then, a motorist would seem ill-advised to use regular petrol in a car with a high-compression engine. That was certainly the case in the past. But cars today have sensors that listen carefully for the knocking sound, and instantly retard the ignition system when they detect […]

Rewena bread

Raywyn from Tauranga says, I used to make rewena bread years ago, I would use half the dough and fed the other half, but I can’t remember what I did. That way you had a plant going all the time

Party promises free fruit

Hoardings with smiley faces have appeared like spring mushrooms and politicians are making their three-yearly pilgrimage to your door to share their love – it must be election time. Not to be denied a soapbox, the Oily Rag community has been out on the hustings, meeting and greeting in supermarket aisles, smiling much while saying […]

Exotic breads

A reader has written to us recently promoting the benefits of making your own bread. Not only does it save them money but they are more in control of the ingredients, so they know exactly what they and their family are eating. Oily raggers like being a little exotic so we thought we would delve […]