What's the most extreme example of effort to save a few pennies you have heard of?

*NightWanderer Wed 26-Apr-17 18:34:34

I don't know if this is common in the US, but an American friend mentioned that in winter she treats herself by doing the washing up in warm water but only uses cold for the rest of the year.*

many pages back, but still.

I can assure you this isn't common in the US. People not having a dishwasher in the UK is one of the things still thrown in my face when asked why I chose to live here.

lightyears with persistent allergies my snot doesn't really get thick just runny. I'd give the tissue a wee rub to soften them but crusty ones were binned. I should add I don't do this now!!!

MIL would take her shopping list for walk around all the shops/supermarkets in town comparing prices then go back around buying what she needed. She expected me to do the same......
My sister will drive 10 miles to another town to save 5p on a purchase, she gets everyone's presents from charity shops (including wedding presents); I was the lucky (?) recipient of a grubby, well worn oven glove on my birthday- she's certainly much better off than us, perhaps this is why! However she's very quick to criticise (new) presents she receives 😳☹️
MIL would also reuse presents to give to others, after she'd used them! One of my SILs was given a used gift set - soap and sponge clearly used (boak)

He goes to the pub, then rings the take-away next door that offers free delivery. He orders a delivery to his house, then sits into the car with the driver.

LOL I would feel so cheeky doing that, but its not a bad idea free taxi home.

My DH is the King of Savers (TM) The last time I asked him to get the car washed before the MOT he took it to Tesco and brought a bucket, sponge and soap. He used the free water (alongside the air) in the petrol station and used that as a 'jet wash' A saving of £4 with nice streaks all over

To the previous poster who said their in-laws rubbed a battery with a butter knife: I did it today for the doorbell as no spares to see if it worked, and it does.😄

I once met someone who broke the stalks off mushrooms in the supermarket before weighing them to save money. He thought that was perfectly normal behaviour.

The King of Sweden never takes baths as they are a waste of water and energy. He thinks they should be banned.

The founder of Ikea is one of the richest men on the planet but buys all his clothes second hand and will only get cheap hair cuts.

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp allegedly spends 2 million dollars a month and wonders why he's in debt.

At work, we had a serial toilet roll stealer. The cleaners did some detective work and it turned out to be someone really senior who was on about £70,000 a year

I know someone who puts his egg to boil in the kettle when he's boiling it for his morning tea

Always keep an eye on the price of gas and electricity. It's become another thing that you probably need to check and change every year or else you pay rip off prices (same for broadband, pay TV etc etc).

If you switch via quidco or the moneysavingexpert cheap energy club, you can also get cashback everytime you switch. It's really easy but apparently most people have never switched and then moan about how much they spend on gas and electricity.

I have lots of little money making schemes and rarely pay full price for anything. It means what we have goes a little bit further and we can afford holidays and an expensive hobby. It really is true that looking after the pennies makes the pounds look after themselves.

We have Now TV, which is very cheap anyway, but don't even need to pay the full price usually because you can buy starter sets that include a voucher for X months service, for less than normal cost.

Recently we got a box and 6 months service for £19.99 from Currys, which is worth nearly £42 without the box. I normally sell the box on ebay, but because we still had the old white box, this time we have kept the new, better box.

2 pair of tights- hiya thrush I've never had thrush But the stockings tip further up is so much better - although this thread isn't aimed at giving tips, I have found it useful.

I should do it tomorrow as it's due this week
Yes, def do it now, as I heard somewhere (Your and Yours? ) that any savings you make are quickly wiped out by not bothering to do this. The existing supplier wacks you up to the max rate.

Some of these are gross- drying tissues and wearing 2 pair of tights- hiya thrush [waves]
DH went through a stage of trying to by cheaper (by weight) versions of our shop, ie rather than dunkers would buy breadsticks and cheese spread. after a couple of months of throwing out half opened packets of soft breadsticks and moldy cream cheese he soon stopped ;)

My great grandma had something called a soap saver where you put the slivers of the end of the bar of soap which are hard to use into it. Eventually it pressed into a more usable bar of soap. She had lived through the depression and war era so was very careful.

I knew someone whose (extremely wealthy) grandma used to give them the free airline socks as Christmas presents and nothing else.

Some of these are making me feel guilty as we are pretty wasteful these days. I try and put things in for recycling but reusing is far better. Some of these are pure miserliness though.

Does everyone renegotiate their gas and electric supplier...I feel in the light of this thread I should do it tomorrow as it's due this week
We are with sse and even though I have to have our draughty barn really hot, we only pay £90 a month and usually there's some credit at the end of the summer.

They don't hassle us, we're on dd and they are usually quite easy to get hold of.

When exh lived here 13 years ago and a few more family members we were paying £150 per month.

My friend used to womble at tescos, Its when you collect receipts from the trolleys and car park that have unclaimed points on, On her next visit she would get them added to her clubcard claiming she had left her card at home on her last shop

The tights thing seems ridiculous to me. I've not worn tights for 30 years. Instead I wear a decent suspender belt and stockings, replacing a laddered leg as needed. I've got some stockings that are at least 2 years old but are still good to wear.

Did the tissues not go all crusty. Genius idea with the t shirt though.

As a student I lived in a very dusty house, nightmare if you've got allergies! I used to dry my tissues on the radiator and reuse. I'd go through multiple boxes a day and antihistamines didn't work. I couldn't afford to keep up. Soon after I designated an old tshirt a snot rag and washed it every night.

I had a disaster at school making meringue, the granulated sugar wasn't ground down enough

Some gift bags are just too pretty to throw away anyway.

I gave sil a birthday present two weeks ago, after he thanked me he said ..would you like the bag back...aye go on then , I said!

I always use second class.
If everyone did the same....as in everyone...there would be no first class would there?

I'll often use one teabag to make two cups of tea, especially as DP likes his really weak so it would be a waste to throw one away after it has barely met water. Though when we were living in university halls he would leave his teabag on the side of the sink for me, which I didn't really appreciate (though would use nonetheless!).

Like a pp I also love brocolli stalks, or rather, by guineas and rabbits too. Never seem to find discarded stalks in our supermarket though, but will start looking. Am sure I'd be allowed to take them for free if I did find some.

I don't reuse wrapping paper, but all paper and card gets thrown onto a fire rather than going into a bin, and food scraps go into the compost, which means out bins go out about once every six weeks. 99% of both our waste and recycling is plastic.

Someone earlier mentioned a friend taking bones off plates to make stock with - I do that, but only from DP and my own plates, and I only serve the resulting stock / gravy to ourselves. I've not killed us yet.

I only use caster sugar for Victoria sponge and meringues.