Author Topic: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?  (Read 8021040 times)

Jenny Wren

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11450 on: June 17, 2018, 02:36:22 PM »
@Roadrunner53 Instead of cutting straight across, I hold the scissors vertical and make small snips all the way across, pinching the bangs between two fingers with my other hand as a guide for how far up to cut. It gives a softer edge so slight imperfections aren't obvious like they would be with the straight across method.

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11451 on: June 17, 2018, 02:38:54 PM »
*almost* stupidly spent way more money than we needed to. Sometime, somehow, in our move and subsequent dogless time, we lost the hardware to our baby gates. Well, now we have a puppy. The laundry drying rack worked temporarily, but she's getting big and bold enough she now just juggernauts through whenever it suits her. We tore the house apart looking for the hardware, and no luck. Gates but no hardware. We *almost* went and bought a new gate. Until, duh, I realized that I bet we could find replacement parts! $10 later, and they're on their way from amazon. Phew. $30 saved.

(Although I'm still mad the hardware is missing. We're very organized people and don't own all the much... no idea how they could have vanished!)

This exact same thing happened to us with the hardware to our patio table after we moved.   We looked everywhere for it, and finally gave up many months later and bought replacement hardware.  The week after that we found the bag of hardware at the bottom of the car's glove compartment.  Murphy's law.  Bet you'll find your hardware now.  :)

I helped to move a friend a while back and she had ducktaped all the hardware bags to the pieces of furniture. Clever idea!

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11452 on: June 17, 2018, 02:58:58 PM »
*almost* stupidly spent way more money than we needed to. Sometime, somehow, in our move and subsequent dogless time, we lost the hardware to our baby gates. Well, now we have a puppy. The laundry drying rack worked temporarily, but she's getting big and bold enough she now just juggernauts through whenever it suits her. We tore the house apart looking for the hardware, and no luck. Gates but no hardware. We *almost* went and bought a new gate. Until, duh, I realized that I bet we could find replacement parts! $10 later, and they're on their way from amazon. Phew. $30 saved.

(Although I'm still mad the hardware is missing. We're very organized people and don't own all the much... no idea how they could have vanished!)

This exact same thing happened to us with the hardware to our patio table after we moved.   We looked everywhere for it, and finally gave up many months later and bought replacement hardware.  The week after that we found the bag of hardware at the bottom of the car's glove compartment.  Murphy's law.  Bet you'll find your hardware now.  :)

I helped to move a friend a while back and she had ducktaped all the hardware bags to the pieces of furniture. Clever idea!

That's what we do! Which is why this is all SO baffling. We had the hardware in labeled plastic baggies, taped to the gates themselves. Why are they not there? Where did they go? No idea whatsoever.

Vyse

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11453 on: June 17, 2018, 10:35:42 PM »
Made coffee at home instead of buying it and walked to work. It's simple, but a still a battle of wills to do it instead of taking the bus / cheap lyft.

littlelykke

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11454 on: June 18, 2018, 03:39:06 AM »
@Roadrunner53 Instead of cutting straight across, I hold the scissors vertical and make small snips all the way across, pinching the bangs between two fingers with my other hand as a guide for how far up to cut. It gives a softer edge so slight imperfections aren't obvious like they would be with the straight across method.

This is what I did too. Worked great! I'd already seen my hair dresser doing this, and also saw the girl in the video doing this. So I copied that and with great result.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11455 on: June 18, 2018, 05:04:29 AM »
@Roadrunner53 Instead of cutting straight across, I hold the scissors vertical and make small snips all the way across, pinching the bangs between two fingers with my other hand as a guide for how far up to cut. It gives a softer edge so slight imperfections aren't obvious like they would be with the straight across method.

This is what I did too. Worked great! I'd already seen my hair dresser doing this, and also saw the girl in the video doing this. So I copied that and with great result.

Can you post the video?

littlelykke

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11456 on: June 18, 2018, 07:02:22 AM »
@Roadrunner53 Instead of cutting straight across, I hold the scissors vertical and make small snips all the way across, pinching the bangs between two fingers with my other hand as a guide for how far up to cut. It gives a softer edge so slight imperfections aren't obvious like they would be with the straight across method.

This is what I did too. Worked great! I'd already seen my hair dresser doing this, and also saw the girl in the video doing this. So I copied that and with great result.

Can you post the video?

