What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Thinkum]

Made a batch of soap which will be ready for use in about 8 weeks or so. I love the soap I make, so much better than comparably priced soap at big box stores, almost no comparison really.

You have a link to the recipe for this? I hate my current soap.

I use one from a book I got ages ago. Here is a link for some recipes though: http://www.soap-making-resource.com/soap-recipes.html. That is also a pretty good place to get supplies. I also use Bramble Berry and another place for the lye (Sodium Hydroxide).

[Rural]

 Fertilized everything I'm growing with a homemade organic fertilizer (you may not want to know the details, but pee was involved).


Took cuttings from my stevia plant where it was getting a little leggy and rooted eight of them, plus harvested and dried the leaves I had to cut away to encourage  root growth. Dried them for free on a cookie sheet on the dashboard of the car.


 Found about six ripe blackberries, the first of the season. I ate half and brought half to my husband, and I think this evening I'm going to use some of that stevia in a cobbler to use up some of last year's blackberries from the freezer – it's time.


 Dried laundry on the porch railing – in this heat, it takes about 45 minutes, so I have plenty of time to do multiple loads


 Neither of us went down off the mountain today.

[Blissful Biker]

I put storage wax on the family's skis myself instead of taking them into the shop.  And storage wax prevents the bases from drying out extends the life of the skis.

[marty998]

Poured half a glass orange juice as part of breakfast this morning. Filled the rest of the glass with water.

Tastes better, with less sugar, and 2 Litres becomes for 4 Litres so you save half the cost.

[Zaga]

Poured half a glass orange juice as part of breakfast this morning. Filled the rest of the glass with water.

Tastes better, with less sugar, and 2 Litres becomes for 4 Litres so you save half the cost.

I do that with other juices but something about orange juice makes it taste weird when cut with water. Maybe the reduced bite of the acid.

Might not save money, but squeeze a bit of lemon into diluted orange juice, very refreshing!

[marty998]

Poured half a glass orange juice as part of breakfast this morning. Filled the rest of the glass with water.

Tastes better, with less sugar, and 2 Litres becomes for 4 Litres so you save half the cost.

I do that with other juices but something about orange juice makes it taste weird when cut with water. Maybe the reduced bite of the acid.

Might not save money, but squeeze a bit of lemon into diluted orange juice, very refreshing!

I found it tasted 'weird' initially... yes the acid being milder was part of it, but I really think it is the reduced sugar hit...

For me the "pour a half glass and add water thing" works really well with orange and mango fruit juice.

Not so much with apple juice...

[AMexicanHipster]

Does selling old videogames count?

[Rural]

Finally, After a year and a half of pain, we went shopping for a decent office chair for me – I had one at home, but I took it to work, where I sit at the desk for longer hours.



Went to a zillion "seconds" stores looking for a bargain one, then finally went to Staples and sat in every chair there. One (a Lay-z-boy) was pretty darn good, but not quite perfect, and was 350 bucks. Couldn't do it.  Gave up, headed out, and happened to go by a giant Goodwill (we have to drive to the city to shop for office chairs). Found the exact same almost but not quite perfect model Lay-z-boy office chair with a tear in the back for $25. Score.  Oh, the $25 version was an ugly baby-shit brown color; the $350 job was slick black. For the differential, somehow I'll  pick up the pieces of my shattered life and move on with my shit-colored pain reducer. :)

[horsepoor]

Found a nice pair of work gloves in the middle of the road tonight while walking the dog.  I wear through them pretty quickly rasping horse hooves, so I'll throw these in the wash and use them for out at the stable.

Picked a shit-ton of cherries today, as well as a bunch of potatoes and cauliflower and froze bunches of cauli-rice.

Used some old beans, chicken leftover from last week, ham languishing in the freezer and a stray chorizo to make a huge pot of delicious bean stew.  Froze half for later.  Baked a bunch of beets and potatoes to use throughout the week as well.

