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

[wineoclockthanks]

Lighthearted!!

Mine is someone who buys shirts/t-shirts and asks for the hangers, then returns the clothes minus the hangers.

I did mention that Wilkos sell 10 wire hangers for £1.75 but she was adamant it was worth it.

Please can I stress this is lighthearted, I am also on a tight budget and count my pennies so not judging at all.

You save even more by not buying tights at all.

If you take penny pinching to the extreme you will never be able to spend the money saved as it will be so abhorrent to you

My best friend's father was a total miser. The whole house was run on a shoestring

Some examples:
He only allowed his wife to buy bars of soap (no handwash, shampoo etc) and would make "new" bars from the leftover tiny bits of soap at the end of use using a mould to squeeze them together.
He also had a screw key that got the last squeeze out of a tube of toothpaste.
When he wanted to get "healthy" he made his wife dilute their milk with water to make "skimmed milk" to save a few pennies.
Shampoo was diluted washing up liquid.
The house was carpeted in a patchwork of other people's off cuts and skip finds.
Tea bags were hung out on a string line to be dried out and reused.

A lot of people did this sort of thing when I was a child but he really took it to the limit.

I don't like strong tea so make sure to pop my tea bag into hubbies tea as he likes builders tea. I still make dusters etc from worn out clothes - and yes we have those as I wear things to the end of their life - lol

I have even crocheted dishcloths (with some cotton couldn't think what to do with as had faded and was learning to crochet)

I break dishwasher tablets in half- it does just as good a job!

A lot of shops happily give hangers away if you ask! I work in a department store and there's so many that staff take bags and bags of them home!

I so need to save the water like you TroysMammy, ours takes bloody ages to come through hot.

I don't have the energy for sever penny pinching right now but I did turn wrinkled fruit into a passable dessert this week.

Have also collected sugar sachets when out for DC to put on cereal when I CBA to sort a pot to put sugar in, therefore stopped buying it.

A friend of a friend buys literally EVERYTHING from charity shop, including underwear! For the whole family and furniture and toys. And if people give her kids money for birthdays and xmas she uses it to buy them charity shop things and passes them off from herself! Even made her own pinata for birthday and filled it with 1 sweet for each child

My mum's old neighbour used to push his car out the garage rather than drive it to save, oooh, 0.0001p worth of petrol!

I also turn everything bar the fridge/freezer off overnight. Admittedly it's not for saving money reasons, more that a fireman scared me into doing it, but my electricity bills are really low for a family of 4 so maybe it does save a few pennies!

Some of these definitely aren't penny-pinching but are just down right sensible and 'green'.

We reuse just about everything that can be reused and don't consider it to be 'cheap'. What's the issue with reusing wrapping paper/gift bags if they still look decent?
What's wrong with reusing tinfoil from your sandwiches (or rinsing out sandwich bags and reusing?)
Likewise soap - do people really throw away the last bit of a bar? We just stick it to the new one while they are both wet.
I also cut open almost-empty bottles of conditioner etc so you can get the last bits out - sometimes there's enough there for several days worth of hair washing.

We are reasonably well off so this isn't done out of financial necessity but out of a refusal to waste what needn't be wasted (and I guess, a not very well off upbringing)

'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'

You can also melt the scraps down in a double broiler and then put them in a mould.

'Does everyone renegotiate their gas and electric supplier..'

We don't because we're on a pre-payment meter, the prices are all the same and to change to non-meter would cost us money we don't have.

I always put some water in the bottle to use the last of the handwash. Too much though and it renders it useless as it is just water that comes out.

What's wrong with broccoli stalks?! Slice and steam with rest of broccoli, they're very tasty!

I must admit that I don't always flush after a little pee, especially if it's in the toilet that only DH and I use. It doesn't smell and will get flushed next time.

Re. the woman who used kitchen towels instead of sanitary pads, probably more expensive per unit than using cheap, non branded pads!

I take my glasses off when I'm not looking at anything.

My ex-husband used to follow me around Tesco to make sure I didn't buy my family birthday cards. He now, according to the kids, empties salt and sugar packets from Costa into napkins and takes them home so he doesn't have to buy sugar.

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.

DP used to do this before we met. He's still very proud of it to this day

I only toast bread on one side for cheese on toast but not out of any moneysaving reason, just that's how I've always made cheese on toast and the edges burn if you toast both sides before adding the cheese.

I toast one side, flip over, add cheese, aiming to go up to the edge of the bread but not over, so the melted cheese doesn't run all over the place and toast until the cheese bubbles.

'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.'

And they actually let him in, some random? I'd tell him to get out of my car.

I had a friend who carried a small notepad around to record everything she spent each day. At the end of the week, she'd total it all up and aim to spend even less the next week. I remember her being angry with herself once for forgetting to note down the cost of a drink.
She was 21 at the time

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.

Genius!!

We flew from Glasgow to save £300. We drove there.
We live in Bedfordshire.
So we gave our town a little wave as we flew over it on our way to Turkey 😂

Barbara I make it like that too. Surely that is the correct way.

Have remembered something DSis did for health reasons rather than ££ saving. 1 commercial cigarette, split open and devide between ten roll ups. Still smokes but makes 1 skinny roll up last a day.

My mother used to separate cotton wool balls when taking off her mascara and only use half of one. She also used to rip dryer sheets in two and use half - same with kitchen paper. She can't follow a recipe because she's always cutting the amounts of butter, sugar, etc. If she makes a sandwich you can't tell if she's buttered it or not. I can't remember the last time she has bought new clothes for herself as she relies on other family members' castoffs. I could go on...

I am not the same way inclined and as a result I have felt intensely guilty about spending money my whole life. I understand the value in being frugal but also means she is unable to simply relax and enjoy ANYTHING if it involves possible expenditure of money.