I already did. Check a couple of posts back on this page.

ematicic

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11457 on: June 18, 2018, 07:20:35 AM »
Washed my vehicles this weekend. My Jeep is a 2007 and people think it is new. I get under and wash the undercarriage and anywhere the winter salt can hide to corrode the body. Preventative maintenance can make a vehicle last so much longer, and a small investment in some tools saves a ton with some DIY.

Carrie

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11458 on: June 18, 2018, 08:23:50 AM »
Doing our own demolition work today in the kitchen, saving at least $850, plus it's fun.

Trifle

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11459 on: June 19, 2018, 03:23:03 AM »
Doing our own demolition work today in the kitchen, saving at least $850, plus it's fun.

I agree!  We are doing a to-the-studs house demolition.  It's massively therapeutic.  How often in most of our day to day lives do you get to smash stuff with a sledge hammer?   :)

Jenny Wren

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11460 on: June 19, 2018, 08:26:36 AM »
We're on vacation, but trying to keep it frugal:

* Took all of our own road food in a cooler.
* Staying in inexpensive Air BnB's. Brought an air mattress to ensure enough beds for the kids (Good call. This first one has a great master bedroom, but the other bed is an uncomfortable sofa bed. Kids declared the sofa untransformed great for one, so the other is using the air mattress happily).
* Primarily self catering. Did bring some one offs, like condiments, from the store at home instead of buying teeny-tiny expensive jars.
* Ordering wisely at our few meals we do eat out: DS13 is not a fan of most restaurant food -- it's always too something - too greasy, too cheesy, too salty. Instead of forcing him to get a #10 entree he won't eat, we told him to order what he would eat. Last night he decided he wanted a cheesecake at the restaurant and a sandwich back at the room. Great! He actually ate it and enjoyed it and we saved $6 on food that would have likely been wasted. We also skip drinks and appetizers at restaurants to save :)
* Full day planned -- going on a hike in the morning (free), using a groupon for lunch (saving 30% plus cheaper lunch prices), strolling the historic downtown in the afternoon, and hiking/walking a coast trail in the afternoon, with dinner back in the room (frozen lasagna. I don't cook on vacation). Right now I'm brewing coffee to fill our flasks, then I'll fill the car water cooler back up. Every one's backpacks have snacks stuffed in them, too!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11461 on: June 19, 2018, 12:28:40 PM »
-Cleaned the fridge before I left town. Chopped a box of tomatoes, and a bunch of fruit for the freezer
-Made lunch out of random odds & ends that were still in the fridge & needed to be used up
-Arranged for a ride to my out of town training. I'll uber directly to the airport after my training is wrapped up
-Packed a reusable water bottle for all of the traveling. Good for the environment, and my wallet. I forgot one on my flight yesterday & had to buy a plastic water bottle. Such a waste.

Linea_Norway

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11462 on: June 19, 2018, 12:37:14 PM »
I got a bowl of free tomatosoup for lunch at work. At later a crossant.

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11463 on: June 19, 2018, 02:34:46 PM »
There is a rather obscure movie I have been wanting to watch. It's not available on DVD, so Netflix and the library are out. It hasn't shown up on any of the streaming services despite being a couple of years old. I had just about resigned myself to renting a digital version, when I thought to check the library one last time. Turns out that Hoopla now carries it, and has an Apple TV app. Free movie--yay!

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11464 on: June 19, 2018, 02:55:16 PM »
Changed my online brokerage to a cheaper company - will save around $50 a year.

Dealing with a big stash of coins that has been sitting around for the last three years waiting for me to be going past a coin machine - putting $15 worth in my wallet at a time and then transferring that much from my usual spending money into savings.

Brought a home made cake and a bottle of wine left over from our wedding to lunch with friends - only had to buy one orange, and it was a great afternoon.

Cooked up big pots of minestrone soup and curry over the weekend - perfect for this cold weather and ensures we always have something on hand for lunches.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11465 on: June 19, 2018, 03:28:50 PM »
-One of our CFLs in the kitchen burnt out. Replacing just that one with an LED would have been $7. Replacing all 6 recessed CFLs in our house was $20 (thanks costco!). So we opted to replace them all. For $13 more, and 4 of the bulbs being used pretty much 100% of the time we're home, it should be a decent savings.

-Been spending a lot of pinterest recipe time to find ways to convert or replace our favorite recipes that use the oven. So, haven't realized the savings on this *yet*, but will long term. Especially because when I plan ahead and cook, it tends to be cheaper than the meals DH cooks.

