What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[MountainGal]

@Trifle, that soup sounds delicious!

-A few months ago, I bought about a half dozen gift cards using cc points.  The cards have been used as birthday and thank you gifts.
-I sold two boxes of CDs to Decluttr (not a typo) dot com.  $45.
-I sold a pair of boots to a friend.  $25
-Saved $0.10 a gallon at the pump using the gas station ap.
-I used a makeup brush to get the bottom remnants of two bottled products.
-When my allergy eye drops get low, I turn the bottle upside down and lean it against something to get several more days' worth of drops.
-Used a code on a recent winter clothing purchase.  $16.30
-Used Sam's Club cash on last week's order.  $2.34
-I'm dropping off Goodwill donations which will be a tax write off.
-We're having our annual Halloween party and cocktails will be based around liquor we have on hand.

[Dollar Slice]

I have the Chipotle app on my phone because I had a gift card from them, and I got a BOGO entree coupon from them in my e-mail today. Plus I had a couple of dollars left on my gift card. So I got a couple of veggie burrito bowls for $9 and change out of pocket. Should be good for a few meals, and it was good timing since I've been in a lot of pain and didn't sleep much last night.

[sonofsven]

I used a coupon for  $10 off a $40 dollar minimum purchase at my local co-op.

I have 5 US Bank credit cards, and four have $16-$22 worth of rewards that are inaccessible as cash back since they are under the $25 minimum, but I signed the cards up to use the points at Amazon for purchases. I used $8.99 worth on a new spatula since one of my two broke last week.

[oneday]

Left my wallet at home & just took the driver's license with me when I went to the gym. This prevented me from picking up "just a few things" at the grocery store. I have ingredients at home waiting to be made into dinner, don't need those things!!!

[Dollar Slice]

I dunno if this should count, as "savings," but my mom e-mailed me a few days ago that her favorite chocolate shop in NYC was having a 100th birthday celebration (as in: they opened 100 years ago to the day) and having some kind of incredible sale. I am not dedicated enough to get the freebies you had to wait in line in the rain for (the "be one of the first people here when we open" stuff) but I did get some "20% off everything in the store" chocolate and the baggie of "original recipe" pieces they were selling for $1.25 a bag. According to their per-pound prices and my kitchen scale, that baggie should cost $14 or $15, so that's an absolute steal.

I wasn't going to bother, because chocolate is definitely an unnecessary expense, but I was out with a friend today and when I mentioned it to him, he was excited about it and really wanted to go, so: luxury chocolate acquired.

[AccidentialMustache]

Well, I was going to birthday gift my spouse a functional in-dash navigation system in the fit. That was the plan up until I found the new one I bought on amazon didn't actually have the proper wiring harnesses with it, despite claiming it did. Okay, that's a return then. Start looking at new in-dash units from crutchfield and get annoyed at the only not-stupid-expensive one loses the steering wheel audio controls.

Since I had the old unit out, I started tearing it apart. I mean I've decided to replace it and I wasn't planning to put the dash back together until I get the new unit install and I haven't quite clicked order yet.

Yeah, dvds don't do well when there's the top half of the spindle has fallen off and attached itself to the laser's tracking magnets. Apparently the red dust that kept collecting on the nav dvd was the drive slowly grinding the top spindle's plastic mount to dust. There's a cd player in the head unit too, but cd only so I can't just swap it for the dvd... but it did have the same loading mechanism. This doesn't bode well for not having the same thing happen, but hey, if I can revive it now the car may rust out before the dvd dies again.

So I managed to fish the top half of the spindle out of the cd and swap it to the dvd drive, all without actually disassembling the drives. Reassemble everything with only a few screws left over in the head unit's many-dozen screws, plug the thing back in and turn the car on. Lo and behold it boots. I didn't mess up any of the dozen ribbon cables with friction attachments, nor did I short anything (and I was working on the floor, no static mat in sight). I build my own PCs and repair our laptops and phones, so I do have some idea what I'm doing inside electronics. But I wasn't "good" about this one (static mat, laying things out so I could reassemble properly, etc). I tore it apart because I wanted to know what happened. I wasn't really planning on being able to attempt a fix.

