What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[MonkeyJenga]

Today's a travel day. I've packed a lot of cheap snacks to resist my usual overpriced junk food spree when I'm on any enclosed space for more than 2 hours.

Bought two new-with-tags bras on eBay for slightly less than the retail price of one bra.

Hmm, I should do that.  I was going to buy a new bra because I apparently left my black one in a hotel room a couple months ago.  The most similar one at Kohl's was $40, which is double what I was willing to pay.

Sigh. My main non-sports bra is irritating my skin at one junction on the strap. I thought about getting a new one but it'll be over $100 and take a lot of time to find a comfortable option. Doubt eBay will have my size but worth a look.

[OtherJen]

Today's a travel day. I've packed a lot of cheap snacks to resist my usual overpriced junk food spree when I'm on any enclosed space for more than 2 hours.

Bought two new-with-tags bras on eBay for slightly less than the retail price of one bra.

Hmm, I should do that.  I was going to buy a new bra because I apparently left my black one in a hotel room a couple months ago.  The most similar one at Kohl's was $40, which is double what I was willing to pay.

Sigh. My main non-sports bra is irritating my skin at one junction on the strap. I thought about getting a new one but it'll be over $100 and take a lot of time to find a comfortable option. Doubt eBay will have my size but worth a look.

You might be surprised. I need a size 30 band with a large cup (i.e., a size only made by European brands), and I've purchased all of my bras on eBay for at least 5 years now.

[MonkeyJenga]

Today's a travel day. I've packed a lot of cheap snacks to resist my usual overpriced junk food spree when I'm on any enclosed space for more than 2 hours.

Bought two new-with-tags bras on eBay for slightly less than the retail price of one bra.

Hmm, I should do that.  I was going to buy a new bra because I apparently left my black one in a hotel room a couple months ago.  The most similar one at Kohl's was $40, which is double what I was willing to pay.

Sigh. My main non-sports bra is irritating my skin at one junction on the strap. I thought about getting a new one but it'll be over $100 and take a lot of time to find a comfortable option. Doubt eBay will have my size but worth a look.

You might be surprised. I need a size 30 band with a large cup (i.e., a size only made by European brands), and I've purchased all of my bras on eBay for at least 5 years now.

Whoa good to know! That's exactly my problem, 30 band but large cup.

[MonkeyJenga]

I closed a checking account that started charging fees when I stopped getting a paycheck.

[Imma]

- Did some painting around the house today using paint and tools I already had
- Talked to a relative who is offering me some stuff for the garden because they are moving to an apartment
- Had dinner from the freezer
- For lunch, combined some freezer items with things from the fridge that needed to be eaten ASAP

Then, at the end of a long day of housework and DIY I sat down in the sofa with my crochet and a cup of tea and watched Netflix. Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but we share a Netflix account with a sibling. For €6/month we get to see a ton of good films and documentaries. We don't have TV but this way we can still relax and watch something good together for a very low cost. I know screen time is not considered a good thing on MMM but especially during the winter we really like having some virtually free date nights with Netflix, a blanket and a homemade snack.

[okisok]

Put off doing a big grocery shop yet another day. I was trying to get to the end of the month without spending the last $8 in my grocery 'envelope' (column in a spreadsheet). Now we're two days in and will probably put off tomorrow because shops on Saturday are the worst. I've been eating down the freezer and pantry. I haven't gotten to super weird meals yet, but I'm willing to.

I did find $0.29 a pound bananas that were on sale for being overripe. I think the corner store is not used to RIPE bananas, because they were beautiful to me! Nice and yellow, no brown spots, ready to eat. I cut some up and froze for smoothies and have eaten a few for snacks. I should probably go back and get the rest!

I've been more careful lately with my clothes, so that I don't have to wash them as much. I've really noticed the difference in the laundry volume. It probably only saves a few cents of laundry detergent and water, but it's saving me time.

[Kwill]

Made a big batch of lunches per the Frugalwoods beans and rice template. I mostly followed their recipe last week, and husband was a big fan of both the food and the ease of packing lunches.

