What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[trashtalk]

Didn’t need to buy briquettes or propane to make a fire for a hamburger cookout—used small branches and sticks grown on the lot that we’ve been saving and “seasoning” for a year or more.

[cool7hand]

Sealed a cracked soft-cooler insert with silicone.

[MudPuppy]

@cool7hand funnily enough, I was going to say that I fixed a hole in the kiddie pool the dogs play in with marine silicone

[cool7hand]

@MudPuppy

Sweet!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Signed up for my volunteer hours at my son's soccer club. Saves $100 for 3 hours of volunteer time, and is a volunteer opportunity I'm happy to help with (cleat & uniform sharing, as kids grow).

[MountainGal]

~Was invited to a family function 1.5 hours away yesterday.  I told my sister I will wait and see everyone Wednesday, when I am in town for errands.  Saved fuel and vehicle wear and tear.

~Instead of buying more food storage containers, I am going to make a concentrated effort to consume the food currently stored in the ones we have.  I've "recovered" three from the freezer thus far.

~Bought a pair of work slacks for 40% off.  :)

[CNM]

Ate a homemade lunch and made my daughter lunch at home, too.  Intend on eating leftovers at home for dinner, too. 

I made myself coffee for breakfast, including an iced coffee (granted, it was from a store bought concentrate) rather than buying it on my way to the office.

Made an IRA contribution today!

The grandmothers agreed to split watching our kiddo today due to normal caregiver unavailability.

[cool7hand]

Bought 44 lbs of grass fed beef on sale and filled up the freezer

[pasadenafr]

Decided I had too many Marriott points and I wasn't going to use them any time soon, so I transferred a bunch to my fave international airline and bought a round-trip ticket home for the holidays for $167.31. Shaved upwards of $1k from my vacation budget to spend almost 2 months on the French Riviera with my parents, after 2 years of not being able to see them.

[trashtalk]

The school run and grocery shopping were all car-free trips thanks to our wonderful e-cargo bike.

Also once the kids were off at school I did all our deferred-maintenance yardwork myself using only manual tools (edger, hedger, rake, broom), so reduced environmental impact as well as saving a little money.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@pasadenafr - your post reminded me that I had a United credit lingering. I'm so glad I checked, because it's expiring before any of our current planned travel, but I'll likely book something for the holidays. We would have forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder!

As for me, really wanted takeout/splurge sort of dinner, but came home & had a nice quiet cocktail, and some cheese & crackers. Perfect "splurge" at home.

[pasadenafr]

@pasadenafr - your post reminded me that I had a United credit lingering. I'm so glad I checked, because it's expiring before any of our current planned travel, but I'll likely book something for the holidays. We would have forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder!

Ahah you're welcome!

[Erma]

Are all the leftovers and in the last two days I used an app which calculates your cheapest public transport ticket while you are travelling. That saved a little bit because I wouldn't have checked the option they billed me.

[reeshau]

Shaved upwards of $1k from my vacation budget to spend almost 2 months on the French Riviera with my parents, after 2 years of not being able to see them.

Priceless!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@pasadenafr - your post reminded me that I had a United credit lingering. I'm so glad I checked, because it's expiring before any of our current planned travel, but I'll likely book something for the holidays. We would have forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder!

Ahah you're welcome!

Just booked, and was able to use all $1100 of the travel credit! I had to spend $200 out of pocket for four flights, on a pricey multi destination ticket, so I'm thrilled.

[pasadenafr]

@pasadenafr - your post reminded me that I had a United credit lingering. I'm so glad I checked, because it's expiring before any of our current planned travel, but I'll likely book something for the holidays. We would have forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder!

Ahah you're welcome!

Just booked, and was able to use all $1100 of the travel credit! I had to spend $200 out of pocket for four flights, on a pricey multi destination ticket, so I'm thrilled.

Nice!! Enjoy your vacation!

[Roadrunner53]

Cooked a chicken in a Reynolds cooking bag yesterday. Cut up the chicken today and saved the bones and scraps. Put in crockpot to make a nice bone broth. Will make a chicken soup later on. Chicken came out moist and wonderful. I highly recommend cooking in the bags! I always cook my turkey in them and perfect every time. I also cooked pork ribs in a bag this week and they came out so nice too!

[halftimer]

We bought thermal curtains during the heatwave a few months ago a quickly put them up without making any adjustments. I bought curtain extender rods instead of the regular rods for 75% less and found 2 of the specialty curtain panels in the clearance section for only $5 each. Now that the weather is finally cooler, I took all the curtains down and shortened them, and made tiebacks from the off-cuts. A nice zero waste project that looks much more presentable and no longer blocks the baseboard heating vents.

