What small things did you do TODAY to save money?

[jengod]

After orientation for work, there was an optional survey to fill out about the training. Not only did it enter me for a $50 gift card drawing, but I also got paid for the time filling it out. Seemed silly to leave money on the table when we'd already been there all day, but the other trainees left without filling it out. Into worse traffic, no less, because the extra 30 min pushed us past a lot of traffic.

So guys. I WON THIS.

$50 gift card, coming in the mail. Heck yes.

AWESOME. Congrats.

* Collected some gulf fritillary caterpillars that are living on our passionfruit vine and brought them inside. The kids can observe up close as the caterpillars go through the metamorphosis process.

* Filled out a store survey and got a $3 coupon for next time.

* Used a free drink coupon and a food coupon through the Starbucks app.

* Used a 20 percent off coupon to buy a retractable clothesline (in the interests of reducing our dryer use). I only have to not use the dryer 40 times to earn back the cost of the clothesline, LOL. :)

* Borrowed a hammer drill and mortar drill bits from my mom, and helped her repot a large plant.

* Scattered homegrown chamomile seed in a new part of the yard.

* Harvested green onion and sunchokes from the garden, and collected an egg. Cut lemon verbena branches and put them in an old milk bottle filled with rain barrel water for a mustachian flower arrangement.

* Culled some of my extra garden and compost books for resale.

* Fed the chickens the usual kitchen scraps (including a nice quantity of pumpkin seeds) and let them free-range all day, harnessing their roto-tilling skills and their additional fertility as the garden transitions to fall.

[Spruit]

I found a way to save on public transport, even for an incidental user that usually rides her bike to work. This will save me 2 euro every trip. If I take the bus twice a month on average, this pass will save me 37 the coming 365 days. Yay for small effortless wins!

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I told my husband he could plan to work on my birthday (when I don't work) so that he will not have to work this Friday evening, when I do work. We would either have had to shell out fifty bucks for a babysitter, or he could have had to drive 20 miles roundtrip in rush hour traffic to pick up the kids and bring them back to work with him.

[Juslookin]

DH and I took a couple days off and had a lovely staycation. Our vacation days expire if we don't use them. We took some time to do some yard work in the nice weather and cleaned out the garage. Better than an expensive vacation is peace and organization. haha

Today we slept in, went for a nice walk and than went out to lunch with a free gift card I won last Christmas at a Holiday party. Cost $0 and we're feeling very relaxed. Even better is tomorrow my lunch is the leftovers we brought home today from our free lunch.

[BetsyS]

Rode my bike to and from work. I know that's old hat for most folks here, but it was my first ride home in the dark since the days are getting shorter. New bike lights worked a treat.

No spend day as well.

[Rosy]

After orientation for work, there was an optional survey to fill out about the training. Not only did it enter me for a $50 gift card drawing, but I also got paid for the time filling it out. Seemed silly to leave money on the table when we'd already been there all day, but the other trainees left without filling it out. Into worse traffic, no less, because the extra 30 min pushed us past a lot of traffic.

So guys. I WON THIS.

$50 gift card, coming in the mail. Heck yes.

Sweet, always smart to enter when there isn't a lot of competition for the prize - besides, you can't win if you never enter. CONGRATS!

1. Well, my small thing for today was - actually remembering to take in the empty ink cartridges for credit at Office Depot and bring along the $10 off coupon  (if you purchase $50).
2. But, the purchase turned out to be only $48 not $50, awww, so the cashier said, "I can override your coupon" and we got our ten bucks:) Sweet!
3. Needed a new wireless mouse and they just happened to have a mark down - paid $19.90 instead of $39.90 - $20 savings.

So all in all - saved $30 plus $14 credit on my rewards card.

[jengod]

Rode my bike to and from work. I know that's old hat for most folks here, but it was my first ride home in the dark since the days are getting shorter. New bike lights worked a treat.

No spend day as well.

Badassity!

[10dollarsatatime]

Replaced all the guts in my toilet tank myself, with a kit that I got on clearance for 50% off.  No more using bobby pins to hold the chain in place!

[dorothyc]

I walked to work via an alternate route, that I realized saves me 5 minutes - 50 minutes instead of 55. Bus fare would have been 45 cents after work subsidy, and I got to exercise on my way to work.

[Gerard]

* Borrowed a hammer drill and mortar drill bits from my mom, and helped her repot a large plant.

Must have been a hell of a plant.

