Proud to be named Britain's stingiest woman: JANE FRYER meets the penny-pincher

Proud to be named Britain's stingiest woman: JANE FRYER meets the penny-pincher who asks visitors to bring their own teabags, thinks heating's for softies and can make a bottle of washing-up liquid last a YEAR

THIS has been a big few days for a 66-year-old Ilona Richards, a retired HGV driver from Scunthorpe who has been named ‘Britain’s most frugal woman’.

She has been on TV and radio, sharing her money-saving tips on how to make a bottle of washing-up liquid last a year, why you should insist that visitors bring their own teabags and why, once you get accustomed to the ‘extra padding’ at the front, men’s pants are cheaper and comfier for women than ladies’ flimsy panties.

We have also learned that you can save ink by making your handwriting smaller; evenings are the best time to scour supermarkets for discounted food; and a zillion ways to save water, including limiting yourself to a weekly bath and the occasional strip-wash in the kitchen (‘You can have a perfectly good wash-down with two kettles of water’) — and only flushing the loo once a day, ideally with old bathwater.

She is proud, committed and, in a world filled with waste and excess, shows us how to live simply, frugally and well within her £10,000-a-year state pension.

So, it’s a bit of a thrill that she has agreed to meet me at her semi-detached home to give me a masterclass in how she does it. Particularly as hospitality is not her thing.

‘Don’t encourage visitors!’ is one of her many mantras. ‘My house is too cold for most people, so they don’t come and that saves money.’

She’s not joking. It is so cold the photographer’s flash doesn’t work, and I can’t dial a number on my phone because my fingers are frozen sti

llona, however, is blissfully unaware. When I arrive, armed with cut-price teabags, she has just made a vat of stew from out-of-date vegetables and is washing her hair in Aldi shampoo at the kitchen sink — ‘That’ll last a good week’.

Just a few minutes in her impossibly frugal company — she will happily eat the same vegetable stew every day for a month — is enough to make you realise how profligate most of us are.

I bathe every day, am forever washing my hair and edging the thermostat up, and live on takeaway coffees — which, as far as Ilona is concerned, might as well be the work of the devil. ‘Never ever buy coffee in a cardboard takeaway cup. I laugh at those people!’ she says.

I also, whisper it, have a new tumble dryer.

‘A tumble dryer!’ She looks appalled. ‘Oh God, no. I wouldn’t have one of them. Good grief, that’d cost a fortune. There’s a perfectly good wind out there!’

Before we come to blows — or die of cold — we remember the money-saving masterclass.

We KICK off in the kitchen, where, break-ing a habit of a lifetime, Ilona pops the kettle on for tea.

‘I usually heat my cup of water in the microwave — it takes two cups to cover the kettle element and I only need one, so why waste it?’

Why, indeed?

Similarly, why get the oven fixed if, like Ilona, you can’t remember the last time you used it? Or splash out on a telly when you can watch BBC iPlayer on a computer?

Ilona is amazed at how so many others live.

‘People don’t seem to know the difference between want and need,’ she says. ‘They might think, “Ooh, I need a new phone”, but I’d say: “If your old one works, then you don’t need a new one

 

Her hairdryer is more than 30 years old, her microwave is at least 20 and her stair carpet is patched with silver gaffer tape.

Next comes a tour of her fridge.

It contains two 10p cauliflowers a week past their sell-by dates (‘They’ll do another week at least’), a packet of yellowing broccoli (10p), six tomatoes (10p), three yoghurts for 35p, some sweaty-looking stir-fry mix, a pack of browning mushrooms and some nice-looking ham for her dog and three cats. Ilona is a vegetarian (‘Much cheaper’).

‘I do regular inspections of what’s in my fridge,’ she says. ‘I see if it looks fine. I sniff it — does it smell? I feel it — is it squishy? I just eat things when they need eating and I love the food I make.’

She also insists she has never had an upset tummy and eats very well, indeed: lots of fresh(ish) fruit and vegetables, a special ice cream she makes by whizzing up frozen banana slices, the occasional can of cider or bottle of wine for a treat, and no processed food.

Her larder contains six giant bottles of low-fat mayonnaise, which she picked up for 20p each