What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[jengod]

* Harvested apricots, zucchini and onions from the garden.

* Used saved liquids as the "water" in our overnight oatmeal: pear juice strained from making pear sauce, apple juice strained from making applesauce, hot "rinse water" poured into cottage cheese and jelly jar jars and shaken around to get use of the last bits.

* Reusable mug $0.10 discount.

* Picked up some NIB Nordic Naturals Baby DHA shared through our Buy Nothing group. Savings $13.50.

[alewpanda]

DH has construction minded friends coming over to help him frame out the deck.  At 7:00 PM last night, I realized I had nothing to feed that many people for lunch.  I swung through the store for buns, tomato paste and fruit, and I took out 4 pounds of ground beef from the freezer.  This morning I cooked up the beef and its all simmering now in the crockpot for sloppy joes.  I'll serve grapes, chips, and brownies on the side.  Plus sweet tea and water.  DH offered to simply order pizza, but a) my grocery run was less costly than two large pizzas, and the sloppy joe will no doubt have leftovers afterwards, and b) we have around 9ish months to eat up the freezer contents and sell it off before moving.  Ground beef galore in there!

[frooglepoodle]

I'm doing batched baking this morning to minimize the amount of time the oven is on - less gas used for the oven and hopefully no need to run the AC to cool the kitchen back down. As a bonus, hamburger buns are sitting near the oven while the cookies bake to speed their second rise.

Bike ride with our toddler in the trailer this morning. Free family entertainment and good exercise to boot since our neighborhood is hilly.

[Bracken_Joy]

Yesterday, my brother was coming through town and wanted to grab lunch. Since his GF hasn't seen much of the town but HAS stayed at my house, we opted to go out. First time in a long time for us, which is money savings #1. We went to a ciderhouse first, where it turns out they were under construction, BUT they gave us free tasters of everything that had on tap. We bought a bottle of cider for later as a thanks. Then we went to a restaurant nearby. Coincided with happy hour, so husband and I ordered only off the happy hour menu, only had one drink apiece, and just had some appetizers. So saved money over ordering a full meal.

Later we went to a potluck, and the hummus and pita chips we brought didn't end up getting opened (pizza is a much bigger draw it turns out, haha). So we brought those back home with us and will take them camping next week.

Biggest savings, but also totally done for 'life enjoyment' reasons instead of frugal reasons- we're going camping for our anniversary trip. I'm lucky enough to live in a place with some of the most incredible natural beauty on earth. Husband is taking a week of vacation from work and we'll disappear into nature for a while. This is a huge contrast to my BIL, who's SO demands a different excursion for every anniversary, always at a nice hotel, etc. Their last trip to city+show+restaurants+bars+shopping had to have cost a minimum of $1k for the weekend. Our trip will be the cost of gas to the mountains (which admittedly in the truck isn't the cheapest thing ever, but we're talking like $20-50 haha).

[GoConfidently]

Cancelled my weekly lawn service and dusted off the old mower. Lazy me is sad. Frugal me is happy.

[I'm a red panda]

Borrowed a new baby carrier from the lending library instead of buying a different one.

Made suck pads for it instead of buying (and considering selling them on Etsy...)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Cold-washed my sheets, which are now drying on the line.

Made dinner for friends last night, pulled pork and salad, cheap and easy.

I thought about trimming husband's hair today but he was filming for work last week and this week, and a hair cut will mess up the continuity.

[Bracken_Joy]

Relatives in town, had them come over for dinner and board games instead of going out. Bought a growler fill, using a gift card. Minimal cost layout.

[Linea_Norway]

I put leather fat on my el cheapo hiking boots. The should increase the life span of the leather, that had already started to take some damage from use.
My DH is sewing himself a new replacement goretex coat.

[wordnerd]

Switched from expensive name brand coffee to generic coffee from my grocery store. It's not quite as good, but it's good enough.

