What frugal thing did you do today?

[VictoriaF]

As I was reviewing my 2018 travel plans, I decided NOT to go to Palo Alto in April and to Berlin in July. These are frugal decisions, but my goal is to be frugal with time rather than money. Every trip, especially international and across several time zones, uses my energy for planning and catching up upon return.

If in 2018 I accomplish my goals, in 2019 I will reward myself with a trip to Australia or New Zealand.

Victoria

[nptit]

I have been a test shaver for a major razor company for nearly 25 years. I have enough blades to last me for several years.
I gave multiple blades to my son today - probably worth $100.

How did you come into this opportunity? Seems pretty unique. Can you describe more?

[Just sayin...]

During winter months, I take each of our cars through the local car wash either once a week or every other week, weather permitting. I do this because they have an undercarriage wash that helps counteract the negative effects of the salt they use on the roads here. Today, they had a “buy 4, get 5” package, so I loaded up enough coupons to see us through the winter. From spring through fall, I wash by hand. Not a huge deal, but saving a few bucks here, a few bucks there, and eventually it adds up.

[Nicolas]

I walk around the house every few hours and turn off the lights in unoccupied rooms.

[saltycaper]

I walk around the house every few hours and turn off the lights in unoccupied rooms.

Bet you leave all the TVs on though, don't you?

[Wings5]

I paid with a check at the town hall today. I saved 2.3% on the bill and put it towards coffee for home (the queen of the Wings Manor enjoys French pressing in the morning).

After paying the bill I went next door to the town library and read a few books for free. Libraries are easily one of the best frugal outlets in America. I believe there are some early Bogleheads who even laid the foundation for their retirements solely by using free information and internet at the local library.

[randomizer]

Had a drink at work (where it is free) instead of at home.

[matt fe2o3]

I got out of Costco for under 60 bucks and that included a pizza.

[bungalow10]

+ Committed to a Dry January (no alcohol)
+ Updated my Year End Net Worth
+ Created a fresh YNAB budget for 2018
+ Started intermittent fasting/OMAD (frugal because my clothes are getting tight!)

++Kudos to the gym-goers. I think exercise is always a worth expenditure. I plan to go either running (no cost) or to a spin class (12EUR) today. Either one is a financial and health win!

[wdnnikl]

I turned off lights that were no longer needed. +$.75

DW brought home 2 expensive subs ($23) for supper. She claims this was cheaper than the restaurant she had in mind. +$14

I love it when DW wins.

[Jayhawk11]

Commuted via bike instead of car/train in spite of the extreme cold temperatures.

brought leftover lasagna (6 straight lunches and dinners) instead of eating something I wasn't sick of. Packed snacks and sodas so as not to have to buy them from the CVS or a restaurant.

Finished the family financial state of the union, which will hopefully convince my wife to save more of her income.

Called and listend to VerizonFIOS's spiel to get a $25 amazon giftcard.

Date night tonight is a wine tasting I gave my wife for Christmas. Since we'd be going out and drinking wine anyway on a Friday night, I consider it a two birds with one stone situation (credit for a present for doing something we'd do anyway).

[tennisplyr]

Refilled my Poland Springs water bottle with tap water.

[exigent]

I made myself a delicious cup of coffee, as I do every morning, using my Aeropress. To be more accurate, I made 20 oz, so several cups...

[raisinsaregrapes]

I packed up all my things and put them in a storage unit. Got rid of all rent and utility payments. Moved my family in with the in-laws and deployed to a 3rd world country were I would have pretty much zero expenses......

The little things add up.

[neilpilot]

(yesterday) paid my mobile phone bill, 2 lines that we switched from AT&T to Xfinity. Using our normal data draw, the monthly bill went from $83 to $17.44 including tax & fees. We now only pay for data; unlimited voice & text are free.

[SuperGrafx]

I took the time to trace and disconnect an existing doorbell system in my house.

I completely removed the attached transformer from my circuit panel and undid all associated wiring.

[VictoriaF]

Ridiculously high satisfaction from saving $4:

I wanted to book one of my 2018 flights before the New Year. For a long while Google Flights was showing the optimal flights for $258. I was going to wait until 28-29 December to buy it. Then on Wednesday, the 27th, the price has suddenly dropped to $222, and I purchased the tickets earlier than I had planned. Today, the same flights are $226.

