What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[swick]

I think I've come up with a way to gamify staying away from the chocolate box at work and rewarding myself for that and for walking home / getting extra exercise. I think every day I don't buy candy at work is worth $2, and every day that I walk home instead of taking the bus is worth another $2. This money is put into a garden fund for me to buy plants and gardening equipment, which is something I love spending money on AND is far more mustachian in the long run. I think this could work!

Nice job on finding a way to gamify it!

We made some jerky ahead of our vacation next week.

 Also made pizza tonight from stuff in the fridge - despite being hugely hot in the house and not wanting to cook.

Didn't turn on the AC despite the temps inside being in the 30's C.

Started freezing coffee to make ice cubes for our trip, they'll keep food cold and as they slowly melt we'll have cold iced coffee in the morning instead of being tempted to buy some at festival prices.

[10dollarsatatime]

Baked 4 spaghetti squash left from last season.  Will freeze a bunch in single servings.

Roasted all the seeds.  Ended up with 2 cups.

Made a cucumber salad with 2 of this year's cukes.

Spend nothing day.

[Tom Bri]

I made a small, outdoor table today from recycled wood. I painted it blue, from a can of paint left over from ten years ago when I painted the deck blue (a big mistake!). It's a pretty color, and I am working on using that last 1/2 gallon up.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Closed a superfluous bank account to save on fees and streamline my banking.

In the same vein, I made a phone call to alter our payment frequency for professional membership fees. Mine were being deducted fortnightly, my husband's were coming out weekly. They are both now monthly, and we will drop his completely as soon as he receives a new FT contract.

[Squirrel away]

I'm going on a diet so that will mean I will eat less food (obviously) and have to meal plan so hopefully no wasted food.:)

A huge vet bill today will definitely not be money saving.

[misshathaway]

Sunday walked to the local farm instead of driving to pick up a few ears of their own sweet corn for lunch. Never would have "wasted" the time to walk there during working years. Had a great time walking around sampling tastes they put out and listening to cooking demos.

Got a tip from the sweet corn cook who said to cook it as little as possible to get it soft. He recommended 2 minutes in boiling water for their small ears. For years I've been putting one ear, husk on, into the microwave for 7 minutes. Sure enough, the corn I bought that day was much sweeter and still done at only 5 minutes.

Round trip ended up being 1 1/2 hours. Corn $2.50. Well worth it. Plus I wasn't tempted to buy anything else knowing I would have to haul it home.

[Bracken_Joy]

Mint stopped working for me a month ago. After many back and forths with their techs, they still can't get it working. Our main bank won't sync at all, and we lost all our data (over a year, boo). Before buying YNAB (especially because I know I'll struggle to make myself use it) I decided to try out personal capital- and it works! I had tried PC last year and it *didn't* work for 3 different accounts, but it looks like they cleaned stuff up on that front really well.

Anyway, two-fold money savings: they type the comes with an awareness of your spending (nebulous but vital), and the direct, did not pay for YNAB savings.

[Eucalyptus]

Mint stopped working for me a month ago. After many back and forths with their techs, they still can't get it working. Our main bank won't sync at all, and we lost all our data (over a year, boo). Before buying YNAB (especially because I know I'll struggle to make myself use it) I decided to try out personal capital- and it works! I had tried PC last year and it *didn't* work for 3 different accounts, but it looks like they cleaned stuff up on that front really well.

Anyway, two-fold money savings: they type the comes with an awareness of your spending (nebulous but vital), and the direct, did not pay for YNAB savings.