I booked flights on sale to visit our parents and had to speak to the agent later about a related issue. Once they checked all the details they said it was the cheapest flight they had ever seen. 'How did you find flights for $6 each plus tax? I didn't even know we could do that!' I was very proud of my travel booking skills for that.

[Imma]

We are not saving any money yet, but we are renovating our home. We wanted to move but have found out we've been priced out of the market. We could increase our mortgage by €250.000 and we would just about be able to afford the same house as our current one on a different street.

Since I have a disability and Mr. Imma has two left hands, we are looking at oursourcing most of it. The bank has offered to increase our mortgage by €100.000 (at 0,88%) which would give us a LTV of around 60%. So we have lots of money available that we certainly won't all spend, and we're trying to spend the largest chunk of our budget on increasing the energy-efficiency of our home by insulating the roof, the floor and installing a grey water system.

We are working with suppliers, they're sending in quotes and I'm driving them crazy with all my detailed questions and all my caring about stupid details like how much energy appliances use etc. On purpose, we've not discussed the whole budget with any of the companies we're dealing with, but somehow they've been getting the impression we've got money to burn and they're sneaking in all sorts of expensive stuff that we didn't discuss.

One kitchen sales guy ranted to us that it didn't matter at all that the fridge he offers uses twice as much energy as our current one because a fridge is not the main electricity slurping appliance in the home. If we care that much about the environment we should get rid of old freezer in the garage, the dryer, we shouldn't use an old vacuum cleaner every day, we shouldn't focus on a fridge. Well sir, we don't have any of those things, because indeed they would consume even more electricity than this fridge. But in our home, the fridge is the appliance that uses the most energy. He looked shocked when we said that. We then left.

All in all I'm kind of disappointed that any kind of appliance that has so far been offered in a quote from a builder has been less energy efficient than what's on offer in a regular home goods store. Apparantly no one calls them out on it. I think they buy the slightly older models on the cheap and build them into homes of unsuspecting customers who only care about the colour of the tiles and cupboards. The appliance they offered us for our kitchen is also 3 dB louder than the current one. I was told that's "almost the same". In reality every 3 dB increase means a sound is doubled. We live in a small home and we have an open kitchen, so a loud fridge would really be an issue.

We are only just starting on this journey and I'm tired of it already, but we have to do it. Our home has not been renovated since 1980. Everything is old and worn-out and very little is salvageable. Funny enough the authentic 1940s elements are all still in good condition. It's very clear that the materials they used in the 40s were way better quality than those used in the 80s.

[baconschteam]

Harvested some kelp yesterday while SUP boarding. Rinsed, blanched, added some sesame oil and honey, dried it in my friend’s dehydrator overnight, have some tasty seaweed snacks today! At the store this is the most expensive thing we ever buy (per oz).

[trashtalk]

Harvested some kelp yesterday while SUP boarding. Rinsed, blanched, added some sesame oil and honey, dried it in my friend’s dehydrator overnight, have some tasty seaweed snacks today! At the store this is the most expensive thing we ever buy (per oz).

I love this!!!

[Dutch Comfort]

We are not saving any money yet, but we are renovating our home. We wanted to move but have found out we've been priced out of the market. We could increase our mortgage by €250.000 and we would just about be able to afford the same house as our current one on a different street.

Since I have a disability and Mr. Imma has two left hands, we are looking at oursourcing most of it. The bank has offered to increase our mortgage by €100.000 (at 0,88%) which would give us a LTV of around 60%. So we have lots of money available that we certainly won't all spend, and we're trying to spend the largest chunk of our budget on increasing the energy-efficiency of our home by insulating the roof, the floor and installing a grey water system.

We are working with suppliers, they're sending in quotes and I'm driving them crazy with all my detailed questions and all my caring about stupid details like how much energy appliances use etc. On purpose, we've not discussed the whole budget with any of the companies we're dealing with, but somehow they've been getting the impression we've got money to burn and they're sneaking in all sorts of expensive stuff that we didn't discuss.

One kitchen sales guy ranted to us that it didn't matter at all that the fridge he offers uses twice as much energy as our current one because a fridge is not the main electricity slurping appliance in the home. If we care that much about the environment we should get rid of old freezer in the garage, the dryer, we shouldn't use an old vacuum cleaner every day, we shouldn't focus on a fridge. Well sir, we don't have any of those things, because indeed they would consume even more electricity than this fridge. But in our home, the fridge is the appliance that uses the most energy. He looked shocked when we said that. We then left.