[wordnerd]

I also had a friend over for dinner last night instead of going out. I made some tasty pasta and a pear cobbler and probably only spent a few bucks total for a dinner for two.

[CutTheFat]

Friday: I worked through lunch as usual, ate a Kirkland protein bar (Quest knock off) at my desk.  Was starving by the time I left work.  I came home and mad a latte to take the edge off.  DD2 had a big graduation dance so I didn't even have time for food.  She found an amazing dress a couple weeks ago at Goodwill for $6.99, after looking at a few retail stores and not finding anything that she was happy with.  She absolutely loved the dress that she ended up with!  DD1 did her makeup and I did her hair.  She looked stunning!  The big group of friends met up at one of her friends house for pictures.  We dropped them at the school and were headed home at 7, starving.  We were about to head to a restaurant because we were both so hungry, when I was the voice of reason and said lets just go home and throw something together instead.  DH was on board and together we made a fantastic salad with left over chicken on top and spaghetti with clam sauce.  Delicious and we were able to eat faster than if we went out and it saved us $$.  We have a big vacation coming up at the end of June which makes it easier to make these kinds of money saving decisions.

Saturday:  I cut DH's hair as I do every other week.  DD2 had Softball pictures, DH and other parents stood behind the photographer and took pics on their phones.  We aren't ordering pictures.  We went to Ocean State for Tomato cages because our tomatoes were getting too tall and some were toppling over.  We picked out some flowers for our window boxes. Also got some anchovies an capers and roasted peppers for a great price.  Then DD also had 2 games back to back yesterday out of town, right at dinner time.  So we ate leftovers right before we left for the games.  We said no thanks to the mom who made a Dunkin run.   We had our Contigo thermos's with us and although I was hungry I resisted.  We were hungry when we got home but it was late and nobody felt like making a meal and we were out of leftovers.   I just made popcorn which hit the spot.

Sunday :  Planted the window boxes before the rain came.  Trimmed the pup's nails and took her for a walk.  I'm making a fantastic meal today with a leg of lamb that I purchased for $1.99/lb.  I'm actually thinking of heading back to that market today as I have a couple store coupons that 'd like o use and I'm wanting to get more lamb if they are still having this deal!  Will do food prep for lunches for the week as well as some meal planning for dinners. 

[Alf91]

Cut my kid's hair instead of going to barber. (savings ~$15-20)

Walked to/from event this morning instead of taking transit. (savings ~$3)

Price matched four items at grocery store (savings $2.64)

Purchased sale items at grocery store (savings $6.57)

[jengod]

* Canned five pints of applesauce. Borrowed my mom's apple peeler gizmo to make quick work of the apples. Had all the ingredients and canning jars in our household stockpile, so the biggest costs were the gas to run the stove and the water for the water-bath canner. (Savings about $10)

* Sold a lot of Agatha Christie paperbacks I picked up at an estate sale. (Profit about $18.)

* Made waffles for breakfast using home eggs. (Savings about $0.50, depending on where you buy your eggs.) Made zucchini-goat cheese skillet with homegrown zukes. (Savings about $0.50)

[rdaneel0]

Worked out in the park (instead of a gym or fitness class). Made refried beans from dried beans. Line dried laundry. Bought affordable gift for father's day.

[Dicey]

It was my turn to person the Library's table at the Farmers Market.  I didn't want to bring a purse and I only had big bills, so I mooched a Hamilton from DH. Oh, it was torture! Italian heirloom tomatoes across the aisle and organic strawberries next to us. I waited until the last 10 minutes and got 50% more tomatoes and double the amount of strawberries I would have gotten had I not waited.

Dinner tonight: using up the last batch of taco meat, so I can get another batch going now that there's room in the freezer again.

[Thinkum]

Went to the beach instead of museum, saved anywhere from $8-16.

Parked a little up the street for free rather than pay at the meter. Saved another $1.25-3 or so.

