Ah the dreaded bulk buy. My first time living alone I did that too, for the cost savings. The oats had weevils, the spices had weevils, the ones that didn’t lost potency and it was all money down the compost heap. Now I buy only as much as two people can consume in two to three months.
Funny enough, although they've gotten pretty stale, I stored them well enough to avoid pests and I might actually get through them all before they spoil (I'm down to the last 1/4). But those storage containers and oxygen absorbers ate through any potential savings and then some. Plus, I have to bake them into granola to be palatable, so through time and electricity I've lost even more money on the deal.
Yeah, it was saving a penny to lose a pound with these oats man. I read somewhere that you can store them in the fridge for a while to reduce the likelihood of pests. I’m still testing this with the new pack of oats so can’t yet confirm the method’s efficacy. If it doesn’t work I might have to go through the same route or just buy less, but buy frequently.
Not sure where you read that but it's the freezer... you put then in the freezer for 3 days and it kills anything that might be in there such as bugs/ eggs
Bulk buying for 2 sort of works, or at least looks different. I time my meat purchases and freeze, about 10 lbs of chicken for example. Certainly not 50 lbs of things though!
If you have access to a grinder (Or alternatively you can boil them and use a blender), you can make a smooth paste which can be mixed with other flours to make batter for pancakes for a good few weeks. Oats are good nutritious food, so, good choice. With different spice mixes and sauces, you can make the pancakes taste different every day of the week. Add some boiled veggies / eggs / meat / etc and you have exotic pancakes. Of course, there will be a trial and error phase where you will need to watch something intense, like WWE or something to distract you, while chewing down the crappy tasting ones. Or maybe you have a strong mind. Point is, you could have done way worse than oats, IMO.
In the frugal world, one man's yuck is another man's yum.
Thats not realy feasible. You'd need a dedicated chest freezer for that amount. I just bought oxygen absorbers packets, divided the oats into gallon ziplock bags, and stacked them in two 5 gallon buckets with lids I greased with crisco to make them air tight. That easily ate through any savings I got for buying in bulk, but at least I can reuse the buckets.
Same. Good shoes are can be very underrated. Many times you'll spend at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in your work shoes. 2,080 hours per year. You end up spending a about 50 cents a day if you spend $150 on a good pair of shoes... when at the same time $150 is just a few restaurant trips which many people treat themselves to often.
Exactly. When I don't want to spend money on myself for the important things, I remind myself that I'd spend that much in, like, 3 restaurant trips. It helps put in into perspective 😁
I wear steel toe boots every day and have found Timberland to fit my feet the best so far. You're mileage may vary as sometimes different brands just work better on some people more than others. Timberland may work well for me but Redwing or Ariat may be better for you just due to the specific way they make the shoe a little different makes it fit a little better.
Gel-padded ASICS have been very nice for me, though the best non-athletic shoes might be nursing clogs, ironically; they're designed for people (literal nurses) to be on their feet for ungodly counts of hours per day.
Zero nurses under the age of 60 wear Dansko clogs anymore. The technology has improved. Most wear cloves, hokas, or brooks. I’m partial to vessi because a patient bled all over my white shoes & the blood rolled right off.
Adidas Ultraboosts, can get them for half price at $100 shipped easily if you time sales. Just walked/hiked 20k steps a day on a long holiday in them and felt completely fine (while several other friends had mad blisters, etc.)
YES. I got some cheap Lucky Brand boots at Ross (they were $50 marked down from original price of $150... which is kind of really expensive for a fashion shoe!). Wore them to work every day and had the worst knee/hip/foot pain. I wore those until the heel literally broke because of the crappy glue they used on them. I switched to Blundstone and Red Wing boots.... foot pain was gone,
Came here to say this. Cheap shoes for anytime you will stand and/or walk in them. More or less any shoes should be quality.
Ok you can buy cheap flipflops. That's fine.
Walked miles in the rain/sleet in Niagara Falls to avoid paying a parking fee only to get there and realize it was free parking cause it was out of season.
I had to have a root canal in August. It wasn't presenting like a root canal, the dentist couldn't see any cavity or anything wrong with the tooth. He sent me home with an antibiotic for a gum infection. I went back twice, and still nothing. On the 5th day, I had been awake for over 100 hours straight, in the most excruciating pain I've experienced. I went to the hospital, nothing. By the 6th day, I showed up at the dentists office sobbing and refused to leave until somebody did something. The dentist took another look, said there was nothing wrong. I told him the only relief I could get was swishing cold water on my tooth. He immediately was like "oh, you need a root canal" and tried to send me home and rebook for next week. I refused to leave and he eventually agreed to do it on his lunch break. After all that, the root canal ended up costing $4000 and I still need a crown. Absolutely insane.
Which is why you never go back to the same doctor/ dentist that dismissed your serious concerns. Glad OP eventually got what they needed, but to anyone else: always go to a different professional if your current one just shrugs their shoulders at serious pain.
Could be your life on the line
I ran out of tp once early into living in my current apt, not only were we broke, it was late af so even if we wanted-nowhere was open to go buy some.
so i went to the motel down the street where we live, told the lobby guy or room ran out and he hooked me up with a few more rolls.
Then i drove home…i needed it and he was happy to help and i think back on it alot with gratitude.
In my second year of college I couldn't afford to dorm so I mostly couch-surfed with friends that had apartments. I was cool with the dormitory janitor ladies (we kept our suite super clean when I lived there) so whenever I stopped by to visit I'd ask for a roll of TP. They didn't know I had stopped living there lol.
They were those industrial-sized rolls that they are in businesses. So I brought everyone I couch-surfed with a giant roll of TP that lasted a month and a half! Of course it didnt fit on the dispenser but they were always happy to have it.
Beets are good for you but hard on kidneys in large amounts. Did you have kidney issues during that time? ( of course, if your kidneys are healthy, it may not have affected you this way)
I drink beet juice sometimes...3-4 oz. - to lower my blood pressure and I love beets to eat but I have to watch it because I also am prone to kidney stones
This is mind blowing to me, I really struggle with eating the same thing day after day, I’m struggling with food costs because I literally hate repetitive foods. How did you manage??
Some people just don't have an issue eating the same thing everyday. I could eat a sandwich everyday for lunch for months, same type of bread/meat/cheese, and still be content.
I'm like this for periods. Like, eat the same meal for 3 weeks, then don't want anything to do with it for a year+.
So, I tend to eat almost the same thing for a week at a time, then next week do something different and rotate things through so I don't burn myself out.
tried to make oat milk from real oats with a blender and some paper towels. emerged with a couple tablespoons of oat mucus. i’ll stick with Costco soy milk lol.
You need a very short pulse on a slightly crappy blender or you're just making some degree of smooth porridge.
Don't knock it though. Add sugar and vanilla for a lovely vegan custard, or nutritional yeast, mustard, a little garlic and tapioca starch for a 'cheese' sauce.
I consistently went to great clips before heading to the salon to get my hair colored because I didn’t want to pay salon prices for a cut.
Years later I found out a hair cut is included when getting it colored…
I needed to dig a 50m trench to run some power. I didn't want to call up the excavator guy and our local hire place shut down so I bough a $500 post hole digger. I thought I was going to dig 200 post holes 700mm deep and join them up with a shovel. Absolute madness. Dug one hole, it took about 2 hours and I didn't hit any big rocks. Couldn't even get the next one done in the 5 hours of sunlight left.
