Most outlandish frugal thing you did - Page 7

pearlieq · #**121** (**permalink**) 08-06-2006, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flinnie

Shocking
It great as a eye wash when you have pink eye too. When we were kids my mom had us
wash our eyes with pee for pink eye it healed up in no time.No kidding.We could not run
to the doctor for every little thing...no money.

You win! Hands down. I couldn't top that in a million years!

andy'smama · #**122** (**permalink**) 08-07-2006, 04:38 PM

I've started to "wash" paper plates! It's not as bad as it sounds, though. I'm doing it for our dog who refuses to eat out of his bowl. For some reason he wants his food on a plate. He'll just sits and grumbles at the bowl of food until I give him a plate and I don't want to use the dishes we eat from! Actually, I'm trying to stop buying or cut down on one non essential a month (this month it's paper towels) so I'll use up my supply of paper plates and try to do without those next month. I'll have to get over to the thrift store and buy a couple of plates for a quarter or so.

Ima saver · #**123** (**permalink**) 08-07-2006, 04:43 PM

I don't blame you for that. We buy those big red paper cups and I put them in the dishwasher all the time.

frugalelf · #**124** (**permalink**) 08-25-2006, 10:27 PM

Nothing puts me to shame when it comes to frugal. I save the Maxwell house points for the rewards but it takes forever to save for stuff. I go to our local dump and dig through the recycle can bin and grab whatever I can find! So far I have received a Maxwell House 12 cup coffee maker, two coffee carafes, two gift certificates for Burpee seeds at $15 each, a coffee trivet and a picture frame. NO S&H charges!!!

A bonus is on the back of the labels you can enter the "Spruce up your Home" codes and possibly win a prize. Well, none yet for me but nothing ventured, nothing gained!!!

LuxLiving · #**125** (**permalink**) 08-26-2006, 03:56 AM

I can't think of any one thing at the moment, but The Hubster calls me Sanford's Wife as I am forever hauling something FREE home in the back of the truck! Maybe buying a truck so I could be frugal is it???

Nahhh - I have trucks true so I can haul 'good' stuff, but I just like to sit up high and see farther while driving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LuxLivingFrugalis

Ima saver · #**126** (**permalink**) 08-26-2006, 05:22 AM

That is funny Lux, my husband calls me jack Benny!! Jack Benny and Sanford's wife. For those of you who don't remember Jack benny, he was always 39 and he love to go to his "vault" to visit his money!

baking23 · #**127** (**permalink**) 11-20-2006, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivaJen

I've washed and reused cloth pads for myself.

Me too, although it's not so much a money thing as an enviroment thing. Good for one is good for the other, IMHO

RunnerGirl78 · #**128** (**permalink**) 11-25-2006, 03:50 PM

Sharon (akaivyleaf) - I couldn't agree with you more! I'm ALWAYS turning lights off in our house! I sometimes feel like all I do is follow my husband around, turning off lights. We just came back from a week at his parents' place, and suddenly I see where he gets it from! Like mother, like son I guess...

My cheap (and embarrasing) frugal list would have to be:
1) I love tea, and when I go out to a restaurant and they give you two bags for one cup, I always use only one and bring the other bag home.
2) We're true Sunday Costo grazers...we'll walk through there on a Sunday and sample all the free food!
3) My husband hasn't had a "real" haircut in years - I've been cutting it since we got married!

Ima saver · #**129** (**permalink**) 11-26-2006, 08:33 AM

I walk around at the job site turning off all the lights. We have a lady painter that turns them on all over the house. The elec. bill was higher at the spec house than our own pesonal house and the spec house has no appliances, tv's,etc.

aurielle · #**130** (**permalink**) 11-26-2006, 05:22 PM

Around eleven years ago, I went through a very hard time in my life and I ended up 'homeless' for a short time. I stayed with a lady for 3 weeks who lived in a house that had broken out windows and no running water, 3 HUGE dogs and what seemed like about 25 cats. She was no bag lady, she was a nurse and was saving money like crazy to buy a house. I don't remember what her rent was, but it was something like $100/month. She bought bottled water for drinking and collected free water from somewhere ( I don't remember where) for bathing and toilet flushing. She bathed in a big galvanized tub in the back yard. (We were out in the country and it was summertime) We also followed the rule "if its yellow, let it mellow if its brown flush it down rule, because of no running water. We would just pour a bit of bleach in the toilet regularly. I didn't bathe in the tub outside, I was a member of a club which happened to have a shower in one of the bathrooms in the clubhouse and the manager was a kindly fellow who let me shower if I came in early, it was our big secret. I found a job and a room to rent after three weeks, and shortly after that the nurse bought her house.

