Author Topic: What small things did you do TODAY to save money? (Read 8477385 times)

begood · « **Reply #750 on:** April 23, 2014, 05:55:10 PM »

My second Wednesday in a row not going out to dinner! Instead I made another CrockPot recipe, and it made plenty for tonight with enough leftover to freeze for next week's Wednesday night dinner too. :)

Ottawa · « **Reply #751 on:** April 23, 2014, 06:03:19 PM »

Mrs Ottawa and I both contracted food poisoning or norwalk. 24 hours no food so far. Brings forth a whole new meaning to badass.

HappierAtHome · « **Reply #752 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:12:10 PM »

Cooked up the only-just-still-good veges from the fridge into a very tasty pasta sauce.

Best quality beef mince was marked down to half price at the supermarket because it expires tomorrow, so I bought three packs instead of one.

Planned the next week's meals on what we already have on hand plus what's on sale this week.

Bought petrol last night before it went up 12 cents per litre today.

Convinced the BF to undertake a frugality challenge with me in May.

kaizen · « **Reply #753 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:20:03 PM »

Cancelled my LearnVest account ($19/month savings!)

1967mama · « **Reply #754 on:** April 24, 2014, 12:25:43 AM »

Made 70 whole wheat buns.

Made a huge batch of sloppy joes (3 lb ground beef) for dinner with a few of the aforementioned buns, and froze the rest of them.

Made a greek salad to go with dinner.

Did all this in spite of feeling the pits due to an infection (am on antibiotics).

McGeens · « **Reply #755 on:** April 24, 2014, 04:01:37 AM »

I finally got online and compared home and car insurance. Found the same cover for $700/year less!! Not bad for less than an hours 'work'. I was so happy to call and cancel with the old company!

Squirrel away · « **Reply #756 on:** April 24, 2014, 05:35:55 AM »

I had some at home beauty treatments, a facial, a hair conditioning treatment and used my foot spa.

Homemade food, my lunch is bean burgers, chips (fries) and salad.

snareman1 · « **Reply #757 on:** April 24, 2014, 03:15:00 PM »

I made dinner at a friends house using her groceries (even trade) and I got Sprint to waive the final charge on my account after switching to Republic Wireless ($3.59 late fee) YEA! VICTORY!

horsepoor · « **Reply #758 on:** April 25, 2014, 10:58:13 AM »

Got approved for Chase Sapphire Preferred. I'm about to make a large enough purchase to hit the $3K spend requirement to get the 40,000 points ($400). I also set up a reminder on my phone to cancel the account before the annual fee kicks in.

Need to go hit my car insurance next.

DaKini · « **Reply #759 on:** April 27, 2014, 04:26:42 AM »

Not really "today" but i spend my week of vacation building a big raised bed for gardening.
It is about 1x3 meters and .8 high. Total cost was 14 EUR because we used already available earth and wood.
This way we should break even only after some few salads heads + i had a costless 5 day workout.

Maybe this should also go to the badass thread category...
Hooray!

begood · « **Reply #760 on:** April 27, 2014, 06:45:30 AM »

The mister and I went out for dinner last night - first time in three weeks, which by itself is something of a Mustachian miracle.

But rather than each get our own small pizza, which we usually do since we have varying tastes, we split a large, each got we wanted on our own "half", had water to drink, and cut the bill from our typical $25+ to $16.

Not as good as staying home, but a darn sight better than we used to do!

onehappypanda · « **Reply #761 on:** April 27, 2014, 06:56:41 AM »

Sold some junk from the basement. Nothing big, just blenders and the like. But it feels good to clear out some space and make a little extra $$ on the side :)

pachnik · « **Reply #762 on:** April 27, 2014, 08:02:04 AM »

We go grocery shopping every Sunday and on the last Sunday in the month we cash in our grocery store points. We 'earn' about $20/month in grocery points that we will use today.

horsepoor · « **Reply #763 on:** April 27, 2014, 08:05:19 AM »

Nothing yet today, but yesterday:

"Borrowed" the 16' 2x4's that from the bottom part of our firewood rack and repurposed them for a hops trellis, which will shade two south-facing windows of the house during the summer and pay us back with lovely beer-making ingredients. Even better, the hops will be ready to cut down before we're ready to stack wood in the fall, so I can put the 2x4's right back to their original purpose.