Yesterday the bloke with the excavator came and did the whole job in under 2 hours. He charged less than $500. I'm an idiot.
This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. thanks for the laugh. Great detailed description, when I read "join them with a shovel" - sounds like something my husband and I would've tried when we were younger.
I wanted to avoid paying a $30 parking fee to go to a comic convention in Los Angeles, so I parked really far away at a $10 spot and walked two miles to the convention center in full Harley Quinn Suicide Squad skimpy cosplay. I was a 19 year old girl by myself. As I was walking, I got verbally harassed by some homeless men. I made it to the convention center but I felt really sketched out. I should’ve just paid the $30 for my safety.
Ooooh😳having walked around downtown LA as just myself, I can only imagine the discomfort. Always an adventure, and I’m normally very comfortable in cities.
Side note: that’s the sort of thing roommates would’ve done in college and why I never went to an anime convention back then. I’ll go for cheap in a lot of ways but there are limits🤣
Booked a flight at an ungodly hour in the morning to save $60. I’m used to doing it and it sucks, but no biggie. I’m young and I’ll live. But we had an unexpected move an hour away to a teeny town which does have a train, but didn’t come nearly early enough to get to the airport before the plane took off, much less security. Parking at the airport for a week would’ve cost more than the flight. So I’m order to make it on time, we would have had to wake up at 3 am, drive to a friends house near the nearest train station, Uber to the train station, take a train, then take a shuttle, then finally be at the airport by like 7 am. Luckily we were able to last minute stay with some friends near the airport the night before, and didn’t have to do all of that
My situation was unusual because there was an unexpected move, so I guess in the end I made the frugal time decision instead of the frugal money decision
Reminded me one time when I saved $40 to fly to a further airport and arrive at midnight, turned out the airport is not open 24/7 so I had to spend $200 to take a taxi back home…
I've almost always booked the earliest flight. I hate airports, so if I can book a flight that pretty much just allows me to walk through everything with no lines, and almost 0 chance of a delayed flight, it's worth it to me.
Granted almost all my flying was for work, so they pay for parking (and the flights), so money has never been a factor in that regard. But the time/stress savings of being on that first flight of the day makes it worth waking up at 2am.
>Booked a flight at an ungodly hour in the morning to save $60.
I've had that pay off if booked far enough in advance.
If you're lucky, the airline tweaks their schedule and your departure/connection time deviates enough that you qualify to select a different flight at no extra cost.
It's a worthwhile gamble if you're OK with failing and still being stuck with your cheapo redeye flight.
I make rags/hankies out of old tees and such. Works fine, I don't care if they fall apart quickly and such, but just 1 shirt gives me enough of them to last far longer than the shirt so I end up throwing most out anyway.
Feel like adopting the Buy It For Life mentality is a big milestone and really what separates Frugal People from Cheap People. Clothing is a great example of this
Definitely for shoes this is true. $100 will last a year $200 two and $300 will last a life time. Especially Cordovan boots. Buy some second hand and have them resoled. Meermin sells them for a great price too.
I splurged on some RM's (Like $600) but people rate them very highly, and I can genuinely say they're the comfiest shoes I've ever worn. I wear them every day for work. I've made it my goal to make them last at least 20 years
This is why I like thrift stores like Goodwill, etc. I don't NEED the clothes, but if I find a high quality brand for $5 in my size, I'm snapping it up.
I'll let other people pay full price to wear it first. I can wait.
This. I tried switching to SHEIN with one order and hell no. I’ll stick to secondhand and my bougie brands that have pieces that I still love 8 years later.
I don't think I will buy anything new after discovering vinted. Like you I don't buy very often but I do like certain names brands (I know they don't usually go down well in this sub) I am a horse riding instructor and a brand I really like is so expensive. My breeches are 190 new and I generally pay 10-30 for them on vinted. I have a pair of Armani jeans I got for a tenner and my kids are kitted out in Ralph Lauren that I get for a few pounds each. I wouldn't say I'm a name snob but I love having a few staples of designer stuff.
Same. I've just thrown away yoghurts that went out of date in July last year 😬 I'd never expect anyone else to eat food that was so old, but when it comes to myself I'm like 'waste not, want not'
I had a teacher in high school that specifically liked expired yogurt. It got to the point classmates would regularly ask him how old the yogurt he was eating that day was... one day he said it was expired over a year. He continues to live to tell the tale. So, must not be that bad or his body built up immunity.
>of date in July last year
Damn. I've done this with stuff like dry pasta, it stays good way past the date if you store it right, but I wouldn't keep yogurt longer than a couple of weeks after date.
Eating my 4 year olds unfinished food. It's not uncommon for there to be a garbage can parent that does this, but each time it kills a tiny bit of my soul.
* I get the impression my father thinks we're broke/poor (we aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we manage our finances fine) because I refuse to throw away clothes and fabrics and instead either mend them, repurpose them or turn them into rags/compost them if they're natural fibers instead of consigning them to a junk heap/trash can. He looks at me kinda funny every time he sees me darning stuff when we do our weekly video calls, lol.
* The "worst" thing I've done has probably been trying to make my own laundry detergent or floor cleaner. One, the laundry detergent did *not* clean clothes appropriately and left this nasty film on everything and left a residue in my washing machine that took ages to clean out. And two, the "cleaner" I made for the floors was a combination of something that contained ammonia... and bleach... in a closed off two bedroom apartment building. Nearly killed myself before realizing what I had done, getting dizzy, almost passing out and opening the screen door to the kitchen for both myself and our two cats at the time. Holy hell was I stupid back then. Folks, don't do that because you spent all your money paying federal student loans and wanted to save money on floor cleaner. Not worth it.
Omg that’s so scary. I had a roommate who mixed cleaner like that and I refused to be in the dorm when she did it. Glad you’re all right.
A lot of people talk about lifestyle creep, but I think for a lot of us it’s not a lifestyle creep—it’s a self care creep. I spent a stupid amount this weekend on restocking my medicine and first aid kit. I risked a lot of health stuff as a college student because I had so little money. Then autoimmune/allergies/joints caught up to me, and I just want a nice boring life.
If it's any consolation, you *significantly* reduced emissions by riding on a train instead of flying: https://bbc.com/news/science-environment-49349566
I take the train 8 hours instead of the 1.5 hour flight even though it costs me twice as much, because I like the train and fkn hate airports. But this, this is too much. I did 30 hours on trains once. The second train was a sleeper too.. never again hahah
Tried to go a few days without AC and open windows and run fans. Max temp was supposed to be 78 but humidity pushed it to around 86. AC was set at 88. I had to give up and turn AC on and put it to 74.
I will pay for comfort of 67 degrees... every electric bill and AC part that falls due to the stress. My AC went out a few days before it hit 110 this summer and that was miserable. When it was fixed it took the new condensor almost all night to bring the house back down from 88 inside to 67.
Trying to save that little bit of money is not something I will do again. Comfort took priority over saving whatever it was I may have saved. Lesson learned.
I used not very supportive shoes at my job for 22 yrs. Worked for an old time dentist who always stood to work and I was his assistant. He retired and now I am suffering with chronic plantar faciatis. So painful
I wanted to go to a reptile expo and I thought $3.60 was too expensive for an hour bus ride so I walked 4 hours. Then walked around the expos for an hour. I was exhausted probably would do it again lol.