[Gerard]

It's too early for any local produce here, and the imported stuff at the grocery store was expensive and sad-looking, so I harvested and ate weeds as the veg and fruit part of my supper! Japanese knotweed, dandelion greens, goutweed.

[Linea_Norway]

Brought along sandwiches, water and cola on a long drive, so we didn't need to eat out.
Tanked cheapest fuel along the way.

[1967mama]

This weekend I:
*cut hair of husband and son
*took kids to a beach
*made waffles at home - we drove by a waffle place on the way home from the beach!
*went to 2 year end wind up BBQ's - brought chips and homemade iced tea to one and a loaf of homemade bread to the other
*bought ingedients for son to make homemade sushi for the family
*held off on grocery shopping day to catch a huge sale where you earned extra points. Will go again in the last sale day, doing next week's groceries a few days early. This will earn me $60 to use at the store!

Today, so far I:
*made a 20 cup batch of granola
*made another large jug of iced tea

[alewpanda]

- packed lunches and coffees
- sold a desk on a buy/sell site
- listed unused yoga balls for sale
- making dinner out of leftovers from the weekend tonight
- the final season of a favorite show is out on netflix.  we signed up for one free month and plan to binge it all so we can cancel at the end of the free month...lol!
- found a small dog crate in the neighbor's trash as I was walking the dogs.  I don't need it -- nor would it be big enough for us -- but I spent 10 minutes spraying it down with cleaning and hosing it, and I listed it for 15.00 on the buy/sell site!
- bought white hand towels on clearance that I am stashing for staging the house this coming winter/spring

[Bird In Hand]

I bought a refurbished Ooma on Amazon and just switched from Vonage.  Even with Ooma's Premier service, we'll be paying ~$30/mo less than we were with Vonage.

[CutTheFat]

I was kinda lazy this weekend and didn't make lunches.  So instead of getting a salad from the pizza joint by work, I got up early this morning to put a Greek salad together.   Since I didn't have any leftover protein cooked I used a can of tuna and it was delicious!  I have this recipe in the instant pot right now https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/pressure-cooker-tuscan-bean-soup/     

[Alf91]

Walked to/from work instead of taking transit (savings 3.80)

[Dicey]

Went to Sprouts today with a list of three things. Spent 9.02, which will stave off a trip to Costco for at least a couple more days.

[rpr]

Was looking for something hot to drink. Found some nice herbal tea in the office break room ;) Price was good (free). And tea (Ciinamon Apple Spice)  was good as well. 

[1967mama]

*drinking lots of tea from my own collection - whittling it down before buying any new tea

*made tacos for dinner with some meat and also received beans done in instant pot (motivated by ideas above! Thanks Mustachians!)

*thawing ground chicken for dinner tomorrow - I like to be a day or two ahead in my planning. Also pulled out my recipe for chocolate pudding cake and will make a double batch for my large family

*picked up a few necessities at the dollar store while combining errands. Used up a $10 gift card I'd received from a grocery store I don't often shop at. Used $10 in Air Miles cash at another store. Free app called "Buy Me A Pie" allows me to keep ongoing lists for up to three stores (without paying to upgrade to the premium account which allows unlimited stores). I have lists for my favourite grocery store, Costco and the dollar store. I'm not an organized person by nature so this is a HUGE help to me! (No affilition - just sharing what had been helpful to me)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Power bill is down $17 for the quarter and contents insurance down $32 for the year.

[Dicey]

...Free app called "Buy Me A Pie" allows me to keep ongoing lists for up to three stores (without paying to upgrade to the premium account which allows unlimited stores). I have lists for my favourite grocery store, Costco and the dollar store. I'm not an organized person by nature so this is a HUGE help to me! (No affilition - just sharing what had been helpful to me)

My cheapo Android phone has a pre-loaded app called "Next". I have a running list for my bi-monthly Costco runs. I just put an X next to each item as the need arises. Once in the warehouse, I simply run down the list. I clear the Xes while I'm standing in line to check out, which is snow excellent distraction. Piece of cake. I have a smaller list for my occasional bulk shops at (alas, faraway) Winco.

