Silly Frugality?

[Walt34]

My silliest frugal action is probably reusing teabags - I saw my parents do this regularly. While I rarely do it these days, I still feel funny throwing out a tea bag after using it for just a small amount of tea.

My mother used to reuse tea bags. I guess that gene didn't pass and I'm a profligate waster of tea bags because I only use them once. Doesn't bother me a bit.

 

[Music Lover]

The last time I cleaned out my utility room, I gave all my wood scraps to my brother. He has a fire pit in his yard that we all enjoy. The smaller scraps made for good kindling and the larger scraps burned for a good while (particularly the hardwood).

Of course I've accumulated more scraps since then...

Actually, I've done that. My sister and her husband have a fire pit and I gave them all the scraps less than 2' in length this past summer. I might have to do another purge and pass some more wood along to them.

 

[SecondCor521]

I travel occasionally and every time I go into the hotel room I immediately take all of the soap, shampoo, and conditioner (except one that I use) and put those in my backpack. If I'm there multiple days, I'll make sure to keep using the one soap and shampoo from the first day and stash any additional extras the housekeeping service refreshes me with. I do the same thing with the tea and coffee bags.

After years of doing this, I looked at the results and realize that for all of my effort, I've collected approximately $10.83 worth of shampoo, conditioner, soap, tea, and coffee. In total. I still don't think I am cured.

 

[Luck_Club]

OK not mine but real world examples from family members:
1) Paper towels
2) Plastic zip lock bags
and last but not least
3) Paper napkins

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Food waste is a real problem, but that was simply an example by the OP to illustrate a question.

DW more than me, but she keeps:
- saving partially used paper towels to wipe up water splashed from the sink
- saving plastic ice cream containers to store food in (see my post on new food containers under the amazon thread; I ditched these dang things while she wasn’t looking!)
- saving little packets of jelly, ketchup, etc. from eating out
- saving chopsticks from takeout even though she doesn’t use them and we’ll get more in the next order anyway

 

[GravitySucks]

I get that. I have some small bits of wood that I'm sure I'll use any day now. And I've been saying that for many, many years!

I also hate to throw out random nuts, bolts and screws. I have a small utility cabinet full of them.

I have so many nuts bolts and screws I can never find what I want.
I take a buck and ride my bike to the Village hardware store and get what I need and have a chat with the owner.
So the jar grows fuller, but Bob stays in business with my $0.47 purchase.

 

[joeea]

saving chopsticks from takeout even though she doesn’t use them and we’ll get more in the next order anyway

That's one I haven't heard before.

Does she have an alternative use for chopsticks?

 

[athena53]

I have lots of those habits.

My maternal grandparents had a hard time in the Depression and they would "eat up that last little bit" of food in the serving dish rather than throw it out. They were both overweight. I live on my own and buy much of my produce in Costco-size quantities but rarely throw anything out- I refrigerate or freeze leftovers and can always find some use for them.

Other things: it kills me to go over the lowest tier of voice usage on my Ting Plan (that costs another $3 or so after 60 minutes!), I cringe when I get the first text message of the billing period ($3 for 1-100 messages) and I have not yet gone over the lowest tier of data (100 mb). I hand-wash my underwear. I use the back of papers I'm done with for scratch paper. I keep my thermostat at 65 degrees during the day in the heating season even though I'd like it to be a few degrees warmer.

I tell myself this is why I can afford to fly Business Class on long hauls.

 

[flintnational]

Leftovers? What are leftovers? Our chef never makes those. Although, I think his assistant said he tried them once. I'll ask our sommelier if he has ever had them. At least he will know what wine to serve with them.

P. S. Our gardner says he eats them all the time.

 

[EastWest Gal]

A couple of years ago there was a thread here about washing and reusing plastic bags. But then, it's a conserve, re-use, recycle thing. It's not just about frugality.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

That's one I haven't heard before.

Does she have an alternative use for chopsticks?

I think she believes I’ll use them, but of course we always get two sets in each order.

Her habits are motivated more by reduce/re-use/recycle rather than financial concerns. Otoh, She grew up with a working single mother in the 1950s who never had much, and old habits of frugality die really hard, I guess.

 

[ivinsfan]

I have lots of those habits.

My maternal grandparents had a hard time in the Depression and they would "eat up that last little bit" of food in the serving dish rather than throw it out. They were both overweight. I live on my own and buy much of my produce in Costco-size quantities but rarely throw anything out- I refrigerate or freeze leftovers and can always find some use for them.

Other things: it kills me to go over the lowest tier of voice usage on my Ting Plan (that costs another $3 or so after 60 minutes!), I cringe when I get the first text message of the billing period ($3 for 1-100 messages) and I have not yet gone over the lowest tier of data (100 mb). I hand-wash my underwear. I use the back of papers I'm done with for scratch paper. I keep my thermostat at 65 degrees during the day in the heating season even though I'd like it to be a few degrees warmer.

I tell myself this is why I can afford to fly Business Class on long hauls.

I hand wash underwear because my stupid water saver washer with an agitator chews them up.

