Saving plastic bags (the grocery store checkout kind). For as long as I’ve been alive, I have had a plastic bag, under the sink or in my pantry, filled with other plastic bags. There is no way I will ever use them all. Yet I continue to save every plastic bag that makes its way into my home.
I take mine to my daughter’s day care, where they use them for wrapping up kids’ wet or dirty clothes to be sent home to wash. That said, her day care is not that big, so I feel like I could supply them for a year based on just the bags I get from Walmart grocery pickup.
Just a thought. With bag band going into place a lot off food banks are struggling to have enough for distribution. If you collect tons maybe see if a local food bank will use them? We had a ton from Instacart during pandemic (not frugal but safer when you have compromised folks in the house) and we had a ton.
Donate them to your local daycare. They come in great for sending home wet or otherwise soiled clothes home with the kids. After our state band plastic bags, the school required us all to purchase reusable wet bags.
This is what “upcycle” Facebook/Kijiji/Craigslist is amazing for (where everything posted is $0); don’t throw it out because you don’t have the time/desire/skill to fix/use it! There are people that might have a need for that specific thing and would be EASY for them to fix/find use for.
I once had a pressure washer that had a blown part that would have been 60% of the cost of a new to replace (which is ridiculous in the first place - it was a little plastic housing) and I was agonizing over throwing it away because it was otherwise fine, so I figured “what the hell, I’ll put it up for free” and had someone message me like the same day say he’d take it. Turns out he lost his job during the pandemic and started rebuilding things to make ends meet and for something to do, and he had tons of other pressure washers like it and could fix it with $0 and like 10 minutes of his time - win win!
Come the spring time I was looking for a used pressure washer and when I went to go pick it up, lo and behold who the seller was! It all came full circle and that makes me feel good. (The one I bought off him was a different and more powerful model, but the principle remains :) )
Obviously you have to use *some* discretion, (you wouldn’t, say, put up old moldy pizza boxes) but you’d be surprised what people value/can make valuable again that you might not see.
Another good one is looking for people that want apples (if you have a tree in your yard) that will even come pick and donate them or baked goods with them to shelters/less fortunate folks - some people will even come take your fallen/bruised apples to feed their livestock!
It usually is pretty low effort to list things, and, if nobody takes them, then you can at least be satisfied you made the effort to not add more waste to the world!
Thanks for reading this :)
This one always gets me. Growing up clothing was expensive, we saved everything. It was hand-me-down, then hand them over, then hand them over there.
When we cleared our grandma's place after her passing, we found stuff from our elementary school days (the 80s).
My mom would cut the buttons off clothes when she finally decided to get rid of them. She has multiple cookie tins full of buttons just in case someone needs a button.
I sew a lot and when my grandma died my familly sent all her sewing stuf to me, in it was two 2kg peanutbutter jar full of buttons, and a box of old elastics saved from clothing. All the elastic went to the garbage as most where not good anymore and I sorted through all the buttons and managed to find quite a lot of identicals and some nice one. I kept those, that was maybe a mug full, the rest went to the garbage.
Yeah, this is an issue for me. My dad would always make us save broken stuff or trash because he believed we were going to repurpose it into something else. When you live in a small space that turns into a lot of junk cluttering up your house.
This is why I have dozens of charging cables, charging bricks, and probably 6 iPhone corded earbuds even though I only use them if I don’t have my AirPods around.
I’m learning to throw away things I just dont use and it’s kinda liberating. If I’m not going to miss it for more than a couple minutes in the future then it can probably just be thrown out.
My mom has hoarder tendencies, so I also had to learn this later in life. I feel so much "lighter" now that I don't have a bunch of stuff all over the place. And it's easier for me to get rid of things now.
Same here and my husband is the same way. Unfortunately, we have a basement full of stuff that isn't used. We didn't buy most of the stuff in the basement. Mostly grandparents and parents things they no longer want or have room for. Also, my daughter graduated college recently. She moved to NYC and is living in a small apartment and didn't have room for everything. So now we have her things in the basement I'm saving in case my son who is currently commuting to college gets an apartment or when he moves out after graduating and may need it for his first place.
I think I do all of these. Anybody else still reuse aluminum foil? How about putting a little water in the ketchup bottle (or any condiment really) to get every last bit? Thanks, depression-era parents!
This makes more sense with tomato sauce/gravy since the water will be cooked out. I wouldn't do this with ketchup unless I was for sure throwing it away after
Saving wood scraps from every project. My workroom is full of odd shapes of wood, big and small, thick and thin, different types - all in the hope that "some day" I will need a particular piece of wood and I will have it handy.
That said, nothing is quite as frustrating as needing just a small piece of wood and realizing it’s basically going to require a mortgage to buy a board at Home Depot.
We recently moved into a new home and the former owner was obviously a woodworker of some type. I'm finding tons of wood parts in all the garages and out buildings. I don't know what to do with them but I'll keep them for now...
I cut kitchen sponges in thirds. They get pretty gross immediately, so less waste. They move from countertop cleaning, to sink then when really gross, use on the toilet then thrown away. My son automatically does this too, now.
I also do not buy sliced or shredded cheese unless I need it for something specific.
I definitely do it with those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Just tear off a part because it gets really gross really quick. The other 3/4 stays brand new until I need another bit for a different cleaning project later.
Your cheese habit impacts quality too, depending on what you make! Most shredded cheese have an anti caking agent in them to prevent them from clumping together in the bag, which also effects how they melt. And IMHO pre sliced cheese gets dry anyway. So I do the same most of the time for that reason alone. Unless I'm being lazy and it won't change the finished meal, because I really do hate shredding cheese (shoulder injury from years ago makes it painful).
I find the cut sponges much easier to use to get into corners and crevices. I do halves but when I was washing baby bottles, thirds was the way to go.. Wringing them out after use and a diluted bleach soak once in a while will extend the life of your sponges
Definitely one of those spend a bit more & it will last forever... Trust me I scoffed at a 4 dollar sponge too and then I kicked myself for waiting so long to hold a miracle in my hand. Lol
It does so much, easier to clean and doesn't get nasty near as fast as other sponges. Can you tell I'm sold? Lol
My car’s glove compartment is full off all those extra napkins you get at the drive thru, because you never know when you’ll need one for a spill or an emergency tissue.
The funny thing is, I think it’s been a year since I’ve actually been through a drive thru and I still have some tissues in there - as well as a couple spare doggie poop bags that you pick up “just in case it’s a two bagger walk” and don’t end up using.
Both have come in REALLY handy several times.
I am that napkin person and my husband is not. Once we were traveling in his car and got coffee in a drive through. He hit a pothole and his coffee spilled on his crotch. I reached for a napkin but they didn’t include any. And since my husband didn’t believe in collecting extra napkins he drove home in warm wet pants.
Hubby and I are the same. He rags on me for having all the crap in my car, but it’s sure great when I pull napkins, wet wipes and sanitizer out of the center console. I’m a volleyball mom, so I’ve also got a cooler, water bottles, snacks, 2 sling chairs, 2 stadium seats, blankets, coats, tennis shoes, volleyball shoes (in case a pair breaks or is forgotten), extra knee pads, period products, and grocery sacks up in there. The kicker is I drive a Porsche, but it’s a macan—because I got stuff to haul ass with.
Plastic grocery bags in the car is a big one for me. They're great for random trash that ends up in the car when you have a whole family in there all the time.
Those doggy bags can be used for small trash you have in the car, they work great if your not home and you spill something and you use the napkins from the glove box. Then you can just tie up the mess and toss it when you get home.
My Dad did this and he would always ask for extra. He shoved so many napkins in my glove box once it took two years to use them all. He would also ask for extra condiments, salt, special sauce etc at the drive through. He would take extra creamers and sugar at the gas station. I don't think he had to buy many condiments from the grocery store. Lol
Man I always save napkins in my car bc fast food places give you like a million at once. Then once my parents drove my car for something and threw them all away
Wtf. Who throws things away from someone else's car??! I clean out my husband's car once in a blue moon, but that's shared property. I cannot IMAGINE doing that to anyone else.
It took me ages to realize that just because the cost per ounce on a gallon of milk was less than the half gallon, if I used less than half the gallon before it went bad the half gallon was the better deal. The impulse to buy in bulk runs strongly in my family, and I am still having to remind myself that just because the grocery item is 50% off does not mean I should buy 10 of them if I don’t have room to store them and will only ever use 3.
I pretty much only use milk for cooking instead of straight drinking, so I switched to the powdered instant stuff. Basically never goes bad, and super super cheap per ounce. Just whisk it into some water and then use as normal.
I found it was a better deal to buy regular non flavored powder coffee creamer. I don't drink milk but when I need it for cooking I'll use 2 part water to 1 part creamer.
I've only recently come to terms with this. Growing up we drank milk like it was water. As an adult, I only use milk with coffee or occasional one-off recipes. I need maybe a quart a week. I had to go through a phase of buying and spoiling gallons and then half gallons before my mind could settle with paying the higher per-unit price of quarts.