That looks good. Thank you for sharing!

I had a coupon for £9 off when you buy £60 of groceries, so I ordered a big grocery delivery, stocking up on pasta and tinned foods and coffee in addition to what I would have gotten for the week. Then today I got several kinds of seeds and plants that were discounted since we're near the end of the planting season. I should still be able to get several months out of the herbs, especially.

[Chickadee]

My husband wanted to eat out.. I think we do this out of "boredom" quite a bit.

Instead I made a quick lunch and he spent the time I was in kitchen sprucing our front yard. 

We would have gotten dressed and been out few hours ..and instead we have a tidy yard for the week and a healthy lunch with big salad in our bellies.

[Imma]

I get paid weekly on Tuesdays. It's Saturday night now and I haven't spent a single cent from that money! I'm off from work so I'm staying home, reading, gardening, sewing, DIY'ing, organizing, just generally doing things I don't have time for normally. I'm really enjoying myself, I didn't even have a no-spend week on purpose.

We pay our groceries and bills from a joint account that my wage is not paid into, so I did pay my mortgage on the 1st :) and also spent around €10 in groceries. My s/o is working late shifts this week where he gets free dinner and I'm eating everything we have in the freezer. I only bought some produce, eggs and yoghurt. But there has been 0 discretionary spending so far.

[Loretta]

3 is my lucky number today.  I spent over 3 hours and $300 at the Toyota dealership getting my necessary state inspections and my scheduled maintenance done.  I dislike spending a Saturday afternoon waiting around in a dull waiting room but I had a good library book, and when I got home I learned I was able to buy new license plates/registration stickers for a whopping THREE years instead of the two I was trying for.  (You save $ by going for a longer term.  Also totaling about $300.)  I told the dealership no thanks for the costliest stuff they claimed I needed like a brake fluid flush and a throttle body cleaning. I can take care of that elsewhere for cheaper before winter if it’s even really necessary.  I did have a coupon mailer that saved me $30. 

[Rosy]

6. Changing our home owner's insurance - don't know final savings yet, but it will be around $200-250.

We passed the home inspection!
Final premium savings turned out to be $650+ in annual insurance premium.
Even better we are now out of the insurance pool, with an established, financially secure company, plus the coverage is also slightly better.
Liability coverage incr from 100 to 300K. Property insurance remained the same and the deductible dropped down to $1K.

   

[okisok]

Walked to a work meeting instead of driving.
Broke down and did the big grocery shop with an exact list for the two stores that are within a half mile of each other. Checked my Ibotta and Shopkick apps, printed a few coupons from Swagbucks too. I saved a grand total of $1.40 from these preparations, but saved a lot by sticking to the list!

[littlelykke]

Made bruschetta for dinner, from an old, stale leftover ciabatta and the tomatoes that we harvested from our own garden. The tomatoes came from the plants, that my father had leftover and gave to us. So a practically free meal today. It's the little things :P

[Imma]

I did something really smelly today: we bought garlic and to preserve it I peeled all the garlic and put the cloves in a jar filled with olive oil.

[middo]

I did something really smelly today: we bought garlic and to preserve it I peeled all the garlic and put the cloves in a jar filled with olive oil.

That is good smelly!

[Imma]

I did something really smelly today: we bought garlic and to preserve it I peeled all the garlic and put the cloves in a jar filled with olive oil.

That is good smelly!

It took a few days until the smell was gone from my kitchen though! But I've already used the garlic several times.

My no discretionary spending is still going well! I returned from my holiday on July 30 and was still off from work for the past 2 weeks. While I did buy some (frugal) groceries from our joint account, I have not spent any money except for buying some VWRL earlier this week when the price was down 2 days in a row.

I'll be back to work after the weekend so I'll have to pay bus tickets etc but I'm really going to try to keep the discretionary spending down for a while. A big part of my spending is unhealthy food when I'm stressed out and I hope to keep the stress levels down when I'm back at work.

[Trifle]

Stayed home all day and made dinner mostly from the garden. 

