Cheapwad Finds--Opposite of Blow That Dough!

[Badger]

Watch out, lots of pasta now comes in less than 16oz packages. I refuse to buy them, because 16oz is about the right amount for a jar/can of sauce. But I'm sure most people don't notice so the manufacturers get away with it, and will continue the shrinkflation.

Also, Dollar Tree is now $1.25, not $1 any more. And they're especially known for selling specially produced, smaller packages, even of name-brand products.

On a side note, I went into a Family Dollar store yesterday for the first time in a long time (if ever.) I was walking by anyway, and wanted to grab a couple of small items. All I can say is WOW! The prices are much higher than I expected on many items. A few were $1 or $1.25, just like Dollar tree, but not many. It felt more like a convenience store than a discounter. I never knew.

Occasionally I will shop at Dollar Tree for a pack of cheap paint brushes or birthday cards or anything that will be one time use for $1.25 but never food. All the other stores with "dollar" in their name frequently sell many items for much more than a dollar so I don't go there.

Cheers!

 

[thatguy]

I bought ten Meijer, store brand, 6oz dark chocolate bunnies at 70% off. About 19.5 cents per oz.

 

[calmloki]

Best yard/estate sale ever: Drove about 20 minutes out into the sticks because they advertised a chimenea, that was shown as dirty and covered with mold. Perfect, we have the skills to clean. Got out there and they said it sold first thing. Bummer. They did have a Craftsman rear bag mower for $5 though (wheels on ours are falling off it's been used so hard and long). We made a pile: Ikea folding barstool, new floppy purple felt hat, lined sweatshirt, very sharp near-new handsaw, an aluminum trucker's bat, a tall convection countertop oven, 9 20A commercial light switches, new gallon of concrete wash, yard/flower fertilizers and chemicals, new 20A breaker, new GFCI plug, new tube of caulk, just on and on. $20 total they said.
Pressure washed the mower and fed it some new gas and it starts just fine now.

 

[CaptTom]

Nice score! I was on the other side of the table last weekend, putting on a yard sale at my in-laws. Everyone said it was the best one in town. We gave some great deals, and made a bit of money to boot. Everyone came away happy.


Other than that one, I haven't been to a yard sale in years. Probably decades. I have too much "stuff" already.

 

[cyber888]

I saved tons of $ by buying my Washing machine and Dishwasher from Costco.

Saved $430 on a Maytag Washing Machine, and Saved $500 on a Maytag Dishwasher

A Maytag 5.2 Washing Machine was advertised for $849 and then dropped to $599.
The price in Lowes was also $849, but Lowes charge for installation, a new hose, and hauling away the old Washing Machine was $40. With Tax, Lowes total price resulted to $1075, while Costco was $645 (with tax, free delivery, free installation). Saved $430.

A Maytag Dishwasher went from $599 to $399 in a Costco flash sale.
With tax, it was $425 (with free delivery, free installation, and free haul away). Again, when I went to Lowes, same washer was $599 but they charged $200+ for installation and $40 for haul away. Totaled to around $925, and I only paid $425. Saved $500 bucks.

Could hardly believed I saved almost $1000 buying at Costco instead of Lowes. And Costco automatically extend the Warranty to 2-Years, instead of the standard 1 Year Warranty.

 

[bobandsherry]

We moved into a new home, builder supplied washer and dryer were adequate but far from what we had previously. Wife was not happy, wanted new ones but I pushed back as she already had new ones. Lol

Waited and looked for a bargain and patience paid off. Costco had a closeout on top of the line LG front loader stainless steel washer and dryer, normally sold for $3,600 for the pair for $995 delivered and installed and 4 year warranty. Wife was happy, my wallet was feeling good too. [emoji39]

 

[REWahoo]

Waited and looked for a bargain and patience paid off. Costco had a closeout...

Related Costco closeout bargain story...

