What's the craziest thing you've done in the name of frugality?

[greenmimama]

For the men who cut their own hair, here is a tip from a professional to keep it looking more professional and less DIY, DON'T forget to trim the ear hair and the nose hair and if your eyebrows are bushy, put the comb through them and trim what sticks out of the comb. You will improve what you already do.

I of course cut my families hair, and my own most of the time, I pay for a professional haircut about once every year or two.

I reuse plastic baggies but try more to never use them in the first place
I have a roll of aluminum foil that was given to me 10 years ago and it still has most of it in the roll
We use cloth toilet paper and have for 9+ years
We use over the air TV and netflix and hulu instead of cable, I know you guys don't think that is weird but lots of others do
We are quite creative to not waste leftovers
we bring food home from anywhere someone wants to give it to us, their home after a big party, a ball game where their are a ton of leftovers etc..
We buy our kids 2 small gifts for xmas and only 1 for birthdays
We drive older vehicles for a long time (no public transport out in the country)
My husband rode his bike to work for 9+mo out of the year for 3  years while we only had 1 car
I fixed our sink to collect grey water in a bucket and we used it to flush the toilets with
I took apart our sinks when they have a clog and fix them myself
I replaced my own in air cabin filter in our van for a savings of $30
I make our own lotion bars and body butter
We aren't afraid to trash pick
hang clothes to dry

I'm sure I could go on and I still feel very face punch worthy, I still have a ton to learn.

[saving_dutchman]

This topic is fantastic!

My craziest frugal thing to date:
I Picked up 160kg of bricks for free to use for a project. I picked them up alone, with a metal shopping cart. The walk home took 45 minutes. I received some funny looks on the way back.

[johnny847]

This topic is fantastic!

My craziest frugal thing to date:
I Picked up 160kg of bricks for free to use for a project. I picked them up alone, with a metal shopping cart. The walk home took 45 minutes. I received some funny looks on the way back.

Dang. Any hills on the way back?

[MountainGal]

For lunch leftovers here at the office, I use plastic Pampered Chef (purchased during my credit card days) plates and plastic utensils.  I then wash them for reuse in the bathroom sink.  I might look strange doing so in my business attire, but oh well.  ;)

[TartanTallulah]

Maybe not the craziest, but the most recent that springs to mind. I was working at a checkpoint on an ultramarathon. The runners coming through had just completed a boggy section of the course and many of those who had support crews (permitted but not compulsory) changed their footwear. While I was tidying up I came upon a pair of filthy mud-encrusted socks that someone had discarded.

They're still going strong. After being worn and washed a few times you'd never guess the state they were in when I picked them up off the floor.

[saving_dutchman]

This topic is fantastic!

My craziest frugal thing to date:
I Picked up 160kg of bricks for free to use for a project. I picked them up alone, with a metal shopping cart. The walk home took 45 minutes. I received some funny looks on the way back.

Dang. Any hills on the way back?

Haha. Fortunately for me there we no hills :)
Having any significant hill would be dangerous with that much weight and no brakes.

This experience did teach me that a perfectly horizontal sidewalk doesn't exist. Everything is a little slanted, probably for drainage.

[meghan88]

On Tuesday I biked to and from a mammogram appointment in a hailstorm/crazy downpour.  10 km each way, on some very bike-unfriendly roads.  I felt so badass once I got home.

[eddie]

I rode a longboard about 13 miles each way to the airport to save $, but I paid to take the longboard on the flight, so I'm not sure how much $ I saved.

While on a trip to Ireland with an ex I had a finite amount of cash budgeted.  We both contributed to the cash but I paid for most of the trip transportation expenses.  Towards the end of the trip the cash was running low and we stayed in a really crappy hostel with smelly, drunk, middle aged men hanging around.  I didn't want to have to put any expenses on my credit card.  We moved to a different hostel across the street for about 10 euros more per night per person the next night but I think that might have been the beginning of the end of that relationship.

I spent the night on a bench in the LA train station to not pay for a hotel room.  Many times I have slept in my car on a trip.  I hate paying for hotels when I'm not going to be spending any awake time there.