All in all I'm kind of disappointed that any kind of appliance that has so far been offered in a quote from a builder has been less energy efficient than what's on offer in a regular home goods store. Apparantly no one calls them out on it. I think they buy the slightly older models on the cheap and build them into homes of unsuspecting customers who only care about the colour of the tiles and cupboards. The appliance they offered us for our kitchen is also 3 dB louder than the current one. I was told that's "almost the same". In reality every 3 dB increase means a sound is doubled. We live in a small home and we have an open kitchen, so a loud fridge would really be an issue.

We are only just starting on this journey and I'm tired of it already, but we have to do it. Our home has not been renovated since 1980. Everything is old and worn-out and very little is salvageable. Funny enough the authentic 1940s elements are all still in good condition. It's very clear that the materials they used in the 40s were way better quality than those used in the 80s.

Hi @Imma ,
Those things from kitchen sales guys drove me crazy as well, untill we went over to Germany and bought our kitchen there. We could choose all the appliances ourselves and they would just buy that and match the lowest resale price. We were very satisfied with the company. It was definitely worth going to Germany for this. Saved us around EUR 5K on a EUR 20K kitchen (same kitchen with same appliances was EUR 20K in NL and EUR 15K in Germany....). This was 18 years ago and so far we only had to replace the dishwasher. All other appliances are still up and running (even the fridge....).

 

[Imma]

Where did you go in Germany @Dutch Comfort ? Did the German company also come here to build the kitchen? I've heard this from other people as well but it seems such a hassle to go abroad. I'm in the south-east, not really that far from the border, but we don't have a car, so we'd have to take the train/bus and I don't speak German that well (although Mr Imma does). I'm also kind of scared there's going to be a lot lost in translation between the contractor who'd oversee the renovation of the whole house and the kitchen people who only come in to build the kitchen.

We are looking to spend a lot less than you though. Quotes we've been getting are around 10k - our kitchen is only 6 m2. I also feel like the various kitchen parts are basically priced randomly. It just annoys me so much to deal with an industry that is so irrational.

[Dutch Comfort]

@Imma, we went to Ekelhoff kitchens in Nordhorn. Just accross the border. And they speak Dutch (with an accent, but no worries about having to speak German). We only did 1 visit in person, the rest by telephone / E-mail.
Also the communication between them and our other contractors was quite good. They supplied us with all the electricity requirements and our contractor could directly speak to them if they had any questions.
Our kitchen is around 16m2, so a lot larger. And it was a completely newly build house. So that might help.

[Linea_Norway]

I asked ceveral building material companies to make me an offer for a set of building materials to be delivered. The offer said explicitely 9 x 3 meters of wooden bars, which ai had asked for. I was told on the phone that the bars would be longer, as they couldn't deliver 3 meters. I said "fine, then I'll have to saw them.". Then I got a bill, letting me pay for the longer bars. I made a complaint that it was not mentioned in the offer or on the phone that the price would be higher because the bars would be linger. After a phone call where I kindly explained my arguments, I was told that I will get a new invoiche with a correction, saving a few 100 bucks.

[Loretta]

I had a plumber assess a leak and I only had to pay $68 so far….

I cooked my signature dish for dinner for my houseguest and myself:  grilled cheeses and A tub of Safeway tomato soup. 

[trashtalk]

Got some sawdust from a woodworker on my Buy Nothing Group. Free chicken litter!

[Botany Bae]

Someone in our Buy Nothing group offered up their plum trees for gleaning a week or so ago - I filled a 5 gallon bucket to the rim.

I then asked the group if anyone had any "Pho-ctainers" to dispose of (Say it fast when children aren't in the room ;), these are reusable 1/2 and full pint containers our local pho place uses for delivery orders.)

I made 8 1/2 pints of plum jam and froze them in the free containers. I kept 3-4 lbs of plums for fresh snacking.One 1/2 pint will be given away on the Buy Nothing group, the rest will be a delicious winter treat that only cost me a couple of cups of sugar to make!

[pasadenafr]

Not sure it's a "small thing" but I just finished helping my sister transfer her brokerage account from being managed at <firm> to Vanguard. She'll save about $200 a month just from the AUM fee. Now to see how fast we can untangle this thing and move it to a 3-funds, low ER portfolio. I guess it's going to take a few years, or a big crash.

[Catbert]

Not sure it's a "small thing" but I just finished helping my sister transfer her brokerage account from being managed at <firm> to Vanguard. She'll save about $200 a month just from the AUM fee. Now to see how fast we can untangle this thing and move it to a 3-funds, low ER portfolio. I guess it's going to take a few years, or a big crash.