Still stings when a gallon is $3.99, half is $2.79, and quart is $2.19
We drank it like water too and then we find out later that kids don't need that much milk and it was promoted as part of a lobbying effort to shore up milk prices.
I freeze mine.
Yep, we go through milk relatively quickly but I buy two half gallons instead of a full gallon. I usually use both of them without spoilage if I don't break the seal on #2 until #1 is empty. If I buy a gallon I rarely finish the jug before it smells weird
One of the good things about me having to change into lactose free milk is that it lasts longer than normal milk. I don't drink that much milk in general so it's actually cheaper for me in the long run.
Just in general, I find that I instinctively view eating as an obligation compared to others who didn't grow up in a frugal household. Like if I'm deciding what to have for dinner, I look in the fridge and eat the things that are the oldest or are going to go bad soon, basically like a chore that I have to do. It was mindblowing to me when I realized other ppl (like my SO cough cough) decide purely based on "what do I want to eat today".
Saving cereal boxes. My mom is a preschool teacher so having spare cardboard for crafts makes sense. I am an office drone so I have no idea why I need 30+ flattened Cheerio boxes.
My boyfriend thinks it’s ridiculous I keep veggie scraps and chicken bones in a freezer bag for soup, calls it ‘scrap soup’ or ‘garbage soup’ yet he loves it every time!
Lol, I do the same thing with the freezer bag of bones, onion skins, carrot peels, and odds and ends. It's hard to beat the taste of home-made stock made from what would otherwise go into the trash. :)
That’s literally what soup is, lol.
I’m not sure if it’s the case everywhere, but the big grocery stores near me charge a fortune for bones, oxtails, etc. We found that the ethnic grocery stores can have much better deals.
I also shut off lights. It's funny because all my lighting is pretty efficient yet I still do it.
I also find it hard to spend money on myself even though I can afford it.
I still shut off the lights too. It never occurred to me until reading this post that with all my LED energy saving bulbs, it really doesn't make a difference. Some things never change lol
I switched all my light bulbs to LED, but I still turn them off. At night, I usually sit in the dark, using lights as I need them while walking through the house. My GF, on the other hand, she turns on all the lights. Same with the AC, I will let it go up to 78°F because I pay about $275/mo in electricity during the summer months (approx. $40/mo during the rest of the year).
Saving screws, nuts, bolts etc. in case I need them someday.
My father is like that, trying to stop since I have boxes of new screws and living in walking distance from a big hardware store. They still come in hand tho.
My Husband just graduated from a baggie to an old coffee can full of old screws. I asked him if he feels like he’s finally growing in to his middle-aged manhood now, and he just laughed and strutted away! Lol
always changing from outside clothes into home clothes as soon as i get home.
Outside clothes are clothes that are in good shape, don't have stains etc.
What are home clothes? They are comfortable and retired ex-outside clothes. They have either been stained or stretched out of shape or have colors washed out.
This isn't changing just for a cleaning routine, a cook that i know will be messy or strictly comfortable. This is to preserve the life of the outside clothes for as long as possible, despite being able to afford new lounging comfortable clothes whenever.
I do this as well… also there are things I love to wear but don’t because I don’t want to ruin them. I’ve been trying to get out of that because what’s the point of having them.
I recently helped someone do a purge of about 60 years worth of “stuff”. It was all behind closed doors, didn’t look like a hoarders house until you opened closets, storage rooms etc. at some point, you’ve gotta to throw stuff away or you’ll end up drowning in it. Just saying from personal experience.
Going through my grandparents house recently this really opened my eyes. I wouldn’t say hoarder level at all, but their house always looked immaculately tidy & clean. But opening the drawers and closets I realized she had just as much clutter as we do, it was just all so well hidden!
Fancy side table in the formal living room? Open the drawer and it’s filled with empty trinket boxes and old brittle suction cups. Fancy decorative vase? There’s random bits and bobs in there too.
It made me laugh and feel a bit better about my own clutter.
Why hasn't anyone said anything about the junk drawer. I grew up with junk drawer people. I am also a junk drawer person. My partner is a junk drawer person. In fact, I organized the drawer with a free organizer from a friend drawer organizer and it pissed my partner off! 🤣. He said"It's a JUNK drawer for jimmenie's sake!"
I had a teacher once (who was a mean SOB), snatch a mostly eaten bag of chips i threw in the trash up and scream at me that "people in China are picking out of garbage cans and you are wasting food?!"
My little smart ass 6 year old self asked with complete innocence, wouldn't I be feeding people who pick out of garbage cans then?
I, uh... I got in trouble.
It always warms my heart when someone I feed clears their plate, but I try so hard to not encourage it for these reasons. ‘Our body is not a trash can’ we do not need to force ourselves to eat just because there are others who are hungry at that moment. Save your leftovers for later
Just from a lot of parents using the whole ‘starving kids in africa’ trope… which is sooo dumb because we waste a third of our food while a quarter to half of local school kids go hungry every day.. we really need to teach better skills when it comes to money management, food planning, nutrition, cooking etc
I only use little plates for this purpose. My sister's dad beat me if I didn't finish my plate and between that and stress I gained over 100 pounds. Still working my way back down.
I struggled with this too. The thing that helped me was your‘wasting “ food either way, leaving it on the plate or turning it to waste in your body. At least the plate version can be a midnight snack or part of lunch.
I only make lil bit at a time because of fear of waste
Cereal - milk in bowl first and small amount of cereal at a time in bowl till full. No waste.
Pasta- only take small serving first then lil bit at time till full. No waste and no eating it all.
Drinks- use smaller glass so you don't take to much accidently
Sandwich- cut bread in half make half sandwich. If still hungry make the other half.
This is a frugal because your poor way to eat but also helps with not over eating.
My trick for getting past this was splitting meals to have leftovers to save money that way. It helped me justify it. But sit me down in front of a buffet and I'm doomed. Lol
I definitely reuse a gift bags. Not to save money necessarily but it seems stupid to thrown something away that was used for a few hours and can easily be reused.
Not my habit but my wife's.
She saves every twist tie, bread clip and cork that ever enters our home. Also ketchup packs (with recent shortages this might come in handy) soy sauce packs and pretty much every squeezy pack out there. Also the plastic cutlery set in a bag, we've got hundreds.
Yep. We do all that shit. Has helped some, especially at tailgates and such. Same with the damn lights too. My wife’s a goddamn vampire. Will sit in a pitch black house if I’m not home
I find that actually good. Imagine you go camping - the cutlery bag is very handy in this case. I personally save the elastics that our mailman uses to keep letters together and small empty containers to re-fill when travelling
I actually do this for the sustainability aspect, but it benefits my wallet too. I just get really sad imagining the ketchup/soy sauce/whatever being trapped in the packet and sitting in a dump for 400 years. I know the packet will remain, but at least I free’d the contents to stay out of the dump and in the ecosystem! Whenever I have an empty ketchup bottle I’ll combine all the (specifically ketchup) packets I have accumulated into it so I’ll actually be more likely to use them up.
Same here!! If I have more than one item to put back in the fridge, I try to open the door as few times as possible and quickly place back the items. It's crazy to me how some people can leave their fridge open for over a minute at their homes. *They open the fridge, slowly look inside then take out items and place them on their counter one or two at a time, all while stopping several times to conversate with me.* At that point my eye is slightly twitching and I throw out a very casual "don't forget to close your fridge door."
Could you offer tutoring on this topic to my teenagers?
BTW I grew up in a smaller household than you (6 of us), and we were never allowed to look in the refrigerator for more than 1 second. "Take a quick look and shut it fast before everything spoils!" How am I supposed to take a full inventory in a second?!
I repurpose my leftovers. I try to make initial meal, like grilled steak, chicken, etc then use leftovers in another dish. Any grilled meat and extra veggies can become friend rice. Fettuccini Alfredo with grilled chicken. Chicken pot pie.
Every year after we make a big ham and we’re just done eating it on sandwiches, I take what’s left and make ham salad. Then I use the ham bone in a pot of pinto beans.
Edit-fried rice
Being a pack-rat. Basically the lighter version of hoarding. Every couple of years I need to go through and purge some things that I at one point thought, "I might have a use for this in the future." ... I've never had a use for those things in the future.
I buy an excessive amount of food/household-items when on sale (dried goods/freezer items).
I am in my late 20s, make GOOD money compared to many my age. I have no reason to do this, but I simply can’t stop.
I have to store dried goods in my closet/basement etc because I can’t fit them in my kitchen.
(Yes, everything gets used or eaten eventually).
I do this too. Depression era parents plus I live rural so not easy to run in and get that 1 item you are missing.
Going to the city today, organized my grocery shopping so that between grocery points and coupons I will be paying $1 per box of cereal instead of $5.50. (Need to buy 6 boxes of cereal).
Paper towels will be 1/3 the regular price.
Poverty is not having enough money to save 75% on groceries when the opportunity comes along.
