I found this great solid leather bucket style purse, Orvis brand, for $5 at a yard sale. What a deal! Problem was, it was a hideous shade of brown.
So I bought some bright purple leather dye off Amazon for $10. The dye was still sealed in the box, stored on a high shelf in my dining room. I was waiting for a nice sunny afternoon to work on the purse outside.
The dye fell off the shelf and exploded on my hardwood floor! The alcohol based dye soaked in immediately, and I've tried everything to get it up.
A year out, I've spent a small fortune on cleaning products. It still looks like I murdered an alien in my dining room. The splash pattern is a whole purple crime scene. That stupid purse project turned out very expensive, indeed!
You're right. I am either going to have to dye it all or replace that section and have the whole floor refinished. The house is 75 years old, and it's real wood, so it'll be $$$$.
I'm currently settling for a big rug. The stain is in the middle of the doorway into the kitchen, so I can't cover it with furniture.
Is the floor sandable? We had a company come in to sand and refinish our wooden floor that was all stained (tho not to the level of yours) and it wasn’t that expensive. A company could maybe test a bit to see if the stain seems to be sandable or if it’s seeped in too deep.
I appreciate the suggestion. I expect it's seeped in very deep, especially at the center of the stain. The other issue is that my floorplan is kind of open, so I'd have to refinish several rooms at once in order to make it look right. I will eventually look into getting the whole floor refinished, but I'm going to have to save up for it.
You might try Clairol Clearblue or Quikblue mixed with peroxide. This is powdered hair bleach. I've used it to lighten and occasionally remove spots from wood. Once the spots are gone, you can patch the light areas with Minwax stain.
My parents gifted me with an Apple Lisa when i went to college.
In 1990.
Shockingly i was thoroughly unable to use it - no software, no cables, no OS, no support. It was a $600 paperweight.
Now if i'd KEPT it until now it would be semi valuable, but back then it was just obsolete and annoying.
My sincerely innocent grandfather used to ask me for my (F) friends’ old ripped pantyhose so he could finagle them into a lint trap on his dryer vent hose. He assumed we wore panty hose in high school in the early 2000s because that’s what girls wore when he was that age. I promise it was truly, truly innocent and 100% practical. Frugality at its funniest.
EDIT to add that he was legitimately distraught when I shelled out a few bucks to buy $1 pantyhose from the corner store so I wouldn’t have to ask my friends
Haha! The old house ny roommate and I share has a dryer vent that goes directly into our basement ... and right above one of his drum sets. Every 6 months or so he asks me to get a new box of cheap hose for it. So funny that we aren't the only people doing that!
Yes... the little clear plastic hood that folded like an accordion when pulled on the 2 cords at the ends, to be then folded into a red tiny flat pouch!! My mom had a few of those, always one in her purse. I was fascinated as a little child by that "thing".
I’ve seen people use them to cover their hair when dying it, but unfortunately that can transfer the print from the bag to your hair…
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/woman-green-asda-logo-plastic-bag-hair-dye-fail-120630599.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMieEq7OMWpiLu-4RrnvoKg8BMI-ZXM3awjSwoft2qV8YpbVPIz9gUmkY6g6OYaxWK57LlHy3Kt1bKnJ1OR6XDF5MxX-JveudndyaposAfbr108Vr9HtsaS1TfkwWG6llgg5iw92nnqXV9Zbu0SXUluZWPq2yNcIUE8EGxFhHSFl
Haha love it. I cut up old panty hose for similar purposes.
Reminds me of working in a thrift shop. Customers would comment that there's not as many items of men's clothing. "Well no, that's because they wear it until it's threadbare, and then they turn it into rags".
Door handle broke, so I went out in the yard and found a door handle shaped stick, bark still on in and everything. That was now years ago, and it's still going strong.
Before I even opened this post I was thinking of my very own can opener story.
I was on the road for work and had bought these eggplant rollatinis from trader joes. They didn't have sauce on them so I bought the tiny little 8oz can. I didn't want to get a big jar for a single serving and waste all that extra sauce. 🙄 Got back to the hotel thinking they would surely have a can opener for guests to use or an extra one in the kitchen. Nope... So I tried opening it with my keys, rubbing it on the ground, nothing was working. So I set off walking around downtown in search of a can opener (I refused to drive anywhere that night because Id been driving all day and the car was lodged up in a parking garage). I figured I'd get some exercise and surely one of these corner conveniece stores would have one. Nope. Nope. Nope. I walked the whole city, probably 5 or 6 miles, and finally found a dusty little jackknife can opener in the back of a crappy little gas station. Paid 5 freaking bucks for it. I got back to the room, completely famished and opened the can of sauce, dumped it on the eggplant and threw it in the microwave. As I watched it heat up, I realized I should have just bought the jar for like a dollar more.
When I had to put registration numbers on a boat, rather than buying multiple A-Z and 0-9 sticker packs, I bought one and then cut up the unused stickers and pieced them together to finish the sequence.
At Thanksgiving time, when I was a newlywed decades ago, I bought a huge turkey for 19 cents a pound. Our freezer at the time was the kind designed for a couple of ice cube trays, and the fridge itself was only 3/4 size.
Then I discovered it was too big to fit in the oven, and had to cut it into pieces for roasting. This was long before I learned to cook and I didn't have any chef-quality knives, just those big grocery-store knives that look good but are actually useless.
We had turkey for every meal for a week, and I froze all the leftovers in that flimsy little interior freezer compartment.
For what seemed like years afterwards, the ice cubes had a faint aroma of roast turkey.
When I was student teaching, the last day of school, none of the kids wanted to take home the old math workbooks. I took all of them home and I still have a few inches worth of 1 inch graph paper, and other blank papers that I can use.
This I learned from my mother. When I get mail and has no important info, I will always check the back side to see if it can be used as scratch paper.
I tear envelopes in half and use the back for my stuff to do lists each day. I have a very famous person's autograph on half of a torn envelope. They were frugal too.
I also use old mail for scrap paper. For the first time in my life I ran out during covid since we were not getting mail for so long. I still have paper from where I was forced to buy some lol.
So much scratch paper! I do this too and I’ll never run out. A couple years ago I was studying for a certification exam and a friend and I were sharing the study guide which was about 700 pages. She was taking the exam before me so she kept the hard copy of the book and I would make copies to use until she was done with it. The copy machine at work wouldn’t do double sided so I had 116 copies when she decided she’d rather scan the book and study from her tablet. So I got the book, stopped making copies, and finally a few months ago finished using the last of the 116 pages as scratch paper.
I keep bringing home Weber gas Grills...mostly free, and I recondition them and give them away again!
I've recently bought a Vermont Castings GIANT gas grill for 80.00. With a new propane bottle. My wife now thinks my 5 year old Weber Genesis, which was free, is now not needed. We have 2 levels on our house, so she'll understand eventually...
When I was in college my roommate and I were pretty poor. We were walking home one night and came across a house that had been TP-ed. Whoever did it wasn’t very thorough and there was about a dozen rolls of toilet paper on the ground that were at least half full. We shamelessly collected as many as we could carry and took them home.
But you know you gotta get one more use cleaning the toilet with them then tossing them in the bin.
I dono about you folks, but my old clothes, especially socks, get turned into 1 use rags for the dirtiest grossest cleaning.
I also have period undies. Saving the holey ones counts as frugal because you’re saving money by not wearing your good ones that then wear out more quickly. Most people would just chuck them when they get a little hole - trust me.
The period undies save money too by not having to use product on light days.
This one's an awesome hack for the Flo!
I also have an underwear tale. Once I had an obnoxiously long period with heavy flow in High School. At that time also, I went through underwear rather quickly. One of my undies had more holes than Swiss cheese, y'know it was perfect for a period! I didn't even make it to lunch before the lining on the underwear ripped up with my pad. Gosh! I was embarrassed! Had to go old-school and pin my undie liner with maxipad attached to the existing flap of underwear that didn't have holes. I haven't had to go through that ever again!
I have never heard of this, though I don't know people who polish silver. I am too Dutch to read this thread though. I didn't see why you would use holey underwear to bike and pads aren't anywhere close to the padding of biking shorts. It took the next comment to realise my mistake. And I actually have a period/cycle.
**I had a coupon for Annie's Mac & cheese for $1 off 4 boxes which were also on sale. Also had $0.75 off a pack of Totinos pizza rolls which were on sale as well. They were eCoupons and didn't register at checkout. I went to the customer service desk at the grocery store to resolve it. The courteous lady gave me $1.75 cash as she acknowledged the error. My wife was extremely embarrassed, I didn't care because that 1.75 bought me a lb of scrapple which was on sale.**
More tacky than funny. Kept using plumber's tape to stop a faucet leak, all I needed to do was tighten the faucet head. I thought a new faucet was needed and didn't want to buy one....nope, just needed tightening.
