What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[crocheted_stache]

20 bike miles, zero car miles. Three homemade meals. Lunch was leftovers from last night's chicken, including some garden veggies.

Cleaned out some of my brimming-full email rather than pay for more space. I found a metric $#*!-ton of useless old newsletters and announcements to zap by searching for "webinar" and scrolling back a ways. Market prognostications for last October? Zap! 2022 meet the author talk? Zap! Individually, they're not very big, but hundreds of them add up.

[Freedomin5]

Used a grocery store coupon and saved 50% on groceries.

[sonofsven]

I'm staying at my partner's in the city while recovering from surgery (new titanium hip!!) and I'm going on short walks even though it feels like I got stabbed in the leg.
After a week with a walker I graduated to crutches and made a big trek (three blocks!) to a Natural Grocers as they are having a big sale.
I stuffed some coconut water and kombucha and fancy cashews in my bag and started hobbling towards (temp) home when I saw a quarter and a nickel on the sidewalk!
At great effort I crouched down low, making various guttural noises and picked them up.
The cheap swede is back!

[BECABECA]

Please consider getting involved in making the improvements you want to see. It can be an simple as stopping at a booth at a city event and filing out a survey, and as involved as running for public office. (I haven't chosen to attempt the latter yet, myself, but I'm well past the occasional survey.) At least here, the decision makers take transit rarely if ever, often only for the photo op. They rarely experience spending hours by bus going a distance that would take less than half the time by car.

A few years back I was pretty involved in attending city council meetings trying to get improvements made and I got really burned out after seeing things not just not improve but actually go in the opposite direction despite all our efforts. I’m sorry to say that it made me quite cynical about politics as the route to get any of this done. So I’ve been thinking about how to make the changes I want to see and I found the LA Eco-Village Intentional Community and their Re:Ciclos bicycle nonprofit parter with the mission statement of “empowering under-resourced community members in mitigating the social, environmental, and political damages that motor vehicular mobility has historically introduced into their communities.” So instead of fighting against the tide in OC, I’m going to put my energy into helping this car-free community continue its success. I’m visiting them today to volunteer.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Another forum-er helped me source a free toddler bed from Buy Nothing! (Her group is better than mine.) A new toddler bed is $70, the conversation kit for the crib is $80 and free is obviously cheapest of all!

[crocheted_stache]

Please consider getting involved in making the improvements you want to see. It can be an simple as stopping at a booth at a city event and filing out a survey, and as involved as running for public office. (I haven't chosen to attempt the latter yet, myself, but I'm well past the occasional survey.) At least here, the decision makers take transit rarely if ever, often only for the photo op. They rarely experience spending hours by bus going a distance that would take less than half the time by car.

A few years back I was pretty involved in attending city council meetings trying to get improvements made and I got really burned out after seeing things not just not improve but actually go in the opposite direction despite all our efforts. I’m sorry to say that it made me quite cynical about politics as the route to get any of this done. So I’ve been thinking about how to make the changes I want to see and I found the LA Eco-Village Intentional Community and their Re:Ciclos bicycle nonprofit parter with the mission statement of “empowering under-resourced community members in mitigating the social, environmental, and political damages that motor vehicular mobility has historically introduced into their communities.” So instead of fighting against the tide in OC, I’m going to put my energy into helping this car-free community continue its success. I’m visiting them today to volunteer.

I'm sorry to hear it, and glad you're still involved somehow. It's tough to be the only one there who seems to care about anything but more cars. I've definitely been the lone voice for stuff. I'm not great at bringing all my friends, but there are groups of advocates around, and when it happens, it helps both with having a louder voice and reducing discouragement.

[Frugal Lizard]

Yesterday I turned a bunch of produce from my garden and the farmers market into tasty treats for now or later. Chili sauce, zucchini pakoras, sauerkraut, and coleslaw. I felt terribly virtuous cutting all the squirrel damaged areas off the zukes and using the good parts in the pakoras. And even more virtuous using the air fryer.

[jnw]

I turned off power to both of my laser printers.  I don't use them that often and can start powering them up when I need them. I calculated it will be an annual savings of $16 doing this.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I took my heat pump water heater out of hybrid mode and put it in efficiency. That means the resistance coils will not turn on.

If I know that I want to take a bath, I manually turn on hybrid mode after dinner/the kids' baths and showers, and then before I run the bath I turn it back to efficiency so it won't turn the coils back on after my bath (when it will have all night to recharge anyway).