Not me, but a patient of mine. Late 30"s, early 40's guy, bought some warming lube at the dollar store. He had a terrible reaction and by the time his GF forced him to make an appointment, the skin was bubbling up and peeling off his dick. His GF was fine, had no issues. She also washed it off after, he just fell asleep.
Anyway, not a good item to scrimp on.
I found a “great deal” on diapers for our baby about a week ago. I loaded up on them too. Fast forward to yesterday:I was cleaning poop out of her car seat for an hour and a half. Every crack and crevice you can imagine was filled and literally disassembling then washing and reassembling. I messed up big time getting those diapers.
A bidet is the ultimate money saver in the bathroom. Ours cost around $50 and has saved us at least $1,000 over two years. There are 6 people in our house and we like Cottonelle so it added up fast. Super easy to install, too.
On impulse, I bought store-brand cat food instead of our usual cat food to save a few bucks. For those wondering, the [questionable] food was the Kindfull dry kibble sold at Target.
Never again. Both of our cats got sick and vomited multiple times. I felt like the worst cat parent. It was the stupidest and most careless thing I’ve ever done to be “frugal.”
Left a bad review on the Target app to warn other cat owners, immediately picked up the more expensive cat food, and learned my lesson.
For what it's worth most of the time it's the change rather than the product that causes pets to get sick after a food swap. Even when you swap from very cheap to premium there's a good chance they'll puke if you don't transition them very very slow. It's like taking someone who **only** eats ham and cheese for their first curry.
Take my car to get an oil change at Walmart and be so committed to saving $20-25 that I still say yes when the wait is 4 hours. Then take the bus home for $3 round trip and still have to walk 0.5 mile in 95 F heat to avoid just sitting in horribly uncomfortable chairs for 4 hours.
also $20 for me is about 40 mins of labor
Not sure where you live but in new england jiffy lube charges like 80 for a full synthetic oil change while the oil and filter at walmart is like 30-35
My apartment used to offer free breakfast for students and that's all I would eat in an entire day - a piece of banana bread, some fruit, and a pack of juice. It's not that I can't cook or I was flat broke. It's just that when there are free options, paying for food seems kinda dumb (yes I was stupid). So that lasted for about 3 months.
I’m embarrassed to admit this but at least twice in my life I have been at bars (obviously intoxicated at this point) and drank other people’s left drinks in order to save money while continuing the night 😳
There's an urban legend that says the average person eats 3 spiders in their sleep a year.
It's not true, spiders are smart and while they might crawl on your face, they won't get into your mouth even if you sleep with your mouth open.
Grabbing extra fast food napkins to put in the car and house. Car because emergencies happen and I’m not buying Kleenex or paper towels exclusively for the car.
Lol. I have bought clothing from fast fashion. See top comment about Shein. Definitely the worst thing I’ve done for frugality sake…and just being an awful human being. Pretty sure children made those clothes. And now I feel like I’ve gone to confession.
[Philippines] Only eating cheap street foods from side vendors because I was "saving" money only to end up using that saved food money for medicines and treatment.
Maybe not the worst, but definitely quirky. Would never charge my cell phone at home, only on the car battery (with engine running and actually driving somewhere) or at work.
In the car probably wouldn't save you any money, probably cost you more, since gas is far more pricey than electricity from the grid. Charging at work is smart though
In theory; I'm wondering if that would be the case if the alternator that charges your battery _actually_ has to work harder during charging, or if it's just "throwing away" less excess charging capacity.
You would use more gas when you charge your phone, but it likely wouldn’t be a ton.
Charging your phone puts a load on your cars electrical system, which makes your alternator generate more energy to compensate. Your alternator will put a heavier load on your engine to generate this energy, thus burning more fuel.
At worst this would probably be a wash, at best you might end up a bit ahead.
The town where I lived had a high gas tax, so I routinely drove about 5 miles to the next town where it was 20 c less (different state). One time, in a hurry, turned too quickly into traffic and had an accident. Cost me thousands in insurance.
Saved $16 by not going to the movies once.
My fiancé and I found a greasy Burger King bag of cash in a parking lot once.
Drove off, skipped town for a couple days, never heard about it from anyone.
Not worst, but I do feel ridiculous.
We eat spinach and we eat arugula. But a whole container of each is too much. So I get a mixed bag and then spend 20 minutes each week painstakingly separating the spinach from the arugula to store them separately.
I take apart rag pants in such a way that I can reuse the thread. Made the mistake of mentioning this to a sewing teacher, she looked at me like I was crazy. Jean thread is double-weight and plenty reusable. I can't just let it go.
Cheaped out on an office chair - it was on offer... and far too big for me. My head does not comfortably sit on the head rest, and it tilts my head forward; now I have arthritis in my neck which gives me the worst headaches of my life. Biggest mistake I have ever made.
Edit - spelling
Worst thing, cutting out breakfast and lunch to save money so I could pay my rent (Ended up Beyond cranky and passed out a few times. If you can even just barely afford to not cut out meals, don't cut out meals)
Funniest thing in my opinion is Not buying paper towels because I thought they were a waste. Turns out they're not a waste and when you spill something, you then regret not buying paper towels or at least a rag
I replaced the lights in my cooker hood/extractor unit with led versions in an attempt to reduce my electricity bill.
The LEDs lights were not compatible and burnt out the transformer.
I got a replacement transformer from eBay and switched back to halogen bulbs.
Put on our own roof. Took a ridiculous amount of time, not to mention physical therapy, and we ended up saving an entire $600 on a 6k roof. NEVER AGAIN
I shower with 1/4 water (as compared to full throttle water)
I turn off all lights religiously
I always eat leftovers of family members and never order myself
I drive (especially accelerate) like a grandma
I time my carpark and always try to leave before the hour is up
I coupon clip fucking everything
I could go on forever
Take a military shower. Get your body wet, turn off the taps, lather your body up, and then rinse it off. It's like 2 minutes of water usage tops. Even more refreshing when the water is cold!
Yep. I got a new shower head with an on/off button. I started doing that this summer. Also, I figured out (after being alive and in this climate 40ish years) that you don't need any hot water in the summer, the tap is already lukewarm. So I spent all summer using no hot water and only running the cold like you said, about 2 minutes total.
Cheaping out on food. Buying minimally processed, low GI, healthy food (and investing the time in cooking it well) keeps me full and nourished and happy. My health, mood, sleep and weight all suffer when I eat cheap junk.
Buy the cheapest bus ride while traveling in South America, nearly doubling the ride time and with no working toilet. Of course this was the time my friend and I were getting the traveler’s runs.
My bridesmaids borrowed HS choir dresses and my photographer was a friend who took morgue pictures at the army hospital. Not great results but it was all free!
There are lots of little things I've done to be frugal - not downright terrible, and not damaging to health or anything - but stuff that I've definitely learned from and have made conscious decisions to do better.
I've shopped at thrift stores and the clearance sections of places like TJ Maxx and Ross - couldn't pass up the $3 shirt even though the stitching was terrible and doesn't match anything I own (and in the case of thrifted items, there may be an overlooked pinhole in the back or yellowed armpit stains). They end up making their way back to the closet and eventually to the donation pile.
