What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Bracken_Joy]

Replacing our own faucet. I know this is probably small potatoes to most people, but neither of us had done this before, and the previous home owner was a MESS with the silicone. Great bulbous gobs, everywhere. An exercise in patience, haha.

Bonus round: NOT ordering food/going out to eat, even though it was reeeeeeeally tempting.

This ended up including switching our sink shut off valves, since they wouldn't close all the way. We now have quarter turn valves we installed. I'm extra proud of this one- required shutting off the main supply and everything. Credit goes to my husband though. He's awesome.

And *STILL* haven't gone out to eat.

Bonus round: doing all this during the storms hitting the PNW.

[Catbert]

Neighbor gave me a grocery sack full of very ripe guavas.  I've learned from past experience that guavas go from ripe to very ripe to rotten in a nanosecond.  And one rotten guava spreads to others just as quickly.  So even though I feel lousy today I soldiered on and did a rough prep of all the guavas.  Enough that I can deal with them in a day or so when I feel better.

In past years I've frozen a lot of the guava shells for smoothies.  But I'm off smoothies so these guavas will become guava bread (like banana bread only with guavas) or canned as guava butter.

[newelljack]

Today I ordered the parts to allow me to hook up to the existing 50'+ antenna next to my house. Once that's all hooked up we can ditch the dish and save $94/mo. All of the parts were $70, but it will pay us back big time.

[swick]

Spent the day processing some pears we got from a neighbours tree. Canned two batches of chutney. Used up a bunch of spices we had kicking around. One batch pear cardamom and one pear Mango that used up some dried mango we got but didn't like to eat as dry fruit. Also have some cinnamon pear chips int he dehydrator. If they turn out any good we'll be making several more batches and giving them away as Christmas presents.

[Moonwaves]

... used up some dried mango we got but didn't like to eat as dry fruit.

Another good use for dried mango is to leave it steeping in orange juice for a couple of hours and then puree the manjo and juice using a stick blender and pour it into small cups/glasses and chill it in the fridge for a few hours. Top it with a spoonful of cream/creme fraiche/yoghurt and you've got a very easy and pretty healthy but very impressive looking dessert, kind of like a fancy mousse.

[Kitsunegari]

Tossed my Costco rotisserie chicken carcass and legs/wings into a pot and made chicken soup with other things we had on hand. Kids all had second helpings and there's enough for at least one more round for everyone another night. Perfect meal as the rain moved into the California today.

Storytime!
Last w-e I was at a chalet with a bunch of friends for Thanksgiving. We had splitted cooking duties, but the girl in charge of dry groceries forgot to buy bouillon for the risotto I planned. So on the evening of the turkey roast I took the carcass of the bird, threw it in a pot with carrots, onions and herbs and I made the broth to make risotto the following day. Man, the other people think I did some kind of magic! Some seriously didn't know that's how you make broth.
Furthermore, as the meals were mostly organized by me and my unofficialy moustachian DH, the total for the meal for the whole long w-e amounted at about 30$ per person. Some people were impressed, some were seriously in disbelief :-D And to think it's waaay over what we usually spend...

[Hotstreak]

I walked down a random aisle at an out of the way grocery store and found my favorite chocolate bars on sale for $1.68.  At my normal groceries they are usually $3.28 and go on sale for $2.50.  I bought a lot of chocolate!  These are the 100% cacao Bakers bars, which are food, not candy.  At 720 calories each, not a bad deal :).

[swick]

... used up some dried mango we got but didn't like to eat as dry fruit.

Another good use for dried mango is to leave it steeping in orange juice for a couple of hours and then puree the manjo and juice using a stick blender and pour it into small cups/glasses and chill it in the fridge for a few hours. Top it with a spoonful of cream/creme fraiche/yoghurt and you've got a very easy and pretty healthy but very impressive looking dessert, kind of like a fancy mousse.

This sounds awesome! Thanks, Moonwaves!

