Give Us Your Best Frugal Hack!
Sometimes I feel like I've scraped the bottom of the barrel and there are zero fresh ideas in the realm of extreme frugality. Then suddenly I'll come across a new trick or way of thinking that blows my mind. Often in the comments of this very blog!
You already know my tip and tricks, so I'm asking you, my dear readers to share your wackiest most creative frugality hacks -- no idea too extreme, no idea too weird.
Please!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Instagram.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
I think it’s easy for frugal people to go shopping a lot. For instance, scoping out Goodwill frequently, splitting shopping between multiple grocery stores, hunting for deals….
I do that too, but I’ve found that getting out of the habit of shopping is a crucial money-saving and lifestyle-benefitting tip for me. I can usually make do with what I have, and the less I flex the “shopping” muscle, the less I want to! I now find stores overwhelming and full of garbage, which helps reset my sense of what I actually want/need.
Freeze veggie scraps (yes, ALL of them) and make broth!
I learned that I can use washable children's glue stick to temporary adhere fabric in place of basting. It washes right out.
I ended up post Covid with a plethora of small bottles of hand sanitizers
I use them periodically to wipe down counter tops, toilet seats, door jams and door knobs.
At work we ended up with leftover Halloween candy with contains peanuts, peanut butter which the kids cause of allergies cannot have
I’m putting them out on our desk which sets high (especially those wrapped in orange and green) for St Patrick’s day
Squeeze the water out of sliced mushrooms to make non soggy omelettes.
This was me today: at Aldi I picked up a 50% off red sticker package of thin sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1.4 lbs. $2.69 after discount, and two boxes of clearance brioche stuffing mix, apple/bacon flavor, for $.09 each. Yes, 18 cents for all the stuffing. I have half an envelope of turkey gravy and onions in my pantry. I plan to make crockpot chicken stuffing for about $3 total. Near the end I will add the last of a bag of frozen green beans from my freezer on top. Yeah, I’m cheap and waste nothing!
I’m very vigilant about avoiding food waste. It really bothers me and since I generally like to cook, it’s an area I can excel in.
It’s particularly challenging with young kids though, as they are prone to changing tastes or taking bites of things and then leaving them, so I’ve developed a few tricks to minimize food waste with young kids (this doesn’t include just eating whatever they leave behind, which I was doing but I got tired of feeling like a garbage dump for their half-eaten food plus I stopped eating animal products)
1) Save everything, even small amounts, and reoffer later. Sometimes they just get full or lose interest but will eat it later. So put things in the fridge or clip little snack bags shut so they don’t go stale, etc.
2) Cut off the bitten part and offer it again or give to the other child. Or offer in a different format. For example an apple with one bite taken out of it, I cut into slices, throw away the bitten part and then offer it again. Same with cheese sticks, cut off the bite and then cut it into little cubes.
3) If you have the storage space, save foods that they lose interest in to see if they will like them again later. My kids are very cyclical in certain food interests. They’ll want bow tie shaped pasta for weeks and then decide they don’t like it anymore but then 3 months later they will like it again. This one is actually hard for me, since I don’t like clutter and tend to get rid of things we don’t use but if I have the space(and it’s not something that will go stale), I do try to store these things and offer them again later.
I know these are all a bit easier said than done though, there are times it just feels easier to scoop it all into the trash rather than trying to pack it up or cut it up, especially if you’re tired and busy.
This is from my rural relatives who bought/sold/fixed used appliances:
If you have to scrap your old electric clothes dryer, they said, do not get rid of its electric cord/plug. Which detaches. Make sure it is not worn or frayed, of course. But it can be used with your new (or new-to-you) dryer. The thing is that those big plugs are not all the same and new ones are expensive -- and usually sold separately from the clothes dryer. So if your old one is on good shape, keep on using it.
Also, it's much safer to get a sturdy metal air hose for the clothes dryer than to use the flimsy plastic hoses that go to the duct. Those look a lot like hoses on old style hair dryers, the ones that had plastic bonnets. The plastic ones are fire hazards. And you already know to always clean out the lint traps, they can burn.
If you're moving, and taking your laundry appliances to your new place, check to see if the new place's dryer outlet matches the prong pattern on your plug. If not, you have to buy one that does. My uncle needed to do this. But instead of going to a regular store, he bought a cheap dryer at a garage sale, removed the plug, and used it instead. I think he scrapped the rest of the dryer or just used it for parts.
(Yes, I know most of us line dry whenever possible, but...)
The other tip my relatives had was that if the wood pellets designed for pellet stoves are too expensive, they used dried corn. I think it was sold as animal feed. It was off the cob.They said it burns hotter than wood pellets. They lived out in a rural area and did this some winters. I don't know how well this works as I never used a pellet stove or anything like that, but I thought that is an unusual hack.
Oh, and all the above appliances could catch fire. So be safe and be sure your smoke alarms work. Did you change the battery when you set the clock for daylight savings time?
I hate to waste electricity bc the rates are so high here. So I open the front door and pluck and trim my hair eyebrows in the sunlight. Ditto on my nails. I also refuse to get a computer/laptop/tv/washer/dishwasher/dryer bc I do not want to pay for the electricity. I also do not have a blow dryer and just let my hair dry naturally. Along the same lines, I shut off the bedrooms in the winter and sleep in the living room, heating only the living room, bathroom and kitchen. I sleep in a cold weather sleeping bag rated for outside . I put the sleeping bag between two quilts Did I mention I hate paying for electricity?…. lol. Also, I wash my work skirts in the bathtub and hang them out to dry to make them last. I pack my work sandwiches in bread bags. I also use a disposable razor for at least a month usually two months to shave my legs and underarms. I don’t have a lot of hair.I wipe and dry it off every day after use in the morning. I am sure there are other crazy things I do to save money. Katy has also heard me repeatedly say that my best frugal hack was buying my 912 sq ft one story house in the middle of the Great Recession for 25K. It is in a very small, gritty, working class town and that is ok bc convenient for work.
I forgot to say I beat my rugs with a broom outside bc, you guessed it, I don’t want to run a vacuum cleaner and pay for the electricity. For such a poor state our electric rates are high. My grandma used to do this when I was a little girl.