[horsepoor]

I did something really smelly today: we bought garlic and to preserve it I peeled all the garlic and put the cloves in a jar filled with olive oil.

That is good smelly!

It took a few days until the smell was gone from my kitchen though! But I've already used the garlic several times.

Maybe you already know this, but botulism is a real risk if you are putting raw garlic in olive oil.  http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/files/250352.pdf

http://theolivepress.com/news-blog/be-aware-of-the-risks-of-botulism-with-homemade-garlic-infused-oil#.XU9IXehKiUk

[1967mama]

*Pre-ordered groceries for pickup. I love the time this service saves me and also love that there’s no impulse buys.

*Soaked kidney beans over night and then cooked them up in the IP

*Made 2 loaves of bread

*Eating down the freezer. Thawing a 20 lb turkey in the fridge for the next few days.

*Eating crockpot steel cut oats daily

[jengod]

My 2yo “helped” by picking all our green tomatoes so I sliced them and put them in a brine to lactoferment.

[FrugalAussie]

I’ve put on 9kg is the last 7 months and have finally conceded that I need to go up a dress size as I’m literally bursting out of my clothes.  With the help of my Buy Nothing group, a search through all my stashed clothes, some repairs to clothes I already had and a trip to the op shops, I’ve managed to piece together enough work outfits to see me through to Summer and a holiday wardrobe for our trip to Greece in late  September for only $23. I’m really hoping I can stop the gain, stabilise my weight and then drop the extra kilos.  I’m about 20 kg overweight and very worried about the impact on my health and longevity.  The stress of my new job could be killing me!

[Imma]

I did something really smelly today: we bought garlic and to preserve it I peeled all the garlic and put the cloves in a jar filled with olive oil.

That is good smelly!

It took a few days until the smell was gone from my kitchen though! But I've already used the garlic several times.

Maybe you already know this, but botulism is a real risk if you are putting raw garlic in olive oil.  http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/files/250352.pdf

http://theolivepress.com/news-blog/be-aware-of-the-risks-of-botulism-with-homemade-garlic-infused-oil#.XU9IXehKiUk

Thanks for your concern and the useful links! As a home canner botulism is always in the back of my mind somewhere but honestly I thought with garlic just adding lemon juice and keeping the jar would be good enough, but it seems it isn't. In one of the links there's a recipe using citric acid that I will use from now on.

I've preserved garlic this way for years and nothing has ever happened, but that's the whole thing with botulism of course: it's extremely rare but extremely dangerous when it does happen.

[Chaplin]

Almost bought a new bicycle floor pump as the hose on my 20-year-old one was cracked and leaking. I looked for a new hose at one bike shop and it was $33, which is more than half the cost of new pump. I found one at another store for $13 and my pump works again.

I was also able to avoid buying a new compact bike pump, the kind you carry with you, by doing a little googling to figure out the problem I was having with it.

I have our electricity on equal monthly payments. When we moved in to this place a year ago the payment was based on the previous owner's history - $245/mo. Six months in our rate was reduced to $220, and now after a full year it's down to $195/mo. The previous owners must have been spendy - we charge an EV and they weren't, but we're using considerably less electricity. And, now that we've been here a year, we signed up for a 10% reduction challenge. If we reduce our consumption by 10% compared the previous 12 months, we get a $50 bonus. The 10% reduction is worth about $270 too.

[okisok]

Worked a very long shift today. Packed breakfast to eat when I arrived. Walked in and back. Did NOT stop at coffee shop because I had to go in early, so I deserve a treat! My treat was getting lunch and a snack for free at work, and spending so long there I didn't have time to spend any money.
Did a quick alteration to make an outfit work wearable again. I've been working on selecting outfits a few days or a week at a time for work. This way I can get by with fewer clothes due to judicious mixing and matching, and timely laundry loads.

[OtherJen]

I refrained from buying new cat toys at the pet supply store (a necessary stop for food and litter). The cat has plenty of toys. We just need to find his hidden stash.