[ChpBstrd]

I took my heat pump water heater out of hybrid mode and put it in efficiency. That means the resistance coils will not turn on.

If I know that I want to take a bath, I manually turn on hybrid mode after dinner/the kids' baths and showers, and then before I run the bath I turn it back to efficiency so it won't turn the coils back on after my bath (when it will have all night to recharge anyway).

Interesting! Seems like one could hook up an electrical outlet timer to handle the switching duty and have it be completely hands-off. Of course then you'd forget about it when guests or you needed to shower in the morning.

[Morning Glory]

Took my kid to get a free hair cut at the community college. It looks fine but really didn't save any money because I took him on another errand after that and ended up buying him a lego set.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I took my heat pump water heater out of hybrid mode and put it in efficiency. That means the resistance coils will not turn on.

If I know that I want to take a bath, I manually turn on hybrid mode after dinner/the kids' baths and showers, and then before I run the bath I turn it back to efficiency so it won't turn the coils back on after my bath (when it will have all night to recharge anyway).

Interesting! Seems like one could hook up an electrical outlet timer to handle the switching duty and have it be completely hands-off. Of course then you'd forget about it when guests or you needed to shower in the morning.

You are not supposed to turn off a heat pump water heater unless you're, like, leaving town for a month. Like heat pump HVAC, they run better if they run all the time. I'm trying to figure out why my electric bill is so high and this is one thing I thought of to try! It is always on, just a question of whether it is running on heat pump only (VERY slow recovery) or using resistance coils if the hot water gets very low (faster recovery, much higher energy use). If it seems to help I might look into a timer, but I don't take baths every day so doing it manually will always be the cheapest option.

The advantage of turning it off is then the coils don't turn on after I run my bath, which uses almost the whole 65 gallon tank but is the last hot water use of the day. It can heat all night at its leisure.

When I was a kid we had an electric (resistance coil) hot water heater and I remember we did have a timer for it! No hot water at night!

[Sanitary Stache]

I keep the hybrid water heating in heat pump only mode in the summer. In the winter it’s hybrid mostly and then I’ll turn it in electric either when the basement is really cold, like low 50s or when we have guests or when we make the kids bathe.

I’m finding that I intentionally use hot water I. The summer to get more dehumidification action in the basement. Often this summer I have been washing dishes in hot water and sweating thinking I could have my hands in cold water, that would be nice, but then those wet buckets I left in the basement won’t dry.

[crocheted_stache]

You are not supposed to turn off a heat pump water heater unless you're, like, leaving town for a month. Like heat pump HVAC, they run better if they run all the time.

Wait, heat pump HVAC needs to run continuously? Can it be shut off for the season? I want to understand this before I upgrade, because I don't have AC right now and I run my existing natural gas furnace pretty sparingly, so I wonder how much of an efficiency upgrade it's really going to be if I have to run it a bunch more. I also don't like listening to things running, especially blowers. With apologies to anyone who lives in a less pleasant climate, I've had my windows open not quite an entire month now.

[jnw]

Made homemade liquid stevia at 16% the cost of the most affordable premade liquid stevia on Amazon.

[Warlord1986]

Walked to work and took my lunch. Which is leftover take out pizza. Whomp whomp.

[Michael in ABQ]

Last night I sanded and painted a peeling/rusting area of the roof of my van. It's a 15-passenger all white van and they're prone to having the paint start to chip and peel off. There are multiple areas on the roof, hood, and top of some door panels where this is occurring. So far I spent $20 for a nice can of automotive paint/primer and another $20 on some masking tape and sandpaper. Taking it into to a body shop to be painted professionally would probably be $2k +/-. I figure I can finish it over the next week just sanding and painting one area every evening when it cools down and the wind dies down.

[GuitarStv]

Last night I sanded and painted a peeling/rusting area of the roof of my van. It's a 15-passenger all white van and they're prone to having the paint start to chip and peel off. There are multiple areas on the roof, hood, and top of some door panels where this is occurring. So far I spent $20 for a nice can of automotive paint/primer and another $20 on some masking tape and sandpaper. Taking it into to a body shop to be painted professionally would probably be $2k +/-. I figure I can finish it over the next week just sanding and painting one area every evening when it cools down and the wind dies down.

