What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Step37]

We just received the mother lode of pumpkins (66lbs, free from husband’s customer - score!) and looking for some ideas to use up pumpkin purée. In addition to soups, and adding to breakfast oatmeal, I thought of dog treats. I found several recipes, so I will be saving money on dog bones this winter. I’m sure the dogs will love them, as they love the dollop of pumpkin purée I’ve been adding to their meals the last couple of days.

Also groomed/clipped the dogs myself yesterday - not a small savings, but not such a big thing as it turns out. Roughly two hours of time saves $130, and I don’t have to drive them to and from the groomer.

[Imma]

I made a large batch of nasi goreng for the next 3 days. Cost: about €3,50 for roughly 6 portions.

Also found a gift card for four drinks and an appetizer that's only valid for 2 more weeks. I really hate these "experience" gift cards. The intention of the giver is good, but it's hard to find participating locations in my area. Just give money so we can have a drink if and when and where we want. Complicating factor for this gift card is that you have to look up what each participating location is offering exactly. Some locations offer any four drinks, others limit you to a shared bottle of wine. Neither of us drink wine. But after about half an hour of research I have found a bar that we've never been to in our town where we can use the gift card! No travel costs, free drinks, free appetizers.

[ixtap]

We are using a gift card we received as a thank you to buy a host gift for this evening's party.

[Stachetastic]

Just cashed in some reward points on our credit card for a Christmas gift card. I'll get a few small things to round out the gift, and one more person on my list is done.

At my office, employees adopt several families for the holidays. The organizers provide a spreadsheet of items/sizes etc. and we just choose what we'd like to provide. One of the boys is in a size my oldest just grew out of, so I went through the closet and found 3 shirts and a pair of jeans with the tags still on.. (sounds wasteful, but we only have visits every other weekend and kid outgrows stuff so fast. He is now 9 years old and wearing men's sizes) Everything was purchased on clearance in the first place. A few of the families also requested playing cards, so husband went through some drawers and found 4 unopened decks left over from his bachelor days. Adding in some cereal I bought on super sale, and a brand new winter hat I found in the closet, and we'll be able to provide some much needed items for Christmas as well as declutter our house a bit.

[Hirondelle]

Planned to go out with two friends yesterday. Suggested to have a drink at home first, which ended up spending 4h at home versus only 30 min at the bar (it was too crowded, bleh)

[Linea_Norway]

For what it is worth, we went on a brisk walk starting from home, not using the car. I used the wood stove to warm up the house, practically every day. I used up a portion of lasagna white sauce that I had in the freezer from making too much some weeks earlier. My DH is sewing himself a new vest. I cut his hair. I ate mushrooms that I picked in the forest and dried a whole bunch for later.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Went on a hike with a friend today, for a social activity. Exercise + free fun. Win!
-Used up most of the basil from our garden to make a bunch of pesto for the freezer
-Turned the last of some pantry ingredients into granola bars for kids lunches

[shawn77777]

My son and I cut each other hair for the first time with some clippers I bought like 20 yr ago nd never used.  Thought the cuts came out great so no more $12 haircuts every 2 weeks for the rest of my life should save a few bucks.

[mustachepungoeshere]

I cut his hair.

My son and I cut each other hair for the first time with some clippers I bought like 20 yr ago nd never used.  Thought the cuts came out great so no more $12 haircuts every 2 weeks for the rest of my life should save a few bucks.

Must have been the weekend for it. I cut husband's hair, too.

[Bracken_Joy]

I cut his hair.

My son and I cut each other hair for the first time with some clippers I bought like 20 yr ago nd never used.  Thought the cuts came out great so no more $12 haircuts every 2 weeks for the rest of my life should save a few bucks.

Must have been the weekend for it. I cut husband's hair, too.

I cut my husband's hair too! Definitely the weekend for it =P

[Prairie Gal]

I saw an artsy magazine today at the grocery store that I would have love to have, but it was $15.99 (plus tax) so I flipped through it and put it back on the shelf.

