What's the most frugal thing you have done?

[Green08]

living on air - now I've heard it all

Buddha Boy
needs
no toilet
no kitchen
rarararara

I like to live abit in frugalness. Use the toilet rolls as seed containers then pop them in the ground to grow.

I can't do frugal with Chocolate

 

[JackC]

Some water under the bridge now, but as a young lad working part-time in a supermarket I used to damage food items that I wanted & come back the following day to purchase them out of the knock-down basket for a fraction of it's normal price.

 

[helicart]

Gawd, this thread is doing my head in.....Just had a shower, which is where I usually clean teeth and floss.....and lo and behold, there I am re-using yesterday's piece of floss... :bite:

 

[Naked shorts]

.Just had a shower,

With no single malt!?

 

[bluelabel]

My wife saves us bundles, she never misses a sale!

But seriously i had an aunty who used to by 2 ply toilet paper, split the roll and get 2 rolls of TP out of one roll. needless to say we never had christmas at her place.

:bier:

blue

 

[Bolle]

Bought Allen Carr's book about stopping smoking. Cost - $40 hardback. Has so far saved me over $20,000 and will continue to save me money every day for the rest of my (much-longer) life...

Bought small brick villa-unit instead of large sprawling weatherboard house. Cheaper to maintain, cheaper to heat/cool, and cleaning up takes about 2 seconds.

Get rid of second car, just share the one. We both get more exercise and save HEAPS of money on maintenance/fuel etc. Not to mention that if i have to walk to the shop for something, i think twice about whether i need it or not. Spouse often rides bike to work, and we can put baby in pram and walk places.

Grow as many veg and herbs as you can. Herbs will grow in even the most useless soils, they're really tough. Your food tastes better, your health improves, cheaper than dry dead herbs at Coles.

Shop at Aldi.

Learn to do anything you can for yourself, instead of paying someone. I'm all in favour of getting lawyers and accountants to do the nitty gritty stuff, but i'm not paying someone else to paint my bathroom or mow my lawn or reupholster dining chairs if i can do it myself.

In short, live 'small', walk everywhere, and eat fresh food. Nothing new really, Europeans have been doing it for centuries.

Sell the tumble dryer and buy a clothes rack instead.

 

[Glen48]

My ex wife would tear up old rags to save money buying Tampons... we lost about 2 Million $

 

[kenny]

Sounds economical! Are you as mad as a cut snake?

Of course not, Gumby! If he was mad, it would be even more economical as there would be someone humming inside his head for him.

Cheers,

Kenny

 

[glads262]

When the tins of whole peeled tomatoes at coles are on sale I stock up. Typically they only have the brands with pictures on them that cost around $1.50+, but sometimes they have the plain homebrand or savings brand. Recently they had it for 79c so I stocked up.
My best memory was when they were 30c around a year ago so I learnt some awesome things to cook with bulk tinned tomatoes.

I wait until the 18 packs of kleenix cottenelle are on sale for under 50c a roll, then I buy a few packs. By the time I've run out of them there's another sale. I may be stingy at groceries but i'm not gonna wipe my a*s with crap!

hell, I thought I was the only one!!! When the diced tomatoes came out at 20c, I bought about 60. Coconut cream was also 20c, got about 60 too. Didn't buy any for about 3 months. I reckon that has saved me a hundred bucks.

I also do this with, toilet paper, Cheese, toiletaries(especially shampoo/cond), cereals, basically anything that lasts.

I would estimate that I would save about $2000/year. All it means is buying in bulk when something is on special.

People (including my wife) give me crap about it, but I don't see them going on a ski trip once a year at a cost of about $3000.(accomodation paid for)

 

[helicart]

When in India, Nepal, and Bhutan (teaching Tibetan refugees advanced first aid and english), I didn't use any toilet paper at all for long periods....

helps to have a bar of triclosan based soap though...

 

[ColB]

Originally posted by Jack C

Some water under the bridge now, but as a young lad working part-time in a supermarket I used to damage food items that I wanted & come back the following day to purchase them out of the knock-down basket for a fraction of it's normal price.