It took a bit of work to find the nav data dvd. First one goes "you upgraded to a newer version, you'll need that." Great. Then spouse turns around and spots the newer dvd sitting on a garage shelf. Drop that in and it boots! It is fussy about not finding gps, go outside give it up to 10 minutes but it seems to work. I had to set the location (thought it was in LA -- uhhh no) but it seems fully functional. iPod input works, radio works, does seem to track gps as I puttered around the cul-de-sac.

So, um, yeah. Thanks amazon seller for having the wrong wiring harness you saved me a couple hundred bucks!

[Taran Wanderer]

Wait, you swapped internal components from a CD player to a DVD player?  Wow.  Nicely done.

[Frankies Girl]

Almost finished replacing ~50 ft of wooden privacy fence. Materials cost $120, and we bought a fancy nail gun to fix the rest of the fence as it's all pretty old and the rest of the pickets definitely could use some re-securing. In all, we're saving thousands doing the work ourselves. It's pretty simple but also hard manual labor, and I get why some folks would pay others to do, but we are having a decent time figuring this stuff out and it's really cool to fix/build things ourselves.

On schedule in the next month will also be replacing a rotten deck board, cutting down a smaller dead tree, and demoing existing patio roof and then painting and replacing with a shade cloth that will save us at least another thousand too.

[AccidentialMustache]

Wait, you swapped internal components from a CD player to a DVD player?  Wow.  Nicely done.

Yeah. Same manufacturer, and they use the same slot loading mechanism. The only difference is control electronics and the laser unit itself.

I guess I should have assumed that, but I didn't because desktop PCs often had different drive manufacturers back in the cd and/or dvd drive days.

[Taran Wanderer]

A couple of weeks ago I bought new winter tires through a local tire shop and had them install the tires on my winter rims. I got the tires I wanted at a discount versus lesser tires at a higher price at the big chain. Tonight, while the kids were carving pumpkins, I swapped the winter tires/rims onto the car. With the first freezes expected in the next week, it will be nice to have extra grip on frosty roads. And I saved money.

Another side benefit of doing my own tire swaps and rotations is that on the rare occasion we have an actual flat on the roadside, it’s super easy to change the tire because the kids and I are in practice. and the spare has air in it because I check those, too. 

[rockeTree]

Repaired our composter with ten bucks of parts (then figured out I could have done it with 75 cents of parts by rearranging a few components but still, two steps forward and one back is progress).

[Michael in ABQ]

Not exactly saving money but it was my birthday recently and my wife and I discussed going out to lunch (we very rarely eat out at restaurants). In the end we decided that since she had already made a cheesecake for me and I was going to grill steaks that just splurging and spending $5-6 to get us some simple brewed coffee on our way into work was sufficient.

[reeshau]

We switched ACA insurers this year, and switched doctors for related and unrelated reasons.  Just getting everyone up to speed now, in time to face the choice again...

Anywho, DW is a headache sufferer, having just passed her 20th anniversary of onset of major symptoms.  But new insurance company wants several months of history of headaches, and several drugs to try before they will pay for the one that we know works.  We tried those others back on 2003.  Or 2014.

So new doc puts in her authorization: we're not newbies, and gets a quick denial.  Shot is monthly, and appeal process takes...one month.

We got the first shot at the doc's office, as they had samples.  I talked with doc's nurse about what paperwork / history from our 3 BANKER BOXES FULL might get insurance company onboard.  (I spent the prior morning talking to insurance company about the same)  It occurred to me that...doc had samples.

"Hey, doc's nurse.  You got any more of those samples?  It's been a month, and the cheapest cash pay we could find for this is $630."

"Sure we do.  But you should hurry.  We only have 8 left!"

[Thinking to self] "Sure am glad we're FIRE!  otherwise it would be a right pain to have to run over to doc's on standby."

"We'll be there today!"

$630 phone call.  With all the complications in the system, I think 3 of my 4 most valuable phone calls have been for healthcare.  The other one was taxes.