-DH replaced our garbage disposal. Straight forward enough, so I'm surprised people pay for that routinely? But apparently that's common, based on what I kept running into online.

-Using beef heart as training treats for the dog. Free with our 1/4 cow because no one else splitting it wanted organ meats, way higher reward, and then we don't have to buy any special treats for her.

10dollarsatatime

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11466 on: June 19, 2018, 03:49:12 PM »
Made sweet tea! Well... semi-sweet tea. 

Found an awesome recipe... https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/109190/smooth-sweet-tea/

Except I only use about a quarter cup of sweetener.  The baking soda thing works!  No more bitter tea!

I'm finally using up the gigantic tea stash in my pantry.

MountainGal

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11467 on: June 20, 2018, 11:48:40 AM »
Reduced my cell bill by $10+/mo.

Going to rid of an office related bill for $40/mo

Add that to the reduction of getting my 'do done mentioned on a prior page and I'm up to almost $1,000 a year in savings.

Now, I'm off to figure out how to print postage online for business-related large size envelopes in to reduce downtown trips to the post office in order to save on fuel....

Linea_Norway

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11468 on: June 21, 2018, 07:26:00 AM »
-One of our CFLs in the kitchen burnt out. Replacing just that one with an LED would have been $7. Replacing all 6 recessed CFLs in our house was $20 (thanks costco!). So we opted to replace them all. For $13 more, and 4 of the bulbs being used pretty much 100% of the time we're home, it should be a decent savings.

Some time ago 3 of our 5 kitchen halogen lamps broke at the same time. We found that a good time to replace all 8 bulbs with LED. But we are keeping the other 5 that still work for replacing the other many halogen lamps that are spread all over the house. We have now replaced the ones in the rooms where we use most light (living room, kitchen and hobby room).

RetiredAt63

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11469 on: June 21, 2018, 09:19:01 AM »
-My previously reported husband saving our heat pump wasn't the whole problem. (He did fix a major thing, though). But, we were able to get a family friend out, and he gave us the friends and family price for the coolant and work. Ended up being $500 for a fix that would have easily been $1500 without. It should buy us a couple years with our current system, and then we'll replace the whole unit.
-Trying to switch back to dairy half and half for my coffee, after using non dairy products for a while. We'll see what my gut thinks of the change, but the price difference is huge, and my stomach won't handle black coffee.
-Instead of using pricey dog treats to train our puppy, we've just been cooking up chicken. It's easier for her to eat, anyway.

Try making cold brew coffee.  It's way less acidic than regular coffee so you might not need a creamer to tame it for your stomach.
And heavier cream. Here table cream is 18%, half and half is 10%.  My gut likes the 18% better , and you need less for the same whiteness.

Noodle

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11470 on: June 21, 2018, 10:05:18 AM »
Somehow, through the dark magic of "things in a car trunk" my work umbrella got tangled up with a roll of duct tape and the handle ended up covered with sticky tape residue. I finally remembered to take it home and with the application of "Goo Gone," a scrubby and some elbow grease, it is now usable again.

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11471 on: June 21, 2018, 12:11:26 PM »
I was too tired to make dinner, so I ate some leftovers from the freezer.

I made a large batch of oatmeal breakfast cupcakes last weekend. I'll eat the last tomorrow, they really did last me all week this time, I often run out mid-week.





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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11472 on: June 21, 2018, 02:56:07 PM »
We like to drink wine from time to time, mostly on the weekends.  We used to have a steady stream of good wine gifted to us by DW's employer and my MIL, but both of those streams have mostly dried up, so we need to actually purchase from time to time now. 

I've been experimenting with "Two Buck Chuck" (Charles Shaw) wines to see if any are palatable.  $2.99/bottle currently.  Some were awful, but a couple are not bad at all.  Haven't found a red that we both like (and we prefer red wines in general), but the Pinot Grigio in particular is pretty tasty.  I didn't mind the Chardonnay, either, but DW wasn't convince on that one.  Nevertheless, even if this little project can just replace a bottle of moderately priced wine here or there, that's a nice $10-20/month savings in my pocket/stash.