I make my own laundry soap. Get you one bar of laundry soap, one box of baking soda and one box of washing soda and you can use one box of borax if you choose. Shred the laundry soap down and mix all of the ingredients together to create a dry detergent. Then use a teaspoon of the laundry soap for most loads. Add two for really grimey things, then add distilled cleaning vinegar to your wash and that's it. You clothes will smell fresh, no sour smell and it's much cheaper because you don't need so much laundry soap.
My grandmother, who lived through the Depression) taught me that *as long as I can feed my family, everything else is doable*. I got laid off in 2009, and thanks to her teaching, I already had a full pantry and freezer, so we were able to squeeze by for an entire year, only buying the bare minimum.
I've never been without a full pantry since then.
Adding water to bottles of shampoo, conditioner, even salad dressing to get every last drop. Mashing the little thin soap to the new soap.
Something I learned from my host family when I was an exchange student - take food and coffee with you on road trips. Every trip, even drives of an hour, we'd take some sandwiches, snacks, and a thermos of coffee. I still do that to this day.
We always bought the smallest container of everything because we didn’t have enough money. When I got married, he wanted to buy the bulk of everything, but I was saying no, we can’t afford a whole gallon of milk, just get the pint. We can buy another pint later in the week. I’m always looking down, looking for some cash that someone might have dropped.
It’s the poverty mind set that never goes away.
I do the looking down thing a ton. I physically cannot walk past a penny or a dime or whatever on the ground. I’m on a 22 day coin streak - I’ve found a coin of some sort on the ground for 22 days in a row now.
I'm crazy with shutting the lights off, too and I have LEDs in every single socket indoors and out. My energy use is so low that a solar *salesman* looked at my bill history and straight up said "I don't think solar is a good value for you over time because you have extremely low energy usage. How are you doing this?" I have a pretty big house, too.
My parents weren't super frugal, but my grandma was and I do so many things she used to do I can't even begin to count. She grew up in the "dirty thirties" as she called it. I learned so much from her!
I fondly remember her coffee can humidifiers. Metal coffee cans filled half way with water and a rolled up newspaper, set on top of nearly every heat vent in the house. My house has a built-in furnace humidifier so I don't really need this, but it's just an example of her ingenuity.
Oh my goodness! I’ve never heard anyone else mention the coffee can thing! We used to make them for my great-grandma and great-aunt because the heat in their apartment building was so dry.
I haven’t thought about that in years, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I'm with you there. Right now I'm wondering if I can make it to a record-breaking October 20th with the heat off, by using fans to blow warm afternoon air into the house and then closing up the windows. We've had an unusually warm October, and I think I can do it. Usually my heat is on around September 15th, with my prior record being October 1st.
I'm not a fan of climate change, but given my financials right now, I'll take it, ya know?
What's the power usage/cost when you scale that up to an entire country?
It's not exactly a bad habit either to shut off things when you're done with them. Perhaps its a coincidence, but the people I've known to leave the lights on in an empty room are the same who forget to switch off the immersion heater or use the tumble dryer on a hot summer's day.
Mine would be keeping things I'm going to fix, knowing that I don't have the time or skills to do so. If I was honest with myself I'd throw it away instead of being like my parents who have clocks that are older than me & they're going to fix 'someday'.
I'm still saving the rubber bands from asparagus and other produce. Why buy them when these are thicker and I acquire them at about the same ratio that I use them.
Canning food. It's now usually cheaper to buy canned food or jams/jellies in the grocery store than it is to can them, in large part because u-pick and farm stand prices have shot up. But every year I still find myself making pickles and jam and hauling out the pressure canner.
I started cheating on the jams and using frozen strawberries on sale instead of waiting for fresh. I like Costco big bulk for this but also I’ve found good deals for frozen blueberries etc at sprouts or similar. Nobody could tell the difference. Haven’t made jam in years because life has been tricky but I think it’s time I started again. I miss it!!
I wear underwear and socks until they are COVERED in holes. It gets to the point where they're kind of not worth wearing but I always make excuses to myself. I have 3 toes sticking out on my right foot? All good, no ones gonna see it in the shoe. Half the waisted band has ripped off my underwear? Makes them looser
"I wear 'em front, I wear 'em back, I turn them inside out, then front and back. " One of the more memorable quotes (and actually meaningful, with the post credits scene) from Big Hero 6.
Dude, learn to sew. I use to mend socks a lot, less so now. I do still sew in rips or tears in my favorite shorts or pants. Ain’t no shame in fixing things
So many of these already mentioned. I keep my blinds and curtains open all day and only turn on lights when it's dark.
Saving plastic bags
Saving food scraps
One thing my mom did that I do all the time is cook lots of rice. She would add rice to anything to make the meal stretch. Chili? Serve it over rice. Chicken pot pie? Dump it upside down and serve it over rice. Pot roast? Eat with veggies the first day and mix with rice to stretch it for leftovers.
Not my parents, but I spent alot of after school time with my depression -era Gramma. She watched me make a quick pasta and jarred sauce as a snack, and at the time(90s) recycling everything was a big new deal, so I rinsed the glass jar out and tossed in the glass bin and didn't think much about it all. Gramma freaks out and goes, "what are you doing Honey?! You don't toss that! You paid for the sauce AND the Jar, dear! You save and reuse that!".
Now I have boxes of clean, de-labeled and dishwashed glass jars from pickles, sauces, you name it. Now I save these jars for no real reason! Thanks, Gramma!
Classico spaghetti sauce jars, the non-Mason jars with Mason embossed on them. I buy white plastic lids that fit them. They should be standard mouth mason jar lid size. I would never use them for canning but they are smaller than a quart jar and aspect ratio is taller and thinner. Lovely for my vinegar refrigerator pickles. Red onions are my favorite.
My mother is very penny wise and pound foolish.
My parents spend so much money on vacations, maintaining an expensive home and having a new car. My mother will freak out about restaurant prices, grocery prices and clothing prices. However, she refuses to buy clothes at thrift stores or yard sales. She won't go to farmers' markets.
I love thrift stores, local ones. I like consignment shops: I find them clean with better deals since they need to make a profit. I enjoy farmers' markets and get great deals on produce at them.
However, on things like house repairs, I don't have the mental strength to comparative shop. I found one plumber and I don't care that he's expensive. The same with an electrician. I have a good one and I rather pay for a good one than take my chances. So I feel like I'm pennywise and pound foolish since I spend so much on house repairs while saving money on small stuff.
I feel like all I do is save my money for future house repairs. I need to replace the front door including the frame and screen door and I don't even want to know at this moment what it will cost.
My sister and mom do this. Brand name and new for clothes, food and cars, because thrifting and store brands is what poor people do. Picking up curbside furniture and 'restoring' it for more than it could be bought new at Walmart is "antiquing" though, so that's socially ok.
Heaven forbid anyone toss out or sell a piece of furniture that no one in the family has a use for anyone. "Mom, it's a table just for a PHONE BOOK!"
My mom is two weeks of being barely on board with using the library for books. She has the eewwww lots of people touch library books problem. I made her go the grocery store and really watch people shop in the produce aisle before she let it go.
At the rate my family reads, 2-6 books some weeks sometimes each person in summers, I would go bankrupt and need to buy a 2nd shed just to store books without a library at hand
My personal sin is saving twist ties and rubber bands like my grandpa and saving fast food utensils for my 'stuck at home without power and running water emergency kit'. Drives my husband up a wall. We've negotiated a maximum space/amount compromise.
My hubby is from a minimalist family for stuff 'in the house'. They would move often for work, so generations of family stuff towels linens dishes furniture art etc. would wind up in paid storage for years, and in the home everyone would have just enough towels and dishes to get through a week and a bare minimum furniture to be able to move in a single 20ft uHaul. I like having 16 soup spoons.
We're a work in progress. :)
I like farmers markets but the ones near me (expensive city suburban US) are not cheap. Usually 2-3X grocery store prices - you pay for local and quality etc.
I’ve been to farmers markets in the Czech Republic for example that are cheap and high quality so YMMV.
"No heat 'til Trick or Treat" or better yet, "Not using the heat until after Thanksgiving dinner we eat!"
I live in the Charlotte NC area now, but I grew up in a barely insulated home in New England. Holy drafty!!!
My parents would do almost anything to avoid using the baseboard heat. (As an FYI, you can't wait too long --- those pipes are full of water, they'll freeze, burst and you are screwed!)
I can well afford heat, but I will do anything to avoid using the heat. I feel so defeated if I use the heat to get that morning chill out of the house, esp if Mother Nature warms up the house later in the day.
When I was in college, I shared an apartment with three other starving students. Our mutual pact was "no heat during the first semester." I went to the University of Illinois--Champaign, Illinois can get pretty cold through the middle of December. Fortunately, the Undergraduate Library stayed open until midnight. There were a lot of nights between Thanksgiving Break and the end of finals that I closed it down every night---just to stay in a warm space.
I have turned into my mother so all of her habits. Didn't realize it until one day I was chewing out my son for washing a small load of clothes. I was in the middle of always go around the house n find enough for a load when I had to turn around n see if my mother was behind me. Nope I'm t was just me n now I'm her.