My grandfather used to paint the farm trucks with a paint roller and fence paint every couple years to keep them looking 'good'.  Your go is bound to be better than that at least.  :P

[Spruit]

Big veggie chopping day, as I had a lot more or less wilting greens in the fridge. This week was the first week of fulltime work after an 8 week stint so I've been making things easy and just grabbing some easy recipes that do not require a lot of cutting. Gave the most wilted an ice cold soak first. Now all the things are cut and portioned out for the coming days.
Big revision of the pantry to see what needs to get used up first. Continued to catch up on financial statements from the last year's, highlighting possible savings (subscriptions, insurance policies etc).
No driving this weekend, all bike rides so far.

[Sandi_k]

Friday was our big department pre-semester retreat. There were lots of pulled pork sandwiches and cookies that weren't eaten, so I took two LARGE sandwiches and two cookies home.

Yesterday I had a half sandwich; today we stayed home all day, and finished them off. DH had the chocolate chip cookie, and I had the white chocolate chip cookie.

As we normally have lunch out on Sundays, that's at least $30 saved for the weekend.

[Frugal Lizard]

Yesterday I diced and froze 5 green peppers from my garden. I do this with sweet onions, celery and leeks. It saves so much time and money in the winter if I can grab a bit of this and that directly from the freezer to bump up a rather colourless and flavorless meal. Hopefully my new system of labeling the contents on the top edge of the freezer bag and arranging them like files in the bottom freezer door will be more helpful than the rummaging down into a deep stack.

[Gerard]

I'm house-sitting for my brother during his surgery and recovery. With his permission, I've been saving money by eating down his cupboard full of semi-convenience food, instead of buying new (real) food. So far I have learned that a lot of convenience food isn't very good.

[aloevera1]

Shopping for a cheaper insurance.

[mm1970]

Lotta meal prep yesterday.

And our new dog destroyed 2 toys (that our old dog never played with).  So DH grabbed an old tube sock and tied knots into it.  Instant tug-of-war toy!

[GuitarStv]

Lotta meal prep yesterday.

And our new dog destroyed 2 toys (that our old dog never played with).  So DH grabbed an old tube sock and tied knots into it.  Instant tug-of-war toy!

Careful about using socks as toys.  It can become a lasting habit through the life of the dog and result in a lot of chewed socks with holes.  :P

FWIW, I've had good luck repurposing destroyed dog toys . . . like when they rip a hole into a toy and the stuffing starts coming out, take it away from them, pull all the remaining stuffing out the hole, grab a nylabone, rope toy, or similar and jam it in, then sew the toy shut.  Then they can safely rip it to little bits.  Sometimes these repurposed toys last a decent while.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Called the dentist about a $150 error on our bill. They reviewed & determined it was an error, and credited us back.

[mm1970]

Lotta meal prep yesterday.

And our new dog destroyed 2 toys (that our old dog never played with).  So DH grabbed an old tube sock and tied knots into it.  Instant tug-of-war toy!

Careful about using socks as toys.  It can become a lasting habit through the life of the dog and result in a lot of chewed socks with holes.  :P

FWIW, I've had good luck repurposing destroyed dog toys . . . like when they rip a hole into a toy and the stuffing starts coming out, take it away from them, pull all the remaining stuffing out the hole, grab a nylabone, rope toy, or similar and jam it in, then sew the toy shut.  Then they can safely rip it to little bits.  Sometimes these repurposed toys last a decent while.

Oh yeah - the destroyed toys are currently in the laundry room, ready for refashioning.
This morning as we were ready to go for a walk, he started trying to grab my husband's sock while he was putting it on!!

[Poundwise]

Went school shopping with the kids and was a little horrified by the end cost. After we got home, I cleaned up and repaired some used school supplies that we had lying around. I used rubbing alcohol and a dried-up dry erase marker to get older siblings' sharpied names off of items, and replaced the zipper pull on a zippered binder using a kit  I got years ago for something else.

Then I got the kids to trade in some of their new supplies for the refurbished ones. I gave them the choice to use the new, vs taking the old and a little cash. I could have just forced them to use the old stuff and deal with it, but I want them to feel invested in the savings that come from reusing, rather than discouraged on the first days of school by having beaten up old supplies. Even after the bribery, I will end up saving $40 after I make the returns.

Like many money saving measures, this also could be cross posted to small things to save the environment or the decluttering thread!

[Frugal Lizard]

I have saved Portuguese hot pepper, green zebra tomato and dill seed for next years garden. Purple pole, orca and Chinese golden beans are ripening on the plants in the garden so I won't have to buy these seeds next year either.