[Linea_Norway]

I made a new seam in a hiking trousers. Now it is a cm shorter, but it looks a bit better. It was a self made trousers, from fancy outdoor cloth, but it gets extremely worn in the seams. So the cloth was a bad choice. My previous trousers of the same model lasted for 10 years. These look very worn after 1-2 years. I hope I increased the lifespan just a bit more.

[1967mama]

Cooked spaghetti dinner for company tonite using 2 year old freezer beef. It was well wrapped and totally fine still — no freezer burn.

Made 2 baguettes from scratch and Caesar salad with homemade dressing to accompany the meal.

It was a lot of work on a fairly warm day (no a/c) but it felt very satisfying to make everything from what I already had on hand and not run to the grocery store.

A guest brought the dessert!

[Imma]

Brought breakfast, lunch, coffee, fruit and snack from home. I often make the mistake of not taking enough food with me to work and then get extremely hungry late in the afternoon and buy chocolate from the vending machine (no healthy choices available) or buy something greasy on the 45 minute walk home. It does mean my bag is really bulky and heavy in the morning but I guess that's healthy weight training.

[MountainGal]

Didn't drive an hour to the big city to buy supplies from Sam's Club, Office Depot, etc.  There isn't anything we absolutely need at this time.  Figure I saved at least $150 plus fuel.

Brought the usual breakfast, lunch, a snack and iced coffee from home.

Now, off to try and clean the HP Officejet here at the office rather than buying a new one utilizing troubleshooting methods.  A line is forming down the page when scanning.  Not very professional looking...

[Linea_Norway]

Brought breakfast, lunch, coffee, fruit and snack from home. I often make the mistake of not taking enough food with me to work and then get extremely hungry late in the afternoon and buy chocolate from the vending machine (no healthy choices available) or buy something greasy on the 45 minute walk home. It does mean my bag is really bulky and heavy in the morning but I guess that's healthy weight training.

For that purpose, I have a role of outmeal cookies in my desk, in a plastic bread bag. There are not attractive enough to be snacked without purpose, but when I'm very hungry, they work well. Just a few, not the whole bunch.

[Linea_Norway]

Didn't drive an hour to the big city to buy supplies from Sam's Club, Office Depot, etc.  There isn't anything we absolutely need at this time.  Figure I saved at least $150 plus fuel.

Brought the usual breakfast, lunch, a snack and iced coffee from home.

Now, off to try and clean the HP Officejet here at the office rather than buying a new one utilizing troubleshooting methods.  A line is forming down the page when scanning.  Not very professional looking...

If you have to drive an hour to such stores, isn't it then cheaper to order online from time to time. If you order enough stuff, it might have free delivery. We do this with a lot of stuff. Driving is not free if you take into account all costs, including your time.

[Linea_Norway]

I cut DHs hair, like I have done every 6 weeks or so for a couple of decades.

[Omy]

We organized the garage this morning and DH wanted to reward ourselves with lunch out. I talked him into making lunch from leftovers and going out to dinner with a gift card we have.

[Dicey]

Didn't drive an hour to the big city to buy supplies from Sam's Club, Office Depot, etc.  There isn't anything we absolutely need at this time.  Figure I saved at least $150 plus fuel.

Brought the usual breakfast, lunch, a snack and iced coffee from home.

Now, off to try and clean the HP Officejet here at the office rather than buying a new one utilizing troubleshooting methods.  A line is forming down the page when scanning.  Not very professional looking...

Hey @MountainGal! Open it all up and look for the thin strips of glass. Then clean the glass very carefully. Usually something that's stuck on the glass is the cause of that stripe.

[1967mama]

*Made potato salad from scratch — I’ve been buying it at the grocery store all summer. It was actually pretty easy and tasted delicious!

*Returned a defective Amazon product on time. We put it in my daytimer 4 days in a row so I wouldn’t forget!!

*Enjoyed homemade stevia pop with stevia drops and soda water. My favorite is root beer. We get the drops on Amazon. They have every flavor you could imagine!