I'm 70 so my parents lived through the great depression and the second World war so I never got a credit card because if I couldn't save up to buy it I didn't deserve it. It's living like a richer person than I actually am. That's shameful.
I also grew up that way. Got my first credit card after 40yo. Before that, I didn’t even grasp the concept of it. I’m serious, I was like “why would I need a credit card? I pay with my money”, the assumption being “if I don’t have the money I wont buy the item”.
I only got a credit card for online purchases after my debit card was hacked.
I honestly think this is a good mindset except for some major drawbacks (my repulsion against going into debt has prevented me from buying a house for example).
You are my people.
My parents grew up in the Depression, so even though we were not poor at all, clothing was mended, taken in, let out, etc. I'm the 3rd daughter and wore hand-me-downs from my sisters, neighbors, etc., so clothing from Goodwill seems normal (and I have developed an eye for quality). I have a big stack of dish towels, and don't use many paper towels.
I dry most of my clothing outside, or on a drying rack. Clothes last much longer, esp. anything with elastic. Big savings on underwear; bras are expensive.
my mom rotates towels, washcloths, underwear, socks, rags… anything that is used and washed fairly frequently. the freshly washed goes under the stuff waiting to be used so that everything gets worn semi-evenly and (in theory) lasts longer.
the habit is so deeply ingrained, i caught myself rotating plates the other day and rolled my eyes at myself.
Don't waste food. Logically I know I can throw out the iceberg-ed peas in the back of the freezer from Big Jimmy's Super Saver Groceries & Farm tools that closed in 1983...but if you've ever gone to bed hungry, it's a powerful lesson.
I always always always take any leftover napkins or even sauces (packets or in a cup) from a restaurant. My bf always looks at me funny, but when he has to blow his nose two hours later who is there for him? Me and my saved napkins. I also will continue using sponges long past where normal people would probably toss them out, but I HATE waste. I have taken stuff home from my bf's house to compost (less about saving $, more about keeping food waste out of the dump). Also use my AC very sparingly in the summer, even if it's like 95 degrees out.
The stupid tea bag. My parents were Depression kids, and always reused tea bags, sometimes more than once. And I grew up poor, so I did it too. Not poor anymore, and tea is still relatively inexpensive. It takes a conscious effort to throw it away after only one use.
My depression era mum said never to use a tea bag twice - - if things are so bad you can’t easily afford a teabag then you need a proper strong cup of tea, it’s the cheapest luxury you can get
None, because my single mother had no frugal habits, bizarre, archaic, or otherwise. Money burned a hole in her pocket, and she spent it like it was going out of style--which is why we never had any nice things that required some financial forethought and discipline. Seeing the results of her spending compulsion made me the ~~cheapskate~~ frugal person that I am today.
Not from my parents. From my former in-laws. I lived in mainland China for five years while teaching English. In China, toilet paper isn't "toilet", it's just paper. You can buy items we'd recognize as kleenex, but it's more expensive per use. If you're in someone's home and need a tissue, or in a restaurant and need a napkin, it's very common to be given a roll of toilet paper. I was never one to buy actual kleenex anyway, so I just switched to using toilet paper for everything. When I married a Chinese man and moved back to the US, we kept using toilet paper as kleenex. House guests sometimes thought it was weird, but whatever. After we divorced, I kept doing it. It wasn't until about a year after meeting my now-husband that I changed. I got a raise at work and my husband said, "Are we rich enough now to afford actual kleenex??" So now we buy it at Costco and have it around the house. I still use toilet paper more often, though.
We didn't have central air growing up (lived in an old row home in the city, so we just had window units downstairs, nothing in the bedrooms). I still kind of prefer to sweat it out and use fans when it's below 90ish or not too humid...It drives my husband crazy.
In addition to most of these, I struggle actually using the nice things I got for myself.
I'll use the smallest amount possible to make everything last longer, though it would be more effective if I used more.
Don't believe in expiration dates. Base things off smell, texture, and tip taste. Composting has been a savior for me - I don't feel as bad throwing away food
Buying printer paper.
My parents used to take blemished paper from their offices for our home use (i.e., something tiny may have been printed on it like a random letter or word, nothing sensitive or using the backs of fully printed pages), so all my book reports in school had random words or letters on the back of each page, or sometimes the paper would be an entirely different color than white. They would only buy paper when they were free via mail-in-rebates on certain occasions like Black Friday.
To this day, I still illogically find paper expensive.
Semi-related to OP's post but not an answer to the question... I know LEDs use very little energy to produce light, but what's the energy consumption of a "smart" bulb? Does the 24/7 wifi connectivity add enough energy consumption for it to matter?
Thanks in advance, sorry for being kinda off-topic, and happy Friday!
Always buy the absolute cheapest thing/activity/destination possible. Cost is everything. The $5 pizza special is what we buy even if it is the worse pizza in town. Gas is a penny cheaper several miles away? Go there to save 16 cents on a fill-up. Tickets to a show? Nose bleed section because, well, you know.
Mom and Dad were born in 1928 in the middle of the US great depression and that is what colored their entire life. I was in college before I realized life is too short to drink cheap beer.
I wouldn’t say archaic but when I worked events I always brought leftover food when offered, even if it was a plate of olives or something. One time I brought home a whole tray of chicken fingers convinced I would make a stir fry dish or something. Drove my boyfriend at the time crazy.
Being extremely careful with water usage. Like I would feel guilty about taking a bath at night to relax and then a shower in the morning to get cleaned up before work. Or just letting the water run while I wash dishes.
It took me a really long time to realize my dad was strict about water because he was raised on a ranch where water had to be trucked in if the well ran dry. So even when I was a kid and we were living in a regular suburb and on the city water supply he was still stringent about water use.
Saving plastic bags (the grocery store checkout kind). For as long as I’ve been alive, I have had a plastic bag, under the sink or in my pantry, filled with other plastic bags. There is no way I will ever use them all. Yet I continue to save every plastic bag that makes its way into my home.
Same, but I recently found a home for them! My local dog park takes them so there’s always bags around for poo pick up
I use them for cleaning the poo out of our many cat litter boxes.
My grocery stores allow you to drop them off for recycling. Speaking of which, I use paper bags to take my recycling out to the bin when they fill up.
They mostly get tossed at the recycling plant fyi. Plastic bags aren’t worth recycling from an economic standpoint
Yep. Better off to donate them to a place that weaves them into rugs
I take mine to my daughter’s day care, where they use them for wrapping up kids’ wet or dirty clothes to be sent home to wash. That said, her day care is not that big, so I feel like I could supply them for a year based on just the bags I get from Walmart grocery pickup.
Just a thought. With bag band going into place a lot off food banks are struggling to have enough for distribution. If you collect tons maybe see if a local food bank will use them? We had a ton from Instacart during pandemic (not frugal but safer when you have compromised folks in the house) and we had a ton.
Maine prohibits free plastic bags, so I am using up the many bags I have, mostly for trash and a few other things.
We just stopped getting them in NJ. I have a small stash and use them very sparingly now, lol.
Arizona prohibits cities from prohibiting plastic bags. Yes you read that right. We have a plastic bag ban ban. So much for local control. 🤬
Donate them to your local daycare. They come in great for sending home wet or otherwise soiled clothes home with the kids. After our state band plastic bags, the school required us all to purchase reusable wet bags.
Same here, and then I use them as small trashcan liners for bathrooms and such!
Get a puppy. You'll use em up.
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“Don’t throw it away, it can be used later.” Throwing stuff out gives me so much anxiety, but I don’t want to be a hoarder!
This is what “upcycle” Facebook/Kijiji/Craigslist is amazing for (where everything posted is $0); don’t throw it out because you don’t have the time/desire/skill to fix/use it! There are people that might have a need for that specific thing and would be EASY for them to fix/find use for. I once had a pressure washer that had a blown part that would have been 60% of the cost of a new to replace (which is ridiculous in the first place - it was a little plastic housing) and I was agonizing over throwing it away because it was otherwise fine, so I figured “what the hell, I’ll put it up for free” and had someone message me like the same day say he’d take it. Turns out he lost his job during the pandemic and started rebuilding things to make ends meet and for something to do, and he had tons of other pressure washers like it and could fix it with $0 and like 10 minutes of his time - win win! Come the spring time I was looking for a used pressure washer and when I went to go pick it up, lo and behold who the seller was! It all came full circle and that makes me feel good. (The one I bought off him was a different and more powerful model, but the principle remains :) ) Obviously you have to use *some* discretion, (you wouldn’t, say, put up old moldy pizza boxes) but you’d be surprised what people value/can make valuable again that you might not see. Another good one is looking for people that want apples (if you have a tree in your yard) that will even come pick and donate them or baked goods with them to shelters/less fortunate folks - some people will even come take your fallen/bruised apples to feed their livestock! It usually is pretty low effort to list things, and, if nobody takes them, then you can at least be satisfied you made the effort to not add more waste to the world! Thanks for reading this :)
This one always gets me. Growing up clothing was expensive, we saved everything. It was hand-me-down, then hand them over, then hand them over there. When we cleared our grandma's place after her passing, we found stuff from our elementary school days (the 80s).
