What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[Joggernot]

Told the Hub to max out HSA next year to anticipate dental surgery.

2ndTimer, you should max out the HSA for sure (every year) since it's a great hidden retirement account. See if you can get a dental and vision through his work (I can through mine if you have the high deductible + HSA health plan). Keep the money in the HSA for retirement and use the money in the FSA for the dental surgery since it is also tax free!

I don't understand this.  Every HSA I was in always zeroed out the account at the end of the year.  If you had leftover money in the account, you lost it.  Thus, we couldn't use it for retirement, etc.

[ketchup]

Not today, but a few days ago:  Stocked up on a bunch of raspberries on super-sale, and made a raspberry honey preserve.  First time canning anything, fingers crossed that it will be edible when I crack it open!

[Threshkin]

Not today, but a few days ago:  Stocked up on a bunch of raspberries on super-sale, and made a raspberry honey preserve.  First time canning anything, fingers crossed that it will be edible when I crack it open!

We stock up on raspberries every time they are on super sale.  (~$0.88)  They go straight into the deep freezer in their boxes.  40+ boxes can take up a bunch of space.  Pulling them out in the middle of the winter is like a little breath of summer.

[Breaker]

Not quite sure it counts as a "small thing": I handstripped my rather large German Wirehaired Pointer today. Saved between 60 and 90 euros by doing this myself instead of going to a dog groomer.

Hi Suzie P,

This is definitely NOT a small thing.  It is a big job and Groomers just get more and more expensive.  Learning how to do it yourself will save you money for years to come.

[purplepants]

Burned candles that I got as gifts to heat the house an additional degree instead of increasing the heat.  That meant three candles were used up and are no longer cluttering up the house.

I do this too!  Plus, I think the candlelight has a psychological effect of making me feel like it's warmer than it actually is!

[purplepants]

Last week's business trip took me right past the nearest IKEA (several hours from home), so I stopped and picked up their French press for $9.  Spent the past few days perfecting the technique to make the perfect cup of coffee with no waste.  I'm converted, and the press should pay for itself within a month or two!

[GumbyPickles]

Gave my breakfast (PB&J) to a homeless person who asked me for food, and, rather than buying something for myself, I ate a backup Clif bar I keep in my desk.

So, saved .... -$CliffBar

I'm skipping breakfast and lunch today in an effort to spend $3 total on food.

[OSUBearCub]

Photos please!  I NEED to see this monster of a cabbage.  Also, what did you cook other than coleslaw?

Sorry no visual cabbage porn available.  I made cabbage and sausage turnovers, boiled cabbage with garlic and coleslaw and I gave a hunk to a neighbor.

Cabbage porn you wants, cabbage porn you gets. This one is 16 lbs.

I don't think that knife is going to do much good on a 16 lb cabbage.

Yeah. I put it there for scale, but after I saw the picture, I realized that the dryer did a pretty good job of showing how big it was.

Wow!  I presume these are either home-grown or farmers market finds?  This sub-thread is tickling my DIY sauerkraut itch!  I already feel bad for my neighbors lol

[Pooperman]

Mooched lunch (~$9) off a co-worker because he refused to let me pay for it. It was going to be my first purchased lunch in 2 months. Anyways, I digress. I'm his secret santa though, so it'll all even out in the end.

[Maya]

Walked my son to daycare rather than take the car even though it was yucky and snowing out

Kept the heat at 18c during the day and out extra layers on.

[tmac]

Photos please!  I NEED to see this monster of a cabbage.  Also, what did you cook other than coleslaw?

Sorry no visual cabbage porn available.  I made cabbage and sausage turnovers, boiled cabbage with garlic and coleslaw and I gave a hunk to a neighbor.

Cabbage porn you wants, cabbage porn you gets. This one is 16 lbs.

I don't think that knife is going to do much good on a 16 lb cabbage.

Yeah. I put it there for scale, but after I saw the picture, I realized that the dryer did a pretty good job of showing how big it was.

Wow!  I presume these are either home-grown or farmers market finds?  This sub-thread is tickling my DIY sauerkraut itch!  I already feel bad for my neighbors lol

The one in the picture was one we grew from a seedling my daughter grew in school and brought home. I didn't have a garden that year, so I just stuck it in the ground near the back door and we watered it whenever we thought of it. I was amazed it survived, much less thrived. We ate it for weeks, and still had lots for pickling.

[iwasjustwondering]

I'm wearing my light down jacket indoors.  My kids are in t-shirts, as they are very comfortable being cool.  Also: This is the Calvin Klein jacket I wanted last year.  I saw it online for nearly $200, then saw it at a department store for even more.  That same day I went to Costco and saw the exact same jacket for $39.  It's a great jacket for fall and spring. 

