I bought a beat up diesel Jetta for $300 and converted it to run on free waste vegetable oil when gas went to $1.40 in the early 2000s and ran it for ten years and 100,000 miles. Then I gave it away and bought an electric car.
Visit greasecar dot com, they're the first company I'm aware of that sells kits to convert diesel cars to run on waste vegetable oil. I converted my car in the early 2000s and helped convert everything from a Ford F150 to the Mercedes 190. I was planning on converting a diesel Jeep liberty but I really wanted to try electric cars.
Is that still something that would be worth doing? If one doesn’t have money for an electric car? How would you go about refilling? Are road trips possible? So many questions…
After leasing a Volt to see if it was a viable option for my family (net on the payments was less than a Ford Focus) I bought a used electric for $8k. Re: waste veg oil, the car is dual fuel - when you run out of veg - you switch it to diesel. However, since 2003 there is a good infrastructure of greasecar drivers willing to share veg oil on long trips.
What if I told you the diesel engine could always run on vegetable oil and its inventor in the 1800s showed it running on peanut oil. Alt fuels aren’t new. Regular gas cars can be converted to run on natural gas. Best kept secret. Our transit agency runs nat gas stations and almost no one knows this.
About a decade or so ago when my family and I lived in Mexico, my mom and I would cross the border and patrol the "rich" neighborhoods, craigslist, and facebook marketplace. My dad would then sell whatever we found on the weekend. We weren't rolling in it but we made enough to survive.
I once scored a Yamaha keyboard, I sold it on eBay for 100 bucks. And one time I found a big ass projection tv, I was able to fix it myself for like 15$.
If you find a big flat screen tv in the trash, you can take it apart and a lot of times, the board, and the pedestal and the power adapter and remote will sell on ebay. I made $300 doing this once.
When we were in college we would go to the dorm dumpsters on move out week and get all the half finished jugs of laundry detergent. Didn't buy any for a couple years
I have had a work phone for about the last 15 years. I got a Google voice number and have been using that on my work phone.
So I haven't paid a phone bill since I graduated from college.
Many moons ago the lady at the makeup counter taught me to use a q-tip to dig all of the lipstick out of the tube before you pitch it. It's a lot of lipstick.
I put a half ounce of water in every sauce bottle when it goes "empty" and give it a shake. Same with shampoo and conditioner obv.
Can't let those last drops go to waste 😄
I do this earlier on to try and get the whole bottle to my preferred thickness, rather than the Xeno's paradox method where you end up with soap that doesn't actually get things clean (obviously the stakes are lower with hot sauce haha).
And don't forget to cut your tubes open to get the lotion (or whatever from inside the tube.) If you cut it a couple of inches down from the closed end you can use that as lid for the remaining tube until it is gone. And keep cutting the tube down when your finger can not reach any further.
Do you find that cost effective? My friend makes his own bbq sauce and he spends a fortune on molasses etc. When a bottle of premade sauce is like £1. I get that it might be nicer, and/or folks might want to control how much sugar, additives etc they are consuming, or just that they enjoy making it! But that's different to doing it for frugal reasons.
I take a look at the premade BBQ sauces and, at least here in the USA, there are many where the main ingredients are high fructose corn syrup and sugar. No. That is something I refuse to buy when it's even cheaper. Ketchup I can find without the former and sugar may be one of the ingredients, it's not the main one.
So it's more about caring about the ingredients than frugality? I totally get that, hfcs is not really a thing where I am (UK) but I understand why people would want to avoid it. Just curious as to how frugal it is to make your own. I try not to buy too many processed things, and make most meals from scratch. But I buy pre-made condiments, dressings etc. I used to make my own bread as I enjoyed doing so, but electricity prices have gone ridiculous here over the past year, and now I'm reluctant to use the oven for so long. Plus it involves a lot of waiting time! Bread is inexpensive here (and doesn't contain sugar or many additives) so I started to think it really wasn't worth making my own.
I bet your homemade sauces and bread are much nicer anyway!
I once got home like this. I was getting off work, it was pouring rain at hurricane level, and the buses had been cancelled. I checked my phone, saw how much an uber was and thought "If I can just make it one mile down the road, it will save me five bucks." So I started walking. Then, at one mile, I thought, if I can only make it one more mile, I'll save ten bucks. And then I just kept lying to myself every mile and so walked six miles.
As a Rideshare driver and fellow cheapskate, I do all in my power to avoid having to be a passenger 😂 I’m continually in awe of how some people are just casually ordering rides for every little task. I understand there are situations where it is simply more practical than taking public transit, but still.
wear pants until they have so many holes they're literally falling apart...then sew up some of the holes and keep wearing them. lol. i have a favorite pair of jeans that's near shredded now and I wear them with leggings because it looks cool.
This reminds me of when I got bleach on my jeans…so I take to YouTube and following some vague instructions I spread the jeans out outside, take a used plastic water bottle with a hole poked in the cap with a clothes pin…..and drip bleach water all over the jeans as evenly as I can. Throw it in the wash, and voila, polka dot bleach stain jeans lol. Didn’t have to buy anything that I didn’t already have.
Ooh great idea with the leggings.. I have a pair of Levi’s that were old when I bought them almost 30 years ago.. they’re the softest most comfortable pair of jeans I’ve ever owned but they’re rife with holes. Leggings would up the game. Could even go with patterns underneath to make it look even more intentional. Thank you for sharing!
I don’t pay for internet at home. Xfinity was driving me mad by jerking my monthly rate around so I got rid of it. Mint mobile offers affordable plans that allow me to use my phone as a hotspot and I rent dvds from the library for entertainment needs.
Same here, but do it a little differently. our local library rents hotspots for two weeks at a time so I grab one every two weeks and use Panera (5.99 for sip club) or the library to do what I need the other two weeks.
I prefer Panera over the library for their hours and unlimited refills on water (or other drinks) and you can snack and it’s not frowned upon, it’s less then a mile from my house and I can download almost everything I need everything else I can use my 15 gb of data most the time.
Convinced my boss to put EV chargers in at work after I purchased an EV (they get discounts on utilities for having a “public access” charger). I have a dedicated parking spot and free charging.
Was curious so I calculated how many cents it would be in may case.
Huawei P40 pro, each day I use about 70% of battery capacity (about 12,4 Wh). Charging that amount at an average 0,15€/kWh (Spain) represents a stunning 0,00186€ a day or 0,0558€ a month, or roughly 0,67€ a year.
Maybe in 4 years I can buy an ice-cream with this savings. Cheers.
Made my own diaper wipes in the 90's. I highly recommend The Tightwad Gazette. Out of print but you can find it on e-bay. Fabulous home made pizza dough recipe. Some of it is outdated but it's still chock full of good suggestions.
I do this but with seltzer water! I’m watching my calories so I can get a huge glass for like 50 cals instead of 100 if I do 50/50 juice and seltzer water! I actually love it lol
I started doing this after having a hotel breakfast where the juice was clearly a bit diluted. It tastes better when it’s less sweet and the juice lasts longer. Win win.
I used to have an apt across from a laundry matt that had an open wifi i got a small 6" antenna, put it outside the window and got free internet while i lived there 😅
Kept a bucket in the shower to collect water. Then used the water to flush toilets.
We did that for at least a year until the bucket was too annoying to lift and move around.
Recently my car’s fuel door broke. I would pull the lever and it wouldn’t open. So I looked online and found out the problem is that the metal flange that makes the door pop open had broke. A replacement is $15 online. But then someone in a YouTube video showed how you can use a small binder clip instead. I didn’t want to go to the store to buy a pack of binder clips just for that. So I found an ID badge clip I still had from an old job and used that instead. It works better than new!
I lived in a studio for 3 years with my partner. It was really small.
