Post by Contributing Author, Sonja Sarr of Practical Stewardship.
20 Unusual, Crazy, and Weird Ways to Save Money Part 2
I just posted 20 Unusual, Crazy, and Weird Ways to Save Money Part 1 over at my blog, Practical Stewardship. You can go there to find other strange and different ways to save money.
So today I am going to let you in on a few little secrets. Secrets of how we save money. Some of these ways to save money are unusual, some are crazy, some are weird, and some are even embarrassing…or maybe they are completely normal to you.
Anyway, each one of these ways to save in and of themselves are not a big deal. At all. Most of these ideas will just save a few pennies here, and a few pennies there. But you know what? If you are serious about saving money, you think differently than the typical person thinks. You think beyond the silly thing you are actually doing to save those pennies. What I am actually sharing is not these crazy and weird ways to save money. I am exposing my brain to the way the saver thinks.
And I guess I’ll just give away the real secret now. A saver knows that little + little + little…=a lot. That’s it. It’s like the principle I talked about in how we aggressively paid off the college debt ($16,000 in 16 months with me as a stay-at-home-mom). You get in debt one dollar at a time, and you get out of debt one dollar at a time. And it is like the principle from that book that Jonathan and I love, The Slight Edge. It’s easy to do, and it’s easy not to do. So if you keep doing the little easy things, over time you have something big. And I mean big.
And by the way, I am not saying there is no place to be generous. We believe in giving to the church. We believe in giving to people. There is just wisdom in giving, but that’s a separate story, maybe for another time.
So the following are all things that I have done at least once, but some things are what we do on a daily basis. Ready? Here we go.
- Back in college and in our early days of marriage I would stretch the Hamburger Helper and Pasta Roni with another handful of pasta. The sauce was always saucy enough to absorb another handful of pasta without affecting the dish.
- I’d add more plain white beans to baked beans.
- When having tacos I will stretch ground beef with refried beans, because ground beef is expensive I tell ya! And it’s even better when you make the refried beans yourself, because dried beans are just pennies.
- We cloth diapered our three kids.
- I use mama cloths. Some re-purposed from those cloth diapers.
- I made the homemade panty liners (tutorial here).
- I cut disposable baby wipes in half. I could never use a whole one efficiently, so this was the way to go.
- Then I started using reusable baby wipes.
- I made my own baby wipe solution.
- Then I just started using water only for the reusable baby wipes because if you can make something even easier, as a new mom, DO IT.
- I brush my teeth twice a day, but in the morning I only use water, and in the evening I use toothpaste. This started because I wanted my kids to brush their teeth on their own when they were tiny with minimal mess in the morning. Then about five years later I adopted the idea for myself.
- I clean the toilet bowl with just water a few times a week. I break out the bleach only with serious sickness in the house.
- When I need a little extra oomph, I use baking soda on my toilet bowl because baking soda is so rad.
- I use baking soda to clean the bathroom sinks and tubs too. It’s REALLY amazing. I am a baking soda believer. I hope you become one too…if you aren’t already.
- Baking soda is one of my favorite deodorants. Read here for other natural and frugal deodorant alternatives.
- I’ve mended unds (my abbreviation for underwear) a time or two in my life. I do know when to throw them away, too. 🙂
- I love using my sock rags to do cleaning. And t-shirt rags, too. They are the best. Especially the terry cloth part of a sock when you flip it inside out. I would get rid of paper towels in my house, but this is an easy place where I can show my husband love and buy the disposable paper towels for him. He uses the reusable rags, too, but there are jobs he deems as “paper towel” use only. I’m fine just throwing away those reusable rags that have done an ultimate dirty job.
- We’ve used bar soap until they are nibs. I think I’m about ready to throw these out though. Or we put them on a new big bar of soap to incorporate them.
- We use egg shells for slug bait. Although the garden needs more that just egg shells. It’s a good first line of defense.
- I wash the Styrofoam leftover boxes well, and give food/meals to others in them so they don’t have to concern themselves with returning a dish. This also keeps me from buying those disposable foil pans. Even if you can get them at the Dollar Tree, that is money you don’t have to spend.
Many of these things are stretching the dollar and saving money, often times cutting my spending in half for a particular item. None of these ideas save a whole lot of money alone, but remember that together these savings add up, and this mindset is significant. So if you are someone who struggles with managing your money well, remember that little things up, one at a time for huge savings in the end. This thought process is the key for you to get ahold of your spending.
Want some more wacko ideas? Go here to read Unusual, Crazy, and Weird Ways to Save Money Part 1 over at Practical Stewardship.
So what kind of unusual, crazy, and weird ways do you save money?
