What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[jengod]

Used the magic power of YouTube tutorials to extract corroded batteries from a Mag-lite, saving $30 versus throwing it away and buying a replacement.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Gave in and installed iOS 9.1 on my iPhone 5 last night. Phone had been on its last legs as more and more things refused to work on old OS. Limited memory is slightly inconvenient but it looks like I will be able to limp it along for a while longer.

It's currently costing me $0 (on a $30 plan and get a $30 phone subsidy from work) so I'm keen to make it last as long as I can.

Awesome. Can I ask what OS you upgraded from? I'm limping along with my 4S and things seemed to improved when I finally upgraded to OS8* (whatever the latest version of OS8 was before OS9 came out). It really helped with random crashes and it may have slightly improved the battery life. If your phone improved from OS8 to OS9.1 then I may force myself to go through another update to see if that helps eke out my 4S for longer. (I was all keen to get a 6 last month but then costed it out with my telecom provider of choice and yeah, the cost is making me think more about keeping my 4S going a bit longer)


* I am the opposite of an early adopter. It's a combination of procrastination plus not caring enough to upgrade before I absolutely have to.

I was still on iOS 7-something, so it was a big jump.

I did the same thing, priced a 6 (not 6s or 6+) and it's at least $70/month.

My husband has a 6+ on an $80 plan but over the past 15 months his phone bill has averaged $186 (either blown data, bought data packs for travelling overseas, or both) so I'm looking at moving him on the $135 plan. That would increase our set expenses but we should save money in the long run.

It is essential for his work (writing, taking photos, shooting video, recording voice-overs, mapping, internet, etc) so it's all tax deductible, but I do try to make it as cost effective as possible.

If I put him on the $135 plan it comes with 20GB data, so I did work out I could go on a 500mb plan and share his data through Optus. A small saving.

[Astatine]

I was still on iOS 7-something, so it was a big jump.

I did the same thing, priced a 6 (not 6s or 6+) and it's at least $70/month.

My husband has a 6+ on an $80 plan but over the past 15 months his phone bill has averaged $186 (either blown data, bought data packs for travelling overseas, or both) so I'm looking at moving him on the $135 plan. That would increase our set expenses but we should save money in the long run.

It is essential for his work (writing, taking photos, shooting video, recording voice-overs, mapping, internet, etc) so it's all tax deductible, but I do try to make it as cost effective as possible.

If I put him on the $135 plan it comes with 20GB data, so I did work out I could go on a 500mb plan and share his data through Optus. A small saving.

Thanks for your response! I prefer Telstra for reliability and coverage but their plans are pretty shitty. (I don't know if other providers have upped their game in recent months, but I'm not game to have less coverage or less capacity at certain times of the day - being able to phone DH, friends or medical team for assistance anywhere, anytime is crucial for me) I'm looking at $99/month for 2.5G for a 6 with Telstra. Which feels like too much, even though my phone is integral to my life and adds a lot of value, including managing anxiety.

[Easye418]

To be vague for confidentiality reasons, I was selected as a beta tester for an energy saving product. 

I will end up saving on energy, getting paid (Probably $150-$200 Amazon bucks), and I get to keep a new product for posting feedback daily (simple).

[mustachepungoeshere]

Combined online sales with a rewards program to save $60 and score 1000 Frequent Flyer points on Christmas shopping. 

[Astatine]

Picked up a free 2016 calendar from a local business. It's exactly the type I like with attractive-enough pictures to hang up the calendar in its usual spot near the kitchen, and minimal advertising. I'm a bit of a Luddite with tracking appts, invitations etc so everything goes on the calendar. Otherwise we forget. Electronic scheduling only works for me at work for some reason.

Anyway, saved somewhere between $2 and $20 on a calendar for next year.

Combined online sales with a rewards program to save $60 and score 1000 Frequent Flyer points on Christmas shopping.