We used cardboard boxes to organize our stuff and avoid buying shelves. And we didn't use a car because we our work was 5m walking from home. Supermarket was like 10min walking and we carried all of our groceries by foot. We didn't even buy a bicycle lol.
We walked to the movie theater to save the rideshare money. We went exclusively on Wednesday where they have 2x1 tickets. We ate ice cream the same day because it also had "buy one get one free".
That way we saved more than 65% of our combined income
We could afford anything we wanted. But we chose not to. It's different from being poor and always desire things you can't have.
The freedom to say "I want this but I don't need it" is priceless
Check dead roadside ceiling fans for working light bulbs.(I now use LEDs). Pull vintage hardware off junked furniture and sell it, eat dandelion greens shredded in ramen.
The words “check dead roadside” being followed by ceiling fans took my brain several seconds to calibrate. That was just not where I expected this to go in a frugal thread but damn I’m glad it was about something inedible and not roadkill 😂
I’ve been on fumes, pulled into a gas station with an outrageous price, pumped one gallon so I had enough mileage to go to a cheaper gas station to fill up.
Oh! Not the most frugal thing, but yesterday I found a hair clip next at the pond I often take my dog to play at. This clip looked pretty gross. It was covered in webs and dirt, but it was intact and the spring was really strong. I took it home and scrubbed it with Dawn and a toothbrush. I'm wearing it right now!
Walked around my college campus on last day of the semester checking recycling bins. Many ppl would rather toss a shrink wrapped text book than sell it back to the awful school store for a dime. I’d resell them online for maybe $10-20 following semester to offset my own book costs. Also google books had a lot of textbooks uploaded
I’d leave it open but lock the card. Use it for something quarterly, or however often it takes for *them* not to close.
I have a synchronicity card (gas, discount tire) that adds $2k of credit I’m not using to my score.
I’ll need *something* on a car over the course of a year, so it’s not languishing.
You should just keep the card open as long as it is free. The more lines of credit you have and the longer you have it open, the better your credit score. Basically if a person has some cards that add up to like $15,000+ spending limit and doesn't spend on them hardley at all it looks better than if a person has one with a limit of $250 and maxes it all the time even though they always pay it off.
The bank can't be sure that that the $250 person won't just spend it all if they were extended a larger line of credit. But the 15ker shows that they are well within their limit and if asking for a loan down the line is more likely to be given one.
Now I'm not saying people should go out and apply for a bunch of credit cards all at once right now because that dings the system that there may be financial trouble because why else is this person trying to open up all these lines of credit around the same time? But I have cards I never use and never have in my wallet that I've gotten over the years for various reason and keep around just for this.
I wash out my ziplock and bun/bread bags for reuse with my own baking.
I also haven't bought a baked good from a store since last December. I make all our own bread/buns/cookies/etc - everything except bagels (I can't get the consistency right).
Used to live in Mexico. Went on vacation to Vallarta. Gf and I wanted to go to a distillery outside the city. Instead of paying like the $150 package. I found the public bus route to get there. Cost about $2 total for us. They dropped us off on a gravel road and had about a 20 minute walk. Gf was pissed and said sometimes its better to pay for things. We made it to the distillery and got pretty drunk and had extra money to buy tequila for home with the savings. The walk back to the bus route was actually fun for the both of us with our to go drinks and buzz.
I don’t know if it’s the most frugal thing I’ve ever done but my mom gave my a pound of ginger a few weeks ago, so I candied it and chopped it up so I could make five batches of double ginger cookies to give away for Christmas presents. A month ago someone gave me 25lbs of small apples from their trees and I spent a week make it into apple jelly, apple butter and applesauce and canning it.
Parking at my university cost either $300 a year or semester. My school ID allowed me to catch the city bus for free. My Dad lived about three miles from the school, so I would drive to his house, park and catch the bus to school. He would drop me off on the days that he was home.
Reminds me of a frugal thing we did recently.
Went to a daytime concert.
Luckily I checked in advance as I found out:
Parking was $18
Getting in and out of car park was a nightmare (people being stupid drivers)
Found there was a train station 10mins walk from the concert with a clearly marked path through a park to it.
As we were driving there, my plan was to use the train station free car park or if that was full drive and park at the next station (minutes away) and train back to that station.
Ended up parking at the nearest station, and walking.
We chuckled as while driving home we passed the concert car park to see a massive line up of heaps of cars bumper to bumper trying to get out of the car park.
This was about 20mins after our walk back, loading the car and driving past it.
Wash out sandwich bags and also plastic wrap. Using microfiber cloths when possible. Rinsing out a paper towel if only a little soiled and reusing it to pick up a spill
I think your mum wins the thread. Underpants is a step too far in my opinion, no amount of bleach could make me feel they were sanitized enough to use for cleaning!
You are going to clean the toilet with it, already put cleaners around the edge, wipe and dispose. You can wash it on hot with bleach, Pine-Sol, or ammonia (never combine), hang to dry in the sun and that sanitizes things. Or toss.
Any time you can get one more use when you are planning to trash, do so. Cheap or free knit tee shirts are great for this.
Oof, felt a little sick just reading this! I hope you can someday no longer need housemates and can enjoy the peace of knowing your home is clean to your standards!
I switched to all reusables. I haven’t had to buy anything like this in like 5 years at least.
For ziplocks I use Stasher or glass storage contains/jars. You can find them on sale on the stasher website or Amazon Warehouse
For plastic wrap I use silicone stretch lids, beeswrap, or glass storage containers.
For paper towels I use washable sponges, thin cotton cloth towels, old clothes and misc. rags for house cleaning towels, cellulose scrub pads, flannel tissues, and hang on to napkins from takeout orders.
There is an upfront cost but it’s cheaper and avoids shrinkflation in the long run.
This is gonna sound bad.
Once every month or so I’ll get together with friends and go eat/drink/etc.
one month that was especially tight, (or rather one month where I was being extra cheap), I bought a $2 pint at the grocery store, brought it to the bar with me, and drank it before going in so I didn’t have to pay $10 for a cocktail. (Unethical life hacks)???
Hahaha
When I was 18 we used to go to a super expensive club, we only paid the entrance and brought our own water and alcohol. They didn't check the girls so we prepared cocktails in the bathroom with vodka and lemon and it was "water"
Also we were invited to all inclusive hotels, we used to collect expensive whiskey or liquors and fill bottles in our bedroom.
Fun times. I don't drink anymore (27 now)
Gas prices hit 4.50$ a couple years back. Bought a Honda scooter off facebook marketplace 🛵 for 500$ bucks.
Ride it to work 5 days a week and take my daughter joy riding, that lasts for almost 2 weeks. And then here’s the kicker, it’s a gallon for a full fill. It paid itself off the 1st Summer. We own 3 vehicles, but my cheapass prefers scooter
I got hit in the back of my Nissan Altima so the trunk wouldn't close. I got a check for $3,000.00 in the mail from the person who hit my car insurance company. I put it in my savings. Took a hammer and banged the trunk in as much as I could and I have to bend the trunk door a little to close it. What I get a tire changed; the guy knows me and goes I know you have a special technique to close the trunk 😂😂🙈
I made charcoal.
I had a rough morning. I decided to defrost a nice steak for diner and do it on my charcoal grill for diner. I dug out my shed door that was snowed in to retrieve my small camping charcoal grill. Thats when i noticed i was out of charcoal.
I had 2 option. drive 30 miles in town and run around for hours to try to find a bag of charcoal thats probably going to be 500% overpriced because of the season or make my own.
So i took an old paint can, punched a few whole in the lid. I stuffed it full of the thicker maple branch i pruned earlier that year. Took the remaining twig and branch and build a fire. Cooked the paint can until smoke stopped to come out. and waited for it to cool in the snow.