Interesting! I'm on a similar train at the moment. In the last ~week:

1. Did my taxes.
2. Spent the time to do a careful Excel budget spreadsheet.
3. Got rid of Pocketbook which wasn't syncing good enough to my bank for me. It gives notifications every day, but as all the transactions are days behind it was meaningless to me. Put my new envelope style budget into Goodbudget and set that up. Works perfectly. I enter EVERY. SINGLE. TRANSACTION. But that is actually a good thing for me I'm finding, as i'm in total control of my spending and aware of it, and how my budget is going every time! :-)

Littler things:
4. Careful bulk shopping from Costco, Aldi, Rite Price (a store that sells mostly out of date stuff in Aus).
5. Spent an hour on Sunday cutting up a bunch of carrots, potatoes, pumpkin. Total cost about 70 cents (pumpkin free from Dad's garden). At least 8 roast veggie meals.
6. Finally got the courage to email Darn Tough to ask if they will warranty two pairs of socks. I didn't think they would. I was willing to post them to the US for it if they would (~$15 postage international, about 30% the cost of two new pairs). They told me the would warranty, just email photos! Two new pairs of awesome socks on the way. I have 8 pairs in total. I love them. If that company stays in business...I have a lifetime set of awesome socks...

[brute]

I bought a massive thing of pork chops that was half off due to being old. Got it home, smelled a little weird, but not dangerous. Marinated it in some homebrewed porter for 6 hours. Covered up any off flavors, ended up being fantastic topped with some old mushrooms and goat cheese. Protein goals for the day met, and $3 under food budget for the day.

[Kitsune]

I looked through the Naturalizer summer shoe sales to find/buy 3 pairs of shoes I actually needed.
1) A pair of warm winter boots that are not huge clunky good-for--40-weather boots, which were the only ones I had last winter, and I cursed not having something more comfortable and walkable at least 5 days a week. 75% off the usual price, and cheaper than what I have been seeing at the thrift store (and those were in dubious condition).
2) A pair of walkable closed-toed shoes to replace the pair that currently have 3 holes in the soles. I got hurraches, which are comfortable and breatheable and have a great supportive sole that don't hurt my feet. Less than 30$.
3) A pair of office-appropriate low-heeled slingback shoes to wear with skirts and dresses all summer... because I've been wearing shoes of that description for 10 years, and after 10 years my other ones gave up and not even the cobbler could rescue them. Replacement: 40$.

I have a personal rule of no clothes/shoe shopping unless it is 1) something I've been lacking and feeling the lack for more thna 3 months (see: a second pair of winter boots to actually suit the needs I have), or 2) a replacement for something I've worn to pieces, and then I'll typically spend more for quality and comfortand wear the second one to pieces eventually too.

If things fit rules 1 and 2 AND are 75% off? It's a good day. :)

[engineermom21]

Saturday I took the kids to a puppet show at the library.  Free and fun entertainment for all of us.  The whole family then went to the movies that night - my husband and I paid for our tickets with a free movie voucher I got from Marlboro (we don't smoke, but I'm signed up for all the free stuff they give away), and since both my kids are under 3, they were free, so more free entertainment as we did not purchase any snacks from concessions.

Yesterday, I made up two batches of blueberry jam and canned it, then made a batch of blueberry muffins, using up the last blueberries from the bucket my husband and daughter picked a few weeks ago.  Got all the canning supplies on a mystery shop at a local grocery store, so very cheap (and yummy!) jam for us!

[Susan]

Reused packaging material to send out some items I sold through our version of CL.

[misshathaway]

I had saved all my old birch drawers from our bathroom remodel and used a large 2x2 one with the bottom taken out as a bed frame. 

Oh that is SO resourceful. I just threw out a bunch of hard wood drawers. Wah.

[1967mama]

*made a huge pot of baked beans from scratch

*kids are in a 5 day camp - attending for free because I billeted 2 coaches for 4 nights

*no a/c use even though I reaaaaaalllly wanted to use it

[SoccerLounge]

I ate very well today, including a delicious beef stew and a little brownie for a treat, and I didn't spend a penny.

I also didn't buy any more kitchen stuff. I've gotten to the point where replacing all the low-hanging fruit has been done, so now it's time to really think about what else I actually need, as in want to and would use regularly. There won't be any more kitchen purchases until next month.

[horsepoor]

Made yogurt with milk that was on clearance and flavored it with some of the peaches I bought straight from the farm for canning.  Still have more milk left to make mozzarella tomorrow (though I'm not sure it will be very cost effective).

