The empty wallet

SIMON TIERNEY finds ways to live well with less cash

Homemade

The first rule for making things at home is: don’t throw anything out. In Vladimir Arkhipov’s excellent book Home-Made Europe, Jeremy Deller suggests that “the skill is in the leap of imagination to transform one object into another”. As a kid, I transformed my Dad’s bottles of Cork Dry Gin into road signs when I was pretending to be a taxi driver on my bicycle. Just because they said “Cork” on them. I also drove a lot of imaginary customers to “Bordeaux”.

Bottle ItUsed bottles have multiple uses. Yesterday I put a vodka bottle in hot water, peeled the labels off and now I have a new water jug. Or fill bottles of varying sizes to create dumbbells. Make-stuff.comsuggests keeping white wine in a used cleaning spray bottle: an antidote to red wine stains. Collect your old phone books, tie them together with twine and cover with fabric. Sew it up and you have a pouffe to rest the legs. Shred your old newspapers by hand and use as bedding for the dog. This is comfortable for your pug and hygienic too as you can dispose of it easily when required. Sprinkle sage on the dog's coat to keep fleas at bay. Thinkmoney.comhas a recipe for your own air freshener: place a little baking soda in a dish. It will absorb bad odours. Vinegar and lemon juice also work. Finally, olive oil mixed with a little lemon juice is an effective shoe polish.

Fun TimesThe Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a free guide to making a homemade bird table ( rspb.org.uk). Visit the "Top 20 Garden Birds" section of the BirdWatch Ireland website to help you identify your new visitors ( birdwatchireland.ie).

A murder mystery night can be fantastic fun. There is a free package available for download at whodunnitmysteries.com. It's well designed and comes with party invitations, maps, nametags and everything else you need to create some creepy capers.

Gardening & FoodElderflower champagne is a tasty, slightly alcoholic summer drink that you can make at home, once you have done a little foraging. You will need about six heads of elderflower, which are in blossom now. Add a little patience and love and you will have a delicious seasonal cocktail. There is a good recipe at farminmypocket.co.uk.

To keep slugs away from your vegetable patch, sprinkle broken egg shells on the soil. To attain useable tomato seed, cut a tomato in half and smear the contents onto kitchen paper. Leave it to dry and store for the winter. Place the sheet in a compost tray in the spring, lightly cover with some compost and water it. The seeds will grow right through the paper.