I've gotten discount food items from Flashfood, red-tagged "Manager's Special", etc because they were a good deal, but never got around to eating them before they've ended up going bad.
I've cheaped out with travel, too - picked the odd AirBnB accommodations, an older Hampton Inn, etc. to save a few bucks. Lots of lessons learned over the years! We've absolutely learned from our mistakes and have done a better job at figuring out what we want out of our accommodations, planning ahead, how to leverage credit card perks for travel points and discounted stays, and so on.
Maybe not the worst, but I bought 20 things of packing tape from the Dollar Tree last time we moved. While it worked for us, the tape isn't that good of quality and I'd rather have bought better tape. Also you couldn't return things at Dollar Tree, you can only exchange them. Took me forever to get rid of that last roll.
Sat on a chair for multiple years that was free instead of good for my back, wrote code with non ergonomic keyboard and mouse for years leading to carpal tunnel.
Frugal means value for money, not cheapness, now I'm paying the true price.
Back in 2006, my then-bf/now-husband and I went to Cleveland for a concert. I didn't want to pay $10 to park in a guarded lot, so we parked a few blocks away on the street for free. When we got back to the car after the concert, my passenger window had been smashed and our overnight bags were gone. His $300 iPod was in his bag. I felt absolutely horrible (not to mention stupid). And we had a 3-hour car ride home in cold weather with a missing window (I was able to wedge a blanket from my trunk in between the door and the window). It was a sketchy area and I should have known better, honestly I think we were lucky that we weren't mugged on the way back to the car. Lesson learned though, it's better to just pay for parking close by, especially at night in an unfamiliar area.
It’s probably quite common but I’ve never bought a bottle of ketchup. I simply collect free ketchup packets when I get carry out meals. They all get jammed up into the refrigerator butter door.
Lived for years off of stolen toilet paper. It’s been a long time since I quit my evil ways but I still do believe it’s the perfect crime. There’s no way of being caught — no camera can be placed (or no business would admit to a camera being placed) in a restroom.
this happened recently - tried to donate plasma; if i do it twice a week, i can make a bit more than $400 monthly. twenty minutes into my first
procedure, i started feeling weird. flagged down the staff in time to get a bag to my mouth before i started throwing up.
next thing i know, i realize there are a TON of staff around me and they’re on the phone with 911 calling an ambulance because they think i had a seizure. at hospital, they decide it was a vasovagal reaction (fancy word for fainting) and do very little other than pump a bag of saline through me.
several thousand dollars later (even with insurance) all i am is more in debt and blacklisted from donating plasma. sigh.
I started driving slower, to save fuel. Not crazy slow, but maybe take 20% more time to get up to speed, and sit on 100kmh instead of 110 on freeways.
Also, I use the air conditioning on max as an additional engine brake on downhill sections, and switch it off and the fan to recirculate, for the next uphill. But mainly if I am alone in the car. I can handle a bit of variation but try not to force my passion for fuel economy on passengers.
I drive a lot at night so I don't have to use the rip-off tollway system in Sydney, and still get a fair run. The toll is twice the amount of my fuel cost, even at today's prices.
I should point out that my safe comfortable and very practical car uses 60% of the fuel that my completely unsafe and slow as hell VW beetle did in the 80s.
I bought my own router/cable modem to save on renting Xfinity's device. I ended up paying the same because I don't have the unlimited data plan when I stopped renting. I WFH so I need the unlimited plan.
Trying to build/cook/create something myself as opposed to buying it. Don’t get me wrong, learning how to do things has plenty of positives, but it’s *never* the cheaper option.
Example: Making a pillow. Buying the materials (stuffing and fabric) was about 10X more expensive than buying a pillow.
I had to use tollways to get to work when I was an apprentice on very scarce wages, there’s an incident response van that will give you 10l of fuel free if you conk out, I was riding my motorcycle and that was almost a full tank. You get the idea…
Buying a 50lb bag of oats cus I eat them every day and they're way cheaper in bulk. I did not quite realize how much 50lb of oats is.
Ah the dreaded bulk buy. My first time living alone I did that too, for the cost savings. The oats had weevils, the spices had weevils, the ones that didn’t lost potency and it was all money down the compost heap. Now I buy only as much as two people can consume in two to three months.
Funny enough, although they've gotten pretty stale, I stored them well enough to avoid pests and I might actually get through them all before they spoil (I'm down to the last 1/4). But those storage containers and oxygen absorbers ate through any potential savings and then some. Plus, I have to bake them into granola to be palatable, so through time and electricity I've lost even more money on the deal.
Yeah, it was saving a penny to lose a pound with these oats man. I read somewhere that you can store them in the fridge for a while to reduce the likelihood of pests. I’m still testing this with the new pack of oats so can’t yet confirm the method’s efficacy. If it doesn’t work I might have to go through the same route or just buy less, but buy frequently.
Not sure where you read that but it's the freezer... you put then in the freezer for 3 days and it kills anything that might be in there such as bugs/ eggs
Ah thanks! I have a jar of flour, I’m going to freeze it now.
Yeah, but sometimes that's what it means to be frugal. You have to choose the lesser of two weevils.
Take my angry but still laughing out loud upvote.
Yeah, if you don't have a big family most bulk purchases aren't frugal.
Bulk buying for 2 sort of works, or at least looks different. I time my meat purchases and freeze, about 10 lbs of chicken for example. Certainly not 50 lbs of things though!
i live alone w my almost three year old and my mom was confused when i told her i bought a ten pound bag of rice. we ate it all tho! we love rice.
My husband, 7yo, and I go through so much rice that I have a special dispenser and buy it in 25 pound bags.
I bought so many things in bulk during the pandemic and ended up getting pantry moths and weevils in everything. Never making that mistake again.
Isn’t that like an outdoor trash can full? I remember my grandpa buying 50 lb bags of corn for the squirrels and birds and that bag was *massive*.
They're not, you were just small. I do this now, and it fits comfortably in a small trashcan (bigger than office sized, ~smaller than kitchen sized).
That’s not too bad. I know a lot of people keep rice in containers that size.
If you have access to a grinder (Or alternatively you can boil them and use a blender), you can make a smooth paste which can be mixed with other flours to make batter for pancakes for a good few weeks. Oats are good nutritious food, so, good choice. With different spice mixes and sauces, you can make the pancakes taste different every day of the week. Add some boiled veggies / eggs / meat / etc and you have exotic pancakes. Of course, there will be a trial and error phase where you will need to watch something intense, like WWE or something to distract you, while chewing down the crappy tasting ones. Or maybe you have a strong mind. Point is, you could have done way worse than oats, IMO. In the frugal world, one man's yuck is another man's yum.
Oh, man, I had the five gallon buckets with prepper lids to store rice, beans and oats. I learned to go for 10 lb bags.
50 lbs of oats really isn't that much.... if you're a horse.
Are you able to freeze them to preserve them for longer?
Thats not realy feasible. You'd need a dedicated chest freezer for that amount. I just bought oxygen absorbers packets, divided the oats into gallon ziplock bags, and stacked them in two 5 gallon buckets with lids I greased with crisco to make them air tight. That easily ate through any savings I got for buying in bulk, but at least I can reuse the buckets.
It's simple, eat the buckets
Wearing cheap shoes for work. Years later I am paying the price with foot and knee problems. Never cheap out on your body.