Made lentil soup with some of the ham from the Easter special spiral ham, and had a salad with lettuce from the garden to go with.

Doubled down on Lowe's coupons and 5% credit card rewards to save about $40 on the ~$170 worth of stuff I needed for today's project.

Brewed a batch of beer

Made and froze a batch of turkey stock

snareman1 · « **Reply #764 on:** April 28, 2014, 08:19:40 PM »

I had the cash advance finance charge REMOVED from my capital one credit card which I payed off in full last week. =)

Begonia · « **Reply #765 on:** April 28, 2014, 10:24:39 PM »

I made the third required signature purchase within first 45 days on my new Capital One checking account card, shopping at Trader Joe's, so now I'll get that bonus $50 they promised in the promo! Bad news is that it'll go to that face-punch parking ticket from last week. :/

KittyFooFoo · « **Reply #766 on:** April 29, 2014, 01:50:43 PM »

I have a crazy one (seemed crazy to me).

Today I called to pay a medical bill from wife's pregnancy. The bill was ~$4k. We had $2500 in an HRA, and were going to pay the remainder out of pocket. So, I call the billing department, start giving account numbers and amounts, etc. The woman asks me "have you asked for a discount on this bill?" I'm like, "uh, no?" So she gives me a number to call, tells me to request a discount because I am paying in full. I call this number, ask politely for a discount, hold for 20 seconds, they come back with a THIRTY FIVE PERCENT DISCOUNT, eliminating all but $70 of the ~$1400 we were going to pay out of pocket.

HOLY SHIT. This is a thing???

greatreader · « **Reply #767 on:** April 29, 2014, 03:08:12 PM »

Price matched groceries today, saving about $15 in total.

Did some half-assed hypermiling to keep my fuel consumption low.

Not today, but very recently: reorganized my front hall closet, using mostly materials we already had, so that we no longer have a space crunch in the front hall (that means we don't have to break down walls or renovate it!)

ketchup · « **Reply #768 on:** April 29, 2014, 03:15:18 PM »

Registered my new old car!

45MPG out of the gate according to the previous owner, should be able to hit 55 with some modifications and with a new nut behind the wheel.

norabird · « **Reply #769 on:** April 29, 2014, 03:24:39 PM »

Eating leftovers and attending the community board meeting tonight, making it a really low-cost day! (Many of mine aren't)

payitoff · « **Reply #770 on:** April 29, 2014, 03:33:22 PM »

1 roll of tissue left at home, waiting till May 1st to buy for the new budget to kick in, wish me luck!

horsepoor · « **Reply #771 on:** April 29, 2014, 09:00:48 PM »

I went to UPS to return two saddles I had on trial - shipping + insurance for the cheaper one was going to be $113 - I told them I'd ask the business to send me a return label instead. Went around the corner to USPS and shipped them fully insured for $128 total, which is probably less than UPS would have been for just the more expensive one.

Hadilly · « **Reply #772 on:** April 29, 2014, 11:22:09 PM »

Biked my two youngest kids in the burley to the library. Hit TJ and had a picnic on the library lawn (declined an invitation out to lunch). Got a gratis exercise coaching session from a friend, kept going with my $5 yoga app, and took the kids swimming for free as this is turning into a hot April. Batch cooked so I am basically set for the rest of the week. Though was shocked to find out family of five ate four large sautéed bundles of chard for dinner! No driving at all which feels great

Squirrel away · « **Reply #773 on:** April 30, 2014, 02:55:06 AM »

Quote from: 2wakefulFlea on April 29, 2014, 03:33:22 PM

1 roll of tissue left at home, waiting till May 1st to buy for the new budget to kick in, wish me luck!

