To ask what small cheeky things you do to save money?

[monroeagogo]

DH routinely reuses stamps. His excitement when an envelope arrives and the stamp isn't marked is a wonder to behold.

Franking is the enemy.

What cheeky things do you do to save the pennies?

Is it not regional? It was always ‘the baths’ when I was a kid up north.
It still is!

I think you’re being naive

I'm not, quite the opposite in fact. I know how posters on here love to wind everyone up and watch them go. Knowing they can say absolutely anything and nobody will ever know.

If they use uv detectors at the sorting office why do they sometimes put big biro crosses over unfranked stamps? Or have they only started doing the uv franking recently. I collect fancy stamps and get disa[[ponted if they are spoilt that way.

Sometimes I'll reuse an envelope of it hadn't had a stamp on, ones with a printed thing on like from banks, pr scrub out the printed labels or big envelopes that you don't need many of and are fairly dear to buy and put a [new] stamp on, would that get picked up and cause problems
You could cheer up the postie if you had a uv pen, by drawing smiley faces on the envelope maybe

(tries desperately to claw the thread back from "illegal/pathologically stingy" to "cheeky" moneysaving ideas)

The most effective cheeky thing I do to save money is to ask for discounts on all medium and large purchases. I ask nicely and if they say no I don't push it, but it works often enough to be worth the momentary awkwardness!

I reuse unfrranked stamps on envelopes, I love it when I buy a “sleeper” on eBay - ( buy something someone didn’t recognise- like the George Jensen ring I bought for 4.99 ! ). Finding money in the street ( recently found £20 in a pile of leaves). I am so sad. Oh, I love beachcombing for things …that’s a big buzz when I Ebay them - mostly fossils, and sea glass

@TheOccupier

(tries desperately to claw the thread back from "illegal/pathologically stingy" to "cheeky" moneysaving ideas)

The most effective cheeky thing I do to save money is to ask for discounts on all medium and large purchases. I ask nicely and if they say no I don't push it, but it works often enough to be worth the momentary awkwardness!

Now that is quite cheeky, and a bit daring even. I would not like to watch this take place though.

My son's a security guard and it's actually against the law to detain a shop lifter in this way. Bloody frustrating when you have let the thieving scum go!

This isn’t true. A security guard is entitled to detain a shoplifter as long as they have reasonable grounds to suspect the theft under a 24a PACE and they can detain until a police officer arrives to take over.

OP I know this thread was meant in a good way but it seems to have attracted some judgey arseholes who think it is super funny to make snidey comments at those less well off then themselves (aside from the roll stealer post). Some people on here need to take a long hard look at themselves

The most effective cheeky thing I do to save money is to ask for discounts on all medium and large purchases. I ask nicely and if they say no I don't push it, but it works often enough to be worth the momentary awkwardness!

What rates as a medium purchase, please? I mostly end up not buying something if it's too much for me. I have no haggle skills at all and don't know how people judge these things.

OP I know this thread was meant in a good way

I don't think we know that for sure...

Whoever said “200ml is just as filling as 300ml”…you know it’s not, right? It’s literally 2/3 as filling. You are just eating 1/3 less, which is fine if it works for you but it’s not like it’ll necessarily work for others as a money saving tip confused

this. This is just an epic case of the eating/heating choice.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

The most effective cheeky thing I do to save money is to ask for discounts on all medium and large purchases. I ask nicely and if they say no I don't push it, but it works often enough to be worth the momentary awkwardness!

What rates as a medium purchase, please? I mostly end up not buying something if it's too much for me. I have no haggle skills at all and don't know how people judge these things.

I understand that a number of retailers will offer a discount, on white goods, TVs etc... it's rare that people do ask and many shop assistants aren't aware of this but it can be done. I did this on a tumble dryer many years ago. Haven't plucked up the courage since.

I think you are all so lucky with these extravagancies like having enough water to wash your face masks in the bath, I wish I had a bath, my husband does not even have a face, never mind the mask to go with it, I am thinking of LTB

I wake up 3 hours before I go to bed so I can take the 5-year-old teabags off the drying line, which we share with the next-door neighbours.

We have found a great way of saving money on food we do this thing in the afternoon maybe you can all do it, we wait for old man at number 27 to go play his bingo and we go into his house and empty what is in his kitchen bin and we make it into a soup for the whole road, we have made one last 15 decades.

I just hope one day we can have enough money to put the light on as at the moment we angle a sheet of tin foil against the street lamp so we can read the book we were given 10 years ago as a gift, we also like listening to next doors TV

Peace to you all.

