Most outlandish frugal thing you did

[ScottO]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

LOL That's hilarious!

[TBH]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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!

[CJsoccerchic]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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

[cercis]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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]

Re: Most outlandish frugal thing you did

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!