I have had some missteps with seed saving, but am gaining confidence.

[Gerard]

I have saved Portuguese hot pepper, green zebra tomato and dill seed for next years garden. Purple pole, orca and Chinese golden beans are ripening on the plants in the garden so I won't have to buy these seeds next year either.

I have had some missteps with seed saving, but am gaining confidence.

Those Portuguese hot peppers are good stuff, and not that easy to find in stores. Good on you for insourcing.

[Loretta]

Wellll I refilled my prescription fancy pants extra fluoride toothpaste to hopefully dull the sensitivity in some teeth that is ongoing.  Trying to prevent cavities 🦷 in the newly exposed bits where my gums are receding.  Dental stuff is the worst. 

[Tigerpine]

We called TD Trust Canada to get a couple of bank charges waived.  Savings:  CAD$10

[Dicey]

Wellll I refilled my prescription fancy pants extra fluoride toothpaste to hopefully dull the sensitivity in some teeth that is ongoing.  Trying to prevent cavities 🦷 in the newly exposed bits where my gums are receding.  Dental stuff is the worst.

If it's any comfort, DH uses that, too and has for around seven years. He likes it a lot. He used to buy it for $8.00. Now it costs $12.00. He says it's still worth it.

[Freedomin5]

Batch cooking lunch and a few dinners and DD’s school snacks this afternoon. After 3 hours in the kitchen, we have enough meals to last us at least until Wednesday.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

We are all sick and last night my husband suggested ordering pizza and having a movie night. It was his night to cook and he had planned empanadas that were obviously not happening. I said, let's have steak sandwiches (which was Wednesday's planned meal that I was going to make). They were delicious and we have 3 kids so ordering pizza is like $80.

[10dollarsatatime]

Used the pepper app for another home Depot run and groceries.  I don't remember who the code came from on this forum, but you totally deserve the referral.  This app is awesome!

[Freedomin5]

There was a function at work with tons of extra food. I took some back to my office for lunch.

[eyesonthehorizon]

Tempted by more expensive tostadas & the siren song of homemade bean dip I used up the pristine interior of a dodgy-feeling onion & cheap tortillas for single-serving enchiladas. No food waste except what was damaged in transit, the outer moldy layer didn’t impact anything underneath.

Got another few library books & used up the dregs of a stash of earl gray to enrich some thrice-steeped black tea for a fourth cup.

Wait, heat pump HVAC needs to run continuously? ...

I have not heard this myself, though I have heard (a myth) that air conditioners should run continuously rather than setting the thermostat higher when no one is home; not sure if this arises from the same logic or if there’s something I don’t know. I suspect the above is due to belief that it’s “more efficient” (read: humans feel the impact faster & don’t hear the blower run as long) when the machine isn’t counteracting the home’s thermal mass radiating heat back into rooms, but running a bit longer when people first get home compared to coming on intermittently all day long for nobody’s enjoyment has no reason to be inefficient, it’s just noticeable. It feels similarly illogical that heat pump HVACs need to run continuously, not least because, technically, all conventional air conditioners are heat pumps, just they’re only designed to pump heat out. Maybe somebody knows more?

Addendum, there might be a reason to leave the heat on most the time to avoid it switching to inefficient resistant heat when you start it up on a really cold day - but I’d think you wouldn’t want the home getting TOO cold for plumbing’s sake anyway. Not relevant to your climate or mine I think.

[bill1827]

Old heat pumps that just turn the compressor on and off without a soft start should run for long periods as repeated cycling doesn't do them any good and efficiency is reduced. These days most heat pumps use variable speed compressors and fans which don't suffer so much from cycling.

Here, where heat pumps for heating are generally used with hot water heating systems, the system efficiency is drastically improved if you can keep the water supplied by the heat pump low, so you try to keep the leaving temperature at 35-40C, rather than the 60-70C of a gas boiler. Of course, heat transfer is slower with low temperatures so the system has to run for longer to replace lost heat. However, that doesn't mean that the heat pump runs continuously, just that it runs for relatively long periods and avoids short cycling.

A good control system will use weather compensation (modulate the flow temperature depending on heat demand) and set backs during periods of low heat requirement, but the heat pump will still be turned off when not needed.

[BECABECA]

I used the Too Good To Go app to get pizza last night from my partner’s favorite local slice place for 1/3 of the price. I’ve really been enjoying seeing what local places offer surprise boxes of fun foods that would otherwise need to be discarded at closing time. Pretty stoked that I heard about it on these forum a couple months ago. Tonight I’m picking up a surprise box of prepared foods from our local Whole Foods.