[Zikzin]

Today I made all overripe fruits into jams - orange marmalade, strawberry and grape

[PMG]

Cooked dry black beans for the freezer.

Steamed and froze excess greens.
 
Foraged some mint to add to my tea.

Made a big fajita stir fry (with black beans and greens), half to eat this week, half for the freezer.

Mixed up a new batch of copy cat lawry's seasoning salt from spices on hand.

All food containers are in use, had to portion greens into plastic wrap and then place them inside a larger freezer container.

Refashioned my 2 sizes too big sweatpants. It was tricky, but successful.

Dried laundry outside

Prepped my jar of cold coffee for the coming week.

Gave my sandals a baking soda treatment.

Walked to a community meeting at a coffee shop and did not buy a treat.

[Inaya]

 Confession: Bought a $5 premade salad at Trader Joe's. I'm making this week's lunches tonight, so preparing dinner is somewhat out of the question. But not having food would tempt me to eat my husband's convenience foods. So I saved on calories if not money. Also bought a whole cheesecake for hubs for $7, so he stops sneaking off to Cheesecake Factory to get $7 single slices. I think the TJ's cheesecakes are WAY better anyway.

Made from-scratch pumpkin soup out of a $2 pumpkin and stuff I already had around the house. That'll last the week. Also roasted the seeds, which will go on my weekday salads along with a roasted $1 butternut squash and a bit of TJ's cranberry goat cheese.

Went to Starbucks to study (yeah I know, but I have trouble focusing at home), and instead of the $4.50 Earl Grey latte, I got plain $2 Earl Grey tea. Added sugar, half & half, and their vanilla powder and it tasted close enough.

[alewpanda]

Strongly considered custard after youth group tonight, but sucked it up and came home to leftover homemade cheesy mac.....

Stayed in all weekend, avoiding money spending :)

I spent money, but probably also saved money...I went to a make and take party for essential oils today.  For 4.00 you could make roller bottle mixes, sprays or scrubs, all while being given access to a huge variety of essential oils you could try, with recipes for various mixtures/uses.

Not sure if anyone on here subscribes to their usefulness, but in my book, spending 16.00 to try out several mixtures and their effectiveness was better than buying the full bottles and finding out I a) didn't like them or b) they didn't work!

[jengod]

Used $5 off $30 coupon on groceries, plus reusable bag credit.

Hosted two friends for brunch at home instead of going out to a restaurant; made a frittata using some tomatoes and arugula from the garden.

Hung all loads of laundry to dry instead of using using machine.

Harvested and dried lemon verbena for winter herbal tea.

[1967mama]

I made a birthday cake for my 21 year old son instead of buying one.

Gave him a lovely pair of Vans runners that were on clearance and on top of that, they were buy one, get one 50% off, so another son got a pair as well (his were getting too small).

Leftover salmon on a salad for lunch to day. Kids had free hotdogs since they were working at church over lunch.

[llorona]

Saw an article in the local paper and played Chipotle's online game to get a BOGO coupon. You have to give them a mobile number and they will text the coupon to you.

Here's the link to the game: https://www.alovestorygame.com/

And here's the press release: http://phoenix.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=194775&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2210817

[frooglepoodle]

Cut my husband's hair.

When the ice cream truck came around, we all split one milkshake rather than buying individual items for all three of us.

Spent Saturday night working on some small craft projects together (glitter tree ornaments for neighbor Christmas gifts - will cost just over a dollar each to make and look really nice).

Did some mending for neighbors who don't sew to earn a few extra dollars of fun money.

Baked mini frittatas for breakfasts this week.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Spent Saturday night working on some small craft projects together (glitter tree ornaments for neighbor Christmas gifts - will cost just over a dollar each to make and look really nice).

This reminds me of one of my favourite Pancakes and French Fries blog posts.

