I'll start. When I was a teenager I had a serious addiction to Diet Pepsi. Since my mom made me pay for my own pop, it was making a serious dent in my budget. I started slowly, but eventually I was able to drink Diet Pepsi, which was 50% diluted by water. One could argue that I could have simply drunk water but try telling that to a teenager. I adopted that practice somewhat as an adult. I really love tea, but of course the flavors I want are more expensive than the simple green teas. So I do a 50/50 when I brew tea. I brew my own with 4 cups of the more expensive herbal teas and 4 cups of the less expensive green teas and then combine them in a 2 quart container. I sometimes drink 2 quarts of tea a day, so I think financially this practice probably makes a dent in my budget. I also put some of my used dishes in the fridge rather than washing them after every single use. This wouldn't work for large families, but I see no harm in sticking the empty dish I used for my lunch in the fridge and then pulling it out again for dinner. My sister teases me about this, but at least I'm saving on dish water and dish soap! And the last confession... I do buy a decent quality toilet paper, but for the yellow I just use 2 squares and that's it. That's all I'm going to confess about that practice.
Lets see, I sometimes use disposable cutlery (plates and spoons) to eat, then throw them away instead of washing up! I also have a saucepan that had it's handle fall off but I'm not getting rid of it, I hold the edges by a dish cloth when I cook using it.
I also try to hang a lot of my laundry around the house rather than put it in the dryer. It probably doesn't save much gas but it will make my dryer last a lot longer. I use denture tablets for cleaning sinks, tubs and toilets rather than chemicals. Partly because of the money but also because I have a hard time breathing harsh chemicals. I read somewhere that it's ok to use denture tablets because they do clean 99% of all bacteria...
I saved an entire huge bag of slightly used bars of soap when I worked at a bed and breakfast and used them to wash my clothes. I have also removed the glass from ceiling light fixtures so I could use only one bare bulb instead of two covered ones. Have used only as much light as needed to function, turned the thermostat down to 60 in the winter and wore 3-4 layers of clothing. Cook large batches of food and eat all the leftovers cold so as not to turn on the stove. Yeah, college and the year after when I was paying off the loan were a lot of fun.
I used to thin out any juices I would buy, such as orange or cran grape, since they're already often too stong and condensed tasting to begin with. I was mainly doing it though to cut down on my calorie consumption per serving - but it also of course was saving me money. I try so skip making trips to Chipotle and make my own burritos at home. All you need is a can of the Chipotles in Adobo and some chicken thighs to make their chicken filling. Just marinade the boneless skinless chicken thighs in the chipotles in adobo for a few hours or overnight, then grill them and dice them up. The copycat recipes for their rice and their corn salsa are also really simple, and can be found online. Ok, for the embarrassing stuff - when I was unable to drive for a few years, there were times I would run out of cigarettes and be craving a smoke so bad, I would dig through my trash can for half smoked cigarettes and finish smoking them off. Keep in mind though, the particular trash can I dumped my ashtrays into was only for papers (mail) and ashes, I did not throw stuff like food in there. This one's not really a money saving thing unless you count what I'm saving in not using the laundry machines in my apartment buildings - but sometimes I will just go out and buy new clothes instead of washing the dress shirts and pants I already have - I hate how new clothes get all shriveled up and fit weird after washing them. And there just so happened to be an outlet store near me which sold the brands of shirts and pants I do wear at dirt cheap prices (literally only a few dollars each). If it's only gonna cost me like $7 for a shirt, why spend $3.50 every few days to run it through the washer and dryer? I could go buy new clothes for what I'm wasting washing the ones I got, lol.
Not sure if I've mentioned this before but I use a foaming dispenser for my soaps so that I can stretch out the huge cheap refills I use when I run out. I also try to use all the ingredients when cooking. Meaning scraps are saved for stock & find a purpose for everything.
I fill empty plastic milk bottles with tap water and place them in the freezer to keep the temperature down. The fuller your freezer is, the more efficiently it works so I always pack it out with these home-made ice blocks.
I freeze jugs of water for another purpose. Instead of buying bags of ice, I simply break the block of ice formed in the jug to fill up my cooler in warm weather, so I don't have to pay two bucks or more for a bag of ice. I'd rather spend the $2+ on more drinks or something. I used to make tons of trays of ice to fill my husband's cooler for work everyday, before the jug thing, but now they have a fridge. I use newspaper as wrapping paper sometimes too, as noted in another thread. I'd rather spend more on the gift than spend money on pricey paper, and it's a good way to recycle. I also refuse to buy small trash bags and instead use the plastic bags from groceries and stuff in smaller trash cans.