Nice one Jack! When I was a teenager working in a supermarket I couldn't wait until the next day so I used to eat Yoghurt in the coolroom out the back.

Who is the most dishonest though?

 

[stl_08]

You got to squeeze every penny, I got this suit cheap because some guy died in it, and see those girls they use to be men

 

[Julia]

Sell the tumble dryer and buy a clothes rack instead.

No, never. Giving towels, nightwear ten minutes in hot dryer before a shower costs peanuts and is lovely on a cold night.

I'd hate to be so obsessed with saving money that I couldn't enjoy small luxuries.

 

[JackC]

Nice one Jack! When I was a teenager working in a supermarket I couldn't wait until the next day so I used to eat Yoghurt in the coolroom out the back.

Who is the most dishonest though?

I wouldn't like to say, but obviously I wouldn't do anything this dishonest now I have matured!
I did get fired from a rival supermarket one time (yes - just the one time!) after getting caught eating the pick & mix lollies. Management made out like I'd stolen the 'Queens Jewels' & really couldn't see the funny side - unlike me

 

[prgudula]

thought of sharing more Frugality ideas and website dedicated for it

Frugality and Simplicity are in! And they are GREEN

http://greenlivingaustralia.com.au/frugal.html

 

[JTLP]

If we were living in Europe we could all weigh just one piece of fruit, put a sticker on the bag and then fill it with more fruit post weighing (this saved me a lot of money whilst travelling).

Other frugal things? I take the Night Rider (Melb) home from the city. Journey is about 20 mins, can use the same ticket I bought going into the city, and you get to see a lot of colourful characters on the bus :

Something else I like to do is when I come home from work/nights out/sport etc I just empty whatever loose change is in my pockets/wallet and throw it all in a big bin. You'd be amazed at the amount you end up with when the bin is full!

 

[lionfish]

Grow my own vegies. I haven't purchased salad greens in 8 years!

I also make my own yoghurt for about 30 cents a kilogram versus the $3.50-$4 at the supermarket.

Or this one for the hard core frugals: your local take away Indian curry can be heavily diluted with milk/cream. We can get three great meals from two tubs of curry without any loss of flavour!

 

[Smurf1976]

I wouldn't call myself frugal as such, but I've always tended to seek out value as opposed to something that is merely cheap.

Main thing is I tend to buy reasonable quality, look after it properly and keep it until it's worn out. Appliances, furniture, cars and so on. I don't go for luxury, but I always try to buy things that are well designed, well built and likely to last. And, within reason, I maintain them properly too.

This approach seems to be working well financially so far and avoids a lot of hassle with cheap goods breaking down etc.

Using the same logic, I don't bother with 5 star hotel rooms or first class travel. If I'm going on holidays then I'm not going there for the flight and to sit in a room all day so I'm not going to spend too much on those things. But if some local attraction charges $150 to get in then I'll just pay up and consider it part of the cost of the holiday.

Same as I generally don't wear expensive clothes. I'm at home today and about to do some gardening - I just don't need the latest fashions to do that so my $25 jeans and $15 jumper will be fine.

And I certainly don't buy ridiculously over priced junk food. Either I'll eat at home or go somewhere that actually serves something decent. I'm not paying $20 for a few lumps of sugar and trans fats shoved in a paper bag that's for sure.

Nor am I paying $2 for a litre of water when there's 80,000 litres of the stuff running off the house roof for free every year, there's a creek over the back fence and the mains supply is neither metered nor restricted. Paying for water in that context would be quite simply very poor value.

 

[Timmy]

Whenever I give my thoughts on something I restrict it to just 2 cents worth.

 

[awg]

biggest saver: depreciation on motor vehicles

especially if you have multiple drivers in the family and dont put them in a company.

over a lifetime, the amounts are huge. I buy 3yrs or older.

still on vehicles, I am a fanatically light braker, pads and discs last an eternity when I am the driver. (this could be a whole new thread!)

most frugal?..I shop at Bi-Lo, whilst there, I buy $1 no-name choc bics.
my teenagers do not like them and wont eat them.
this means, I am able to enjoy a biscuit with my coffee, so i save double
(they taste ok to me..scotch finger, with choc top)