“WE ARE GLITTERING THE DINOSAURS AND BY GOD YOU TWO ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!”

http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2009/12/a-mesozoic-christmas/

[frooglepoodle]

Spent Saturday night working on some small craft projects together (glitter tree ornaments for neighbor Christmas gifts - will cost just over a dollar each to make and look really nice).

This reminds me of one of my favourite Pancakes and French Fries blog posts.

“WE ARE GLITTERING THE DINOSAURS AND BY GOD YOU TWO ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!”

http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2009/12/a-mesozoic-christmas/

My son is too young to be into plastic dinosaurs yet, but I see something like this in my future. :-) What we're doing is along these lines: http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/12/glitter-ornaments-diy-silhouette.html

[Inaya]

Went to a focus group at work and got a $25 Amazon gift card for my time, as well as free lunch! Today's packed lunch is now dinner.

[Bracken_Joy]

Switched from the costco organic eggs (~$6 for 2 doz) to the non-organic from the same farm- both are local to my area. 5 doz for $4.88.

Did a costco trip just for groceries. Tossed pork to batch cook for carnitas in the instant pot before I left. Costco isn't my favorite, but is barely further than the closest grocery store. I've found the day and time that works best so it's not as bad anymore to go. Turns out, my costco is lazy and starts letting people in early, so I go in about 15min before they officially open. I'm usually at the register by 5min after their official open.

[MountainGal]

Lately I:

Saved 24% on this month's grocery trip using coupons, ecoupons, and shopping the sales.

Received $7 store credit after writing to them about an unsatisfactory product last month.

Saved $8 for not buying canned refried beans at Sam's Club, instead I'll make my own after discovering another huge jar of dried beans in the pantry.  http://www.budgetbytes.com/2011/08/not-refried-beans/

Saved 60 cents a gallon on fuel using my shoppers reward points.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Spent Saturday night working on some small craft projects together (glitter tree ornaments for neighbor Christmas gifts - will cost just over a dollar each to make and look really nice).

This reminds me of one of my favourite Pancakes and French Fries blog posts.

“WE ARE GLITTERING THE DINOSAURS AND BY GOD YOU TWO ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!”

http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2009/12/a-mesozoic-christmas/

My son is too young to be into plastic dinosaurs yet, but I see something like this in my future. :-) What we're doing is along these lines: http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/12/glitter-ornaments-diy-silhouette.html

Cute! You should mention that in the Homemade Christmas 2016 thread.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/homemade-christmas-2016/msg1180884/#msg1180884

[CarrieWillard]

- Took a PTA bath instead of a regular shower, spritzed my hair with water
- Took breakfast to work
- Shared child care duties with hubby to avoid child care costs (I work for a couple of hours in the early AM, then come home so he can leave for work)
- Cooked lunch and dinner at home
- Made a huge vat of chili from one pound of ground meat, added leftover quinoa that may have gone bad otherwise
- Hung a load of laundry
- Entertained kids with free stuff: playing outside, bike ride, read-aloud, paint
- Drank water instead of milk, juice, tea or other fancy stuff
- Chopped up a half-eaten apple, artfully hiding browned bits, for use as a kid snack
- Stayed away from stores, online and off
- Cleaned my own house

[mustachepungoeshere]

I had never considered the following until someone posted in another thread about office vending machines.

I have two days left in my current office, and in more than nine years in the building I have never used the vendos.

So that is one small thing I did - or didn't do - every day for a couple of thousand days.

[Mikila]

I turn off the water in the shower while scrubbing and shaving.  Also, I stayed out of the stores yesterday.

[Kitsune]

I made my daughter's halloween costume (she wanted to be a dragon) out of 2$ of felt and a green hoodie (17$). And then I sewed the felt on softly enough that we'll be able to cut it off and she'll have a warm sweater to wear this winter, which she needed anyway.

In contrast, my colleagues are congratulating themselves for spending less than 50$/costum. So.

[Bracken_Joy]

I tinkered with a recipe. Now it has more rice and veggies as compared to meat. Definitely benefits the casserole, plus it stretches the meat further now.