@WhiteJellycat

I sneak alcohol into festivals. It's not so much saving money but the thrill of not getting found out. I do save a fair few quid but still buy lots of overpriced booze too. I'm getting better and more ingenious ( although I do look to old so maybe that's why I get away with it)

I use a wheelchair - I can quite easily sit on a few bottles of spirits and no-one is any the wiser, security don't search under my arse!

If I'm walking on the beach, I'll pick up bits of driftwood to dry and use as kindling. It's quite handy as lots of shops stop stocking it about now but I'll probably need to use my woodburner for another couple of months.

@monroeagogo

I've also been known to add extra rolls or cakes at the self checkout scale. Quite often, actually.

I'm like a big time thief.

I'm my local towns newspaper, front page story was someone diddling the self checkout tills

I literally couldn't care less. I don't pay for them and I'm not going to start paying for them

What a great attitude. As stealing is obviously ok, I'll be popping round to your house later to see if there's anything I fancy stealing.

Mary54
Not cheeky but I do make a lot of things myself which is usually cheaper. Bread, yogurt, soap, hand cream, solid shampoo bars etc. also grow a lot of veg which we freeze

That's not cheeky at all, it's very sensible.

OP I know this thread was meant in a good way but it seems to have attracted some judgey arseholes who think it is super funny to make snidey comments at those less well off then themselves (aside from the roll stealer post). Some people on here need to take a long hard look at themselves

That's an absolutely disgraceful thing to suggest that the poor will routinely go out and steal, rather than budgeting very carefully and living frugally (but honestly).

Some of the people on here are demonstrating selfishness and entitlement: not poverty. If somebody stole something from you, would you just smile resignedly and think "Oh well, they must be poor and obviously needed it more than I did" ?

What is snide about telling people who are boasting (with grinning face emojis) about stealing luxury and wholly non-essential goods - and saying that they feel they should be able to take whatever they want and not pay if they'd rather not - that, no they ^aren't 'being cheeky', but are actually thieves?

I honestly believe that, if somebody had come on here and non-proudly stated that they did on occasion take basic food when they had no money, rather than let their kids go hungry, nobody/barely anybody would outright condemn them. You must live an extremely privileged life if you consider people unable/unwilling to honestly fit Krispy Kreme donuts into their budget as 'poor'. They're monstrously overpriced and I wouldn't dream of buying them - but that also means that I leave them on the shelf and don't just take them anyway.

....And I may have missed one or two - not impossible - but I haven't noticed anybody sneering at people genuinely living frugally and making their money go further, without resorting to illegal/immoral tactics.

What's wrong with reusing unfranked stamps- especially with them putting the price up? I.also.buy cheap.and reduced price food.

This isn't cheeky - it's outrageous that manufacturers and sellers do this for us to look out for. The 'pink tax' means that often goods aimed at the female market cost more than the same item aimed at the male market. Razors are a classic case. Compare quality and price next time you're shopping for razors and look in the men's section too.

Fill kettle once in morning and pour whole kettle into a large thermos. Keep this next to the kettle to avoid unnecessary boiling of kettle.

I can't see how this saves money though.
Why not only boil the amount you need, when you need it. By only boiling that one mug full in the first place rather than a full kettle, you will have saved enough money to boil the other 4 mug fulls you need during the day, surely ?
As a bonus, your water will be boiling each time you make a drink throughout the day, rather than gradually reducing slightly (and then more rapidly) each time you make a drink.

Not cheeky but I always check my receipts and my change - mistakes happen ALOT. Also always check the use by dates / quality / substitutions on my online grocery shop and will ask for refunds if they are shorter than advertised / damaged / poor value for money. For example, I ordered 2 bags of mini eggs this week, £6 for 600g. They substituted 6 x 80g bags for £6, whereas I think they should
have substituted 8 to match the value, so I asked for a refund of 2 bags. Mistakes like this often happen.

Probably said by some judge poster who has no money worries whatsoever

I have some money worries. In the past I’ve had huge money worries (teen single mum). I have never considered just taking things from shops without paying to ‘save money.’ Many a time I’d have liked a cake but didn’t have enough so nappies and bread and milk went in the trolley and I went without a cake because I couldn’t afford it. I never considered just putting it in my bag and taking it home anyway.

Same with coffee on days out. If I couldn’t afford one I didn’t get it. I didn’t expect a cafe to provide me with hot water. In fact, if I couldn’t afford the price of a drink at a cafe we probably wouldn’t be on a day out, or would have packed juice to drink later.

@User76745333

My son's a security guard and it's actually against the law to detain a shop lifter in this way. Bloody frustrating when you have let the thieving scum go!

This isn’t true. A security guard is entitled to detain a shoplifter as long as they have reasonable grounds to suspect the theft under a 24a PACE and they can detain until a police officer arrives to take over.

Yes, but not carted off to a private office, that would leave them open to all sorts of accusations