[Cookie78]

I have had a foster dog the last couple weeks (she got adopted today!) and I've been closing my bedroom and computer/spare room doors while she has been there to keep her out. She's allowed in at bedtime. I notice when I go in my bedroom now that it is quite a bit colder than the rest of the house. No big deal, less rooms to heat and I'm usually only in there either very briefly, or when I go to bed. Last night I was so chilly, but I just jumped under multiple blankets, and made my dog snuggle me for warmth instead of turning up the heat. Was toasty warm in the morning even though he'd moved to his regular spot sometime during the night.

Also free food at work.

[jengod]

* Borrowed a hammer drill and mortar drill bits from my mom, and helped her repot a large plant.

Must have been a hell of a plant.

I think it's older than me. :)

[Squirrel away]

I have had a foster dog the last couple weeks (she got adopted today!)

Aw, cute. :) What breed is she?

[Candace]

Thank you to everyone who suggested better ways to repair shoes. If mine breaks again, I'll use one of those. So far, so good though.

[Juslookin]

You guys are pretty inspiring. I enjoy reading all the ways you save money.

I can't compare in a lot of ways because of where we live. We're pretty rural and it's a half hour car ride to the grocery store. There is no public transit. So my best bet is just to group errands together or have DH in his company car drive me. That's been our tactic lately. Goal is to save on gas.

Been working the freezer inventory and meal planning pretty hard. Sticking to the meal plan is absolutely saving us money. I figured out a weeks worth of meals and committed to them by writing them down on my kitchen bulletin board. I have been switching around the days to allow some flexibility and so far it's working great.

I work at home so no gas used and no money spent today.

[Zaga]

Minor thing, but I managed to arrange all of my errands in town on the same day.  So I did physical therapy, got an injection, returned something, went to 2 grocery stores, and picked up the ribbon I needed from Joann's, all in one trip.  Glad to save on gas!

[Bracken_Joy]

Crock pot weather! Made a batch of chili yesterday. Normally I do double batches, but I wasn't sure if Brother would like it. Turns out he does! So I'm up to 3 recipes that DH, Brother, and I all like.

Container shuffle- I re-packaged the 20lb bag of basmati we got from Costco. It's the same cost as the 10lb bags we were getting before, so a great deal, but I wasn't sure how storage would work out! Luckily I had enough open glass jars that it worked out okay. Unfortunately now I'm having a hard time repacking the 5lb bag of coffee we just got from the roaster. Hmmm. Work in progress.

No spend, no travel day for me yesterday. I stayed home and cooked and read a library book. Took a nap. It was a drizzly day, so it was pleasant to stay inside. Will probably do the same again today, and skype friends.

[Cookie78]

I have had a foster dog the last couple weeks (she got adopted today!)

Aw, cute. :) What breed is she?

She's a German Shepherd cross of some sort. A little over a year old and super sweet. I knew she'd get adopted fast, but three weeks is a record for me. :)

[dantownehall]

It's he 9th and my "Everything Else" category in Mint is still at $0 for October!

[2ndTimer]

You guys are pretty inspiring. I enjoy reading all the ways you save money.

I can't compare in a lot of ways because of where we live. We're pretty rural and it's a half hour car ride to the grocery store. There is no public transit. So my best bet is just to group errands together or have DH in his company car drive me. That's been our tactic lately. Goal is to save on gas.

Been working the freezer inventory and meal planning pretty hard. Sticking to the meal plan is absolutely saving us money. I figured out a weeks worth of meals and committed to them by writing them down on my kitchen bulletin board. I have been switching around the days to allow some flexibility and so far it's working great.

I work at home so no gas used and no money spent today.

Lots of good things to do in the country that save money.  Witness my efforts to grow a second crop of leeks from the roots of the first crop in hope of saving $2.00 on transplants. So far only one has cooperated.  I think I need to leave a bit more leek on the root next time.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Some weeks back, I scored a used Burley Piccolo for $75.

Finally got around to replacing the chain. Saved $15 over having it done at the bike shop. (And a lot of trouble, because it is damn near impossible to fit a Burley Piccolo into a Honda Accord with kids in the back.)

[Koreth]

Cancelled the gym membership and bodybugg subscription. Since the two together totalled to just over 38, I increased the automatic deposit to my IRA by $40

[Rosy]

I love this one:)

* Fed the chickens the usual kitchen scraps (including a nice quantity of pumpkin seeds) and let them free-range all day, harnessing their roto-tilling skills and their additional fertility as the garden transitions to fall.