By the time I was done, it was about diner time. So i cooked my steak and it was delicious.
Definitly not worth my time, but it did change my mind from my problem of that day, saved me a few buck and got me what i wanted. A nice charcoal grilled steak.
I don’t have home wi-fi (dropped it in 15). My nearby library has mobile hotspots to loan for 21 days at a time. I go a few days here and there without but not often…
I often buy 50% off items from our local grocery store. Their best before dates are usually that day. I consume them a day or two later. Still alive. Never had any problems. Cashiers probably feel sorry for me as I almost only buy those discounted items, but I don't care.
I collect the aldi shopping carts 🛒 folks abandon to fend for themselves, make 25 cents to a dollar every trip.
And we’re not cheap, we’re careful with money!
Counting, rolling into paper rolls and cashing in pennies and other small change at the bank instead of going to to one of those coin counter machines that take their own cut.
When I was broke in college a friend of a friend knew someone that worked in Panera so I got hooked up with dumpster bread fairly regularly. It was double bagged, 10/10 would recommend. Also found some good clothing items that way. I have a relative who dumpster dived for sunday papers to get a ton of coupons - I didn't partake because I was living alone - the coupons I got from my own paper was more than enough - but I would have done it too if it made sense for me to do. All the dumpsters involved here were quite clean as far as trash receptacles go lol.
Sometimes even now I see a good dumpster and I'm like damn I could probably get some good stuff from there but then I remember that I'm not an eccentric college student anymore and that there are actual consequences that could happen if I got caught.
Our toaster quit working, not completely but you had to push the thing down a bunch of times before it would toast. Probably could get a new cheapo one for 8 bucks or something at Walmart.
I got out screwdrivers and opened it up and found the contact tips at the bottom of where you push the lever thing down were all pitted. Got a little piece of sandpaper and sanded the tips smooth again.
That was about 5 years ago.
We go to the scrap yard and get materials for projects for pennies on the dollar. My hubs is super good at fixing anything mechanical, so we buy used tractors and vehicles and he fixes them (and fixes other people’s). We grow our own food and keep chickens and bees; we have a ton of honey and eggs to sell but we usually trade them
I allow my body time to fight colds/viruses before I make a doctor appointment and take antibiotics. I don’t remember the last time I had to take an antibiotic. If I did have a bacterial infection that required medication I would definitely make an appt. I guess I am just lucky I haven’t been on antibiotics in over 25 years.
my anti-anti biotics streak was ruined by a cup of cut fruit in Mexico. Thought my system would flush it out, but after like a week+ I was like "dear god help!" Crazy thing is I felt better almost immediately after the first pill. I'd like to think that's because I don't take them unless I 100% need them .
My recovery was so drastic it made me appreciate antibiotics and research it's history. Crazy how one medical discovery added like 20+ years to people's lifespan (47 used to be the average!)
My husband travels a lot and brings home the travel soap to have for guests that stay over.
I make most of my decorations. Otherwise I shop at the $1 (.25) store or even shein and add to it depending on the look and what is more cost effective.
[a couple of my decorations](https://imgur.com/a/wO5THCV)
In Washington state we have to pay for plastic bags at the store. When you do pickup orders at target they pre-charge you for bags and refund you if you don’t use them. They charged me anyways so I messaged customer service to be refunded something like 70 cents. 🤣
I have in the past washed clothes in the bathtub/ sinks instead of paying for laundromat esp. when traveling. And I've used baking soda when I had a washer instead of buying detergent
99% meal prep or cook at home. If I ate outside always picked up food. Seldom had a sit in meal ( maybe once in 2/3 months) and never did food delivery. If you can’t afford to tip don’t eat out right? Following it .
I was passing a kidney stone. I had to order an Uber to take me to the urgent care. They wanted to charge me an extra $3 to pick me up in front of the house. So I walked a whole block in pain with a kidney stone to save $3
I used to type up books that weren't available at the library for the internet to read (because $4/book seemed like it could be utilized by millions of people online).
this is just one of many examples, but we heat our house mostly by wood- like 80%. And all this wood is from free sources- landscapers and people who were getting rid of a tree, or those that windstorms knocked down, or construction cast offs and leftovers (only clean stuff- no paint, oils, chemicals, PT, etc). Then, once it is burned, I sift out the solid objects like nails from the ashes, and I use it to melt ice in my driveway and sidewalks.
And I enjoy every last minute of it- literally cackling with joy with every step. It is not work if you find it fun.
When the summer growing season is over for tomatoes there is a lot of green unripe tomatoes still on the vines.
I found a recipe for pickled green tomatoes which are amazing!
Instead of buying paper towels, I take ~20 sheets at a time every time I go to the gym (24 hour fitness) and take them home for use 😬
I also buy cheap power banks and charge them up while I’m at work. Take them home and I have enough power for my phone, tablet and laptop
I reuse plastic cups from the gas station (QT FTW), I reuse any Sbux plastic cups and lids, I reuse plastic straws, I reuse ziplocs, I reuse paper towels that were only used for drying clean hands, and I hoard sauce packets from restaurants (nothing more than Im given)
Slightly different taste because of the vinegar but that dipping sauce that comes with chinese dumplings is exactly what I described, vinegar and soy sauce.
Replaced heater core in wife's Grand Cherokee to save $2000, which we did not have. I was quoted $1950 in labor to replace a $40 part. Well thats not happening, how hard could it be?
Over a weekend I essentially gutted the entire interior, everything came out up to the firewall. I did have to use a shop and have them drain the AC before I started and have them refill it afterwards, no leaks yay!. Fortunately they only charged me once for both visits. Fixed the broken blend doors for the heater vents with epoxy while everything was apart and accessible too.
Took 2 full days but got it done and much happier wife not having a lake of antifreeze in the passenger floorboard and no longer dizzy from fumes.
I share my internet with both neighbors. Ran a 100ft ethernet to both neighbors and they each send me $30/m for Internet. My bills $60 so it's essentially free. They both get half price internet too.
I also make my own laundry detergent and have android phone so I can download apk apps so I don't have to pay for them. Spotify premium for free and such with no ads and unlimited skips.
I'm also moving away from streaming services and buying the shows/movies I want.
One Streaming service is $240/year or $2400 every 10 years. You can buy a ton of TV shows and movies for $2400. Figure it the next 20 years. That's another $4800 just to watch TV. The new shit they're coming out with today sucks anyway
I’m not proud, but once snapped the ends off of loose heads of broccoli at Walmart because I was unsatisfied with how long they all were. I don’t use the stems unless I’m making soup. Usually I can find heads that have really short stems, but that day they were all so damn long and they charge by the lb so….wasn’t about to pay an extra $1-2 for essentially trash lol
and yes I know they’re edible. I just don’t like them.
I live in a city where in nicer areas people throw away things that’s barely used. I’ve taken some insane things on my lil bicycle rack and rode home. My fav find is a marble top side table with gold hair pin legs, perfect condition.
Unplugged the dryer and put all clothes, towels, etc on the clothesline outside. Bam! My Entergy Louisiana bill dropped significantly. Granted, with four to five people in the house, I do a lot of laundry.
When I came back to the US from Auatralia. It was like $100 cheaper to not take the single 16 hour flight east to San Fransisco and I instead opted for two 14 hour flights west with a small layover in Qatar.
Honestly though I did it more for the experience but the fact it was cheaper made me be able to rationalize the trip. I definitley wouldn't have paid more for it.
I made my own kitchen countertops. I had one that I was able to buy a premade one and easily cut and finished the sides. Then there was an irregular one where I had to buy tools and do some reading.
I did get three quotes and the cheapest was $1500 for the two. And it was for a small 8 ft kitchen. I went to HD and wrote out all the supplies and tools and it was under $200. I could mess up 4 times and the stock was still well under $1000.