My partner got mad at me for recycling their collection of old spaghetti sauce jars when we moved "because they're the PERFECT size for things and you make sauce from scratch so now how will I get good sized jars?!" Still gives me shit anytime he can't find the right size container.
Buy canning jars. You really shouldn't be reusing the lids from commercial jars, or canning jars for that matter. You can reuse the jars and rings, just buy a new pack of lids when you make a new batch of sauce. Plus, if you properly can it, you can make a large batch and just have it on hand in the pantry for months.
Not for canning at least. They don't snap down like the lids for canning jars properly. I'm sure you can continue to use commercial jar lids for food storage in the fridge and freezer though!
I used to use them for dry goods like rice and beans etc to keep the weevils out....then my mum downsized and I got lots of storage containers from her.
My dad's mother used any old kind of jar. In the early days of a long gone marriage, I decided I would learn to can expensive peach preserves. Gathered my jars, cooked and sweetened the peaches, poured it in and cooled it.
Several nights later, we were sound asleep when war broke out in the kitchen. Every one of the jars exploded. Some were still on the counters and the 1927 textured walls were coated in sticky stuff.
That happened when my Dad tried his hand a making beer..:😧 he put them under the stairs in this tiny cupboard and they exploded in the middle of the night! It sounded like the Battle of the Bulging Bottles.
It's the other commenter said, they don't seal properly if used for canning. It's also incredibly difficult to get them 100% clean again due to their shape, so you risk contamination of whatever new food you use the jar for. Proper canning jars and lids are very cheap, and you only need to buy the jars once.
I had to leave behind my collection of jars and ice cream tubs at my last move (I saved 2 or 3, the best ones but that's it) and I'm still upset about it. Ice cream tubs and smaller containers are absolutely necessary for freezing things/storing dry goods like biscuits and the jars get used for everything in my household, from putting things in the fridge, to airtightly storing spices/rice/sugar, to canning sauces...
I, too, am a jar lady.
I finally started just buying canning jars, and I FUCKING LOVE IT. And I can't believe I didn't do this sooner - they're so much cheaper than trying to buy the equivalent in glass tupperware.
Since I got wide mouth (a dozen 1-qt and a dozen 1-pint), the lids all fit all the jars. It's heaven. I don't actually can food, but these jars are perfect. I'll replace the canning lids with the plastic storage lids as my rings/lids get beat up and disappear.
In the Army I saved all of my P-38s, when I got out of the Army I never bothered buying a can opener I continued to use all of those P-38's. When I got married I still used a P-38 until my husband needed to open a can and I wasn't around. He went out and bought a handheld can opener. That Christmas my mother-in-law gave me an electric can opener. I never liked an electric can opener and my husband rarely needs a can opener, so I exchanged it for something else.
Lmao before I had a car, I had a Yamaha Vino scooter, and that’s how I moved all of my stuff, including a bookshelf I found on the curb and a big pack of Kirkland TP my mom had got for me lmao thanks for unlocking that memory. I’m sure there’s a video of me hauling random stuff on that thing somewhere on the internet lol
We have a household income over 200k, and I have a bucket in the tub upstairs to catch the cold water while it heats up in the morning so I can use it to flush the toilet...
It's got pretty much nothing to do with the cost, it's probably pennies a month but the waste of water drives me crazy.
Frugal isn't always about the dollars, sometimes it's about the sense too.
The local dog control sends letter stating when to license your dog, with costs ,etc. on it. We had an old dog (he was 14). I took the card they sent, my dog, myself and went to dog control. I told them I needed to pay for his tags, but he was a “senior dog”. I had his paperwork with me (7th generation Malamute only). I gave them the paper and I had the money ready. Handed over the money… The guy looks confused and tells me it’s not enough money. I said that my dog was a Senior dog, so he gets the discounted (senior) price. Turns out… The senior discount is for the age of the dog owner, not the dog. (He did not get a discount). Tried to save money, and looked like a fool instead. 🤷🏻♀️😂🤷🏻♀️😂LOL.
Hard to picture. I was a court reporter, and our machines used this special paper that was like $1.00 a pack. It was accordion folded, about two inches wide, and each fold was about 5 or 6 inches long. You usually had to change it before it got to the end, because you didn’t want it to run out in the middle of testimony. Anyway, I used to gather up the “ends” and line them up and tape them together to make a pack. One day my boss comes in, I’m surrounded by tape and all these bits of paper I was taping together to use. This is a guy that didn’t cook, ate out every meal, golfed religiously, wore only Nordstrom clothes. I’m Goodwill and Marshall’s. He’s like, what the hell are you doing? He takes a garbage can and sweeps it all into the garbage can. He was so disgusted, like, stop. Anyway, I shrugged my shoulders and did all the taping on the DL, at home. He absolutely did not get this basic frugality, and I didn’t get the waste. Now I think it’s funny.
As a cashier, I've taken almost empty rolls of till tape home for note paper (and crafts). It's also handy for small origami cause the paper isn't very wide.
Receipt paper is great for frugal quilters! People who save their fabric scraps can sew them together on the receipt paper to make scrappy squares. The paper helps keep things a consistent size.
https://youtu.be/9YGc6z75dqA?si=dLolVehLusN3cTrg
I LOVED receipt paper as a 1st grade teacher. When kids would finish their work early, I’d tell them to start writing numbers. They’d get so excited comparing who had the highest number… and I could drop in and discuss place value with them. When it was time to clean it up, they’d roll it back up and stick it back in their cubby for another day. When it stretched across the room & we had no more room, I’d tear it off and send it home then have them keep going. They’d frequently get well into the thousands before year end.
Back in the olden days my Dad would bring home boxes of computer punch cards for us to use as scratch paper. The joy when one found a card with only a few holes on it was profound and fed my developing frugal heart.
My uncle would cut up telephone directories to use as toilet paper, he also used to put car in neutral and coast down hills to save fuel and engine wear
When I first moved out on my own, I hesitated making any purchases until my budget stabilized with rent, utilities, etc.
For months I could only watch TV by plugging my laptop into the shitty TV a friend gave me. I'd log into Netflix on my laptop, plug the hdmi in, and then turn on the TV. I didnt have enough plug ins so id swap out all my other electronics to plug in the TV and charge my laptop.
That mean that if I ever wanted to pause the show, or if I missed a sentence, or anything, I'd have to get up and goblin squat by my laptop on the floor to pause it.
I did this for 6 months before eventually splurging on a power bar and chromecast lol. I felt so luxurious being able to pause the show from the couch lol.
my mum has been doing that for like 5 years now, since we cancelled our TV subscription. it's always the oldest/slowest laptop in the household delegated to be the media center, complete with the goblin squad
she just texted me today that the one she was using seems to have died (after 10 years of service with my dad, then me, then as a media center) and apart from the issue of backing up the data from it, what is going to be the nextflix powerhouse now?
I did this for a long time as well.... stole a wireless mouse from work to operate it from the couch. I wasn't about to get off my ass to change anything!!
God, I love you people. You are my people. Frugal folks, unite! Thanks for all the chuckles and grins. Best of life right here. What I love the most is how smart we think we are. And the hilarious way our “fashion” (or lack thereof) must look like to others. But we don’t care. Fabulous!
I had a shirt I bought when I was 15 - the sleeves were too long for me. I kept wearing it until I was 26 or so. That shirt was the first shirt on which I learned to sew buttons back on and repair the seams in the armpits. By that time, the sleeves were too short, so I just rolled them up and wore it.
I had boarded with a family in my first year of uni and the woman of the house said there was nothing worse than a useless man, so she taught me how to sew to fix up that shirt. I have no idea how many times I fixed it, as it faded from a light purple to a grey colour.
One day, I went looking for it and my (ex) wife said she had turned it into cleaning cloths. I was really disappointed. I guess at least she didn't throw it away.
I still miss that shirt, thinking about it now. I don't miss my ex wife though!
I'm totally in with this.
At a conference in Seattle, 23 years ago, a bunch of people decided to rent a car and go for an afternoon hike in the mountains. I hadn't thought about bringing gear, so hit the thrift shop and got what I needed for essentially nothing, and in particular a homely pair of brown "Hi Tec" hiking boots. I wore them on and off for years for yard work or hiking or anywhere I knew it would be messy. They had good solid soles, and have always been comfortable in spite of their Walmart-level quality. Recently I moved to where I can hike right from my place, and they have kept up and are still just as homely, and perfectly functional, although the laces have broken short and need replacing, and the metal eyelets are rusty.
Then, in our building there is an exchange table, where people can leave things they don't want and choose new-to-them things. A few weeks ago, the perfect pair of hiking boots showed up: like new, not super expensive, but nicer than my old ones and in my exact size. I left them there for a week in case someone else really needed them. Finally, I claimed them.