[sequoia]

I spent the night on a bench in the LA train station to not pay for a hotel room.  Many times I have slept in my car on a trip.  I hate paying for hotels when I'm not going to be spending any awake time there.

Never spent the night on a bench in train station, but many times in airports around the world. I am too cheap to pay for hotels for one day visit. My favorite is Changi airport in Singapore. They used to have these long recliner type - very comfy.

Wife and I also have spent the night in the SUV before we have the kid. With the second and third rows left behind at home, we have a good flat area to stretch and sleep comfortably.

[cowstash]

Never spent the night on a bench in train station, but many times in airports around the world. I am too cheap to pay for hotels for one day visit. My favorite is Changi airport in Singapore. They used to have these long recliner type - very comfy.

This times 1,000. I regularly have to fly through Dubai to get from South Asia back to the US or elsewhere. Decent hotels in that city are at least $120 a night, and the cheap hotels are so mildewy/smokey that I won't set foot in them again. So I choose to sleep in the airport where they have hundreds of the long reclined seats. I even got Emirates to match my frequent flier status, so now I can sleep and eat for free in their lounge on those long layovers (bonus: I can get a year's worth of free toothbrushes and toothpaste in the kits from their lounge bathrooms!).

For me the key to airport sleeping is an eye mask, earplugs (or noise-cancelling headphones with a white noise app), and occasionally melatonin or Ambien.

[Lagom]

I gave myself stitches to save on an ER visit. I also saved several hours of time that would have been spent in the waiting room but were put to better use by sleeping.  Granted, it was a small clean cut, I pretty much knew what I was doing, and had acceptable thread available.  Several months later, the scar is much smaller than one I have from a professional job.  Some of that is probably due to the location though.

My brother did that once. 

I've never needed stitches, but I did take out my own IUD a couple of years ago.  :)  I couldn't see any reason to pay someone at least $100 to tug on a string for a few seconds.

Two things. One, this is (I would assume?) a service that is free for many women, depending on their insurance. It certainly was for my wife anyway, so check on that first. Second, while it may be relatively easy to do this in most cases (I have no idea but am guessing from this comment), after my wife's experience, where she required a minor surgical procedure to remove her IUD because it had become embedded in the uterine wall, I would personally suggest you think twice in the future when considering whether to DYI.

[JanetJackson]

Ditto on the "gave myself stitches" situation.

When I was a kid, we were well well below the poverty line and also living what would be considered a mustachian lifestyle.  My dad butterfly taped my knee after a bad bicycle accident that I most certainly needed stitches for.... and apparently that mindset kicked in as an adult too.  I'm a soap-maker (side job) and got myself pretty good with my soap knife a few years back.  I glued it up with surgical glue a nurse friend had given me (I'd kept it in my first aid kit at home) and then stitched it relatively loosely (they say that helps with scarring..?).  It was awful actually, felt the flush of "I'm going to pass out" a few times....but I'd probably do it again.

Also a trash monster- I've only paid for one piece of furniture in my life (a $40 craigslist sofa), the rest are from freebies or trash piles. 

Barter.  I only barter down to an exchange rate of $15 an hour (unless I really really want to learn the skill, etc).  This has worked out great and I got my hair professionally done for a few years for cleaning a salon once a week (and I got the cleaning time down to about 30 minutes eventually).  Now I cut my own hair with 3 dollar store mirrors and clippers, thinning scissors, and regular scissors. and I look cute, not gross.

I don't find this terrifically out of the ordinary, but I do get "looks"....I most definitely take any/all leftovers from things I am invited to and offered leftovers at, or office events, and freeze to reuse. 

Additionally, it's small... BUT, I play roller derby and instead of the expensive $60 reversible scrimmage jerseys (which I admittedly really want) I have always purchased the basic lacrosse ones ($3-$5), bid on really beat up jerseys with double my number on Ebay (My number is 8, so I find jerseys with 88 on both sides) and torn those numbers off with a seam ripper and re-stitch them onto my $3 pinnie.  A used jersey with 88 on both sides gives me enough numbers for TWO scrimmage pinnies. :)  Ha. 