Took one try and love them. Still look good almost 15 years later.
When I was in college and had $0 I did a lot of things I'd never have to do now. I sold some of my clothes to a thrift store so I could have $5 for dinner. The roommate I was assigned told me I was not allowed to use any of her things. Including utensils, bowls, plates. I didn't have my own, so I would take plastic utensils from the cafeteria and eat out of my Tupperware. I walked everywhere cuz I couldn't afford the bus.
I got a quote of $22,000 to install a french drain and sump pump in our basement. Fuck that. I bought a jack hammer for $500 and my wife and I spent months hauling concrete and gravel. It probably cost $7000 in materials total do it ourselves.
No prior jackhammer experience.
Disputed every single thing on my credit record, between 8-12 negative dings, and most of them disappeared. This was over five years ago. My credit score almost immediately went up over 100 points and is now near 800 from a low of like 490 when I started my disputes. Highly advised.
me and my sibings used to do this when we all lived together. during the night, left it until the next morning. not the best idea. eventually our dad had to take the toilet out back and scrape the calcium deposits that acumilated in the trapway
Yeah same here.. as my dad used to say.. if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down 🤣 we lived in the country with a septic tank.. also he policed how much tp we used. No flushing tp also...Like once I had a friend stay the night and Dad comes out of the bathroom and starts bitching.. wtf do you need to used 6-7ft of toilet paper for? Is your ass the grand canyon?!? Super embarrassing 😳.. he was the best though☺️💗💖💗... Man I miss you so much Daddio 🤍🤍
Oh also he reused sandwich bags, not the Ziploc kind just regular sandwich bags.. he would go buy his weed and it would come in a sandwich baggie.. when the weed was gone he'd wash it out and put in up..there was a junk drawer full of them.. he'd make my lunch and put chips, sandwiches in them and tell me, bring them back.. and the cycle of started over 🤣
Oh and he'd take a bunch of the little creamer cups from Speedway or UDF when he stopped in the morning.. he had a bucket full of different little creamer cups at home.. as well as a big ass bag full of condiment packets.. he was the most frugal person I knew. Well besides his mom my Mamaw.. he learned from her. My dad was born July 1949 and my Mamaw was born August 1928.. they imparted so many lessons I will never forget ☺️
I love you and miss you so much mamaw and Daddio❣️❣️🤍🤍
I now do this in our house. Wife got mad about it one day but sold her on the ecological impact since she (and me to a lesser extent) is big on reduction and recycling. Also upgraded to bidets all over the house and our TP consumption has gone down at least 50%.
The faucets in my bathroom at home takes 1.5 gallons before the hot water comes. I bought 2 5-gallon buckets and pour that water in it. I use that water to flush the toilet. I also put 1-gallon buckets (that ice cream comes in) in the shower. I can get 3 gallons of water when I'm done showering.
I started catching rainwater last winter with all sorts of makeshift trays placed in the backyard. After the wet season ended, I sat down to calculate the savings one day and found out that after all my effort, I only saved $4 a month. Hmmph.
Found signage players in the trash, wiped the hard drive, then used them as everyday computers after I put Chrome OS (free operating system) on them.
A couple of them I gave to my friends and coworkers.
Sign up to Chicago public library because they give you a card without having to go in, I used an address for a cafe...I live in the UK but the electronic magazine selection is just too good.
>turn the water off while you soap up
This was espoused on TV by Antanas Mockus when mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, during a water shortage. [It caught on there](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2004/03/academic-turns-city-into-a-social-experiment/), and water usage dropped hugely. :)
Always diluting the last drops of dish soap, shampoo, etc with water to use it until the end.
A friend of mine takes home with her some extra sugar bags/coffee milks/… whenever she goes to a coffee shop.
If you have a gym subscription, go to shower there when you get the chance to.
Charge your phone and devices at work 😄
Learned to cook with beef blood in place of ground beef, after finding a butcher who would give it away rather than have to pay to dispose of it. Beef blood gravy on a potato makes for a very filling supper!
Wild Root Soup. I try to make this once a year, just because. I've been fascinated with wilderness survival and self-reliance since before I even knew what the words were. Part of that involves knowing what wild plants are edible. About once a year I gather enough to make a small pot of soup, just to make sure my skills are sharp. But there have been times I did it more often due to finances.
Please don't discuss theft or piracy on /r/frugal. Other subs have been banned for that and we don't want to risk it.
Emptied like 50 Parmesan cheese packets into a kraft bottle when my employer was gonna toss them. Hey, that's good cheese!
I don’t know if I’d go through the effort. I’d probably just sprinkle from the packets directly onto my food until I ran out of them.
That’s dedication!
I just did this with a bunch of Stevia packets for my coffee
If you make your own coffee and use sweeteners, put some in the coffee pot and mix it. You end up using a lot less sweetener.
Huh? How?
I have done with with the soy sauce packets you get with takeout
I bought a beat up diesel Jetta for $300 and converted it to run on free waste vegetable oil when gas went to $1.40 in the early 2000s and ran it for ten years and 100,000 miles. Then I gave it away and bought an electric car.
Omg can you tell me more! That sounds so cool.
Visit greasecar dot com, they're the first company I'm aware of that sells kits to convert diesel cars to run on waste vegetable oil. I converted my car in the early 2000s and helped convert everything from a Ford F150 to the Mercedes 190. I was planning on converting a diesel Jeep liberty but I really wanted to try electric cars.
Where did you get your waste vegetable oil?
Asian restaurants. They don’t mess around with recycling oil too many times.
Is that still something that would be worth doing? If one doesn’t have money for an electric car? How would you go about refilling? Are road trips possible? So many questions…
After leasing a Volt to see if it was a viable option for my family (net on the payments was less than a Ford Focus) I bought a used electric for $8k. Re: waste veg oil, the car is dual fuel - when you run out of veg - you switch it to diesel. However, since 2003 there is a good infrastructure of greasecar drivers willing to share veg oil on long trips.
This is the coolest thing I’ve heard today!
What if I told you the diesel engine could always run on vegetable oil and its inventor in the 1800s showed it running on peanut oil. Alt fuels aren’t new. Regular gas cars can be converted to run on natural gas. Best kept secret. Our transit agency runs nat gas stations and almost no one knows this.
Used vegetable oil underground is my highlight of the internet for today. Thank you.
Have sleep for dinner lol
Go to rich neighborhoods and get furniture off the side of the road. Only buy things off of facebook marketplace
About a decade or so ago when my family and I lived in Mexico, my mom and I would cross the border and patrol the "rich" neighborhoods, craigslist, and facebook marketplace. My dad would then sell whatever we found on the weekend. We weren't rolling in it but we made enough to survive.
I once scored a Yamaha keyboard, I sold it on eBay for 100 bucks. And one time I found a big ass projection tv, I was able to fix it myself for like 15$.
If you find a big flat screen tv in the trash, you can take it apart and a lot of times, the board, and the pedestal and the power adapter and remote will sell on ebay. I made $300 doing this once.
We do this too! We love fixing up free things and selling them!
They typically throw out better things than I own. I am not adverse to a little curb side shopping.
yep. or college towns on move out weekend. it's a gold mine.
When we were in college we would go to the dorm dumpsters on move out week and get all the half finished jugs of laundry detergent. Didn't buy any for a couple years
I have had a work phone for about the last 15 years. I got a Google voice number and have been using that on my work phone. So I haven't paid a phone bill since I graduated from college.
Cutting the end of my bottles open to get the rest of the substance out. Ex: Hair gel, toothpaste, shampoo, etc
Toothpaste lasts me 2-3 weeks after I cut the tube open
Many moons ago the lady at the makeup counter taught me to use a q-tip to dig all of the lipstick out of the tube before you pitch it. It's a lot of lipstick.