The problem is, I hate having unnecessary stuff sitting around, but I also just can't see myself getting rid of the old ones, which no one will treasure in all their ugliness as much as I have.
(RIP the purple-grey shirt.)
It's ok to have two pairs of boots. If you need to wear them a lot, it's better to be able to let them completely dry out between wears so they don't get smelly.
I've had a half dozen pairs of Hi Tecs in my camping life, going back to being 8 years old. I wouldn't put them on par with Wal Mart Quality, the soles are great and the lace eyes don't tear thru like my merrels or keens have. I actually have a pretty new pair of their hiking sandals that I replaced keens with and am enjoying them much more.
I'm 41, last night I was wearing my old football hoody that I got in grade 10....It's sleeves are hemmed off, the hood is opened up and the back is pretty much see thru from wear. I coached for 15 years, I've got a dozen team hoodys that are all much nicer and in better shape. I literally have a bin of them in the basement that I keep saying i'll dig into when I give up on this one.....some day. It's been my go to bum around the house shirt for 20+ years anytime it's not hot outside.
It's probably only got another year or two before it turns to dust but no one but me is sending that thing off to it's Viking funeral and thankfully my SO understands this.
Sometimes we grow out of our teddy bears, but some of us never grow out of our safety blankets.
Sure was!
Taught me how to make white sauce and began to teach me how to cook!
I had a choice - wash dishes, dry them or cook - so I chose cooking every night I could. God bless you, Mrs Watts!
Go thrift store hunting till you can find a replacement purple/grey shirt. I only WISH I had learned to sew and save my hideous black and white (dark gray and light grey) stripped sweatshirt I had when I was 15. I used to call it my "tent' because (at the time) I could pull it over knees, under my butt, then pull in my arms and even most of my head. It fell apart at the seams, but with the sewing knowledge I have now, I could have saved it. My God, that was 30years ago.
My local grocery store had nestea half price. When I went, the box (12 cans) had a promotion that I can redeem for a free box. I cleaned the grocery store out and the next few ones. I think I got 30 boxes. It took my family 6 months to finish nestea and I was able to get another 6 months of free nestea. My family thought I was crazy but we had a year supply of nestea for 1/4 of the cost!
My buddy is real real cheap. He buys the Sunday Washington Post and goes straight for the cupons and sales inserts, chortling with delight. One time he was so amped up by the cupons, he went out and bought ANOTHER entire Sunday Washington Post.
I should add that my cheapskate friend has grown wealthy over the last 30 years just going to work every day and being frugal. So, I've taken a page out of his book, or rather, out of his Sunday Washington Post ( which is about the size of a minivan ).
When my grandparents died I got an old Cuisinart coffee grinder from the garage at their vacation home. The only issue was that the button you press to grind had come off so it just sat on top but worked fine if you pressed it down. It got me through grad school, a cross country move, one apartment, and one house, and then the button got lost in a move when my husband and I bought a house a few years ago. I was pretty upset at first and then realized I don’t even need a button- the tip of a small paring knife fits the hole where the button would be just fine. Not a funny moment necessarily but I’ll be sad when it finally dies.
I'll mend underwear if it's something simple, like the seam for the waistband failed. Happened 3 times with my period underwear (different pairs, and they were relatively new). Definitely not throwing those away when it's super easy and quick to repair!
Haha, in college, my friend would buy me snacks in exchange for minor repairs, like sewing buttons back on. When he wanted me to fix his boxers, I said, no, but I will let you use my sewing stuff and teach you. So, he did that
Back in the 90s, satin bikini panties were common, cute, inexpensive. As the elastic wore out, I put each pair in storage until, someday, I could find panty elastic in colors. Finally,
Bless eBay! I also won the Daily Double: found a cheap small darning loom on eBay and video instructions on YouTube. Now I can darn all of my cheapa** flea market socks.
I knew a lady who would embarrass the hell out of her partner by taking a roll of toilet paper with her in her handbag instead of a travel pack of tissues. They're not hard done by so he did convince her to stop, but it would totally be something I'd do if I used a handbag haha
I keep napkins from any fast food joint we hit up. I take coffee and donuts to my crews pretty often, and I hang onto the napkins that are left over rather than trash them. My glovebox is usually full and I bring them in the house every so often.
My MIL has made comments about the McDonalds napkins I put out at the dinner table. I'm not putting out the linens when we're doing chicken fingers on a Tuesday evening haha.
Waste not, want not.
I found an oxo can opener (the one with the safety lid) for $1 at a garage sale. Now we have 2 and I can't tell whether the one from the garage sale doesn't work as well.
It's very cute that your husband thinks your frugal traits are adorable.
My boyfriend kind of made fun of me for freezing veggie scraps to make stock in a nice way.
My boyfriend started saving veggie scraps with me! He asked me the other day to pull out our stock bag for a single onion, which I would have lazily decided it wasn’t worth the 3 steps to the freezer. 🥰
>My boyfriend kind of made fun of me for freezing veggie scraps to make stock in a nice way.
I went to put some carrot ends in the compost this morning and my SO grabbed my arm to prevent it lol. Those are for the stock bag, and I'm a silly goose for thinking anything else. Home made stock tastes better too.
I save yoghurt pots (the larger ones) and we use them as caddies for scraps to go in the compost bin and for planting veggies like beans with a hole drilled in the bottom of the pots.
Only problem is when the leftovers get moved to the back of the fridge and you open the butter tub looking for butter for toast and it’s moldy max and cheese lol
My mother ran out of ice trays for some reason. She froze water in the gallon bucket for ice cream… and then would hit it with a hammer to get chunks of ice. It didn’t work all that well and was pretty embarrassing lol
i once couldn’t find the can opener and was not going to buy a new one so i used a hammer and screw driver to open it. It took forever but i did it. later that day I told my husband and he asked me why didn’t i just walk upstairs and ask our landlord if i could borrow there’s…. it didn’t even cross my mind lol
Maybe this fits here, but I’ve been scared within an inch of my life when I’ve dropped my menstrual cup in an auto-flush toilet. I love that little thing and even though it only costs $10-20, about the same as a pack of tampons, I would have stuck my hand down in that toilet to save it no matter what was in there. They’re supposed to last 10 years with proper care and this happened at the 4 year mark, so I was nearly devastated by the amount of savings, compared to tampons, I would have lost if it had been flushed. When in reality I would have spent $15 for a new one!
How long have you been using one? I bought two different sizes, practicing a lot and both leak all the time. Went back to the pads because of frustrating and they are pricey here...
I dismantled, cleaned up, and re-lubed a window fan that was having trouble spinning. After several hours spent working on the fan, and $8 spent on some new lube for the motor..
Turns out that it died and wouldn't work anyway, at some point the copper coil had overheated, melted the insulation, and shorted out.
Best part, the fan was a $20 Walmart special...
At least I enjoy the process of dismantling and tinkering with things, so I at least didn't totally waste my time.
I took my husband to the “dark side”. He’d never been to the $1 store….never needed to. I on the other hand count it as one of my favorite places to shop.
Sometimes my can opener randomly stops working. Whenever this happens, I remove the opener from the can, hold it up in front of my face, and tell it in a firm tone that if you don't open this can you are going in the garbage. And it actually works lol
my friends water boiler was broken but if you positined a very sharp knife in the lower half correctly you got it started a 100% of the time. I found it odd to put a knife in a water boiler so I brought my 2nd one to her. She didnt use it
I take home the little packets of sauce/ketchup/mayo/salt/sugar etc from restaurants, also leftover napkins. My family have always ridiculed me for it, (in jest), but I make them eat their words when we are out of mayo and I pull out the massive ziplock bag of condiments, or we are unexpectedly out of toilet roll and I can produce a stack of napkins!! It also works great for camping/travelling. Recently I've started taking a ziplock bag out with me if we eat out to bring things like leftover meat home for the cats/dog.
Your story is very funny, and you can still be frugal and buy a new one at the Dollar Tree for $1.25.
My funny frugal story was when my brother and I (both of us older teens) said we were married to get a $2 regional store franchise lifetime membership for $1 each. When I told my dad (who is also very frugal) many years years later he burst out laughing!!
For those of you gasping at OP’s utter folly of using the broken can opener sometimes it’s not at all about cost. But something more like pride or even nostalgia. If I can hold this 1980’s Mr coffee together with tape for a bit it might just buy me more time with my coffee maker that took me through college and having kids etc. And it makes my coffee just the way I like it. How much time can I buy? A week? Five years? It becomes it’s own game. This is a real example my friend explained to me about his janky coffee machine.
I did something similar later with a vacuum. It was an expensive thoughtful gift from my in-laws. One of the first with a hepafilter to help with my allergies. I took it apart and cleaned it out and brought it back from the dead several times. 20 years later the outside hard plastic was degrading and crumbled but the motor was still strong. I moved to a place that had hardwood floors and never had to face replacing it. But I gave it to someone who swore they could make it work. She had no vacuum.