I Use my Crockpot weekly — winter time more often — I Crockpot beans put in onions and water – nothing else; then when done use it for other meals — I can get 3-4 meals and left overs — i use mixed beans – beans and rice ,,, chili, soup , or wraps I use brown rice with the wraps and shredded cheese…. I use coupons a lot – hubby is on a 2 week pay schedule i cook from scratch I go to the farmers market during summer and autumn it is 2 times a week told hubby If I can’t get it from the farmers market I don’t buy it – and i had a large garden this year frozen cantaloupe in abundance – and cucumbers over abundance — i go to costco at the most once a month I try to get it to stretch to once every 2 months – sometimes it works we really like the large potatoes I can use 2 for mashed or get several silver dollar sized potato cakes hubby likes to grab them and go to work for his lunch meal – wrap in wet towel paper or dish terrycloth type and microwave 😉 — i also buy store brands as much as possible, bought a pork shoulder this week cut it in 3 pieces one being the bone using it later in the week when the temps go down for home made split pea soup – one piece hit the crock pot tonight added spices and cooked it till it fell apart – we have half a pot left for lunch or dinner tomorrow it will hit bread slices and become sandwiches — I also have another portion not cooked yet to freeze for later my cost saver – I buy whole roaster chickens and then use the bones for stock put those into plastic ice cube trays for bouillon 2 ice cubes = 1 salty premade stuff
I think it’s funny your hubby insists on using paper towels still. On a whim, I bought a package of chamois cloths from Costco ($15 for $32 if I remember correctly). I got one of those over-the-door paper towel holders and turned it inside the kitchen cabinet, and put a basket with the chamois in that cabinet. Although they all initially gave me a funny look, I am amazed how easily my family transitioned (hubby & 3 kids – 4, 5, & 10). We used to go through at least a roll of paper towels a week (often 2/week), but the roll we just finished lasted 4 months! We use them for almost all our clean-ups, hand drying in most of the bathrooms, and only use paper towels for things like draining bacon after frying or cleaning up broken eggs. I’m sure we could do this with the towels too and just immediately wash them in the sink, but we haven’t gotten that far yet.
Next step is buying cloth napkins! 🙂
Ha! That should have been $15 for 32 cloths. 🙂
When there’s left over vegetables, beans, grains or meat but not enough to have them for leftovers, I add them to a zip bag kept in the freezer. Sauté them (mixed) together, maybe add cheese, salsa, tiny bit of bacon or bacon fat or any favorite flavor enhancer….then either use as a filling for well stuffed omelet, or sauté together with eggs and make a “scramble” or cool slightly, combine with eggs and bake as a “frittata”. I used it as a solution for quick cooking when I wasn’t in the mood or short on time, but now we sometimes look forward to it! I’ve even used “doggy bag” hamburger and fries from a “up scale hamburger “joint”, chopped them up (not the buns) added cheese and eggs and made a “hamburger and fries frittata”….served with ketchup on the table and a simple salad…it was a hit! Also….extend homemade chili by serving over rice or spaghetti….saw it on the menu at a “fancy” restaurant and thought….there’s you go, simple ideas are gourmet too!!
Thanks so much for sharing your awesome ideas, Jane! Adding up the veggies in your bag overtime really makes a difference!
Chickens are wonderful. I know not everyone can have them, and I try very hard not to waste food, but if something is beyond its “prime” the chickens will eat it and turn it into eggs. 🙂 I had some old kitchen towels and cut them into pieces, zig-zagged the edges and use them as washable “un-paper towels.” I keep a garden and we eat out of it a lot, and I preserve what I can (that I can find room for) and share the rest. We keep a milk goat and get our milk for about $1.50 a gallon. I make a “shampoo bar” and we use that for our hair. Most of my clothing comes from thrift stores, but if I need something nicer, I make it myself. I cook nearly everything from scratch. I hand wash dishes. I buy one kind of lotion and use it for all lotion needs and I have ONE bottle of cologne. Well, I could go on and on and bore you to death. I just try to be frugal. That’s all.
Not boring at all! I’ve tried to convince my husband we don’t need paper towels, but we still have them. I do like using my rags for paper towels, though.
What a great series! I love the title, lol. We’ve done some crazy stuff at our house too. Like eat fried dandelion blossoms and wash toilet “paper” rags. It’s fun to see how little we can spend for a month or so to get a jump start on a goal.
Thanks so much, Angela! I love challenging myself to save or see how little we can spend. Thanks for sharing!
Using soap nibs – My husband piles them, with hotel soaplets, in a little bowl by his sink. The soap sticks to wet hands that reach into the dish.
He probably will never buy soap again; this little pile will last forever.
Hi Anne. That’s so funny! Thanks for sharing!
I love tacos so learning the refried beans trick really has saved me a lot of money!
Especially with the price of ground beef still rising, it’s nice to stretch the taco meat. Thanks for sharing, Brittany!