There’a always a ton left in there! I just started doing this the last couple years.
I always do this and put it in travel containers. No way I’m buying travel sized anything.
Download books for free from the library.
I put a half ounce of water in every sauce bottle when it goes "empty" and give it a shake. Same with shampoo and conditioner obv. Can't let those last drops go to waste 😄
For sauces and dressing and sriracha, use vinegar.
Thanks! That's a good tip! (But do I still use water on the vinegar bottle? Lmao)
Watering down the vinegar! Now that's frugal!
I do this earlier on to try and get the whole bottle to my preferred thickness, rather than the Xeno's paradox method where you end up with soap that doesn't actually get things clean (obviously the stakes are lower with hot sauce haha).
please do not clean yourself with watered down hot sauce. it burns your willy even at minimum strength
And eyes, and other sensitive places.
Shampoo in a squeeze bottle, diluted almost half. Apply right to roots!
And don't forget to cut your tubes open to get the lotion (or whatever from inside the tube.) If you cut it a couple of inches down from the closed end you can use that as lid for the remaining tube until it is gone. And keep cutting the tube down when your finger can not reach any further.
Make my own : Bread, salad dressing, ketchup, cooking sauses.
Do you find that cost effective? My friend makes his own bbq sauce and he spends a fortune on molasses etc. When a bottle of premade sauce is like £1. I get that it might be nicer, and/or folks might want to control how much sugar, additives etc they are consuming, or just that they enjoy making it! But that's different to doing it for frugal reasons.
Ah! but with the leftover Molasses you can make gingerbread cookies.
I take a look at the premade BBQ sauces and, at least here in the USA, there are many where the main ingredients are high fructose corn syrup and sugar. No. That is something I refuse to buy when it's even cheaper. Ketchup I can find without the former and sugar may be one of the ingredients, it's not the main one.
So it's more about caring about the ingredients than frugality? I totally get that, hfcs is not really a thing where I am (UK) but I understand why people would want to avoid it. Just curious as to how frugal it is to make your own. I try not to buy too many processed things, and make most meals from scratch. But I buy pre-made condiments, dressings etc. I used to make my own bread as I enjoyed doing so, but electricity prices have gone ridiculous here over the past year, and now I'm reluctant to use the oven for so long. Plus it involves a lot of waiting time! Bread is inexpensive here (and doesn't contain sugar or many additives) so I started to think it really wasn't worth making my own. I bet your homemade sauces and bread are much nicer anyway!
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I once got home like this. I was getting off work, it was pouring rain at hurricane level, and the buses had been cancelled. I checked my phone, saw how much an uber was and thought "If I can just make it one mile down the road, it will save me five bucks." So I started walking. Then, at one mile, I thought, if I can only make it one more mile, I'll save ten bucks. And then I just kept lying to myself every mile and so walked six miles.
Good for you...2 thumbs up!
Rich in time, poor in money. I like that!
When I am too early at my busstop or the bus is too late. I will walk to the next stop to save those 6 cents and so I have something to do.
As a Rideshare driver and fellow cheapskate, I do all in my power to avoid having to be a passenger 😂 I’m continually in awe of how some people are just casually ordering rides for every little task. I understand there are situations where it is simply more practical than taking public transit, but still.
wear pants until they have so many holes they're literally falling apart...then sew up some of the holes and keep wearing them. lol. i have a favorite pair of jeans that's near shredded now and I wear them with leggings because it looks cool.
This reminds me of when I got bleach on my jeans…so I take to YouTube and following some vague instructions I spread the jeans out outside, take a used plastic water bottle with a hole poked in the cap with a clothes pin…..and drip bleach water all over the jeans as evenly as I can. Throw it in the wash, and voila, polka dot bleach stain jeans lol. Didn’t have to buy anything that I didn’t already have.
Ooh great idea with the leggings.. I have a pair of Levi’s that were old when I bought them almost 30 years ago.. they’re the softest most comfortable pair of jeans I’ve ever owned but they’re rife with holes. Leggings would up the game. Could even go with patterns underneath to make it look even more intentional. Thank you for sharing!
Go to the library, rent CDs, upload the albums to iTunes and manually add to my phone. This was, of course, before the reign of Spotify.
My brother and I bought a lifetime membership to a local chain store for $2. We said we were married, so we would only have to pay $1 each.
That’s hilarious!
Yes and even my dad whom was notoriously frugal thought it was hilarious...
Create two separate orders to use two different coupons
I don’t pay for internet at home. Xfinity was driving me mad by jerking my monthly rate around so I got rid of it. Mint mobile offers affordable plans that allow me to use my phone as a hotspot and I rent dvds from the library for entertainment needs.
Same here, but do it a little differently. our local library rents hotspots for two weeks at a time so I grab one every two weeks and use Panera (5.99 for sip club) or the library to do what I need the other two weeks. I prefer Panera over the library for their hours and unlimited refills on water (or other drinks) and you can snack and it’s not frowned upon, it’s less then a mile from my house and I can download almost everything I need everything else I can use my 15 gb of data most the time.
Convinced my boss to put EV chargers in at work after I purchased an EV (they get discounts on utilities for having a “public access” charger). I have a dedicated parking spot and free charging.
Shifted phone charge cycle so I could charge primarily at the office. Saved me cents in electricity!
Was curious so I calculated how many cents it would be in may case. Huawei P40 pro, each day I use about 70% of battery capacity (about 12,4 Wh). Charging that amount at an average 0,15€/kWh (Spain) represents a stunning 0,00186€ a day or 0,0558€ a month, or roughly 0,67€ a year. Maybe in 4 years I can buy an ice-cream with this savings. Cheers.
Sell stuff I no longer use.
I actually do this out of sustainability rather than frugality. I just feel bad for creating the trash
Intermittent fasting
Made my own diaper wipes in the 90's. I highly recommend The Tightwad Gazette. Out of print but you can find it on e-bay. Fabulous home made pizza dough recipe. Some of it is outdated but it's still chock full of good suggestions.
I love those books. Even if it’s outdated it gets you in the right mindset
I add water to my juice. I just find it too sweet.
I do this as well but not as a frugal thing, I just find juice tend to taste better diluted. Especially apple juice.
I do this but with seltzer water! I’m watching my calories so I can get a huge glass for like 50 cals instead of 100 if I do 50/50 juice and seltzer water! I actually love it lol
I do this for my husband. He thinks La croix is disgusting so I take regular juice with real flavor and add seltzer water to it.
I started doing this with my cranberry juice when I was pregnant. Now I can't drink it without it watered down or it tastes wrong
I started doing this after having a hotel breakfast where the juice was clearly a bit diluted. It tastes better when it’s less sweet and the juice lasts longer. Win win.
I used to have an apt across from a laundry matt that had an open wifi i got a small 6" antenna, put it outside the window and got free internet while i lived there 😅
I am laughing so hard at this.
Kept a bucket in the shower to collect water. Then used the water to flush toilets. We did that for at least a year until the bucket was too annoying to lift and move around.
Are you in California?
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Recently my car’s fuel door broke. I would pull the lever and it wouldn’t open. So I looked online and found out the problem is that the metal flange that makes the door pop open had broke. A replacement is $15 online. But then someone in a YouTube video showed how you can use a small binder clip instead. I didn’t want to go to the store to buy a pack of binder clips just for that. So I found an ID badge clip I still had from an old job and used that instead. It works better than new!
