Any "embarrassing" money saving things you do?

VfM4meplse

Ilona wrote: »

I was told to eat it like that, it's called acting.

I think you should insist on being yourself, that piece of acting is not consistent with your ethos and did you no favours. It suggested greed and not thrift.

Mr.Generous

can I just clear something up? Is TV not real life? I thought Eastenders was a documentary? Your telling me they do stuff slightly differently for the entertainment of the viewers??

Thread needs to return to topic ....

I take a pencil or two from Screwfix when I fill in an order ...
I worked in retail for years and take a very dim view of theft, but we all have our own moral boundaries and limits I guess.
I would re-use un-franked stamps if I could be bothered to look for them, and if I posted stuff more than very occasionally.
Funny how I don't consider that theft.
I am honest with insurance and tell the truth on policies, yet loads of people who consider themselves very law abiding will lie for quote (car is garaged every night, not used for business etc) and claim for extra stuff if they get chance. Its where you draw the line.
If I was starving hungry I'd probably think about nicking food before I thought about begging. Probably says something about me.
Mind you I could do with loosing a few lbs ....

Pollycat

Mr.Generous wrote: »

can I just clear something up? Is TV not real life? I thought Eastenders was a documentary? Your telling me they do stuff slightly differently for the entertainment of the viewers??

Thread needs to return to topic ....

I take a pencil or two from Screwfix when I fill in an order ...
I worked in retail for years and take a very dim view of theft, but we all have our own moral boundaries and limits I guess.
I would re-use un-franked stamps if I could be bothered to look for them, and if I posted stuff more than very occasionally.
Funny how I don't consider that theft.
I am honest with insurance and tell the truth on policies, yet loads of people who consider themselves very law abiding will lie for quote (car is garaged every night, not used for business etc) and claim for extra stuff if they get chance. Its where you draw the line.
If I was starving hungry I'd probably think about nicking food before I thought about begging. Probably says something about me.
Mind you I could do with loosing a few lbs ....

But it doesn't matter what you consider to be theft.
It's what the company considers it to be.

This link refers to it as a 'fraudulent act'.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5400999/Royal-Mail-launches-tamper-proof-stamp.html

Strictly speaking, it is illegal to re-use a stamp in the UK because stamped mail is protected by the crown.

moneyistooshorttomention

My boundaries re stamps are that if I stick a stamp I have bought on an envelope and dont send that envelope after all for whatever reason - then I've paid for the stamp and it hasnt been used yet = then I will remove it and use it on a letter I actually do send.

But if someone has already used the stamp - then it's been "spent" and its only possible use is to give to stamp collectors for their collection.

Sometimes things can go a bit "grey" re work items generally (eg phonecalls/photocopying/etc) and that is when an employer has cut the pay the employee receives. Be that a physical cut of "This month I will pay you your salary - but next month I've decided to impose a paycut on you and you will only receive 90% of your salary" or the employee isnt receiving annual inflation rises that match the rate of inflation. At that point - I wouldnt condemn anyone for trying to redress the balance a bit and find a way to reclaim the "stolen by employer" part of their salary. If their employer had kept their salary at the same level and been giving them proper annual inflation rises that matched inflation - then I would condemn. That sort of thing is where the "shades of grey" come into things.

It's the difference between "making good an imposed loss (ie theft by another name)" on the one hand OR "stealing from some organisation that hasnt imposed a loss (ie theft) on you" on the other hand iyswim.

There are a lot of "shades of grey" in our society and re-using stamps isnt one of them (that is a "black and white" issue) but "making good a theft" isnt. Then we go into firms/individual people that try to overcharge for things - and that's a form of theft too (right now I'm thinking of a person I know of that tries to charge a rate of £120 per hour!!! for unskilled work by doing some "fancy fiddling" with the figures to try and hide what they're up to).

This could be a long discussion for Discussion Time sub-forum.....