[dreampreneur]

I bought a "Too good to go" bag at our local bakery, and got 12€ worth of bread/rolls/cake for 4€. I do it every / every other day.

[Michael in ABQ]

We had to buy one of our kids some new school shoes as he had worn out the old ones. I was checking out and remember to ask if they had a veteran discount. The clerk had to process it as a return since I had literally just put my card in while asking her but it saved about $9.


$90 for a pair of basic black school shoes for a teenager, a few years ago they would have been maybe $60. Gotta love that inflation.

[jnw]

Saved $1200 today by asking my endocrinologist for a one month supply of Mounjaro; I just happened to be driving by the office and dropped in to ask. I am type 2 diabetic so I qualify for it via insurance but the problem is my current prescription insurance wants me to pay $1200 for a month's supply.

I am switching over to another prescription insurance on the 1st of January, and am stuck with the current one until then.

I've already gotten 2 months worth of Mounjaro for free, my other doc gave me a sample box a few days back.  So now I am good until the end of the year; thank goodness.

With the new insurance which starts on Jan 1st, I think the drug will cost me around $130 per month if I recall correctly.

So anyways, perhaps always ask doctors if they have any samples first to save some cash?   And don't be afraid to keep asking for it each month? :)  I got Tresiba samples, over a one year period from my endo before finally qualifying for a program with the drug manufacturer to get it free.   (That drug is like $400+ per month without the right insurance).

[SpareChange]

Nice weather, so I did an oil and filter change, along with a pan drop and fill for the transmission. Cost about $65 total.

[Freedomin5]

DH bought a can of pumpkin purée at a deep discount ($1.50 vs its regular price of $6). I turned it into a lovely batch of pumpkin muffins. My friend is traveling back to her hometown today, which is an 18-hour train ride. She’s getting some muffins as a meal so she doesn’t have to buy overpriced, unhealthy convenience food on the train.

[jnw]

I get my prescriptions at CVS.  Every few months they give me a $5 off coupon for doing so.  There was  a sale on the Garnier Whole Blends Coconut shampoo/conditioner today (great stuff).. 2 for $8.   They also had a $3 off two coupon.  I added the $5 coupon and the $3 coupon to my CVS card.  My BF used my CVS card and bought both the shampoo and conditioner for 26 cents total including tax -- he was driving by the way already. [This coconut shampoo/conditioner smells great and the conditioner feels really good in hair, not too greasy like some others.]

[Also you can get $10 coupons per vaccine shot from Walgreens, have gotten free personal products there as well doing this..  looks like we'll  never pay for shampoo again -- nor body wash using ibotta/shopmium apps when shopping at Walmart. EDIT: if you get two different vaccines the same day they give you two x $10 coupons and can get $20 discount immediately on stuff you buy there.. no extra trips to Walgreens, unlike CVS.]

[jnw]

Here's a quick time saving coupon trick which works out well for me:

Say you need body wash, razors or toothpaste.   And say you are already headed to Walmart to buy some groceries.

Click on this bookmarked link to see all the recent Walmart couponing hauls on youtube -- ignore ones several days old as the coupons expire fairly quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walmart+couponing+haul&sp=CAI%253D

You'll get a list of recent youtube videos related to a Walmart coupon haul.  In this video list are usually video thumbnails of their current hauls.  If you say see the body wash, razors or toothpaste you need, click on video and see how they got it for free, or near free. 

Just install Ibotta and Shopmium and that covers most of these deals.  Between the two you often get stuff for free and they tell you how much it wil be in the video.. Just jump to the part of the video that has what you are interested in.  Sometimes at the end of the video you can see the entire haul if it is not in the thumbnail.

I did this a couple days ago before going to Walmart.  I knew we needed more body wash.  I found a thumbnail that showed a lot of free body wash.. So i jumped the parts of the video that had the body wash.  Within 5 minutes I had all the data I needed to do the haul.  I clipped the coupons both in Ibotta and Shopmium .. scanned the body washes in store with both apps, to confirm both coupons work on each item.