Conclusion: I am an accomplished market timer.

Victoria

[fishandgolf]

Ceiling fan in loft area (18 feet up) went out. Was making adjustments to speed and remote stopped working. Oh boy...this will be an expensive service call. Fan is 20+ years old so thinking replacement.

I had noticed the light on remote was out....replaced battery...nope. Check connections, fiddled a bit.........nope. So, I let it sit a few days then decided to take another look. After closer inspection, appeared wire might be pinched so decide to cut, re-strip and re-solder each wire......WALLA....back in operation!

[MichaelRpdx]

Baked a loaf of Irish Soda Bread. $1.25 in ingredients for a full pound loaf of fresh bread.
Picked up books at the library. Yay! Libraries!

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (how you spend your money and your time).

[michaeljc70]

Fixed a leak under my kitchen sink. It is kind of a nightmare (beyond simple fix) and I didn't want to do it, but it is 3 degrees here and I knew a plumber would be hard to get and charge a fortune.

[Gray]

Installed a nice home gym. Got Sole to give me a 10% Discount below their Black Friday sale for an E95S elliptical, F85 treadmill, and rower. I also got an ab bench, equipment mats, weight set, 24” pole fan, and a stretching mat.

I’ve got my family using it regularly—as am I. This isn’t one of those near-term cost saving moves, but the health benefits (and cost savings) in the long term are significant. It sure beats a gym membership I never use. I’ll add a small HDTV with back-mounted Apple TV soon to encourage use.

I chose Sole based on reputation, reviews, reliability, and warranty.

[FandangoDave5010]

Today I ordered a remastered 1953 recording of TOSCA featuring Maria Callas from an Amazon seller in England for a price cheaper than Amazon's . Anthony Tommasini (New York Times opera critic) says this CD is the best opera ever re-recorded.

Amazon sellers usually sell the same product cheaper. A good deal if you're not an Amazon Prime member and not in a rush to get it.

[HoosierJim]

Noticed from my non-scientific methods that I was using about large variations of shampoo when applied in the shower. The observed standard deviation exceeded the mean. Decided to apply a dollop before getting into the shower and have reduced usage and waste by 50%. The $1.25 Suave shampoo DURATION has been increased allow a slightly earlier retirement.

[VictoriaF]

Today I did not use the air conditioner.

Victoria

[ER2023]

Baked a loaf of Irish Soda Bread. $1.25 in ingredients for a full pound loaf of fresh bread.
Picked up books at the library. Yay! Libraries!

+1 for libraries! Also picked up several books and movies at our local library for the weekend.

[DrGoogle2017]

Roasted a delicious miso orange glazed chicken, recipe here.
https://beyondmeresustenance.com/miso-o ... d-chicken/
All for $5 bucks.
Tonight I will roast the good old prime rib with potato a la Jamie Oliver, recipe here,
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bee ... -rosemary/
however we will not make Yorkshire pudding. Free rosemary from the garden.
Top it up with small cheesecake and passion fruit glazed dessert, the passion fruit is also from my garden. Gluten free all the way. All for a fraction of a cost of our usual NYE’s dinner at the Brazilian BBQ.
I also heat up the house at the same time. It’s cold here in Southern Cal, one of the few days or season that I can bake inside.

[Plymouth56]

While watching TV this afternoon I finally decided to deal with a fuzzy sounding bookshelf speaker that runs off our 26 year old Sony receiver .
Internet research told me to check speaker wire connections ,and also that my 18 gauge speaker wire is perfectly acceptable for
the short length speaker placement thatI have.
One hour and sore knees later, I re-did all my wire connections, while also shorting excess speaker wire I didn't need.
My system now sounds as fantastic as it did in 1992!

[NHcpa]

I loaded 2T of wood pellets from the driveway to the basement. Feeling accomplished and a bit achey.

[MichaelRpdx]

One hour and sore knees later, I re-did all my wire connections, while also shorting excess speaker wire I didn't need.
My system now sounds as fantastic as it did in 1992!

I really, really hope you mean shortening instead of shorting.

[Doom&Gloom]

Today I did not use the air conditioner.

Victoria

Excellent!

I did the same--and expect to continue to do so for at least the next week!

