What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Dollar Slice]

... I totally forgot about half-price candy - the last couple of times I checked for it the day after a holiday (Valentine/Halloween) they had just packed it away immediately instead of doing clearance sales. I checked a bunch of chains locally and they all did the same thing. Not sure what brought on that change. Maybe my neighborhood is being punished.

I've noticed this is worse every year for the last decade. I only ever bought holiday clearance candy, & while it's surely better for me overall, it's certainly disappointing.

Well, good news - I needed shampoo, so I went to the drugstore today. I swung by the 'seasonal' aisle and they did have a little rack of 50% discounted Christmas candy next to all the Valentine's candy (I wonder who the hell is buying Valentine's candy in December?). They only had a few things, but they had an abundance of Reese's and M&Ms, so not a bad selection. I resisted buying the big Reese's gift box with a pair of Reese's mugs (in reference to the other thread I posted in recently...). Maybe if it gets marked down to 75%...

[Poundwise]

I regifted shamelessly, absolutely shamelessly, this year.  I received a lovely box of teas from an in-law on Christmas Eve, re-wrapped it that night and gave it to another extended family member 12 hours later (different sides of my family, they'll never meet). 
But the best one was giving the pair of gloves that my mother gave me last year back to her this year! She had my sister buy and ship them to me, but I never got to use them so they were still new in their packaging.  At this point she has forgotten about them so she was delighted to get them.
FWIW, nothing that I regifted was bad, it was all nice and new.  I just didn't need it and I preferred to have the time and money that it would have taken to find another gift. So I was grateful.

[Dicey]

I regifted shamelessly, absolutely shamelessly, this year.  I received a lovely box of teas from an in-law on Christmas Eve, re-wrapped it that night and gave it to another extended family member 12 hours later (different sides of my family, they'll never meet). 
But the best one was giving the pair of gloves that my mother gave me last year back to her this year! She had my sister buy and ship them to me, but I never got to use them so they were still new in their packaging.  At this point she has forgotten about them so she was delighted to get them.
FWIW, nothing that I regifted was bad, it was all nice and new.  I just didn't need it and I preferred to have the time and money that it would have taken to find another gift. So I was grateful.

I am a huge fan of regifting. My family knows they get better stuff from me because I keep an eye out for things all year long - while I'm in thrift stores, mostly. Volunteering at a thrift store is the best gig ever.

[Dollar Slice]

Remembered that I'd planned to do a Roth IRA conversion, and was able to get it done in time to execute on the second to last business day of 2022. *whew*

[nessness]

Charged my car for free while we picked up a library book and the kids played at the park. Ate leftovers for dinner.

[Taran Wanderer]

Didn’t use any electricity from the utility for 20 hours. Of course, that wasn’t by choice, and we more than made up for it in batteries and a little generator fuel.

[sonofsven]

Made a big batch of roasted almonds after soaking the raw almonds overnight in Bragg's liquid aminos. 4 hours @ 225*.
Saved the excess liquid for the next batch.

Tell me more about this...why do you soak them in the aminos?

For flavor. Have you ever had tamari almonds? Similar thing.
Bragg's is a trusted, economical source of gluten free soy alternative.

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

Did my more-or-less-annual check of the unclaimed property websites of my current state and those in which I previously lived.  Found that Connecticut has 14 cents owed to me for an overpayment on a credit card in 2008.  woohoo!

A year or two ago I collected $100 from Pennsylvania, and that one also didn't show up on the state's list for more than a decade after I'd lived there, so it's worth checking every now and then.

[okisok]

@Poundwise +1 for shameless regifting! We have holiday celebrations strung out across the last weekend of December, so I have definitely done that.

@dollarslice I'm glad you finally found some holiday clearance. I tried a drugstore yesterday and their gift bows were still full price! To paraphrase your Valentines candy comment, who the hell is buying full-price green & red gift bows after Christmas?? I did find some 50% items at Wal-mart one morning and used them for a gift that night.