I've done that for calorie consumption reasons before. I'm not a big juice drinker, but would buy it for kids frequently. I just hated all the sugar they were consuming, though, so we would water it down some...and then I realized that I didn't mind drinking it that way myself.
Every year I try to add, drop, or change one thing about my spending routine to eek my budget a little lower. Last year I started finding meat and produce rebates from beer companies and mailing them in with my receipts. I happen to live in a No Beer Purchase Required state, so even though many of these are only a $5 savings, I'll send in 4-5 a month, and it has added up.
Most recently I started brewing my own coffee at home instead of visiting the espresso stand near my house each day. When I do splurge on an espresso beverage, I rinse out the cup and then pour my own brewed coffee into it for a couple of days. It fools me into thinking I bought a cup of coffee that morning. I also save all my veggies scraps in the freezer so that I can make broth with them.
At one point, I portioned out everyone's shampoo and body wash into tiny containers because I have products that I prefer that are kinda expensive and we were going through them way to fast for some reason. Turns out the culprit was my child using way too much. Our current system is that each gets their own bottles and bars and even toothpaste tubes. I budget identical amounts for each of us monthly. I still use expensive shampoo in tiny amounts but the other two don't care as much about the specific product and would rather spend less per bottle and use more. I also wear my disposable contacts until I can't see well with them because of buildup. I buy acuvue 1-day contacts (box of thirty contacts for $30 with shipping, 15 pairs) and each pair ends up lasting anywhere from a week when my allergies are bad to a couple of months. My eye doctor suggested that they could be worn longer than a single day each but she meant a week or two, not two months.
I loved your response! I actually thought you had some pretty creative ideas. I never thought about light bulbs that way. All my light fixtures are one bulb only, but if they had two, I would have definitely tried out your idea. I have to say it never occurred to me to eat all my leftovers cold if I really wanted them warmed up. I would not turn on the stove for that, but I would pop them in the microwave. You sound like a true thrift queen to me. Bravo!
When I was still in school, of course I was completely dependent on my parents for money, so to be able to save money I sometimes do not eat lunch so that I can keep the money to buy things that I want. My parents knew this since I sometimes go home very hungry and eat immediately when I saw that dinner was already ready and would comment on how I didn't eat at school. Nowadays, when going home I opt to not take a public vehicle at my last stop since it is very near our home. So I just walk.
That reminded me of a Youtube video I saw of someone who made their own makeshift air conditioner out of a foam cooler, a small fan, some PVC piping and some large bricks of ice. They basically cut a hole in the top of the cooler equal to the circumference of the fan and secured it face down in the hole, so it could blow air into the cooler. Then they cut another hole the circumference of the PVC pipe on the side of the cooler and put a piece of tube in it and secured that too. After that they just added some bricks of ice (which you could make overnight in your freezer, like how you are doing) and put them in the cooler and turned on the fan. They say it lasts for hours and can cool off a room effectively. I'm wondering if this would be more cost effective than running an air conditioner.
That sounds like a "swamp cooler," but a little more detailed. I have heard that it does a decent job, and a fan definitely costs less to run than the AC. I guess you would also have to add in the cost of running the freezer to make the ice (unless you're using a big freezer anyway) and the cost of the materials, but the materials are a one time expense. I've heard this idea used to help the elderly during extreme heat, if they don't have air conditioning, which I think is great. People are so creative.
Mine isn't that special. I just accept anything free that food places and stores will give me. If I order a $1 sausage biscuit at McDonald's and they offer me jelly, I pocket those two packets of jelly for later use. If a store offers me a bag, even for one item, I'll accept it and use it as a trash bag later. I never turn down free or bonus anything. Free samples and complimentary condiment packets have gotten me through some tight spots when I just wanted a little mustard for my hot dog or a little Fire sauce on taco night.
I used to run my own furniture clearance company and I never really knew how much money we would have by the end of the month so I had to save wherever possible. I would avoid turning the heating on at all costs, cook loads of foods in the same pot to save electric. But the best thing was getting furniture from people that had paid us to take it away, we got first dibs on all of the good stuff.
I do the same thing with my disposable contacts. I have monthly contacts but I don't throw them away until they have something wrong with them, like a tear or scratch. I use high-quality contact lens solution to rinse and store them so they last a long time.
When I was ten, my brother and i want to buy a love bird. My mother doesn't want us to have one. We save money from our school allowance. We even walk going to school so we can save money. After few months we got our first pair of love birds.