[athiker10]

Today I re-invested my newly rolled over Roth IRA with help from my thrifty mother and also sanded off two spots of rust on my very nice Surly Cross-Check, and covered them with black nail polish and top coat borrowed from my sister. I'm not sure exactly what it saved in terms of having someone else do it, but it saved my bike from further deterioration!

[jengod]

* Hung out a load of laundry to dry
* Took the bus to UCLA instead of driving, saving gas and the cost of parking ($12)
* Cut my son's hair using our new Wahl clippers. I spent a lot for the "premium" model and the color-coded combs but this cut would have cost $30 (incl tip) at my son's favorite haircut place (chairs shaped like cars! Cartoon movies on TV!) so I have already started making my money back.
* Great morning for community-building as well:
** Our neighbor Jai grew up in Syria and recognized our lemon verbena as a lovely tea herb he remembered from home. I took over an armful of branches today and he should be rich in tea leaves for a few days at least.
** Our next-door neighbor Keiko was decluttering and brought over a kid's basketball hoop and 3 boxes of Legos!


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[Rural]

Cooked a lot for the week: bread, yogurt, deviled eggs, pesto chicken salad (had to cook the chicken first, but I had pesto in the freezer from last summer), baked pasta. Planned meals for the week. Did laundry and hung most everything on the porch to dry (socks remain too big a pain to hang).


Remembered to water my garden plants and the stevia cuttings I'm rooting, plus the avocado seed I'm trying to get going looks suspiciously like it may do something (a first for me and avocado). If so, I'm declaring a homemade rooting hormone win (willow bark tea). I'm hoping to grow an avocado - it'll be 3-7 years until friuting is possible, but I think having the atrium done is still at least a couple of years  out, anyway.


I also picked blackberries, but we ate them all. There aren't yet so many ripe that we can't eat them easily in a sitting, but the time is coming.


He dug up water lines to look at the feasibility of plumbing in grey water (bad news there; we seem to have taken shortcuts in getting ready for the concrete pour on schedule), then worked on organizing his tools once the real heat hit - it's well over 90 again.


Neither of us went down off the mountain today.

[Rezdent]

snip...
Neither of us went down off the mountain today.

I just love it every time I read that line.

[FunkyChopstick]

*Got Subway with hubs for dinner- BOGO hogies!

*Made our Sunday meal plan for the week

*Weeded and watered our micro orchard out back. In 2-3 years we should have more fruit than we can stand

*physically cut my credit cards

* I'm going to start some garden plants tonight. I'm going to love some free veggies in 8 weeks.

[ayylmao]

Sitting all day at home depressed and unable to motivate myself to do anything, wasting mere cents on using electronic devices until it's time to sleep after having absolutely no good food the whole day because I can't motivate myself to cook :))))

[Rural]

snip...
Neither of us went down off the mountain today.

I just love it every time I read that line.

:-)

It's still fun to type, and it makes for a pretty good day, too.

I'd be in better shape, though, if I'd sub in "hiked down the mountain and back" every now and again. The berries (especially blueberries) will be luring me halfway down, at least.

[Spiffsome]

Yesterday I made curry from scratch! Onion, garlic, ginger and spice mix fried together, then add meat and vegetables and simmer in a mix of yoghurt and water for about 1/2 hour. Add a bit of salt and sugar to boost the flavour if required. The home-made yoghurt also got made into lassi drinks to go with the curry. I feel so badass!

(Now, if I can get the hang of naan bread, I will be a cooking goddess.)

[HappierAtHome]

Yesterday: made up a big batch of vege soup and three loaves of bread (seed and nut loaf) to help us get through the working week. I love soup weather!

Today, so far: did my usual money saving habits (bus to work, brought my lunch, wearing my awesome work clothes I bought second hand on ebay) plus arranged a lift to my training tomorrow so I won't have to drive and pay for parking. The guy giving me a lift is happy because it means I'll be there to help him set up the room. Everybody wins!

*Weeded and watered our micro orchard out back. In 2-3 years we should have more fruit than we can stand

How many fruit trees do you need for it to qualify as a micro orchard? Because I love that term and would like to use it myself :-P

Now, if I can get the hang of naan bread, I will be a cooking goddess.

