What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Trifle]

Congrats @Imma!  A good sofa is a really good score. 

[okisok]

Forgot my lunch at home, so ate crackers from the break room. My co-worker tried to convince me to order out. I replied that it was a short work day and a snack would tide me over. I had a big dinner plan!

I made the last package of pheasant breasts into a pseudo chicken masala with a jarred sauce, frozen bell peppers, onions, and celery. It was delicious, made several meals, and was nearly free.

SO has asked for a mending tutorial to salvage some of his shirts. He already knows how to sew, but he'd like to learn how to best make patches that don't show. Spreading the Mustachian agenda!

[Freedomin5]

Did some food prep for this week — made sausage rolls for work lunches and will be making hummus tomorrow.

[Roadrunner53]

A few months ago I needed to lock in on this coming winter's oil price for home heating. I got really lucky and was able to lock in at $1.00 less per gallon than I did last year. They delivered 120 gallons of oil yesterday at the new lower price. So by saving $1 a gallon, I saved $120! YAY!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I picked up some books off of a neighbor's "free" pile, and my son picked up an old package of biking maps. He lost interest, so I posted them on eBay. Sold them yesterday for $96! Craziness.

Also, bought a 6.5 lb whole chicken for $3.

[okisok]

The profit on the trash-picked maps is amazing!

Ate dinner last night and lunch at home. That's a big deal with SO, who likes to eat out. He was waffling about lunch today so I just pulled out last night's leftovers and made a new thing he really liked, based on what was in the fridge and pantry.

Returned some items to the store and didn't even go to the sales floor. We didn't need anything, so I left the store with $40 extra!

[Arbitrage]

When my Fitbit broke, I decided to spring for a cheap knock-off smartwatch instead of replacing it again.  There are a few features that I really value - the vibrating alarms, heart-rate tracking, step counting...and it seemed like I could get what I needed out of a much cheaper version.  Five days or so with the new device ($27 on Prime Day), and it seems like a perfectly fine substitute.

[Rosy]

CREDIT CARD PERK
Navy Federal CU is offering a new perk on one of their credit cards - if you use it to pay for your annual prime membership they will reimburse you in full.
Marked my calendar for upcoming renewal (offer is good until Sep '21).
That is a surprisingly awesome deal - SAVINGS $134~

[okisok]

When my Fitbit broke, I decided to spring for a cheap knock-off smartwatch instead of replacing it again.  There are a few features that I really value - the vibrating alarms, heart-rate tracking, step counting...and it seemed like I could get what I needed out of a much cheaper version.  Five days or so with the new device ($27 on Prime Day), and it seems like a perfectly fine substitute.

I did exactly the same thing and am happy with my cheaper knock-off Fitbit. It even has more features than I really want, but it was $30 at Target and has done well for 6 months.

[Dollar Slice]

My mom's birthday is next week - there's a book that came out recently that I knew she wanted to read, so I asked if she'd gotten it yet, and if not, maybe I could get it for her. She asked if I could send it to her on the Kindle app since it's easier on her eyes than a paper book - and I remembered that my Chase credit card had a 20% cash back offer for Kindle books until next week, so I remembered to use that card to buy it. $2 saved :-)  It's worth checking their website a couple times a month for those offers, I think I saved about $10 this month just buying stuff I was going to buy anyway, at the stores I always shop at.

[okisok]

That's a timely note, Dollar Slice. I was looking at books for gifts today and didn't even think about sending via Kindle. I did order two books from PaperbackSwap for a grand total of $0.49, but most of the books I was looking for weren't on the site. But if you're looking for fantasy, spy thrillers, or kids books, that's the place!

I'm currently reading a book a friend mailed to me after I mailed her a book. (See why I always ask for postage stamps on gift-giving occasions??) I have more on hold at the library that I need to pick up, and several more I put on a kind of 'rolling hold' so that I always have books to read from the library (or audiobooks to listen to).

My no-spend on food on workdays is still an unbroken streak! I wasn't planning on it, but when I started my new job I vowed to do better about meal prep. Today was leftover sandwiches from yesterday's client lunch and there's enough left for all of us to have another free lunch tomorrow. There's unlimited canned sodas and coffee drinks so beverage treats are free, too.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Mine is a truly tiny win. It's our anniversary (15th) & we did exchange small gifts. I was out of tissue paper, and didn't want to run to the store to pick up an expensive package. Instead, I'll get a jumbo size of plain white tissue paper at Costco, which will last for several years. In the mean time, I had a few gift bags, so went through all of our gift boxes (saved for future gifts) & found just enough previously used tissue paper to cover the top of the bags. In amazing news, I went to bed, and my husband had to wrap his gifts. He discovered the lack of tissue paper, and "borrowed" the paper out of my gift bags. ;-)

[bloodaxe]

Visited a different city for a few days and didn't eat out once. Brought lunch in containers so I could stop and eat when hungry on the drive there.