I got $10 in body wash for free , save for sales tax of like 79 cents between the two.   It took all of like 5 minutes at home to find the deal before heading to the store.  So $10 saved in mins of work isn't bad at all. [EDIT: there was a small amount of time involved redeeming the coupon in each app as you have to scan the coupon in each app and for Shopmium scan the barcodes -- make sure you save the receipt from Walmart so you can scan it.]

I don't mess with CVS couponing or other couponing apps now besides Ibotta & Shopmium.  I was obsessed with it a few months back but it was too time consuming.. I rather just do a quick search for what we curently need from Walmart.. find the deal in a few mins, and then go do it.

EDIT: Shopkick is another app that is worthy of installing. There are sometimes Walmart deals which take advantage of these coupons combined with Ibota and/or Shopmium.  But for my last haul, both body washes were handled by only Ibotta/Shopmium apps.

[jeninco]

A couple of weeks ago I bought new winter tires through a local tire shop and had them install the tires on my winter rims. I got the tires I wanted at a discount versus lesser tires at a higher price at the big chain. Tonight, while the kids were carving pumpkins, I swapped the winter tires/rims onto the car. With the first freezes expected in the next week, it will be nice to have extra grip on frosty roads. And I saved money.

Another side benefit of doing my own tire swaps and rotations is that on the rare occasion we have an actual flat on the roadside, it’s super easy to change the tire because the kids and I are in practice. and the spare has air in it because I check those, too.

We've been doing this for decades. In fact, we didn't get the wheels changed in time for last weekend's snowstorm, and I got to experience driving our cars on snow with summer tires. Man, that sucks! They're all bomber with snow&ice tires on them!

Downside: eventually the kids grow up and move out, and now it's just the two of us changing all the tires...
(We had the kids do it for one or more of the vehicles for years, since they were doing a significant % of the driving and "needed the practice")

(yeah, we're looking to sell one of the vehicles, which will leave us with a gas-sipping plug-in hybrid and an older Eurovan that we use primarily for camping, but which does need to be driven occasionally to keep lubricated.)

[Dicey]

Heehee, this one's about saving someone else's money. When setting up for our library's book sale, I noticed a lot of really nice knitting books. I took a photo of them and sent it to my forum friend. She chose seven, which will set her back a whopping $1.00 each. When she said she could pick them up today, I suggested she come in time for the bag sale. For another $5, she can fill an entire grocery bag with anything she wants, including all the leftover knitting books. Then I suggested she stay for dinner at our house and she said yes! Squee! That's some fine mustachian synchronicity there.

[jnw]

We enjoy a variety of mustards here, which we purchase from Walmart -- Great Value brand at $1.29 each including: Spicy Brown, Dijon, Stoneground, Yellow, Horseradish etc..

They come in squeeze bottles and it's always annoying how much is leftover in the container at the end, not easily accessible.  So when the bottle is in this state we just invert it into a Mason jar and let it sit on the counter.  Sometimes we might add a drizzle of water to get it flowing better.

We mix all the mustards together in this mason jar, and it's tastes wonderful.  I like my mix of mustards better than the individual ones :)

It's also nice to be able to spoon out mustard upon occasion rather than squeeze it.

[Catbert]

^^^ jnw - You can also add oil and vinegar (or other acid) to the almost empty mustard jar and use as salad dressing.

[jnw]

^^^ jnw - You can also add oil and vinegar (or other acid) to the almost empty mustard jar and use as salad dressing.

Oh sweet, great idea thanks!  I'll try it sometime!

[lexde]

Fixed the dryer ourselves. It was heating but not spinning. We narrowed it down via some YouTube research to either a blown motor or that the pulley on the belt had gotten displaced. Watched some videos, went to Ace hardware to get the correct wrench size (because of course we didn’t have *that* one) and about 20 minutes later, we have a working dryer again!

Saved ~$200.00 in appliance repair bill, spent $18.07 at Ace because we picked up a Red Bull and wiper fluid too. :-)

[Taran Wanderer]

DIY appliance repairs are cheaper, faster, and oh-so-much more satisfying than calling the repair man! 

[lexde]

DIY appliance repairs are cheaper, faster, and oh-so-much more satisfying than calling the repair man!