I've heard good things about the Budget Bytes recipe, but haven't tried it myself yet.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

Yesterday, I knew I would be at the airport at lunchtime. I packed a bag lunch with a sandwich, apple, and bag of chips. Total cost was less than $3.

[4alpacas]

Yesterday: made up a big batch of vege soup and three loaves of bread (seed and nut loaf) to help us get through the working week. I love soup weather!

Today, so far: did my usual money saving habits (bus to work, brought my lunch, wearing my awesome work clothes I bought second hand on ebay) plus arranged a lift to my training tomorrow so I won't have to drive and pay for parking. The guy giving me a lift is happy because it means I'll be there to help him set up the room. Everybody wins!

*Weeded and watered our micro orchard out back. In 2-3 years we should have more fruit than we can stand

How many fruit trees do you need for it to qualify as a micro orchard? Because I love that term and would like to use it myself :-P

Now, if I can get the hang of naan bread, I will be a cooking goddess.

I've heard good things about the Budget Bytes recipe, but haven't tried it myself yet.

I've used the Budget Bytes naan recipe.  It's simple, and the bread is really tasty when it's fresh and warm.

Leftovers for breakfast. 
DH made a huge batch of hummus that we ate for lunch and dinner.

Worked on a few projects around the house.
Made a batch of iced tea for tomorrow.
Defrosted a few frozen turkey black bean burgers for lunch tomorrow (http://www.budgetbytes.com/2015/08/mini-black-bean-turkey-burgers/)
Walked to the neighborhood grocery store instead of driving

[Luckyvik]

Bought $17 mattress cover instead of $2000 new mattress more of a delaying the purchase tactic as our mattress has a couple of springs starting to poke out. On downside spent too much on coffee- see Facepunch thread.


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[Juslookin]

The subscription to my local paper is up this month.  I called this morning to cancel it.  We originally needed it for kids doing homework assignments.  Now it's just me reading it.  I'll deal.

We spent the whole weekend puttering inside and outside the house.  No money spent on the weekend for entertainment.

[Inaya]

Cancelled my Amex Blue Cash Preferred before the $75 annual fee kicked in. They offered me a $25 discount on the next year, but still not worth it since 1) pay for produce in cash May-October and 2) shop at Walmart fairly often. I'll grab the free version since 3% is better for groceries than anything else I can find.

[Bracken_Joy]

- Cutting down on how much coffee we drink. (OH my god what am I signing up for). Down to 1 cup apiece for husband and I each day. This'll reduce beans somewhat. (Although it's surprising how many beans it takes to make a single cup vs a pot... not a huge difference! Like a critical mass thing. Still, small savings).
- Made a CostCo trip, even though ehhhhhhh didn't wanna
- Used our last gift card to Target from our wedding to replace my yoga pants (FINALLY), get a dayplanner for this next year, and buy 3 shirts on sale for me and a tanktop for husband.
-Bathed our dog ourselves. Big change from her groomer pampering we always gave her! It's easier for me to be frugal with my own things, but I like spoiling the dog =P
Biggest one:
- Did a cheap anniversary trip. Returned to our in-state camping spot we found on our "camping-moon" last year after the wedding. Spent 4 days/3 nights there. Just the price of gas there and back. Dispersed camped, so not even campground fees. Lovely spot, and near total seclusion (3 cars went by each day- same cars- cutting wood higher up the mountain).

[Jschange]

Today I bought nothing! And better still, I left my wallet at home without anxiety, because I'm only a 5 minute walk from  work.

I'm planning to leave it behind more and more of the time. Can't buy without money

[mustachepungoeshere]

Saved $1.50 by catching the train off-peak.

That was after working an extra three hours, essentially unpaid, so not sure I'm in front there...

[hoipolloi]

Stood in line for ~20 minutes after work to get a burrito bowl for $1. Didn't have anything prepared for dinner, so it worked out nicely. Was a promotion for a Chipotle style place named Dos Toros opening a new location.