Went by Sprouts for a free Ibotta item and they had Celestial Seasonings holiday flavored teas for 99c per box. Pumpkin, sugar cookie, vanilla cranberry, and gingerbread! I only got one of each flavor as the expiration dates were next summer so they wouldn't be suitable for gifting next holiday season. But my tea stash is restocked for cheap

[Dicey]

@Poundwise +1 for shameless regifting! We have holiday celebrations strung out across the last weekend of December, so I have definitely done that.

@dollarslice I'm glad you finally found some holiday clearance. I tried a drugstore yesterday and their gift bows were still full price! To paraphrase your Valentines candy comment, who the hell is buying full-price green & red gift bows after Christmas?? I did find some 50% items at Wal-mart one morning and used them for a gift that night.

Went by Sprouts for a free Ibotta item and they had Celestial Seasonings holiday flavored teas for 99c per box. Pumpkin, sugar cookie, vanilla cranberry, and gingerbread! I only got one of each flavor as the expiration dates were next summer so they wouldn't be suitable for gifting next holiday season. But my tea stash is restocked for cheap

OMG, the Cranberry Vanilla is my favorite Celestial Seasonings tea! I did not see it in the holiday clearance section at my Sprouts yesterday, but I did score some organic stuffing mix, one bag of brining spices (all they had) and a couple of unnecessary bags of cookies for 99 cents a pop.

Today, I hit up a Walgreens. While most of their holiday stuff was 50% off, a couple of items stood out. Chocolate Peppermint Macadamias for 70 cents and Almond Roca Toffee Popcorn for 60 cents. I bought all they had of both. They will be part of future git baskets. I also got a huge roll of Hallmark gift wrap for 3.49. It's 175 square feet; I'll be using it for years!

On my Urban Walk this morning, Pottery Barn had their holiday stuff at 25-30% off. Party poopers.

[Trifle]

Instead of buying energy bars for ultra-picky-eater son to take to school I've been making homemade ones.  Easy, less than a third the cost, and much healthier than the ones I had been buying:  https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/healthy-peanut-butter-rice-krispie-treats/

Double bonus -- those bars have a chocolate topping.  Our local TJs is getting rid of their seasonal dark chocolate chips for $2 per bag.  One bag (melted) tops three batches of bars.  I stocked up.   

[okisok]

@Poundwise +1 for shameless regifting! We have holiday celebrations strung out across the last weekend of December, so I have definitely done that.

@dollarslice I'm glad you finally found some holiday clearance. I tried a drugstore yesterday and their gift bows were still full price! To paraphrase your Valentines candy comment, who the hell is buying full-price green & red gift bows after Christmas?? I did find some 50% items at Wal-mart one morning and used them for a gift that night.

Went by Sprouts for a free Ibotta item and they had Celestial Seasonings holiday flavored teas for 99c per box. Pumpkin, sugar cookie, vanilla cranberry, and gingerbread! I only got one of each flavor as the expiration dates were next summer so they wouldn't be suitable for gifting next holiday season. But my tea stash is restocked for cheap

OMG, the Cranberry Vanilla is my favorite Celestial Seasonings tea! I did not see it in the holiday clearance section at my Sprouts yesterday, but I did score some organic stuffing mix, one bag of brining spices (all they had) and a couple of unnecessary bags of cookies for 99 cents a pop.

Today, I hit up a Walgreens. While most of their holiday stuff was 50% off, a couple of items stood out. Chocolate Peppermint Macadamias for 70 cents and Almond Roca Toffee Popcorn for 60 cents. I bought all they had of both. They will be part of future git baskets. I also got a huge roll of Hallmark gift wrap for 3.49. It's 175 square feet; I'll be using it for years!

On my Urban Walk this morning, Pottery Barn had their holiday stuff at 25-30% off. Party poopers.

