The cheapest thing you have ever done.... come on now, admit it.

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arc If this is a contest - I vote for Khan! Please tell me you are single!

Single.

I didn't have A/C 'til I retired and was home all day.

But I live in Ohio not Louisiana; don't think I can outcheap unclemick2.

[Arc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khan Single. I didn't have A/C 'til I retired and was home all day. But I live in Ohio not Louisiana; don't think I can outcheap unclemick2.

What part of Ohio? If driving distance from Pitt then I need to come for a few lessons! I'll leave the wife at home.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khan Took a rabbit away from the cat and gave it to a neighbor who knows how to prepare such; got two cooked legs in return.

And twenty stitches? If that cat is like any I've met, he made you pay something for that bunny!

[Fireup2020]

Taken advantage of free food items from a church in lieu of being a Cub Scout leader (volunteer work for food program)

Most of the stuff you guys do (re-gifting, leftovers, ebay, etc)

I typically do not have kleenex around...(tp works just fine!)

Thrift store shopper!

[calmloki]

Well, in the 60's at one point I went through my ashtray, stripped the Pall Mall butts, and rolled smokes from the tobacco recovered. Whagh! Almost as tough a smoke as the Gauloises I smoked once in Seattle when i had a bus ticket and had to choose between food and smokes. That was also the era in which I convinced myself that the grey and slippery hamburger was edible since A: a dog would probably eat it, and B: it would be cooked, so any bacteria would be killed.
It's better not to be a smoker and to have enough doss to avoid food I have to convince myself is safe and edible.

[sgeeeee]

Here are a couple of the things I do that some people find cheap.

1) DW and I travel by car a lot. We travel all over the country to visit places and do volunteer work. Since we live in Mesa, AZ, we end up traveling across Reservations fairly frequently. Of course, nearly all Reservations today have casinos. And casinos have free coffee and soft drinks. Niether of us has any interest in gambling, but we often stop at casinos, park the car, walk in with our travel mugs, fill up on free drinks, and go back to the car to carry on our journey.

2) When I was working, I traveled a lot and the company tended to put me up in very high-end hotels. I always collected the free soap, shampoo, hand lotion etc. each day from the hotels I stayed in. I traveled enough that DW and I have not purchased any soap or shampoo in over a decade. We still have quite a stockpile too.

We spend plenty of money on things we really want, but try not to overlook a chance to save (even pennies) when it doesn't diminish our pleasure and core values.

[Enuff2Eat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgeeeee Here are a couple of the things I do that some people find cheap. 1) DW and I travel by car a lot. We travel all over the country to visit places and do volunteer work. Since we live in Mesa, AZ, we end up traveling across Reservations fairly frequently. Of course, nearly all Reservations today have casinos. And casinos have free coffee and soft drinks. Niether of us has any interest in gambling, but we often stop at casinos, park the car, walk in with our travel mugs, fill up on free drinks, and go back to the car to carry on our journey. 2) When I was working, I traveled a lot and the company tended to put me up in very high-end hotels. I always collected the free soap, shampoo, hand lotion etc. each day from the hotels I stayed in. I traveled enough that DW and I have not purchased any soap or shampoo in over a decade. We still have quite a stockpile too. We spend plenty of money on things we really want, but try not to overlook a chance to save (even pennies) when it doesn't diminish our pleasure and core values.

sgeeee, how about them towels? ;-)


enuff

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem he made you pay something for that bunny!

You *always* pay something for the bunny...

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat sgeeee, how about them towels? ;-) enuff

That's a line I've honestly never crossed. That would be stealing.

I did think of one other "cheap" thing we do, though. We do collect a few extra condiment PCs when we stop at restaurants along the road. These come in handy when we backpack or do primitive camping somewhere.

