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.

This is true; the family would 'dry out' teabags on the boiler and re use them. Time after time.

I use a Ecoegg instead of mainstream washing powder/gel. I bought it for 19.99 about 3 months ago and with all the extra pellets they give u your supposed to get 720 washes it's brill I love mine. Used to buy fairy powder so I've defo saved already.
Shop at Aldi, you'd be surprised how much u can buy for 40-50 quid.
I buy a tub of coconut oil from aldi for 2.99 and use it to get make up off, night moisteriser , hair treatment ect lasts ages!
Co-op after 7 ish all the bread,bakery stuff is massively reduced I bought some baguettes for 12p.

DH insists that no bottle is 'empty' even at the point when it is impossible to actually get anything out of it. He will put shampoo bottles back in the shower when I have put them out for the recycling bin, and balance them upside down because he's sure I can still get some more out of them. I go in the shower, squeeze the empty bottle and get a gnat's sneeze worth of conditioner on my hand.

I use ereaderiq to track the books I want to read and only allow myself to buy them when they're 99p.

I've had loads of great books this way but it's probably not as money saving as I'd like to believe as I have about 300 books on my virtual to be read pile, which will last years even if I stopped buying books which I can't while they keep going down to 99p.

Wiping and then reusing cling film.

Friend of mine creased up that her dad waited to drive into town for dinner until 8.00 pm so he could park in the carpark for free. They are loaded, and he was about to spend a load of money on restaurant food and wine, but didn't want to pay £1 for parking :-D

We are on a water meter and I am slightly obsessed with how much water we use, I now get dd to keep the plug in when she has a shower and I use the water to water the garden I also use the water from washing up, hot water bottles and even the cats water bowl!! The flowers don't seem to mind

When I drive, and I see a red light in the distance, I would slow down, like really come to a crawl, such that by the time I reach it, it would turn green, I keep timing/ doing this so that for an entire journey I never need to break and start again, to save petrol. I don't know if people behind me get angry.

When its a downhill, I would hit the clutch and freewheel down, even if its a very gentle one, and slowly roll down.

When I refuel, I would hold and shake the petrol nozzle thing until every last drop comes out

Oh, and of course I don't own a car, I would buy 12 different items from around the country before I rent a van to collect them all in one sitting. When I rent a van for 24 hours, I collect the van at 755am, and return it at 805am the next day, without stopping!

That's how you cram £1000 worth of delivery costs into a £39 rental.

I haven't read the full thread so not sure if it's been said but DH has a tendency to wash disposable straws...!

I can't stand feeling that I'm being ripped off!

Me and my mum are the same. She is v wealthy, I am v not!

But the feeling of being "seen off" as she puts it stands for both of us. If something is good quality and worth the price then I will happily pay it, but if it is clearly a rip off then I wont, no matter how much I want whatever it may be.

holly my mum used to do that too.

I guess it is no real difference to washing the cups that have attached straws. But I still didn't really like it growing up.

However....."freeze leftover wine to use in soups and casseroles"

Left over wine? This is not a concept I ever intend to become familiar with!

The teabags I will never understand. Why, why do you do that to tea? What did tea ever do to you to deserve that? Just NO! My 11-year-old likes a strong cuppa. Poor tea!

I've posted about this before so please forgive repetition. MIL has a water meter and is particular about wastage when every drop costs*. When she runs the hot tap, a fair amount of cold water flows through before the hot arrives, so she collects what would oerwise go down the drain in empty plastic milk bottles and uses it to water the garden. This explains the collection of water-filled plastic milk bottles lined up by her back door.

*I wish to God her daughter was as particular.

My FIL uses the edges of stamps at Tippex !!!!!

I meant as Tippex - I think that wins ?!

A friend came for coffee and brought a half-eaten packet of biscuits. She said her husband fancied a few🙄.

I do quite a lot of the things listed on this thread.

I also make my own bacon & ham as it's cheaper as well as tasting better.

I use my Kelly Kettle to boil water instead of my electric kettle - this halved my electricity bill.

I also phone my internet/phone provider annually to ask why I should stay with them, 5 out of the last 6 years I've been given free line rental for the year & have no contract so not tied in at all.
Which is not particularly extreme but it all adds up.

OOOOH oooh ooh! Just remembered an absolutely golden one.

Went on a night out a few years back and a few days later, one of the women who came out with us pulled a load of photo prints out her bag - of photos of the night out obvs. They were just printed on cheap copier paper and were not good quality. She asked me if i'd like one and i said 'yes please', more out of politeness than anything. She replied 'they're 5 pence each'.

5 pence!!!!!!

I used to date this bloke who was a solicitor and drove an Audi convertible (He was certainly rich by my standards!) He would hang around the supermarket until things were down to 7p and then buy them. I remember having an argument about him wanting to buy broccoli for 7p, even though neither of us like broccoli,
"But it's only 7p!"
"Neither of us like broccoli!"

I use my Kelly Kettle to boil water instead of my electric kettle - this halved my electricity bill.

Wow, you must really like tea if boiling the kettle more economically halved your bill!

I have a Kelly Kettle and adore it but am in a flat so cannot use it to halve my electricity bill (I too drink gallons of tea). Do you set it up in the garden, or in a fireplace or something, Snugglepumpkin?

We have very wealthy friends who always try to take the receipts when we go out to eat and we suspect they are claiming them back as business expenses.

Best one was when a group of us went out for lunch, people had to leave at different times so were just leaving what they thought they owed and a couple of quid for a tip. He took all the cash, paid on his card but then went to leave without leaving a tip, meaning they were only paying about £3, subsidised by other people's tips. Luckily one person "reminded" him and he grudgingly paid up

There is a tale locally similar to the chap getting a lift home with the takeaway driver of a chap who lived not far from the hospital but drank every Friday at the other end of town. He would drink all his money, couldn't afford a cab home so would ring an ambulance, claim to have chest pain, go to the hospital then sneak out and walk home. The ambulances knew what he was doing but weren't allowed to refuse him just in case

Brilliant idea about the water Troysmammy
Haven't RTFT yet.

My grandad used to put dead batteries on his radiators to 'perk them up a bit'!! 🤔😳 batteries ffs.

And my mum washes out freezer bags and reuses them. Fuck that for a lark. I just get mine in Aldi for about 50p for 100!!