A couple of years ago Costco apparently decided to stop selling water heaters and reduced the price substantially on their remaining stock of GE electric models. I ordered one, a real bargain at $200, including delivery and an extra year of warranty.

Shortly after it was delivered Costco cut the price by another 50%, and since it had been less than 30 days since I purchased mine, I got a $100 refund!

 

[John Galt III]

I had to have a weld done on my car exhaust to pass inspection. 5 years ago the same weld cost $60 at my cheap place vs $150 at the gouge places. This time the cheap place was up to $90, and the gouge places were still at $150. So $90 is a lot more than $60, but a lot less than $150, so I will call it a cheapwad find, lol.

 

[skyking1]

There was an estate sale very close by and I drove my wife over to get on the list @6 AM Friday.
She was there for fabric and similar items. I took a stroll through there yesterday and spotted some air hoses and a surveyor's tripod.
I waited until half price day today and did OK. (3) 50' air hoses with quick connects for $15, which will be very handy when we are framing the house.
The tripod went for $22.50
I will probably get my own laser when I retire (I currently use the work ones), and can also use it as a telescope base.
I added another 50' 30 amp RV extension cord for another $22.

 

[Palmtree]

Related Costco closeout bargain story...

A couple of years ago Costco apparently decided to stop selling water heaters and reduced the price substantially on their remaining stock of GE electric models. I ordered one, a real bargain at $200, including delivery and an extra year of warranty.

Shortly after it was delivered Costco cut the price by another 50%, and since it had been less than 30 days since I purchased mine, I got a $100 refund!

I remember when they did that. I almost bought one as a spare!

 

[JDARNELL]

I purchased a used HF radio at a ham fest for $35. Guy said it doesn’t work. Took it to my repair guy a $70 part and $50 in labor and wallah. Radio is worth about $350

 

[Music Lover]

I bought what I thought was 30 or so hardcover books from an online estate auction. It turned out to be 7 large boxes, well over 200 pounds. I could barely get them all in my car.

I ended up with several partial or complete series...Jeffrey Deaver, JK Rowling, Robert Ludlum, Lincoln & Child, Kathy Reichs, etc. Plus a dozen large historical books, plus some historical drama series.

It cost me $41.

 

[ShadowBloom]

I've been trying out the app Too Good To Go, where restaurants and grocery stores sell close-to-expiration foods at about 1/3 the price. It's a bit hit or miss, but I've had a few really good experiences. Today I tried it on a supermarket and got a big box of cookies and a large sandwich plus two prepared meals for less than $9 including tax. Some of it was sell-by yesterday and some sell-by today, and all of it will last in the fridge til when I'm ready to eat it.

 

[CaptTom]

I think I've heard of things like Too Good to Go, but it always seems they really only work in cities. I'm reluctant to load yet another app just to find out if it'll work for me.

Anyone out there have good luck with them in rural or more remote suburban areas?

 

[folivier]

A few people in our mountain cabin community are using a similar app and are pleased with the produce they're getting. I'll find out in a couple days what they're using.

 

[djsander]

We decided to start stamp collecting so we joined the stamp club at our senior center. They have envelopes stuffed with stamps for free door prizes at the meeting. We get ours, take them home and low and behold we find people have contributed unused forever stamps and some regular stamps with cents on them. None are really worth anything other than face value so my wife uses them on cards and letters she sends to her friends. Not a whole lot, but we’ve probably got 15 or twenty forever stamps and 5 dollars worth of stamps with varying amounts. I do look them up first, but not the golden ticket. Just regular unused stamps.

 

[Koolau]

We decided to start stamp collecting so we joined the stamp club at our senior center. They have envelopes stuffed with stamps for free door prizes at the meeting. We get ours, take them home and low and behold we find people have contributed unused forever stamps and some regular stamps with cents on them. None are really worth anything other than face value so my wife uses them on cards and letters she sends to her friends. Not a whole lot, but we’ve probably got 15 or twenty forever stamps and 5 dollars worth of stamps with varying amounts. I do look them up first, but not the golden ticket. Just regular unused stamps.