On the heat, we've started going to 69-70 during the day in winter. We finally figured out it was stupid spending big hunks of money going somewhere warm for a week and them being cold inside our own home for the entire winter.

 

[KenZ71]

I've been told I am quite the cheapskate, I like to think of it as efficient spending.

When eating out usually scan the menu by price and pick a lower cost item. Then eat the stuff in order of what won't taste as good next day.

House is heated to 62, wear at least 2 to 3 layers in heating season.

Leftover is another name for my next meal

Been known to re-use DW's k-cups then pour the weak coffee in my French press.

Gave up alcohol partly for the cost

 

[Walt34]

House is heated to 62, wear at least 2 to 3 layers in heating season.

Yeow! There was a thread a while back on "what do you splurge on" or something (I can't find it now) and one of mine was heat in the winter. Right now the thermostat is set at 78°F. That said, we have natural gas heat (i.e., cheap) and extra insulation for the house.

Gave up alcohol partly for the cost

Well, there's frugality, and then there's deprivation.

 

[joeea]

Been known to re-use DW's k-cups then pour the weak coffee in my French press.

That's a new one!

Gave up alcohol partly for the cost

Now there - that's over the line!

 

[joeea]

Yeow! There was a thread a while back on "what do you splurge on" or something (I can't find it now) and one of mine was heat in the winter. Right now the thermostat is set at 78°F. That said, we have natural gas heat (i.e., cheap) and extra insulation for the house.

78 in the winter? Wow, that seems uncomfortably hot to me. Do you run a humidifier? Otherwise isn't that awfully dry?

In the winder we set our thermostat at 68 during the day and turn it down to 60 for the night. We also have natural gas and lots of insulation.

 

[joeea]

After years of doing this, I looked at the results and realize that for all of my effort, I've collected approximately $10.83 worth of shampoo, conditioner, soap, tea, and coffee. In total. I still don't think I am cured.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Would you take $10.83 out of your pocket and throw it into the street? I wouldn't either.

 

[joeea]

A couple of years ago there was a thread here about washing and reusing plastic bags. But then, it's a conserve, re-use, recycle thing. It's not just about frugality.

Makes sense to me, from both a conservation and a frugality point of view.

We reuse both plastic and paper bags from the grocery store.

The plastic bags can be used to line small waste baskets.
The paper is used to hold recycling so that it doesn't fall out of the bin when at the curb.

 

[SecondCor521]

Makes perfect sense to me.

Would you take $10.83 out of your pocket and throw it into the street? I wouldn't either.

No, but I'm not sure if the hourly wage was worth it given the time I spent on the project.

 

[aja8888]

Yesterday was trash day and DW was cleaning out the fridge of "stuff" left over since the holidays to put in the trash. I spotted a 15+ day old piece of pumpkin pie in a container and ate it before she realized I did that. She said it probably was too old to eat. I didn't notice anything strange about it. I'm still here so I guess it was OK to eat.

Pie is not something that I like to heave out unless it has changed color.

 

[RobbieB]

I will venture that if you give up something you like (and can certainly afford) just to save money (for the sake of saving and not buying something else) then you suffer silly frugality and are well on the way to being downright cheap.

 

[Walt34]

78 in the winter? Wow, that seems uncomfortably hot to me. Do you run a humidifier? Otherwise isn't that awfully dry?

Yes we run a humidifier or it sure would be dry.

I've been that way most of my life, or at least since high school, preferring the house much warmer than most people do. I've even asked the doctor about, he just said some people have a different "internal thermostat" than most. Sort of like a "temperature bell curve". I have a good friend who is the opposite - he suffers from the heat in spring/summer temperatures in weather where I'm still wearing flannel shirts.

The flip side of this is that we keep the house the same temperature in the summer, or sometimes even higher, so what we spend in winter is saved on A/C bills in the summer.
And luckily for me, DW is the same way!

 

[joeea]

And luckily for me, DW is the same way!

The key to success in life!

 

[audreyh1]

I'm going to start a pool on how many posts in this thread before someone mentions straining broken glass from a dropped jar of peanut butter. My guess is 7.

I win.

We strained a bottle of tamarind chutney that had a chipped glass edge which we didn't remember causing. But this was a very special tamarind chutney from Fiji, a favorite of DH, unavailable in the US and therefore not replaceable by us. If it had been something we could buy or order we would probably have done so.

 

[Red Badger]

I travel occasionally and every time I go into the hotel room I immediately take all of the soap, shampoo, and conditioner (except one that I use) and put those in my backpack. If I'm there multiple days, I'll make sure to keep using the one soap and shampoo from the first day and stash any additional extras the housekeeping service refreshes me with. I do the same thing with the tea and coffee bags.

After years of doing this, I looked at the results and realize that for all of my effort, I've collected approximately $10.83 worth of shampoo, conditioner, soap, tea, and coffee. In total. I still don't think I am cured.

Yup. I did that in my road warrior career. No coffee or tea, but any toiletry not nailed down. But I gave it all (~dozen shopping bags) to a homeless shelter. The thanks I received brought tears to my eyes.