Ima saver · #**131** (**permalink**) 11-27-2006, 09:24 AM

Boy, you did have it rough. I have never been homeless.

aurielle · #**132** (**permalink**) 11-27-2006, 12:38 PM

It wasn't so bad, I basically just slept there at night. I had a car and I drove into town every day for job hunting, visiting friends, etc and came back late at night. It was only for three weeks and I never had to sleep in my car or anything.

Ima saver · #**133** (**permalink**) 11-27-2006, 02:17 PM

I am glad she was there to help you out and the sitution did not last too long.

pretty cheap jewelry · #**134** (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 07:23 PM

Not at all weird to me but I know others will freak:

I bought my wedding dress at the thrift store. I LOVED it! It was the whole 9 yards, lace, long train, beaded, etc.

Many have a very narrow idea of what they must have for their wedding. Well , I just love almost ALL the dresses! So instead of paying a fortune for something I'd wear one day, I paid a little for something I loved and would wear one day!

The ladies were so nice to me at the store that day. They gave it to me at 1/2 off HA. Instead of $200, it was $100.

Beautiful and if anyone wants a picture, let me know!

It was so nice to recycle and give to a worthy cause (it was run by a charity) and gave me loads more money to use on other parts of the wedding and honeymoon!

tinapbeana · #**135** (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 07:36 PM

can't believe i'm posting this! a couple of years ago i was living with an SO and we broke up. i didn't have cash available to move out and get a place of my own, so i slept on a twin sized mattress in the dining room for a month. ugh...

pretty cheap jewelry · #**136** (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 07:38 PM

sorry what is an SO? (sloppy oaf?)

tinapbeana · #**137** (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pretty cheap jewelry

sorry what is an SO? (sloppy oaf?)

well, that too!

'significant other'

pretty cheap jewelry · #**138** (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 07:58 PM

oh ha ha sorry, I am new to this. Glad you are free now and go girl!

Kewells · #**139** (**permalink**) 01-29-2007, 03:39 AM

My husband makes fun of me but I wash and save Ziploc bags because I can't bear to think of them never biodegrading, and it saves too! He says I'm going to get trenchmouth, but I never reuse one's I've used on meat. Just the ones for snacks, like roasted soy beans and chips/pretzels. He doesn't know it, but the extra Portuguese rolls he bought for our porkroll egg and cheese breakfast this weekend, are nestled in the fridge in Ziploc bags that have been around the block a couple of times.

LuxLiving · #**140** (**permalink**) 01-29-2007, 05:45 AM

Upon leaving my first husband I moved back into the family home. I was all of about 19 years old - the house was empty because we had another home elsewhere that the family was living in about an hour away....so I moved in there and lived there for an entire summer w/no electricity, which also meant no air conditioning, which in my state meant it was Hotter Than H.E.doublehockeysticks. It was worth it to be away from him. The kitchen stove ran on propane and the tank was full so I had a way to cook.

My family to this day doesn't know I did without electricity - I was working but it took all my money to keep gas in the car and insurance on it and food in my mouth and some back for savings so I could move into a place of my own. I used a cooler for food and because I had a super nice boss and he let me get ice from my waitressing job to keep it stocked. After three months I had saved enough and did move into a fully civilized apartment w/all the essentials.

My folks didn't know because I always went to visit them and because they were living and working in another town they just never knew! Ahhh...the pride of youth that was too stubborn to ask for help!

Man, was it hot there! Some of these types of experiences helped forge that Scarlett O'Hara streak that runs in my viens, "I'll never be w/o electricity (and a well stocked Emergency Fund) again, no, nor any of mine!"

Because of the way that house was built, I was able to crawl out a window and onto the roof and spent many of those nights sleeping out on the roof where it was some cooler!