He is so frugal he......

I bring home soaps and lotions from hotel rooms. I have a basket of them in the guest bathroom. I haven't bought a bar of soap in years.

+1
At one time business class(Megacorps dime) on American they gave out travel kits, had decent travel toothbrushes. We'd stock the guest bathroom room with them too. Use em and dispose.

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I flatten the toothpaste tube against the bathroom counter but most people use too much toothpaste. You only need a pea size portion.
I use plastic food containers not ziplock bags for food storage. I normally don't have much as far as leftovers. Only cook small portions.
We use to cut paper towels in half because you rarely use a whole one but stopped when select-a-size came out. Will cut the smaller size if I only need a small piece.
I can see saving a couple of recycled glass/plastic jars, plastic bags and tie wraps but not the tons that a friend saves. It's a waste of space to store them and what guarantees that you get those plastic bags clean. I can still see the tons of old bread bags and ties that we threw out at a neighbors house.
Those of you that buy Talenti, wow, that's expensive. What is it $5 or 6 a pint?
 
....I guess what we used to call "being cheap" is now referred to as "being green." Dad is proud of the fact that his weekly garbage consists of one plastic grocery bag full of stuff (he recycles his newspapers, glass and cans), but he doesn't necessarily identify himself as an "environmentalist;" it's just what one DOES.

Around here, we pay about $2/kitchen sized bag for trash disposal so recycling is both green and frugal.
 
Heard today, "I'll get you a Christmas card tomorrow, after they go on sale."
 
... millionaires smuggle their own drinks into pub, save string, recreate bars from soap slivers, re-use things you wouldn't ever want to know.

Ha

Exactly what I was thinking!

Some people confuse frugal with cheap.

I'm not going to wash zip lock bags or reuse foil.
 
Back in my youth, I was having a beer or several at a friend's place. I went to his bathroom for a pee and saw a bunch of condoms drying on the shower curtain rod. Just glad we were straight and same gender. This was pre aids and even herpes if that matters.
 
I'm in with the in crowd.

Wash and re-use ziplock bags, bring my lunch to w*rk every day, make my own breakfast, pour hot water over the coffee grounds my husband uses for his morning coffee for my own weak cup in the AM, always re-use tea bags, the toothpaste thing, probably wear my disposable contact lenses longer than I should (but I only wear them 3 days a week while at w*rk), use the soap slivers until they are gone. Part of it is buying high quality hypoallergenic soaps and special toothpastes and not wanting to waste them.

I don't use plastic containers except for my hobby of abstract painting - switched to glass food storage a few years ago. I do use paper towels: 1) I'm messy, 2) I think they are more sanitary than cloth, 3) I don't do enough laundry to make it worthwhile to wash just a few. I have been known to wash out a paper towel and reuse it though.

The 2 exceptions to not reusing the ziplocks: raw meat or chicken stored in them, onions unless I can substitute with a new 1/2 onion.

I am not frugal in many areas but I'd love to cut cable if DH would consent. I buy organic fruits and vegetables and good quality shoes and clothes that last a long time but have a bigger up-front expense. However I got a great deal on a pair of Mephisto clogs on eBay. The ones I was wearing probably cost $230 new and they literally broke in half one day after about 10 years of daily wear. I found the same style, now discontinued, but not the same color, on eBay for $28. I wish there had been 2 in my size, I would have snatched them up.

:) NW well north of $2M, grew up poor. My mother saved everything. Clearing out her house before she died when she was in the nursing home was a long laborious process.


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Every 3 or 4 days I put my dish sponge in a small jar, add ~4 drops of bleach, fill it with water, cap it and let sit until it's needed next. Why? Sponges gross out long before they wear out.

Back when my sister had a rabbit, I grocery shopped at places where the cashiers would ask customers if they wanted the greens removed from their fresh carrots. If so, the greens went in the trash. I'd usually ask the cashier if they had any carrot greens because my rabbit loved them.
 
This is a really funny thread.

Sure is, makes me feel like a wasteful person.....I keep reminding myself that if I had somehow gotten the last few dabs of toothpaste out of the tubes I went through in life, I could have used a dozen or so less, saving roughly $36.00 (less sales tax). ;)
 
I will admit to re-using ziplocs, but never any that I've used for meat, dairy, or seafood. Those get thrown away. I invested in one of those super size plastic wrap dispensers from BJ's, the 3000 ft x 12 inches size.

Mr B and I buy large amounts of meat and cheese, cut to meal or snack portion size, and rewrap them individually. Less waste and rarely any leftovers.

I will repair things that break versus replacing them. My arsenal of Elmer's Glue, SuperGlue, duct tape, and thin florist's wire comes in real handy. If something is beyond repair, I set it out by the road with a FREE sign on it, for the local metal recyclers and tinkerers to grab.

It disappears very quickly.
 
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Does anyone can their own fruits and veges anymore, or is that just assumed? Also, take a nylon stocking (old) put your bar soap in that and hang it on the shower handle. Soap lasts a lot longer, and you don't waste (when the bar gets small, just add another bar to the sock- all gets used evenly)
 
When the bar of soap gets down to a sliver, just stick it to a new bar and it becomes one slightly larger bar easy to hold. You will use all of it up.
 
Now my Dad is cheap, but if he ever takes to sawing the TP in half...

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Well, if your Dad tends to do things in a half-assed way...
 
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I take little single size portions of Wholly Guacamole to Chipolte. They get $2 for the same amount I can get for 50 cents with a coupon of course.
 
Every 3 or 4 days I put my dish sponge in a small jar, add ~4 drops of bleach, fill it with water, cap it and let sit until it's needed next. Why? Sponges gross out long before they wear out.
Or you can just run the sponge through the dishwasher. Most dishwasher detergent is bleach based. :)
 
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