*Made no bake peanut butter bars for lunches...they taste like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Combined errands & returned a few kids clothing items that didn't fit. Went in person vs mailing back, saving the $5.95 in shipping return fees.
-On sabbatical, but ate lunch for free at the office. (I'm allowed to the use the facilities, but don't go often, because it feels like work again. I happened to be in the area around lunch time today.)

[Linea_Norway]

Walked to and from work yesterday.
Today, on my day off, I will use my DH's train pass to travel to town, instead of driving. I will also try to combine that visit with other stuff to do there.

[1967mama]

*cooked a free, ridiculously huge 29lb turkey from December. Bagged and froze the meat and kept out some for dinner. (Turkey Caesar wraps) Finally frees up some deep freeze space.

*cooked some dried navy beans and froze them

[Sun Hat]

I baked bread from scratch rather than going to the store, so I avoided the inevitable impulse purchases. The cost of the bread was probably a break-even though, since the (new and decidedly untrained) dog stole a loaf off of the counter while cooling.

[honeybbq]

I entered a work competition to win free tickets to see the Seattle Storm- our pro women's basketball team- and won 2 tickets!

I set up outlook to send the email at exactly the time the contest opened so that it would be synched on our work computers. Worked out great!

Now taking my daughter to her first pro basketball game! We'll ride the bus to the arena (free for me, $2.50 bus fare for her).
Will probably buy popcorn or a snack, so not totally free but will be fun!

[1967mama]

*Today I made a beef stew from 2 year old freezer is stew beef. It was very popular with the family.
I also made a double batch of granola (16c of oats and another 4-6 c of other good stuff.
A tapioca pudding was the third cooking adventure for today. I used to make this all the time and should put it back in rotation.

[Imma]

Brought breakfast, lunch, coffee, fruit and snack from home. I often make the mistake of not taking enough food with me to work and then get extremely hungry late in the afternoon and buy chocolate from the vending machine (no healthy choices available) or buy something greasy on the 45 minute walk home. It does mean my bag is really bulky and heavy in the morning but I guess that's healthy weight training.

For that purpose, I have a role of outmeal cookies in my desk, in a plastic bread bag. There are not attractive enough to be snacked without purpose, but when I'm very hungry, they work well. Just a few, not the whole bunch.

I'm trying out rice crackers now, hopefully that works too. And I have discovered there is instant soup available in the coffee corner of a different department. My coworkers sometimes laugh at me because I try to be friendly with the receptionist, the cleaners etc but no one on my floor knew the company provides free instant soup until the coffee machine maintenance man told me.

[Gerard]

My coworkers sometimes laugh at me because I try to be friendly with the receptionist, the cleaners etc but no one on my floor knew the company provides free instant soup until the coffee machine maintenance man told me.

Plus you get the added benefit of not being a dick. :-)

[Zaga]

Brought breakfast, lunch, coffee, fruit and snack from home. I often make the mistake of not taking enough food with me to work and then get extremely hungry late in the afternoon and buy chocolate from the vending machine (no healthy choices available) or buy something greasy on the 45 minute walk home. It does mean my bag is really bulky and heavy in the morning but I guess that's healthy weight training.

For that purpose, I have a role of outmeal cookies in my desk, in a plastic bread bag. There are not attractive enough to be snacked without purpose, but when I'm very hungry, they work well. Just a few, not the whole bunch.

I'm trying out rice crackers now, hopefully that works too. And I have discovered there is instant soup available in the coffee corner of a different department. My coworkers sometimes laugh at me because I try to be friendly with the receptionist, the cleaners etc but no one on my floor knew the company provides free instant soup until the coffee machine maintenance man told me.

Why on earth would anyone laugh at you for being friendly with the receptionist and janitors?!  That's messed up.

[Imma]

I also wish I had something to tell in this thread, but after 2 super easy no spend weeks during my vacation it has been quite difficult to keep it up during the workweek back at work.

Food is a major struggle. Our freezer isn't that big and we don't really have the space for a bigger one. We can't fit in bread and dinner for a whole week. I'm often away for very long days so I'm either not home during shop opening times (thus relying on the convenience store on the train station by the end of the week, which is much more expensive and staples like bread are hard to get)  or I'm so tired I just can't bring myself to walk to the shop if it's still open.