[1967mama]

*Melted a little grated cheese on homemade bread for kids for a quick after church lunch

*Served the cake from last night's company to today's pop-in company

*Made a huge salad to stretch the measly pan of lasagne I served the family for dinner

*Lasagne was a store bought frozen one that I keep as emergency food. Threw it in the oven
when the pop-in company arrived thus preventing a fast food run.

*Gave friend 5 bags of beef bones from our deep freeze that I'm never going to use - I know that
she will!

[marielle]

Walked to the grocery store yesterday, found $11 on the way!

[Mele]

I normally want to hunker down on the weekends and work on my savings / income generation, so when my husband (the free spirit) suggested a family fun day, I thought, well, this is the day to go be spendypants without actually spending too much.  So we made a day of it, even took the littles to the cheap seats for a matinee.  Also did some good thrifting at 50% off, which is excellent inventory boosting for my eBay business, which I hope can provide 50% of our income by this time next year.

What are you selling on eBay?

My partner is a parttime musician and is thinking of quitting his parttime office job. He's pretty good at selling and is already trading a lot of (refurbished) music gear to friends and friends-of-friends. We are currently thinking how we can expand that business into something that provides enough income to quit the day job.

I started selling maternity and baby clothes just to get rid of stuff, but over the years I've expanded a lot.  I primarily sell used clothing, anything vintage that is not too fussy, kitchen stuff, sewing patterns, etc.  A very scrappy business but one that involves a lot of treasure hunting, so I love the variety.

[Mele]

Yesterday I roasted and pureed 5 sugar pumpkins for the freezer.  Also roasted probably 3 cups of pumpkin seeds.  My kids are non-stop snack machines, so this will be helpful over the next few days.

I also made some Portuguese soup called caldo verde -- kale, potatoes, sausage, broth, onion, garlic, lemon.  It was using up wilting ingredients that were about to go bad, plus this week begins an insane family schedule (lasts till mid-January), so pre-cooking meals will be a helpful way to stay out of restaurants.  We'll eat it tonight before running off to take our first foster parenting class that goes until 9.

Made oatmeal for the littluns this AM.  They don't love it, but they'll eat it 2x a week if I let them have cereal afterwards.  They are too, too fond of cereal, which is expensive and doesn't fill them up.  I added raisins from pantry (homemade from grape vine at one of our rental houses).

I ate gingered zucchini soup and a poached egg.  Soup is pulled from the freezer, part of a zuke bumper crop.

Sick today -- taking the day off work b/c I have 20 more sick days to use up before I quit in May.  Might as well stay home, rest up, grade in peace, and get some more stuff on eBay.

[jeromedawg]

Not today but last weekend I bought a roll of carpet/rug padding to replace a couple sections that we had cut out from under our carpet after water damage. Was going to do the baseboards and drywall but came to the realization that it would just be a PITA to go get and transport all the material - also, was planning to do some or all of that last week but our infant daughter ended up with a broken collarbone and we were a little busy at the hospital and doctor's office.

[quinndannen]

Today, I ordered a water at lunch and rode the free campus bus to class.

[pbkmaine]

Yesterday I roasted and pureed 5 sugar pumpkins for the freezer.  Also roasted probably 3 cups of pumpkin seeds.  My kids are non-stop snack machines, so this will be helpful over the next few days.

I also made some Portuguese soup called caldo verde -- kale, potatoes, sausage, broth, onion, garlic, lemon.  It was using up wilting ingredients that were about to go bad, plus this week begins an insane family schedule (lasts till mid-January), so pre-cooking meals will be a helpful way to stay out of restaurants.  We'll eat it tonight before running off to take our first foster parenting class that goes until 9.

Made oatmeal for the littluns this AM.  They don't love it, but they'll eat it 2x a week if I let them have cereal afterwards.  They are too, too fond of cereal, which is expensive and doesn't fill them up.  I added raisins from pantry (homemade from grape vine at one of our rental houses).