[aldrimer]

Awesome stories, guys!
Some of mine:

- I moved apartments in Japan using the local bus. I did it in six-ish trips. I'm a tall Norwegian guy, so needless to say everybody was looking at the weird guy with the office chair and pot plant on the bus.

- Speaking of Japan - I have hitch-hiked back and forth between Osaka and Tokyo several times, and once I hitch-hiked from Tokyo down to the very South of Japan, took the boat to South-Korea and hitch-hiked from the harbour all the way to Seoul. One heck of a ride - completely free, except the ferry ticket. And I met SO many cool people :)

- I practice drums in an abandoned building. I don't know who owns the place, but I've been doing it for over a year without anybody noticing.

[Dicey]

Awesome stories, guys!
Some of mine:

- I moved apartments in Japan using the local bus. I did it in six-ish trips. I'm a tall Norwegian guy, so needless to say everybody was looking at the weird guy with the office chair and pot plant on the bus.

- Speaking of Japan - I have hitch-hiked back and forth between Osaka and Tokyo several times, and once I hitch-hiked from Tokyo down to the very South of Japan, took the boat to South-Korea and hitch-hiked from the harbour all the way to Seoul. One heck of a ride - completely free, except the ferry ticket. And I met SO many cool people :)

- I practice drums in an abandoned building. I don't know who owns the place, but I've been doing it for over a year without anybody noticing.

Hmmm, where I live, that might get you noticed and arrested, lol!

[aldrimer]

Haha!! :D cue Snoop Dogg *smoke weed everyday*

[misshathaway]

Awesome stories, guys!
Some of mine:
- I moved apartments in Japan using the local bus. I did it in six-ish trips. I'm a tall Norwegian guy, so needless to say everybody was looking at the weird guy with the office chair and pot plant on the bus.

The word picture made me laugh out loud.

[MilesTeg]

We use cloth toilet paper and have for 9+ years

According to our google overlords, the average person uses 25 rolls/year of TP. According to our Amazon overlords, you can buy that many fancy name brand rolls for about $10 in bulk (~48/rolls at a time). About $12 for "eco friendly" varieties.

You'd rather wash your own nightsoil than spend about $10/person/year? An entire lifetime of scrubbing soiled cloths to save $600-1000?

And, when you consider you'll probably spend a good portion of that much in towels, soap, energy and water to do all the washing it makes very little sense.

Personally, I'd rather have a bidet like civilized cultures anyway ;)

[MVal]

I eat out of dumpsters. I also eat all the leftovers from work lunches that no one else seems to want.

I also use these remnant toilet paper rolls from work. We are the building managers and we control all the janitorial for the campus, so my day time janitor would bring me all the leftover rolls when she went through each day to put on fresh ones. I still have quite a stock pile and should not have to buy TP for several months.

[Steelers1982]

At Royal Canadian Superstore, their gas stations do(or used to? don't live near one anymore) give you 3.5 cents per liter in store credit on your receipt(7cents if you're a PC Cardholder)... Anyways... One day I noticed a receipt with this part not torn off at the top of the garbage bin.  So every time I went there I would sift(not dig) through the top layer of garbage, and would usually end up with a receipt with a $1-$2 in credit.

I come from a fairly mustachian family... And my Mom, despite my parents having way more money than they will ever need, still washes and re-uses tin foil when cooking.

[marielle]

Not super crazy but kinda funny. Stuffed a mattress and boxspring in my hatchback to avoid renting a truck. Have also done something similar with attaching a queen size mattress to the roof of an SUV.

[druth]

I asked my boyfriend and he said:

"The time I wanted to buy frozen potatoes at Costco and you wouldn't let me because we could buy them in bulk and chop them ourselves."

Probably made a dollar for an hour of work, but I probably wouldn't have done anything productive during that hour anyways, so...   