Signed up for a new savings account with 5% interest and used a referral code $20 plus an extra incentive of $10. So all in all, I'm pretty happy with myself right now. $30 in cash now and $20 every month for my $5K savings, easy money, but I sure fretted and searched for a while before I finally did this.
I'll feel better when I have my card and the account is all finalized, online banking still makes me nervous:)

The cardinal approved of the sunflower seeds left on the pods:) and maybe I'll create a new herbal tea combo tomorrow, it's clean up the garden time in Florida:) 

[Tyson]

The sole on a pair of shoes I recently bought started to separate.  Would have taken it to a cobbler but that would have cost money, so i thought I'd take it by the store I bought it from first.  That store is pretty far away and I would have had to make a special trip in my car.  So I called the shoe company's customer service line and they agreed to fix it for me, I just had to send them in.  They sent me a pre-paid UPS shipping label with my return slip, I printed it out and biked it over to the local UPS store.  Saved $$ by not going to a cobbler, by not driving to the physical store, and got some exercise on my bike as a bonus!

[Juslookin]

You guys are pretty inspiring. I enjoy reading all the ways you save money.

I can't compare in a lot of ways because of where we live. We're pretty rural and it's a half hour car ride to the grocery store. There is no public transit. So my best bet is just to group errands together or have DH in his company car drive me. That's been our tactic lately. Goal is to save on gas.

Been working the freezer inventory and meal planning pretty hard. Sticking to the meal plan is absolutely saving us money. I figured out a weeks worth of meals and committed to them by writing them down on my kitchen bulletin board. I have been switching around the days to allow some flexibility and so far it's working great.

I work at home so no gas used and no money spent today.

Lots of good things to do in the country that save money.  Witness my efforts to grow a second crop of leeks from the roots of the first crop in hope of saving $2.00 on transplants. So far only one has cooperated.  I think I need to leave a bit more leek on the root next time.

Good luck with the leeks.

Yes, I am a big gardener who's suffering a little garden burn out. Need to go smaller and more manageable.  Need to find cheaper ways to garden too, researching. I love the leek idea, let me know how it goes.

Harvested two bushels of apples today from our orchard. Sorted them out and put the perfect ones
in the fridge for storage and turned the imperfect ones into applesauce I canned. Still have sweet potatoes to dig and butternut squash to gather.

I cooked a grab and go dinner for everybody. DS asked if I could copy something he saw at work (he works in a grocery store on the weekends) chicken parm wraps.  I just made homemade breaded boneless chicken and than layered it in a flour tortilla with cheese and sauce. He said it was perfect and everybody heading in different directions today wrapped one in foil, grabbed an apple and took off. Nobody had to eat out. Perfect.

[icemodeled]

Fixed a drain pipe instead of hiring a plumber. This adds up big over time.

[horsepoor]

Well in recent memory:

Yesterday I arrived home exhausted from a work trip, so woke up this morning thinking I had nothing for lunch, then remembered that I froze leftover soup before leaving on my trip, and still had half a cantaloupe from the garden in the fridge, so lunch out avoided.  Enjoyed homemade yogurt for breakfast.

On said work trip, took full advantage of free hotel breakfast and evening "reception" snacks so I could pocket most of the per diem.

Just purchased a beef quarter and asked for the heart, tongue and bones (still have liver from last year, I think they gave me the entire thing).  Will roast off the bones and can bunches of stock.  Of course the beef is great grass-raised quality meat for less than the price of bottom-rung grocery store stuff.

Eating down the contents of the freezer instead of grocery shopping to make way for said beef quarter.

Declined the monthly riding lessons this month because we haven't made much progress since last time the instructor was in town, so no sense paying to rehash last month's lessons.

Starting next month, I'll likely be doing her scheduling in exchange for a free lesson each month.

Decided my horses were a bit fat and cut their feed rations down a bit.

Bought clearance plants at Lowe's using a $5 off $25 coupon and a $15 mail-in-rebate debit card, so I walked out with 8 quart sized perennials for $7 and change.

Decided not to open a bottle of wine tonight, and drank water instead.

[BetsyS]

I resisted getting a coffee and snack at the airport while waiting to pick up the in laws. (Insert joke here).