[whitestick]

Well, since we are admitting things.
When I was working on a project to do engineering changes on a string of microwave towers across the midwest during the winter, rather then spend the per diem money, or use gas to drive to a motel in the next town, two of us bunked in a two room burlap tent all winter long. Campground was closed for the winter, so no charge to camp. We had a catalytic heater that we would fire up, for a couple of hours when we got to the tent from the job site, and used an electric griddle to cook our store bought food. Of course we ran an extension cord to a neighboring site, to get the electricity for that griddle. They had left it turned on, thinking no one would be there during the winter. Since it was winter, we didn't need a refrigerator to keep food or beer cold, we just set it outside the tent. Took shower at work, using the eyewash dispenser. Brought TV from home, to plug into aforementioned neighbors cord. Could only get two stations though, thought about climbing a tree to hang an antenna, but neither of us had climbing gear.
Since the tent walls weren't insulated, when it snowed, and the heat from our bodies melted the snow on the top of the tent, we had to "flip" the ceiling to get the slush and snow off, so it wouldn't fall on our necks when we went outside.
At the time, we didn't realize how bad it was, but in retrospect, it does sound a "bit" cheap.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh I took the towels too...called them my "towels of the world collection"...

I had a few ladyfriends exclaim from the powder room "Hilton?..."

[saluki9]

Wow, I have nothing to compete with you folks

I guess the closest I come is when I take an extra packet or two of equal from Starbucks (never to put in coffee of course) but for my tea later in the day.

[Outtahere]

Yep, I'd say ya'll are pretty cheap.

The only thing I do that would be considered cheap is I save those twisty things from food storage bag boxes, I have a small box full that I use for all kinds of things, like to reclose frozen bags of veggies.

I do a lot of the above and I also reuse gift wrap.

[HFWR]

I've bought used tires (thankfully, back in the bad ol' days)...

I own several Goodwill sport coats, $5-$7 ea, plus drycleaning...

Buy (almost) everything generic; heck, some of it's too bad even for me...

Outtahere, your avatar needs something................ Oh, yeah, ME in the middle... :P

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Outtahere I also reuse gift wrap.

My mother used to re-use gift wrap, and she even used folded rectangles cut from the leftover scraps of gift wrap for gift cards on our Christmas presents.

Guess I come by this LBYM stuff naturally. When I asked her why she never bought lettuce, she told me "it turns brown in a couple of days so why bother!". Now that is cheap. I'm not THAT cheap.

[Sue J]

I reuse paper towels. My son washes his hands a lot at the kitchen sink. It's not anything OCD-like, he just likes to wash after coming into the house, after working with anything. Sounds like a fine habit to me. But he uses TWO BOUNTY PAPER TOWELS everytime he dries his hands! So I've told him to leave those on the side counter for me and I reuse them for things like spots on the kitchen floor, cat throw-up, spills on the stove, spatters in the microwave, stuff like that. I wouldn't use them for things like wrapping food in the microwave, but I see nothing wrong with getting a 2nd use out of a fairly clean paper towel.

He thinks this is really cheap, but I think I'm thrifty! And he's not the one paying for the paper towels.

[Empty Pockets]

I hit a pheasant driving home one day. Yup, I picked it up off the road and took it home and cooked it.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Do you need the recipe I gave tbone-Al for the birds who kept flying into his windows? Stuffing with sausage, wrapping in bacon and grilling?

I just need to figure out a way to get a cow to fly into one of my windows...

[simple girl]

I buy the majority of my clothes from Goodwill. One store even had a frequent shoppers card, and after you filled it up you got $10 free merchandise. If you shop at the right Goodwill store (ie. areas close to affluent residents), you can find some really nice things! I admitted this to one of my girlfriend's once (after she complimented me on my clothes), and she was appalled. Oh well!

Instead of buying new shoes, I just put a little shoe polish on, and they look good as new! Part of this is because I like to save money, but a big part is I'm lazy. Once I find a pair of shoes that fit, I hate to have to go find another pair. I really just don't like shopping all that much.

I do buy some clothes new, of course, but only when they are on sale.

[FinanceDude]

Ok..........I am embarrassed to admit this, but:

When I was in college, and working my way through school, there was a pizza place about 8 blocks from where I lived. At the end of the night, whatever pizza slices that were not sold were thrown in a dumpster. Thankfully they were still in the little closed carton they sat under the heat lamps in.

We used to do "dumpster runs" about 1:30am, after the place was closed.........

How desperate is that??