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*edited because my shruggy guy's arm fell off*

[FamilyGuy]

Turning off the lights while brushing teeth and turning it on when ready to spit it out. Bathrooms in my apartment have no windows.
I stopped doing this later though :)

[ketchup]

Turning off the lights while brushing teeth and turning it on when ready to spit it out. Bathrooms in my apartment have no windows.
I stopped doing this later though :)

I've found showering in the dark to be quite therapeutic.  Shortly afterwards I found out how to replace the light bulb in my bathroom (no window in my bathroom either).  I still do it sometimes.

[CrashnBurn]

Found a pair of flip-flops on the beach, after a good cleaning i'm still using them two years later.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

I think the operative phrase in this thread is 'in the NAME of frugality.' Dishonesty and false economy aren't what I consider frugality.

[BTDretire]

When I saw this thread, I thought about taking a picture of a dish rag used in our kitchen.
But when I got around to it, I couldn't find it. I ask my wife and she thought I did something with it, I do the laundry and more likely to discard an item before she is. Anyway she found it, I think she had started the removal from service plan.
 I think this qualifies as crazy in the name of frugality.

[limeandpepper]

I don't consider it super crazy, but:

- Stayed at an airport for 24+ hours instead of getting accommodation for a night. It was a good airport to be stuck in, though, wouldn't have done this if it was an uncomfortable, boring one.

- During 4+ months of travel, hand-washed our clothes in the sink, then hung them on the clothesline in the yard of our guesthouse if that was available (often this wasn't available, so I'd hang the clothes in our room, very close to fans or AC for quicker drying), so that we wouldn't have to pay for laundry service. We paid to use a coin-operated washing machine and dryer only a couple of times during the entire trip, and went the free route the rest of the time. I see all that hand-washing as good exercise for my arms. ;)

[MountainGal]

Found a pair of flip-flops on the beach, after a good cleaning i'm still using them two years later.

Something similar:  I found a pair of sunglasses during a volunteer clean up day several years ago.  I still use them to this day. :)

[merula]

I recently got some sand for free from a neighborhood fb post, planning to use it for my kids' sandbox. The post said that the sand had some rocks in it. No problem, I'm thinking, I can pick out a couple of rocks and add them to the rock garden we started.

When I got the buckets home, what I found was that it was 50/50 sand and pea gravel. My husband and I ended up sifting four 5-gallon buckets of sand through an old piece of screen, which took several hours. Several hours spent bent over a bucket, in order to get maybe $15 worth of sand/rocks for free.

I've probably done crazier things, but this is the craziest one recently.

[Spiffsome]

My grandparents were farmers, so nothing ever got thrown away. Any fence they've ever had to take down has been dismantled for parts and the parts kept in the paddock next to the house. This collection got added to when their tenant went bust, leaving behind a wide range of steel frames.

When I moved into my new house, we needed a fence to keep the chickens in their run down the back. We also had a fence across the front yard that I considered unnecessary. Grandma and Grandad showed up with the truck and a length of chain to haul out the posts, and we reassembled the fence further down the backyard.

I've taken lawn clippings from the local park after council mowing day; the neighbours down the road brought out their wheelie bin and took woodchips from the same park after the council pruned the park trees. I've shovelled horse manure from my grandparents' tenants' horses. Seriously, if you're a gardener - the amount of organic matter this society throws away is mindblowing. Get out there and scavenge. You'll never buy mulch again. 

[Tom Bri]

My wife saves the stickers on fruit to use to clean lint off the carpet.

I save peach pits, throw them in the garden and occasionally get a new peach tree. I have given away dozens of peach trees over the last few years. Along the same lines, I spit grape seeds into pots and grow grape vines.

Save shower and dish-washing water to flush toilets.

[westtoeast]

When I moved to this city after college I had less than $200 to my name. I showed up to my apartment that I'd be splitting with 4 others with just a suitcase. There was a sad looking mattress in the room I was assigned to so I threw my sheets on it and used it for two years. I've actually still never bought a mattress (but did inherit a nicer one from a friend).

I think this is pretty gross but I'm not actually sure?

I've also done some of the hand washing while abroad and airport sleeping stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BTDretire]

My wife saves the stickers on fruit to use to clean lint off the carpet.