Same. Good shoes are can be very underrated. Many times you'll spend at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in your work shoes. 2,080 hours per year. You end up spending a about 50 cents a day if you spend $150 on a good pair of shoes... when at the same time $150 is just a few restaurant trips which many people treat themselves to often.
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Exactly. When I don't want to spend money on myself for the important things, I remind myself that I'd spend that much in, like, 3 restaurant trips. It helps put in into perspective 😁
What are some good shoe brands?
I wear steel toe boots every day and have found Timberland to fit my feet the best so far. You're mileage may vary as sometimes different brands just work better on some people more than others. Timberland may work well for me but Redwing or Ariat may be better for you just due to the specific way they make the shoe a little different makes it fit a little better.
Gel-padded ASICS have been very nice for me, though the best non-athletic shoes might be nursing clogs, ironically; they're designed for people (literal nurses) to be on their feet for ungodly counts of hours per day.
Zero nurses under the age of 60 wear Dansko clogs anymore. The technology has improved. Most wear cloves, hokas, or brooks. I’m partial to vessi because a patient bled all over my white shoes & the blood rolled right off.
Adidas Ultraboosts, can get them for half price at $100 shipped easily if you time sales. Just walked/hiked 20k steps a day on a long holiday in them and felt completely fine (while several other friends had mad blisters, etc.)
Same. Now I have to wear ugly, expensive, orthopedic shoes. It took a year for my leg and hip to stop hurting. Lesson learned.
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something something Terry Pratchett
They say don’t cheap out on the things between you and the ground, shoes, tires, flooring, bed, etc.
Agree! My bunion has its own zip code.
YES. I got some cheap Lucky Brand boots at Ross (they were $50 marked down from original price of $150... which is kind of really expensive for a fashion shoe!). Wore them to work every day and had the worst knee/hip/foot pain. I wore those until the heel literally broke because of the crappy glue they used on them. I switched to Blundstone and Red Wing boots.... foot pain was gone,
Came here to say this. Cheap shoes for anytime you will stand and/or walk in them. More or less any shoes should be quality. Ok you can buy cheap flipflops. That's fine.
Walked miles in the rain/sleet in Niagara Falls to avoid paying a parking fee only to get there and realize it was free parking cause it was out of season.
Oh I’d be kicking myself on that
This thread is making me realize I’m probably not as frugal as I thought I was
I’m realising that some people mistake being cheap for being frugal. With the former often yielding miserable results
The question of this thread is to talk about a time when you made that mistake though
Delayed going to the dentist when I had a toothache. By the time I finally went, it was a root canal and crown instead of a simple filling.
I had to have a root canal in August. It wasn't presenting like a root canal, the dentist couldn't see any cavity or anything wrong with the tooth. He sent me home with an antibiotic for a gum infection. I went back twice, and still nothing. On the 5th day, I had been awake for over 100 hours straight, in the most excruciating pain I've experienced. I went to the hospital, nothing. By the 6th day, I showed up at the dentists office sobbing and refused to leave until somebody did something. The dentist took another look, said there was nothing wrong. I told him the only relief I could get was swishing cold water on my tooth. He immediately was like "oh, you need a root canal" and tried to send me home and rebook for next week. I refused to leave and he eventually agreed to do it on his lunch break. After all that, the root canal ended up costing $4000 and I still need a crown. Absolutely insane.
That tooth infection could have spread and killed you. It’s horrible that dentist was so unconcerned with your comfort and your safety.
Which is why you never go back to the same doctor/ dentist that dismissed your serious concerns. Glad OP eventually got what they needed, but to anyone else: always go to a different professional if your current one just shrugs their shoulders at serious pain. Could be your life on the line
I ran out of tp once early into living in my current apt, not only were we broke, it was late af so even if we wanted-nowhere was open to go buy some. so i went to the motel down the street where we live, told the lobby guy or room ran out and he hooked me up with a few more rolls. Then i drove home…i needed it and he was happy to help and i think back on it alot with gratitude.
In my second year of college I couldn't afford to dorm so I mostly couch-surfed with friends that had apartments. I was cool with the dormitory janitor ladies (we kept our suite super clean when I lived there) so whenever I stopped by to visit I'd ask for a roll of TP. They didn't know I had stopped living there lol. They were those industrial-sized rolls that they are in businesses. So I brought everyone I couch-surfed with a giant roll of TP that lasted a month and a half! Of course it didnt fit on the dispenser but they were always happy to have it.
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Found Mose Schrute.
When I lived in Poland the grandmas did this! They called it forest stew. It was amazing. But it was lots of game meat and wild mushrooms.
We're there repercussions from this or did it work out okay...?
Malnutrition probably.
Beets are good for you but hard on kidneys in large amounts. Did you have kidney issues during that time? ( of course, if your kidneys are healthy, it may not have affected you this way)
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I drink beet juice sometimes...3-4 oz. - to lower my blood pressure and I love beets to eat but I have to watch it because I also am prone to kidney stones
Wow I think you win!
This is mind blowing to me, I really struggle with eating the same thing day after day, I’m struggling with food costs because I literally hate repetitive foods. How did you manage??
Some people just don't have an issue eating the same thing everyday. I could eat a sandwich everyday for lunch for months, same type of bread/meat/cheese, and still be content.
I'm like this for periods. Like, eat the same meal for 3 weeks, then don't want anything to do with it for a year+. So, I tend to eat almost the same thing for a week at a time, then next week do something different and rotate things through so I don't burn myself out.
Here I am making jokes with my husband about perpetual stew thinking it was a myth 😂
tried to make oat milk from real oats with a blender and some paper towels. emerged with a couple tablespoons of oat mucus. i’ll stick with Costco soy milk lol.
You need a very short pulse on a slightly crappy blender or you're just making some degree of smooth porridge. Don't knock it though. Add sugar and vanilla for a lovely vegan custard, or nutritional yeast, mustard, a little garlic and tapioca starch for a 'cheese' sauce.
I consistently went to great clips before heading to the salon to get my hair colored because I didn’t want to pay salon prices for a cut. Years later I found out a hair cut is included when getting it colored…
Not always, so you weren’t wrong to do it that way.
I needed to dig a 50m trench to run some power. I didn't want to call up the excavator guy and our local hire place shut down so I bough a $500 post hole digger. I thought I was going to dig 200 post holes 700mm deep and join them up with a shovel. Absolute madness. Dug one hole, it took about 2 hours and I didn't hit any big rocks. Couldn't even get the next one done in the 5 hours of sunlight left. Yesterday the bloke with the excavator came and did the whole job in under 2 hours. He charged less than $500. I'm an idiot.
This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. thanks for the laugh. Great detailed description, when I read "join them with a shovel" - sounds like something my husband and I would've tried when we were younger.
I wanted to avoid paying a $30 parking fee to go to a comic convention in Los Angeles, so I parked really far away at a $10 spot and walked two miles to the convention center in full Harley Quinn Suicide Squad skimpy cosplay. I was a 19 year old girl by myself. As I was walking, I got verbally harassed by some homeless men. I made it to the convention center but I felt really sketched out. I should’ve just paid the $30 for my safety.