[Inaya]

Went to CVS for some eye drops. Noticed that the slightly more expensive kind was BOGO half off, which would be less than the cost of 2 of the cheapest kind. Look at receipt and notice that the discount didn't apply--it apparently expired in May, but they never took the sale tag off. Returned them and got the cheap ones. Which were on sale, but didn't have a sale tag--saved $7 all told. Thanks, CVS. You and Jewel are the reason I check receipts.

[Juslookin]

Spendy day here.  Booked DS18 for his surgery to remove his wisdom teeth.  Copay of $35.  Ka-ching. Not sure what the actual surgery will cost us.  With dental and health insurance hopefully not much. 

[Serve&Volley88]

Brought lunch to work. Today marks a week and two days since I last bought my lunch. Laziness overtook me in April and May and I began to buy lunch most days of the week. I almost puked when I looked at last month's entertainment spending in YNAB! Back to brown bagging.

[Bracken_Joy]

Used a super wimpy bell pepper and some starting to dry out leek shoots in a curry. Turned out wonderfully =) And less food waste!

Drank some "inherited" tea. Brother moved out and didn't want it because it was technically expired. But they're all individually wrapped and still taste totally fine.

Harvested lettuce and peas. Used the peas in the curry, too.

[sis]

I sold a pair of shoes that I'd only worn a couple of times because they didn't fit me well.  That was better than them gathering dust in the closet.  $25 more in my wallet.

[rulesofacquisition]

In the past few days we have installed one highly controversial low flow shower head and replaced 3 more lights with LED' s.

[infogoon]

There's some construction in my office -- we have no break room, which means no coffee makers. My coffee-drinking coworkers all stopped for takeout cups on the way in this morning; I filled a thermos at home and brought it in. Best part is I have a nice hot cup of coffee for after lunch, and they're all heading back out.

[Erma]

I have won some cat food. The cats are happy and I can save some money.

[neophyte]

I need a new dentist, so today I called all the dentists with good yelp reviews and found one that offers a substantial discount if you prepay a package deal for both your cleanings for the year. If I wind up hating this dentist so much that I don't use the second cleaning, it's still cheaper than the place that quoted me $400.

[mustachepungoeshere]

I gave blood - it isn't paid in Australia but they do give out some pretty good snacks (cookies, chips, cheese and crackers). So I'm calling that my saving - it offset the potential urge to buy those items.

And it is National Blood Donor Week.

Great work! :)

[Inaya]

Reminds me that it's been a while since I donated platelets (my B+ blood is so common they don't even want it). I keep having to cancel my appointments.

Back on topic. We hosted a catered meeting today. I planned ahead and took some empty Tupperware to work so I could export some food. Leftovers for dinner, which is stellar since it's stupid hot and I don't wan't to use the stove/oven.

[Kitsune]

Stopped by a roadside stand for fresh strawberries directly from the farm (... For the 3rd time this week...). Total spending on strawberries is 30% of this week's fruit spending, but we are under budget and VERY happy about the strawberries. :)

Omg, fresh in-season fruit. People who live in sensible climates have no idea how amazing this is.

[fishnfool]

I finished off the pot of black beans with ground turkey my wife made last Sunday. I warmed them up and put 3 fried eggs on top. .....Made a delicious dinner! 

There's nothing like a pot of beans with meat or rice to stretch out the food budget and still feel like you're eating healthy.

[Luckyvik]

Our winter doona was getting a little sparse, contemplated getting new $200 doona, decided to put summer doona on top of winter one, that works well.


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[21runner]

I decided not to play in a day/night golf tournament that I had originally decided I might play in. To play in the tournament wouldn't have cost me anything, my employer would have paid for it since they sponsor the tournament, but I would have had to have purchased some glow-in-the-dark golf balls for the night portion of the tournament. I don't normally play at night (obviously) so this purchase would have had no use after the tournament. Saved $20.00 and it's going straight to the Roth!