I save peach pits, throw them in the garden and occasionally get a new peach tree. I have given away dozens of peach trees over the last few years. Along the same lines, I spit grape seeds into pots and grow grape vines.

Save shower and dish-washing water to flush toilets.

 My wife saves the tape that is wrapped around bananas.

[JSMustachian]

I went out eat with family just to catch up since it had been a while since seeing my brother. I only ordered a free water and told them I'm over budget for the month. The budget for dining out is zero! They couldn't believe it and thought it was ridiculous I didn't order anything.

They racked up a nice bill from food and alcohol and I eacaped with a $0 bill. That is what I call a successful night!

[nouveauRiche]

We have clear plastic shower curtains.  When they get yucky, I run them through the washing machine with a few junky towels and some detergent.  They come out not-quite-good-as-new but much cleaner/nicer. 

They are cheap so it's only partly to save money.  Mostly it's to keep them out of the landfill.

[NV Teacher]

I save and reuse the elastics on broccoli and green onions.

[surfhb]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now. 

[nouveauRiche]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now.

That's impressive!  Are you willing to share more details?  Make?  Year?  Miles?

Edited to add:  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Honda.

[BTDretire]

I save and reuse the elastics on broccoli and green onions.

I thought that was a given! :-)
 Sometimes the broccoli comes with a velcro strap, I use those to wrap my pant leg,
so it doesn't get caught in my bike chain.

[dandiewind]

This does not feel that crazy to me, but people IRL keep telling me it is, lol.

I'm 8ish months pregnant, and instead of mailing thank you cards to the people in the neighborhood who gave us gifts for our recent baby shower, I rode my bike around and hand delivered them instead. I saved us like $8 in stamps and got some nice and easy exercise. Walking is hard for me at this point, but biking still feels pretty dang good.

Plus, I got to enjoy a nice 40 minutes of leisurely pedaling through our neighborhood, which has a lot of older houses with lots of character. I love walking/biking through our neighborhood, and I felt awesome after I did it! Even though I was tired and tempted to just mail them out of the sheer convenience, I'm glad I didn't. The idea of mailing a letter to people that live literally across the street is so stupid to me, lol.

EDIT: I also rode my bike to and from work when I went in a few weeks ago. It's about 6 miles each way, but mostly downhill/flat on the way there. People were very surprised, lol. I did end up strategically taking public transit part way home so I could very easily just basically coast all the way back (didn't want to overdo it), but I still felt pretty proud. I love biking to work, and telling myself I could bike in was actually the way that I bribed myself to actually go to the office instead of working at home, lol.

[surfhb]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now.

That's impressive!  Are you willing to share more details?  Make?  Year?  Miles?

Edited to add:  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Honda.

93 Toyota Pick Up with 550K miles.     I sold it to my mechanic once and it made me so sad that my GF bought it back from him for my surprise birthday present.   It was also stolen last year and I just recovered it after police arrested some guy on gun related charges.  I'm super stoked....love that stupid truck

[sequoia]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now.

That's impressive!  Are you willing to share more details?  Make?  Year?  Miles?

Edited to add:  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Honda.

93 Toyota Pick Up with 550K miles.     I sold it to my mechanic once and it made me so sad that my GF bought it back from him for my surprise birthday present.   It was also stolen last year and I just recovered it after police arrested some guy on gun related charges.  I'm super stoked....love that stupid truck

We only have ~225K on our Land Cruiser, your truck make it like ours is brand new lol

[Dicey]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now.

That's impressive!  Are you willing to share more details?  Make?  Year?  Miles?

Edited to add:  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Honda.

93 Toyota Pick Up with 550K miles.     I sold it to my mechanic once and it made me so sad that my GF bought it back from him for my surprise birthday present.   It was also stolen last year and I just recovered it after police arrested some guy on gun related charges.  I'm super stoked....love that stupid truck

Love this [not] stupid truck story!

[dividendman]

Haha!! :D cue Snoop Dogg *smoke weed everyday*

Nate Dogg says "smoke weed everyday" at the end of "The Next Episode", not Snoop Dogg.

