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?

Some of these suggestions are proper grubby! I can’t imagine ever embarrassing myself 🙈

Arsewater!!!!

My DM taught me that when you have a ladder in one leg of your tights you cut it off, throw away and keep the one legged remainder. When you have two 'pairs' of one legged tights you wear them together - ie the two good legs. I did this throughout my teens (though a little uncomfortable with two layers of nylon pants, which tended to twist round).

Don't they have a salt cellar in school?

No, it's forbidden under government healthy eating guidelines, which is all very well, but not eating all day is also not ideal.

But it IS theft. You’re supposed to pay for carrier bags. I was too embarrassed to get righteously indignant because technically I’d nicked something

And you're absolutely right, you are meant to pay for them. I'm just saying that I don't pay for them and couldn't actually imagine someone picking up on it and marching me right back to the till!

I do take tea out in a thermos sometimes on a car journey and a sandwich

@PandemicAtTheDisco

Cheeky things to save money?

My friend's ex always asked to charge his phone up at everyone's house. He wants to know wifi passwords even if it's a quick stop at someone's house rather than a visit.
He stuffs himself with food at parties, brings cheap stuff then drinks the expensive stuff. He takes leftovers home and freezes them.
He forgets to buy his round of drinks, he cadges lifts and doesn't offer petrol costs.
He regifts or buys in charity shops yet claims things are brand new and bought at full price. He resells charity stuff on ebay.

He goes into the charity donations store and takes anything he can use or sell.
He pretends to be asleep on trains or hides in the toilets to get out of paying.
He gets up early at the weekend and checks around cash machines to see if drunken revellers have dropped money or left it in the machines.

Is your friends ex Tam from Still Game?

There was a woman on a programme called "Extreme Cheapskates" who collected lint from the tumble dryer and used it as cotton wool to apply her makeup. She also cooked food in the dishwasher.

I also put water in the fairy liquid/hand wash when it's running out to give me a few days before I need to buy a new one. Everyone in my family does it too😂

@StrychnineInTheSandwiches

The vinegar thing doesn't leave any stink

I’ve used it for cleaning the bathroom. The smell is horrendous.

I cut open toothpaste tubes to scrape the last bits out.

@woodhill

I do take tea out in a thermos sometimes on a car journey and a sandwich

totally normal thing to do.

I just can't imagine asking café staff to add boiling water to my Nescafe granules

What’s the point in diluting a product with water if it actually functions by being diluted in water (washing up liquid, for instance)?

Surely you could just use a smaller amount.

I know I’m not the first to query this on the thread but honestly — it’s just so odd

We were at the services once & DH came back with about 70 of them!

I would seriously lose my erection over a bloke who did that. You can get a small mill of pepper for less than £1

I ask for a few extra milk sachets when i’m getting a drive-thru coffeee/tea - saves me buying and storing milk at work

Also diluted liquid hand wash is horrible to use, squirting out too fast and dribbling and not lathering properly, whereas a small dot of normal hand wash is perfectly fine

@Tsuni

There was a woman on a programme called "Extreme Cheapskates" who collected lint from the tumble dryer and used it as cotton wool to apply her makeup. She also cooked food in the dishwasher.

Apparently you can cook fish

I really wanted a Miele tumble dryer but a new one was not within my means. So I searched until I found one for sale, broken, 30 miles away and taught myself basic electronics with a few youtube videos and replaced the thermostat with a £20 part. It's still merrily going on, 3 years later and I am most pleased with my cheapskate self.

I can imagine, @FlyingGeeseAgain, but used in a hot washing machine it disappears.

I’ve used it for cleaning the bathroom. The smell is horrendous.

Do you use neat vinegar or a dilute solution that is similar to that produced by adding (say) 100ml to a washing machine rinse cycle?

@StrychnineInTheSandwiches

Me neither especially when they are trying to survive themselves

I just can't imagine asking café staff to add boiling water to my Nescafe granules

Me neither. It's just being a CF, but |I think that's what the OP wanted tales of.

As an aside though I always get the impression the majority of Mnetters would rather chop their own arm off than drink instant coffee.

When I was young I used to check the ‘change’ flap on public telephones in case someone has left a few coins in there. That was quite lucrative.

My Grandad once did that, many years ago, in a payphone right next to the fairground – plunged his hand straight in and found a goldfish that somebody had won and clearly didn’t want. Either that or thought it would be hilarious when somebody like my DGF came around and ignored the obvious cruelty.

It's quite legitimate to re-use stamps which haven't been franked. I can remember people in offices having drawers of them! I have a few in a drawer too.

Do you have a link to the place on the Royal Mail website where they state that? It’s only ‘legitimate’ in the same way as exploiting a confused shopkeeper who forgets that you haven’t yet paid, or gives you change for £20 when you only handed over a fiver – instead of doing what any honest person would do without a moment’s thought.

The day this happens to me I'd genuinely laugh. I never pay for a 15p/20p bag and really can't imagine someone taking me back to a self checkout just to scan it and pay for it

I saw it happen about a month ago at our local Asda. An entitled young woman with a trolley of bagged up goods and a couple of young kids was stopped by security, as she had taken several 20p bags and not paid for them. She obviously intended to steal them, as both kinds of self-scan checkouts ask you to confirm that you’ve not taken any new bags (or to tell them how many and pay for them) – and a cashier would obviously have told her.

She was so mortified and tried the ‘flustered young mum’ act on them – claiming first that she didn’t know they weren’t free (even though that type have never been free, from the time when they did legally give out the thin ones for nothing) and then kicking off that they were petty to make her pay for them. Everybody was staring at her and her toddlers were terrified and bawling loudly.

Ironically, Asda could legally have given her almost anything in the shop for free, should they have wished to – but those bags legally MUST be paid for. For all they knew, she could have been a Trading Standards plant, and they could have got into serious trouble had they let her go. All that for 80p – I wonder if she’ll think that worth trying again….

1. I buy the Kirkland kitchen roll from Costco because it can be washed, dried and reused at least twice before it needs to be binned.

1. Wonky veg.

1. Ignore best before and use by dates totally. If it hasn’t gone off I’ll eat (even if I need to scrape mould). I have saved so much money doing this.

1. I rarely eat out.

1. Costco eggs / petrol. I buy their massive pieces of salmon / trout and cut them into individual portions then freeze. Lasts us 1-2 mths usually. Their bags of tail on frozen prawns are good value too.

1. If you shop at Waitrose after 8 then almost all the bakery items are heavily discounted. I haven’t spent more than 30p on a loaf of wholemeal breas for nearly a year.

I dont drink coffee and I hate the price. I buy cheap nescafe coffee and pour it into a more expensive brand of coffee jar. DP is still alive.