[Jakejake]

I made a new batch of yogurt, made a loaf of bread from scratch, and made 4 quarts of plum jam using less than $2 of plums from a case of mark down fruit. Then I bicycled 20 miles round trip to kmart to get 2 more cases of quart sized mason jars, using a $15 off a $20 purchase coupon. (My daughter keeps asking for homemade jam every time I visit; I think it's a scam to get my mason jars.)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Made a Budget Bytes recipe* for lunch out of pantry/freezer ingredients.

It became less budget-friendly when my Pyrex baking dish exploded as I took it out of the oven. The potatoes were fine (protected by baking paper), but I have glass all over my kitchen and I've had to pull pieces out of my arm.

I recommend the recipe. The Pyrex dish, not so much...

*http://www.budgetbytes.com/2016/06/broccoli-cheddar-baked-potatoes

[Basenji]

Cut off garlic scapes from garlic plants (heads underground not yet ready), chopped them finely and put in freezer for stirfrys, anything needing a green garlic add.

[Basenji]

It became less budget-friendly when my Pyrex baking dish exploded as I took it out of the oven. The potatoes were fine (protected by baking paper), but I have glass all over my kitchen and I've had to pull pieces out of my arm.

What? Omg! Hope you are ok

[Basenji]

Our winter doona was getting a little sparse, contemplated getting new $200 doona, decided to put summer doona on top of winter one, that works well.

Urban dictionary says, "Doona is Australian slang for quilt or blanket."

[Bracken_Joy]

Usual run of the mill things:
- Harvested lettuce and peas from the garden, ate massive salad with olive oil and balsalmic from costco
- Worked out in our home gym
- Drank tea we got for free (lightly expired, tastes fine)
- Perk of a home gym: when doing clean and jerks that sometimes scuff up my workout shirts (the knurling snags), I just wear a sports bra. Problem solved, and less laundry and less clothing damage to boot! Plus there's an element of extra motivation to keep my core strong during the lift LOL- I guess vanity serves a purpose sometimes...

I'm also doing another big push of minimalism, so we will have less stuff to move when the time comes. Also, I'll feel like we have less stuff, so maybe we'll be drawn to a smaller house =P

It became less budget-friendly when my Pyrex baking dish exploded as I took it out of the oven. The potatoes were fine (protected by baking paper), but I have glass all over my kitchen and I've had to pull pieces out of my arm.

What? Omg! Hope you are ok

I second this! How scary. Keep an eye to make sure none of those spots get infected =o

[mustachepungoeshere]

It became less budget-friendly when my Pyrex baking dish exploded as I took it out of the oven. The potatoes were fine (protected by baking paper), but I have glass all over my kitchen and I've had to pull pieces out of my arm.

What? Omg! Hope you are ok

All good, thank you.

Our winter doona was getting a little sparse, contemplated getting new $200 doona, decided to put summer doona on top of winter one, that works well.

Urban dictionary says, "Doona is Australian slang for quilt or blanket."

A doona-related "what small thing..." from my mum this winter. The casing of her down doona was wearing out and the down was escaping. She reasoned that there was nothing wrong with the down itself, so she made a new case for it. Not a new decorative cover, but replacing the fabric of the actual doona.

[Rural]

Made more bread, cooked up two pounds of brown rice, fertilized the squash and basil, kept an eye on one of the cats (commonly overeats and vomits, but it's been more frequent this week and late last night there were streaks of blood in the vomit). On Saturday night, of course. Today we've fed him minimal kibble and doled out most of a can of tuna, a teaspoonful at a time over the course of the day. He's kept that and water down and is behaving normally, so no emergency vet today, but I'm staying home from work tomorrow to take him to our regular vet. We already had the tuna and have cut it from our diets because it's a gout trigger, so ... Sort of money saved there?


 No one went down off the mountain today.


No money will be saved tomorrow, as veterinary care falls firmly into the "what money is for" category.


ETA I know better than to feed a cat a steady diet of tuna, but I figure five ounces one day will not cause any major problems from an incomplete diet, and meanwhile something's staying down. I anticipate we'll be changing cat's diet completely after tomorrow's visit, plus maybe other treatment as well, depending on the verdict.