What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Imma]

We visited a friend who lives in another country (I'm in Europe, so like 2 hours away) and instead of taking the train which would have been €90/return for 2 we bought long distance bus tickets at €55/return for 2. We're on our way home now and I'm not completely sure yet if it was the right decision. Train tickets are valid the entire day but bus tickets are booked for a specific bus and there are unexpected delays which means we may miss our connection. Of course in the worst case scenario we could get home by train but that would mean spending another €40, so I'd rather not.

[Arbitrage]

Doing errands by bike today, as usual.  DW is making dinner for company and wanted a few select items that I can't get from Aldi, so I rode on over to the local full-priced grocery to grab a couple of things.  One of them was a rotisserie chicken.  I saw that it was priced at $8.00 + tax.  I knew that I could get one from Sam's Club for $5.00, but I already did my Sam's Club trip yesterday and didn't need anything else from there.  Then, I asked myself - would I ride my e-bike 2 extra miles if someone would pay me $6 to do so?  (I'd have to make about $6 more to earn the $3.30 saved)  Dumb question; I'd ride my e-bike an extra 2 miles for free; I just need the excuse. 

10 miles of bike errands down, ~$50 saved on groceries vs. letting DW do it, and $30 in free books from the library.  Also back down to my target weight after a gained a few during vacation and work travel.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Used drug store rewards to pick up mailing envelopes for free for eBay sales
-Used lingering cilantro & jalapeno to make pico de gallo for dinner
-Forgot to make something for dinner (rough start to the day, which threw me off my game entirely), but defrosted carnitas for dinner. We'll make it work! I seriously, seriously wanted to eat out instead, but said no.

[Mellow Mallow]

- Ate leftovers for lunch (I seem to be the only person in my family who eats leftovers, so I've eaten a LOT of leftovers since finding MMM).

- Made a big batch of porridge and divided it into portions for brekkie throughout the week.

- Made really runny yoghurt yesterday. I'm giving up on that - I just can't get the texture right. Found some really good cheap yoghurt at Aldi, though, so all good. But instead of chucking the runny stuff, I'm using it for cooking porridge (it works for me...).

- Researched cheaper health insurance. Have no idea why it's so complicated.

- Meal planned.

- Went grocery shopping instead of my husband doing it. The bill was significantly lower than when he does it (interesting...), even though I bought multiples of things on special.

Not bad for one day!

[Linea_Norway]

- Ate leftovers for lunch (I seem to be the only person in my family who eats leftovers, so I've eaten a LOT of leftovers since finding MMM).

- Made a big batch of porridge and divided it into portions for brekkie throughout the week.

- Made really runny yoghurt yesterday. I'm giving up on that - I just can't get the texture right. Found some really good cheap yoghurt at Aldi, though, so all good. But instead of chucking the runny stuff, I'm using it for cooking porridge (it works for me...).

- Researched cheaper health insurance. Have no idea why it's so complicated.

- Meal planned.

- Went grocery shopping instead of my husband doing it. The bill was significantly lower than when he does it (interesting...), even though I bought multiples of things on special.

Not bad for one day!

Do you perhaps stirr the yoghurt during the process of making it? That makes a difference. And starting with full fat milk also helps.

Before you eat it, you can also hang up your yoghurt in a sieve with a tea towel. The fluid will go trough the towel and the solid parts of the yoghurt remain and can be eaten.

[Imma]

We visited a friend who lives in another country (I'm in Europe, so like 2 hours away) and instead of taking the train which would have been €90/return for 2 we bought long distance bus tickets at €55/return for 2. We're on our way home now and I'm not completely sure yet if it was the right decision. Train tickets are valid the entire day but bus tickets are booked for a specific bus and there are unexpected delays which means we may miss our connection. Of course in the worst case scenario we could get home by train but that would mean spending another €40, so I'd rather not.

We made it but it was stressful. If we had arrived one minute later we'd have missed our connection.

Today when I was walking out of the grocery store I noticed a discount had not been applied, so I walked back in and claimed my €1 discount. A friend and I also decided to combine two trips to the same city over two weekends, so I stayed home today and will only pay for the train once. And one of the two things we're doing is a free event!

[Mellow Mallow]

Do you perhaps stirr the yoghurt during the process of making it? That makes a difference. And starting with full fat milk also helps.