Forgot to say, love your username. (except often I read it as mustache pung oes here)

[Eric222]

I just finished my set of credit card applications for the quarter.  Spend $x, get $x as an account credit.  So I'll get $500 for my normal spending, then I'll freeze all of the cards. 

$500 straight towards principal, yay!

[2ndTimer]

Started a pot of dried posole in the slow cooker.  In a few hours I will add a pint of carne adovada from a big batch I made and froze a few months ago.  Currently eating cabbage cooked in leftover Chinese Pork broth for breakfast.  We are eating a lot of cabbage right now due to it being $0.29/lb. locally.

[lunahsol]

Assembled Halloween costume out of items/clothing already around the house.  I'm a Minion :)

[K-ice]

We were out at a community thing where they were selling pizza, water & juice boxes.  Coffee was free.

My LO was thirsty.  I was scrambling to find $1 for the bottled water.  5y old little one pointed to the coffee cups and said "I don't need a bottle, there are cups and the tap and it's free."

Super proud!

[jengod]

Got my flu shot at CVS. Insurance paid, and I received a 20 percent off coupon towards a future purchase.

[10dollarsatatime]

Installed a new wifi thermostat today...
*Got the thermostat from a liquidation store for 40% off
*A simple programmable thermostat wouldn't necessarily work for me, since my schedule is different from day to day and from week to week, so now I will have better control over the house.  I expect my bill to drop a fair amount.  It will be fun to compare to last year.
*Connected my own "c" wire, which involved climbing into the attic and deciphering the furnace manual so I could figure out where to hook it up.

[2ndTimer]

Took a thermos of coffee with us when we went out today.  Shopped at Grocery Outlet.  Came home and practiced on my free piano and ate baked potatoes, $0.14/lb. at this time of the year and sour cream topping made with 3/$1.00 ranch dip mix. 

[Astatine]

Took home potato peelings from dinner at a friend's house tonight. We will roast them in the oven with some salt & oil. Yum! Saves a bit of food waste going to the compost heap.

[Daisy]

Took home potato peelings from dinner at a friend's house tonight. We will roast them in the oven with some salt & oil. Yum! Saves a bit of food waste going to the compost heap.

I've done this! (the roasting the peels part, not taking from a friend's house part)

It's delicious. I usually cook with the peels on, but for certain recipes I peel the potato. I don't like throwing it away so I make some roasted potato skins that are like having potato chips. You can do the same with squash, sweet potato, other peels.

I'll be eyeing skins at friends houses now that you've given the suggestion. ;-)

[Shinplaster]

Took home potato peelings from dinner at a friend's house tonight. We will roast them in the oven with some salt & oil. Yum! Saves a bit of food waste going to the compost heap.

I've done this! (the roasting the peels part, not taking from a friend's house part)

It's delicious. I usually cook with the peels on, but for certain recipes I peel the potato. I don't like throwing it away so I make some roasted potato skins that are like having potato chips. You can do the same with squash, sweet potato, other peels.

I'll be eyeing skins at friends houses now that you've given the suggestion. ;-)

Why have I never thought of this?  My family doesn't like skins in their mashed potatoes, so I have been pitching the peels in the composter.  I will be roasting them from now on.  Thanks!

[lakemom]

Took home potato peelings from dinner at a friend's house tonight. We will roast them in the oven with some salt & oil. Yum! Saves a bit of food waste going to the compost heap.

Recipe?  This sounds good and I waste a lot of skins since one of my kids won't eat mashed with skins and discards them from baked or boiled too.

[1967mama]

You can also make a delicious treat out of apple peels when you're making apple sauce. Wash your apples before you start, then keep the cores and bad bits separate from tasty looking skins. Butter a cookie sheet, toss the peels with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 till a bit dried out. Sweet treat with something you were going to throw out.

[Astatine]

Wow! So much love for potato skin crisps. :)

It was easy to ask for the potato skins because a) they're very good friends and they know I don't like to waste stuff and b) DH was on potato peeling duty so he asked if he could keep them and then just peeled them into a clean plastic bag to bring home with us.

