Most outlandish frugal thing you did

[CJsoccerchic]

Wow, what great ideas!! I'm going to start doing some of them!

[cercis]

Jason, I've never eaten ketchup and my family doesn't (now or when I was growing up). We've always saved those little packets for when we have someone visit who wants ketchup.

I refused to buy ketchup to have because I don't want my kids to be like my niece and nephews and cousins' kids. They won't eat any meat without ketchup and want ketchup for all their vegetables. I might be picky, but I think that's going too far. Plus, if I had to see ketchup on corn at the supper table, I might just lose my stomach contents.

[DCKC]

While waiting in a hospital waiting room this summer, I noticed the coffee machine was free and the coffee was very good. Wrong or right, I can now be found stopping into the waiting room a couple timers per week for a nice cup of free joe. If you are into free coffee, try hotel lobbies, oil change places and any other waiting room you can think of.

Is it stealing? Maybe, maybe not, all I know is that I will not pay $ for a cup of coffee when I out and about.

[lrjohnson]

I hadn't thought I had anything that was different - I do the ketchup packets into the bottle, wash ziplocs (a group of people at work think it's funny and give me lightly used nice sturdy ziplocs), all the regular cheapie stuff people have mentioned.

But then, as I put on my anti-perspirant, I realized I may be one of the few anti-perspirant recyclers. I have an old Mitchum glass roll-on bottle. When I am done with an anti-perspirant, I save them and then I use a knife to get out the solids, or thin a liquid with a little water, and pour it all into my Mitchum bottle. Put a dash of water, nuke it and shake it, and I'm good to go. I get a fair amount of free sample ones, and the amount left when they are "done" is almost the same amount as was used! I know this is not saving me big bucks. Or even little bucks. But it makes it easier to recycle the plastic. And it doesn't really take much time.

I suppose even cheaper would be to go without, which I do sometimes on weekends, but I can't be smelly and wet at work. And yeah, deoderant might be better for me than anti-perspirant, but so it goes.

[CheaplyClever]

Originally Posted by dagobah_19

Most frugal thing I did was buy a 2 scoop ice cream cone, then take one of the scoops and give it away rather than simply buying two single serve ice creams....

This reminded me of a trick we pulled..... husband and I were on the way to the grocery store and starving. We know better than to shop when hungry so we stopped off at the local Subway and got a 6 inch sub of the month and courtesy water. We had the guy cut the sandwich in half. Both of us ate for $1.99!

[Ima saver]

Sometimes, I will save and use aluminum foil again. I have a land payment. Instead of making the payment on the 2nd of the month when it is due., I pay it every 28 days. I pay a lot less interest like that plus I am now paying a month early.

[Ima saver]

I put the tooth brushes in the dishwasher every few days. Keeps them clean!

[pyotr]

During cold weather, our entire family sleeps in the King size bed together with 4 layers of blankets on us. (our kids are 8 and 3years old). We wear sweaters around the house in the daytimes - we keep our thermostat at 60F. This works well for us and everybody is happy.

[BillsGirl]

my MIL use to let the babies "go" on paper towels so she could re use the diaper!!!! she boasts about this alot like shes proud of it.... I think it's SICK!!!!!!!!!!!

[BillsGirl]

Originally Posted by 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

LOL I've washed my pick up with a squeegee at the gas station before!!!! but ofcourse it's at like 4 a.m. so hopefully few saw me!!!

[acezz4e_tish]

my brother his wife and i would stay behind after the movie was over at the drive in, and pick up all the bottles. it not only paid for our evening,the drive in appreciated the work we did they didnt have to pay us for.lol we never left the drive in movies with less then 20 dollars in bottles, that was when i lived in michigan.
checking garbage bins at stores also saved me loads! manafactures, most of them, will replace stuff returned at the store w/o wanting the other back, so they throw it away. all for a missing knob or something.lol. i got a ge spacesaver microwave,tv,stereo,vcr all kinds of goodies that way. lasted for years too, the microwave needed a thermostat or something, my dad took it apart, put it together and walah it worked. until my son put my glass jar with wood lid in it and pushed start a few times.lol

[Ima saver]

I will save aluminum foil and use it again.