[be]

Went to a party and had to take appetizer.  Wanted to have little toasts for people to spread my homemade olive tapenade on.  Bought bread, sliced, and put on cookie sheet.  Had to heat oven to make cupcakes.  (I was returning a plate and didn't want to return it empty.)  Put bread covered cookie sheet in oven while it was heating up.  When the oven was ready to bake my cupcakes, I took my bread out, and put the cupcakes in.  After the cupcakes were done and cooling on the counter, I put my turned over drying bread back into the "cooling" oven. 

Yes, free bread toasting.

[be]

I forgot to add, I did some mending this weekend.  so more clothes to toss into the rotation. didn't have to buy new.

[1967mama]

Heating up a chili that I assembled and froze 2 weeks ago, before surgery.

Drank copious amounts of tea today, at home, for pennies.

Resisted the urge to buy a snack at a drive thru while I was out with my son today, even though I really wanted it!

Dropped the thermostat now that our cold snap is over. Actually, even turned it off during the daytime, but will put it back on when night falls.

Young son is a budding artist. He remembered that one of his older brothers (now 20) had an easel and watercolours with a palette. We asked said brother about it and he dug it out of the cupboard for his little brother! Score!

[shawn77777]

Well new to the mustache life and did a few things.
No more work lunches saved between $5-7 daily
Occasionally get breakfast otw to work $2-3
Sometimes hit the vending machine at work usually a $1
and then of course dinner out sometimes out lol this is sounding even worse as I write it $20-40
Haven't been using as many electrical items at home as usual.
we get our dog food delivered thru our Amazon prime acct and the price is same at Petsmart but with free shipping.
Got my mortgage lowered from $1259-$1098 a month due to insurance price drop
Hang dryed quite a few clothes.
Work in a warehouse and except under clothes where work shirt and jeans 2x instead of once.
Gonna try to get a tax break we have bags on bags full of donation stuff we really really downsized.
please be easy on me we just started.

[rocksinmyhead]

I've been slacking on the frugality front lately, I gotta get back into this thread!

Yesterday we had an awesome potluck Thanksgiving lunch at work. Someone made a huge bowl of delicious pasta salad that barely got touched (not Thanksgiving-y enough? also there was just a ton of food), so when it was sitting in the kitchen afterwards I scooped a whole bunch into a gallon ziploc bag that I for some reason had in my desk, and I will eat that for lunch today. This is especially great because my boyfriend and I usually eat leftovers for lunch, but we ate out last night (unmustachian, but at least it was $3.99 burger night at a local place I guess?) and only had one serving of food left from Tuesday's chicken and veggies, so now he can take that and I will eat my scavenged pasta salad. Otherwise he would probably make me take the leftovers and then he would buy something at QT. So, score!

Also, I had started using the dryer again after literally not using it all summer, since our daytime temps were below freezing. Today's high is in the low 50s and sunny, so I hung clothes on the line this morning even though I so did not want to in the cold and dark!

Finally, tonight we will cook a dinner that relies on our freezer and pantry, and also eating some produce we have on hand so it doesn't go bad (including limes I bought for something else and then totally forgot about, oops). And I bought the pasta on sale for $1/lb and shopped around to get the best price on the chicken thighs and red bell peppers. Yeah!

[2ndTimer]

Walked over to the doc's office to pick up my medical records.  Made cheesy garlic croutons to sex up the yellow split pea soup.

[Nickyd£g]

No spend day today, worked from home and kept the heating low - drank tea and ate my lovely home made Scotch broth [have another 7 portions left!]

[2ndTimer]

No spend day today, worked from home and kept the heating low - drank tea and ate my lovely home made Scotch broth [have another 7 portions left!]

Will trade one portion of yellow pea soup w/cheesy garlic croutons for one portion scotch broth.

[1967mama]

shawn77777 - good start! This is the "what small things did you do TODAY to save money" thread, so good on ya! No face punches administered :-) Lots of good money saving things going on there for you!

For me, today I am making baked potatoes for dinner (super cheap right now!) and using up a head of cauliflower and making cheese sauce as one topping. Another topping option will be a heated up bowl of leftover chill topped with sour cream.

Turning off the heat during the day. Will put it back on when the sun goes down.

Drinking tea to keep warm.

Edited to add that my mini-potato bar turned out great!

[Maya]

Keeping the heat down while family is out. Will out it up when they come back. But keep lowering it on DH.

Working hard on making meals based on what we have on hand this week. Going well.

Will walk to daycare for pickup rather than drive 2 k.

