What is the most moneysaving/stingy thing you do?

Gadfium

I LOL'd at some of these posts. Yes, some of them in tongue in cheek, but realistically, how much money do you really expect to save per year by re-using teabags and this years Christmas wrapping paper?
480 teabags costs £5.50 in Asda. If you made 10 cups of tea every single day of the year and used each bag twice, then you have saved the princely sum of £20.91. Or 40 pence per week. :undecided

Sod that for a game of tin soldiers....

ajr77

jack_pott wrote: »

I stick the last sliver of a bar of soap onto the side of the new bar.

JohnRo wrote: »

Cutting dishwasher tablets in half.

We do those too (and I also do it with washing tablets).

Also upending almost-finished shower gel/shampoo/washing up liquid/similar and put on top of the new-bottle-with-the-lid-off until the last bit of the old has drained out into the new. Sometimes overnight if necessary.

DiamondLil

Gadfium wrote: »

I LOL'd at some of these posts. Yes, some of them in tongue in cheek, but realistically, how much money do you really expect to save per year by re-using teabags and this years Christmas wrapping paper?
480 teabags costs £5.50 in Asda. If you made 10 cups of tea every single day of the year and used each bag twice, then you have saved the princely sum of £20.91. Or 40 pence per week. :undecided

Sod that for a game of tin soldiers....

Loose tea is so much nicer than tea bags anyway; and, of course, much cheaper too.

TCA

ajr77 wrote: »

Also upending almost-finished shower gel/shampoo/washing up liquid/similar and put on top of the new-bottle-with-the-lid-off until the last bit of the old has drained out into the new. Sometimes overnight if necessary.

LOL. That sounds like a spillage in the making. I'll stick to putting a bit of water in and shaking!

sparrer

Gadfium wrote: »

I LOL'd at some of these posts. Yes, some of them in tongue in cheek, but realistically, how much money do you really expect to save per year by re-using teabags and this years Christmas wrapping paper?
480 teabags costs £5.50 in Asda. If you made 10 cups of tea every single day of the year and used each bag twice, then you have saved the princely sum of £20.91. Or 40 pence per week. :undecided

Sod that for a game of tin soldiers....

I do understand that there are people who don't need to make savings and/or don't live on the breadline, but none of mine are tongue-in-cheek. Thanks to my stingy money-saving throughout the year, including re-using teabags sometimes getting three cups of tea from one and diluting full fat milk with 50% water, I manage to go on holiday twice a year. I would never be able to afford it otherwise. Putting my stinginess into perspective £20.91 pence more than pays the travel insurance for both holidays. I'm more than happy with that

uncle_nick

Last haircut was 1987.... my trousers had their 30th birthday in October... and who needs tea or coffee ?
For serious saving - do all the labour on house renovation !
- Dismantling the old roof [to burn in the 2nd hand stove]
- digging out under the rotten floors & demolishing rotten walls; then 2 days grinding a key into remaining walls for sticking new insulated plasterboard
- barrowing unwanted topsoil & manure from next village for the garden
- haggle for materials at reclaim yards when not haggling at the builders' merchant
- build new stud walls yourself; do all the evil insulation-stuffing into wall & ceiling [don't completely skimp on facemask]
- take all the debris to various local tips - buy useful stuff from the crew at the tip [so far: fridge, fireguard & log basket, armoured cable, tools, dog towels, chairs, mower, silk rug, books]
- labour for the proper builders & service their tools overnight
.... and the remortgage valuation will explain exactly why your back is so sore !

AmyandArthur

Hi - apologies for butting in. I rarely post on MSE, but have loved reading this thread. I actually didn't realise that Mr A&A and I are stingy as such, but reading this I think we are. I have to confess we are quite comfortably off, and not needing to save money. But I guess our early days when we were skint embedded 'careful' habits that have stuck.