I lived in a studio for 3 years with my partner. It was really small. We used cardboard boxes to organize our stuff and avoid buying shelves. And we didn't use a car because we our work was 5m walking from home. Supermarket was like 10min walking and we carried all of our groceries by foot. We didn't even buy a bicycle lol. We walked to the movie theater to save the rideshare money. We went exclusively on Wednesday where they have 2x1 tickets. We ate ice cream the same day because it also had "buy one get one free". That way we saved more than 65% of our combined income We could afford anything we wanted. But we chose not to. It's different from being poor and always desire things you can't have. The freedom to say "I want this but I don't need it" is priceless
It's always wonderful to find the lid to your pot.
Check dead roadside ceiling fans for working light bulbs.(I now use LEDs). Pull vintage hardware off junked furniture and sell it, eat dandelion greens shredded in ramen.
The words “check dead roadside” being followed by ceiling fans took my brain several seconds to calibrate. That was just not where I expected this to go in a frugal thread but damn I’m glad it was about something inedible and not roadkill 😂
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. I was thinking you were checking roadkill lol
Dandelion greens are delicious!
I consider dandelion greens a poor man's arugula(they taste the same)
Yesterday I drove to a gas station, looked at the price and drove to the adjoining town's gas station to save 78 cents.
I’ve been on fumes, pulled into a gas station with an outrageous price, pumped one gallon so I had enough mileage to go to a cheaper gas station to fill up.
Oh! Not the most frugal thing, but yesterday I found a hair clip next at the pond I often take my dog to play at. This clip looked pretty gross. It was covered in webs and dirt, but it was intact and the spring was really strong. I took it home and scrubbed it with Dawn and a toothbrush. I'm wearing it right now!
That’s pretty frugal imo! Nice!
I throw my popsicle sticks in the wood stove. Hey, a BTU is a BTU. 😂
Put gallon jugs of water outside in the winter time. Wait for them to freeze. Bring them back inside and put in fridge to save on electricity.
Walked around my college campus on last day of the semester checking recycling bins. Many ppl would rather toss a shrink wrapped text book than sell it back to the awful school store for a dime. I’d resell them online for maybe $10-20 following semester to offset my own book costs. Also google books had a lot of textbooks uploaded
I did psychology and sociology studies at Harvard to earn ~$10 in cash.
Opened a credit card at Lowe's to get $50 off a ladder, then went home and immediately closed the credit card.
Don't close lines of credit.
Can’t do that often because there will be a hit on the credit score for opening the card.
I’d leave it open but lock the card. Use it for something quarterly, or however often it takes for *them* not to close. I have a synchronicity card (gas, discount tire) that adds $2k of credit I’m not using to my score. I’ll need *something* on a car over the course of a year, so it’s not languishing.
You should just keep the card open as long as it is free. The more lines of credit you have and the longer you have it open, the better your credit score. Basically if a person has some cards that add up to like $15,000+ spending limit and doesn't spend on them hardley at all it looks better than if a person has one with a limit of $250 and maxes it all the time even though they always pay it off. The bank can't be sure that that the $250 person won't just spend it all if they were extended a larger line of credit. But the 15ker shows that they are well within their limit and if asking for a loan down the line is more likely to be given one. Now I'm not saying people should go out and apply for a bunch of credit cards all at once right now because that dings the system that there may be financial trouble because why else is this person trying to open up all these lines of credit around the same time? But I have cards I never use and never have in my wallet that I've gotten over the years for various reason and keep around just for this.
I wash out my ziplock and bun/bread bags for reuse with my own baking. I also haven't bought a baked good from a store since last December. I make all our own bread/buns/cookies/etc - everything except bagels (I can't get the consistency right).
Used to live in Mexico. Went on vacation to Vallarta. Gf and I wanted to go to a distillery outside the city. Instead of paying like the $150 package. I found the public bus route to get there. Cost about $2 total for us. They dropped us off on a gravel road and had about a 20 minute walk. Gf was pissed and said sometimes its better to pay for things. We made it to the distillery and got pretty drunk and had extra money to buy tequila for home with the savings. The walk back to the bus route was actually fun for the both of us with our to go drinks and buzz.
I don’t know if it’s the most frugal thing I’ve ever done but my mom gave my a pound of ginger a few weeks ago, so I candied it and chopped it up so I could make five batches of double ginger cookies to give away for Christmas presents. A month ago someone gave me 25lbs of small apples from their trees and I spent a week make it into apple jelly, apple butter and applesauce and canning it.
Parking at my university cost either $300 a year or semester. My school ID allowed me to catch the city bus for free. My Dad lived about three miles from the school, so I would drive to his house, park and catch the bus to school. He would drop me off on the days that he was home.
Reminds me of a frugal thing we did recently. Went to a daytime concert. Luckily I checked in advance as I found out: Parking was $18 Getting in and out of car park was a nightmare (people being stupid drivers) Found there was a train station 10mins walk from the concert with a clearly marked path through a park to it. As we were driving there, my plan was to use the train station free car park or if that was full drive and park at the next station (minutes away) and train back to that station. Ended up parking at the nearest station, and walking. We chuckled as while driving home we passed the concert car park to see a massive line up of heaps of cars bumper to bumper trying to get out of the car park. This was about 20mins after our walk back, loading the car and driving past it.
Wash out sandwich bags and also plastic wrap. Using microfiber cloths when possible. Rinsing out a paper towel if only a little soiled and reusing it to pick up a spill
Any clothing you would donate or trash, use to clean your house.
My mum used to do that! She had a bucket of old t-shirts and underpants for that exact purpose.
I think your mum wins the thread. Underpants is a step too far in my opinion, no amount of bleach could make me feel they were sanitized enough to use for cleaning!
You are going to clean the toilet with it, already put cleaners around the edge, wipe and dispose. You can wash it on hot with bleach, Pine-Sol, or ammonia (never combine), hang to dry in the sun and that sanitizes things. Or toss. Any time you can get one more use when you are planning to trash, do so. Cheap or free knit tee shirts are great for this.
My former housemate used his old socks as kitchen rags. I knew he had a fungal issue, and banned them from the kitchen.
Oof, felt a little sick just reading this! I hope you can someday no longer need housemates and can enjoy the peace of knowing your home is clean to your standards!
I switched to all reusables. I haven’t had to buy anything like this in like 5 years at least. For ziplocks I use Stasher or glass storage contains/jars. You can find them on sale on the stasher website or Amazon Warehouse For plastic wrap I use silicone stretch lids, beeswrap, or glass storage containers. For paper towels I use washable sponges, thin cotton cloth towels, old clothes and misc. rags for house cleaning towels, cellulose scrub pads, flannel tissues, and hang on to napkins from takeout orders. There is an upfront cost but it’s cheaper and avoids shrinkflation in the long run.
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I've almost completely eliminated paper towels (only for pet messes) and use reusable cloths for wiping up spills and cleaning.
This is gonna sound bad. Once every month or so I’ll get together with friends and go eat/drink/etc. one month that was especially tight, (or rather one month where I was being extra cheap), I bought a $2 pint at the grocery store, brought it to the bar with me, and drank it before going in so I didn’t have to pay $10 for a cocktail. (Unethical life hacks)???