Yes! It was relatively simple and I didn’t have to wait a week for someone to charge 10x what I paid. There is definitely some satisfaction from “solving” the puzzle too :-)

[LaineyAZ]

Not sure if this counts, but I've mentioned before that I buy items on sale for an annual clothing drive.  I've gotten good deals on sale and also using senior discount days. 

One thing I've realized is that shoplifters are indirectly helping me!  In the clearance racks there are always packages of socks, underwear, t-shirts, etc. which someone sliced open and took 1-2 of the 6 pack.  The store then reseals the package and puts it back on the shelves with a 50% markdown.  So the 4-5 items still in the pack are drastically reduced more than a simple sale.  I don't approve of shoplifting but I've used the results to benefit those in need and the recipients don't care if there are 1-2 items missing!

[Loretta]

Using up stuff and trying to properly maintain things like my Roomba vac. 

I put some stuff on my online shopping cart and reminded myself to wait and see if I might get a birthday gift card this month to help defray costs. 

[Sandi_k]

We're on vacation; our room at the fancy hotel has a fridge, so we've bought lots of Diet Coke, rum, coffee creamer and snacks for the room.

I felt like a hobo when the the bellboy helped carry in the grocery bags, but oh well; not gonna pay $5 per Diet Coke this week. ;)

[JupiterGreen]

We've been cooking a lot lately. I just made a big bucket of vegan chicken to freeze. The recipe is the one from School Night Vegan if anyone is interested, it is hands down the best I've tried. It's at least a few pounds, I cannot even venture to guess how much it would cost if I bought it rather than made it.

[EchoStache]

Drove past the gas station near my house on the way home and aired up the tires.  Cooler weather = low tire pressure = lower fuel/energy efficiency and increased tire wear.

Chose *not* to go out to eat, cooked up a bunch of chicken, sirloin, potatoes and zucchini that were left over from entertaining last night(Raclette).  Served as our meal today and leftovers for at least 3-4 meals.

[Dicey]

DH and I helped with book sale takedown this morning. Instead of grabbing breakfast afterward, we went home and I cooked us a nice brunch from ingredients on hand.  Now we're off to do our afternoon things...

[lexde]

Well, the topic doesn’t say to save *me* money…
I am house sitting for my brother and SIL all next week while they are on vacation. Watching their cat and dog for a week is probably saving them a few hundred dollars, and I’m going to work from home all next week so there’s no commute.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Well, I'm sitting in the lounge at the airport (flight delayed for work trip), and I have access to plenty of free food. Received $60 in meal vouchers for the delay, and did a search on how to best use them. Turns out, at least the ones I received can be used in lots of places. To make things easy, I uploaded mine to my Starbucks app. I'd rather not be at the airport waiting around for a flight, but I guess I'll be getting some free coffee out of it.

[Gerard]

Well, I'm sitting in the lounge at the airport [...]  Received $60 in meal vouchers for the delay

Good strategy!

I know from past experience that I stash and forget the vouchers, so now I just look for whoever in the restaurant lineup looks the saddest, and give the vouchers to them. People are disproportionately grateful, I think because airports are just stress-filled places!

[MountainGal]

Well, the topic doesn’t say to save *me* money…
I am house sitting for my brother and SIL all next week while they are on vacation. Watching their cat and dog for a week is probably saving them a few hundred dollars, and I’m going to work from home all next week so there’s no commute.

Along these lines, I picked up a 12-pack of beer for a friend who just had surgery and saved her 15% by using a liquor store loyalty reward. :)

[eyesonthehorizon]

Downloaded the year's credit card transactions to identify what date to change my billing date to, in order to optimize the amount of time before I have to pull funds out of the bank to avoid paying credit card interest.

Holding onto five percent in bank interest on even half of an average month's credit card charges is enough over the course of a year to bother with a one-time math problem.

[Freedomin5]

Really wanted to buy lunch at the company cafeteria today, but instead, I held off and worked through lunch until the kitchen closed, then ate the fruit I brought.