Jenny Wren

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11473 on: June 21, 2018, 11:13:05 PM »
More vacation small savings:

- Did the walk-on ferry instead of paying to take the car onto the island.
- Ice cream treat! Did kiddie cones instead of single scoops, thus saving $4 for the four of us.
- Used a groupon so save $9 on our admission to the Whale Museum.
- Entertainment? Opted to forego the $200+ whale watching tour to visit to a state park to hike and explore instead. We saw Orcas and Minkies hunting/playing near shore -- YAY!!!! Also-- took our own snacks instead of getting food at the park snack bar.
-Continued to self cater in room, but our budget motel only has a microwave and mini-fridge -- no plates/utensils/etc. Made due with napkins from the coffee bar, and chose easily microwaveable finger foods at the grocery store.
-Evening entertainment was geocaching around the island. Low-cost/no-cost hobbies that you can do almost anywhere in the world with no special tools (beyond a smart phone or GPS unit) are the best!

middo

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11474 on: June 22, 2018, 12:42:03 AM »
For some reason my workplace was throwing out wines and beer that was "old and going off".  A six pack of beer, two bottles of excellent pinot grigio and a vintage champagne later...  we are good for booze for a while.

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11475 on: June 22, 2018, 06:31:33 AM »
I got a few bars of fancy chocolate from a friend who doesn't like chocolate, and in return I gave her a dress that doesn't really suit me. The chocolate is delicious!

plainjane

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11476 on: June 22, 2018, 03:51:41 PM »
Brought home shrimp skewers, beef skewers, chicken skewers, prosciutto, salami, cheese cubes, broccoli, cauliflower, and bacon/pork belly from the insides of a few trays of sliders (the bread was soggy and stale). Probably about 8 cups of high value food across the containers.

So now to decide what to do with leftover pork belly.

The cauliflower and broccoli from the veggie platter are already roasting in the oven.

Dollar Slice

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11477 on: June 22, 2018, 03:58:34 PM »
My bizarre predilection for winning concert tickets continues: entered a contest for a show I wouldn't mind seeing that was a little too expensive for my taste, 5 hours later got a notification that I won. Value of $90. :-)

Hula Hoop

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11478 on: June 23, 2018, 03:56:33 AM »
I didn't go out to dinner last night after having a drink for my friend's farewell.  Spent Euro 7.50 on a nice glass of wine instead of Euro 20 plus for dinner.  For some reason, I just wasn't feeling it and wanted to just go home - so I did.  The old me would have gone for dinner out of politeness.  Also, TBH they were talking about going to a restaurant that has great pasta.  I can make pasta at home for almost nothing so I'd rather do that.

DreamFIRE

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11479 on: June 23, 2018, 08:24:56 AM »
-Trying to switch back to dairy half and half for my coffee, after using non dairy products for a while. We'll see what my gut thinks of the change, but the price difference is huge, and my stomach won't handle black coffee.

Try decaf.  Caffeine could be the cause.  I sometimes have stomach discomfort with regular coffee, and I always use creamer.  Decaf doesn't give me any problems, so I stick to that unless I really need the pick-me-up.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11480 on: June 23, 2018, 08:28:35 AM »
-Trying to switch back to dairy half and half for my coffee, after using non dairy products for a while. We'll see what my gut thinks of the change, but the price difference is huge, and my stomach won't handle black coffee.

Try decaf.  Caffeine could be the cause.  I sometimes have stomach discomfort with regular coffee, and I always use creamer.  Decaf doesn't give me any problems, so I stick to that unless I really need the pick-me-up.

I have, and it's not. Thank you though! The thing is that better quality coffee goes a lot better for me, but it's much more expensive. Internal battle there- it's both more delicious and doesn't upset my stomach, but 3x the price is a lot to stomach!

lexde

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11481 on: June 23, 2018, 09:15:34 AM »
Used up about 20oz of cabbage that was in the fridge. It was past it’s expiration date but I made an egg roll stir fry (ground beef, cabbage, sesame oil, coconut aminos/soy sauce, ginger, salt, pepper, sesame seeds, pinch of sweetener, etc. to taste). Cheap, healthy, filling.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11482 on: June 23, 2018, 09:25:58 AM »
-Trying to switch back to dairy half and half for my coffee, after using non dairy products for a while. We'll see what my gut thinks of the change, but the price difference is huge, and my stomach won't handle black coffee.

Try decaf.  Caffeine could be the cause.  I sometimes have stomach discomfort with regular coffee, and I always use creamer.  Decaf doesn't give me any problems, so I stick to that unless I really need the pick-me-up.

I have, and it's not. Thank you though! The thing is that better quality coffee goes a lot better for me, but it's much more expensive. Internal battle there- it's both more delicious and doesn't upset my stomach, but 3x the price is a lot to stomach!