First thing to do after transfer is to set existing funds out to payout dividends and capital gains rather than reinvesting.

[pasadenafr]

Not sure it's a "small thing" but I just finished helping my sister transfer her brokerage account from being managed at <firm> to Vanguard. She'll save about $200 a month just from the AUM fee. Now to see how fast we can untangle this thing and move it to a 3-funds, low ER portfolio. I guess it's going to take a few years, or a big crash.

First thing to do after transfer is to set existing funds out to payout dividends and capital gains rather than reinvesting.

Yep, thanks, I did that already, and set everything to SpecID. There's a few hundred $ of cap losses, so I'll harvest that on Tuesday and use them to harvest small gains too, and seed the new funds. Then we need to devise a plan to get her out of the most expensive funds ASAP (she has a few between 0.8 and 1.1%, ugh), but she's in a very high tax bracket, and has quite a lot of cap gains, so... yeah, it's going to take time (or losses - gonna keep an eye on that)

[Padonak]

Instead of buying an oven cleaner on Amazon for 5 bucks and waiting until wednesday, went to a local dollar store and bought one for a couple of bucks

[Loretta]

Instead of buying a new car, I spent $38 for a very thorough cleaning of my current chariot.

I ate lunch at home from the freezer.

[Rusted Rose]

Instead of buying an oven cleaner on Amazon for 5 bucks and waiting until wednesday, went to a local dollar store and bought one for a couple of bucks

Today's dollar stores have truly amazing values and selection. I go there first for sooo many items.

(Wait ... a couple of bucks? Isn't everything supposed to be a dollar? :D)

But I didn't buy anything today. Just using up fridge items like smoked fish with kefir cheese and "everything bagel" seasoning, fried rice with leftover rice, and the plan later is an experiment -- "steak fried chicken" using leftover gravy from a round roast I made earlier (the actual beef has been enjoyed already).

PS, that beef roast? Was $3.47 a pound.

[Catbert]

Not sure it's a "small thing" but I just finished helping my sister transfer her brokerage account from being managed at <firm> to Vanguard. She'll save about $200 a month just from the AUM fee. Now to see how fast we can untangle this thing and move it to a 3-funds, low ER portfolio. I guess it's going to take a few years, or a big crash.

First thing to do after transfer is to set existing funds out to payout dividends and capital gains rather than reinvesting.

If she donates to charity consider setting up a Donor Advised Fund and donate the most appreciated assets to that.

Yep, thanks, I did that already, and set everything to SpecID. There's a few hundred $ of cap losses, so I'll harvest that on Tuesday and use them to harvest small gains too, and seed the new funds. Then we need to devise a plan to get her out of the most expensive funds ASAP (she has a few between 0.8 and 1.1%, ugh), but she's in a very high tax bracket, and has quite a lot of cap gains, so... yeah, it's going to take time (or losses - gonna keep an eye on that)

[Anette]

At my last night shift during summer break I sewed 12 new covers for the cushions for my chairs on the porch. Felt like a double win: No need to by new cushions, only new fabric (cheap but nice looking and sturdy, from IKEA) plus I got paid for the time I spent sewing  - there really wasn't much to do working nights at a boarding school while 95% of the students are still enjoying time with their families.

[midweststache]

We had BLTAs on the menu for tonight. Our avocados were nowhere near ripe. In the past, we would've 'deferred' this meal until later in the week and likely ordered out. Instead, my oldest and I took a quick walk to our neighborhood Aldi and brought home two avocados for $2 - and have the unripe avocados ripening on our counter for chili later in the week.

So... I spent money, but not as much as I have in the past when I encountered a menu-planning issue? Yay?

(Also - leftover tomato and avocado from tonight are slated for some breakfast- or lunch-time omelettes this week!)

[Dollar Slice]

I try to keep an eye on those Chase credit card offers since every now and then there will be something I can really use. They had 20% off Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh on two different cards I have, so I was able to save a bunch of money ($20+) on groceries the last few weeks. I live in high-priced Manhattan and the decent grocery store near me closed during the pandemic, leaving me with two very bad choices (small shitty low-end store and small boutique-y high-end store, neither of which has a deli counter). Grocery savings is SO welcome.

Not sure if that stacked on top of the 3%/5% cash back on groceries I normally would get on those cards, but that would be nice :-)

[Britan]

Hung the laundry outside. It’s 90+ and sunny, so … why run the dryer?