WeeMidgie

I saved the transparent ziplock type bag which my grapes came in, washed and dried it, and have put it with my travel gear. It's plenty big enough to take my toothbrush, toothpaste, & other toiletries through airport security, and the grape logo just adds a certain je ne sais quoi. I don't fly often, it is always long haul (to visit family down under), and freshening up en route is essential, to stay feeling human and reasonably fresh.

mcculloch29

I remember seeing a post on a completely different online forum from someone who happily admitted to rifling through the used batteries recycling buckets/boxes in supermarkets for rechargeable batteries. Apparently some are usually put in there by accident.

Now, I wouldn't do that myself, but is it theft? My first reaction was that it was.
However, the batteries are of different types and rechargeables may not be recycled in the same way, so they person taking them out could be doing the recyclers a favour.
I use rechargeables, I know for a fact my son had thrown some of them out for recycling in the past, as one brand were a different design to the ones I normally use and he hadn't realised.

moneyistooshorttomention

mcculloch29 wrote: »

I remember seeing a post on a completely different online forum from someone who happily admitted to rifling through the used batteries recycling buckets/boxes in supermarkets for rechargeable batteries. Apparently some are usually put in there by accident.

Now, I wouldn't do that myself, but is it theft? My first reaction was that it was.
However, the batteries are of different types and rechargeables may not be recycled in the same way, so they person taking them out could be doing the recyclers a favour.
I use rechargeables, I know for a fact my son had thrown some of them out for recycling in the past, as one brand were a different design to the ones I normally use and he hadn't realised.

I get your point.

Personally - I would regard that as in the "grey area". As in those batteries were only thrown out by mistake (ie because they werent realised to be rechargeable).

There are a lot of "grey areas" on that one. For instance - if someone donated some goods to charity (or a car boot sale) because they hadnt realised the value of them - then imo the charity/car bootsale buyer/etc have an obligation to tell the donee that what they thought was valueless goods was actually worth something and split the proceeds 50/50 (ie because the donee had owned the goods - but the buyer had realised the value of the goods). Therefore they were both due for 50% of the value.

I think that's fair enough because I help out with a voluntary group and we have decided to be scrupulous about asking donors if they realise the value of any "high value" items they donate to us and whether they wish to still donate them in view of that fact.

VfM4meplse

mcculloch29 wrote: »

I remember seeing a post on a completely different online forum from someone who happily admitted to rifling through the used batteries recycling buckets/boxes in supermarkets for rechargeable batteries. Apparently some are usually put in there by accident.

Now, I wouldn't do that myself, but is it theft? My first reaction was that it was.
However, the batteries are of different types and rechargeables may not be recycled in the same way, so they person taking them out could be doing the recyclers a favour.
I use rechargeables, I know for a fact my son had thrown some of them out for recycling in the past, as one brand were a different design to the ones I normally use and he hadn't realised.

I don't see it that way, to me it's the same as skip-diving! (Not that I indulge).

Ilona

Skip diving is not illegal if you ask the person who is paying for the removal of rubbish if you can take something out of it before it is collected. If I see a skip on someone's driveway when they are having a clear out I will look in it. I have had loads of things out of skips and I'm proud to have given things a second life rather than them go to landfill.

I am not embarrassed about any of my money saving tactics.
Ilona

Living_proof

Ilona wrote: »

Skip diving is not illegal if you ask the person who is paying for the removal of rubbish if you can take something out of it before it is collected. If I see a skip on someone's driveway when they are having a clear out I will look in it. I have had loads of things out of skips and I'm proud to have given things a second life rather than them go to landfill.

I am not embarrassed about any of my money saving tactics.
Ilona

We too ask if someone is throwing something out and we could use it on one of our projects - things like wood for constructing shed workbench, and a strip of worktop for the utility area in the garage. It seems crazy that so much goes to landfill which can be easily given another purpose. The battery situation is just wombling, no one is harmed and again, the item's life is being extended. If people were more thoughtful of what might be another's treasure by using Freecycle, then maybe it would cut down on fly-tipping which is a real problem round here.