[badbreath]

I hand shoveled the snow off the driveway vs calling a guy to plow it out Savins $35.00

I am going to regret it tomorrow

[badbreath]

repeat

[Dottie57]

I stayed nice and toasty in my home and did not go out to shop. It was -10 at 10:00 am.
Used netflix most of day while cleaning out some of my closets.

[fishandgolf]

DW and I decided to stay home for New Years Eve.

Mix our own cocktails, baby back ribs on the charcoal grill...........s/b fun and save a ton

[Plymouth56]

One hour and sore knees later, I re-did all my wire connections, while also shorting excess speaker wire I didn't need.
My system now sounds as fantastic as it did in 1992!

I really, really hope you mean shortening instead of shorting.

Oops... That makes two of us

[Texflier]

Had an urge to buy a new car but instead vacuumed and cleaned up my 2006 Toyota Highlander with 144k miles. Saved thousands.

Also reassessed monthly budget for 2018, cutting my eating out budget with the intention of cooking more at home (learning sous vide cooking and bought a smoker half price at HD last week).

[cheese_breath]

Ate leftovers.

[quantAndHold]

i used the back side of a sheet of paper.

[marc515]

Being frugal should extend beyond your personal world. Maybe to resource use. So to take a longer shower purposely at the gym is not frugal at all. Frugal is about money but also about waste of a resource when it is not necessary. You don't do things because you can, you do them because you should.
I had to shower at the gym for too long a time this summer due to a too long bathroom redo.
When I saw others just standing there under the water for long after the showering part was over, I thought of them as wasters. I thought that at home they probably spent beyond their means. No thought to the future. Theirs or the planet.
There were teens there from the swim team standing under the shower from before I started unit after I left the locker room. You think they were taught frugality?
Maybe my definition of frugal eclipses the norm. But that is one way of looking at it.
Spending money unnecessarily, spending resources unnecessarily. Sound like one and the same.

Agree 100%. Frugal is not only frugal with one's money, but frugal with any and all resources, and saving the planet.
m

[Chan_va]

Being frugal should extend beyond your personal world. Maybe to resource use. So to take a longer shower purposely at the gym is not frugal at all. Frugal is about money but also about waste of a resource when it is not necessary. You don't do things because you can, you do them because you should.
I had to shower at the gym for too long a time this summer due to a too long bathroom redo.
When I saw others just standing there under the water for long after the showering part was over, I thought of them as wasters. I thought that at home they probably spent beyond their means. No thought to the future. Theirs or the planet.
There were teens there from the swim team standing under the shower from before I started unit after I left the locker room. You think they were taught frugality?
Maybe my definition of frugal eclipses the norm. But that is one way of looking at it.
Spending money unnecessarily, spending resources unnecessarily. Sound like one and the same.

You could have been more frugal with your post and just said “Short shower. Save planet.” Think of all the electricity and calories you could have saved the planet compared to your long post.

[bearcub]

Picked up some road kill for dinner. No cost + helped clean up the enviroment. Killed 2 birds with one stone.

[DrGoogle2017]

One kid who likes to take long shower left.

[VictoriaF]

i used the back side of a sheet of paper.

To do what?

Victoria

[quantAndHold]

i used the back side of a sheet of paper.

To do what?

Victoria

I drew a sketch of a frog on the back side of a sketch of a tortoise. I think I need to make up my mind on the reptiles vs amphibians question for my next art project.

[Caduceus]

I was so tired after the entire day I slept without eating dinner. So I saved the cost of dinner.

[DrGoogle2017]

I rebooked on the exact hotel in Hawaii, my upcoming trip for 20% cheaper. I’ve been waiting for the new year to do that because I want to spend money in 2018 for a companion ticket.

[SrGrumpy]

Tonight I took 2 city buses and 3 Metro trains to LAX for $1.75. Took a while, and it's not a wonderful experience, but it's better than paying $35 for Uber or even $9-odd for the Flyaway bus.

[bearcub]

Before I left my friends house today I went through the cusions of his couch for loose chain while he was in the tiolet. Found 77 cents.

[soccerdad12]

I went online and passed harsh judgement on situations that I know little about.

I also jumped all over people I disagree with.

Felt so good ...

Now that made me laugh....