Made a lunch for tomorrow with homegrown potatoes and onions.

Arranged to have a coworker pick me up on the way to our field site tomorrow instead of meeting at the office only to go back the way I came.

Had a simple dinner of zucchini noodles with a squash from a coworker and pesto and tomatoes from the garden.

Didn't spend any money today.

Filled out and mailed a mail-in rebate for $14.

[misshathaway]

Brought some inherited family jewelry that had been languishing for years in the safety deposit box to an auction house for free appraisal day. I used Kaminski in Beverly, MA but I'm sure others do the same thing. There is a limit of 5 items at a time. They took some of it.

Previously I had taken the box contents to an independent appraiser and for $85 just had them sort it by approximate value - over $300 auction, midprice consignment, $100 or lower eBay. If I wanted to save the $85 I could have brought it all to Kaminsky but at 5 items a shot it is too far to drive.

If I add up the cost of the safety deposit times the 13 years I paid the fee ... Hard lesson - old things do NOT necessarily appreciate. Stuff goes out of fashion. Age wear sets in.

[engineermom21]

* Had oatmeal for breakfast, that I had cooked on Sunday (I make a big batch and portion it out for the week for breakfast at work)
* Traded some of my blueberry jam for a friend's strawberry jam
* Hubby cooked dinner with ingredients we already had in the freezer, with enough for leftovers for lunch today
* Got a mystery shop to cover the cost of my son's prescription (we have insurance, but a high deductible plan, so this saves me the OOP cost on that)

[engineermom21]

Yesterday I asked a coworker for a ride home from a meeting instead of calling an uber. My husband had our only car all day at his work and I would have had to sit for 2 hours to wait for him to pick me up. Saved me a $6 uber ride.

I'll be travelling for work tomorrow and Friday. Booked a hotel with mini fridge and microwave and will eat in the room and pocket my per diem.
Sunday is my husband's birthday and we debated what to do to celebrate. We've decided to have some friends over to our community pool and do a lunchtime grill out. Burgers, hot dogs and mixed berry cobbler. The earlier hour means people won't be as tempted to drink heavily and one of our guests offered to bring soft drinks. We stocked up on beer when it was BOGO at Publix a few weeks ago. I'm checking grocery sales to figure out where to buy the other groceries needed.

On the birthday note, I'm currently fighting against the urge to buy my husband more gifts. I bought him a handmade leather journal with Zelda based designs when we went to the Ren Faire in January. I was really happy with the gift, and wrote a meaningful note inside it about all the things coming up in this year (he graduates professional school, we're hoping to buy a house and have a baby).

The trouble is that boxes and boxes of gifts keep showing up from his mother and sister. I opened one box thinking it was something I had ordered from Amazon and there was a brand new Xbox One in there (we have the old model) and another $150 worth of dvds and video games. That was only the first box. Another 4 have arrived and he's picking up one from Fedex this afternoon and something else is arriving on Friday. My gift now seems woefully inadequate in the face of all this bounty. It's also hard because I'm the keeper of the budget in our home and my husband would be more spendypants if it wasn't for me and so I now feel like I deprive him year round and now I'm give him a wimpy gift on his birthday.

Maybe you could plan a day out just the two of you?  There are lots of frugal things you could do - pack a picnic and take it to a park, find out if your local museums have any free exhibit days, take a day trip somewhere (beach, mountains, etc.).   Do something that's an experience for him, rather than a gift, type of thing.

[Shinplaster]

I think the community grill sounds lovely, as does the journal.  Spending time grilling and hanging out with friends is pretty much a perfect celebration in my book.  You chose a gift with meaning for him (and you), that he will keep for years to come.    The xbox/games will be outdated in a few years, and will hold no meaning for him at all.  They're just stuff, and you don't need to compete with that.

[marty998]

Did not have to make dinner last night... my sport club had it's registration day which I help run and we put on a free BBQ for the kids who turned up. There was quite a bit of food left over :)

[lunahsol]

Put back a lovely black top at Target. 