I have a problem with coffee too. I switched to Newman's French Roast organic K Cups and no more acid indigestion. I use Coffeemate Coffee Creamer. I also used Folgers Black Silk coffee and it was good too.

ozmickey

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11483 on: June 23, 2018, 01:54:55 PM »
I have negotiated with my boss to work 4 x 9.5 hour days instead of 5 x 7.5 hour days.

I will save $8.30 on a train ticket plus the 2 1/2 hours a days spent commuting!

Linea_Norway

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11484 on: June 23, 2018, 01:58:59 PM »
DH and I spent most of our day painting the outside of our house. And I had the energy to cook a homemade meal after that.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2018, 03:53:31 AM by Linda_Norway »

Jenny Wren

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11485 on: June 23, 2018, 10:32:45 PM »
Ug. Saved money on evening plans. Eldest boy had chest pains, did not subside, then he got nausea. We had to to find an emergency room (we're still on vacation). Lot's of tests later it was determined he has a minor chest wall infection, left over from a cold he had a couple of weeks ago, which was then triggered his first major anxiety attack. Kid's fine, that's the most important part!

They did feed us dinner and no copay for the visit thanks to insurance. Thanks, Obama!

Mon€yp€nny

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11486 on: June 24, 2018, 02:07:20 AM »
Yesterday's savings.

- switched the WiFi repeater off when I wasn't in our bedroom.
- made hot water for tea in put it in a thermos (once, I used to reheat the water over and over again)
- denied cravings and had homemade meals and just a bit of crisps.
- made cleaning up kids room with my 5 yr old somewhat rewarding; I can finally sell her Little people stuff (when I find that car)
- washed myself and the kids with washcloth, will shower today. We alternate washcloth and shower or bath.

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11487 on: June 24, 2018, 04:06:26 AM »
- Asked some price quotes from different energy suppliers this week, so I can select our new supplier today. Takes an hour, saves hundreds every year.
- Am going to cook breakfast ahead for the whole week, like I try to do every weekend
- Listed some stuff for sale. Won't bring in a lot of money, but it's better than throwing things away.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11488 on: June 24, 2018, 04:12:41 AM »
- Asked some price quotes from different energy suppliers this week, so I can select our new supplier today. Takes an hour, saves hundreds every year.
- Am going to cook breakfast ahead for the whole week, like I try to do every weekend
- Listed some stuff for sale. Won't bring in a lot of money, but it's better than throwing things away.

What kind of breakfast do you cook ahead?

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11489 on: June 24, 2018, 05:10:54 AM »
- Asked some price quotes from different energy suppliers this week, so I can select our new supplier today. Takes an hour, saves hundreds every year.
- Am going to cook breakfast ahead for the whole week, like I try to do every weekend
- Listed some stuff for sale. Won't bring in a lot of money, but it's better than throwing things away.

What kind of breakfast do you cook ahead?

Egg muffins, oatmeal muffins, rice porridge, oatmeal porridge, polenta porridge.

littlelykke

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11490 on: June 24, 2018, 01:39:47 PM »
We put wallpaper on the walls ourselves (as opposed to paying someone to do this for us. Actually we saved even more, because otherwise we would've paid someone to plaster the walls for us. Which costs at least twice as much).

alewpanda

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11491 on: June 24, 2018, 05:10:17 PM »
-- Cut hubby's hair again.   25+ dollars saved
-- Stretching to avoid getting my own haircut.  If I keep it well moisturized I can go longer before getting it thinned.  I give it regular coconut oil masks with a few dabs of liquid oil, and don't wash it everyday and it handles better.  My bangs are getting a little questionable though!
-- Rode bikes to church this morning, saving the bus fair.
-- Re-reading "Your Money or Your Life".  After our move, our savings has been stagnant with all the "getting settled" expenses and new things to see/eat/do.  Its been a spendy 6 weeks and its time to rein it back in. 