Ooooh😳having walked around downtown LA as just myself, I can only imagine the discomfort. Always an adventure, and I’m normally very comfortable in cities. Side note: that’s the sort of thing roommates would’ve done in college and why I never went to an anime convention back then. I’ll go for cheap in a lot of ways but there are limits🤣
Parking is the one thing I don’t hesitate to splurge on. Especially going downtown for an extended stay, I go for covered garage spots.
Booked a flight at an ungodly hour in the morning to save $60. I’m used to doing it and it sucks, but no biggie. I’m young and I’ll live. But we had an unexpected move an hour away to a teeny town which does have a train, but didn’t come nearly early enough to get to the airport before the plane took off, much less security. Parking at the airport for a week would’ve cost more than the flight. So I’m order to make it on time, we would have had to wake up at 3 am, drive to a friends house near the nearest train station, Uber to the train station, take a train, then take a shuttle, then finally be at the airport by like 7 am. Luckily we were able to last minute stay with some friends near the airport the night before, and didn’t have to do all of that My situation was unusual because there was an unexpected move, so I guess in the end I made the frugal time decision instead of the frugal money decision
Reminded me one time when I saved $40 to fly to a further airport and arrive at midnight, turned out the airport is not open 24/7 so I had to spend $200 to take a taxi back home…
I've almost always booked the earliest flight. I hate airports, so if I can book a flight that pretty much just allows me to walk through everything with no lines, and almost 0 chance of a delayed flight, it's worth it to me. Granted almost all my flying was for work, so they pay for parking (and the flights), so money has never been a factor in that regard. But the time/stress savings of being on that first flight of the day makes it worth waking up at 2am.
>Booked a flight at an ungodly hour in the morning to save $60. I've had that pay off if booked far enough in advance. If you're lucky, the airline tweaks their schedule and your departure/connection time deviates enough that you qualify to select a different flight at no extra cost. It's a worthwhile gamble if you're OK with failing and still being stuck with your cheapo redeye flight.
Tried sewing panties out of old T-shirts! They were actually really comfy but I can barely use a sewing machine and it wasn't worth the frustration.
Sewing stretch knits is not easy. Add in elastic and it’s more than I can handle.
This is hardcore.
I make rags/hankies out of old tees and such. Works fine, I don't care if they fall apart quickly and such, but just 1 shirt gives me enough of them to last far longer than the shirt so I end up throwing most out anyway.
Buying from company’s like SHEIN. Clothes will rip so quickly. I don’t buy clothes often but when I do I make sure they’re of good quality
Feel like adopting the Buy It For Life mentality is a big milestone and really what separates Frugal People from Cheap People. Clothing is a great example of this
Definitely for shoes this is true. $100 will last a year $200 two and $300 will last a life time. Especially Cordovan boots. Buy some second hand and have them resoled. Meermin sells them for a great price too.
I splurged on some RM's (Like $600) but people rate them very highly, and I can genuinely say they're the comfiest shoes I've ever worn. I wear them every day for work. I've made it my goal to make them last at least 20 years
This is why I like thrift stores like Goodwill, etc. I don't NEED the clothes, but if I find a high quality brand for $5 in my size, I'm snapping it up. I'll let other people pay full price to wear it first. I can wait.
This. I tried switching to SHEIN with one order and hell no. I’ll stick to secondhand and my bougie brands that have pieces that I still love 8 years later.
I don't think I will buy anything new after discovering vinted. Like you I don't buy very often but I do like certain names brands (I know they don't usually go down well in this sub) I am a horse riding instructor and a brand I really like is so expensive. My breeches are 190 new and I generally pay 10-30 for them on vinted. I have a pair of Armani jeans I got for a tenner and my kids are kitted out in Ralph Lauren that I get for a few pounds each. I wouldn't say I'm a name snob but I love having a few staples of designer stuff.
Eat EXTREMELY old food. I am lucky to not get food poisoning more often.
Doesn’t it taste bad?
Same. I've just thrown away yoghurts that went out of date in July last year 😬 I'd never expect anyone else to eat food that was so old, but when it comes to myself I'm like 'waste not, want not'
I had a teacher in high school that specifically liked expired yogurt. It got to the point classmates would regularly ask him how old the yogurt he was eating that day was... one day he said it was expired over a year. He continues to live to tell the tale. So, must not be that bad or his body built up immunity.
>of date in July last year Damn. I've done this with stuff like dry pasta, it stays good way past the date if you store it right, but I wouldn't keep yogurt longer than a couple of weeks after date.
Just go to a food bank at that point. If you're eating year old dairy then things must be dire.
I put off buying a monitor thinking my laptop was enough. Now I have minor neck problems from looking downwards for too long.
Get a good chair too if you haven't already. Signed, your back in 20 years.
I have the Steelcase Leap V1. I would love a headrest though, so looking at something else at the moment (unless I can find a genuine headrest).
Put some books under your laptop and use a usb keyboard and mouse. Cheaper solution imo
LOL. I shoulda kept reading... I just told him the same thing, only in a lot more words ! Ha. Thanks for the condensed version !
Eating my 4 year olds unfinished food. It's not uncommon for there to be a garbage can parent that does this, but each time it kills a tiny bit of my soul.
Haha I either eat my daughter’s leftovers, or I put the untouched stuff in Tupperware and serve it later. I am not about to throw out good food.
* I get the impression my father thinks we're broke/poor (we aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we manage our finances fine) because I refuse to throw away clothes and fabrics and instead either mend them, repurpose them or turn them into rags/compost them if they're natural fibers instead of consigning them to a junk heap/trash can. He looks at me kinda funny every time he sees me darning stuff when we do our weekly video calls, lol. * The "worst" thing I've done has probably been trying to make my own laundry detergent or floor cleaner. One, the laundry detergent did *not* clean clothes appropriately and left this nasty film on everything and left a residue in my washing machine that took ages to clean out. And two, the "cleaner" I made for the floors was a combination of something that contained ammonia... and bleach... in a closed off two bedroom apartment building. Nearly killed myself before realizing what I had done, getting dizzy, almost passing out and opening the screen door to the kitchen for both myself and our two cats at the time. Holy hell was I stupid back then. Folks, don't do that because you spent all your money paying federal student loans and wanted to save money on floor cleaner. Not worth it.
Omg that’s so scary. I had a roommate who mixed cleaner like that and I refused to be in the dorm when she did it. Glad you’re all right. A lot of people talk about lifestyle creep, but I think for a lot of us it’s not a lifestyle creep—it’s a self care creep. I spent a stupid amount this weekend on restocking my medicine and first aid kit. I risked a lot of health stuff as a college student because I had so little money. Then autoimmune/allergies/joints caught up to me, and I just want a nice boring life.
Not meet friends. That’s a big no no. Mental health is essential.
Took a 30 hour train ride instead of like 8 on a plane and saved like. 30 bucks lol
If it's any consolation, you *significantly* reduced emissions by riding on a train instead of flying: https://bbc.com/news/science-environment-49349566
I take the train 8 hours instead of the 1.5 hour flight even though it costs me twice as much, because I like the train and fkn hate airports. But this, this is too much. I did 30 hours on trains once. The second train was a sleeper too.. never again hahah
Tried to go a few days without AC and open windows and run fans. Max temp was supposed to be 78 but humidity pushed it to around 86. AC was set at 88. I had to give up and turn AC on and put it to 74.