It would have gone with just about every outfit I have and was 29.99.  As soon as I had it in my hands, I had to get a basket . . . and then the basket magically started attracting more stuff.  When it started to feel heavy, I came to my senses and put back every bit of it, including the shirt. 

Total savings:  +/- $150.00

[Matt (Semper Fi)]

I increased my thermostat from 77 degrees to 78 degrees.  That is huge for me, since as of three weeks ago I had it set at 73 degrees all the time during the hot summers, sometimes 72.  I have been increasing the temperature every few days and getting the family acclimated to the new temperatures.  We were really comfortable at 77, but I have noticed that 78 degrees, especially in the middle of a hot summer day (110 degrees outside), we were just a tad flushed.  But we'll give it a few more days, see what happens.

Hung the clothes out to dry rather than run the clothes dryer.  No sense in running that thing when it's 110 degrees outside, hahaha.

Shut the vents and doors to rooms that are not being used.

And, as always, "if it's yellow, let it mellow, but if it's brown, flush it down." 

[Spruit]

Ran out of abrasive to scrub down bathroom tiles, so I used... sand. I wiped it down afterward (in stead of rinsing it all down the drain were it would clog the pipes). Worked like a charm, so no more Cif or Vim for me. More room in the cupboards, yay!
Laundry day today, so I hung out three loads in preparation of our vacation later this week. Mostly line dried, just one load that had to dry indoors as it had began to pour outside.

[Rural]

Ran out of abrasive to scrub down bathroom tiles, so I used... sand. I wiped it down afterward (in stead of rinsing it all down the drain were it would clog the pipes). Worked like a charm, so no more Cif or Vim for me. More room in the cupboards, yay!
Laundry day today, so I hung out three loads in preparation of our vacation later this week. Mostly line dried, just one load that had to dry indoors as it had began to pour outside.

If you use table salt, you can rinse it down without worry because it'll dissolve. Table salt is about as cheap as sand here - is it where you are, too?

[mustachepungoeshere]

Moving this weekend but new place is walking distance from old place, so I'm avoiding paying movers.

I carted more things over this morning, including my baby Hills Hoist and a basket of wet washing. New place gets more sun so I'm making the most of it already.

[Eucalyptus]

A couple of weeks ago I got my electricity and gas bills. Pretty low useage (I'm good that way), less than 1/3 of the usage of a typical single person household in South Australia (I have my daughter half the time too).

Went online to compare other plans. I deliberately went into a no contract scenario when I started in this house a few months ago so I could do this.
Took me five minutes, found a deal that would save me about $30 a quarter. Person called me back, took ten minutes on the phone to set up the changeover-very pleasant and easy, I was on speaker phone so I was getting other things done at the same time :-)

Couple of weeks later, get call from old elec/gas company asking why I'm shifting. Told them straight-I can get a better deal. Guy checks with his manager, immediately offers me a big % discount on the kwh and MJ, plus $50 credit on my elec and $50 credit on my gas. Still no lock in contracts. Worked it out vs the new company, and I would be an additional $90 better off for the next quarter! Took me about 15minutes on the phone this time to sort it all.

So, two 15minute sessions, saved $120.

I'll do EXACTLY the same thing again next quarter!

I'm not even worth it to these companies to offer me so much deal and credit, I hardly use anything anyway, haha!

[Susan]

Was babysitting yesterday, and stayed over. Free meal, breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. But above all some nice quality time with my nephews!

[sis]

I cancelled a magazine subscription today.

[Kwill]

I had leftovers for dinner and then took a Pokemon walk. I keep the data disabled on my smartphone, but there is plenty of wi-fi around. Also, car free for 6 months now.

[LindseyC]

About 4 or 5 years ago I received 2 large S'well bottles for free. I have used them both every single day since then. One is for cold water, one cold tea that I make at home. I also use them at home to drink out of (my cat likes to play in glasses of water). Well they are all scratched up, a little dented and the lids are starting to give up. Instead of buying new bottles (they are $58 dollars now) which I did debate, I searched online until I found the cheapest place offering the replacement lids. Not easy here in Canada as they are sold out everywhere. Finally found them, $13 later and my new bottle caps are on the way. I resisted the urge for new "pretty" bottles!