I ate gingered zucchini soup and a poached egg.  Soup is pulled from the freezer, part of a zuke bumper crop.

Sick today -- taking the day off work b/c I have 20 more sick days to use up before I quit in May.  Might as well stay home, rest up, grade in peace, and get some more stuff on eBay.

You could use cereal, especially granola, as a topping for the oatmeal.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Ate free breakfast, lunch & snacks at work
-Charged our electric car for free at work
-Ate leftovers for dinner

[MrsTuxedocat]

- Cat sit for a friend and when we go on vacay they can look after our tuxedo cat
- Air dried two loads of laundry today

[1967mama]

Made oatmeal for the littluns this AM.  They don't love it, but they'll eat it 2x a week if I let them have cereal afterwards.  They are too, too fond of cereal, which is expensive and doesn't fill them up.  I added raisins from pantry (homemade from grape vine at one of our rental houses).

One thing I do to make oatmeal more fun and appealing to my kids is use the smallest size of canning jars and fill them with "treats" for on the oatmeal that they can do themselves. Currently mine collection of jars has: raisins, craisins, brown sugar, blanched almond slices, coconut, "healthy" chocolate chips & chia/hemp mixture called Holy Crap. I have them in a bin that I just pull out of my cupboard and set on the counter by the bowl and pot of oatmeal in the morning. I'm sure there are other toppings I haven't thought of! YMMV :-)

ETA:https://www.thespruce.com/creative-oatmeal-topping-ideas-2098402

[boognish]

This may be a little nuts, and almost certainly will be annoying, but I set up automatic transactions into my Vanguard money market fund for every day of the week (mon - fri). Started off extra stupid, with five $1 transfers per week. I'll ramp things up eventually.

This is in addition to my regular savings, just trying to sneak more money into my taxable accounts throughout the year. My brain won't be able to argue with a dollar or two a day.

[1967mama]

*Made a loaf of french bread and started more refrigerator dough right away

*Made a recipe from Budget Bytes for dinner - was white beans and sausages - pretty good and certainly was budget

*Got a free chocolate bar at the gas station for showing my receipt from the pump to the clerk

[Imma]

This may be a little nuts, and almost certainly will be annoying, but I set up automatic transactions into my Vanguard money market fund for every day of the week (mon - fri). Started off extra stupid, with five $1 transfers per week. I'll ramp things up eventually.

This is in addition to my regular savings, just trying to sneak more money into my taxable accounts throughout the year. My brain won't be able to argue with a dollar or two a day.

Great idea!

My investment account doesn't allow so many automatic transfers a month, but I have set up an automatic transfer in my checking account that sends 1% of the value every purchase to my savings account. I increase my monthly transfer to investments nearly every month, I just add a small amount. I don't even notice the difference, which surprised me, because I am naturally very frugal and I didn't feel like I spent a lot of money a couple of years ago, before I started increasing my automatic transfer. Apparantly even that amount of spending could be decreased without me even noticing.

[kaypinkHH]

Apparently when you are pregnant, you can't just pretend you will always continue to fit into normal clothes. Finally got to a point where nothing was comfortable, and went on a hunt for mat clothes. Hit the motherload (teehee) of Kijiji sales and got 30+ brand name items for $125. Approximate retail value ~$1000. Only thing missing was a pair of black skinny jeans which I found the next day for $10 (retail value $30). I love kijiji.

[marielle]

It's 56 degrees at work because the heat is broken. Instead of going out and buying a space heater (which probably wouldn't help much since my office is missing a door), I brought my electric throw to work. Also wearing a sweater, two jackets, and leggings under my jeans...

On the bright side it's getting me used to colder temps indoors?

[ohsnap]

I did 180 jumping jacks to get warm instead of turning up the heat! (That's my formula for body warmth production while working on my laptop. Apply every two hours.)