Before you eat it, you can also hang up your yoghurt in a sieve with a tea towel. The fluid will go trough the towel and the solid parts of the yoghurt remain and can be eaten.

I don't stir... should I? I'm using skim milk. Doctor's orders, I'm afraid...

[marty998]

My request to fix my investment mortgage at a lower rate for the next 2 years was approved. Will save $4500 in interest in the first year and a little more in the second.

you can also hang up your yoghurt

A sentence I never, ever, thought I would read :)

[Linea_Norway]

My request to fix my investment mortgage at a lower rate for the next 2 years was approved. Will save $4500 in interest in the first year and a little more in the second.

you can also hang up your yoghurt

A sentence I never, ever, thought I would read :)

In Dutch the traditional dish is called "hangop", meaning "hang up". Therefore I used the term here.

[Linea_Norway]

Finally I did something to save money. Walked to work and will walk back this afternoon. Washed my hair at work with shampoo and towel (and hot water) provided by employer.

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

I cut-and-sewed a flat flannel sheet to make it into a fitted sheet, instead of buying new sheets.  The fitted sheet and pillow cases in a set wear out before the top sheet does, so I always seem to have a surplus of mismatched top sheets and not enough fitted sheets.

[SunshineGirl]

Dyed my hair instead of going to the salon, and took the time to sign up for a new (but annoying) grocery store app to get my apples for 19 cents/lb. vs. $1.99/lb.

[Sugaree]

Instead of buying the kid a whole new set of long-sleeved shirts for winter (because his arms are like 4 inches longer this year), I bought him solid-color, long sleeved thermal shirts to wear under his favorite t-shirts, i.e. the ones that made it through The Clothing Purge.  I also bought them at a consignment sale for under $5 per shirt plus a North Face jacket for $15.  The best part is that I've sold enough of his outgrown clothes to more than cover what I've spent on his winter wardrobe.

[Linea_Norway]

We decided to doing the styling of our home for sale ourselves, instead of paying 1500 euros to let someone else do it. We have their advise on how to make it nice. We just don't want to rent the stuff. We can do it much cheaper ourselves, reusing some materials that we have and buying a few things that we can use normally later.

[horsepoor]

Nothing I really did, but I pulled an old purse out of the closet and found a $10 bill inside.

My Amazon account has been locked again for repeated fraudulent orders.  I'm just leaving it locked for now, which will probably save me money.  I'll have to really want something to go through the trouble of dealing with their horrible customer service morass.

Sold my pickup topper yesterday, the proceeds of which should mostly pay for the shed I'm going to build in the place it was stored.

[Jenny Wren]

We got home a day early from a trip, so had no meal planned. I managed to throw together some pretty fine spinach and caramelized onion with ricotta & green chili havarti quesadillas from trip leftovers and fridge odds and ends. I almost splurged on takeout burritos, so this is a huge win.

I actually called maintenance to replace the fluorescent kitchen tubes. Last time I rented, I'd do these low level things myself just to avoid having the inconvenience of waiting on the maintenance person. By following proper protocol, not only did I save the cost of the tubes, he also replaced the old discolored and cracked light cover, which is nice.

We walked to the nearby shopping center (instead of driving) to return library books on time (avoid fees), pick up the free paper (for the free events listings for the week), and get in a bit of exercise.

I stuck the extra days worth of backpacking meals I dehydrated into the freezer so they stay fresher and we can use them on our next trip.

[Rosy]

Turns out that the one expensive joint supplement I've been taking is absolutely worthless - saving me $30 month.

[horsepoor]

Teleworking today, so no commute.

Checked the grocery store circular and noticed they're doing 4X fuel points on gift cards.  I'm about to buy some lumber to build a shed, so will buy the Lowe's card there, which should save me $20 next time I fill up my truck's tank.

Skipping breakfast and eating leftovers for lunch.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Made a lunch out of fridge leftovers. This may have resulted in a hot dog salad. And, it wasn't terrible.

[Jenny Wren]

Used some foam core lying around to rig up a "baby gate" to keep my nearly blind 15 year old dog from wandering into our bedroom (we have a curtain but no door). She tends to wander in and can't figure out how to get out, which makes her panic.

Still putting off a grocery shop. Going to use pitas and things knocking about in the fridge and pantry to make flatbreads for dinner. I'm thinking pesto, ricotta, roasted chickpeas, artichoke hearts, and sweet peppers.