Lol. Good luck with that.

kimmarg · « **Reply #774 on:** April 30, 2014, 04:53:03 AM »

Spent 15 min (mostly on hold) with the internet/cable company and cut my bill $15/month. I asked for the promotion for 'new customers' on the website so they could 'keep my business', a few transfers later and my rate is lower.

begood · « **Reply #775 on:** April 30, 2014, 08:47:27 AM »

I have been eating two granola bars a day for months: a $1/each fancy-dancy Bakery on Main organic granola bar for breakfast and a $.072/each Annie's Organics bar for afternoon snack. I changed out the Annie's one for Costco Kirkland granola bars for $0.15/each a few weeks ago, and now I've finished the last of the Bakery on Main breakfast bars and replaced them with Wegman's organic instant oatmeal at $0.37/packet.

Let me do that math... I went from $1.72 on breakfast/snack per day to $0.51, a savings of... $1.21 a day! That's... $36 a month! $432 a year!

It's a good example of "no-sacrifice" savings - I'm going to Wegman's and Costco anyway, so it's easy to pick up those new items and keep them in "stock" in the pantry.

Rural · « **Reply #776 on:** April 30, 2014, 09:00:17 AM »

I put a pound of dry blackeyed peas on to cook in the crockpot with the hambone from the ham I bought on the Easter sale and cut up and put into the freezer for future meals.

Joggernot · « **Reply #777 on:** April 30, 2014, 11:13:07 AM »

Quote from: 1967mama on April 17, 2014, 02:01:50 AM

Sold old, unused books, made $147. Never done this before, so this was a big step for me!

How did you sell them? Craigslist? Ebay? I have a bunch and don't want the fee of Ebay to intrude on the price.

1967mama · « **Reply #778 on:** April 30, 2014, 12:43:37 PM »

Quote from: Joggernot on April 30, 2014, 11:13:07 AM

Quote from: 1967mama on April 17, 2014, 02:01:50 AM
Sold old, unused books, made $147. Never done this before, so this was a big step for me!
How did you sell them? Craigslist? Ebay? I have a bunch and don't want the fee of Ebay to intrude on the price.

They were homeschooling textbooks, so I advertised on a number of homeschooling lists/groups in my area. I still have a ton more to sell, but got busy and haven't had time. I think I may have to go with ebay eventually to be able to reach a wider audience. I'm also considering a local homeschooling consignment shop, if I get fed up with ebay!

payitoff · « **Reply #779 on:** April 30, 2014, 05:27:35 PM »

Quote from: Joggernot on April 30, 2014, 11:13:07 AM

Quote from: 1967mama on April 17, 2014, 02:01:50 AM
Sold old, unused books, made $147. Never done this before, so this was a big step for me!
How did you sell them? Craigslist? Ebay? I have a bunch and don't want the fee of Ebay to intrude on the price.

i did mine through Amazon

oldtoyota · « **Reply #780 on:** April 30, 2014, 07:23:44 PM »

I made pizza for the family. =-D

1967mama · « **Reply #781 on:** April 30, 2014, 07:42:39 PM »

First REALLY warm day here, and didn't feel like cooking. BUT parents dropped off a dozen ears of corn this afternoon, so we had corn and cheese/crackers/pickles. No one has a huge appetite anyways. Time to dig out the summer recipes!

DaKini · « **Reply #782 on:** May 01, 2014, 02:03:31 AM »

Mowed someone richs lawn, got paid 15eur per 1hr for this easy workout.
Comrade also did this, went to spend it on booze directly afterwards.

hobbes1 · « **Reply #783 on:** May 01, 2014, 07:59:55 AM »

decreased home internet speed down one level. savings = $10/month. might go down one additional level if no significant lag times.

started demo'ing Republic Wireless Moto G phones at $10/mon. plan. We want to dump ATT Wireless ASAP and if these work out, will pocket $100+/month with RW. Thanks MMM for that article on RW!

packed lunch for work, saving several $ of cost from work cafeteria. I no do this every day as does spouse.

we cook our own meals at home 98% of the time (long standing practice in our house)....We eat like Kings and Queens and love the healthy aspects as well as cost savings.

oldtoyota · « **Reply #784 on:** May 01, 2014, 09:14:56 AM »

WFH.