[GardenFun]

For me, today I am making baked potatoes for dinner (super cheap right now!) and using up a head of cauliflower and making cheese sauce as one topping. Another topping option will be a heated up bowl of leftover chill topped with sour cream.

Good idea.  Just bought a 10lb bag at ALDI for $1.29 and have a bunch of toppings, including chili.  Now I have tomorrow's dinner!

Making spearmint tea to use up an orphaned bag of the stuff from the pantry.  Also making crockpot yogurt.     

[BlueMR2]

Biked to the mailbox.  In the dark.  20 degrees (F).  Icy roads.  No problem, just kept it in first gear on the icy parts and second for the dry looking sections.  Neighbor kids walking around looked freezing and confused when they watched me go by.  :-)

[shawn77777]

Well another day of no eating out or vending machines had a Thanksgiving luncheon at work today so didn't even have to take my lunch.  Went dollar store shopping tonight and tore up the clearance area and got some decent deals used a coupon maybe for the first time lol.  Also got a $5 off on the receipt if I buy $30 worth on Sat.Started the effort to finding a 2nd job until we move and will save every dollar from that with the hope of paying off the house we hope to move to in Tampa!

[MoneyCat]

I successfully did a minor repair on my iPod today which will allow me to continue using it for the foreseeable future.  The iPod was a gift for my birthday eight years ago and it's still going strong.  I've saved so much money on audiobooks, movies, music, etc., because I can just rip everything from CDs and DVDs from the library and load them onto the iPod and keep them permanently.

[shawn77777]

Thx 1967mama!

[homehandymum]

I've been making a 2-cup pot of tea using one teabag whenever I get the urge for a hot drink.  Keeps my fluids up and is cheaper than real (or instant) coffee.  Still have one coffee (made in the french press) per day, and that's an improvement on three cups :)

[BetsyS]

Finally cancelled the stupid storage space and parking spot I pay my apartment building for each month.

Figured out how to wash a silk shirt by hand instead of sending to the dry cleaners.

Still, that doesn't *quite* offset the two new tires I had to buy that I wasn't planning on (ouch!) before the thanksgiving trip home, but turned down the other two I didn't totally need....

My stubble is very, very short.

[rocksinmyhead]

Finally cancelled the stupid storage space and parking spot I pay my apartment building for each month.

Yeah!!! That's a great one!

[tstache]

I needed new tires for my truck.  I got on craigslist and found a guy who had bought new tires a year ago, put 13k miles on them then decided he wanted big boy mud tires/rims.  I bought these 1 year old, name brand tires/wheels from him for $200, thus saving $550 on a new tire purchase.  I am going to then turn around and sell the rims that came with these tires which will reduce my cost even more!  Booyah!  Happy day for me.

[peppermint]

Just got back from a work conference where I shared accommodations with my coworkers and realized how different our mindsets about money are. Wow -- I have a renewed appreciation for frugality and the mindset of "enough".

[Kaspian]

This was a weird one for me.  When somebody was checking out of the hotel while I was on vacation last week, they gave me a full bottle of rum and a massive Ziploc bag of condiments.  Those little condiment packages usually go hard and stale well before I think to use of them, so I emptied all 15 into my ketchup bottle at home. 

[jengod]

Killed a passing cockroach on the sidewalk tonight and fed it to our best laying hen, who has been under the weather lately. She deserved a treat!

Cooked and ate some guerilla-gardened sunchokes that grew in a public lot this year.

Used toddler pee collected from our potty-training efforts as fertilizer water for a volunteer avocado tree we just transplanted to the backyard.

Also, made chicken stock, found a windfall lemon, accepted a sample packet of three teabags and soap that was being distributed at the market.

[tmac]

I called our garbage pick-up company last week to see how to schedule a bulky waste pick-up to take away some things the old owners had put up in the garage rafters. At our last house, the town would have done it for free. This company was going to charge $30 just to show up, then god knows how much based on what we actually had to haul off.

I put in a call to the town to figure out my options and found out that I could get a bulky waste transfer station permit for free, which I did. I've just loaded the mini-van with an old mattress and boxspring and a couple of old doors. I'll drop the mattress and boxspring at the transfer station for free, and then will bring the doors to the Habitat Restore.

We'll save at least $50 and will get a couple of bucks in tax deduction.

Also: My teenager is cooking dinner tonight, instead of us ordering dinner out because I want a break from cooking.

[MBot]

A few days late, but my husband was away last week on a work trip with our car. I made it the week without paying for any transport. Which isn't big except for the massive snowstorm (I live in Northern Ontario) and shopping for groceries.

Saved $5-$40 on renting a car or bus transport and lots on food with walking to work, one strategic ride back from a friend and walking for groceries at the cheap grocery store. Great workout too in the snow drifts.