[Tigerpine]

Not finished yet, but I'm working on replacing some baseboards that we had to tear out in a room, as opposed to hiring someone to replace them for us.

[Poundwise]

Wellll I refilled my prescription fancy pants extra fluoride toothpaste to hopefully dull the sensitivity in some teeth that is ongoing.  Trying to prevent cavities 🦷 in the newly exposed bits where my gums are receding.  Dental stuff is the worst.

If it's any comfort, DH uses that, too and has for around seven years. He likes it a lot. He used to buy it for $8.00. Now it costs $12.00. He says it's still worth it.

Have you considered using nano hydroxyapatite toothpaste? I've been using it for about a year and feel it has done wonders for remineralizing my teeth and reducing sensitivity. I usually brush twice, once with water, then floss and rinse, then brush with the hydroxyapatite toothpaste and leave it on. It seems to be well studied and safe.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41405-021-00080-7

[Dicey]

Wellll I refilled my prescription fancy pants extra fluoride toothpaste to hopefully dull the sensitivity in some teeth that is ongoing.  Trying to prevent cavities 🦷 in the newly exposed bits where my gums are receding.  Dental stuff is the worst.

If it's any comfort, DH uses that, too and has for around seven years. He likes it a lot. He used to buy it for $8.00. Now it costs $12.00. He says it's still worth it.

Have you considered using nano hydroxyapatite toothpaste? I've been using it for about a year and feel it has done wonders for remineralizing my teeth and reducing sensitivity. I usually brush twice, once with water, then floss and rinse, then brush with the hydroxyapatite toothpaste and leave it on. It seems to be well studied and safe.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41405-021-00080-7

I'm certainly open to trying it, but a quick google search shows it's fairly expensive. What's the advantage?

[nessness]

The Washington Post emailed me to say they were raising my rate from $2/month to $12/month, so I went online and clicked the "cancel" button. They immediately offered me a rate of $0.99/month. $132 saved for the year in like 30 seconds.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We are trying to have a few of DS18's favorite dinners before he leaves for college. In true teenage spirit, he loves PF Changes. It's pricey, so we did an online order (way cheaper than in the restaurant, as we can have our own wine, etc at home). I used a $15 reward, and a gift card, and we did the "back to school bundle", which was a decent deal in & of itself. DS18 picked up the food. For about $40 out of pocket, we had enough for dinner, and enough for 2-3 lunches for two people, which isn't bad at all.

[FrugalShrew]

Watched my items being rung up at the grocery store and caught it when 2 containers of labneh, which were supposed to be 50+% off, rang up at full price. I felt a little bad holding up the line, since the employee had to go check the sale tag and then a manager had to approve the sale price, but also--that seems like an issue that the store needs to fix.

[PMG]

Watched my items being rung up at the grocery store and caught it when 2 containers of labneh, which were supposed to be 50+% off, rang up at full price. I felt a little bad holding up the line, since the employee had to go check the sale tag and then a manager had to approve the sale price, but also--that seems like an issue that the store needs to fix.

You felt a little like a frugal shrew?

[FrugalShrew]

Watched my items being rung up at the grocery store and caught it when 2 containers of labneh, which were supposed to be 50+% off, rang up at full price. I felt a little bad holding up the line, since the employee had to go check the sale tag and then a manager had to approve the sale price, but also--that seems like an issue that the store needs to fix.

You felt a little like a frugal shrew?

Hahaha, yes, exactly! You'd think I would have embraced that role by now. :)

[crocheted_stache]

Picked up one of the Costco fleece jackets from a year or two ago, from a neighbor on Buy Nothing who was getting rid of it. Free sweatshirt, free trip to get it by bike, free exercise getting another couple bike miles in.

Biked our regular Costco grocery run and stuck to the shopping list, as usual.

Made lunch for DH, myself, and one guest with some of the groceries and some ingredients that were already in the pantry and freezer. Costco's food court has a sandwich I'd like to try, but the line today stretched clear past Optometry, so that can wait for a less busy moment.

Saved some flower seeds for next year's garden.

[Frankies Girl]

Had a lovely date night at a little family owned sushi place.

The sashimi came out on a HUGE bed of curly shaved carrots and sprigs of parsley.

I asked for a to-go box for them. I totally can use them both in recipes!