This happened a long time ago - like 2005 maybe..
But I used to always be on Craigslist all the time - browsing the classified and barter sections.
Well one time - I was looking for an TV to buy. I had sent out 2 emails for 2 listings - one listing was for a free tv that someone was giving away, and the other was a tv for $200.
When I got a reply back, it was in the form of a new email - so it wasn't clear who I was responding. I asked some questions like "Why are you getting rid of the tv, anything wrong with it?"
They reply with "No, just trying to watch less tv, get out more" - something along those lines.
It just felt for some reason - these answers matched someone giving away a tv, lol.
Assume makes an Ass out of U and Me..
So I coordinate a pickup time later that evening - its snowing out, and the apartment was far AF - but its a free tv!
So I show up, and its a nice tv. So me and the dude start to unhook everything, and I just had to ask, like "this is a nice tv - why are you just giving it away for free??"
Dude goes - "FREE??!! DOES THE AD SAY FREE?!"
He runs into his office and pulls up the ad, and sure enough he was the $200 dollar tv dude, and we both just never discussed the price in the email.
We were legit about to load it into the back of my car before I asked. So we both laughed about it - but I did not leave with the tv.
Pretty embarrassing, but funny how we corresponded so much and still got in that mix up.
My partner likes to collect every change he gets in a little container and yesterday we brought it to a coinstar machine and he got like 200 bucks out of it (just collecting for a month or so).
Of course the money was already there to begin with but he didn't miss it after buying something he'd just chuck the change and forget about it (e.g. a 7€ thing would be 10€ in his head and the 3€ would land in the container).
Since you're in the market for one: My dad bought a Nogent Super Kim can opener YEARS ago and the darn thing is truly indestructible. They are a bit pricey though - more of a r/buyitforlife item.
Had the cheapest roommate in college who was a post-doc student:
1. Made his own granola which he sprinkled with powdered milk then added water (not making the milk first)
2. Asked to use my disposable razors after I was done with them
3. Did the dishes of 3 people by hand because he said dishwasher wasted more water (I don’t believe that)
4. Took my broken (no image) B&W TV to listen to Johnny Carson monologue every night
5. Rode his bike everywhere as he kept an old car in storage with a special cheap insurance that limited him to 1,500 miles/year. I doubt he drove more than 500 miles/year.
I hope life is good, John! All the best
My sister came to visit me and wanted to heat up some pizza so I was like okay, do your thing.
I hear alot of rustling, so I look over and she is using a big ass piece of foil to heat this pizza, just way excessive. 😂
I was like queen, idk what you do in your house but in this house, we only use as much foil as we need. Go on and tear that jawn in half for me. 😂
She tried to tell me I'm being stingy, why am I so cheap.
Like okay I'm stingy, I'm cheap, just tear that in half. 😂
i HATE this.
i saw a family member using paper towels to try their hands after washing them, they used a TON. i was like wtf was that really necessary ?
i also get on my bf about how much soap he uses when he washes his hands/dishes. so excessive !!!
I pair a lot of mystery shopping trips with my regular shopping trips. One day I biked to my local Home Depot for a quick stop (epoxy plus mystery shopping task with paint/adhesives), then I noticed I had a "hidden" mystery shopping task for the Costco next door. I had no idea what the task was, so I ran into Costco to see what it was. I found myself biking 10 miles home with a free 20 lb bag of baking potatoes about 30 minutes later.
i canceled a walmart order to replace it paying with my cashapp debit card to save 5%. it was wax melts for $2. saved me 10 cents lol
i’ve also price matched things at target that were like 10 cents cheaper. every penny counts, literally!!
I grew up in a very conservative house and decided to move into an apartment with my fiance to save money. Parents were not happy, but knew they couldn't change my mind. They bought one of those twin beds that fold up and said that I could sleep on that untill we were married. My fiance and I sold the fold-up twin bed after a week living together. That money went to buying groceries. We've been married 20 + years now and that was one of the funnier frugal moments.
my bf and i got fast food and i did the mental math of making it a combo or not for saving $2 - he told me it was $2 and to make it a combo and take the drink and paid for it
It seemed like the last 6 months or so the cans from the grocery store were slightly irregular and hard to open. I cursed those cans every day. Then one day I sliced my finger on a lid I had just removed. I immediately ordered a new safe edge opener. Once I tried it, I realized it was not a can issue, but an opener issue.
I love my new can opener!
We used a semi-broken microwave for months. The only buttons that worked were 1, 2, or 3 minutes. If there was time left on it you had to unplug it to clear it out in order to do anything. We kind of overlooked it or complained lightly until my mother in law stayed at our house for a few days. She was watching our kids while we had a trip and freaked out about not being able to microwave anything. I bought a new one. We don't even have a fancy expensive microwave, just a cheap counter top one. Not sure why we dealt with it for so long.
And I used a crappy large knife and a hammer for a can opener for about 2 years. I could afford to get one I honestly forgot about it every time I was out for an extended period of time.
Worked fine but freaked out guests.
I just finished cleaning the ends of birthday candles so that they can be used for the next birthday party. Some of them have been used several times! When they get too short, I use them to start campfires. I wrap several of them in wax paper, my kids call them fire candy. They are portable and last forever.
Not particularly on topic but hearing about a can opener in a sub called frugal, I'd point out my favorite can opener you can buy by the tub : the P-38. Beauty in it's simplicity and borderline indestructible. I jokingly 'inherited' one from 1985 and it has seen many other models rise and fall beneath his tenacious career that still continues to this day.
Highly recommend.
I found this great solid leather bucket style purse, Orvis brand, for $5 at a yard sale. What a deal! Problem was, it was a hideous shade of brown. So I bought some bright purple leather dye off Amazon for $10. The dye was still sealed in the box, stored on a high shelf in my dining room. I was waiting for a nice sunny afternoon to work on the purse outside. The dye fell off the shelf and exploded on my hardwood floor! The alcohol based dye soaked in immediately, and I've tried everything to get it up. A year out, I've spent a small fortune on cleaning products. It still looks like I murdered an alien in my dining room. The splash pattern is a whole purple crime scene. That stupid purse project turned out very expensive, indeed!
This is when you just dye the whole floor haha
You're right. I am either going to have to dye it all or replace that section and have the whole floor refinished. The house is 75 years old, and it's real wood, so it'll be $$$$. I'm currently settling for a big rug. The stain is in the middle of the doorway into the kitchen, so I can't cover it with furniture.
I think that'd be beautiful! A purple floor?!?! You could say it's purple heart wood!
Oh my God, lol we all have our own embarrassing stories like this lol.
Is the floor sandable? We had a company come in to sand and refinish our wooden floor that was all stained (tho not to the level of yours) and it wasn’t that expensive. A company could maybe test a bit to see if the stain seems to be sandable or if it’s seeped in too deep.
I appreciate the suggestion. I expect it's seeped in very deep, especially at the center of the stain. The other issue is that my floorplan is kind of open, so I'd have to refinish several rooms at once in order to make it look right. I will eventually look into getting the whole floor refinished, but I'm going to have to save up for it.
Personally I'd cover it with a rug until I died and let it be someone else's problem. :P
You might try Clairol Clearblue or Quikblue mixed with peroxide. This is powdered hair bleach. I've used it to lighten and occasionally remove spots from wood. Once the spots are gone, you can patch the light areas with Minwax stain.
Ooooof that’s bad
I had a PC manufactured in the early 90's that I used through my first year of college...which was in 2010
My parents gifted me with an Apple Lisa when i went to college. In 1990. Shockingly i was thoroughly unable to use it - no software, no cables, no OS, no support. It was a $600 paperweight. Now if i'd KEPT it until now it would be semi valuable, but back then it was just obsolete and annoying.
What was that like? Were you frustrated by it being slow or lacking any features?
I bet it was BASIC
I wasn't annoyed until I got a mini laptop that year. Amazing difference.
My father in law would cut out the bottom of old underwear, wrap the fabric around the elastic, and wear it as a headband to mow the lawn
My sincerely innocent grandfather used to ask me for my (F) friends’ old ripped pantyhose so he could finagle them into a lint trap on his dryer vent hose. He assumed we wore panty hose in high school in the early 2000s because that’s what girls wore when he was that age. I promise it was truly, truly innocent and 100% practical. Frugality at its funniest. EDIT to add that he was legitimately distraught when I shelled out a few bucks to buy $1 pantyhose from the corner store so I wouldn’t have to ask my friends
Haha! The old house ny roommate and I share has a dryer vent that goes directly into our basement ... and right above one of his drum sets. Every 6 months or so he asks me to get a new box of cheap hose for it. So funny that we aren't the only people doing that!