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Ate an interesting mix of leftovers for lunch
-Noticed that I was close to earning a reward on a grocery store app, so moved up the timing of planned spend (items I already needed), spent the minimum & the groceries were free. I find that these deals can be time consuming, so I try to stick to just the ones for items we already need, and are quick & easy.
-Sold a couple of items on eBay. As always, used recycled mailing envelopes to mail them out.

[Tigerpine]

Instead of draining the water from our dehumidifier in the basement directly down the drain, we've started using it to fill the toilet tank after flushing.  Funny how the distilled water fills the tank just as well as the tap water.

[midweststache]

When we started a new daycare this year, we discovered we could pay tuition with our CC instead of just writing a check. (Yay cash back points! Because credits cards are OBVIOUSLY paid off in full every month - do I even need that caveat on this forum?) We immediately devoted our highest points credit card to that payment, but the limit (~$5K) hasn't been quite enough to cover monthly daycare costs. We've been hemming and hawing about opening a new credit card specifically for daycare for about two months - one that offers no less than 1.5% cash back.

At the same time, we also have the very last non-mortgage debt - a student loan - financed through SOFI. Today, we received an offer to open a SOFI credit card with 5% cash back on all purchases in the first 90 days, up to 20,000 points (we'd likely hit that limit - thanks daycare costs!) We'll also continue to receive 2% cash back after the 90 day period if we put that cash back credit toward paying down our SOFI loan. Because we only have another ~3 years of daycare payments, and we should easily pay off the student loan in that time, we'll just close out the card when the kids are no longer in daycare (it will be the card with our shortest credit history).

So, to recap: We pay our largest monthly expense, get a generous 5% back for 90 days (the highest cash back offer we've seen yet) and 2% back after that, as long as we use those rewards to pay down our last non-mortgage debt, which was the plan anyway. YAY!

[Sugaree]

I don't miss paying for daycare, but it was nice to be able to rack up the miles.

[Britan]

Wow nice! That would be convenient if we could pay daycare that way.

[Dutch Comfort]

Got a TooGoodToGo (selling items that are not sold at the end of the day for 1/3 of the price or less) box from our local bakery. Got a great deal with 3 loafs of bread and a cake for less than 3 euro! (with two teens in the house, the cake was gone in no time). Bread was good to be frozen and will be used for the lunch boxes.

Our daughters (electric) piano has some hickups. DH called a guy who was recommended by the piano-dealer. He can fix the piano for free, since he can put his expenses directly towards the piano manufacturer as guarantee expenses (although the piano is already >5 years old)! We just have to wait for 10 days before he can visit us. Small price to pay for a free repair!


 

[Imma]

Got a TooGoodToGo (selling items that are not sold at the end of the day for 1/3 of the price or less) box from our local bakery. Got a great deal with 3 loafs of bread and a cake for less than 3 euro! (with two teens in the house, the cake was gone in no time). Bread was good to be frozen and will be used for the lunch boxes.

Our daughters (electric) piano has some hickups. DH called a guy who was recommended by the piano-dealer. He can fix the piano for free, since he can put his expenses directly towards the piano manufacturer as guarantee expenses (although the piano is already >5 years old)! We just have to wait for 10 days before he can visit us. Small price to pay for a free repair!

Yay for TooGoodToGo! I always skip the bakery boxes because I know our local bakery is so generous and it's just the two of us without a big freezer. But for a family, especially hungry teenagers, it's a great deal.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We used a lot of garden ingredients for dinner (chimichurri sauce, made with lots of fresh herbs & jalapenos). Caprese salad, made with garden tomatoes & basil. YUM.

[Dutch Comfort]

Went out for a run, stopped at a walnut tree in the park and picked up 1/2 kilo of walnuts (my jacket could not carry more during my run). Hopefully I can get back this afternoon after work, to see if I can pick more. Now they need to dry and I have some lovely walnuts for my baking during holiday season!

[Trifele]

Went out for a run, stopped at a walnut tree in the park and picked up 1/2 kilo of walnuts (my jacket could not carry more during my run). Hopefully I can get back this afternoon after work, to see if I can pick more. Now they need to dry and I have some lovely walnuts for my baking during holiday season!

Excellent @Dutch Comfort!  Free food for the win.

That reminds me of the time my dad was out for a hike in the woods on a warm day and found a lovely bunch of morel mushrooms.  He took off his shirt and tied it into a bag to hold the mushrooms.  He was walking back when a bunch of blackflies swarmed him and were biting him all over.  He kept his shirt off and held onto those mushrooms though.  :) 

[wick]

Thought about buying something I didn’t need. I waited until the feeling passed and then instead of making a foolish impulse purchase I rewarded myself by transferring some extra money into a savings account :)