There is a thrill in finding ways to save money, and for many people, that drives a lifelong pursuit of penny-pinching hacks.
But even I was floored by some of the more ingenious and radical tips on frugality that readers sent my way. Since I shared some of my favorite stories about saving money, my inbox has become a confessional for a kind of thrift that borders on a competitive sport. The tales of creative cost-cutting involves, among other things, an elaborate filing system to save on foil and a water conservation effort that requires a detergent bottle and a steady hand.
Of course, there are the usual ways to save, like making coffee at home, cutting open bottles or tubes to get the last bit of lotion or toothpaste, reusing plastic bags, or getting a pet fix by petting a neighbor’s dog to avoid pricey veterinarian bills. But some of my fellow penny pinchers — my frugal soulmates — have become experts at treating their homes like laboratories and their local restaurants as supply depots. Whether these habits stem from the heavy burden of financial hardship or a passion for zero waste, many people show resilient resourcefulness in squeezing every penny to keep their household budgets balanced.
From the clever to the truly unorthodox and a bit unethical, here’s how some readers are stretching their money further. (Some comments have been lightly edited for clarity.)
Weighing the savings: “A friend told me how her mother didn’t want to pay for the stems on fresh cherries, since they were inedible, so she would take them off before weighing and buying the fresh cherries.”
The soap scavenger: “As a corporate pilot, I travel a lot and spend many nights in hotels. When I leave the hotel, I take the plastic wrap that the drink cups were sealed in and place my slightly used bath soap in the bag to bring home. I use it in the shower, and when it becomes too small, I move it to the sink to wash my hands. It’s not so much that I am trying to be frugal; I just hate to think of all the waste. When you think of all the hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms across the U.S. that might be used for only one night, the waste is huge. I can’t remember the last time I bought a bar of soap.”
Minimizing the cost of flushing: “I save water by urinating into a laundry detergent bottle and waiting until it’s almost full before I pee the last time in the toilet, and then empty the detergent bottle into the toilet and flush it. I do it and although I don’t know how much I save, it is about 1 gallon per flush. … I keep the top on the jar.” (The Environmental Protection Agency says: “Design improvements have allowed toilets to use 1.28 gallons per flush or less while still providing equal or superior performance. Toilets are by far the main source of water use in the home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of an average home’s indoor water consumption. Older, inefficient toilets that use as much as 6 gallons per flush also happen to be a major source of wasted water in many homes.”)
The birthday hack: “When I was in college in the ’70s, Denny’s offered free breakfast, lunch or dinner on the day of your birthday. Just show your driver’s license. I was fortunate, as there were several locations in Tulsa. On my birthday, I had three delicious meals every year.”
Shaker snatcher: “My aunt saves money by taking home all the rolls from the bread basket at a restaurant. We’ve also seen restaurant parmesan and pepper shakers in her kitchen.” (For the record, this personal finance columnist does not condone taking an establishment’s shakers, plates, glasses or silverware.)
Manual entry: “My wife insists that I enter and exit the house using the front door instead of opening and closing the electric garage door.”
Upcycled duster: After a friend’s hospital discharge, one reader intercepted a pair of yellow nonslip socks that were headed for the trash. By turning them inside out and cutting a slit, they created a perfectly functional, washable floor duster. “Although a little tough to get the sock over the working end of my Swiffer, it went on and fit well,” she wrote.
The three-ply pivot: “Accidentally bought 3-ply Kleenex when I usually buy 2-ply. So, I peeled apart the third layer from each and put two of them together [to make] another 2-ply.”
A TP-money saving harvest: When a neighbor’s house got “TP-ed,” one person saw a windfall of premium toilet paper. “This is when my ultra frugal husband realized it was Charmin! He carefully collected all of the TP in paper grocery bags … and placed them next to the commodes.”
Turn signal scrooge: “An older friend of mine tries to avoid using the blinker in his car — especially at stoplights — in order to extend the life of the blinker bulb.”
Plugging an electricity leak: This mom treated electricity like a physical fluid that could spill out of the wall. “I knew a guy whose mom used to unplug her appliances and then tie knots in the power cords so the electricity wouldn’t leak out.”
Silver savings: Lots of readers wrote in about reusing aluminum foil. This one cracked me up. “Since I was small, my parents always taught me to wash used tinfoil for reuse. Woe to the family member caught tossing a stray square of aluminum foil into the trash unless it was well beyond washing capability! When we moved my dad into a retirement community about a year ago, I found a very large stack of carefully handwashed tinfoil — organized thin weight to heavyweight since he was an engineer — in the pantry that was who-knows-how-old.”
No-cost card hack: “My husband and I take pictures of cards we would have bought and then show or send them to each other. Haven’t bought a greeting card in years!”
Extending the life of linens: “When the bottom sheets for our bed started wearing thin where my husband had his feet, I rotated the sheet so that the thin part was under my shoulders. Now, with our new sheets, I rotate them after every wash so they won’t wear out in one area as quickly.” (Okay, another columnist confession: When one of my fitted sheets developed a hole, I tried to sew it shut. I only gave up trying to salvage it when the stitching came loose, and my feet kept getting tangled in the repair.)
Although rotating a bedsheet or recycling used foil might not save much money, even over time, there is a deeper value to these habits. Being a penny pincher puts you in a powerful position. By dogmatically monitoring your spending, you create a mindset of constant, creative awareness, which is exactly what it takes to fund a retirement account or build an emergency fund.
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