Extreme Money Saving things you have done!

walkie

I went to use a public toilet today for the cost of 20p

I was rummaging through my loose coins, pocket fluff and buttons, to finally stumble across the correct amount.

By the time I had finished fannying, a chap came out of one and held the door open for me!

Hey presto, free wee

Contains_Mild_Peril

Dan_Gliebitz wrote: »

I regularly find coins scattered around the house. My kids will buy something (usually sweets) for 95p or 97p, pay with a pound and leave the change in the bag or in their pockets. I can usually count on making at least £1 a week, best find was a fiver in a pair of jeans. I held on to that one for a couple of weeks to see if they noticed it was gone, but they didn't. I reckon "what the heck, I give them the money in the first place!"

If your kids can lose a fiver and not miss it then they have far too much money, but maybe they remembered they'd left it in their pocket and were just too embarrassed to say?
I often find small change in my DS's pockets when I put his washing in the machine.
When I'm really short of cash (especially if I want to go to a jumble sale or car boot sale) I will sometimes have a hunt down the back of the couch and in pockets of jackets I haven't worn for a while. Pockets sometimes turn up £1 coins, which I tend to put in my pocket rather than my purse after reclaiming my supermarket trolley deposit. Today I was looking for my keys which I'd misplaced and found £1.23 instead. I also often pick up small change I find in the street.
I will haggle over very small amounts at car boot sales etc, e.g. offering 30p for a 50p item.
I've also been known to take things from skips and bins, most recently a couple of rolls of wallpaper (still in their sealed packaging) to use for wrapping parcels.
I don't consider any of those things extreme. Extreme is when I spent about half an hour reconstructing an accidentally-machine-washed £1 book token which was a ball of mush when it came out the machine!

kizzykizzywizzy

My nan used to save the string off of the Sunday roast - yuk!!

louby_lou

I refuse to pay 90p - £1 for a bottle of coke zero every day at work (i know i should have water but its a little treat!) so when i get my tescos shopping delivered (with use of money off codes of course :rolleyes: !) i decant a bottle of diet cola (ranging from value to brand depending on how flush i am feeling!) and take it into work with me. I also buy a bar of chocolate at the weekend and break off a few bits and take them in a bag to work, as well as a few nuts as a cheap afternoon snack.

I will ALWAYS keep any receipts which may have points for collection if by some horror i should forget my points card. And always volunteer my card to the cardless person in front, or behind me in the queue if they consent! i find standing too close and waving it around in front of their face helps!

i wrap presents with magazine pages (free ones obv!) - if possible with images of things the person would be interested in - or for example - asda magazine xmas recipes as xmas wrapping paper!

i scour my office for things which people have discarded which i may find useful, and havent purchased my own stationary since i started my job!

actually i am a bit of a steptoe now i come to look at it - and theres so much more!

lovely to read the quirky things people do though - hope this thread has more replies! :T

jarrod1

when i was a nipper i used to go to the scrap yard and take all the fuses out of the cars, i would get 100's each visit, i would then sell them in the local paper

givememoney

Someone I used to work with would take his sons to school and discovered the other kids would throw money at each other, generally odd pennies. He would save them in a jar then take the missus out for a meal with the proceeds.

Mind you he had a row with his wife one day over lettuce. He maintained you could feed five people with three lettuce leaves if you chopped them up finely.

You can tell he was thrifty.

jago25_98

I know a guy who has been living in a standard sized VW T4 (smaller than a transit) for 2 years to save cash. Have you any idea how small those things are. It's unheated, uninsulated, pretty much just a bed!

I've been staying B+B's at £10/night for the last year half of the time and free accommodation with work half of the time. Don't think I can do it much longer though!

Such is housing.

zippybungle

hmmm, well............I've lied about my Kids age to get into places for free or at the cheaper rate

Smuggled our own drinks/sweets into places (such as the cinema/shows)

Split a 'big shop' into 3 seperate transactions - so that I can maximise coupon use

I am shameless at work for asking people for coupons/vouchers from their Newspapers - I guess this works both ways though, as I sometimes give them free papers/magazines if I have bought several of the same (due to good coupons)

Zippy x

FluffyFiFi

I decant wine into sports drink bottles so I don't have to pay the £4.00 a glass that they charge at our local sports club - it has a great club room and a drinks bottle doesn't look out of place. I have being known to do this when I go to a pub and we are outside. I hate it that I can buy a bottle of wine for the same price that they charge for one glass.

Primrose

When we were kids years ago in the summer holidays and you used to get 1P or 2p (old money!) deposits back on soft drink glass bottles, it was a favourite trick to collect all the bottles from outdoor vacated cafe tables in parks, etc. and hand them in at the counter to get the money. Then you would nick round the back where they stored the empties in crates and hand another lot back in.