Most outlandish frugal thing you did

[ken1706]

This thread reminds me of a Bankrate article where they listed 20 extreme frugal ideas. My favorites were:

Use the squeegee at the gas station to wash your car

and

Unplug clocks in your house while sleeping

[pennywise]

where is the article, can you link us. Sounds like I would like to read it. The unplug clocks while you sleep makes me laugh, this fall "everyone hates Chris" where the dad goes around the house with costs of everything (we really should watch this) and he wakes the kid up to tell him to unplug the clock because he can't tell time while he sleeps and it is 2 cents per minute.

[Fern]

Yeah, i think we all should watch at least one episode of Everyone
Hates Chris and share what we think about it here, since it featurs such a
frugal father. Do you know the details of when it starts, what time
and network?

[ken1706]

Originally Posted by pennywise

where is the article, can you link us. Sounds like I would like to read it. The unplug clocks while you sleep makes me laugh, this fall "everyone hates Chris" where the dad goes around the house with costs of everything (we really should watch this) and he wakes the kid up to tell him to unplug the clock because he can't tell time while he sleeps and it is 2 cents per minute.

Here's the link to that Bankrate article:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cheap/20031024a1.asp

Another good one was:

Instead of buying toilet paper, I use yesterday's newspaper.

It's kind of inline with the start of the thread

[cercis]

I think I'll stick with my toilet paper. I have "issues" since giving birth, so I need the softer stuff.

My mom grew up using an outhouse and the montgomery ward catalog (this is before the pages were shiny). She uses the softest tp she can find and says she will never go back to that.

Craziest frugal thing I've done, emptying the free salt packets into my salt shaker. I also save and wash the plasticware you sometimes get when eating out. I use those to send in lunches with the kids or to take lunch myself.

[pennywise]

make sure you wash the plastic well. One thing folks don't know is plastic is permeable (means things absorb into it). Just be careful.

[cercis]

I mean the plastic spoons and forks, not the containers.

I stick them in the dishwasher.

[shengmei]

The most frugal thing I did was to take all the glass covers off the light bulbs. I then only use one lightbulb per room. I also replace the lightbulbs with energy saver lightbulbs.

After I did that, I only used half as much lighting as I used to. Most of the lighting I used before were blocked by the covers of the light bulbs. They wasted lots of energy and created lots of heat.

I noticed a $30 per month saving right away.

[marglo]

I wash the plastic storage, freezer, sandwich bags and sealer bags and reuse them unless they have had meat/fish or something rotten in them.

If I use foil on top of something, I keep it and wrap the leftovers up in it. This is usually meat like a roast. Or if I use foil for something and it doesn't get dirty at all I keep it and try and use it for something else.

I rarely use paper towels. I keep a dishcloth beside the sink and use it to wipe the counter, wipe out the sink etc.

[ScottO]

Originally Posted by the4parkers

i cut my toothpaste tube in half . there is always another weeks worth of toothpaste.. my dh laughs at me because i probably have a hundred tubes of toothpaste fre from the dollar store.lol

Toothpaste is one of the items you do not want to stock up on because floride has a very short shelf life. Much of the floride is already gone from toothpaste if it sits on the store shelf for very long.

[ScottO]

A good friend of mine (an engineer making six figures) didn't like to pay for trash service.

He would put bags of garbage into his car and drop them off into dumpsters as he passed them. Which is illegal, by the way.

Sometimes he wouldn't be able to dump his trash and it would stay in his car for days. Needless to say, no one wanted to ride in his car and he finally started paying for thrash service when his car became infected with roaches.

[robex]

I'm with you, Marglo. I wash baggies, reuse foil, and use rags instead of paper towels.

I never bought baby wipes. We always used the little wash cloths and would even take them with us--just wet them slightly and put them in a baggie...once used we put them in the second bag we brought along.

[Gruntina]

I am not sure this is considered very frugal..... I don't like saving a large jar of pennys that clutter my closet or somewhere. I use the pennies to pay for postage stamps at the Post office stamp vending machine since the machines there accept pennies. Of course I go when its not so busy or a lot of people are there. This also save the hassle of having to wrap pennies or be charged a counter change fee when trying to deposit it a bank account.

[dealsaver]

I spent three hours getting free stoufers pizza one time where I used a tripled coupon to get a box for free. At the checkout, I recieved another coupon for the same. I spent the afternoon getting free pizzas. I couldn't stop myself until the minivan was loaded with pizza. It was the weirdest thing I've ever done!

[niki_the_tiger]

LOL That's hilarious!

[TBH]

Originally Posted by marglo

I wash the plastic storage, freezer, sandwich bags and sealer bags and reuse them unless they have had meat/fish or something rotten in them.

If I use foil on top of something, I keep it and wrap the leftovers up in it. This is usually meat like a roast. Or if I use foil for something and it doesn't get dirty at all I keep it and try and use it for something else.

I rarely use paper towels. I keep a dishcloth beside the sink and use it to wipe the counter, wipe out the sink etc.

I do this too, but it started out as an environmental thing I inherited from my mother. The frugal aspect only occurred to me after I'd been living on my own for a while, and realized how much everything costs.

[Luv2shop]

Originally Posted by loveofpets

I've also used cloth pads and washed them for myself. Saves ALOT of money vs. buying tampons and pads (I usually just use the cloth pads at home and it still saves a bunch).

The other most frugal thing I've done is collect Marlboro Unlimited Miles from friends and family (and self) to submit for their rebate items - I've gotten alot of items from Marlboro for camping, etc.

Wouldn't it be easier to pay $2 a month for those items than go through all the trouble? If you use coupons and look for sales (stock up), then it should cost you almost nothing.
Do you know anyone that will let you send the rebates to their house too? I don't pay for any personal products because I get them ALL for FREE
I am stocked for over a year..lol

[niki_the_tiger]

I don't understand how you can get items for free? I have been able to save 50-75% on items by combining coupons and sales, but I have not been able to get them free... how do you go about doing that?

[katwoman]

Originally Posted by ScottO

A good friend of mine (an engineer making six figures) didn't like to pay for trash service.

He would put bags of garbage into his car and drop them off into dumpsters as he passed them. Which is illegal, by the way.

Sometimes he wouldn't be able to dump his trash and it would stay in his car for days. Needless to say, no one wanted to ride in his car and he finally started paying for thrash service when his car became infected with roaches.

Having lived in a condo complex where I have personally SEEN this sort of behavior from people, let me say: ANYONE WHO DOES THAT IS A TOTAL LOSER!

It costs the complex more $$$ since they pay for the service and frankly it's disgusting to drive around with garbage in your car. Not to mention someone like me would write you DL # and report you to the police!

[Jason]

My sister and I have a running joke about her squeezing packets of ketchup into her ketchup bottles...wait, that aint such a bad idea!