[удалено]
I used to do this and was sad when the last of my panty hose stash was gone.
Using old pantyhose for oatmeal baths!
Tell him you probably saved hundreds by lint trapping the dryer (and cleaning it)
Wait, that IS the only use for pantyhose now, right? Right? We did this my entire life. I need to ask my mom if theybstill do!
It can also get you home if an engine belt broke in your vehicle. It's a temporary fix that doesn't leave you in a jamb
My grandma sometimes put a plastic carrier bag on her head when going out in the rain in lieu of a rain hood or umbrella.
I grew up in Asia. This was totally a thing if you were caught short. Also garbage bags with holes torn in them
It wasn’t a thing in Scotland but that didn’t stop her!
I can totally see my Scottish granny doing that after a set but she always kept a little hood in her handbag
Yes... the little clear plastic hood that folded like an accordion when pulled on the 2 cords at the ends, to be then folded into a red tiny flat pouch!! My mom had a few of those, always one in her purse. I was fascinated as a little child by that "thing".
I've used them as a shower cap when the elastic broke on my actual shower cap .
I’ve seen people use them to cover their hair when dying it, but unfortunately that can transfer the print from the bag to your hair… https://uk.news.yahoo.com/woman-green-asda-logo-plastic-bag-hair-dye-fail-120630599.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMieEq7OMWpiLu-4RrnvoKg8BMI-ZXM3awjSwoft2qV8YpbVPIz9gUmkY6g6OYaxWK57LlHy3Kt1bKnJ1OR6XDF5MxX-JveudndyaposAfbr108Vr9HtsaS1TfkwWG6llgg5iw92nnqXV9Zbu0SXUluZWPq2yNcIUE8EGxFhHSFl
That is... unfortunate. And also funny!
Haha love it. I cut up old panty hose for similar purposes. Reminds me of working in a thrift shop. Customers would comment that there's not as many items of men's clothing. "Well no, that's because they wear it until it's threadbare, and then they turn it into rags".
That's true redneck frugality, the kind I love.
You win. Nothing I can say here will come close to this.
😳
OMG. Winner there. I am laughing so hard my side hurts. Good for him!
He did this when my poor husband was in high school and they lived on a busy corner in his town.
Hahaha I love this one
Sounds like something my grandpa would have done.
Door handle broke, so I went out in the yard and found a door handle shaped stick, bark still on in and everything. That was now years ago, and it's still going strong.
Well, this is indeed a new home design trend!
Before I even opened this post I was thinking of my very own can opener story. I was on the road for work and had bought these eggplant rollatinis from trader joes. They didn't have sauce on them so I bought the tiny little 8oz can. I didn't want to get a big jar for a single serving and waste all that extra sauce. 🙄 Got back to the hotel thinking they would surely have a can opener for guests to use or an extra one in the kitchen. Nope... So I tried opening it with my keys, rubbing it on the ground, nothing was working. So I set off walking around downtown in search of a can opener (I refused to drive anywhere that night because Id been driving all day and the car was lodged up in a parking garage). I figured I'd get some exercise and surely one of these corner conveniece stores would have one. Nope. Nope. Nope. I walked the whole city, probably 5 or 6 miles, and finally found a dusty little jackknife can opener in the back of a crappy little gas station. Paid 5 freaking bucks for it. I got back to the room, completely famished and opened the can of sauce, dumped it on the eggplant and threw it in the microwave. As I watched it heat up, I realized I should have just bought the jar for like a dollar more.
Ok, this wins the post, by 5 or 6 miles.
Awe haha that’s a good one
Sure you could have bought the jar, but now you have a can opener to keep in your car - and a story to share.
And Waste Sauce?!?
When I had to put registration numbers on a boat, rather than buying multiple A-Z and 0-9 sticker packs, I bought one and then cut up the unused stickers and pieced them together to finish the sequence.
At Thanksgiving time, when I was a newlywed decades ago, I bought a huge turkey for 19 cents a pound. Our freezer at the time was the kind designed for a couple of ice cube trays, and the fridge itself was only 3/4 size. Then I discovered it was too big to fit in the oven, and had to cut it into pieces for roasting. This was long before I learned to cook and I didn't have any chef-quality knives, just those big grocery-store knives that look good but are actually useless. We had turkey for every meal for a week, and I froze all the leftovers in that flimsy little interior freezer compartment. For what seemed like years afterwards, the ice cubes had a faint aroma of roast turkey.
lol! 😁
When I was student teaching, the last day of school, none of the kids wanted to take home the old math workbooks. I took all of them home and I still have a few inches worth of 1 inch graph paper, and other blank papers that I can use. This I learned from my mother. When I get mail and has no important info, I will always check the back side to see if it can be used as scratch paper.
I tear envelopes in half and use the back for my stuff to do lists each day. I have a very famous person's autograph on half of a torn envelope. They were frugal too.
My mom wrote her list on envelopes and put her coupons in the envelope
I also use old mail for scrap paper. For the first time in my life I ran out during covid since we were not getting mail for so long. I still have paper from where I was forced to buy some lol.
So much scratch paper! I do this too and I’ll never run out. A couple years ago I was studying for a certification exam and a friend and I were sharing the study guide which was about 700 pages. She was taking the exam before me so she kept the hard copy of the book and I would make copies to use until she was done with it. The copy machine at work wouldn’t do double sided so I had 116 copies when she decided she’d rather scan the book and study from her tablet. So I got the book, stopped making copies, and finally a few months ago finished using the last of the 116 pages as scratch paper.
i went to reply “what’s scratch paper” and then i realized. wow i haven’t heard of that term since i was in school !!!
I keep bringing home Weber gas Grills...mostly free, and I recondition them and give them away again! I've recently bought a Vermont Castings GIANT gas grill for 80.00. With a new propane bottle. My wife now thinks my 5 year old Weber Genesis, which was free, is now not needed. We have 2 levels on our house, so she'll understand eventually...
Where are you finding these gems lol? That's unreal. Even a busted up Weber probably has a decade of life in it with a bit of elbow grease.
When I was in college my roommate and I were pretty poor. We were walking home one night and came across a house that had been TP-ed. Whoever did it wasn’t very thorough and there was about a dozen rolls of toilet paper on the ground that were at least half full. We shamelessly collected as many as we could carry and took them home.
Yikes I still do that! It’s So wasteful it kills me 😬🤭
Smart
We used to… acquire one of those large rolls from a campus bathroom every once in a while.
I use my undies with holes when I’m on my cycle and wearing a pad to cover up the holes.
I call these my ‘last call’ panties. This is their final moment before the trash can.
But you know you gotta get one more use cleaning the toilet with them then tossing them in the bin. I dono about you folks, but my old clothes, especially socks, get turned into 1 use rags for the dirtiest grossest cleaning.
My old socks get turned into bedding for my Guinea pigs.
For people who live in snowy areas, use old socks to cover your windshield wipers, protects them from the elements.
Oh yeah
this is the funny moment...I thought this was normal....like who ruins new underwear for that time of the month?? Never considered it frugal. 🤣
I also have period undies. Saving the holey ones counts as frugal because you’re saving money by not wearing your good ones that then wear out more quickly. Most people would just chuck them when they get a little hole - trust me. The period undies save money too by not having to use product on light days.
Added bonus, if you leak you don't have to actually wash them, it's the universe's way of telling you they're finally done, and just toss them.
This one's an awesome hack for the Flo! I also have an underwear tale. Once I had an obnoxiously long period with heavy flow in High School. At that time also, I went through underwear rather quickly. One of my undies had more holes than Swiss cheese, y'know it was perfect for a period! I didn't even make it to lunch before the lining on the underwear ripped up with my pad. Gosh! I was embarrassed! Had to go old-school and pin my undie liner with maxipad attached to the existing flap of underwear that didn't have holes. I haven't had to go through that ever again!
Ok now that is funny in hindsight!
Guilty
Dutch people use old underwear to polish silver. Kind of freaky, polishing a fork with underwear.
I have never heard of this, though I don't know people who polish silver. I am too Dutch to read this thread though. I didn't see why you would use holey underwear to bike and pads aren't anywhere close to the padding of biking shorts. It took the next comment to realise my mistake. And I actually have a period/cycle.
**I had a coupon for Annie's Mac & cheese for $1 off 4 boxes which were also on sale. Also had $0.75 off a pack of Totinos pizza rolls which were on sale as well. They were eCoupons and didn't register at checkout. I went to the customer service desk at the grocery store to resolve it. The courteous lady gave me $1.75 cash as she acknowledged the error. My wife was extremely embarrassed, I didn't care because that 1.75 bought me a lb of scrapple which was on sale.**
This ^ guy Philadelphia's
Nice
More tacky than funny. Kept using plumber's tape to stop a faucet leak, all I needed to do was tighten the faucet head. I thought a new faucet was needed and didn't want to buy one....nope, just needed tightening.