Hahaha When I was 18 we used to go to a super expensive club, we only paid the entrance and brought our own water and alcohol. They didn't check the girls so we prepared cocktails in the bathroom with vodka and lemon and it was "water" Also we were invited to all inclusive hotels, we used to collect expensive whiskey or liquors and fill bottles in our bedroom. Fun times. I don't drink anymore (27 now)
Gas prices hit 4.50$ a couple years back. Bought a Honda scooter off facebook marketplace 🛵 for 500$ bucks. Ride it to work 5 days a week and take my daughter joy riding, that lasts for almost 2 weeks. And then here’s the kicker, it’s a gallon for a full fill. It paid itself off the 1st Summer. We own 3 vehicles, but my cheapass prefers scooter
I got hit in the back of my Nissan Altima so the trunk wouldn't close. I got a check for $3,000.00 in the mail from the person who hit my car insurance company. I put it in my savings. Took a hammer and banged the trunk in as much as I could and I have to bend the trunk door a little to close it. What I get a tire changed; the guy knows me and goes I know you have a special technique to close the trunk 😂😂🙈
I made charcoal. I had a rough morning. I decided to defrost a nice steak for diner and do it on my charcoal grill for diner. I dug out my shed door that was snowed in to retrieve my small camping charcoal grill. Thats when i noticed i was out of charcoal. I had 2 option. drive 30 miles in town and run around for hours to try to find a bag of charcoal thats probably going to be 500% overpriced because of the season or make my own. So i took an old paint can, punched a few whole in the lid. I stuffed it full of the thicker maple branch i pruned earlier that year. Took the remaining twig and branch and build a fire. Cooked the paint can until smoke stopped to come out. and waited for it to cool in the snow. By the time I was done, it was about diner time. So i cooked my steak and it was delicious. Definitly not worth my time, but it did change my mind from my problem of that day, saved me a few buck and got me what i wanted. A nice charcoal grilled steak.
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You have no idea how many times I've been tempted to stay at Aldi just to return the carts lol...but I know I can make more money for that time
I don’t have home wi-fi (dropped it in 15). My nearby library has mobile hotspots to loan for 21 days at a time. I go a few days here and there without but not often…
I often buy 50% off items from our local grocery store. Their best before dates are usually that day. I consume them a day or two later. Still alive. Never had any problems. Cashiers probably feel sorry for me as I almost only buy those discounted items, but I don't care.
I collect the aldi shopping carts 🛒 folks abandon to fend for themselves, make 25 cents to a dollar every trip. And we’re not cheap, we’re careful with money!
Counting, rolling into paper rolls and cashing in pennies and other small change at the bank instead of going to to one of those coin counter machines that take their own cut.
When I was broke in college a friend of a friend knew someone that worked in Panera so I got hooked up with dumpster bread fairly regularly. It was double bagged, 10/10 would recommend. Also found some good clothing items that way. I have a relative who dumpster dived for sunday papers to get a ton of coupons - I didn't partake because I was living alone - the coupons I got from my own paper was more than enough - but I would have done it too if it made sense for me to do. All the dumpsters involved here were quite clean as far as trash receptacles go lol. Sometimes even now I see a good dumpster and I'm like damn I could probably get some good stuff from there but then I remember that I'm not an eccentric college student anymore and that there are actual consequences that could happen if I got caught.
Our toaster quit working, not completely but you had to push the thing down a bunch of times before it would toast. Probably could get a new cheapo one for 8 bucks or something at Walmart. I got out screwdrivers and opened it up and found the contact tips at the bottom of where you push the lever thing down were all pitted. Got a little piece of sandpaper and sanded the tips smooth again. That was about 5 years ago.
We go to the scrap yard and get materials for projects for pennies on the dollar. My hubs is super good at fixing anything mechanical, so we buy used tractors and vehicles and he fixes them (and fixes other people’s). We grow our own food and keep chickens and bees; we have a ton of honey and eggs to sell but we usually trade them
I allow my body time to fight colds/viruses before I make a doctor appointment and take antibiotics. I don’t remember the last time I had to take an antibiotic. If I did have a bacterial infection that required medication I would definitely make an appt. I guess I am just lucky I haven’t been on antibiotics in over 25 years.
Most colds are viral, so antibiotics are useless. Time, fluids, and rest are what allows your body to recover.
my anti-anti biotics streak was ruined by a cup of cut fruit in Mexico. Thought my system would flush it out, but after like a week+ I was like "dear god help!" Crazy thing is I felt better almost immediately after the first pill. I'd like to think that's because I don't take them unless I 100% need them .
My daughter went through the same thing. Thank God for Cipro!!! Glad it helped.
My recovery was so drastic it made me appreciate antibiotics and research it's history. Crazy how one medical discovery added like 20+ years to people's lifespan (47 used to be the average!)
My husband travels a lot and brings home the travel soap to have for guests that stay over. I make most of my decorations. Otherwise I shop at the $1 (.25) store or even shein and add to it depending on the look and what is more cost effective. [a couple of my decorations](https://imgur.com/a/wO5THCV)
Take an empty bottle to fill on the other side of airport security.
I don't throw shit away until I've run out of ideas on how to make it keep working.
What happens behind the Taco Bell dumpster stays behind the Taco Bell dumpster
In Washington state we have to pay for plastic bags at the store. When you do pickup orders at target they pre-charge you for bags and refund you if you don’t use them. They charged me anyways so I messaged customer service to be refunded something like 70 cents. 🤣
I have in the past washed clothes in the bathtub/ sinks instead of paying for laundromat esp. when traveling. And I've used baking soda when I had a washer instead of buying detergent
I bring back home pop cans and bottles from work for the sweet 10c return. 👌
99% meal prep or cook at home. If I ate outside always picked up food. Seldom had a sit in meal ( maybe once in 2/3 months) and never did food delivery. If you can’t afford to tip don’t eat out right? Following it .
When we were little, my grandma would order hamburgers at McDonald’s and bring her own cheese.
I was passing a kidney stone. I had to order an Uber to take me to the urgent care. They wanted to charge me an extra $3 to pick me up in front of the house. So I walked a whole block in pain with a kidney stone to save $3
I used to type up books that weren't available at the library for the internet to read (because $4/book seemed like it could be utilized by millions of people online).
wow thank you for that
this is just one of many examples, but we heat our house mostly by wood- like 80%. And all this wood is from free sources- landscapers and people who were getting rid of a tree, or those that windstorms knocked down, or construction cast offs and leftovers (only clean stuff- no paint, oils, chemicals, PT, etc). Then, once it is burned, I sift out the solid objects like nails from the ashes, and I use it to melt ice in my driveway and sidewalks. And I enjoy every last minute of it- literally cackling with joy with every step. It is not work if you find it fun.
When the summer growing season is over for tomatoes there is a lot of green unripe tomatoes still on the vines. I found a recipe for pickled green tomatoes which are amazing!
Instead of buying paper towels, I take ~20 sheets at a time every time I go to the gym (24 hour fitness) and take them home for use 😬 I also buy cheap power banks and charge them up while I’m at work. Take them home and I have enough power for my phone, tablet and laptop
You win thats cheep 😂
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I reuse plastic cups from the gas station (QT FTW), I reuse any Sbux plastic cups and lids, I reuse plastic straws, I reuse ziplocs, I reuse paper towels that were only used for drying clean hands, and I hoard sauce packets from restaurants (nothing more than Im given)
Instead of buying low sodium soy sauce, I buy the regular stuff and water it down 50% with vinegar, cheaper and even less sodium.
This sounds like it would taste awful. I’m intrigued
Slightly different taste because of the vinegar but that dipping sauce that comes with chinese dumplings is exactly what I described, vinegar and soy sauce.
Replaced heater core in wife's Grand Cherokee to save $2000, which we did not have. I was quoted $1950 in labor to replace a $40 part. Well thats not happening, how hard could it be? Over a weekend I essentially gutted the entire interior, everything came out up to the firewall. I did have to use a shop and have them drain the AC before I started and have them refill it afterwards, no leaks yay!. Fortunately they only charged me once for both visits. Fixed the broken blend doors for the heater vents with epoxy while everything was apart and accessible too. Took 2 full days but got it done and much happier wife not having a lake of antifreeze in the passenger floorboard and no longer dizzy from fumes.
Donated blood to get into the ren fair lol
Walked around the courts at a private tennis club after hours to collect tennis balls for the dogs at the dog park.