We had a good friend (neighbor, really) who passed. His wife had very little to live on. Her husband had collected stamps for 50 years. He didn't buy the "new" (unused) commemoratives. SO no inherent value to his stamps. He had books and books of stamps. I took them to two different stamp "experts" (best I could find, any way.) Both said they could offer around $200 to part out the few relatively "good stamps." The remainder would be wholesaled to those places that offer 500 stamps for $13 or whatever. Sad, really.

Do it for fun - not for profit.

 

[djsander]

We had a good friend (neighbor, really) who passed. His wife had very little to live on. Her husband had collected stamps for 50 years. He didn't buy the "new" (unused) commemoratives. SO no inherent value to his stamps. He had books and books of stamps. I took them to two different stamp "experts" (best I could find, any way.) Both said they could offer around $200 to part out the few relatively "good stamps." The remainder would be wholesaled to those places that offer 500 stamps for $13 or whatever. Sad, really.

Do it for fun - not for profit.

We do it for fun. Not planning on spending much. The free stuff gets most of what we want. We get the added advantage of occasionally getting some stamps that we can use for postage.

 

[aja8888]

Cleaning out the house for the move, I found a couple of sheets of Forever stamps with the receipt that we bought in 2007.

Now if I only had things to mail......

 

[Kroeran]

Coffee has many health benefits if you don't over do it. It's also good for the prostrate, and helps to fight diabetes. Years ago the green tea drinkers tried to get me to give up coffee. Thankfully, I ignored them.

And, coffee above 500 mg can cause tachycardia and colonic spasm constipation. There is roughly 100mg caffeine per level tablespoon.

I just toss coffee in a single cup metal camping filter. Got a bit carried away with dosage.

 

[Koolau]

Cleaning out the house for the move, I found a couple of sheets of Forever stamps with the receipt that we bought in 2007.

Now if I only had things to mail......

Yeah, I've often wondered if I could go back in time and buy the earliest forever stamps if I wouldn't have done better than some of my picks.

 

[Koolau]

And, coffee above 500 mg can cause tachycardia and colonic spasm constipation. There is roughly 100mg caffeine per level tablespoon.

I just toss coffee in a single cup metal camping filter. Got a bit carried away with dosage.

I'm struggling to understand your figures. Its certainly possible I'm misreading.


Around 500 mg/day some people start to have "issues" such as tachycardia, etc. Check.

Not sure about the 100mg caffeine per tablespoon. One cup of coffee is usually around 100 to 125 mg caffeine from what I have read. Do you mean 100 mg per tablespoon of ground coffee. That sounds high though I'm no expert.

 

[Chuckanut]

T-mobile is offering 6 months of Apple TV for free on their Tuesday app. Then it’s $6.99 a month after that. I just signed up. I’ll see if it’s good enough to pay for. The deal is good through 7/31.

 

[Chuckanut]

And, coffee above 500 mg can cause tachycardia and colonic spasm constipation. There is roughly 100mg caffeine per level tablespoon.

I just toss coffee in a single cup metal camping filter. Got a bit carried away with dosage.

I have not had these problems, though I don’t drink pots of the stuff every day. Usually I drink four 6 oz cups a day. Lately I drink half caf. I’m glad for its benefits.

 

[EarlyandLate]

Would you also "take the money and run"? Cluck, cluck. I went to a huge international market today. They have superior quality fresh meats at reasonable prices. As a single person, I usually sort through the packages of chicken to find a small one that is manageable for me. Due to the size of the print on the label, it is easier to look at the price of the package as a surrogate for weight. Today I found the lowest priced pack of big plump boneless chicken breasts. Upon realizing that the price seemed too low, I saw that the label said chicken legs and the per pound price was $0.89! So, I got the breasts for half price! Would you have pointed out the employee error?