And went grocery shopping and cooked at the airbnb.

[horsepoor]

I've been making a special trip to Tractor Supply every few months to buy a horse feed that is like $9 cheaper/bag than at my regular feed store.  Yesterday I realized that I can put it on auto-ship with free shipping and 5% off if I buy two bags at a time.  So 5% cheaper as well as less driving for me (and the occasional wasted trip if the store is out of stock). The time savings are actually better than the $5 or so I'll save every two months.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I've been making a special trip to Tractor Supply every few months to buy a horse feed that is like $9 cheaper/bag than at my regular feed store.  Yesterday I realized that I can put it on auto-ship with free shipping and 5% off if I buy two bags at a time.  So 5% cheaper as well as less driving for me (and the occasional wasted trip if the store is out of stock). The time savings are actually better than the $5 or so I'll save every two months.

Awesome improvement, @horsepoor

Returned an item we bought but didn't need. About a $8 savings, but we already had to stand in line to return a much pricier item, so thought we may as well do this one. (The lines to return at Costco can be ~20+ minutes.) Otherwise, we likely would have figured out a way to use/donate the item. Indoor line drying the majority of our clothes. Made a very creative dinner last night out of repurposed leftovers.

[Rosy]

I've been making a special trip to Tractor Supply every few months to buy a horse feed that is like $9 cheaper/bag than at my regular feed store.  Yesterday I realized that I can put it on auto-ship with free shipping and 5% off if I buy two bags at a time.  So 5% cheaper as well as less driving for me (and the occasional wasted trip if the store is out of stock). The time savings are actually better than the $5 or so I'll save every two months.

Yup - those 'continued' wins are the best!:) - Great job!

I'm still thrilled about my own credit card paying for one year of FREE Prime subscription. Even though in the past year Prime membership has more than paid for itself I still feel slightly guilty for having a Prime membership.
Before Covid I never ordered all that much online so I viewed it as a luxury expense for Prime videos with the rare shipping perk and since I also indulge in Netflix - well, it was/is a tad frivolous at least in my view.

[Loretta]

I cancelled my cat's vet appointment for Monday because he seems better now.  Saving money and gas and cat drama as he hates car rides.  He has a sensitive stomach and now needs his anal glands expressed periodically, poor dude.  I've ordered the special kitty food and supplements that the vet office recommended on the phone.  I exercised him with a cat toy this morning and will give everyone a Caturday night treat of canned kitty food with hidden probiotics inside it. 

[MudPuppy]

Found fried field peas on sale and snagged 5lbs!

[Roadrunner53]

Found fried field peas on sale and snagged 5lbs!

Okay, please tell us what this is? Never, ever heard of it!

[Freedomin5]

Food swap with friends. They gave me spices from a bulk purchase. I gave them hummus. I’m using their spices to make bagels that I’m sharing with another friend who gave me honey. Fresh-baked deli style bagels are incredibly expensive here (like $2 per bagel) whereas I can make them for about $0.20 per bagel.

[MudPuppy]

Found fried field peas on sale and snagged 5lbs!

Okay, please tell us what this is? Never, ever heard of it!

A delightful autocorrect of dried, unfortunately! But maybe One cooked they could be coated in seasoning And made into crispy snacks via air fryer...

[Imma]

We had our walls insulated this summer (1940s brick house) and this week has been the first week that we needed to turn the heating on, room temperature had droped to 16,5C. On Wednesday I turned the heating up to 20C. Turned it off after an hour. It's still 20C! I air out the house in the morning and the temperature drops to 19,5 temporarily but as soon as we start generating additional heat in the kitchen (washing machine, stove, oven or coffee machine gets turned on) we're quickly back at 20. We used to always keep the heating at 18C but now the house is heating itself! Can't wait for the gas bill to arrive. Natural gas is extremely expensive in here. Best part is we had a great deal on the insulation too, we were able to get it at cost because the city is trying to get our neighbourhood off gas as part of the energy transition.