For instance, we too cut the top off every single tube to scrape the remains out, we always use tea bags twice, up-end bottles (shampoo, softener, washing up liquid etc) to let the dregs drain for 'one more go' etc. I dilute all clothes washing liquid and softener by splitting in half with the bottle that's been emptied. Out of necessity (ie skint) we DIY renovated one flat and two houses (back to brick and joists jobs, all of them), and managed to become mortgage-free as a result by the time we were 40. As the poster above says, the savings on labour were astronomical. Some others that we do out of habit is to re-use the clear fruit & veg plastic bags from supermarkets for bathroom bin liners, and charity bags for kitchen bin liners. We have a now-ancient set of Wahl hair clippers and I've cut my husband's hair with them for the last 20 years (luckily he still likes the same style, number 2 all over!). We always take our own drinks to the cinema. We buy sundry genuine car parts online in bulk (wiper blades, air filters, brake pads, oil etc) and instruct the garage to use them rather than supply their own when carrying out an MOT/service. I water all the household plants with the tumble drier condensed water - I only use the tumble once a fortnight, but it's enough water to keep them all going for two weeks, and they seem to like it. My husband will haggle with anyone (to my utter embarrassment sometimes), but in his mind even £1 saved is a quid back in his pocket. I will often call up an online trader and haggle over postage - it often works. We save loose change obsessively - we started doing that when we were skint 20 odd years ago and the habit stuck. We empty all purses, bags, pockets etc every week and set aside everything except 50ps and £1s. I never, ever succumb to trying to squeeze the last drop of petrol into the tank to 'round it up'. I'm not sure what that achieves, but I'd rather drive more frugally and put that 3p or 4p in my change pot. I will always bulk buy anything on offer if it's something I actually use. Then there are the obvious ones like switching off lights - if we're not in a room, the light goes off. We keep the heating down and never ever have it on between 10pm and 7am. When we renovated this house we over-insulated it, all ceilings, between floors, walls etc and it pays off because our heating bills are really quite low for a four bedroomed house.


I am sure there are more, but they're so ingrained I have probably overlooked them.

lynnejk

Gadfium wrote: »

I LOL'd at some of these posts. Yes, some of them in tongue in cheek, but realistically, how much money do you really expect to save per year by re-using teabags and this years Christmas wrapping paper?
480 teabags costs £5.50 in Asda. If you made 10 cups of tea every single day of the year and used each bag twice, then you have saved the princely sum of £20.91. Or 40 pence per week. :undecided

Sod that for a game of tin soldiers....

I rather think you are missing the point Gadfium - the challenge on here is to save money. I re-use my T-bags and if that's what I save it pays for 2 months car tax :j


I do most of already mentioned

• I also dilute everything like washing-up liquid and hand wash.
• Re-use any plastic bag for rubbish
• Never, never cook one meal. Always cook at least 2 or 3 and freeze the rest. Saves time, waste and leccy.
• Freeze everything in a plastic bag, then in a box (to get a stackable shape, and then can re-use the box.
• Turn off everything you are not using all the time to save leccy - standby costs money
• If you use a laptop - PLUG IT INTO MAINS. It's cheaper than using the battery and then having to recharge it.
• Also put lap-tops on 'sleep' if leaving for a break as it's cheaper
• Check your bills before leaving the shop - they often make mistakes especially on discounted/YS/multi-buys
• Take a list when you shop and stick to it - then you don't get tempted and you don't forget something which can lead to another shopping trip where you might get tempted again.
• If you have to shop for a couple of items - don't get a trolley or basket then you are limited to what you can carry
• Check your bank statements/credit cards weekly on-line
• Make sure all your money is making money - either using cash-back sites and cards or earning interest.

Just a few things to think on ' I SAVING MY MONEY'

Lx

Gadfium

lynnejk wrote: »

• Never, never cook one meal. Always cook at least 2 or 3 and freeze the rest. Saves time, waste and leccy.

Not really. You are using energy to heat the food up, and then more energy to freeze it (freezers are notoriously inefficient). And then more energy to defrost it and re-heat.
I save on energy by eating all my food raw. Washing is always done in cold water (central heating is for wimps). I urinate into plastic bags, seal them and then stuff the bags into my clothes....no point in all that waste heat going down the toilet, is there?
:rotfl::D:D:D:D

Primrose

Gadfium wrote: »

[/B]
Not really. You are using energy to heat the food up, and then more energy to freeze it (freezers are notoriously inefficient). And then more energy to defrost it and re-heat.
I save on energy by eating all my food raw. Washing is always done in cold water (central heating is for wimps). I urinate into plastic bags, seal them and then stuff the bags into my clothes....no point in all that waste heat going down the toilet, is there?
:rotfl::D:D:D:D

I think April Fools Day has come early this year !