Took home potato peelings from dinner at a friend's house tonight. We will roast them in the oven with some salt & oil. Yum! Saves a bit of food waste going to the compost heap.

Recipe?  This sounds good and I waste a lot of skins since one of my kids won't eat mashed with skins and discards them from baked or boiled too.

We don't have a recipe as such but I asked DH what he did last time he cooked them (I haven't cooked them for a while).

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (we think this is the temperature - our oven is old and we've never checked the temperature is what it says it is).

Coat the potato skins with vegetable oil. We use canola oil - olive oil doesn't work so well for this. Lay flat on an oven tray as a single layer (we put down a silicone sheet on the oven tray but you could use baking paper instead). Sprinkle with a bit of salt.

Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes (maybe longer?). But you need to keep a close eye on them because they can burn pretty quickly. They're done when they start to brown and look crisp.

Edit: according to google, 200C = 390F.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Picked up a free 2016 calendar from a local business. It's exactly the type I like with attractive-enough pictures to hang up the calendar in its usual spot near the kitchen, and minimal advertising. I'm a bit of a Luddite with tracking appts, invitations etc so everything goes on the calendar. Otherwise we forget. Electronic scheduling only works for me at work for some reason.

Anyway, saved somewhere between $2 and $20 on a calendar for next year.

Combined online sales with a rewards program to save $60 and score 1000 Frequent Flyer points on Christmas shopping.

Forgot to say, love your username. (except often I read it as mustache pung oes here)

Good work on the calendar. Last year my mother-in-law bought her 2015 calendar from an art gallery in Paris only to get it home and discover it didn't have boxes for writing. She got a freebie business calendar, cut off the pages and stapled them month by month to the art calendar. It sort of ruined the effect of the beautiful calendar but was effective. :D

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

[mustachepungoeshere]

I've continued to buy medication, toiletries, and some household items (dishwasher tablets), etc from an online discount chemist.

They offer free delivery for orders over $99 so a couple of times a year my mum gives me her list, I order it with my stuff and have it all sent to her house, she is happy to store my spare boxes of soap and bottles of shampoo, etc, in my childhood bedroom, I just pick up what I need when we visit, and we both save a heap of money.

[horsepoor]

Made sriracha from scratch, canned tomato jam, and am just finishing up processing about 50# of homegrown sweet potatoes.  7 quarts canned, a bunch blanched and frozen as steak fries, more as has browns, and the last random bits will be dried for dog treats (I think I read that tip right here on this forum).  Also drying peppers to make into chile powder and filled jars with some herbs that have been drying on the windowsill.

Wasting no time selling off gear that fit the horse I just sold, since my new horse is way bigger and thus fits in my old guy's stuff for the most part.

[Astatine]

Picked up a free 2016 calendar from a local business. It's exactly the type I like with attractive-enough pictures to hang up the calendar in its usual spot near the kitchen, and minimal advertising. I'm a bit of a Luddite with tracking appts, invitations etc so everything goes on the calendar. Otherwise we forget. Electronic scheduling only works for me at work for some reason.

Anyway, saved somewhere between $2 and $20 on a calendar for next year.

Combined online sales with a rewards program to save $60 and score 1000 Frequent Flyer points on Christmas shopping.

Forgot to say, love your username. (except often I read it as mustache pung oes here)

Good work on the calendar. Last year my mother-in-law bought her 2015 calendar from an art gallery in Paris only to get it home and discover it didn't have boxes for writing. She got a freebie business calendar, cut off the pages and stapled them month by month to the art calendar. It sort of ruined the effect of the beautiful calendar but was effective. :D

Luckily the business calendars were unwrapped so we could check the size of the boxes for writing in appts and parties and such. Your MIL was very creative in solving her problem.

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

And... my work here is done.

[1967mama]

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

And... my work here is done.

Until today, I thought it was pronounced like pung - go - share :-o  Doh!