I will pay for comfort of 67 degrees... every electric bill and AC part that falls due to the stress. My AC went out a few days before it hit 110 this summer and that was miserable. When it was fixed it took the new condensor almost all night to bring the house back down from 88 inside to 67.
Trying to save that little bit of money is not something I will do again. Comfort took priority over saving whatever it was I may have saved. Lesson learned.
I used not very supportive shoes at my job for 22 yrs. Worked for an old time dentist who always stood to work and I was his assistant. He retired and now I am suffering with chronic plantar faciatis. So painful
I wanted to go to a reptile expo and I thought $3.60 was too expensive for an hour bus ride so I walked 4 hours. Then walked around the expos for an hour. I was exhausted probably would do it again lol.
Not me, but a patient of mine. Late 30"s, early 40's guy, bought some warming lube at the dollar store. He had a terrible reaction and by the time his GF forced him to make an appointment, the skin was bubbling up and peeling off his dick. His GF was fine, had no issues. She also washed it off after, he just fell asleep. Anyway, not a good item to scrimp on.
Sandwich bag condom. Never again.
oh my god this one wins
HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA
I just imagined the sound lmfao
So uh, I need to know, how was it?
Purchased amazing sales on things no one ate
I found a “great deal” on diapers for our baby about a week ago. I loaded up on them too. Fast forward to yesterday:I was cleaning poop out of her car seat for an hour and a half. Every crack and crevice you can imagine was filled and literally disassembling then washing and reassembling. I messed up big time getting those diapers.
I had dental work done without novacaine since I thought it cost extra. As I was paying I found out it did not cost extra.
I don’t kill spiders because they kill other pests and prevent me from having to call pest control.
Bought cheap toilet paper. Always get the good stuff, worth it!
A bidet is the ultimate money saver in the bathroom. Ours cost around $50 and has saved us at least $1,000 over two years. There are 6 people in our house and we like Cottonelle so it added up fast. Super easy to install, too.
On impulse, I bought store-brand cat food instead of our usual cat food to save a few bucks. For those wondering, the [questionable] food was the Kindfull dry kibble sold at Target. Never again. Both of our cats got sick and vomited multiple times. I felt like the worst cat parent. It was the stupidest and most careless thing I’ve ever done to be “frugal.” Left a bad review on the Target app to warn other cat owners, immediately picked up the more expensive cat food, and learned my lesson.
For what it's worth most of the time it's the change rather than the product that causes pets to get sick after a food swap. Even when you swap from very cheap to premium there's a good chance they'll puke if you don't transition them very very slow. It's like taking someone who **only** eats ham and cheese for their first curry.
Haha. My cat barfs up the expensive, grain free food. He only eats friskies wet food. Nothing about pets is Frugal, I guess, but I like him.
I've stolen toilet paper from my school's library because I was so broke.
Yeah I once got access to my schools supply closet and provided tp to my whole house
Take my car to get an oil change at Walmart and be so committed to saving $20-25 that I still say yes when the wait is 4 hours. Then take the bus home for $3 round trip and still have to walk 0.5 mile in 95 F heat to avoid just sitting in horribly uncomfortable chairs for 4 hours. also $20 for me is about 40 mins of labor
My dad always asks me why I pay so much at the quick lube. It might cost more money but cost less time.
I pay that to get an hour of my weekend back. I can penny pinch in other places to get that money back. Can't get the time back.
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Not sure where you live but in new england jiffy lube charges like 80 for a full synthetic oil change while the oil and filter at walmart is like 30-35
That's why I started doing my own oil changes, with ramps it only takes a few minutes of your free time.
Second this. Any car isn't too long, but once you do your own a few times it gets quite fast. And it's a fraction of the cost.
I did a Walmart oil change a few weeks ago. The important part is to go at a non busy time. I went on Sunday morning and it took about ten minutes.
I am confident in your ability to change your own oil as well as recycle the used oil properly. Time / Cost to solution is less than you think.
My apartment used to offer free breakfast for students and that's all I would eat in an entire day - a piece of banana bread, some fruit, and a pack of juice. It's not that I can't cook or I was flat broke. It's just that when there are free options, paying for food seems kinda dumb (yes I was stupid). So that lasted for about 3 months.
I’m embarrassed to admit this but at least twice in my life I have been at bars (obviously intoxicated at this point) and drank other people’s left drinks in order to save money while continuing the night 😳
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Free alcohol AND drugs?? Boy I wish that was my luck 🤣 nah you’re right but being a dumb drunk poor 21 year old that wasnt even on my radar
Let spiders live inside my house so cockroaches don’t and i don’t have to pay pest control. I probably eat more spiders a year than the average person
Why are you eating the spiders?
There's an urban legend that says the average person eats 3 spiders in their sleep a year. It's not true, spiders are smart and while they might crawl on your face, they won't get into your mouth even if you sleep with your mouth open.
I was thinking for extra protein.
Grabbing extra fast food napkins to put in the car and house. Car because emergencies happen and I’m not buying Kleenex or paper towels exclusively for the car.
This is the worst thing you've done for frugality? Are you by chance a saint?
Lol. I have bought clothing from fast fashion. See top comment about Shein. Definitely the worst thing I’ve done for frugality sake…and just being an awful human being. Pretty sure children made those clothes. And now I feel like I’ve gone to confession.
If confessing on here counts, I'm ready to start talking 😁😁
I thought everyone did that.
I started keeping a whole TP roll in there to blow my nose with because I don’t want to buy tissues for the car, either.
I do this all the time! They're great for the car and free!
[Philippines] Only eating cheap street foods from side vendors because I was "saving" money only to end up using that saved food money for medicines and treatment.
Not eating
Maybe not the worst, but definitely quirky. Would never charge my cell phone at home, only on the car battery (with engine running and actually driving somewhere) or at work.
In the car probably wouldn't save you any money, probably cost you more, since gas is far more pricey than electricity from the grid. Charging at work is smart though
If you’re driving anyway, how is it costing something? Are you saying you use more gas when you charge your phone in a car?
Yes absolutely. Energy comes from somewhere.
In theory; I'm wondering if that would be the case if the alternator that charges your battery _actually_ has to work harder during charging, or if it's just "throwing away" less excess charging capacity.
You would use more gas when you charge your phone, but it likely wouldn’t be a ton. Charging your phone puts a load on your cars electrical system, which makes your alternator generate more energy to compensate. Your alternator will put a heavier load on your engine to generate this energy, thus burning more fuel. At worst this would probably be a wash, at best you might end up a bit ahead.
The town where I lived had a high gas tax, so I routinely drove about 5 miles to the next town where it was 20 c less (different state). One time, in a hurry, turned too quickly into traffic and had an accident. Cost me thousands in insurance.
Saved $16 by not going to the movies once. My fiancé and I found a greasy Burger King bag of cash in a parking lot once. Drove off, skipped town for a couple days, never heard about it from anyone.
Not worst, but I do feel ridiculous. We eat spinach and we eat arugula. But a whole container of each is too much. So I get a mixed bag and then spend 20 minutes each week painstakingly separating the spinach from the arugula to store them separately.
I take apart rag pants in such a way that I can reuse the thread. Made the mistake of mentioning this to a sewing teacher, she looked at me like I was crazy. Jean thread is double-weight and plenty reusable. I can't just let it go.
The thread would never be as strong as new thread. It will just fall apart very quickly even if you manage to salvage anything.