My Sprouts had them in a large stack of cardboard displays near the dairy section. I was looking for coffee creamer and I stumbled across it. It wasn't anywhere near the tea or holiday stuff. It's also not listed on the app. But I figure that peppermint tea is the same whether it's 99c Candy Cane Lane or $3.49 Peppermint. 

I need to check out Walgreens. CVS is still 50% off on 'select holiday items'. Party Poopers indeed!

As to the point of this thread, I got 8 free covid tests at CVS with my health insurance. I got onto CVS.com and entered my insurance info. Then I picked them up a couple of hours later completely for free, no tax or surcharges.

[RWTL]

Instead of buying energy bars for ultra-picky-eater son to take to school I've been making homemade ones.  Easy, less than a third the cost, and much healthier than the ones I had been buying:  https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/healthy-peanut-butter-rice-krispie-treats/

Double bonus -- those bars have a chocolate topping.  Our local TJs is getting rid of their seasonal dark chocolate chips for $2 per bag.  One bag (melted) tops three batches of bars.  I stocked up.

Saving this one.  Thanks!

[jnw]

Told my niece about study.com and WGU today and she’s impressed.  Will save her some money for college degree and perhaps let her get it at a more accelerated rate.

[EchoStache]

I lowered my electricity rate from 14.612 cents/kWh to 11.78 by switching suppliers. Locked for 35 months with no fees.  19% savings!  I also pay a distribution fee but can't change that.

I lowered my natural gas rate from .911555/CCF to .809/CCF for 18 months.  9.3% savings.

This will save about $30 month for a few mouse clicks. :)

Shopped around online and then directly with a local agent for car insurance and netted a significant savings of $1,000 year!!!! I know, the rates were ridiculous.  I didn't quite realize it because we were down to 1 car.  We bought a second car which made me look more closely at our rate.

So from mostly a bit of computer work, saved about $1400/year in the last couple days!!

It pays to remain vigilant with money!

[Michael in ABQ]

I haven't actually saved the money yet but I realized our rented office/warehouse utilities had spiked 3-4x in the last few months. One of our neighboring tenants has a small marijuana growing operation so is clearly using WAAAY more utilities than our 30-40 hours a week of turning on some lights, running heat/air for a few hours, a laptop, mini-fridge, and water to flush the toilet a few times. Our utility bills for the first part of the year were $100-150/month and since August started climbing up to $500 +/-. Our lease doesn't specifically say how utilities are to be subdivided but clearly a simple pro-rata share based on square footage is not fair when one use is so much more utility intensive to maintain a perfect climate-controlled environment with grow lights running most of the time.

Our landlord has been very reasonable up until now so hopefully we can fix this and at least stop the bleeding going forward (if not get an adjustment for the last few months).

[okisok]

Returned a large item to Wal-mart that didn't work. I had list for groceries and holiday clearance (all consumables, not clutter) that I stuck to. I even deleted some items that had fallen off my Ibotta list so I wouldn't buy them full price. I got a free liter of electrolyte solution thanks to moneysavingmom.com and rebates on oj and handsoap refills thanks to Shopkick.

I got three rolls of holiday clearance wrapping paper that can used for birthday, graduation, etc.  One is stripes, one is polka dots, and one is the sigils of the Hogwarts houses :) Got a bag of muticolored bows for 49c and that will last me for years of wrapped gifts.

The pumpkin chai flavor tea was 94c on clearance so I switched from the regular chai on my list as a fun splurge and got three boxes for the price of 1!

Went to the toy aisle and found great gifts for upcoming kids birthdays for under $10. Pondering buying a bunch of clearance kids items for the toy drive at work that we have every December to really stretch my giving budget.

[Loretta]

I made a spreadsheet for tracking 2023 expenses!  So far $28.25 for a breakfast out with a friend in which we had a good hug and a good conversation about self improvement. 