Linea_Norway

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11492 on: June 25, 2018, 04:33:09 AM »
- Walked to work and will walk back in the afternoon.
- Had self-caught fish for dinner last night.
- If I remember it, I will take a load of apples home from work. They are leftover from last week's fruit bowl.
- We painted the outside of the house, as we always do ourselves.
- Apart from a new pair of skiing gloves, I still haven't bought any new clothes in 2018.
- I have been hanging the laundry to dry outside since it became springtime.
- Bought a book that I wanted to have, which my mother is going to pay for.
- I have been eating my home made jams, made from leftover fruit at work.

nkt0

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11493 on: June 25, 2018, 05:53:45 AM »
Resisted the allure of the candy display at the movies.

frooglepoodle

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11494 on: June 25, 2018, 07:03:09 AM »
Did a ton of cooking yesterday while I had extra help from DH and MIL:

* roast chicken for dinner (4 dinner servings + 2.5 lunches)
* chicken carcass and veggie scraps for stock
* made a big batch of homemade granola
* made my three-year-olds birthday cake from scratch (MIL decorated)
* made 3 dozen mini frittatas to freeze for DH’s breakfasts on gym days. Should be good for almost a month and now my very pregnant self doesn’t have to worry about it.

Very low-key birthday for our son: a picnic at the park, cake and ice cream. His gift is a mini basketball hoop for less than $20 after applying points from my amazon credit card.

Arbitrage

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11495 on: June 25, 2018, 07:57:13 AM »
- DW wanted to throw away/replace our young son's backpack, since his mesh cup holders are deteriorating (rest of the backpack is in perfectly fine shape).  The cup holders are actually important in his case for reasons I'm not going to detail here.  Seemed pretty wasteful to me, but she wasn't convinced and challenged me to come up with a solution.  A few carefully placed matched strips of duct tape later, and hopefully I've earned another year out of the backpack.  As a bonus, the duct tape matches the orange color of the cup holder!

- Rode my bike to work on a day I didn't think I'd be able to.  In addition, this is my last week of car commuting (though I think I'll be able to bike in 2 of 5 days)!

- Stocked up at Sam's Club.  That's what the extra bedroom closet is for!  Saved money by spending a lot.

haypug16

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11496 on: June 25, 2018, 08:47:10 AM »

-Gave myself a manicure last night saving ~$15
- Rode my bike to work today saving 19.4 miles worth of gas ~$1.50

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11497 on: June 25, 2018, 12:20:16 PM »
I needed to bring cake to my weekly sewing group to celebrate my birthday, so I baked it myself. I used up 5 overripe bananas. My birthday is in a few weeks, but this is the last meeting before summer.

Linea_Norway

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11498 on: June 25, 2018, 01:07:13 PM »
We just made an apple crumble pie from the leftover apples from work from last week's Thursday and Friday fruit. It is currently in the oven. As vacations have started, there is a lot of leftover fruit at work. Today there were a lot of bananas. If they are still there tomorrow and there are new bananas, I'll take them home. I think I will freeze some from smoothy making. And I will make banana muffins, being inspired by a post by @jooniFLORisploo after doing a search on "bananas" on this forum. :-)
« Last Edit: June 25, 2018, 01:36:02 PM by Linda_Norway »

Mon€yp€nny

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Re: What small things did you do TODAY to save money?
« Reply #11499 on: June 25, 2018, 02:20:33 PM »
- studied instructions of the DIY bug screens for our windows. Those will save us over €400 (I had budgeted for screens made to size, which were about €90 per screen). Hopefully husband has time to build them together tomorrow. Woohoo, the end of the fly, motts and mosquito infested house is in sight (welcome to the countryside).
- placed pan with frozen spinach in pan with potatoes, warming two pans for one. Saved gas.
- saved water used for cleaning produce and preparing meals, used it to water strawberries.
- made a solution for the the clothes hangers getting blown away from drying rack issue. We have bought an old fashioned big wooden drying rack for outside recently. It's great, I can finally hang dry our bed linens and hang dry more outside. But, you can't hold a clothes hanger in place with a pin on it. Fresh laundry on the floor. Used elastic band and buttons from my sewing stuff to create binders.
- Hung dried laundry (well, it's almost dry, still a bit to go tomorrow and another load after that) my laundry schedule revolves around the weather predictions lately. (Otherwise I have to climb stairs to dry it there on the landing or use the dryer).
- We hang most things on clothes hangers, saves ironing and the time spend on folding laundry.
- put cuttings from indoor plant in soil (in bottom of milk pack, with toilet rolls in it per cutting, that filled with soil). I saw someone sold them online the other day. When I feel brave, I'll ask the grumpy neighbour for a trade when they grow well. She has plants I would like a cutting from in her windowsill. The soil was used but with a bit of coffee grounds it will do for easy plants.
- the kids got home made ice popsicles after school (recyclable IKEA udspadd filled with lemonade syrup and water). Will make tomorrow's in a minute. Will also try making slush in the small soda bottles I have saved this week.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!