I also negotiated a personal line of credit from my bank with a very low interest rate. I am paying down some credit card debt I have from being sick for a few years. So far I have been able to move it around so I am always paying zero percent interest, but I think they are getting wise because they have stopped offering that deal on one of my cards. The loan is my backup plan just in case I don't get it all paid off in time. I have a few months to work on it, but I wanted to lock in the loan now because the interest rate was so darn good. I likely won't need to use it, but having a backup plan makes me sleep better at night and the time spent doing the paperwork was totally worth it.

[Eucalyptus]

Last night I did a $50 woolworths shop in order to earn $5 woolworths dollars (when your account gets to $10 they credit you, so its essentially 10% off).
Bought 21 bags of rolled oats-woolworths are the cheapest source I can find, as well as some other long life essentials that I'll use in the future.
Next week from Monday onwards Woolworths are repeating the offer, so I'll do the same again. I'll go to a different store this time; hopefully they'll have at least another 21 bags of Rolled Oats in stock :-)

Inc in my purchase was a bag of woolworths powdered milk. I try to be vegetarian but Dairy is my big foible. I like fresh milk in my tea at home for taste. I can get that at $1/litre, or $2.92/3Litres if I go to Costco (this is bad for the dairy farmers but that's another story...). UHT milk the best I can get at Aldi or Woolworths is 90c/Litre; this is fine in hot chocolate or on my morning oats (just a splash).

If made to the directions, the Woolworths powdered milk is 69c/Litre. Did a batch last night in a jug I had in the fridge that was just holding water (filling the fridge with thermal mass makes it more efficicent...). Turned out great! Delicious actually. I've drunk tons of powdered milk in the past hiking and cycle touring (literally years worth), and know that occasionally some don't taste that great, depends on the brand, and I used to always find that package directions were too weak for me. But this one is perfect! Good enough to have in tea and coffee sometimes too :-) So I'll drastically reduce my fresh milk buying and stock up on powdered milk and more oats next week at Woolies .

Lifehacked

[jengod]

Walked and took public transport everywhere today. Got in 12,000 steps, saved on gas, and found a huge patch of purslane near my son's school. I harvested several handfuls and it's prepped and ready for smoothies and salad tomorrow. Free omega-3s!

[1967mama]

*Made beans and rice in my Amazon Prime Day Instant Pot in 28 minutes! This appliance amazes me!

*Hosted a camp windup for 15 coaches and they fed my family as well plus left us with 3 large pizzas, 2 dozen of those
individual ice cream cups with the flat wooden spoon and 4 litres of pop.

*Didn't use the a/c even though it was 79 degrees in my house

[horsepoor]

*Made beans and rice in my Amazon Prime Day Instant Pot in 28 minutes! This appliance amazes me!

About once a week I dance around my kitchen singing the praises of my Instant Pot.  Can't remember the last time I opened a store-bought can of beans.

Today - teleworking, so no gas to drive to the office.

Finishing canning up my 40# of peaches and figuring out how to make ricotta out of the shit ton of whey I have leftover of making mozzarella last night.

Kind of an MPP:  I went to our local co-op yesterday for a couple specific items, and thought I'd peruse around and maybe treat myself of a couple specialty items.  Looked at many of the condiments and things and thought:  Meh, I make that at home and mine is probably better anyway.

[1967mama]

*Leftover pizza and garden grown lettuce salad for dinner tonite

*Leftover beans and rice for lunch

*Walked right by McDonald's and came home to make eggs, spinach and avacado for my breakfast.

*Tea at home before going out

*Planning family vacation and trying to do it on the cheap

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Worked on own divorce paperwork. Am consulting a lawyer, but I don't need someone to type up my forms for me!

[jengod]

* Saved $480 on a 2 oz tube of prescription cream for my son's skin condition by using insurance ($475) and a flippin' coupon ($5) I printed off the Internet. God help us all.