[Dreamer40]

My book club voted to read a popular new release this month that I wouldn’t be able to get on time from the library. But I was able to buy it for free with Amazon digital credits, accumulated from choosing “no rush” shipping anytime I don’t need something in a hurry.

[cool7hand]

Researched the heck out of a purchase to make the best decision about features, goals, and cost

[Catbert]

At Sprouts yesterday they had pie pumpkins on Manager's Special  4/$1.  Yes, 25 cents each for pumpkins that weighed 2 - 2.5 lbs.  I'm not even a pumpkin fan and I bought 6: 3 for me and 3 for a neighborhood food pantry.    I'll make soup or curry out of mine since I'm not a fan of pumpkin dessert items.  I also got 2 boxes of close-out herbal tea for 99 cents each.

[srrb]

Baking bread (I got out of the habit during a busy December), and also updating and refining my budget excel sheet -- which will I expect will lead to different spending choices to be able to "afford" some house updates within our current annual planned spend.

[Frugal Lizard]

Packaged some seeds that I saved last fall that I will plant this spring.

[okisok]

At Sprouts yesterday they had pie pumpkins on Manager's Special  4/$1.  Yes, 25 cents each for pumpkins that weighed 2 - 2.5 lbs.  I'm not even a pumpkin fan and I bought 6: 3 for me and 3 for a neighborhood food pantry.    I'll make soup or curry out of mine since I'm not a fan of pumpkin dessert items.  I also got 2 boxes of close-out herbal tea for 99 cents each.

I'm going to check my Sprouts for clearance pumpkins when I go back for more holiday clearance tea. Thanks for the tip!

I used a craft store coupon to get two birthday gifts for $6. With my holiday clearance shopping, coupons, judicious regifting, and rebate apps, I've gotten four gifts for upcoming birthdays for under $20. My per-person budget for these gifts is normally $25 per person.

[Michael in ABQ]

At Sprouts yesterday they had pie pumpkins on Manager's Special  4/$1.  Yes, 25 cents each for pumpkins that weighed 2 - 2.5 lbs.  I'm not even a pumpkin fan and I bought 6: 3 for me and 3 for a neighborhood food pantry.    I'll make soup or curry out of mine since I'm not a fan of pumpkin dessert items.  I also got 2 boxes of close-out herbal tea for 99 cents each.

I initially read this as pumpkin pies and I was thinking that was absurdly low for something like that. If you dropped a pumpkin pie to even $2-3 it would probably sell almost immediately, no need to go down to $0.25.



I took leftovers for lunch - but that's basically every day so no real change.

[Catbert]

I went to my favorite local discount store.  The best part is the refrigerated section because you can sometimes get spectacular deals on items with a short best by/use by date.  I bought two quart containers of goat's milk yogurt* for 75 cents each, eight packages of salami for 20 cents each (so $1.60 for two lbs), and 12 oz of Mexican crema for 98 cents.  I pondered getting a 6 lb cooked boneless turkey breast (the type sliced by delis for sandwiches) for $9.  I just couldn't justify it for my two person family and an already jammed freezer.  I texted a friend with two teenagers who wanted the turkey.  I even used a 25% off coupon for her. 

Everything is "expiring" this week, but I don't pay a lot of attention to those dates.

*Full fat goat yogurt is delicious.  5% fat and with a tang similar to goat's milk cheese.  If you strain it, it becomes very similar to the cheese.

[nessness]

Yesterday I came across Fuji apples for 49 cents a pound,  so I bought 13 pounds. Today I'm making and canning a big batch of applesauce.

[Josiecat22222]

was CRAVING mediterranean food....so I made flatbreads, tzaziki, green goddess sauce and will make oven roasted cauliflower and chickpeas for dinner tonight

also did a bunch of returns for unwanted holiday items

[K_in_the_kitchen]

This morning I turned a batch of underwhelming focaccia into toasted breadcrumbs, and made a big batch of sourdough waffles for the freezer.