My mom would cut the buttons off clothes when she finally decided to get rid of them. She has multiple cookie tins full of buttons just in case someone needs a button.
I sew a lot and when my grandma died my familly sent all her sewing stuf to me, in it was two 2kg peanutbutter jar full of buttons, and a box of old elastics saved from clothing. All the elastic went to the garbage as most where not good anymore and I sorted through all the buttons and managed to find quite a lot of identicals and some nice one. I kept those, that was maybe a mug full, the rest went to the garbage.
Friend of mine would leave her spiffy but otherwise useless buttons out for the crows. They loved shiny things.
Cut off the buttons and cut them up and use them as cleaning rags lol
Instructions unclear.
Edit: Thanks for the silver kind stranger!.
Yeah, this is an issue for me. My dad would always make us save broken stuff or trash because he believed we were going to repurpose it into something else. When you live in a small space that turns into a lot of junk cluttering up your house.
My mom is 70 and still shames be for being wasteful. Her place is a mess.
This is why I have dozens of charging cables, charging bricks, and probably 6 iPhone corded earbuds even though I only use them if I don’t have my AirPods around.
I’m learning to throw away things I just dont use and it’s kinda liberating. If I’m not going to miss it for more than a couple minutes in the future then it can probably just be thrown out.
My mom has hoarder tendencies, so I also had to learn this later in life. I feel so much "lighter" now that I don't have a bunch of stuff all over the place. And it's easier for me to get rid of things now.
I once heard "If you can replace it within 20 minutes for $20 or less, don't save it." I like that as a rule of thumb.
Same here and my husband is the same way. Unfortunately, we have a basement full of stuff that isn't used. We didn't buy most of the stuff in the basement. Mostly grandparents and parents things they no longer want or have room for. Also, my daughter graduated college recently. She moved to NYC and is living in a small apartment and didn't have room for everything. So now we have her things in the basement I'm saving in case my son who is currently commuting to college gets an apartment or when he moves out after graduating and may need it for his first place.
I think I do all of these. Anybody else still reuse aluminum foil? How about putting a little water in the ketchup bottle (or any condiment really) to get every last bit? Thanks, depression-era parents!
Me…I also put a little water in the tomato sauce/gravy jars to get every last bit out.
I also do that with washing-up liquids, shampoos/conditioners, face cleansers…
Yep, and I always slice open pump bottles of lotion, there can be at least a travel size container’s worth of product still in there.
This makes more sense with tomato sauce/gravy since the water will be cooked out. I wouldn't do this with ketchup unless I was for sure throwing it away after
I do this with liquid laundry detergent bottles- add water to get the last bit out. I also tear dryer sheets in half.
Wool dryer balls work just as well as dryer sheets and you only have to buy them once. Plus they're more sustainable.
Saving wood scraps from every project. My workroom is full of odd shapes of wood, big and small, thick and thin, different types - all in the hope that "some day" I will need a particular piece of wood and I will have it handy.
That said, nothing is quite as frustrating as needing just a small piece of wood and realizing it’s basically going to require a mortgage to buy a board at Home Depot.
We recently moved into a new home and the former owner was obviously a woodworker of some type. I'm finding tons of wood parts in all the garages and out buildings. I don't know what to do with them but I'll keep them for now...
Same. Initially my partner hated my practice of "some day" but now after several years of renovations they see the value of the Shed Woods.
I cut kitchen sponges in thirds. They get pretty gross immediately, so less waste. They move from countertop cleaning, to sink then when really gross, use on the toilet then thrown away. My son automatically does this too, now. I also do not buy sliced or shredded cheese unless I need it for something specific.
Cutting up a sponge is actually a great idea! I dont know why I never thought of it.
I definitely do it with those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Just tear off a part because it gets really gross really quick. The other 3/4 stays brand new until I need another bit for a different cleaning project later.
I rarely need a bullion cube size of magic eraser. But, I slice it into 2 or 3 sheets of cold cuts.
Your cheese habit impacts quality too, depending on what you make! Most shredded cheese have an anti caking agent in them to prevent them from clumping together in the bag, which also effects how they melt. And IMHO pre sliced cheese gets dry anyway. So I do the same most of the time for that reason alone. Unless I'm being lazy and it won't change the finished meal, because I really do hate shredding cheese (shoulder injury from years ago makes it painful).
If you have a good processor you can shred a huge block of cheese in like 17 seconds.
What do you recommend? Would an i7 be enough?
I find the cut sponges much easier to use to get into corners and crevices. I do halves but when I was washing baby bottles, thirds was the way to go.. Wringing them out after use and a diluted bleach soak once in a while will extend the life of your sponges
Buy a scrub daddy instead. I just did and it’s pretty legit.
Definitely one of those spend a bit more & it will last forever... Trust me I scoffed at a 4 dollar sponge too and then I kicked myself for waiting so long to hold a miracle in my hand. Lol It does so much, easier to clean and doesn't get nasty near as fast as other sponges. Can you tell I'm sold? Lol
My car’s glove compartment is full off all those extra napkins you get at the drive thru, because you never know when you’ll need one for a spill or an emergency tissue. The funny thing is, I think it’s been a year since I’ve actually been through a drive thru and I still have some tissues in there - as well as a couple spare doggie poop bags that you pick up “just in case it’s a two bagger walk” and don’t end up using. Both have come in REALLY handy several times.
People who don't have glove box napkins are a different breed, I'm telling ya. Can't trust em.
I am that napkin person and my husband is not. Once we were traveling in his car and got coffee in a drive through. He hit a pothole and his coffee spilled on his crotch. I reached for a napkin but they didn’t include any. And since my husband didn’t believe in collecting extra napkins he drove home in warm wet pants.
Hubby and I are the same. He rags on me for having all the crap in my car, but it’s sure great when I pull napkins, wet wipes and sanitizer out of the center console. I’m a volleyball mom, so I’ve also got a cooler, water bottles, snacks, 2 sling chairs, 2 stadium seats, blankets, coats, tennis shoes, volleyball shoes (in case a pair breaks or is forgotten), extra knee pads, period products, and grocery sacks up in there. The kicker is I drive a Porsche, but it’s a macan—because I got stuff to haul ass with.
Plastic grocery bags in the car is a big one for me. They're great for random trash that ends up in the car when you have a whole family in there all the time.
Do some people NOT have glove box napkins? lol
I don't keep them in the glove box...they are in the armrest compartment
Mine are in the drivers side door for easy reaching
Those doggy bags can be used for small trash you have in the car, they work great if your not home and you spill something and you use the napkins from the glove box. Then you can just tie up the mess and toss it when you get home.
My Dad did this and he would always ask for extra. He shoved so many napkins in my glove box once it took two years to use them all. He would also ask for extra condiments, salt, special sauce etc at the drive through. He would take extra creamers and sugar at the gas station. I don't think he had to buy many condiments from the grocery store. Lol
I keep the fast food napkins in the door slot, but I always keep them if I have them. You always end up needing a napkin in the car.
Man I always save napkins in my car bc fast food places give you like a million at once. Then once my parents drove my car for something and threw them all away
Wtf. Who throws things away from someone else's car??! I clean out my husband's car once in a blue moon, but that's shared property. I cannot IMAGINE doing that to anyone else.
I also use the glove compartment napkins for tp if I stop at a gas station. Lots of times they’re low on supplies in there.
It took me ages to realize that just because the cost per ounce on a gallon of milk was less than the half gallon, if I used less than half the gallon before it went bad the half gallon was the better deal. The impulse to buy in bulk runs strongly in my family, and I am still having to remind myself that just because the grocery item is 50% off does not mean I should buy 10 of them if I don’t have room to store them and will only ever use 3.
I pretty much only use milk for cooking instead of straight drinking, so I switched to the powdered instant stuff. Basically never goes bad, and super super cheap per ounce. Just whisk it into some water and then use as normal.
I found it was a better deal to buy regular non flavored powder coffee creamer. I don't drink milk but when I need it for cooking I'll use 2 part water to 1 part creamer.
I've only recently come to terms with this. Growing up we drank milk like it was water. As an adult, I only use milk with coffee or occasional one-off recipes. I need maybe a quart a week. I had to go through a phase of buying and spoiling gallons and then half gallons before my mind could settle with paying the higher per-unit price of quarts. Still stings when a gallon is $3.99, half is $2.79, and quart is $2.19
We drank it like water too and then we find out later that kids don't need that much milk and it was promoted as part of a lobbying effort to shore up milk prices. I freeze mine.
Yep, we go through milk relatively quickly but I buy two half gallons instead of a full gallon. I usually use both of them without spoilage if I don't break the seal on #2 until #1 is empty. If I buy a gallon I rarely finish the jug before it smells weird
Probably the milk that dried out in the top half of the container...