Saved $8-12 on commuting costs.

keepitsimple · « **Reply #785 on:** May 01, 2014, 09:38:01 AM »

Refrained from Starbucks stop this AM (I get a reg brew there but it's still $2)

Unearthed some homemade mystery veggie patties in the freezer to bring for lunch. Lookin' forward to that.

payitoff · « **Reply #786 on:** May 01, 2014, 10:49:05 AM »

Quote from: Londoner38 on April 30, 2014, 02:55:06 AM

Quote from: 2wakefulFlea on April 29, 2014, 03:33:22 PM
1 roll of tissue left at home, waiting till May 1st to buy for the new budget to kick in, wish me luck!

Lol. Good luck with that.

I'm proud to report that there is still leftover toilet paper from the last roll, and not even made it halfway, im a proud Mustachian mommy, today i will buy more toilet paper, hello May 1st ^.^

peppermint · « **Reply #787 on:** May 04, 2014, 09:21:34 PM »

Didn't spend money this weekend except for a coffee -- still had fun and was social (went to a BBQ and brought a dish made with stuff I already had; went cycling with a friend).

1967mama · « **Reply #788 on:** May 04, 2014, 11:19:10 PM »

Made a loaf of bread in the bread machine on quick cycle (58 minutes) to go with leftover soup for dinner. Sliced some cheese for the warm bread. It was a nice dinner, actually, and I felt frugal serving it!

Cressida · « **Reply #789 on:** May 04, 2014, 11:32:24 PM »

New to the Mustachian business. Spouse and I have ordered pizza I think every Friday for the last 15 years. It gets me out of cooking dinner and provides Spouse with leftovers for lunch over the weekend. But, $30. So this Thursday I made some pizza dough & sauce and left the 2 balls of dough in the fridge to rise overnight. On Friday I rolled 1 ball out and topped and baked it. It was not wonderful, so Spouse & I conferred and made some changes, and I baked the 2nd ball for Spouse's lunch on Saturday. Better, but still not as good as delivery. He had the remaining leftovers for lunch today, so that counts toward today's savings. But I'm determined to get it right. If anyone has tips for homemade pizza, I'm all ears.

HappierAtHome · « **Reply #790 on:** May 04, 2014, 11:43:34 PM »

Ate my homemade lunch instead of buying some, even though I somehow managed to make the world's blandest falafel.

1967mama · « **Reply #791 on:** May 04, 2014, 11:55:59 PM »

Quote from: rolando74 on May 04, 2014, 11:32:24 PM

If anyone has tips for homemade pizza, I'm all ears.

rolando74,

Good job on trying to make your own pizza! This has been an ongoing challenge for me, and I actually enjoy the taste of my own pizza more than store-bought now!

What I have found works wonderfully is to "parbake" the crust after you roll it out. Set your oven to around 350 and bake the crust for around 8-10 minutes. It won't be browned or anything, but will feel cooked.

After that, slather on your sauce (I cheat and use Prego sauce) and some toppings you love (we like ham and pineapple, also ground beef -- pre cooked -- feta cheese and tomato) and then top with some sprinkles of parmesan and a nice amount of mozzarella.

Then I crank the oven up to around 425 or so and bake the pizzas. Watch them carefully till the cheese on top is hot and bubbly and maybe even browning in a few spots.

Hope that helps!

Rural · « **Reply #792 on:** May 05, 2014, 06:44:39 AM »

Neither of us went down off the mountain all weekend. No vehicles were cranked at all except for the backhoe.

I've put the crockpot on for an easy supper tonight; I have a late exam tonight and less than 18 hours to turn that into final grades -- the <18 hours includes time for commuting, eating, and sleeping, if any...

MrWednesday · « **Reply #793 on:** May 05, 2014, 07:05:48 AM »

Quote from: rolando74 on May 04, 2014, 11:32:24 PM

If anyone has tips for homemade pizza, I'm all ears.

I'll second the pre bake tip from 1967mama. I prefer a crisp crust so I also bake on a pizza stone (got mine at walmart for about $15) which I oil (costco olive oil) first. I also use pizza sauce (costco organic tomato sauce with garlic, oregano and or basil mixed in) sparingly as you can end up with a gooey pizza if you use too much. Sometimes when making my dough I'll put spices (oregano, basil, and sometimes thyme) in which gives the dough a nice flavor. I also use a high gluten flour for the dough.