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

Made jam, with blackberries that I picked from my yard this summer - enough to use some as holiday gifts and still leave me enough to last until next year.

And got a free big old stock pot from a family member who was going to get rid of it.

Also got $40 of Amazon gift cards, for answering two surveys from product reps related to my work.

[MudPuppy]

An item I bought earlier this month for $180 is now $156. Ten minutes of instant messaging with customer service and I got a refund for the difference.

[Loretta]

I contacted Amazon Customer Service about an item that should have been delivered Sunday but was misrouted.  I got a $5 credit for my troubles and hopefully the item arrives in the next couple days.  I also contacted my HOA about a $27 error in my bill, haven’t heard back from them yet.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Sold a couple of items on eBay. Net money in, plus I was able to use padded mailing envelopes that I picked up off of Buy Nothing
-Leftovers for meals
-Line dried laundry
-Picked additional tomatoes & jalapenos to use in our meals

[marion10]

Used coupons and got three tubes of toothpaste for 2.12.
Made yogurt from milk that I get for free from our senior program.
Used up veggies from CSA box to make cheddar potato broccoli soup.

[cool7hand]

My wife cut my hair.

[Dollar Slice]

Signed up for a study that pays $100 in Amazon credit for about a month of 1-3 min daily surveys about a medical condition/medication that I have/use. Used the first $25 installment towards a gift I wanted to get for my dad. Plus I realized that a different, more attractive color of the gift was $15 cheaper for some reason, so I bought that instead.

Bonus: he was really surprised and absolutely delighted :-)

[cool7hand]

Researched whether some repeating purchases were now eligible for Amazon subscribe and save and added some toothpaste.

[slappy]

An item I bought earlier this month for $180 is now $156. Ten minutes of instant messaging with customer service and I got a refund for the difference.

What company? I feel like this happens somewhat regularly, but I never know if customer service would be willing to adjust the price.

[MudPuppy]

Amazon

Edit: they technically don’t have to adjust, so I don’t do it often. I’ve found they will occasionally do it as a goodwill gesture.

[MudPuppy]

Because I saw this thread bumped, I walked to my dental appointment instead of driving my car.

[mm1970]

I cut my dh's and ds2's hair.  Saved $40, but it took 1.5 hours...

[ZsaZsa]

Listed an antique quilting frame on Marketplace. Made a large pot of Sicilian soup with leftover chicken, broth, some tired veggies and sale priced pasta. Combined a trip to bank, library and grocery store with the absolute necessary trip to vote.

[LaineyAZ]

Got the 25% senior discount at Walgreens today on some bandages I needed. 
Senior discount is available to everyone age 55 and over but is only offered on the first Tuesday of every month.  (although there's some info on the internet that stores have now expanded that to every Tuesday, but I can't confirm this.)

And at my local store you have to ask because clerks said that some people were insulted when they were assumed to be 55+!

[Linea_Norway]

I am going to make (sourdough) bread again. A bag of flour costs 2/3 of the price of the cheapest bread I usually buy. 1 bag of flour is enough for two breads. My yeast is more of less for free, accept for the starter feeding part once a week or so. And I don't know how much 45 minutes of hot oven cost. Still, I think I save a lot on bread now. The homemade bread is also a bit healthier (because of sourdough) and I like the taste better.

[Frugal Lizard]

@Linea_Norway - and think what the equivalent loaf of bread would cost if you went out and bought it.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Mailed out an eBay sale (shirt a kid had outgrown) using a free padded envelope given off of Buy Nothing.

[Linea_Norway]

@Linea_Norway - and think what the equivalent loaf of bread would cost if you went out and bought it.

I found out yesterday that the 2 kg packs of white flour cost only half if you buy 4 packs at the time. Now I am using  a lot more flour than before, as I put in about 50% white flour in my homemade breads. So despite my smallish cupboard space, I filled up with 8 kg of flour.

2 kg pack white flower per 4 packs = 5 NOK per kg (NOK = Norwegian crowns)
1 kg of wholegrain flour = 12 NOK per kg
50% of each is 8,5 NOK per kg flour I use. 1 kg flour gives two loaves baked together in oven. 1 kW costs approx 1 NOK. My DH thinks that oven uses 1-2 NOK for baking an hour on high temperature. Let's say that including electricity the loaves cost about 6-7 nok per loaf. Less than a dollar for the current dollar course. The loaves I usually buy cost 17 NOK per loaf. So there is a lot to safe, even if the white flour would cost twice as much.