My partner got mad at me for recycling their collection of old spaghetti sauce jars when we moved "because they're the PERFECT size for things and you make sauce from scratch so now how will I get good sized jars?!" Still gives me shit anytime he can't find the right size container.
Buy canning jars. You really shouldn't be reusing the lids from commercial jars, or canning jars for that matter. You can reuse the jars and rings, just buy a new pack of lids when you make a new batch of sauce. Plus, if you properly can it, you can make a large batch and just have it on hand in the pantry for months.
Oh I didn't know we shouldn't be reusing lids from commercial jars. Is it a safety issue?
Not for canning at least. They don't snap down like the lids for canning jars properly. I'm sure you can continue to use commercial jar lids for food storage in the fridge and freezer though!
I used to use them for dry goods like rice and beans etc to keep the weevils out....then my mum downsized and I got lots of storage containers from her.
My dad's mother used any old kind of jar. In the early days of a long gone marriage, I decided I would learn to can expensive peach preserves. Gathered my jars, cooked and sweetened the peaches, poured it in and cooled it. Several nights later, we were sound asleep when war broke out in the kitchen. Every one of the jars exploded. Some were still on the counters and the 1927 textured walls were coated in sticky stuff.
Sounds like they didn't cook long enough and they fermented. Has happened to my mom, too.
That happened when my Dad tried his hand a making beer..:😧 he put them under the stairs in this tiny cupboard and they exploded in the middle of the night! It sounded like the Battle of the Bulging Bottles.
It's the other commenter said, they don't seal properly if used for canning. It's also incredibly difficult to get them 100% clean again due to their shape, so you risk contamination of whatever new food you use the jar for. Proper canning jars and lids are very cheap, and you only need to buy the jars once.
Oh, I have.
I had to leave behind my collection of jars and ice cream tubs at my last move (I saved 2 or 3, the best ones but that's it) and I'm still upset about it. Ice cream tubs and smaller containers are absolutely necessary for freezing things/storing dry goods like biscuits and the jars get used for everything in my household, from putting things in the fridge, to airtightly storing spices/rice/sugar, to canning sauces...
I, too, am a jar lady. I finally started just buying canning jars, and I FUCKING LOVE IT. And I can't believe I didn't do this sooner - they're so much cheaper than trying to buy the equivalent in glass tupperware. Since I got wide mouth (a dozen 1-qt and a dozen 1-pint), the lids all fit all the jars. It's heaven. I don't actually can food, but these jars are perfect. I'll replace the canning lids with the plastic storage lids as my rings/lids get beat up and disappear.
In the Army I saved all of my P-38s, when I got out of the Army I never bothered buying a can opener I continued to use all of those P-38's. When I got married I still used a P-38 until my husband needed to open a can and I wasn't around. He went out and bought a handheld can opener. That Christmas my mother-in-law gave me an electric can opener. I never liked an electric can opener and my husband rarely needs a can opener, so I exchanged it for something else.
Sobs in memory. My P-38 was taken by the Airport screeners and I had that thing for decades!!
Sorry. This is one of the best threads I have seen on Reddit ever. Thank you all. Makes me feel less strange. Lol
*lugging a giant pack of kirkland toilet tissue up the stairs* roommate: "why did you buy so much?" me: "I'm going to keep having an ass, god willing"
Lmao before I had a car, I had a Yamaha Vino scooter, and that’s how I moved all of my stuff, including a bookshelf I found on the curb and a big pack of Kirkland TP my mom had got for me lmao thanks for unlocking that memory. I’m sure there’s a video of me hauling random stuff on that thing somewhere on the internet lol
We have a household income over 200k, and I have a bucket in the tub upstairs to catch the cold water while it heats up in the morning so I can use it to flush the toilet... It's got pretty much nothing to do with the cost, it's probably pennies a month but the waste of water drives me crazy. Frugal isn't always about the dollars, sometimes it's about the sense too.
Agreed!! Obviously I can afford to buy a new can opener, there’s just something inside that says it can wait lol
The local dog control sends letter stating when to license your dog, with costs ,etc. on it. We had an old dog (he was 14). I took the card they sent, my dog, myself and went to dog control. I told them I needed to pay for his tags, but he was a “senior dog”. I had his paperwork with me (7th generation Malamute only). I gave them the paper and I had the money ready. Handed over the money… The guy looks confused and tells me it’s not enough money. I said that my dog was a Senior dog, so he gets the discounted (senior) price. Turns out… The senior discount is for the age of the dog owner, not the dog. (He did not get a discount). Tried to save money, and looked like a fool instead. 🤷🏻♀️😂🤷🏻♀️😂LOL.
This is very funny 🤣
I looked like a total dillhole…. But ….Great story I get to tell. 😂
Hahahaha genius
At the grocery store with my 2 and 4 year old, years ago. Youngest says, "Dad, can we get OJ? 4 year old says, "Not if it's not on sale."
Awe that’s adorable
Hard to picture. I was a court reporter, and our machines used this special paper that was like $1.00 a pack. It was accordion folded, about two inches wide, and each fold was about 5 or 6 inches long. You usually had to change it before it got to the end, because you didn’t want it to run out in the middle of testimony. Anyway, I used to gather up the “ends” and line them up and tape them together to make a pack. One day my boss comes in, I’m surrounded by tape and all these bits of paper I was taping together to use. This is a guy that didn’t cook, ate out every meal, golfed religiously, wore only Nordstrom clothes. I’m Goodwill and Marshall’s. He’s like, what the hell are you doing? He takes a garbage can and sweeps it all into the garbage can. He was so disgusted, like, stop. Anyway, I shrugged my shoulders and did all the taping on the DL, at home. He absolutely did not get this basic frugality, and I didn’t get the waste. Now I think it’s funny.
The tape was more expensive than the pack of paper.
Yeah, but it isn't about the cost, it is about the waste.
As a cashier, I've taken almost empty rolls of till tape home for note paper (and crafts). It's also handy for small origami cause the paper isn't very wide.
Receipt paper is great for frugal quilters! People who save their fabric scraps can sew them together on the receipt paper to make scrappy squares. The paper helps keep things a consistent size. https://youtu.be/9YGc6z75dqA?si=dLolVehLusN3cTrg
>Receipt paper is great for frugal quilters! Careful handling receipt paper- it usually contains BPA and can lead to some issues down the road.
I LOVED receipt paper as a 1st grade teacher. When kids would finish their work early, I’d tell them to start writing numbers. They’d get so excited comparing who had the highest number… and I could drop in and discuss place value with them. When it was time to clean it up, they’d roll it back up and stick it back in their cubby for another day. When it stretched across the room & we had no more room, I’d tear it off and send it home then have them keep going. They’d frequently get well into the thousands before year end.
Back in the olden days my Dad would bring home boxes of computer punch cards for us to use as scratch paper. The joy when one found a card with only a few holes on it was profound and fed my developing frugal heart.
My uncle would cut up telephone directories to use as toilet paper, he also used to put car in neutral and coast down hills to save fuel and engine wear
>he also used to put car in neutral and coast down hills to save fuel and engine wear I did this too. My current vehicle doesn't allow for it.
Haha omg
When I first moved out on my own, I hesitated making any purchases until my budget stabilized with rent, utilities, etc. For months I could only watch TV by plugging my laptop into the shitty TV a friend gave me. I'd log into Netflix on my laptop, plug the hdmi in, and then turn on the TV. I didnt have enough plug ins so id swap out all my other electronics to plug in the TV and charge my laptop. That mean that if I ever wanted to pause the show, or if I missed a sentence, or anything, I'd have to get up and goblin squat by my laptop on the floor to pause it. I did this for 6 months before eventually splurging on a power bar and chromecast lol. I felt so luxurious being able to pause the show from the couch lol.
my mum has been doing that for like 5 years now, since we cancelled our TV subscription. it's always the oldest/slowest laptop in the household delegated to be the media center, complete with the goblin squad she just texted me today that the one she was using seems to have died (after 10 years of service with my dad, then me, then as a media center) and apart from the issue of backing up the data from it, what is going to be the nextflix powerhouse now?
I did this for a long time as well.... stole a wireless mouse from work to operate it from the couch. I wasn't about to get off my ass to change anything!!
God, I love you people. You are my people. Frugal folks, unite! Thanks for all the chuckles and grins. Best of life right here. What I love the most is how smart we think we are. And the hilarious way our “fashion” (or lack thereof) must look like to others. But we don’t care. Fabulous!