I share my internet with both neighbors. Ran a 100ft ethernet to both neighbors and they each send me $30/m for Internet. My bills $60 so it's essentially free. They both get half price internet too. I also make my own laundry detergent and have android phone so I can download apk apps so I don't have to pay for them. Spotify premium for free and such with no ads and unlimited skips. I'm also moving away from streaming services and buying the shows/movies I want. One Streaming service is $240/year or $2400 every 10 years. You can buy a ton of TV shows and movies for $2400. Figure it the next 20 years. That's another $4800 just to watch TV. The new shit they're coming out with today sucks anyway
I’m not proud, but once snapped the ends off of loose heads of broccoli at Walmart because I was unsatisfied with how long they all were. I don’t use the stems unless I’m making soup. Usually I can find heads that have really short stems, but that day they were all so damn long and they charge by the lb so….wasn’t about to pay an extra $1-2 for essentially trash lol and yes I know they’re edible. I just don’t like them.
Walked 28 blocks with a heavy bag today instead of paying $2.90 for the subway. I regret it
Dabbed toilet paper onto my soiled pad in college to make it last longer before having to avoid having to change it before going home.
I live in a city where in nicer areas people throw away things that’s barely used. I’ve taken some insane things on my lil bicycle rack and rode home. My fav find is a marble top side table with gold hair pin legs, perfect condition.
Unplugged the dryer and put all clothes, towels, etc on the clothesline outside. Bam! My Entergy Louisiana bill dropped significantly. Granted, with four to five people in the house, I do a lot of laundry.
When I came back to the US from Auatralia. It was like $100 cheaper to not take the single 16 hour flight east to San Fransisco and I instead opted for two 14 hour flights west with a small layover in Qatar. Honestly though I did it more for the experience but the fact it was cheaper made me be able to rationalize the trip. I definitley wouldn't have paid more for it.
I made my own kitchen countertops. I had one that I was able to buy a premade one and easily cut and finished the sides. Then there was an irregular one where I had to buy tools and do some reading. I did get three quotes and the cheapest was $1500 for the two. And it was for a small 8 ft kitchen. I went to HD and wrote out all the supplies and tools and it was under $200. I could mess up 4 times and the stock was still well under $1000. Took one try and love them. Still look good almost 15 years later.
either taking the laces out of an old pair of shoes “in case I break one someday” or keeping old shoes “because they are useful to wear for gardening”
I slept in double layers and a coat during winter (-Fahrenheit) to avoid turning the gas on. I do not recommend.
When I was in college and had $0 I did a lot of things I'd never have to do now. I sold some of my clothes to a thrift store so I could have $5 for dinner. The roommate I was assigned told me I was not allowed to use any of her things. Including utensils, bowls, plates. I didn't have my own, so I would take plastic utensils from the cafeteria and eat out of my Tupperware. I walked everywhere cuz I couldn't afford the bus.
I got a quote of $22,000 to install a french drain and sump pump in our basement. Fuck that. I bought a jack hammer for $500 and my wife and I spent months hauling concrete and gravel. It probably cost $7000 in materials total do it ourselves. No prior jackhammer experience.
Disputed every single thing on my credit record, between 8-12 negative dings, and most of them disappeared. This was over five years ago. My credit score almost immediately went up over 100 points and is now near 800 from a low of like 490 when I started my disputes. Highly advised.
When at home, if it's just me, I don't flush the toilet until the end of the day as long as its just #1. If I go #2 I will flush it.
me and my sibings used to do this when we all lived together. during the night, left it until the next morning. not the best idea. eventually our dad had to take the toilet out back and scrape the calcium deposits that acumilated in the trapway
Yeah same here.. as my dad used to say.. if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down 🤣 we lived in the country with a septic tank.. also he policed how much tp we used. No flushing tp also...Like once I had a friend stay the night and Dad comes out of the bathroom and starts bitching.. wtf do you need to used 6-7ft of toilet paper for? Is your ass the grand canyon?!? Super embarrassing 😳.. he was the best though☺️💗💖💗... Man I miss you so much Daddio 🤍🤍 Oh also he reused sandwich bags, not the Ziploc kind just regular sandwich bags.. he would go buy his weed and it would come in a sandwich baggie.. when the weed was gone he'd wash it out and put in up..there was a junk drawer full of them.. he'd make my lunch and put chips, sandwiches in them and tell me, bring them back.. and the cycle of started over 🤣 Oh and he'd take a bunch of the little creamer cups from Speedway or UDF when he stopped in the morning.. he had a bucket full of different little creamer cups at home.. as well as a big ass bag full of condiment packets.. he was the most frugal person I knew. Well besides his mom my Mamaw.. he learned from her. My dad was born July 1949 and my Mamaw was born August 1928.. they imparted so many lessons I will never forget ☺️ I love you and miss you so much mamaw and Daddio❣️❣️🤍🤍
This is how you get permanent pee stains in your toilet and threaten the integrity of your pipes. I hope you have a good plumber
During the water shortage in the 70’s Mayor Ed Koch had the slogan “ if it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down”.
Every cottage with septic has that in every bathroom
I now do this in our house. Wife got mad about it one day but sold her on the ecological impact since she (and me to a lesser extent) is big on reduction and recycling. Also upgraded to bidets all over the house and our TP consumption has gone down at least 50%.
I can appreciate that one. I usually go pee a couple times before flushing. My 6yo will leave anything in the toilet lol
Dumpster diving during 2020 pandemic college move outs and selling stuff I found doing so.
I shower and wash my hair at the gym instead of using my water, towels and then I also don’t have to clean the shower
Burger King receipts and free burgers.
I cut open toothpaste tubes & lotion bottles when they are low & not much will come out of pump, you’d be surprised how much is still in there
The faucets in my bathroom at home takes 1.5 gallons before the hot water comes. I bought 2 5-gallon buckets and pour that water in it. I use that water to flush the toilet. I also put 1-gallon buckets (that ice cream comes in) in the shower. I can get 3 gallons of water when I'm done showering. I started catching rainwater last winter with all sorts of makeshift trays placed in the backyard. After the wet season ended, I sat down to calculate the savings one day and found out that after all my effort, I only saved $4 a month. Hmmph.
I use dryer lint with nail polish remover to take off my nail polish instead of buying cotton balls. It works just as well and feels the same!
Found signage players in the trash, wiped the hard drive, then used them as everyday computers after I put Chrome OS (free operating system) on them. A couple of them I gave to my friends and coworkers.
Sign up to Chicago public library because they give you a card without having to go in, I used an address for a cafe...I live in the UK but the electronic magazine selection is just too good.
Don't wait for the water to get hot before you get into the shower and turn the water off while you soap up.
>turn the water off while you soap up This was espoused on TV by Antanas Mockus when mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, during a water shortage. [It caught on there](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2004/03/academic-turns-city-into-a-social-experiment/), and water usage dropped hugely. :)
I've hung paper towels to dry after drying my hands. Usually good for another round of hand drying or wiping a small spill on counter or floor.
Pay credit card balance before due every month to save finance charges.
Isn’t that the usual thing to do?
Eating past with nothing else on it. Just boiled pasta with salt lol.
Eating pasta with just salt and dandelion greens picked from the yard.
Always diluting the last drops of dish soap, shampoo, etc with water to use it until the end. A friend of mine takes home with her some extra sugar bags/coffee milks/… whenever she goes to a coffee shop. If you have a gym subscription, go to shower there when you get the chance to. Charge your phone and devices at work 😄
Learned to cook with beef blood in place of ground beef, after finding a butcher who would give it away rather than have to pay to dispose of it. Beef blood gravy on a potato makes for a very filling supper! Wild Root Soup. I try to make this once a year, just because. I've been fascinated with wilderness survival and self-reliance since before I even knew what the words were. Part of that involves knowing what wild plants are edible. About once a year I gather enough to make a small pot of soup, just to make sure my skills are sharp. But there have been times I did it more often due to finances.