[Freedomin5]

Cycled 1.5 km out of my way to go to a grocery store that was having a sale on cheese. Stocked up on 1.5 kg of cheese. Saved about $7.

Using some of that cheese, a batch of homemade pizza pockets went into our freezer. Probably spent about $10 making enough pizza pockets for two meals. Ordering pizza would cost about $40 per meal. so I saved around $70.

I also biked to a doctor’s appointment today, saving about $8 in taxi fare.

[Loretta]

I googled how to fix my cat water fountain that has started making a lot of noise. I’m going to try to revive it vice throwing it away.  I have 2, one i bought online and one I bought from the bulletin board at work for $10 cash.  My cats 🐱 enjoy flowing water like the mountain lions they are. 

I procured a used Kirby vacuum from Buy Nothing this week and it’s been chilling in my car trunk for a couple days.  Going to plug it in and see what happens today. 

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

I got a free bread making machine from a friend who was getting rid of it.  I'm not sure about this one, whether it will result in real savings.  Naturally if I'd been planning to buy a bread machine then a free one would be a savings, and in theory I can save by making lots of bread instead of buying it.  But the friend was getting rid of it because it got little use, so it could turn out the same here.  We shall see.

[aliene]

We've learned how to make flat bread. Really did not know it was that easy!

[horsepoor]

I made a new mailbox post out of scrap lumber and re-mounted the mailbox using hardware I had on hand. It's been rickety for years, but was looking like it was in real danger of falling over the past couple months.  Nice and sturdy (and better looking) again for $0.

Making a pot of chili using butternut squash, garlic, chiles and tomatoes from the garden.

Hit the grocery store this morning and stocked up on a few things we normally use that were on better-than-usual sales.

[cool7hand]

Stocked up on more healthy meat that was on sale and dropped it in the freezer.

[Roadrunner53]

I got a free bread making machine from a friend who was getting rid of it.  I'm not sure about this one, whether it will result in real savings.  Naturally if I'd been planning to buy a bread machine then a free one would be a savings, and in theory I can save by making lots of bread instead of buying it.  But the friend was getting rid of it because it got little use, so it could turn out the same here.  We shall see.

I have a bread machine for a few years and I rarely use it. Mostly because of calories and how much bread can two people eat! What was I thinking when I bought it. It is one of the more expensive, large ones too! However, I found a pizza dough recipe on youtube and they showed it being mixed with a traditional mixer with a dough hook. Well, I actually have a Kitchen Aid mixer that is stowed away and hasn't been used in probably twenty years! So, I thought to myself, why not mix the dough in the bread machine. It came out so great! I used the cake making cycle and let it mix till it formed a wonderful ball. It was warmish when I took it out. I oiled a glass bowl, then dropped the dough into it, put some saran over the top, put a towel over the whole bowl and let it sit for several hours. It doubled or tripled in size. I floured a cutting board and added just enough flour to the dough so it wasn't so sticky. I used a rolling pin to roll it out. That was a little bit hard to do but I also pressed it out with my hands once on the pizza pan. The dough was really great! This is the youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2n4WK1hNaM

This guy also has a bread recipe that I made and it was easy and came out perfect. He also has a mozzarella recipe that I plan on trying too.

My bread maker has the ability to make jam and even meatloaf! I have never tried either!

If for nothing else, the bread maker mixes pizza dough very nicely! So easy to do and so cheap! You can doctor your pizza up with just about anything! Leftovers, ham and pineapples, onions, pepperoni, peppers, chicken, meatballs, pepperoni...the skies the limit!

[Frugal Lizard]

On Saturday I fixed my laptop myself.  Saved $100.
I watched some YouTube and the got the push from some excellent advisors on the DIY part if the forum. 

[Roadrunner53]

Correction, I watched the mozzarella youtube vid and no thanks to making it. Not super hard but the yield is much smaller than I ever imagined and a bit more work than I want to do!

[Dollar Slice]

Correction, I watched the mozzarella youtube vid and no thanks to making it. Not super hard but the yield is much smaller than I ever imagined and a bit more work than I want to do!

I have watched a couple of youtube videos of people (including professional chefs) trying to make mozzarella for the first time, and I agree that you should not do it :-)  They always seem to either fail completely or come up with really disappointing quality cheese on the first couple of tries.