Then when it's finally weekend, the weekends are so short and there's so much to do. I turned off my alarm and slept until 11, then made breakfast, did chores, ran an errand, now I'm in the train to a friend's birthday (2 hours one way). I'll be home late so I'll sleep in again tomorrow, then I need to clean and do laundry and plan food for the week, end of weekend. And all weekends are like that. I suppose I could skip the social contacts but then life would really be an endless drag.

 I can't wait until retirement... Or at least the next holiday.

[Imma]

Brought breakfast, lunch, coffee, fruit and snack from home. I often make the mistake of not taking enough food with me to work and then get extremely hungry late in the afternoon and buy chocolate from the vending machine (no healthy choices available) or buy something greasy on the 45 minute walk home. It does mean my bag is really bulky and heavy in the morning but I guess that's healthy weight training.

For that purpose, I have a role of outmeal cookies in my desk, in a plastic bread bag. There are not attractive enough to be snacked without purpose, but when I'm very hungry, they work well. Just a few, not the whole bunch.

I'm trying out rice crackers now, hopefully that works too. And I have discovered there is instant soup available in the coffee corner of a different department. My coworkers sometimes laugh at me because I try to be friendly with the receptionist, the cleaners etc but no one on my floor knew the company provides free instant soup until the coffee machine maintenance man told me.

Why on earth would anyone laugh at you for being friendly with the receptionist and janitors?!  That's messed up.

My coworkers will greet them, they're not actively hostile, but they really don't see what the point of small talk is. I think it's pretty normal to talk about the weather, vacation plans or a new haircut. I used to be on the other side, I worked as a receptionist and in a cafetaria during undergrad and I hated that some people didn't consider me as an equal coworker because I had a service job. I can do my job efficiently because they clean my office and the bathroom, water my plants, refill my coffee machine, handle my mail and receive my visitors (and probably dozens of other important things that I don't even know about).

[Linea_Norway]

We had a cellar wall that didn't have plaster all over. As we are planning to sell the house, we wanted those 2 m2 plastered. Last time DH did it himself, it was very difficult, so we asked a company for a price to do it for us, using the bags of plaster we already have. That price turned out to be twice as expensive as we had expected, over 600$. That motivated DH to have another try himself. He watched some youtube instruction and this time it went much better. 600$ saved.

[horsepoor]

Cleaned the garage and did some reorganization yesterday.  The cabinet I curb-picked a year or two ago to use in my horse trailer doesn't work in my new trailer, but there was a perfect spot for it in the garage.  After placing it there, I realized I could move a little buffet cabinet from the garage into the new horse trailer, and then move a file cabinet down to the basement to fill the storage role that the buffet was using.  So instead of buying a new cabinet for the trailer, everything just rotated.

Also, in the process of cleaning the garage, I found a nearly full box of latex gloves, which I was about to buy since I need them to apply a topical treatment on my injured horse.

Also found a fly mask that has some life left in it that had fallen behind the workbench, and 3 brand new windshield wipers.  Curiously, they don't fit my current vehicles, but I might be able to return them to CostCo, or give them away to someone who can use them.

Friday - used a $10 off coupon at the feed store, and also snagged a bottle of a horse grooming product that is normally $12 off their clearance table for $3.

Made a meal plan for the week around the veg that is coming in from the garden, and food we already have in the house, so weekly grocery shop today will be minimal.

[Linea_Norway]

I found a new bunch of edible and well tasting mushrooms in the forest. The season is finally here for good and it rained a LOT yesterday, which is good for the mushrooms.

[Imma]

Went grocery shopping and bought some heavily discounted groceries. I'm going through my winter clothes to see what needs to be replaced and what can be repaired. I took a pair of shoes to be repaired, but it was beyond repair, so I had to let that pair go. I've had that pair since 2007 or 2008 so I guess that's a pretty decent lifespan for a pair of shoes. I'm also recycling a dress that has nice buttons, so I'm cutting those off to hopefully re-use in a new item of clothing.