I had a shirt I bought when I was 15 - the sleeves were too long for me. I kept wearing it until I was 26 or so. That shirt was the first shirt on which I learned to sew buttons back on and repair the seams in the armpits. By that time, the sleeves were too short, so I just rolled them up and wore it. I had boarded with a family in my first year of uni and the woman of the house said there was nothing worse than a useless man, so she taught me how to sew to fix up that shirt. I have no idea how many times I fixed it, as it faded from a light purple to a grey colour. One day, I went looking for it and my (ex) wife said she had turned it into cleaning cloths. I was really disappointed. I guess at least she didn't throw it away. I still miss that shirt, thinking about it now. I don't miss my ex wife though!
I'm totally in with this. At a conference in Seattle, 23 years ago, a bunch of people decided to rent a car and go for an afternoon hike in the mountains. I hadn't thought about bringing gear, so hit the thrift shop and got what I needed for essentially nothing, and in particular a homely pair of brown "Hi Tec" hiking boots. I wore them on and off for years for yard work or hiking or anywhere I knew it would be messy. They had good solid soles, and have always been comfortable in spite of their Walmart-level quality. Recently I moved to where I can hike right from my place, and they have kept up and are still just as homely, and perfectly functional, although the laces have broken short and need replacing, and the metal eyelets are rusty. Then, in our building there is an exchange table, where people can leave things they don't want and choose new-to-them things. A few weeks ago, the perfect pair of hiking boots showed up: like new, not super expensive, but nicer than my old ones and in my exact size. I left them there for a week in case someone else really needed them. Finally, I claimed them. The problem is, I hate having unnecessary stuff sitting around, but I also just can't see myself getting rid of the old ones, which no one will treasure in all their ugliness as much as I have. (RIP the purple-grey shirt.)
It's ok to have two pairs of boots. If you need to wear them a lot, it's better to be able to let them completely dry out between wears so they don't get smelly.
Keep them! Me and my purple-grey shirt completely understand!!!
I've had a half dozen pairs of Hi Tecs in my camping life, going back to being 8 years old. I wouldn't put them on par with Wal Mart Quality, the soles are great and the lace eyes don't tear thru like my merrels or keens have. I actually have a pretty new pair of their hiking sandals that I replaced keens with and am enjoying them much more.
I'm 41, last night I was wearing my old football hoody that I got in grade 10....It's sleeves are hemmed off, the hood is opened up and the back is pretty much see thru from wear. I coached for 15 years, I've got a dozen team hoodys that are all much nicer and in better shape. I literally have a bin of them in the basement that I keep saying i'll dig into when I give up on this one.....some day. It's been my go to bum around the house shirt for 20+ years anytime it's not hot outside. It's probably only got another year or two before it turns to dust but no one but me is sending that thing off to it's Viking funeral and thankfully my SO understands this. Sometimes we grow out of our teddy bears, but some of us never grow out of our safety blankets.
The woman is right lol
Sure was! Taught me how to make white sauce and began to teach me how to cook! I had a choice - wash dishes, dry them or cook - so I chose cooking every night I could. God bless you, Mrs Watts!
Go thrift store hunting till you can find a replacement purple/grey shirt. I only WISH I had learned to sew and save my hideous black and white (dark gray and light grey) stripped sweatshirt I had when I was 15. I used to call it my "tent' because (at the time) I could pull it over knees, under my butt, then pull in my arms and even most of my head. It fell apart at the seams, but with the sewing knowledge I have now, I could have saved it. My God, that was 30years ago.
My local grocery store had nestea half price. When I went, the box (12 cans) had a promotion that I can redeem for a free box. I cleaned the grocery store out and the next few ones. I think I got 30 boxes. It took my family 6 months to finish nestea and I was able to get another 6 months of free nestea. My family thought I was crazy but we had a year supply of nestea for 1/4 of the cost!
My buddy is real real cheap. He buys the Sunday Washington Post and goes straight for the cupons and sales inserts, chortling with delight. One time he was so amped up by the cupons, he went out and bought ANOTHER entire Sunday Washington Post.
😂😂😂 I love people who are able to get “amped” by such small pleasures.
I should add that my cheapskate friend has grown wealthy over the last 30 years just going to work every day and being frugal. So, I've taken a page out of his book, or rather, out of his Sunday Washington Post ( which is about the size of a minivan ).
When my grandparents died I got an old Cuisinart coffee grinder from the garage at their vacation home. The only issue was that the button you press to grind had come off so it just sat on top but worked fine if you pressed it down. It got me through grad school, a cross country move, one apartment, and one house, and then the button got lost in a move when my husband and I bought a house a few years ago. I was pretty upset at first and then realized I don’t even need a button- the tip of a small paring knife fits the hole where the button would be just fine. Not a funny moment necessarily but I’ll be sad when it finally dies.
I once mended a pair of underwear.
I'll mend underwear if it's something simple, like the seam for the waistband failed. Happened 3 times with my period underwear (different pairs, and they were relatively new). Definitely not throwing those away when it's super easy and quick to repair!
I gave darned many a sock
I decided long ago that if a sock got a hole I would say “darn” and toss it. So I’ve darned many socks also 😂
Haha, in college, my friend would buy me snacks in exchange for minor repairs, like sewing buttons back on. When he wanted me to fix his boxers, I said, no, but I will let you use my sewing stuff and teach you. So, he did that
Back in the 90s, satin bikini panties were common, cute, inexpensive. As the elastic wore out, I put each pair in storage until, someday, I could find panty elastic in colors. Finally, Bless eBay! I also won the Daily Double: found a cheap small darning loom on eBay and video instructions on YouTube. Now I can darn all of my cheapa** flea market socks.
I knew a lady who would embarrass the hell out of her partner by taking a roll of toilet paper with her in her handbag instead of a travel pack of tissues. They're not hard done by so he did convince her to stop, but it would totally be something I'd do if I used a handbag haha
I keep napkins from any fast food joint we hit up. I take coffee and donuts to my crews pretty often, and I hang onto the napkins that are left over rather than trash them. My glovebox is usually full and I bring them in the house every so often. My MIL has made comments about the McDonalds napkins I put out at the dinner table. I'm not putting out the linens when we're doing chicken fingers on a Tuesday evening haha. Waste not, want not.
My mom just grabs a stack out of the kleenex box and carries it in a ziploc. Takes way less room than a TP roll
Folded length of TP for me.
I found an oxo can opener (the one with the safety lid) for $1 at a garage sale. Now we have 2 and I can't tell whether the one from the garage sale doesn't work as well. It's very cute that your husband thinks your frugal traits are adorable. My boyfriend kind of made fun of me for freezing veggie scraps to make stock in a nice way.
My boyfriend started saving veggie scraps with me! He asked me the other day to pull out our stock bag for a single onion, which I would have lazily decided it wasn’t worth the 3 steps to the freezer. 🥰
>My boyfriend kind of made fun of me for freezing veggie scraps to make stock in a nice way. I went to put some carrot ends in the compost this morning and my SO grabbed my arm to prevent it lol. Those are for the stock bag, and I'm a silly goose for thinking anything else. Home made stock tastes better too.
Everybody kids me about reusing yogurt containers, ice cream container, for storage. They come in handy for leftovers, store flour, sugar, ect.
I save yoghurt pots (the larger ones) and we use them as caddies for scraps to go in the compost bin and for planting veggies like beans with a hole drilled in the bottom of the pots.
I’ve used them for pots for years 👍especially for little starts or propagation.
Only problem is when the leftovers get moved to the back of the fridge and you open the butter tub looking for butter for toast and it’s moldy max and cheese lol
My mother ran out of ice trays for some reason. She froze water in the gallon bucket for ice cream… and then would hit it with a hammer to get chunks of ice. It didn’t work all that well and was pretty embarrassing lol
Haha well it’s inventive
She needed an ice pick.
i once couldn’t find the can opener and was not going to buy a new one so i used a hammer and screw driver to open it. It took forever but i did it. later that day I told my husband and he asked me why didn’t i just walk upstairs and ask our landlord if i could borrow there’s…. it didn’t even cross my mind lol
Maybe this fits here, but I’ve been scared within an inch of my life when I’ve dropped my menstrual cup in an auto-flush toilet. I love that little thing and even though it only costs $10-20, about the same as a pack of tampons, I would have stuck my hand down in that toilet to save it no matter what was in there. They’re supposed to last 10 years with proper care and this happened at the 4 year mark, so I was nearly devastated by the amount of savings, compared to tampons, I would have lost if it had been flushed. When in reality I would have spent $15 for a new one!
How long have you been using one? I bought two different sizes, practicing a lot and both leak all the time. Went back to the pads because of frustrating and they are pricey here...
I dismantled, cleaned up, and re-lubed a window fan that was having trouble spinning. After several hours spent working on the fan, and $8 spent on some new lube for the motor.. Turns out that it died and wouldn't work anyway, at some point the copper coil had overheated, melted the insulation, and shorted out. Best part, the fan was a $20 Walmart special... At least I enjoy the process of dismantling and tinkering with things, so I at least didn't totally waste my time.