It's basically this recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/inside-out-stuffed-peppers
But I double everything except the beef. Also, I add a couple cloves of garlic, and I saute both the garlic and the onions into the beef a bit before I do the layers. Put rice as the next layer so it cooks better. I've made this several times now, and this was definitely the best ratios/texture and flavor.

As usual, DH has been taking lunch to work and dinner to classes so he doesn't go out to eat at all.

Cut hydrangeas from the yard instead of buying flowers.

Only left home on foot yesterday, and I plan for the same today.

Bought a whole squash instead of pre-cubed pieces. (They're just do dang easy... sigh). Also switched to whole carrots instead of pre-shredded now that we have a food processor.

Been turning off the heat overnight each night. Last night it got down to 62! Lowest yet in this house.

[OmahaSteph]

Not today, but playing catch-up:

Over the weekend, used four free tickets from my employer to take the family to a huge local pumpkin patch (think fall-themed amusement park). On the bottom of each ticket there was a coupon for $2.50 off a pumpkin purchase (for a total of $10) plus $1 off any food item (total of $4). Walked out with three medium pumpkins and the BEST caramel apple for FREE.

Bought two whole chickens at Target with $2 off stickers on them (roughly $3 each after discounts) and cooked them both in the Instant Pot to make BBQ chicken, threw carcasses back in with veggie bits and made stock, then strained it, threw in chopped veggies and later egg noodles to make homemade chicken noodle soup. YUM.

Bought a Groupon for DD's birthday surprise visit to a trampoline place. Got more features for more people for less money. I did order her cake, but I'm still coming in under budget.

A co-worker is on vacation this week so I'm picking up her CSA share and she said to keep whatever I want. Sweet!

Tomorrow Boss Lady is coming to town so the firm is buying lunch for everyone. The next morning the firm is also paying for a Starbucks run.

[frooglepoodle]

Went to Target to buy disposable diapers. Decided to spend $30 and change to get 1 box, rather than stocking up and spending $130 to get gift cards back. We just use disposable at night or if we're going to be out of the house all day, so we don't go through that many. And diapers are pretty much the only thing we buy at Target, so having $40 of gift cards isn't that useful when we wouldn't need diapers again for probably 8 months!

[mustachepungoeshere]

Switched from a low-rate to a low-fee (which becomes no-fee after a minimum spend) credit card.

The card is paid off each month so interest rates don't bother me.

For the past couple of years I've just asked nicely and they've refunded the annual fee (as they did yesterday, saved $59).

[MrsTuxedocat]

- Walked to an appointment after work in the rain
- Planned our date night at home
- Filled car with gas bought from the US (I have two jerry cans) sp?

[misshathaway]

I have a problem with mice getting in to the house through the garage. There is a shared wall which had water damage and there are cracks along the bottom of it. Spent the day:

- Fixing dips in the garage door threshold with new cement to prevent entrance under the garage door
- Patching the holes in the wall with a combination of hardware cloth, steel wool, and spray foam

Could have paid somebody to do it but the work was not that hard.

[CloserToFree]

-biked to a doctor's appointment even though I was under the weather and was considering just taking an Uber (was pressed for time and appt was in area hard to reach via public transport) - so glad I did! was a beautiful ride

-did NOT buy a new dress for an important work event

-forgot my lunch but resisted urge to go grab something from a sandwich shop near the office ($10-15) and instead made do with tuna salad from the vending machine ($2 - and it's actually super good)

-set a goal of doing only one load of laundry a week instead of doing it whenever I feel like it/ every few days (2 adults and one little kid, so it's easy to feel like there's lots of laundry to be done, but a lot of stuff doesn't really need to be washed)

When I think about some of these smaller things I'm reminded of MMM's "a millionnaire is made $10 at a time" post - one of my all-time faves - and feel inspired to keep making other small, but positive, spending decisions -- they really do add up! Go us! :)

[PMG]

So happy to eat leftovers out of the freezer.