Assembled "zero-waste" kits for our daypacks using items we have. Put reusable plastic straws, bandana (for napkin), reusable camping sporks, and a set of chopsticks inside some collapsible silicone lunchboxes (for take-out/restaurant leftovers/random berry picking). The boxes were gifted to us via the local Buy Nothing group. We always have reusable bottles/cups with us, so no need to pack these. We wear these daypacks both hiking (only time we really use the car) and when walking around town on errands, so we should always have the kits on us if we need them.

Went to the thrift store to find replacement headphones for the spouse. $3.99 for a pair with decent sound quality (she wears them while working since we live in a small apartment and don't always agree on music :P). They feature a sequined Hello Kitty on them, but hey, the price was right!

[Imma]

Was going to a museum with a friend in a different city but cancelled it because I still don't feel very well after the food poisoning last weekend. It's money I'd rather have spent, but hey, savings are savings.

Instead I'm just going to hang out at home, clean the house a little bit, get the winter clothes on the shelf and put the summer clothes away. All things that cost no money or might even save some money if I find something I forgot I had. For someone who has always hated shopping and purges twice a year I'm always surprised how many clothes I still have.

[Dicey]

Do you perhaps stirr the yoghurt during the process of making it? That makes a difference. And starting with full fat milk also helps.

Before you eat it, you can also hang up your yoghurt in a sieve with a tea towel. The fluid will go trough the towel and the solid parts of the yoghurt remain and can be eaten.

I don't stir... should I? I'm using skim milk. Doctor's orders, I'm afraid...

No personal experience with stirring. I'm  commenting to suggest you use full fat starter yogurt, even if you must use skim milk. You can also use unflavored gelatin or agar as a thickener. If you do strain your yogurt as Linea suggests, be sure to save and use the whey, because it's very high in protein.

[FamilyGuy]

Started showering in cold water.
Bought birthday candles at dollar tree. ($1 for 60 mini candles).

[FamilyGuy]

Switched off AC last night. Nothing bad, we all slept as usual.

[horsepoor]

Audited a riding clinic for free today (fancy way of saying I watched other peoples' riding lessons).  Got some good pointers for things to work on for the price of about a gallon a gas.

[Imma]

Was too lazy to go grocery shopping yesterday, so I found some food in the pantry instead.

[Mellow Mallow]

Do you perhaps stirr the yoghurt during the process of making it? That makes a difference. And starting with full fat milk also helps.

Before you eat it, you can also hang up your yoghurt in a sieve with a tea towel. The fluid will go trough the towel and the solid parts of the yoghurt remain and can be eaten.

I don't stir... should I? I'm using skim milk. Doctor's orders, I'm afraid...

No personal experience with stirring. I'm  commenting to suggest you use full fat starter yogurt, even if you must use skim milk. You can also use unflavored gelatin or agar as a thickener. If you do strain your yogurt as Linea suggests, be sure to save and use the whey, because it's very high in protein.

Thanks, Dicey - I'll give it a shot. :)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Mostly kitchen type savings:
-Made hummus, pesto & pico de gallo vs purchasing
-Planned ahead & figured out some lunch options vs eating out between soccer games
-Used a $6 grocery store reward for let my 12 y.o get items he wanted to make for dinner. Trying to support his desire to learn to cook. Even though, the things he wants to make are not something the adults are interested in eating. ;-) The kids love it, and I know it's a critical life skill
-Opted to have guests for dinner vs buying out. We bought nice ingredients for the dinner, but it will still be quite a bit cheaper than eating out

[Jenny Wren]

We aimed for a frugal Saturday "date day" yesterday:

- We went on a hike, but instead of driving somewhere, we took the trail outside the door and walked the four miles to Chuckanut and hiked around the mountain/state park all day. Saved gas and eliminated any temptation to stop for roadside coffee or snacks.

- After hike/showers, we walked downtown to a favorite brewery. We skipped the full meal and multiple drinks, and instead split an appetizer and enjoyed a single drink. All the fun of "going out", but a third of the cost. Plus, waffle fry mushroom poutine? YUM!

- Spent the rest of the evening on our deck watching the rain come down and eating air-popped popcorn. Free and relaxing!

Total cost of a 14 hour date? $18 (and a few pennies for the bulk purchased popcorn kernels).

[Sugaree]

Found a 4+ year-old gift card for the movie theater that still had a balance in it, so we had a free date afternoon.