[YoungInvestor]

Currently on my second no-spend day in a row, studying at home for an exam that would give me a significant raise. The girlfriend being out of town for the weekend does help on that front!

I'm definitely not on the level of most of you, though!

[Catbert]

Not exactly today, but this week, I bought a $5 rotisserie chicken at Costco.  So dinners this week included:

Huge portion of roast chicken
BBQ chicken sandwiches using guava BBQ sauce I made last week from free guavas and homemade buns
Chicken and veggie frittata

I added a bag of veggie trimmings from the freezer to the carcass and made yummy chicken broth.  After a night in the frig I was able to skim off the fat to save separately. 

[jengod]

Collected jars of bubbles that people were just throwing in the trash after the wedding ceremony I attended tonight. My two-year-old has been asking for bubbles for months. I think he's going to be pleased with me.

[2ndTimer]

Just returned from camping.  Made a careful effort to get everything perishable in the food box put where it will get used while still good.  I have a history of leaving the coffee in the camping food box until it gets too stale to use so made an extra effort to get it back on the counter where it will get used.  Kills me to find that I have wasted my bought-as-beans-to-ensure-it's-good coffee by letting it get stale.

[Susan]

Returned all the clothes I bought a few weeks ago in a panic-pre-wedding-shopping-spree, as I decided last minute I would just wear something I already owned.

[3Mer]

I tried dropping off my fall coat at a place that does alterations, due to the seam on the back of one armhole being out.  They weren't open (even during their posted hours).   Frustrated, and needing my coat, I figured out how to get between the permanent liner and shell of the outer fabric and hand stiched it myself, for the cost of a spool of thread.   Small thing I know, but I'm feeling accomplished.  Especially since I had shown this repair issue to a coworker who is very experienced in sewing, and she said they would have to take the liner out to repair it.  She must not have noticed the liner is sewn in everywhere except at the inner bottom, which allowed me to access the area I needed.

[Kwill]

Last night I walked into the supermarket wanting some ice cream or sweets and also thinking of picking up some frozen meals. But I don't like to make people work on Sundays if I can help it, and there wasn't anything I really needed. So I put my cart away, walked back out, and made a chocolate cake at home, borrowing some flour from one roommate and a little salt from another. I shared the results. Probably a more satisfying dessert in the end.

I made a half recipe of this cake. It doesn't include eggs, so it's a little cheaper to make when eggs are so expensive these days. I tend to put peanut butter on my slice instead of frosting the whole thing. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/8396/chocolate-oil-cake/

[Easye418]

Made a good thing out of a bad thing:

Called DirecTV to try to get a trial of NFL Redzone. 

1st rep - no luck.

Called again, said I want to cancelled, didn't understand why Redzone wasn't a stand alone channel.  Lady researched for 20 minutes. 

Came back with "I am going to charge you for NFL Ticket (6 payments of $58.99), but I am going to give you a $50 dollar credit for 12 months".

....

I ACCEPT.  THANK YOU.  :-D

Cost: $353.94
Savings: $600.00

Profit: $246.06 plus free NFL Ticket.

Loving life right now.

[Juslookin]

DH and I stopped at a local farmers market yesterday we had never been too.

We picked up a 1/2 bushel of perfect size zucchini for $5.00. I made 12 zucchini breads for the freezer and bagged 12 more bags of shredded for the freezer. Great find.

On the way out the door they had a cart with free veggies for the taking, they were just a little past their prime. I picked up two heads of free cauliflower and made cauliflower casserole for dinner last night and served it with leftover chicken! Can't beat free.

Other than that our only shopping all weekend was I picked up some new freezer tape and paper to divide meats. I had completely run out.  Fabulous stay at home enjoy the fall weather weekend.

[G-dog]

Replaced the oven burner element myself.
Cost = ~ $26 for replacement element (item + S&H) + ~ 5 minutes of work

Versus estimated cost from repair shop = $63 service fee + $45 element + labor = greater than $108

And, best of all I feel like a total badass for doing it myself!

[Rosewhipped]

This was over the weekend.  My parents and I were in the mood to go out to eat, but decided to eat in instead.  I found a knock-off version of BoneFish Grill's Bang Bang shrimp and made that along with some mac and cheese and stir fry left overs from the day before.  I was really pleased with the way it turned out and the shrimp came from the freezer and I didn't need to buy anything extra since our pantry is often well-stocked.  We had only been to Bonefish once, but these were better because the shrimp was bigger and we made the sauce hotter.  Other restaurants like Charlie Browns have a dish similar to this...firecracker shrimp.  Not really healthy since it's lightly fried, but plenty delicious. 