[TartanTallulah]

Told one of my offspring that I hadn't been bluffing when I'd warned her a few months ago that if she had a tattoo done I would assume she was awash with money and wouldn't need me to pay her a monthly allowance when she went to university. That's going to turn out to have been a very expensive piece of body art for her, but I'm not going to throw money at a young adult who's going to piss it away on something pointless that she's likely to regret in ten years' time.

[Rowellen]

Told one of my offspring that I hadn't been bluffing when I'd warned her a few months ago that if she had a tattoo done I would assume she was awash with money and wouldn't need me to pay her a monthly allowance when she went to university. That's going to turn out to have been a very expensive piece of body art for her, but I'm not going to throw money at a young adult who's going to piss it away on something pointless that she's likely to regret in ten years' time.

That is brilliant parenting right there.

[marielle]

Told one of my offspring that I hadn't been bluffing when I'd warned her a few months ago that if she had a tattoo done I would assume she was awash with money and wouldn't need me to pay her a monthly allowance when she went to university. That's going to turn out to have been a very expensive piece of body art for her, but I'm not going to throw money at a young adult who's going to piss it away on something pointless that she's likely to regret in ten years' time.

Fair. I didn't even start thinking about a tattoo until I got my first job out of college, and even then I'm going to wait until my student loans are paid off and I design my own.

[wordnerd]

Got my rate for yoga studio membership reduced from $90 to $50 a month. I didn't ask for it, but I'll take it :)

[Jtrey17]

Kudos! This is bad-ass!!

It's too early for any local produce here, and the imported stuff at the grocery store was expensive and sad-looking, so I harvested and ate weeds as the veg and fruit part of my supper! Japanese knotweed, dandelion greens, goutweed.

[Bird In Hand]

Signed up for auto-delivery of propane.  That saves 4% (3% fast payment discount + 1% Discover cash back), plus the cost of an envelope + stamp.  It also saves a couple minutes per delivery in writing out the check, bringing it to the mailbox, and manually categorizing the expense in my financial app when the check clears (if it's on Discover it gets auto-categorized correctly).

[Erma]

We used chives from our garden for our soup. It was delicious.

[Shinplaster]

Searched for a coupon code before I finished checking out on an online glasses store.  Found one for 40% off, so saved over $30.

[alewpanda]

-- cashed in 300 swagbucks points for a 3.00 amazon gift card.  Call me impatient, but I really wanted to order 'Your Money or Your Life', and 3.00 off is better than paying what amazon wanted!  I was waaaay too impatient to wait till I had the 900 points that i needed though...it takes months to build up 300 points when you only claim a few a day.

-- sold a couple items toward my decluttering goals and debt payoff goals

-- hung dry clothing

-- packed lunches

-- drinking water and iced tea instead of any more expensive cool drinks.

-- Husband's job is sending him to a cisco conference, for which is very excited.  They cover all the travel, expenses, and access, and the access includes a free exam for any cisco certification.  He is working on his CCNP anyway, so he is cramming like a madman for the next 3 weeks.  A free exam saves anywhere between 150-350.00!

[TartanTallulah]

Told one of my offspring that I hadn't been bluffing when I'd warned her a few months ago that if she had a tattoo done I would assume she was awash with money and wouldn't need me to pay her a monthly allowance when she went to university. That's going to turn out to have been a very expensive piece of body art for her, but I'm not going to throw money at a young adult who's going to piss it away on something pointless that she's likely to regret in ten years' time.

Fair. I didn't even start thinking about a tattoo until I got my first job out of college, and even then I'm going to wait until my student loans are paid off and I design my own.