[Trifle]

Food is our biggest monthly expense by far, so I'm refocusing on it as a way to get costs down.  Yesterday I

-- Made a huge batch of homemade vegetable broth from vegetable scraps I keep in the freezer.  When the gallon freezer bag gets full, I slow-simmer the scraps with water in a soup pot for a few hours.  It makes about 3 quarts.  Thick and delicious, and unlike with store-bought broth I can control the salt.

-- Did the meal planning for the week, building around items I already have on hand.

-- Hit our local Grocery Outlet.  I do this once a month, before I hit our regular stores, to scoop up any extreme bargains I find. 

-- Then I grocery shopped at our regular stores from the list.  No extra items made their way into my cart. 

-- Used some of the freshly made veggie broth and on-hand veggies to made a pot of minestrone for dinner.  I used up the rest of the buttermilk in the fridge to make go-with buttermilk biscuits.   

[Loretta]

I am having a 100% success rate at logging all my purchases for 2023!  It’s illuminating for sure.

I am letting my Amazon prime expire this month. 

[rosarugosa]

I went to my favorite local discount store.  The best part is the refrigerated section because you can sometimes get spectacular deals on items with a short best by/use by date.  I bought two quart containers of goat's milk yogurt* for 75 cents each, eight packages of salami for 20 cents each (so $1.60 for two lbs), and 12 oz of Mexican crema for 98 cents.  I pondered getting a 6 lb cooked boneless turkey breast (the type sliced by delis for sandwiches) for $9.  I just couldn't justify it for my two person family and an already jammed freezer.  I texted a friend with two teenagers who wanted the turkey.  I even used a 25% off coupon for her. 

Everything is "expiring" this week, but I don't pay a lot of attention to those dates.

*Full fat goat yogurt is delicious.  5% fat and with a tang similar to goat's milk cheese.  If you strain it, it becomes very similar to the cheese.

Goat yogurt is one of my favorite things.  I get it at Trader Joe's for about $6. per quart, so nice score for you!

[cool7hand]

Batched vehicle errands for efficiency

[cool7hand]

We're going to a retirement party for a friend tomorrow night. Our town has a page where people give things away for free. Someone was giving away roses today. Bingo. Now we have a gift.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Picked up the Friday freebie at the local grocery store, and remembered to use Rite Aid rewards before they expired. My 15 y.o is obsessed with fuzzy socks, so found a few pair for 75% off, as they were a seasonal pattern.

[okisok]

Ate my packed lunch at work. Freezer soup and clearance bread I'd frozen when I found it for 89c a loaf. Havent bought any groceries this week by eating down the fridge.

[Freedomin5]

Today is the last day that free NAT testing is being offered, and DD needs a negative NAT to go to school on Monday. So instead of waiting until tomorrow (when we have to pay for a NAT), we walked over to the testing kiosk and got a NAT today.

I also made an apple cinnamon cake for breakfast instead of buying breakfast at the cafe downstairs.

[Taran Wanderer]

What’s NAT testing?

And how are you holding up in China? (Maybe I need to ask that in a Covid thread…)

[Dollar Slice]

What’s NAT testing?

It's a type of COVID test. Different countries have ended up using different acronyms for the same type of test - just as RATs are the same as LFTs, I think NATs are the same as PCRs.

[Freedomin5]

What’s NAT testing?

And how are you holding up in China? (Maybe I need to ask that in a Covid thread…)

PCR test (nucleic acid test). We do so many of them here we just call them NATs and RATs (rapid antigen test).

It has pivoted 180 degrees and we’ve gone from total lockdown to a free-for-all. Estimates are that over 70% of the Shanghai population has had COVID. There was one week (last week of December) when almost everything was closed because everyone had COVID and there weren’t enough healthy workers. Thankfully, most people have recovered and everything is opening up again. Life goes on.