I laughed so hard at this, as I tried to imagine asking my husband to try it...!  He works at home and as soon as the house temp drops below 68 degrees, he wants to turn on the heat (while wearing jeans and a t-shirt).  I usually convince him to put on a sweater.  But our thermostat will never drop below 66 degrees.  It's a good thing we're in a warm climate. :)

[brute]

Cancelled netflix. They've taken down most of the stuff we liked, their new content isn't worth much to us. Just picked up some movies from the library (which is less than a mile away). Should save us $132 a year

[jeromedawg]

Grinded some coffee beans I roasted myself the other night, brewed in my Aeropress, and pressed for a delicious cup of coffee. $2.98 for a lb of the green unroasted beans so cheaper and better than going to Starbucks... although we only go to Starbucks when there's a BOGOF and/or bonus point deal, and even then we have over $50 of GCs that we've gotten as gifts. Funny cause I was never into coffee until a few months ago.

[marielle]

Succesfully replaced my phone battery in only an hour (plus research time and watching videos)! Should get at least one good year out of it for only $10. The phone got some slight cosmetic damage on the back but I don't care, it was worth it to get it done faster and I use a case anyway.

Still haven't turned the heat on at home, lowest I've seen is 66 in the morning so it's not bad at all. At work it's 55 indoors right now because the heat is broken so I'm getting used to colder indoor temperatures (gotta see the bright side). It's actually not bad with my electric blanket.

[Hirondelle]

I was crazy busy at work today, so forgot/didn't get to eating lunch until 4 PM. Then decided I wasn't hungry and just wait to go home and use the lunch for dinner (with some additions).

Healthy? Not really. Cheap? Yes. Something I'd do regular? No.

[marielle]

I was crazy busy at work today, so forgot/didn't get to eating lunch until 4 PM. Then decided I wasn't hungry and just wait to go home and use the lunch for dinner (with some additions).

Healthy? Not really. Cheap? Yes. Something I'd do regular? No.

Fasting or skipping meals isn't bad for the majority of people. Humans were designed to be able to do so, and many argue that it's actually good for you (I don't want to make a determination, so do your own research at your own risk). Some people go on frequent one day fasts, some people do week long fasts, etc. My boyfriend actually did a 9 day fast a few months ago. I personally don't think I have enough excess fat to go that long...

[TheWifeHalf]

I keep my dogs on heartworm preventive all year, and being the 15th, gave the monthly dose of an off label medicine. I have been doing it for 20 years, live in a heartworm hotspot, and am confident it's safe and works.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Ate breakfast, lunch & snacks at work
-Charged our electric car for free at work
-Made leftovers for dinner
-Booked a flight for free using a credit (flight changes where the airline modified our trip)
-Found a small jug of orange juice that one of the kids got at a soccer game, and didn't drink. Saved for my cranberry sauce recipe next week. One less thing off of the Thanksgiving grocery list!

[Jaayse]

I was taking out the trash today and noticed a bunch of oranges on a tree at the end of my parco inside the walls of the complex and in a communal area.  I picked one and took it back, it was great!  I now have a source of free oranges for the next few years while I live here.  I highly doubt my neighbors will either notice or care to pick them.

[Hirondelle]

Went to the coffee room at work to get tea, turned out a meeting had been cancelled and they put the whole lunch on our coffee table! Yay! Great free sandwiches :D

(This is the case every week, but only with a handful leftover sandwiches that are gone within 10 mins, so you gotta be lucky to walk down exactly then)

[JLee]

I changed my oil today.  Oil bought on sale earlier this year and a filter from RockAuto (purchased with some other stuff earlier this year).  $25.33 total for 6.5 quarts of Mobil1 5w30 synthetic oil and a Wix filter...good to go for another 5k miles!

[mustachepungoeshere]

Switched my health insurance policy, saved $55 a month.

Switched our phone plans, saved at least $38 a month.

Husband had an optom appointment today to replace his prescription sunnies, which he thought had been left overseas. Cancelled the appointment when something came up with work. Found the sunnies in the car an hour later. Saved $200.