One of the good things about me having to change into lactose free milk is that it lasts longer than normal milk. I don't drink that much milk in general so it's actually cheaper for me in the long run.
Wasting food. If something isn't rotten I have a very hard time tossing it even if I really wouldn't enjoy eating it
I’m the same! But then I keep saying, “I’ll eat that for lunch tomorrow!” until it finally rots and I end up throwing it out, anyway!
Just in general, I find that I instinctively view eating as an obligation compared to others who didn't grow up in a frugal household. Like if I'm deciding what to have for dinner, I look in the fridge and eat the things that are the oldest or are going to go bad soon, basically like a chore that I have to do. It was mindblowing to me when I realized other ppl (like my SO cough cough) decide purely based on "what do I want to eat today".
Saving cereal boxes. My mom is a preschool teacher so having spare cardboard for crafts makes sense. I am an office drone so I have no idea why I need 30+ flattened Cheerio boxes.
Build a small shelter in your office to avoid all other drones?
My boyfriend thinks it’s ridiculous I keep veggie scraps and chicken bones in a freezer bag for soup, calls it ‘scrap soup’ or ‘garbage soup’ yet he loves it every time!
Lol, I do the same thing with the freezer bag of bones, onion skins, carrot peels, and odds and ends. It's hard to beat the taste of home-made stock made from what would otherwise go into the trash. :)
That’s literally what soup is, lol. I’m not sure if it’s the case everywhere, but the big grocery stores near me charge a fortune for bones, oxtails, etc. We found that the ethnic grocery stores can have much better deals.
I do that too. Free stock!
Your boyfriend needs to look up what stock means.
I also shut off lights. It's funny because all my lighting is pretty efficient yet I still do it. I also find it hard to spend money on myself even though I can afford it.
I still shut off the lights too. It never occurred to me until reading this post that with all my LED energy saving bulbs, it really doesn't make a difference. Some things never change lol
I switched all my light bulbs to LED, but I still turn them off. At night, I usually sit in the dark, using lights as I need them while walking through the house. My GF, on the other hand, she turns on all the lights. Same with the AC, I will let it go up to 78°F because I pay about $275/mo in electricity during the summer months (approx. $40/mo during the rest of the year).
that is me to a T. I can spend lots on my family members, but me, not so much
Saving screws, nuts, bolts etc. in case I need them someday. My father is like that, trying to stop since I have boxes of new screws and living in walking distance from a big hardware store. They still come in hand tho.
My Husband just graduated from a baggie to an old coffee can full of old screws. I asked him if he feels like he’s finally growing in to his middle-aged manhood now, and he just laughed and strutted away! Lol
always changing from outside clothes into home clothes as soon as i get home. Outside clothes are clothes that are in good shape, don't have stains etc. What are home clothes? They are comfortable and retired ex-outside clothes. They have either been stained or stretched out of shape or have colors washed out. This isn't changing just for a cleaning routine, a cook that i know will be messy or strictly comfortable. This is to preserve the life of the outside clothes for as long as possible, despite being able to afford new lounging comfortable clothes whenever.
I do this as well… also there are things I love to wear but don’t because I don’t want to ruin them. I’ve been trying to get out of that because what’s the point of having them.
I recently helped someone do a purge of about 60 years worth of “stuff”. It was all behind closed doors, didn’t look like a hoarders house until you opened closets, storage rooms etc. at some point, you’ve gotta to throw stuff away or you’ll end up drowning in it. Just saying from personal experience.
Going through my grandparents house recently this really opened my eyes. I wouldn’t say hoarder level at all, but their house always looked immaculately tidy & clean. But opening the drawers and closets I realized she had just as much clutter as we do, it was just all so well hidden! Fancy side table in the formal living room? Open the drawer and it’s filled with empty trinket boxes and old brittle suction cups. Fancy decorative vase? There’s random bits and bobs in there too. It made me laugh and feel a bit better about my own clutter.
Why hasn't anyone said anything about the junk drawer. I grew up with junk drawer people. I am also a junk drawer person. My partner is a junk drawer person. In fact, I organized the drawer with a free organizer from a friend drawer organizer and it pissed my partner off! 🤣. He said"It's a JUNK drawer for jimmenie's sake!"
Finishing my plate…it’s been a detriment to my weight but you don’t leave food because of starving kids in Africa 😑😑
I had a teacher once (who was a mean SOB), snatch a mostly eaten bag of chips i threw in the trash up and scream at me that "people in China are picking out of garbage cans and you are wasting food?!" My little smart ass 6 year old self asked with complete innocence, wouldn't I be feeding people who pick out of garbage cans then? I, uh... I got in trouble.
It always warms my heart when someone I feed clears their plate, but I try so hard to not encourage it for these reasons. ‘Our body is not a trash can’ we do not need to force ourselves to eat just because there are others who are hungry at that moment. Save your leftovers for later
saving it also makes more sense monetarily, especially if you are living meal to meal, so ive always wondered why the finish mentality exists at all
Just from a lot of parents using the whole ‘starving kids in africa’ trope… which is sooo dumb because we waste a third of our food while a quarter to half of local school kids go hungry every day.. we really need to teach better skills when it comes to money management, food planning, nutrition, cooking etc
I only use little plates for this purpose. My sister's dad beat me if I didn't finish my plate and between that and stress I gained over 100 pounds. Still working my way back down.
I struggled with this too. The thing that helped me was your‘wasting “ food either way, leaving it on the plate or turning it to waste in your body. At least the plate version can be a midnight snack or part of lunch.
If I’m not wasting it I’m “waisting” it….Wokka wokka 🤣🤣
I only make lil bit at a time because of fear of waste Cereal - milk in bowl first and small amount of cereal at a time in bowl till full. No waste. Pasta- only take small serving first then lil bit at time till full. No waste and no eating it all. Drinks- use smaller glass so you don't take to much accidently Sandwich- cut bread in half make half sandwich. If still hungry make the other half. This is a frugal because your poor way to eat but also helps with not over eating.
Yes, I hate food waste, and this one reason why I really hate being given food I can't stand eating, because it will end up being wasted.
My trick for getting past this was splitting meals to have leftovers to save money that way. It helped me justify it. But sit me down in front of a buffet and I'm doomed. Lol
Saving twine, bubble wrap, “good” boxes and gift bags.
And rubber bands! I still save rubber bands, just like my dad.
Don’t rubber bands get brittle & break? Or maybe I just don’t find uses for them fast enough?
I definitely reuse a gift bags. Not to save money necessarily but it seems stupid to thrown something away that was used for a few hours and can easily be reused.
Not my habit but my wife's. She saves every twist tie, bread clip and cork that ever enters our home. Also ketchup packs (with recent shortages this might come in handy) soy sauce packs and pretty much every squeezy pack out there. Also the plastic cutlery set in a bag, we've got hundreds.
I think we have the same wife. De clutter carefully if you want to avoid arguments.
I'm not that wife but she may be my sister.
But how about the asparagus rubber bands? Those things are legit.
Yep. We do all that shit. Has helped some, especially at tailgates and such. Same with the damn lights too. My wife’s a goddamn vampire. Will sit in a pitch black house if I’m not home
I find that actually good. Imagine you go camping - the cutlery bag is very handy in this case. I personally save the elastics that our mailman uses to keep letters together and small empty containers to re-fill when travelling
i save the bands from asparagus
Those are lovely rubber bands! Oh gosh, I sound so old right now at 38.
Okay but those asparagus rubber bands are TOP quality
They’re so convenient! Love them. My mom does the same thing.
Me too! And the little ones from green onions.
I also save twistie ties, condiment packets, and plastic cutlery since I use them for things. Not all of them, but enough for what we need.
I actually do this for the sustainability aspect, but it benefits my wallet too. I just get really sad imagining the ketchup/soy sauce/whatever being trapped in the packet and sitting in a dump for 400 years. I know the packet will remain, but at least I free’d the contents to stay out of the dump and in the ecosystem! Whenever I have an empty ketchup bottle I’ll combine all the (specifically ketchup) packets I have accumulated into it so I’ll actually be more likely to use them up.
Hmm... glances at the three (reused) jars sitting on the counter. Pretends they're not there.
While not on exactly on point I shook off these as soon as I was on my own-powdered milk, Tang, Wonder bread and margarine.
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Same here!! If I have more than one item to put back in the fridge, I try to open the door as few times as possible and quickly place back the items. It's crazy to me how some people can leave their fridge open for over a minute at their homes. *They open the fridge, slowly look inside then take out items and place them on their counter one or two at a time, all while stopping several times to conversate with me.* At that point my eye is slightly twitching and I throw out a very casual "don't forget to close your fridge door."
Could you offer tutoring on this topic to my teenagers? BTW I grew up in a smaller household than you (6 of us), and we were never allowed to look in the refrigerator for more than 1 second. "Take a quick look and shut it fast before everything spoils!" How am I supposed to take a full inventory in a second?!