[LaineyAZ]

I use bar soap in the shower and I've been saving soap scraps for months.  I finally melted them down and made them into new soap bars.  The craft store Joann has a silicone soap mold which makes 6 bars - just pour the melted scraps into the mold and wait for it to cool and they pop right out. 

The final product is somewhat plain looking and not as fragrant as new bars, but it's my little contribution to recycling.  And with the cheapest bars of soap costing at least $1, I've saved a few dollars, especially if I continue to re-use the soap mold.

[sonofsven]

My near 20 year old dryer broke last month, so I'm waiting on $44 worth of parts. In the meantime I'm drying clothes on a wood rack next to the woodstove.

[Frugal Lizard]

Gave my eldest a haircut this morning - even though I am pretty ticked at the guy for giving me covid.  He is starting a work term on Monday and was looking pretty shaggy and he asked very nicely.

I started cutting his hair when he was a baby, figuring that by the time he cared what his hair looked like, I would be competent enough at it. He has only ever been to a barber thrice in his life. 

[Loretta]

Weekend errands and chores.  I got a free pound of Starbucks ground coffee with rewards points this morning.  I am trying something new with laundry:  I turned all my hangers around on New Years Day and as my clothes hamper fills I’m forgoing washing clothes until I have a bigger load.  I read somewhere that a 3/4 full washing machine is ideal, but please correct me if I’m wrong. 

I unearthed some cat toys out of a drawer and OMGOSH that’s been entertaining. 

This is Day 7 of tracking my expenses and it’s been… illuminating. 

[Dollar Slice]

For some reason whipped cream cheese has been one of the grocery items that's been going absolutely insane with price inflation (at least where I live), and today I noticed that regular bricks of cream cheese were on sale and I could get 16 oz. of regular cream cheese for $4 less than 12 oz. whipped cream cheese. So I bought the 16 oz. and I'm going to whip it up myself to have on bagels. Probably not quite as fluffy, but for that kind of savings, I'll take it.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Noticed someone on BN giving away four unopened razors. Three are my preferred kind, and one is a good one for my teens (just starting to shave). Probably a $35 savings or so, across all four, and at the rate I go through razors, I'd say this should last for at least five years.

[okisok]

I took a friend who doesn't have a car to run errands. As a thank you, he gave me a Target gift card. I was able to get some splurge items (plant-based yogurt, soda) plus some household stuff. The yogurt was an Ibotta 100% rebate item so I'll eventually get that money back.

Today I took breakfast and lunch to work and cooked a big dinner that will make two more lunches. I got a coupon in the mail for $10 off a $50 purchase at my local store so I'm trying to write a list to maximize my savings there with coupons and rebate apps.

Following the Eat All the Food in Your House thread is really helping me use all my groceries. There's a ton of inspiration and recipes/loose instructions on how to use up items. Not letting food go to waste is a big savings these days.

[Runrooster]

I found Driscoll blackberries for .75 each, or $2 pound. I bought 40, half organic, leaving a handful for other customers. Gave half to my brother (2kids), bring some in to share with coworkers.

I also found seaweed snacks for .25 (.17 oz) or .59 (.35 oz). They are usually $1.25 and $1.59 but have a cash back of $1 each. I thought there might be a limit of 4 but I tried buying 8 and they gave it to me. Will probably buy out the store too.

Both a cost savings and calories: my Dad turned 89 this New Years. My brother asked what cake to buy I said I picked up one cheesecake.  Well it’s a small 5 in with several flavors rather than the huge cakes they usually buy. 4 adults have diabetes, kids don’t like sweets, invariably I end up with the leftovers. Plus there were other Indian desserts so only 2 small slices got eaten. 8 days later there are still 4 small slices that my mother will slowly eat. Besides saving about $30 over a Whole Foods cake, I saved 2500 calories.

[stoaX]

. Not letting food go to waste is a big savings these days.

+1

[cool7hand]

Instead of paying to have our town discard an item that we no longer need, we just put a sign on it that said free. Goodbye!