[Rumball]

Packed breakfast and lunch and snack for an all-day outing -- for the whole family -- even though I was tired and rushed and slept in.

Checked out movies from the library for evening entertainment.  Surprisingly good selection available at 5 pm Friday evening when we rolled in.

[1967mama]

@Rumball - we go to the library at 4 today and were able to get:

"Killing Kennedy"
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
"How to Train Your Dragon 2"
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
"Into the Cosmos" (National Geographic)

Cooked lunch and dinner using leftovers from the week. A tuna-macaroni coleslaw for lunch with a sad looking cabbage and crockpot baked beans for dinner (from dry beans).

Turned off the furnace during the daytime since it was sunny.

Keeping a detailed grocery list for husband to shop with tomorrow (emphasis on DETAILED!!) I"m still down from surgery and so need to write down every. single. thing. that I need, and a description of the size/brand/flavour etc. if I want to be able to cook decent meals next week!

Took a roast out of the freezer for dinner tomorrow night from our side of grass fed beef.

[Gerard]

Got meat & produce sticker shock at the supermarket now that I'm back in Newfoundland, so instead I bought a cabbage and made a huge pot of sayur lodeh with the aromatics (lemon grass, cilantro, lime) that I brought back in my luggage. Man, it was good!  Now I'm making up a batch of homemade laundry soap.

Also, walked home (6 km) from the airport last night. It was surprisingly pleasant given the temperature (-11 c with the wind chill).

[homehandymum]

1.  Cut my own hair!!  I usually get DH to trim the ends, but I just got fed up with the whole thing this morning, remembered watching the hair-tie methods on You-Tube a while back, and just did it!  I'm very happy with the result.  It looks way more 'saloned' than I normally look.

2.  Had an appointment in town, so got kids to pack water bottles and homemade granola bars and we stopped at a park on the way home for a cheap outing.

3.  While at the park, saw a large rosemary bush, so grabbed a couple of sprigs to add to my slow-cooked roast beef that will do tonight's dinner (pulled beef and salad lettuce wraps), and tomorrow night's dinner (baked potatoes with toppings of choice).

[horsepoor]

Got meat & produce sticker shock at the supermarket now that I'm back in Newfoundland, so instead I bought a cabbage and made a huge pot of sayur lodeh with the aromatics (lemon grass, cilantro, lime) that I brought back in my luggage. Man, it was good!  Now I'm making up a batch of homemade laundry soap.

Also, walked home (6 km) from the airport last night. It was surprisingly pleasant given the temperature (-11 c with the wind chill).

Just googled, and that looks SO GOOD.  Thanks!

Last night I sorted through the 100# or so of tomatoes I picked before it froze and salvaged what I could.  The best ones are ripening on the counter, and the ones with some bad spots were turned into about a gallon of sauce.

I'm slowly replacing the baseboards and trim in our house, so I picked up a $100 Home Depot gift card today at Fred Meyer.  Gift cards get 4x store fuel points, and hopefully the purchase will kick in the 2% cash back at grocery stores on my credit card.  Next step is to see if I can get them to accept my 10% off Lowe's coupon; I think I read here that they will, so need to give it a shot.

[choppingwood]

Our cafeteria at work sells really good quality soup that is left over from lunch at a discount at 3 pm and then gives any away that is left at 5 pm. A litre (about a quart) is  3 servings. It isn't there every day and I don't take it every day it is there.

I had free cream of tomato soup for lunch today - and yesterday.

[2ndTimer]

Found the last two books in the history series that I am reading at Half-Price Books.

[mc6]

I spent no money today!

[2ndTimer]

Waited for a cold day to set my oven to self-clean.  Really enjoyed the extra heat.

[ketchup]

I push-started my car last night (ran down battery doing something dumb) instead of jumping it and burning extra gas in my roommates' car.  More fun too.

[1967mama]

Kept reminding my kids to turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

[Kaspian]

Kept reminding my kids to turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

turn out the lights....

I have a friend who (with great success) deputized one of her kids as the "light police".  The kid is paid a few bucks a week and always remembers to turn off lights around the house because it's his job.  She says the savings have far exceeded the amount paid to him for his duties.

[Breaker]

I made the dough for no-knead bread last night and will cook it this evening.  This not only gives me fresh bread but will heat the family room with the heat from the oven.

That is, I'll get fresh bread if it works.  I have tried this recipe a few times before and haven't had good success.  Hope it is better this time.

[Poopsio]

Used a target giftcard to buy 3 pairs of sweatpants. Used public transport, ate at home. Dramatically expanded wardrobe, nothing left bank account.