[Mele]

Random leftovers from the fridge for lunch, and I made some pumpkins muffins as well (for snacks and breakfasts).  I had some frozen eggs I needed to use up -- I hadn't frozen them very effectively and they thaw as one rawish-almost solid yolk.  So they don't really work for most recipes.  But I can whip the shit out of them and put them in muffin recipes.  I think I have a few dozen of those left.  The rest I whisked before freezing, which makes them much easier for scrambling later.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-All the standard stuff (breakfast/lunch/snacks at work for free)
-Finally went to the (free) gym & discovered my lost fitbit! My husband was going to replace it, despite my requests, so this is awesome.
-Received a hotel chain promotional email for a chain I rarely go to. Decided to click through to determine if I had any points. Sure enough, not enough to transfer to anything useful, but the points were about to expire & I had enough for a $10 Starbucks gift card. It was the only way to use the points, but I'm happy. Will likely give as a gift for the holidays. Win!

[marty998]

Switched my internet provider. Had a basic pre-paid plan of 12GB for $150 (1 year expiry).

New data plan is 50GB for $130 with 1 year expiry. 90% of my online time seems to be this forum and it doesn't use much data at all.... guess I'll have to blow it looking at real estate porn :)

[mustachepungoeshere]

Switched my internet provider. Had a basic pre-paid plan of 12GB for $150 (1 year expiry).

New data plan is 50GB for $130 with 1 year expiry. 90% of my online time seems to be this forum and it doesn't use much data at all.... guess I'll have to blow it looking at real estate porn :)

Have fun!

[PJ]

Went out with my sister this afternoon.  We tried to go to a local historical site that is supposed to be free this month, but it turned out to be closed.

So we went to the mall - mostly looking for Christmas presents.  Crossed mom off my list, except for her stocking stuffer.  But at least I brought a snack with me...

[Linea_Norway]

Our el cheapo office chair at home stopped maintaining it’s height. It would sink down all the time. So we needed a replacement. In my office we are soon moving to another part of the building and get new desks. I asked if we would also get new chairs, in the hope I could take my office chair home. But no.
Today we bought a second hand good quality office chair from a private person. It was not the cheapest chair for sale, but probably the most robust one.

We also visited a shopping center, because DH needed to have a battery in his watch replaced. We tried to kill half an hour by walking around. Visited the H&M, which had sales on bras. I needed a new bra and got one that fit well for a very low price.

[Hirondelle]

Went to Aldi and discovered that many of the things I wanted to buy at another supermarket on sale were even cheaper there without any special promotion.

[Catbert]

Went to my favorite scratch and dent/over stock store.  They've now added a small refrigerator section.  Got two 32 oz plain yogurts for 25 cents each.  The sell by date is two days from now, but so what?  Yogurt lasts forever.   I usually make my own yogurt, but for 25 cents I'm happy with their non-fat with active cultures alternative.

[Linea_Norway]

Went to Aldi and discovered that many of the things I wanted to buy at another supermarket on sale were even cheaper there without any special promotion.

Today we walked past a several kitchen stores. The cheapest one had a Tefal frying pan for 20 dollars. The more expensive shop had exactly the same pan, down 50% for 24 dollars. We don`t really understand how three of the expensive kitchen stores close to eachother can survive.

[Mrs Hen]

Haven't finished reading the whole thread yet, but already SO inspired!

Today I have done my grocery shopping, and stuck to the list.

Hung laundry on the airer to dry.

Prepared breakfast and lunch for work tomorrow, and put my house keys on top of the containers so I won't forget to take them with me at 6am!

[Kwill]

Bought a yellow sticker container of ground beef today that expires today and made something halfway between chilli and pasta sauce for tonight with other things I had on hand. Filling and comforting over spaghetti.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Froze the overripe bananas for smoothies.

Held off washing yesterday because of the rain, just pegged a big load outside in the sun.

I've been having problems with my iPhone 6 for a couple of months. Finally took it to Apple and they replaced the handset at no charge.