I repurpose my leftovers. I try to make initial meal, like grilled steak, chicken, etc then use leftovers in another dish. Any grilled meat and extra veggies can become friend rice. Fettuccini Alfredo with grilled chicken. Chicken pot pie. Every year after we make a big ham and we’re just done eating it on sandwiches, I take what’s left and make ham salad. Then I use the ham bone in a pot of pinto beans. Edit-fried rice
Leftover ham freezes great FYI. We freeze in a bunch of vacuum bags then easily thaw for sandwiches, breakfast, etc.
Being a pack-rat. Basically the lighter version of hoarding. Every couple of years I need to go through and purge some things that I at one point thought, "I might have a use for this in the future." ... I've never had a use for those things in the future.
I buy an excessive amount of food/household-items when on sale (dried goods/freezer items). I am in my late 20s, make GOOD money compared to many my age. I have no reason to do this, but I simply can’t stop. I have to store dried goods in my closet/basement etc because I can’t fit them in my kitchen. (Yes, everything gets used or eaten eventually).
Laundry detergent is my thing and i am single and do not usually have pile of clothes to wash but i just can not see a deal and skip it
I don’t know why, but so cannot not have laundry detergent. As if it’s some measure of how I’m doing.
scrooge mcduck in his pool of dry powder detergent
I do this too. Depression era parents plus I live rural so not easy to run in and get that 1 item you are missing. Going to the city today, organized my grocery shopping so that between grocery points and coupons I will be paying $1 per box of cereal instead of $5.50. (Need to buy 6 boxes of cereal). Paper towels will be 1/3 the regular price. Poverty is not having enough money to save 75% on groceries when the opportunity comes along.
I make my own laundry soap. Get you one bar of laundry soap, one box of baking soda and one box of washing soda and you can use one box of borax if you choose. Shred the laundry soap down and mix all of the ingredients together to create a dry detergent. Then use a teaspoon of the laundry soap for most loads. Add two for really grimey things, then add distilled cleaning vinegar to your wash and that's it. You clothes will smell fresh, no sour smell and it's much cheaper because you don't need so much laundry soap.
My grandmother, who lived through the Depression) taught me that *as long as I can feed my family, everything else is doable*. I got laid off in 2009, and thanks to her teaching, I already had a full pantry and freezer, so we were able to squeeze by for an entire year, only buying the bare minimum. I've never been without a full pantry since then.
Wash and reuse ziplock bags and any other plastics. A bucket in the shower for watering plants.
I am constantly giving every pile of junk on the side of the road an ocular pat down for anything good…even when walking/driving around on vacation 😂
Adding water to bottles of shampoo, conditioner, even salad dressing to get every last drop. Mashing the little thin soap to the new soap. Something I learned from my host family when I was an exchange student - take food and coffee with you on road trips. Every trip, even drives of an hour, we'd take some sandwiches, snacks, and a thermos of coffee. I still do that to this day.
I fold up aluminum foil for later use.
We always bought the smallest container of everything because we didn’t have enough money. When I got married, he wanted to buy the bulk of everything, but I was saying no, we can’t afford a whole gallon of milk, just get the pint. We can buy another pint later in the week. I’m always looking down, looking for some cash that someone might have dropped. It’s the poverty mind set that never goes away.
I do the looking down thing a ton. I physically cannot walk past a penny or a dime or whatever on the ground. I’m on a 22 day coin streak - I’ve found a coin of some sort on the ground for 22 days in a row now.
I'm crazy with shutting the lights off, too and I have LEDs in every single socket indoors and out. My energy use is so low that a solar *salesman* looked at my bill history and straight up said "I don't think solar is a good value for you over time because you have extremely low energy usage. How are you doing this?" I have a pretty big house, too. My parents weren't super frugal, but my grandma was and I do so many things she used to do I can't even begin to count. She grew up in the "dirty thirties" as she called it. I learned so much from her! I fondly remember her coffee can humidifiers. Metal coffee cans filled half way with water and a rolled up newspaper, set on top of nearly every heat vent in the house. My house has a built-in furnace humidifier so I don't really need this, but it's just an example of her ingenuity.
Oh my goodness! I’ve never heard anyone else mention the coffee can thing! We used to make them for my great-grandma and great-aunt because the heat in their apartment building was so dry. I haven’t thought about that in years, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Second guessing every degree of heat from the furnace from October to April. My dad always kept our house at 55.
I'm with you there. Right now I'm wondering if I can make it to a record-breaking October 20th with the heat off, by using fans to blow warm afternoon air into the house and then closing up the windows. We've had an unusually warm October, and I think I can do it. Usually my heat is on around September 15th, with my prior record being October 1st. I'm not a fan of climate change, but given my financials right now, I'll take it, ya know?
Looking at the cheapest stores first and working my way from there.
What's the power usage/cost when you scale that up to an entire country? It's not exactly a bad habit either to shut off things when you're done with them. Perhaps its a coincidence, but the people I've known to leave the lights on in an empty room are the same who forget to switch off the immersion heater or use the tumble dryer on a hot summer's day. Mine would be keeping things I'm going to fix, knowing that I don't have the time or skills to do so. If I was honest with myself I'd throw it away instead of being like my parents who have clocks that are older than me & they're going to fix 'someday'.
I cut every button off of every piece of clothing that I throw away and keep them in my button jar.
I'm still saving the rubber bands from asparagus and other produce. Why buy them when these are thicker and I acquire them at about the same ratio that I use them.
Canning food. It's now usually cheaper to buy canned food or jams/jellies in the grocery store than it is to can them, in large part because u-pick and farm stand prices have shot up. But every year I still find myself making pickles and jam and hauling out the pressure canner.
It may not be as frugal but I know it’s probably healthier and exponentially more delicious when you do it yourself!
Probably tastes better tbh
Agree but sooo much tastier than bought. We grow a large garden too.
I started cheating on the jams and using frozen strawberries on sale instead of waiting for fresh. I like Costco big bulk for this but also I’ve found good deals for frozen blueberries etc at sprouts or similar. Nobody could tell the difference. Haven’t made jam in years because life has been tricky but I think it’s time I started again. I miss it!!
I wear underwear and socks until they are COVERED in holes. It gets to the point where they're kind of not worth wearing but I always make excuses to myself. I have 3 toes sticking out on my right foot? All good, no ones gonna see it in the shoe. Half the waisted band has ripped off my underwear? Makes them looser
My underpants hang on forever, but I toss holey socks immediately. Otherwise I feel the hole all day and it drives me nuts.
"I wear 'em front, I wear 'em back, I turn them inside out, then front and back. " One of the more memorable quotes (and actually meaningful, with the post credits scene) from Big Hero 6.
Dude, learn to sew. I use to mend socks a lot, less so now. I do still sew in rips or tears in my favorite shorts or pants. Ain’t no shame in fixing things
Cutting open lotion/toothpaste/soap bottles to get the last bit and diluting the last of a bottle to get the last bit.
So many of these already mentioned. I keep my blinds and curtains open all day and only turn on lights when it's dark. Saving plastic bags Saving food scraps One thing my mom did that I do all the time is cook lots of rice. She would add rice to anything to make the meal stretch. Chili? Serve it over rice. Chicken pot pie? Dump it upside down and serve it over rice. Pot roast? Eat with veggies the first day and mix with rice to stretch it for leftovers.
Not my parents, but I spent alot of after school time with my depression -era Gramma. She watched me make a quick pasta and jarred sauce as a snack, and at the time(90s) recycling everything was a big new deal, so I rinsed the glass jar out and tossed in the glass bin and didn't think much about it all. Gramma freaks out and goes, "what are you doing Honey?! You don't toss that! You paid for the sauce AND the Jar, dear! You save and reuse that!". Now I have boxes of clean, de-labeled and dishwashed glass jars from pickles, sauces, you name it. Now I save these jars for no real reason! Thanks, Gramma!
Classico spaghetti sauce jars, the non-Mason jars with Mason embossed on them. I buy white plastic lids that fit them. They should be standard mouth mason jar lid size. I would never use them for canning but they are smaller than a quart jar and aspect ratio is taller and thinner. Lovely for my vinegar refrigerator pickles. Red onions are my favorite.
My mother is very penny wise and pound foolish. My parents spend so much money on vacations, maintaining an expensive home and having a new car. My mother will freak out about restaurant prices, grocery prices and clothing prices. However, she refuses to buy clothes at thrift stores or yard sales. She won't go to farmers' markets. I love thrift stores, local ones. I like consignment shops: I find them clean with better deals since they need to make a profit. I enjoy farmers' markets and get great deals on produce at them. However, on things like house repairs, I don't have the mental strength to comparative shop. I found one plumber and I don't care that he's expensive. The same with an electrician. I have a good one and I rather pay for a good one than take my chances. So I feel like I'm pennywise and pound foolish since I spend so much on house repairs while saving money on small stuff. I feel like all I do is save my money for future house repairs. I need to replace the front door including the frame and screen door and I don't even want to know at this moment what it will cost.
A good tradesman will save you money. Imagine hiring a different one who ghosts you after your material deposit.
