What is the most moneysaving/stingy thing you do?

Gadfium

DominicH wrote: »

Indeed. And I tend to think that one's time and energy is very valuable. Too valuable to be squandered on thinking of ways to save 1p by making a teabag last twice as long.

Absolutely.
Your own time and energy has a value. A poor example: 20 years ago I did all my own DIY- internal walls in the house, painting/decorating, laying wood floors, installing showers and so on. Now I (certainly for the larger stuff) pay tradesmen to do it. Why? Because I now value my leisure time and holiday periods much more. My working life has changed drastically in 20 years and spending much-needed "down-time" doing DIY is not a good use of that valuable time.

DominicH wrote: »

But some people seem to think that economising means saving money, at any cost. It doesn't. It is a false economy to obsess down to the last penny. It's too much worry for too little gain. By all means count the pounds, or even the 50ps. Don't count the pennies. That way madness lies.

"Penny wise, pound foolish" comes to mind. By all means save money where-ever you can, as long as the big stuff is covered first. I'd rather save 5% of £5000 per annum, rather than 90% of £40....
Even if the "big stuff" has been covered, there's still limits to be drawn. I'd rather have a clean kitchen rather than one where the tea-bags are being hung out to dry. I've no intention of becoming a Mr Trebus just to save a few quid here and there.

I usually spend about £20 a week on coffee as I usually get though about 3/4 kilo of the stuff. I buy my coffee from an excellent local roaster. Sure, I could save, probably about £900 per year if I drank rubbish like Nescafe or ground coffee from Asda. So why don't I? Because I value the flavour of real coffee. I like experimenting with different roasts and coffees from different plantations. And at the end of the day, life is for living.

Gadfium

CCFC_80 wrote: »

If it's raining when I'm driving, I'll switch off my windscreen wipers whilst going under a bridge

Sir,
I like your thinking and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Buy a light-weight car and cut holes in the floor-pan. Then you can lift the car up and make like Fred Flintstone. After all, tyres are more expensive than shoe leather....:p.

steveo3002

i drive a older car that i paid for in full so no loans etc , do all the servicing and repairs myself

also try and use quidco when making any big spends , ive had over 1000 back from that

dondonmon

I always stop off at a corner shop to buy sweets and drinks on the way to the cinema/theatre rather than being ripped off at the venue.

suzukigirl2009

I pick up coins in the street and I 'womble'; basically this is picking up discarded receipts from other people - sometimes you get something, sometimes you don't; best find to date - 148 points for Sainsburys

sparrer

suzukigirl2009 wrote: »

I pick up coins in the street and I 'womble'; basically this is picking up discarded receipts from other people - sometimes you get something, sometimes you don't; best find to date - 148 points for Sainsburys

When someone in front of me at the checkout/filling station is asked if they have a points card and say no I always ask if I can have their points, and I've not been refused yet. It may seem trivial but in the last couple of years I've got a garden shed, furnishings (chandelier, bedding, a pair of rugs) for my bedroom and English Heritage membership. People scoff - until I tell them what I've 'earned'.

G6JPG

Boogiecat wrote: »

[]Some of my stingy ways:

[]
I save all the hanging-ribbons out of clothes, I do lots of sewing and they come in useful to make bows etc
I save all the buttons off worn-out clothes to re-use
Make all my own curtains and blinds, and cushion covers.

You're quite handy! Envy.

Melt leftover candlewax in a mince pie tray to make wax tarts.

Could you elucidate? Obviously, you mean to re-use the wax as candles (?), but a mince pie tray seems an odd shape for this.

If I see something I really want, check if I can get it cheaper on Ebay.

YAdefinitelyNA in that!

[]I am, however, rubbish at making the most of Tescos and other supermarket vouchers, and need to do better :rotfl:

Me too there. I hang onto them to use in the double-ups, but there's rarely anything I need (and certainly most of the "fun days out" and similar don't appeal to me), so I often do end up just using them against the shopping. I even (to my shame, on here) let a couple expire last year ...

G6JPG

DominicH wrote: »

Indeed. And I tend to think that one's time and energy is very valuable. Too valuable to be squandered on thinking of ways to save 1p by making a teabag last twice as long. It's really the opposite of Money Saving Expert thinking. There are more efficient ways to improve your lot.

But some people seem to think that economising means saving money, at any cost. It doesn't. It is a false economy to obsess down to the last penny. It's too much worry for too little gain. By all means count the pounds, or even the 50ps. Don't count the pennies. That way madness lies.

(I was waiting for the hordes of angry replies to those last two sentences! [Though as you'll see below I agree with them.])

I am inconsistent in my moneysaving - as, I suspect, most of use are if we'd only admit it. I'll spend time walking back to where I saw something cheaper in the supermarket, because I enjoy doing so: partly "teaching them a lesson" (and I'm sure that doesn't work), partly just it's a simple thing and I get some simple pleasure from it. But if I spent just a fraction of the time I spend doing that, across a year or even a quarter, moving my savings around between accounts (or even getting a Santander 123), I'd save - or make - a lot more: it's just that "playing with money" in that sense bores me rigid. Similarly, I'll drive slightly further than is economical (at 15p a mile or whatever) to get fuel a penny or two cheaper, though I'm controlling myself better on that recently (more, I must admit, because I'm beginning to value my time more than because I realise it's not economical).

I will spend ages on ebay saving (sometimes literally) pennies, because I find it satisfying so to do; however, if I ask myself if I really want/need the item I'm buying at all, I'm not necessarily honest with myself!

I do value my leisure time, so I pay others to, e. g., service my car. (I appreciate that I'm lucky to be in the position to do so.) Similarly, I eat out - though usually in McDonalds or Sainsburys, though I know I could save lots by cooking myself (I also buy in-theory-overpriced and almost certainly less healthy convenience foods/meals), because I find cooking boring.

I think if we're honest we all have things we could save on but don't, and other things where we spend more time on than the returns justify - in much the same way we all have different things we do consider worth while spending on whereas others would consider extravagant luxuries.

enthusiasticsaver

I am not sure about whether the things I do are stingy as I would interpret that as "mean" which I don't think I am. I always have my MSE head on though which means I think carefully before spending money on anything - and I mean anything. Today I bought some cake decorating ribbon for my son in law's birthday cake (he is 30 today). The blue ribbon was three times as much as some gold Christmas ribbon on sale( no Christmas pictures on it) so I bought the gold ribbon instead which saved me £2.50.
I never buy sandwiches for work lunches and always take leftovers from home or make sandwiches at home. I never throw away food and am constantly shopping around for good deals before I buy things.
I use a spending tracker on my phone to put details of any money spent and it really concentrates the mind and makes me keep to a budget.

LplateSaver

Things that I may be called stingy for:

*We buy about 3 months of cupboard food and toiletries when my staff discount goes up to 20% and combine with sale items - I don't know how much that saves.
*We go to the cinema every second month for free - 6 free tickets each for having a Lloyds account - saves about £60 because we only used to go when there was a deal on anyway.
*Buy cinema food at the supermarket - I don't know how much food costs at the cinema but I'm guessing this saves at least £5.
*Go to burgerking, order one sandwich first, then fill in their online survey, then go back up and order drinks, fries and free second sandwich - I think it worked out that we saved £4.
* Share Nexflix bill between me and a friend. We each have it in our houses.