Always Learning New Frugal Hacks!
by Katy on April 24, 2025 · 19 comments
Sometimes I think that I’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel and have run out of new frugal hacks to learn and share, which is understandable as I’ve written 3,281 blog posts since May 20, 2008! Then something happens that’ll open my eyes to a new way to stretch a dollar. Sometimes it’s a reader comment, but it’s often just from observation of the world around me.
Just today I walked past a beautifully landscaped garden and noticed they had oregano growing in a shady area. This prompted me to think about how my neighbor’s front yard oregano jumped the property line a few years ago. I have a generally shady backyard and am always happy to find plants that’ll thrive under these conditions, especially if it’s already growing for free (free!) in my front yard! My thinking being “If it can grow as a weed in my front yard, then it can grow for free in my backyard!”
This led me to dig up a dozen or so volunteers, which I then dotted around the backyard. They’re not impressive as of yet, but I know enough to not judge a plant’s success to how it looks when freshly transplanted.
I’m very pleased with my little gardening project, as my goal is always to spend as little money as possible in almost every category of my life. Now if I can just manipulate this neighbor into planting some fruit trees close to the property line.
Have you learned any new frugal hacks lately? Please share in the comments section below!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve recently learn that if you put a few banana skins in a gallon or so of water and let them stay there for a few days that the water is great for watering plants as it gives them nutrients. Maybe you know this or maybe not but I figured I’d share this bit of info
Bananas are the gift that coupon giving. I also recently learned this tip and am delighted to eke one more use out of my banana, bananas, beyond smoothies and banana bread.
I have done this, but need to remember to continue doing this!
I didn’t know this. Thanks!
This is not necessarily a new frugal hack, but a matter of timing: over the next month or so, the spring semester is winding down and college students will be moving out of their dorms, apartments and/or other rentals. It’s like Black Friday at the thrift stores! Many of these kids donate stuff instead of hauling it home in their compact cars. I’m finding tons of household goods already on the thrift store sales floors. Yesterday, I scored a tube of name brand whitening toothpaste for $1 (half price of what Walmart sells it for); a few days ago, my haul included a lot of (like-new) towels and a bathmat. I don’t need curtains or drapes or sets of dishes, but I saw plenty of those. Even better, some college kids are too lazy to donate anything, so it becomes a trash picker’s paradise. Will be making the rounds to apt. complex dumpsters near campus this Saturday night; lots of people throw away stuff when they move out at month’s end. Timing is everything!
I live in a college town, as well! The locals here call spring move-out/fall move-in “Hippie Christmas” because of the bounty that awaits near apartment complex dumpsters and curbs. We’ve scored everything from antique furniture to 3-D printers and unopened food items from student cast-offs.
I love the phrase “hippy Christmas!”
Ditto.
A lot of my house is furnished in Hippy Christmas!
We’re near Reed College and think maybe I should take a stroll around campus at the end of the semester. I did some light dumpster diving when moving my kids out of their dorms and there was so much completely usable stuff being thrown away!
As the widow of a landlord who co-owned multiple rental properties near the local party-school university, I fully endorse this hack. Back in the day, there was not only stuff galore out on the streets, but stuff galore left behind in the rental properties. (It never quite made up for how much the kids trashed the places, but it was some compensation.) And Fru-gal Lisa is right that thrifting really picks up at this time of year.
And P.S. to preceding, to raise a smile all around: Back in my grad school days, there was a high-end women’s clothing shop on the main university-area shopping strip called “The Casual Ms.” Some wise-ass spray-painted the dumpster in back of the store “The Casual Pauper.”
Two things. I would say that garbage is not garbage, it’s just resources that we need to sort. It’s either recyclable, reusable, or compost. Sometimes it’s plantable.
And I also stopped looking at my yard as four corners that surround my house, and instead, as a resource that I can mine. I’m moving sunny plants out of the shade and shade plants out of that weird place behind the trash cans. I created a shade garden out of rescued and resourced plants that are literally growing on my own property. They look beautiful together. Before this, I would probably have just pulled them and thrown them in the compost or ignored them and wished I had a shade garden.
I think it’s the same impulse that takes me to craft fairs, where I refuse to buy anything because I could make it myself, probably better, and definitely cheaper.
I think it comes down to trusting yourself and ignoring the siren call of peer pressure and advertising.
My garden is like my house — stuff I got for free or almost free and sounds like yours is very similar.
A new-to-me frugal hack I’ve learned is to let my grass grow taller.
It’s a good hack for a few reasons…
#1 – Reduces how much and how often I need to buy gas.
#2 – Reduces the amount of time I spend mowing
#3 – Allowed for 10 species of wild flowering plants bloom in my yard
#4 – Reduces my carbon load on the environment
Granted, I don’t have an HOA to tell me what to do, and I won’t let my yard grow uncontrollably, but I have saved about $20 and 3 hours by letting the grass go two weeks longer than usual.
One of my favorites I learned from this blog, freeze ginger root and then just grate it frozen when needed! So nice having fresh ginger all the time and not wasting it.
Another that was kind of a “duh” moment when I heard it was to save plastic bags from food. I always saved plastic grocery bags but never thought to save smaller bags, like what a loaf of bread would come in. I found so many uses for them, I’ve actually run out right now and wish I had saved more!
I also learned (through googling) how to best store fruits and vegetables, and now my produce box items last so long, it’s great, less waste and more time to use everything.
Apart from the occasional purchase of Ziploc quart freezer bags for garden produce (and I can’t remember the last time I bought these), I haven’t bought a food-size plastic bag in years. In addition to doing what Reader Lisa has discovered, I’ve found that if the plastic wrap for a bulk purchase of paper towels or TP is opened carefully at one end, that too can serve as a plastic bag.
And I use any substitutes for kitchen or full-size trash bags I can find. Right now, since I’m buying various soil amendments by the bag at Country Max, I’m letting the bags dry out after I dump the contents, shaking the last bits out, and then using them as kitchen/bathroom trash bags. Along similar lines, I recall that Lindsey has had great success with using the giant-economy-size dog food bags she buys for Clobber Paws and Houndini as trash bags.
Flavorless green house tomatoes? Roast them. I had some Roma tomatoes that were beautiful, but had no taste. I was baking a meatloaf and decided to put a sheet pan of tomatoes in the oven at the same time. I halved the tomatoes, drizzled with a little olive oil then sprinkled with salt and pepper. They turned out so good. I cut them up in quarters then put them in a jar to use on salads. It made all the difference. They are a delicious addition to my salads. This is a hack I will definitely use again.
We use an empty cardboard oatmeal canister with a lid for a trash can in our RV bathroom, and use bread bags as liners. We try not to flush too much TP (even if it’s the RV kind), and this is just the right size and easy to tuck out of the way.
I have a vintage French enamel utensil holder for the wall (like this https://www.etsy.com/listing/986458501/french-enamelled-utensils-holder-white ) Somehow it got left outside all winter and now the bottom is horribly chipped. I planted some little herbs in it.