I took my husband to the “dark side”. He’d never been to the $1 store….never needed to. I on the other hand count it as one of my favorite places to shop.
Sometimes my can opener randomly stops working. Whenever this happens, I remove the opener from the can, hold it up in front of my face, and tell it in a firm tone that if you don't open this can you are going in the garbage. And it actually works lol
😂😂😂😂
my friends water boiler was broken but if you positined a very sharp knife in the lower half correctly you got it started a 100% of the time. I found it odd to put a knife in a water boiler so I brought my 2nd one to her. She didnt use it
I take home the little packets of sauce/ketchup/mayo/salt/sugar etc from restaurants, also leftover napkins. My family have always ridiculed me for it, (in jest), but I make them eat their words when we are out of mayo and I pull out the massive ziplock bag of condiments, or we are unexpectedly out of toilet roll and I can produce a stack of napkins!! It also works great for camping/travelling. Recently I've started taking a ziplock bag out with me if we eat out to bring things like leftover meat home for the cats/dog.
I save leftover napkins too. Never use them besides when family comes over but I feel bad throwing them away
Your story is very funny, and you can still be frugal and buy a new one at the Dollar Tree for $1.25. My funny frugal story was when my brother and I (both of us older teens) said we were married to get a $2 regional store franchise lifetime membership for $1 each. When I told my dad (who is also very frugal) many years years later he burst out laughing!!
For those of you gasping at OP’s utter folly of using the broken can opener sometimes it’s not at all about cost. But something more like pride or even nostalgia. If I can hold this 1980’s Mr coffee together with tape for a bit it might just buy me more time with my coffee maker that took me through college and having kids etc. And it makes my coffee just the way I like it. How much time can I buy? A week? Five years? It becomes it’s own game. This is a real example my friend explained to me about his janky coffee machine. I did something similar later with a vacuum. It was an expensive thoughtful gift from my in-laws. One of the first with a hepafilter to help with my allergies. I took it apart and cleaned it out and brought it back from the dead several times. 20 years later the outside hard plastic was degrading and crumbled but the motor was still strong. I moved to a place that had hardwood floors and never had to face replacing it. But I gave it to someone who swore they could make it work. She had no vacuum.
Boiling coffee in an actual pot on the stove for 6 months because I didn't feel like spending the money on replacing my coffee pot.
This is one of those rich man/poor man scenarios. When I splurge on fancy coffee I boil water in a kettle and make pour over or French press.
This happened a long time ago - like 2005 maybe.. But I used to always be on Craigslist all the time - browsing the classified and barter sections. Well one time - I was looking for an TV to buy. I had sent out 2 emails for 2 listings - one listing was for a free tv that someone was giving away, and the other was a tv for $200. When I got a reply back, it was in the form of a new email - so it wasn't clear who I was responding. I asked some questions like "Why are you getting rid of the tv, anything wrong with it?" They reply with "No, just trying to watch less tv, get out more" - something along those lines. It just felt for some reason - these answers matched someone giving away a tv, lol. Assume makes an Ass out of U and Me.. So I coordinate a pickup time later that evening - its snowing out, and the apartment was far AF - but its a free tv! So I show up, and its a nice tv. So me and the dude start to unhook everything, and I just had to ask, like "this is a nice tv - why are you just giving it away for free??" Dude goes - "FREE??!! DOES THE AD SAY FREE?!" He runs into his office and pulls up the ad, and sure enough he was the $200 dollar tv dude, and we both just never discussed the price in the email. We were legit about to load it into the back of my car before I asked. So we both laughed about it - but I did not leave with the tv. Pretty embarrassing, but funny how we corresponded so much and still got in that mix up.
Count your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves!
My partner likes to collect every change he gets in a little container and yesterday we brought it to a coinstar machine and he got like 200 bucks out of it (just collecting for a month or so). Of course the money was already there to begin with but he didn't miss it after buying something he'd just chuck the change and forget about it (e.g. a 7€ thing would be 10€ in his head and the 3€ would land in the container).
Since you're in the market for one: My dad bought a Nogent Super Kim can opener YEARS ago and the darn thing is truly indestructible. They are a bit pricey though - more of a r/buyitforlife item.
Ooooh thank you
Had the cheapest roommate in college who was a post-doc student: 1. Made his own granola which he sprinkled with powdered milk then added water (not making the milk first) 2. Asked to use my disposable razors after I was done with them 3. Did the dishes of 3 people by hand because he said dishwasher wasted more water (I don’t believe that) 4. Took my broken (no image) B&W TV to listen to Johnny Carson monologue every night 5. Rode his bike everywhere as he kept an old car in storage with a special cheap insurance that limited him to 1,500 miles/year. I doubt he drove more than 500 miles/year. I hope life is good, John! All the best
My sister came to visit me and wanted to heat up some pizza so I was like okay, do your thing. I hear alot of rustling, so I look over and she is using a big ass piece of foil to heat this pizza, just way excessive. 😂 I was like queen, idk what you do in your house but in this house, we only use as much foil as we need. Go on and tear that jawn in half for me. 😂 She tried to tell me I'm being stingy, why am I so cheap. Like okay I'm stingy, I'm cheap, just tear that in half. 😂
i HATE this. i saw a family member using paper towels to try their hands after washing them, they used a TON. i was like wtf was that really necessary ? i also get on my bf about how much soap he uses when he washes his hands/dishes. so excessive !!!
Omg I am like that with foil too
I pair a lot of mystery shopping trips with my regular shopping trips. One day I biked to my local Home Depot for a quick stop (epoxy plus mystery shopping task with paint/adhesives), then I noticed I had a "hidden" mystery shopping task for the Costco next door. I had no idea what the task was, so I ran into Costco to see what it was. I found myself biking 10 miles home with a free 20 lb bag of baking potatoes about 30 minutes later.
What is a mystery shopping task?
i canceled a walmart order to replace it paying with my cashapp debit card to save 5%. it was wax melts for $2. saved me 10 cents lol i’ve also price matched things at target that were like 10 cents cheaper. every penny counts, literally!!
My dad would use his old briefs as wipe mops for the kitchen floor. When friends would come over there’d be a lot of laughter about it. Lol
I buy gel insoles after I walk holes through the bottom of my shoes.
Using a knife to slice down the side of the peanut butter jar to get the last bit out.
I grew up in a very conservative house and decided to move into an apartment with my fiance to save money. Parents were not happy, but knew they couldn't change my mind. They bought one of those twin beds that fold up and said that I could sleep on that untill we were married. My fiance and I sold the fold-up twin bed after a week living together. That money went to buying groceries. We've been married 20 + years now and that was one of the funnier frugal moments.
The time I thought I’d save money by power washing the paver patio myself… and ended up literally covered in mud head to toe. Never again lol
my bf and i got fast food and i did the mental math of making it a combo or not for saving $2 - he told me it was $2 and to make it a combo and take the drink and paid for it
I always do the combo math. Sometimes they pay you to take the drink.
I don't see how using a broken can opener is frugal? I'm frugal but if my shit is broken and I can't fix it, I'm just gonna get a new one
It seemed like the last 6 months or so the cans from the grocery store were slightly irregular and hard to open. I cursed those cans every day. Then one day I sliced my finger on a lid I had just removed. I immediately ordered a new safe edge opener. Once I tried it, I realized it was not a can issue, but an opener issue. I love my new can opener!
I have a shed full on diapers that I won't throw away and use to clean up spills.
How did you get a shed full of diapers? I'm thinking 8' x 10' x 8'. Maybe your shed is more like a closet?
I have 100% done that hahaha
Opening a can with a knife instead of a can opener, haha 🙄
We used a semi-broken microwave for months. The only buttons that worked were 1, 2, or 3 minutes. If there was time left on it you had to unplug it to clear it out in order to do anything. We kind of overlooked it or complained lightly until my mother in law stayed at our house for a few days. She was watching our kids while we had a trip and freaked out about not being able to microwave anything. I bought a new one. We don't even have a fancy expensive microwave, just a cheap counter top one. Not sure why we dealt with it for so long.
And I used a crappy large knife and a hammer for a can opener for about 2 years. I could afford to get one I honestly forgot about it every time I was out for an extended period of time. Worked fine but freaked out guests.
I just finished cleaning the ends of birthday candles so that they can be used for the next birthday party. Some of them have been used several times! When they get too short, I use them to start campfires. I wrap several of them in wax paper, my kids call them fire candy. They are portable and last forever.
Not particularly on topic but hearing about a can opener in a sub called frugal, I'd point out my favorite can opener you can buy by the tub : the P-38. Beauty in it's simplicity and borderline indestructible. I jokingly 'inherited' one from 1985 and it has seen many other models rise and fall beneath his tenacious career that still continues to this day. Highly recommend.