[HipGnosis]

I've found showering in the dark to be quite therapeutic.  Shortly afterwards I found out how to replace the light bulb in my bathroom (no window in my bathroom either).  I still do it sometimes.

This reminds me of a product idea I had many years ago.
Big rubber or elastic bands (or adhesive labels) with big 3D symbols on them - diff symbols on diff bands.  You'd put one on each bottle of your shampoo, conditioner, body wash etc. and then be able tell them apart by 'reading' the diff symbols with your finger tips.
I even came up with a name for them - 'Tipsees',  because you 'see' them with the 'tips' of your fingers.
Basically  braille.  The target customer are people that (like me) that need glasses to read.

[ketchup]

I've found showering in the dark to be quite therapeutic.  Shortly afterwards I found out how to replace the light bulb in my bathroom (no window in my bathroom either).  I still do it sometimes.

This reminds me of a product idea I had many years ago.
Big rubber or elastic bands (or adhesive labels) with big 3D symbols on them - diff symbols on diff bands.  You'd put one on each bottle of your shampoo, conditioner, body wash etc. and then be able tell them apart by 'reading' the diff symbols with your finger tips.
I even came up with a name for them - 'Tipsees',  because you 'see' them with the 'tips' of your fingers.
Basically  braille.  The target customer are people that (like me) that need glasses to read.

My main problem was actually related to this, but Tipsees wouldn't have solved it unfortunately.  I had to navigate through the bottles, but the issue was that my GF's sister was living with us at the time, and she had about 400 shampoo bottles in our shower.

[HipGnosis]

I've found showering in the dark to be quite therapeutic.  Shortly afterwards I found out how to replace the light bulb in my bathroom (no window in my bathroom either).  I still do it sometimes.

This reminds me of a product idea I had many years ago.
Big rubber or elastic bands (or adhesive labels) with big 3D symbols on them - diff symbols on diff bands.  You'd put one on each bottle of your shampoo, conditioner, body wash etc. and then be able tell them apart by 'reading' the diff symbols with your finger tips.
I even came up with a name for them - 'Tipsees',  because you 'see' them with the 'tips' of your fingers.
Basically  braille.  The target customer are people that (like me) that need glasses to read.

My main problem was actually related to this, but Tipsees wouldn't have solved it unfortunately.  I had to navigate through the bottles, but the issue was that my GF's sister was living with us at the time, and she had about 400 shampoo bottles in our shower.

They would have solved it - you'd just put the tipsees on your bottles.

[Guide2003]

I eat out of dumpsters.

Dumpster diving FTW!! Did it for six months after watching "Just Eat It" on Amazon Prime. So much free organic produce we had to give it away and compost it just to use it all. But sadly we had to stop whit kids to look after instead of late night scrounging trips.

[nouveauRiche]

Drive the same vehicle I bought in college.   I'm almost 50 now.

That's impressive!  Are you willing to share more details?  Make?  Year?  Miles?

Edited to add:  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Honda.

93 Toyota Pick Up with 550K miles.     I sold it to my mechanic once and it made me so sad that my GF bought it back from him for my surprise birthday present.   It was also stolen last year and I just recovered it after police arrested some guy on gun related charges.  I'm super stoked....love that stupid truck

Everything about this rocks.  Glad you got your truck back - twice. 

[babysnowbyrd]

Combo meter in my Prius was fritzing (I'd turn on the car but the dash display would stay completely black-no speedometer, odometer, fuel level etc.) Was a recall issue and could have been fixed free but the owners before me never took it in. Took it to the shop an was told it would be about two weeks and $22-2400.

Found a guy on eBay who repairs combo meters for $100 including return shipping, and found a YouTube tutorial on how to dismantle the entire dashboard of my car. Took about 3 hours to get everything off to get to the circuit board. Paid to ship it to the repair man. Three day wait and another 3 hours or so to put it all back together.

That was my first time doing a car repair myself, and when I pushed that "Start" button after getting it all together and everything was working, I felt SO AWESOME!!!

I see Priui listed for sale with that problem, and I've thought about reaching out to the sellers to fix the problem for say, $500 or $600? They'd be able to sell it for more with that fixed....maybe a little side gig?