Prepped some stuff for tomorrow including consolidating the last little bits of honey, agave nectar and maple syrup. Just a few tablespoons but it will be enough to sweeten the ginger, apple, pear and butternut squash crisp I am planning for tomorrow.

Edited to add:  do any of the rest of you get so excited for planned food?  All evening I've been thinking about that fruit crisp... Mmmmm. I often spend Thursday afternoon just dreaming of all the grand food I will have time to prepare over the weekend.

[frooglepoodle]

So happy to eat leftovers out of the freezer.

Prepped some stuff for tomorrow including consolidating the last little bits of honey, agave nectar and maple syrup. Just a few tablespoons but it will be enough to sweeten the ginger, apple, pear and butternut squash crisp I am planning for tomorrow.

Edited to add:  do any of the rest of you get so excited for planned food?  All evening I've been thinking about that fruit crisp... Mmmmm. I often spend Thursday afternoon just dreaming of all the grand food I will have time to prepare over the weekend.

Oh my, that sounds amazing. I definitely get excited about planned food - I've been thinking about the short ribs we're having tonight all week.

[Kitsune]

So happy to eat leftovers out of the freezer.

Prepped some stuff for tomorrow including consolidating the last little bits of honey, agave nectar and maple syrup. Just a few tablespoons but it will be enough to sweeten the ginger, apple, pear and butternut squash crisp I am planning for tomorrow.

Edited to add:  do any of the rest of you get so excited for planned food?  All evening I've been thinking about that fruit crisp... Mmmmm. I often spend Thursday afternoon just dreaming of all the grand food I will have time to prepare over the weekend.

Oh my, that sounds amazing. I definitely get excited about planned food - I've been thinking about the short ribs we're having tonight all week.

Tonight: homemade ramen (duck broth from last weekend's roast duck, with noodles and slivered vegetables and a poached egg).
Sunday night: AREPAS. I have been CRAVING arepas for 3 weeks, I'm 2+ hours from the nearest restaurant that does them, and I FINALLY found a south american grocery store in the city I go to for work and found masarepa so I don't have to wait another 5 weeks until I go into the city that makes them. Bonus: ingredients to make it for 5 cost about what 1 dinner in the (still pretty cheap) restaurant would have.

Arepas, you guys. I'm so looking forward to this.

In other words: um, YEAH, I get what you mean about being excited about food... :)

[Dollar Slice]

I'm going to a ten hour live music event tomorrow, so tonight I went to the grocery store (even though it was 10pm... Bonus frugal points) and came home and prepped some food in bite size pieces in small containers that can be sneaked in easily.

And, on the corner of Frugal and Facepunch, I knew I was going for a nice dinner out tonight with a friend visiting from out of town, so I hardly ate anything all day (just a snack and a couple glasses of water) and really enjoyed my whole entree, while resisting appetizer/dessert/wine/etc. Good compromise.

[TrMama]

Also on the corner of frugal and facepunch, I was offered free horseback riding. Yay! I'll still pay for my kids lessons, but now instead of watching them ride, I'll get to participate.

[Moonwaves]

I resisted the temptation to further increase an ebay bid for an exercise bike when it went past my highest offer of 16.50. It sold for 17.25 but that-s fine. Yesterday was my first day starting to look and it was sheer coincidence there was one for sale in next town over with the auction ending today and spontaneous ebay bids can end badly. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find one for free if I ask around and am patient.

[PMG]

Went to Kroger today and only picked up the Friday free item.  It was a Hershey almond chocolate bar.  Shared it with my chocolate fiend boyfriend in the middle of a long work day.

It was really kind of fun to go through the checkout and not have to pay anything...