[RelaxedGal]

Made pizza on the gas grill instead of in the oven, to save on air conditioning by keeping the heat out of the house.

[FamilyGuy]

Avoided going to any shopping for anything. Instead went to park.

[Arbitrage]

We aimed for a frugal Saturday "date day" yesterday:

- We went on a hike, but instead of driving somewhere, we took the trail outside the door and walked the four miles to Chuckanut and hiked around the mountain/state park all day. Saved gas and eliminated any temptation to stop for roadside coffee or snacks.

- After hike/showers, we walked downtown to a favorite brewery. We skipped the full meal and multiple drinks, and instead split an appetizer and enjoyed a single drink. All the fun of "going out", but a third of the cost. Plus, waffle fry mushroom poutine? YUM!

- Spent the rest of the evening on our deck watching the rain come down and eating air-popped popcorn. Free and relaxing!

Total cost of a 14 hour date? $18 (and a few pennies for the bulk purchased popcorn kernels).

Jealous!  Still shooting for two more years before I can move us to Bellingham...

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Had family we never see over for dinner. We'd discussed going out, but 8 people for a meal out isn't nearly as relaxing. Instead, i made hummus, sliced veggies, & served that with bread. Then we had salmon, rice, caprese salad & the kids had pesto pasta. Our guests brought wine & dessert. I'd say we spent 1/4 of the cost of a meal out, and had well over three hours, way more relaxing than a meal out. It was a bit of a disaster to face down the dishes that I'd left in the sink this morning. ;-)

[Linea_Norway]

Had family we never see over for dinner. We'd discussed going out, but 8 people for a meal out isn't nearly as relaxing. Instead, i made hummus, sliced veggies, & served that with bread. Then we had salmon, rice, caprese salad & the kids had pesto pasta. Our guests brought wine & dessert. I'd say we spent 1/4 of the cost of a meal out, and had well over three hours, way more relaxing than a meal out. It was a bit of a disaster to face down the dishes that I'd left in the sink this morning. ;-)

Didn't your guests offer to do or help with the dishes?

[jengod]

Haven’t been terribly frugal lately but:

* Saved $5 by parking on the street instead of it a lot
* Asked for and received a discount ($25!) on a very slightly dented stainless steel item 

[Linea_Norway]

Walked to work today and will walk back later.

Asked for a refund of money for a private event I went to. The club says they will refund it.

[35andFI]

Biked to (and will be biking from) work, food/drink for all day will cost < $2, and will be going to the free gym after work.

I do these pretty much every day but for some reason I chose today to post about it.

[Arbitrage]

Took the family to a baseball game with free tickets, and gave some free tickets to friends as well. 

The savings part was in the food/drink - we brought some snacks/drinks for the kids, but I was going to spend a little money to 'give back' for the free tickets as well as to give the family the full ball park experience (which, in my mind, is more about the food than the baseball).  I wandered off and was going to buy a beer, but was struck dumb at the $15 price.  While I mulled that over, something came up and we had to leave early.  Would've been nice to stay a bit longer, even if it meant spending some more money, but still...it's a tough pill to swallow knowing that I could get an entire 12 pack of decent beers for that price.

Thankfully, we just jetted over to another friend's house and had a good time there for the rest of the day.

[Rosy]

Tried out a new grocery store in the area - saved $33 via a coupon and around $25 on store specials. Yay:)
Bonus - they had a carton of coconut milk and cashew milk combo. I don't like the taste of almond milk but I'm trying to go dairy-free.
Although I find that I tolerate goat milk just fine.

Harvested seeds from my bright orange and deep yellow cosmos - free flowers:) for my spring garden.
Harvested more chili peppers - can't believe they are still hanging in there.
Got a free plant for fall from another self-seeding plant.
Managed to keep my bush lemon verbena and African blue basil bush alive throughout our brutal summer, so there is a good chance they will survive another winter, even one of the oreganos shows signs of coming alive. I'll try my hand at propagating once it is less hot.
Happy to see my mints (mostly) survived.
Started on putting the veggie-herb garden back into shape so I will be ready for fall gardening in October.

Made a smoothie from avocado (our tree is prolific:) and a frozen banana (an overripe banana that we would have thrown away) with bits and pieces in the fridge thown in, like coconut.
Basically free ...