I think I'll quietly put the money I won't be giving her now into a ring-fenced investment pot for the purpose of giving her a contribution towards the cost of having her impulsive teenage tattoos removed a decade hence. I enjoy seeing a well-designed and well-positioned tattoo as much as anyone else does - my sister had a gorgeous half-sleeve done in her mid-forties - but I can't imagine my daughter loving these ones when she's heading towards her thirties.

But back on topic ... nope, today was a fail. If I'd thought about it, when I went to work at lunchtime today I could have made sandwiches at home and taken them in for my husband (we work in the same place but he'd been there all morning) and saved the cost of his lunchtime deli sandwich and the cup of coffee he always buys at the same time even though coffee is provided at work, but it didn't occur to me until it was too late. (I'm not going to put my foot down about the deli sandwiches because I think they're an acceptable trade-off for the extra hours he's working at the moment, and I thank him nicely when he brings me one too.)

[rdaneel0]

Had another no spend day! :) Other than groceries I don't think I've bought anything in over a month.

[v8rx7guy]

Started a 6 gallon batch of "dragon's blood" wine.  All ingredients available at costco!

[wordnerd]

Started a 6 gallon batch of "dragon's blood" wine.  All ingredients available at costco!

I'm intrigued. Do tell.

[jordanread]

Started a 6 gallon batch of "dragon's blood" wine.  All ingredients available at costco!

I'm intrigued. Do tell.

+1

Better half just got a card that provides $.35/gallon off gas for the next year. So we took both vehicles and filled them up on the same transaction. Sweet!

[alewpanda]

-- Reused packaging material for ebay sale.  I turn lots of boxes inside out, and I make my own shipping envelopes with flexible cardboard sheets turned inside out and taped.  I can't stand paying for shipping materials!

-- Remembered Father's Day.  Double-checked that it wasn't this coming Sunday...lol.  Found netural/masculine-ish cards in my homemade card stash.  Minimalist and celebratory.  Got them approved by husband.  Won't pay anything out of pocket for Father's Day...

-- Used the sad veggies, some potatoes and a ring sausage to make what my husband calls "clean out the fridge fry".  Its basically frying up sliced ring baloney/ring sausage with diced potatoes, seasonings, and whatever veggie needs using up.  Carrots, celery, peppers, squash, zucchini, mushrooms, green beans....etc.  Lots of veggies and the meat stretches really far too. 

[Sydneystache]

Winter has hit Sydney with a vengeance. We are all suffering from SAD here. So, my slow cooker is getting a workout and a chance to use up herbs in the pantry. Hubby did beef stew earlier this week and that has lasted him three work lunches so far - he's a good cook when he puts his mind to it; chicken soup and offal (tripe and ox tail) for me. The rainy weather (and flu season) has put us off going out anywhere. So hello kitchen, goodbye restaurants!

[Dollar Slice]

I resisted the temptation to throw away a gift card with less than 25 cents left on it. Used it up last night after carrying it around for a while, waiting until I needed something there.

[engineermom21]

Had a mystery shop at Chipotle for lunch, which worked out great since it was one of the rare days I didn't have leftovers from last night's dinner.  Free food for the win! 

[Bird In Hand]

Stopped drinking canned carbonated/flavored water.  I had developed a 2+ can/day habit, or at least $.60/day -- admittedly small potatoes.  My dentist says it's not good for tooth enamel, and what the heck are these mystery "natural flavors" anyway?  The world may never know.

[Thinkum]

Stopped drinking canned carbonated/flavored water.  I had developed a 2+ can/day habit, or at least $.60/day -- admittedly small potatoes.  My dentist says it's not good for tooth enamel, and what the heck are these mystery "natural flavors" anyway?  The world may never know.

I think I may have accidentally picked up this bad habit too. After we finish the few we have left, no more in the house! Thanks for the reminder that though they taste good, water is just better when it's plain.

[frooglepoodle]

Tried a new homemade bread recipe for variety. It turned out delicious and even looks like a fancy bakery loaf.