[Astatine]

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

And... my work here is done.

Until today, I thought it was pronounced like pung - go - share :-o  Doh!

Me too, until one time I thought, that doesn't make sense and made myself read it slowly to see what I was missing.

[Spiffsome]

I cut my own hair using instructions from the Internet. So far, two people at work have complimented me on my new haircut.

[1967mama]

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

And... my work here is done.

Until today, I thought it was pronounced like pung - go - share :-o  Doh!

Me too, until one time I thought, that doesn't make sense and made myself read it slowly to see what I was missing.

I didn't get that far in my thought processes, but rather figured it was some hip/cool thing that I wasn't in on :-)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Aaaaand now I can't unsee pung... :D

And... my work here is done.

Until today, I thought it was pronounced like pung - go - share :-o  Doh!

Me too, until one time I thought, that doesn't make sense and made myself read it slowly to see what I was missing.

I didn't get that far in my thought processes, but rather figured it was some hip/cool thing that I wasn't in on :-)

1. This whole exchange is hilarious.

2. Hip/cool? You're giving me far too much credit.

Apologies for inadvertently taking everyone so far off track!

[Kitsune]

Made dinner out of things in the freezer and pantry, which saved both time and money.

I also used youtube tutorials to figure out how to hem 2 jersey dresses (total combined cost at the seamstresses would've been about 40$, with tax, and it took me a half-hour once I figured out the machine, and now I have a new skill!).

[1967mama]

1. Used leftover rice to make a stirfry to go with our chicken tonight.

2. Lots of tea at home.

3. Leftover homemade sausages for breakfast (added eggs).

4. Reading library books this afternoon. Daughter returned a video for me that was one day overdue :-/

5. Went for a brisk walk (with hills) with my husband.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Have to brag about a friend's achievement.

She just messaged me to say her suburb has council clean-up today she she 'shopped' the neighbourhood and dragged home two kitchen stools, a timber desk, a timber change table (she's going to knock the frame off the top and use it for storage), a cross trainer and a scooter. All free.

She won't put it on Facebook (what would people think?) but she messaged me with photos, knowing I would applaud. :)

[Tamster]

I'm learning a lot here - just love this thread!

My big thing today was organizing the gift wrap and using only what I have on hand for Christmas bags, ribbons, and tags. This is huge, as I've always gotten this or that when I've seen something I like. I probably have enough gift wrappings for years.

Turned the heat off (do this every day though) and will reuse the tea bag for another cuppa.

[zephyr911]

Made DW her birthday breakfast with potluck leftovers from Sat night + 3 eggs.
Made our own coffee.
Lunch: frozen leftovers staged here in the office last week.
Dinner: more detritus from the party.
Drove electric.
Total expenses: ~$1

[Bracken_Joy]

Wanted a lazy weekend, so I replayed a video game I already had (Fallout 3). So much fun, felt very novel (I haven't gamed in months), and no additional cost! Using what I already have instead of acquiring more.

[Catbert]

Last two dinners have been "use up the veggies" dishes:

Pizza with spinach (pureed with garlic), eggplant dip, more eggplant and a couple of roasted tomatoes, topped with cheese.  Chopped broccoli salad on the side.

Frititta (sp?) with spinach, cauliflower, onion, zucchini, the rest of the roasted tomatoes and, of course, egg and cheese.

[choppingwood]

I also used youtube tutorials to figure out how to hem 2 jersey dresses (total combined cost at the seamstresses would've been about 40$, with tax, and it took me a half-hour once I figured out the machine, and now I have a new skill!).

Good for you! News skills get bonus mustachian points.

[1967mama]

mary w,

Your pizza with spinach and garlic sounds delicious! Another way I've been using up vegetables is using any of the following:
potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, bell peppers, zucchini, ??? and tossing them with olive oil on a baking sheet. Then I sprinkle them generously with sea salt, pepper and rosemary.