Nothing exciting, but it all adds up. Oh and I finally switched my meds to a different pharmacy, saves about $17 month.



 
 

[Imma]

Ordered a sewing pattern months ago and the company keeps having delivery problems so I cancelled it and got a €7 refund.

A friend asked to borrow an expensive textbook for this semester and I sent it to her. She sent me an e-mail asking me what the shipping costs were so I let her know + gave my bank account details. Normally I wouldn't claim back €5 from a friend, but she's right, I should, I saved her €100 by lending it to her.

[Linea_Norway]

We ate fish that DH caught himself.

[Jenny Wren]

@Arbitrage We love it here. This move is thus far one of our best decisions!

Catching up from the last two days:

Sunday

- Grocery shopped -- stuck to the list and skipped a few items that were higher priced than normal.

- Found change beneath the washing machine in the laundry room, which covered our laundry for the week. Will be checking here more regularly.

Monday

- Walked with elder son to our uni campus to do some pre-quarter tasks, as opposed to driving and paying for parking.

- Walked to the pharmacy to get prescriptions instead of driving.

- Stocked up on my expensive-ish B12 supplements by buying two big bottles. There was a buy-one, get-one free tag, plus I had a $5 off any purchase register coupon. Spent $5.39 for a 9 month supply of said vitamins, thus saving ~$15.

- Emailed a professor to see if an older edition of the text for my upcoming class will work. He replied that the last two editions are acceptable and that the syllabus will reflect page # options for those books as well as for the current edition. By buying an older edition, I am saving $175 (used older editions are online for $6 + $3.99 shipping, versus $185 for the newest edition). My books this quarter, for 4 classes, are only ~$45! Way to go profs for working to shut down the textbook ripoff scheme!

[FamilyGuy]

My wife was stopped the day be fore yesterday by TWO city police officer for driving a pediddle (one headlight out).  No fine, but a form we had to get certified.  A trip to Autozone, watch a YouTube video for headlight replacement on my 2001 car, a scraped hand.  $11.65 versus God knows what a repair shop would charge.

nice....

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Had family we never see over for dinner. We'd discussed going out, but 8 people for a meal out isn't nearly as relaxing. Instead, i made hummus, sliced veggies, & served that with bread. Then we had salmon, rice, caprese salad & the kids had pesto pasta. Our guests brought wine & dessert. I'd say we spent 1/4 of the cost of a meal out, and had well over three hours, way more relaxing than a meal out. It was a bit of a disaster to face down the dishes that I'd left in the sink this morning. ;-)

Didn't your guests offer to do or help with the dishes?

They did offer to help with the dishes, but they had a long drive & it was a school night for their kids. I sent them on their way.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

A month or so, I sold an item on eBay. I arranged for a USPS package pickup, and USPS confirmed they picked it up. I really think it was stolen off of my porch, but USPS took accountability by noting that the pickup was complete. After that, the package was never registered at a post office, and I eventually had to return the buyer the full cost + all fees. USPS covered $70 of the $215 purchase. I filed an appeal, but never realized that part of the insurance I'd purchased was through eBay. (I personally think it's almost impossible to tell given the integration of the postage on eBay's site). Anyway, this weekend, I was doing a random Google search to see if I could find the best way to appeal the post office's decision, and saw an option to file a claim with eBay instead. Done, and already received the rest of my money via Paypal. I'm thrilled, as not only did I not make money on this sale, I was out such a big amount of my own money. Persistence & a little bit of luck for the win.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I fixed my dishwasher myself over the weekend. I bought a new motor/pump assembly for about $120, unhooked all the lines, my husband helped me turn it over, and then it was literally like 2 screws. Star shaped ones, though. I already had a set of the star shaped screwdrivers.

[MissNancyPryor]

I exchanged 6 months of contact lenses for a new prescription.  The clinic took the boxes on exchange for zero cost because they were unopened, in perfectly clean shape, and still had 2 years left before stated expiration date.  So glad I remembered they do that!

[Tom Bri]

We are getting 10% cash back this month on our credit card up to $1200 spent, so my wife bought gas cards for the remainder. Total saved $120.

[Jenny Wren]

I spent $10 on an older edition of a textbook I needed (with Prof's blessing), then spent a couple hours in the school library with the current edition matching up the page numbers from my reading list for the new edition to the older edition.  Savings, $220. Plus, I shared this reading list update for the older edition with classmates and boosted my social capital.