* Used a $5 off $30 coupon from the Sprouts Market circular to save on bread and produce for the weekend.

* Saved $0.20/lb on rolled oats by using the bulk bins at the superhippie natural foods store I visited today, instead of buying them at Sprouts.

* Postponing laundry until off-peak hours to save $. Printed out our electric utility's "time of use" rate chart and will post it near our thermostat.

* Dug up and potted a feverfew seedling and a cassia seedling that had volunteered in the backyard. Will replant them later in more favorable locations.

[swick]

 - Cooking food and snacks ahead of our vacation so we don't have to buy food!
 - Secured borrowed camping equipment so we don't have to buy any right now
 - Refuse to turn on the AC!
 - Instead of going to a fancy-pants gym, danced like a mad whilst cleaning up got an hour workout and a clean kitchen to boot!
 - Started discussions with a client to find someone to slowly replace myself. Short term loss (actually might not, I'll be replacing the income easily) for a longer term gain.

[dignam]

-Switching wireless carriers.  It will cut my bill in half for roughly the same service (in fact the new provider uses same towers as my old provider).
-Cooked breakfast and lunch at home (this is pretty common though)
-Opened up the apartment and turned off the AC since it's cooler than it's been all summer.  Still pretty toasty in here though haha

[mustachepungoeshere]

Moved house, no movers, no boxes, no tape.

Got all the big stuff moved with the help of wonderful friends and family. At the end of the day I cooked them dinner in the new place to say thank you.

Even with the chaos of moving I washed and pegged two loads of washing. New place gets a lot more sun, so washing dries faster.

[Bracken_Joy]

Moved house, no movers, no boxes, no tape.

Got all the big stuff moved with the help of wonderful friends and family. At the end of the day I cooked them dinner in the new place to say thank you.

Even with the chaos of moving I washed and pegged two loads of washing. New place gets a lot more sun, so washing dries faster.

How did you move without boxes or tape?

[mustachepungoeshere]

Moved house, no movers, no boxes, no tape.

How did you move without boxes or tape?

The new place is, um, really very close to the old place. They're in the same apartment building.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Postponed grocery shopping a whole day by whipping up a batch of pesto to use in place of tomato sauce on pizza.

[Metric Mouse]

Bought a watch case opener. Broke even on the charge to replace a watch battery, so if I even only use it one more time, I'll be money ahead.

[frooglepoodle]

Went on a long (7.5 mile!) walk in the woods behind our house this morning. Free entertainment and great exercise.

Threw frozen chicken legs in the crockpot before taking our visiting family members to the airport to have dinner ready when we got home.

Used the chicken bones and veggie scraps to make stock in the pressure cooker.

The juices rendered by the cooking chicken will be used (with the addition of garlic and a jalapeņo from our container garden) to make black beans in the crockpot overnight.

Will be giving myself a pedicure after the little one goes to sleep.

[llorona]

Tossed eight withered apples on their last legs into the juicer. Came out with close to two cups of fresh apple juice.

Harvested approximately two pounds of tomatoes from the back yard, along with a handful of green beans.

Refused to plug in the portable air conditioner when the weather got hot last week and the temperature reached 86 degrees inside the house. Survived by putting ice packs on my head and neck, and taking cold showers. Might have to break down when it gets to ninety degrees.

[ElGrillo]

Not sure if this really counts for this thread, but today I remembered about a shoebox of coins I have been collecting for about 5 years now. When I had extra change I'd throw it in there and forget about it, but I went through them and found I have $50 of coins. It's not much, but it's something. Tomorrow I'll go and deposit them at the coin counter at my bank, although I probably should have done that years ago. :P

[MrsTuxedocat]

When I traveled to see my family this weekend, I packed lunch and dinner plus snacks so I didn't have to stop along the way. The sandwiches were very tasty and I was happy that I saved money while eating healthy.

[Kaikou]

I had leftovers for dinner and then took a Pokemon walk. I keep the data disabled on my smartphone, but there is plenty of wi-fi around. Also, car free for 6 months now.

Heard tmobile offers free data for Pokemon