[jordanread]

mary w,

Your pizza with spinach and garlic sounds delicious! Another way I've been using up vegetables is using any of the following:
potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, bell peppers, zucchini, ??? and tossing them with olive oil on a baking sheet. Then I sprinkle them generously with sea salt, pepper and rosemary.

Good recipe!!! I actually have the opposite problem: No veggies to use up. I'm not vegetarian at all, but roasted veggies are amazing. And we can cook them easily in bulk. I provide the below picture as evidence.

[1967mama]

Thanks for posting the photo, jordanread! That is exactly what my roasted vegetables look like. They are new to us and so I can't believe I haven't been doing this all these years of cooking. I do 2 huge cookie sheets for my big family and there is never any left. Yum!

Today I made a spaghetti sauce in the crockpot with more vegetables than I've ever put in before. Along with the ground beef and tomato sauce are: onions, minced garlic, red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, shredded zucchini, fresh basil and lots of spices and seasoning along with 1/2 cup of apple sauce to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.

[Bracken_Joy]

-I used up ALLLL the wasabi in the tube. DH thought I was being "weird", but I didn't have to open the new tube at all today! And here I thought I was "out". Ha!
-Asked about any "pay cash" discounts for Dog's upcoming surgery. Sadly, there were none, but the fact that I ask regularly now is a big step for me.

[jordanread]

Thanks for posting the photo, jordanread! That is exactly what my roasted vegetables look like. They are new to us and so I can't believe I haven't been doing this all these years of cooking. I do 2 huge cookie sheets for my big family and there is never any left. Yum!

It's the only way I could justify the turkey roasting pan!! And holy crap with a bit of balsamic vinegar they are absolutely delicious. Provides an amazing amount of food, very little effort, and it holds enough for a week. I would test it for longer, but see the aforementioned bit about deliciousness. :) And with those roasted veggies, I can't keep them longer than that (cause somebody eats them...).
As far as the actual topic goes, the thing I did was make a purchase that should be used once a year, but I use it at least monthly.

[1967mama]

Good idea to use a roasting pan! Doh ... didn't think of that! Yes, we use balsamic liberally on 1/2 the batches, depending on my mood:-)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Shopped for Melbourne Cup staff party, scanned my loyalty card and earnt points I can exchange for store vouchers.

[4alpacas]

Trimmed my bangs
Packed breakfast, lunch, and snacks
Mailing in a race registration instead of using active.com (saving ~$3.50)

[2ndTimer]

Stopped at the cafeteria today and asked if it was ok to take some hot water to refill my thermos.  It was and I had a lovely second cup of tea.

[Eric222]

Last night I didn't want to make dinner, so I just snacked.  But before I decided to be lazy I checked to make sure I had leftovers for today.  If I hadn't, I would have cooked. 

That is the first time lunch the following day has influenced by thought process the night before.

Yay for small steps!

[horsepoor]

Packed a cooler for an overnight work trip, so I'll be pocketing 100% of my per diem.

[Bracken_Joy]

Carpooling with another mustachian to hike today! Saves on gas. And using my trail pass- so no trailhead fee.

[Eric222]

I bought a bike trailer so that I can bike to the grocery store instead of driving.

I'm going to buy studded bike tires and fenders for my road bike (instead of buying a separate commuter bike) so I can bike in the winter.

[Ceridwen]

- Skipped out of a work team lunch.  Official excuse: I'm sick and not feeling up to it.  The actual reason: I'd rather not spend $20 with tax and tip (sushi).  Eating leftovers instead.

- Made photobooks, calendars and Christmas cards on snapfish yesterday.  Had to rush to meet the deadline of a 50% off coupon code about to expire.  Between that and ebates, I saved $230 and got almost all of our Christmas shopping done.

- Signed up for the yearly subscription program for my train pass.  It was a no-brainer because you get 2 months free by doing this (@ $110 per month) plus the added bonus of not having to line up every month to buy a new pass.

- Borrowed 2 novels from colleagues.