[MountainGal]

October was an expensive food and beverage month due to our Halloween gatherings, so I've been putting off going to the store.  I haven't been since October 30th and won't go until next Wednesday.  What I've done in the interim:

-I ran out of hand soap in the bathroom so I borrowed the pump from the guest bathroom.  A refill is on next week's grocery list.
-I substituted cheddar with mozzarella cheese in last night's quiche and made homemade crust with almond flour and other pantry ingredients.
-Sunday football game snacks will be frozen party leftovers.
-Bought eggs from a neighbor.

[Taran Wanderer]

The days are getting short, but temperatures have been mild enough, and there has been enough sunshine that we still haven’t turned on the heat for the winter.  If we burn the woodstove a bit, maybe we can make it all the way through November this year.

[GenXKatie]

I had some expiring Walgreens rewards and stopped in quickly to get toothpaste, mouthwash and much-needed eye drops (had eye surgery recently) for less than $1. I just can't let money-like rewards go to waste.

[Dicey]

I had some expiring Walgreens rewards and stopped in quickly to get toothpaste, mouthwash and much-needed eye drops (had eye surgery recently) for less than $1. I just can't let money-like rewards go to waste.

Nor should you. Good job!

[jnw]

I was just recently approved for an American Express Business Gold card with a 150k sign up bonus -- $1500 valued at 1 cent per mile.   The annual fee is $295, which is due up front, so my effective bonus will be around $1200, or $1300 with the $10k spend I need to do on it in 90 days -- have a lot of home repairs to be done so that's why I went with this card.

Anyways, one of the credits this card gives you is $20 credit per month office supply statement credit.  If you don't use the credit each month you lose it.  So what I did is set up an auto-restock order for the Perk brand 1000 sheet per roll TP -- Scott equivalent -- twenty rolls for $20.89.  So each month the TP will be automatically delivered to my front door for free.  I won't waste my time driving to staples to by random things or have a chance to forget to make use of this credit each and every month.  I will get full value out of this credit automatically, with no work on my part. 

LOL, after 12 orders of 20 rolls of TP I should have enough TP for several years :)  I'll probably be cancelling the Amex Biz Gold card after a year unless they can make me a retention offer I can't refuse.  (They also do a $12.95 per month Walmart+ statement credit, but to be honest I don't even know if I'll even apply for the free Walmart+ membership as it seems lackluster to me.)

(This is my first Amex card.. the card is prety heavy.. metal card.)

[Dicey]

(This is my first Amex card.. the card is prety heavy.. metal card.)

They're great for clearing snow or frost off the windshield!

[GuitarStv]

(This is my first Amex card.. the card is prety heavy.. metal card.)

They're great for clearing snow or frost off the windshield!

Don't they scratch windows?  A regular credit card works well in a pinch for frost on the windshield since it's plastic (although tape cases were a long time favourite around here before I ever tried a credit card), but I'd be worried about using metal.

[Dicey]

(This is my first Amex card.. the card is prety heavy.. metal card.)

They're great for clearing snow or frost off the windshield!

Don't they scratch windows?  A regular credit card works well in a pinch for frost on the windshield since it's plastic (although tape cases were a long time favourite around here before I ever tried a credit card), but I'd be worried about using metal.

They definitely can, if not used carefully. I have one from a house flip we did. I closed it when we finished the project, but I've kept it in my wallet because it does come in handy on occasion. I've used it for frost, but then I live in CA :-p

[jnw]

(This is my first Amex card.. the card is prety heavy.. metal card.)

They're great for clearing snow or frost off the windshield!

LMAO :) I'll remember that next time it frosts over :)

[jnw]

Told my nephew about the Capital One Shopping referral bonus going around now; just found out about it today. $50 to each person.  So I sent him my referral link since I already had an account (I only got $10 not $50 when I signed up lol), and he created a Capital One Shopping account.  He had to spend $10 to meet the requirement for this bonus, so from the list of stores in the Capital One Shopping portal, he used the 1% off Walmart link and bought some oil he needed for his car.  So in a few days or a week or two (up to 30 days they say), we should each get $50 credit to buy say a Amazon gift card with it.