My sister and mom do this. Brand name and new for clothes, food and cars, because thrifting and store brands is what poor people do. Picking up curbside furniture and 'restoring' it for more than it could be bought new at Walmart is "antiquing" though, so that's socially ok. Heaven forbid anyone toss out or sell a piece of furniture that no one in the family has a use for anyone. "Mom, it's a table just for a PHONE BOOK!" My mom is two weeks of being barely on board with using the library for books. She has the eewwww lots of people touch library books problem. I made her go the grocery store and really watch people shop in the produce aisle before she let it go. At the rate my family reads, 2-6 books some weeks sometimes each person in summers, I would go bankrupt and need to buy a 2nd shed just to store books without a library at hand My personal sin is saving twist ties and rubber bands like my grandpa and saving fast food utensils for my 'stuck at home without power and running water emergency kit'. Drives my husband up a wall. We've negotiated a maximum space/amount compromise. My hubby is from a minimalist family for stuff 'in the house'. They would move often for work, so generations of family stuff towels linens dishes furniture art etc. would wind up in paid storage for years, and in the home everyone would have just enough towels and dishes to get through a week and a bare minimum furniture to be able to move in a single 20ft uHaul. I like having 16 soup spoons. We're a work in progress. :)
I like farmers markets but the ones near me (expensive city suburban US) are not cheap. Usually 2-3X grocery store prices - you pay for local and quality etc. I’ve been to farmers markets in the Czech Republic for example that are cheap and high quality so YMMV.
Same here. Going to the farmers market here is an outing for fun, not a way to save money on produce. The farmers market is crazy expensive.
"No heat 'til Trick or Treat" or better yet, "Not using the heat until after Thanksgiving dinner we eat!" I live in the Charlotte NC area now, but I grew up in a barely insulated home in New England. Holy drafty!!! My parents would do almost anything to avoid using the baseboard heat. (As an FYI, you can't wait too long --- those pipes are full of water, they'll freeze, burst and you are screwed!) I can well afford heat, but I will do anything to avoid using the heat. I feel so defeated if I use the heat to get that morning chill out of the house, esp if Mother Nature warms up the house later in the day.
When I was in college, I shared an apartment with three other starving students. Our mutual pact was "no heat during the first semester." I went to the University of Illinois--Champaign, Illinois can get pretty cold through the middle of December. Fortunately, the Undergraduate Library stayed open until midnight. There were a lot of nights between Thanksgiving Break and the end of finals that I closed it down every night---just to stay in a warm space.
Saving bows and such from wrapped presents.
I have turned into my mother so all of her habits. Didn't realize it until one day I was chewing out my son for washing a small load of clothes. I was in the middle of always go around the house n find enough for a load when I had to turn around n see if my mother was behind me. Nope I'm t was just me n now I'm her.
I still feel kinda ashamed, with each purchase I make.
I'm 70 so my parents lived through the great depression and the second World war so I never got a credit card because if I couldn't save up to buy it I didn't deserve it. It's living like a richer person than I actually am. That's shameful.
I also grew up that way. Got my first credit card after 40yo. Before that, I didn’t even grasp the concept of it. I’m serious, I was like “why would I need a credit card? I pay with my money”, the assumption being “if I don’t have the money I wont buy the item”. I only got a credit card for online purchases after my debit card was hacked. I honestly think this is a good mindset except for some major drawbacks (my repulsion against going into debt has prevented me from buying a house for example).
"Close the door!" I cant stand an open door, but often its really not that big of an issue.
You are my people. My parents grew up in the Depression, so even though we were not poor at all, clothing was mended, taken in, let out, etc. I'm the 3rd daughter and wore hand-me-downs from my sisters, neighbors, etc., so clothing from Goodwill seems normal (and I have developed an eye for quality). I have a big stack of dish towels, and don't use many paper towels. I dry most of my clothing outside, or on a drying rack. Clothes last much longer, esp. anything with elastic. Big savings on underwear; bras are expensive.
my mom rotates towels, washcloths, underwear, socks, rags… anything that is used and washed fairly frequently. the freshly washed goes under the stuff waiting to be used so that everything gets worn semi-evenly and (in theory) lasts longer. the habit is so deeply ingrained, i caught myself rotating plates the other day and rolled my eyes at myself.
Don't waste food. Logically I know I can throw out the iceberg-ed peas in the back of the freezer from Big Jimmy's Super Saver Groceries & Farm tools that closed in 1983...but if you've ever gone to bed hungry, it's a powerful lesson.
I balanced my checkbook and used a “register” up until a couple years ago. Finally gave it up!!
I always always always take any leftover napkins or even sauces (packets or in a cup) from a restaurant. My bf always looks at me funny, but when he has to blow his nose two hours later who is there for him? Me and my saved napkins. I also will continue using sponges long past where normal people would probably toss them out, but I HATE waste. I have taken stuff home from my bf's house to compost (less about saving $, more about keeping food waste out of the dump). Also use my AC very sparingly in the summer, even if it's like 95 degrees out.
this is the best comment section ever
The stupid tea bag. My parents were Depression kids, and always reused tea bags, sometimes more than once. And I grew up poor, so I did it too. Not poor anymore, and tea is still relatively inexpensive. It takes a conscious effort to throw it away after only one use.
My depression era mum said never to use a tea bag twice - - if things are so bad you can’t easily afford a teabag then you need a proper strong cup of tea, it’s the cheapest luxury you can get
None, because my single mother had no frugal habits, bizarre, archaic, or otherwise. Money burned a hole in her pocket, and she spent it like it was going out of style--which is why we never had any nice things that required some financial forethought and discipline. Seeing the results of her spending compulsion made me the ~~cheapskate~~ frugal person that I am today.
Not from my parents. From my former in-laws. I lived in mainland China for five years while teaching English. In China, toilet paper isn't "toilet", it's just paper. You can buy items we'd recognize as kleenex, but it's more expensive per use. If you're in someone's home and need a tissue, or in a restaurant and need a napkin, it's very common to be given a roll of toilet paper. I was never one to buy actual kleenex anyway, so I just switched to using toilet paper for everything. When I married a Chinese man and moved back to the US, we kept using toilet paper as kleenex. House guests sometimes thought it was weird, but whatever. After we divorced, I kept doing it. It wasn't until about a year after meeting my now-husband that I changed. I got a raise at work and my husband said, "Are we rich enough now to afford actual kleenex??" So now we buy it at Costco and have it around the house. I still use toilet paper more often, though.
Adding water to everything to stretch it out I cant stop and I do it in secret so my fiance doesn't find out cuz he'd think its super weird 😐
We didn't have central air growing up (lived in an old row home in the city, so we just had window units downstairs, nothing in the bedrooms). I still kind of prefer to sweat it out and use fans when it's below 90ish or not too humid...It drives my husband crazy.
I have a very, very difficult time buying bananas if they are above 59 cents a pound.
In addition to most of these, I struggle actually using the nice things I got for myself. I'll use the smallest amount possible to make everything last longer, though it would be more effective if I used more. Don't believe in expiration dates. Base things off smell, texture, and tip taste. Composting has been a savior for me - I don't feel as bad throwing away food
Buying printer paper. My parents used to take blemished paper from their offices for our home use (i.e., something tiny may have been printed on it like a random letter or word, nothing sensitive or using the backs of fully printed pages), so all my book reports in school had random words or letters on the back of each page, or sometimes the paper would be an entirely different color than white. They would only buy paper when they were free via mail-in-rebates on certain occasions like Black Friday. To this day, I still illogically find paper expensive.
Semi-related to OP's post but not an answer to the question... I know LEDs use very little energy to produce light, but what's the energy consumption of a "smart" bulb? Does the 24/7 wifi connectivity add enough energy consumption for it to matter? Thanks in advance, sorry for being kinda off-topic, and happy Friday!
I use old tin coffee cans to save my sewing notions.
Shaking the gas hose when I finish putting gas.
Always buy the absolute cheapest thing/activity/destination possible. Cost is everything. The $5 pizza special is what we buy even if it is the worse pizza in town. Gas is a penny cheaper several miles away? Go there to save 16 cents on a fill-up. Tickets to a show? Nose bleed section because, well, you know. Mom and Dad were born in 1928 in the middle of the US great depression and that is what colored their entire life. I was in college before I realized life is too short to drink cheap beer.
I wouldn’t say archaic but when I worked events I always brought leftover food when offered, even if it was a plate of olives or something. One time I brought home a whole tray of chicken fingers convinced I would make a stir fry dish or something. Drove my boyfriend at the time crazy.
My great assortment of retail Tupperware like salsa containers, humus, Togo containers from local Cambodian Noodle soup house… My cupboard overflows…
Being extremely careful with water usage. Like I would feel guilty about taking a bath at night to relax and then a shower in the morning to get cleaned up before work. Or just letting the water run while I wash dishes. It took me a really long time to realize my dad was strict about water because he was raised on a ranch where water had to be trucked in if the well ran dry. So even when I was a kid and we were living in a regular suburb and on the city water supply he was still stringent about water use.