Ottawa · « **Reply #794 on:** May 05, 2014, 07:07:59 AM »

Got paid 70 cents (7 beer cans) to bike to work today!

Silvie · « **Reply #795 on:** May 05, 2014, 09:41:15 AM »

Returned some clothes that I bought last weekend to the store. 23 euros saved, yay!

boy_bye · « **Reply #796 on:** May 05, 2014, 10:06:58 AM »

Quote from: MrWednesday on May 05, 2014, 07:05:48 AM

Quote from: rolando74 on May 04, 2014, 11:32:24 PM
If anyone has tips for homemade pizza, I'm all ears.

I'll second the pre bake tip from 1967mama. I prefer a crisp crust so I also bake on a pizza stone (got mine at walmart for about $15) which I oil (costco olive oil) first. I also use pizza sauce (costco organic tomato sauce with garlic, oregano and or basil mixed in) sparingly as you can end up with a gooey pizza if you use too much. Sometimes when making my dough I'll put spices (oregano, basil, and sometimes thyme) in which gives the dough a nice flavor. I also use a high gluten flour for the dough.

we use the no-knead recipe and bake it on a pizza stone. the higher the temperature, the better -- i think we generally cook it at 500 degrees. throw some cornmeal down on the pizza stone so that the pizza doesn't stick.

here's a good site showing the recipe and with baking instructions:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/01/08/no-knead-thin-crust-pizza-it-doesnt-get-any-easier-than-this/

good luck! homemade pizza better hot from the oven is sooooo much better than delivery!

Alfred J Quack · « **Reply #797 on:** May 05, 2014, 12:43:28 PM »

Quote from: kimmarg on April 30, 2014, 04:53:03 AM

Spent 15 min (mostly on hold) with the internet/cable company and cut my bill $15/month. I asked for the promotion for 'new customers' on the website so they could 'keep my business', a few transfers later and my rate is lower.

Did the same by canceling my subscription and then getting a callback why i canceled. Told the guy I was fed up with the price and that the competitor was € 10,- cheaper. He offered me a € 9.95 discount for 6 months which I graciously accepted :P

Also fixed my sun-screen for € 0,- cost. The the retractor belt came off and I thought I had to bore out a screw which turned out to be plastic so I poked a hole in it and used a nut and bolt from my toolbox to fasten the belt again. Works like a charm and I feel especially proud that I fixed it in stead of getting someone to replace it :D

cpa cat · « **Reply #798 on:** May 05, 2014, 01:35:21 PM »

Quote from: KittyFooFoo on April 29, 2014, 01:50:43 PM

I have a crazy one (seemed crazy to me).

Today I called to pay a medical bill from wife's pregnancy. The bill was ~$4k. We had $2500 in an HRA, and were going to pay the remainder out of pocket. So, I call the billing department, start giving account numbers and amounts, etc. The woman asks me "have you asked for a discount on this bill?" I'm like, "uh, no?" So she gives me a number to call, tells me to request a discount because I am paying in full. I call this number, ask politely for a discount, hold for 20 seconds, they come back with a THIRTY FIVE PERCENT DISCOUNT, eliminating all but $70 of the ~$1400 we were going to pay out of pocket.

HOLY SHIT. This is a thing???

I have no idea, but I'm going to try it when I get billed for a recent ER visit. I'll see how it goes!

For myself, yesterday, I made some burritos to freeze for lunches. I ended up with extras and made burritos for dinner too. And then I had a leftover from dinner, so I ate it for lunch today. It was like burrito dominos.

1967mama · « **Reply #799 on:** May 05, 2014, 03:15:03 PM »

If us pizza makers were super smart and organized, we'd probably do up a bunch of pizza dough at once, and parbake and then wrap and freeze them, thus vastly reducing our workload every Friday for pizza night! haha

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Author Topic: What small things did you do TODAY to save money? (Read 8477385 times)

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