[Ceridwen]

- Made jet-packs for my kids to wear for Halloween: http://www.instructables.com/id/Kids-Super-Sci-Fi-Rocket-fueled-Jet-Pack-made-for-/

- Cut my daughter's bangs

- Served family a mish-mash of leftovers for lunch on Sunday

- Sold $60 worth of toys on Varagesale after a big play room purge

[Moonwaves]

Resolutely refusing to get dressed properly. Which means I can't go out and buy the giant bag of crisps I've been craving.

[Lunasol]

Two weekends ago I had my friend's birthday party at a bar, I only bought one diet coke plus tip, paid for city parking instead of valet parking, and my share of a group birthday gift.

Money I could've spent: Dinner ($8)+ cocktail ($8)+ tip ($2.4) + valet parking ($5.3)+ share of bday gift($5.3) = $29

Money I actually spent: Diet Coke + tip ($2.65) + city parking ($2.12) + share of bday gift($5.3) = $10.07

So, I ended up spending 29% of what other of my friends spent!

[alewpanda]

Not small really, actually very difficult.

We are on the hunt for a new-to-us vehicle.  Unfortunately, where we live is very rural, we travel a lot by road (to different states even), and often cart our dogs around with us.  We are looking for a small crossover that will permit all of this without being a gas-guzzler.  I have settled on the old body style Rav4.  I will also be the primary driver.  Hubby said "ok, lets go get you a nice car", and very quickly we realized our versions of "nice car" vary dramatically. 

His: nearly new, gadgets, back up camera, ect. ect.

Mine: Old body style (2012 or 2011 preferably), dark colored seats, an exterior that isn't red, white or gold, an aux or usb jack, and less than 100,000 miles on it.


We clashed a lot in the first week of the 'hunt'.  Understandably. 



Its official now though -- I will be driving it, I have a lower tolerance for depreciation of a car's value, and I have a better sense of the budget.  Therefore, He wants me to choose...and he will come along behind and help get it checked out and negotiated.

Whew. Dodged a bullet.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Not today, but Monday...

Started a new job, that brings with it fewer hours and a $9000 bump in pay.

And despite the slight financial nature of the department, my new team is giving me buckets of material for the Overheard at Work thread.

[PMG]

Took the bus instead of uber for errands today. 1.80 vs $20.

I'm planning a big grocery shopping trip next week. I was ridiculously pleased to get some general coupons in the mail today. $5 off 50, $2 off 10 in meat, $2 off 10 in produce. Perfect timing. Now I'm even more inspired to get a lot of necessary items for as little as possible.

[Bracken_Joy]

Make money rather than save money: Got a check for the LinkedIn class action settlement that went through. $20.43. Glad I replied to that email last year.

Had free lunch while volunteering. Was also offered however much bread I could take (a local bakery brings their day olds, and there was more bread than volunteers). I only took one small boule though, since I was walking the 1+ mile home. Oh, I guess that's the other savings- walked the 1.2mi each way, rather than driving.

Did NOT go and get coffee afterwards, either. Even though there was a starbucks across the street, and I have the app on my phone, and money on the app. I went home and made myself a mocha instead.

[marty998]

Not today, but Monday...

Started a new job, that brings with it fewer hours and a $9000 bump in pay.

Ahem. The title of this topic is what SMALL things you did to save money.

This is quite big? Some big congratulations are in order? :D

[horsepoor]

Wanted milk for hot chocolate, and the gallons were on sale for 90 cents more than a quart, so I grabbed a gallon of whole and made most of it into yogurt in the Instant Pot last night.

Put the last third of a pot roast into a pot of beans to create chili for tonight's dinner.

Shopping car insurance tonight.

[4alpacas]

Wanted milk for hot chocolate, and the gallons were on sale for 90 cents more than a quart, so I grabbed a gallon of whole and made most of it into yogurt in the Instant Pot last night.

We just got an Instant Pot, and I want to learn to make yogurt.  Do you have a recommendation for where to look for a recipe/guidance?

Packed leftovers for lunch, made breakfast at home, made tea at home, currently making tea in my office (yes, I like tea).