[acezz4e_tish]

i wont ever use anti persperant, its main ingrediant is allumium. that is the leading cause of alsheimers. i seen posts on health issues not being frugal with that, well then you should concider your later years. my moms mom had it and i dont want it! i cant imagin being incontinent. putting allumium in your skin will do that eventually. like going to the beach w/o sunblock. my grandma on my dads side just had her 90th bday. she just got a pacemaker, but shes still got it! she never used that stuff. my moms mom died by 70 and sprayed her pits several times a day. id rather die of old age in pain and still have my senses.

[shelbylovesmelby]

*L* I don't know how long it took my aunt & uncle to do this but they saved enough sugar packets to fill a GALLON milk jug!

If I have any packets of anything I either save them in a zippy bag or dump them in their proper container (ie ketchup to ketchup bottle ect).

I washed my car with a gas station squeege (sp?) as a pp had said. Though I basically did it cause A- I was broke B-some geese slept on my car and took a major POOPOO all over ICK!

[flash]

I guess I take whatever is offered...napkins, sporks, sugar, ketchup, dressing, lemon juice, tea, salt. My mom takes the paper toilet seat covers whenever she finds them, so she will have them when she doesn't. I have taken a roll of TP home from work, but I'd worked two 36 hours shifts and didn't have time to pick one up. Mammowipes, those individual handiwipes to scrub down for mammograms, well, they did say to take as many as I needed...outlandish? probably the worst was in true poverty, we rolled TP from fast food places into feminine product pads.

[Ima saver]

We snitch a few splenda packs from the restaurant once in a while. Since my husband gave up sugar, he only uses splenda on his grits. I have not bought a 5 pound bag of sugar in a bout 5 years. We just don't use it. I take extra napkins at Wendy's to keep in the car for emergencies!

[acezz4e_tish]

i love saving lil packets of stuff. i have them all in a container in my fridge, dave takes some in his lunch to work and we have loads for when we go picnicing and camping. the bent can store here, sold salsa packets too 25 for a dollar. they are hotttttttttt. daves a hot kinda guy, they work gr8 for just about anything for him.

[Ima saver]

I have never done this, but we use to have an elderly lady come in the restaurant. She knew that extra rolls of toilet paper were kept under the sink and she would fill her HUGE purse with them. I carry a good sized purse, but mine is always full of my stuff.

[ISAYHI]

I used to squeeze the packets of ketchup into the bottle - now i just keep the packets in a container, it was too much trouble to put them in the bottle. I have dumped the salt & pepper packets into the shakers.

I think my children would starve if it wasn't for Wendy's chicken nuggets. I soothe my frugal soul by asking for ranch dressing with them, the kids then take the ranch to school with the carrots they take for snacks. This has saved me a small fortune on salad dressing & is much neater than putting the bottled dressing into a small container to carry to school. When we're stocked up on ranch, I get bbq sauce to use at home. We get Wendy's twice a week, x 3 kids, so we get lots of condiments. Also I save the extra napkins, I just toss them into the basket I leave on the table.

[acezz4e_tish]

i have all kinds of packets from everywhere. my mom s diabetic too so she takes all the sweet n low from her table and pockets what she dont use and gives me half, so that i have some for her at my house. she eats dinner out almost daily. all weekend 2 meals out. sounds like not frugal, but they were driving an escort wagon and hit by a full meijers food truck at 60 mph. so its just a way of life now. they lucky to be alive. cooking for themselves is painstaking. so they eat out. family time in romeo treats them gr8! theres always a table for them, they know when they will get there, they have thier ice tea ready and water and a bread basket. then they go over the special cause that is one thing they change daily. but it always has homemade daily soup, bread, veggie, side dish and main course, gr8 place if your in romeo mich. i have arbys my fave, one packet of thier sauce bbq's four small chops gr8!