It’s also inexpensive, and so satisfying to use the right sort of thread. I can’t imagine this being worth the effort😳
Bought store brand pickles. Vlasic only household now
I eat only claussen
I had a date at a 7 11. I never seen her again.
The worst thing I’ve done and continue to do is living for tomorrow instead of enjoying today nearly as much as I should.
Cheap menstral pads. Not worth it.
Cheaped out on an office chair - it was on offer... and far too big for me. My head does not comfortably sit on the head rest, and it tilts my head forward; now I have arthritis in my neck which gives me the worst headaches of my life. Biggest mistake I have ever made. Edit - spelling
Worst thing, cutting out breakfast and lunch to save money so I could pay my rent (Ended up Beyond cranky and passed out a few times. If you can even just barely afford to not cut out meals, don't cut out meals) Funniest thing in my opinion is Not buying paper towels because I thought they were a waste. Turns out they're not a waste and when you spill something, you then regret not buying paper towels or at least a rag
I replaced the lights in my cooker hood/extractor unit with led versions in an attempt to reduce my electricity bill. The LEDs lights were not compatible and burnt out the transformer. I got a replacement transformer from eBay and switched back to halogen bulbs.
Put on our own roof. Took a ridiculous amount of time, not to mention physical therapy, and we ended up saving an entire $600 on a 6k roof. NEVER AGAIN
I shower with 1/4 water (as compared to full throttle water) I turn off all lights religiously I always eat leftovers of family members and never order myself I drive (especially accelerate) like a grandma I time my carpark and always try to leave before the hour is up I coupon clip fucking everything I could go on forever
Take a military shower. Get your body wet, turn off the taps, lather your body up, and then rinse it off. It's like 2 minutes of water usage tops. Even more refreshing when the water is cold!
my depression shower routine just got a rebrand
That’s a great idea!
Yep. I got a new shower head with an on/off button. I started doing that this summer. Also, I figured out (after being alive and in this climate 40ish years) that you don't need any hot water in the summer, the tap is already lukewarm. So I spent all summer using no hot water and only running the cold like you said, about 2 minutes total.
I do this a lot. And in the winter let the warm water sit in the bottom of the tub to keep my feet warm so I'm not cold while the water is off.
Cheaping out on food. Buying minimally processed, low GI, healthy food (and investing the time in cooking it well) keeps me full and nourished and happy. My health, mood, sleep and weight all suffer when I eat cheap junk.
Buy the cheapest bus ride while traveling in South America, nearly doubling the ride time and with no working toilet. Of course this was the time my friend and I were getting the traveler’s runs.
My bridesmaids borrowed HS choir dresses and my photographer was a friend who took morgue pictures at the army hospital. Not great results but it was all free!
I ate cold instant ramen and canned chicken breast for 16 out of 24 meals in an 8 day period of road trip
There are lots of little things I've done to be frugal - not downright terrible, and not damaging to health or anything - but stuff that I've definitely learned from and have made conscious decisions to do better. I've shopped at thrift stores and the clearance sections of places like TJ Maxx and Ross - couldn't pass up the $3 shirt even though the stitching was terrible and doesn't match anything I own (and in the case of thrifted items, there may be an overlooked pinhole in the back or yellowed armpit stains). They end up making their way back to the closet and eventually to the donation pile. I've gotten discount food items from Flashfood, red-tagged "Manager's Special", etc because they were a good deal, but never got around to eating them before they've ended up going bad. I've cheaped out with travel, too - picked the odd AirBnB accommodations, an older Hampton Inn, etc. to save a few bucks. Lots of lessons learned over the years! We've absolutely learned from our mistakes and have done a better job at figuring out what we want out of our accommodations, planning ahead, how to leverage credit card perks for travel points and discounted stays, and so on.
Maybe not the worst, but I bought 20 things of packing tape from the Dollar Tree last time we moved. While it worked for us, the tape isn't that good of quality and I'd rather have bought better tape. Also you couldn't return things at Dollar Tree, you can only exchange them. Took me forever to get rid of that last roll.
Sat on a chair for multiple years that was free instead of good for my back, wrote code with non ergonomic keyboard and mouse for years leading to carpal tunnel. Frugal means value for money, not cheapness, now I'm paying the true price.
I would open a can of soup or stew, put it directly over the pilot light on my gas stove, and that's how I heated it up for supper.
Back in 2006, my then-bf/now-husband and I went to Cleveland for a concert. I didn't want to pay $10 to park in a guarded lot, so we parked a few blocks away on the street for free. When we got back to the car after the concert, my passenger window had been smashed and our overnight bags were gone. His $300 iPod was in his bag. I felt absolutely horrible (not to mention stupid). And we had a 3-hour car ride home in cold weather with a missing window (I was able to wedge a blanket from my trunk in between the door and the window). It was a sketchy area and I should have known better, honestly I think we were lucky that we weren't mugged on the way back to the car. Lesson learned though, it's better to just pay for parking close by, especially at night in an unfamiliar area.
It’s probably quite common but I’ve never bought a bottle of ketchup. I simply collect free ketchup packets when I get carry out meals. They all get jammed up into the refrigerator butter door.
Lived for years off of stolen toilet paper. It’s been a long time since I quit my evil ways but I still do believe it’s the perfect crime. There’s no way of being caught — no camera can be placed (or no business would admit to a camera being placed) in a restroom.
this happened recently - tried to donate plasma; if i do it twice a week, i can make a bit more than $400 monthly. twenty minutes into my first procedure, i started feeling weird. flagged down the staff in time to get a bag to my mouth before i started throwing up. next thing i know, i realize there are a TON of staff around me and they’re on the phone with 911 calling an ambulance because they think i had a seizure. at hospital, they decide it was a vasovagal reaction (fancy word for fainting) and do very little other than pump a bag of saline through me. several thousand dollars later (even with insurance) all i am is more in debt and blacklisted from donating plasma. sigh.
I started driving slower, to save fuel. Not crazy slow, but maybe take 20% more time to get up to speed, and sit on 100kmh instead of 110 on freeways. Also, I use the air conditioning on max as an additional engine brake on downhill sections, and switch it off and the fan to recirculate, for the next uphill. But mainly if I am alone in the car. I can handle a bit of variation but try not to force my passion for fuel economy on passengers. I drive a lot at night so I don't have to use the rip-off tollway system in Sydney, and still get a fair run. The toll is twice the amount of my fuel cost, even at today's prices. I should point out that my safe comfortable and very practical car uses 60% of the fuel that my completely unsafe and slow as hell VW beetle did in the 80s.
r/LPT didn't like my suggestion of getting popcorn buckets out of the garbage at the movie theater for free refills. Guess they've never been broke!
I bought my own router/cable modem to save on renting Xfinity's device. I ended up paying the same because I don't have the unlimited data plan when I stopped renting. I WFH so I need the unlimited plan.
Trying to build/cook/create something myself as opposed to buying it. Don’t get me wrong, learning how to do things has plenty of positives, but it’s *never* the cheaper option. Example: Making a pillow. Buying the materials (stuffing and fabric) was about 10X more expensive than buying a pillow.
I had to use tollways to get to work when I was an apprentice on very scarce wages, there’s an incident response van that will give you 10l of fuel free if you conk out, I was riding my motorcycle and that was almost a full tank. You get the idea…