[BPA]

Spent $15 and got what should last me two weeks as far as vegetables go.  I keep telling my boyfriend's dad, who owns the farm where I get vegetables from, to charge me the usual rate.  He says he is...but I don't know.

Made soup from turkey carcass.

Rigged my squirrel trap so that I take care of the little bastards living in my attic without having to resort to professionals.  They were able to get the peanuts out without tripping the trap, so I slathered peanut butter on a pine cone and hung it inside.  Now I wait.  I did grin wondering if people thought I was gathering pine cones to make crafts.  Nope. 

[MEER]

-Walked to the grocery store with ice packs in my backpack (20 minute walk and I live somewhere HOT).
-Made homemade enchilada sauce (really expensive here)
-Cooked my dried beans (cheaper and better than canned)
-Didn't clean the bathroom. For the third week in a row. Okay, it may be that I'm avoiding it, but I feel better about it if I convince myself that it's because I'm both saving the environment and saving money on cleaning supplies. And if your bathroom is not as clean as it could be, you could convince yourself of the same.

[sparky28]

For the first time in over a year, I didn't buy lunch from a restaurant near my office. I walked another block further to a grocery store and picked up ingredients for a week+ worth of PB&Banana sandwiches.

$10 spent for a week of lunch (with a lot of PB left), instead of my usual $30-40. Yikes. Let's not do that math.

I've been rationalizing it as "I don't eat lunch everyday, so why spend the time packing a lunch in the morning that I might not eat anyway?" No longer the case, I can just make one on the fly!

[horsepoor]

I'm canning tomatoes today.  So far I have 9 pints of plum tomatoes and 10 pints of sauce.  About to do another batch of half-pints and half-cups of sauce.

A wildfire dumped so much smoke into the valley last night that I decided the air quality is too bad to exercise my horse, so I suppose I'm saving some gas money by not driving out there today.

Both side dishes for dinner tonight will be from the garden.  Making short ribs from last year's beef with homemade teriyaki sauce and homemade tahini for the carrots.

[Bracken_Joy]

-Didn't clean the bathroom. For the third week in a row. Okay, it may be that I'm avoiding it, but I feel better about it if I convince myself that it's because I'm both saving the environment and saving money on cleaning supplies. And if your bathroom is not as clean as it could be, you could convince yourself of the same.

Ah. In that case, I am also saving money today.

[YoungInvestor]

-Didn't clean the bathroom. For the third week in a row. Okay, it may be that I'm avoiding it, but I feel better about it if I convince myself that it's because I'm both saving the environment and saving money on cleaning supplies. And if your bathroom is not as clean as it could be, you could convince yourself of the same.

Ah. In that case, I am also saving money today.

That makes 3 of us.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

-Didn't clean the bathroom. For the third week in a row. Okay, it may be that I'm avoiding it, but I feel better about it if I convince myself that it's because I'm both saving the environment and saving money on cleaning supplies. And if your bathroom is not as clean as it could be, you could convince yourself of the same.

Ah. In that case, I am also saving money today.

That makes 3 of us.

Yep. Hey, if we just take showers, how much does a little bathtub grime matter anyway? (How dirty is my bathtub? Well, my four-year-old keeps mentioning it.) Plus, the tub in question is in the basement and the water has to be pumped upstairs, presumably with electricity.

[Catbert]

Count me as another "saving money" by not cleaning.

I eat a version of muesli for breakfast several times a week.  Today I added a few random thing to the storage jar:  walnut crumbs left after the nuts were eaten and the dregs from a bag of cold cereal my DH eats.

[oldmannickels]

I took collision and comprehensive car insurance off my policy this renewal period and raised my deductibles. 6 month rate went from $540.70 ----> $385.60!

[jooles]

I ate the lunch I packed :)

[Nangirl17]

For the first time in over a year, I didn't buy lunch from a restaurant near my office. I walked another block further to a grocery store and picked up ingredients for a week+ worth of PB&Banana sandwiches.

$10 spent for a week of lunch (with a lot of PB left), instead of my usual ......
No longer the case, I can just make one on the fly!

Nice! My dh keeps a bag of oatmeal, apples, cinnamon, and a knife in his desk drawer so he can make apple oatmeal whenever he wants (uses water from the hot water machine at work).