Michael Chare wrote:
When mixing mortar or concrete is there any reason not to use more
cement than necessary? If I use a standard mix I will end up with
surplus cement which won't keep. If I use more cement, I might be able
to avoid buying one bag of sand. Not a major saving, but there is also
the problem of getting rid of the surplus cement.

Three years ago I used a small part of a bag of cement to point between the
drive and the walls of my house.
I stuffed a black plastic bin liner in to the bag of cement and stored it in
the garage on top of a bin liner.
A couple of weeks ago a small part of the pointing fell out when I jet
washed the drive............... like this sort of pointing tends to do.
The cement in the bag was still powder, no lumps and when mixed with
sand/water cured very well.
Food for thought?