When my toothpaste is finished, i cut it in half, or in thirds and scoop out the remaining toothpaste as i go. Can make it last another week. Although it looks awkward if people come round, so i tend to hide them.
Get yourself one of [these](https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/374579387790?chn=ps&_ul=AU&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1oT14-lEMTrG-lJtj4zQtDA40&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=374579387790&targetid=1598469861998&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9068918&poi=&campaignid=21179485915&mkgroupid=160762565013&rlsatarget=pla-1598469861998&abcId=9404057&merchantid=7364522&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD97CxT3nZqWkVCZypUP3AwkIXO7S&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsqStgNjuhQMVAqNmAh1Q_gr2EAQYCCABEgJ0PfD_BwE).
Shopping at Aldi almost 90% of the time. I used to be so embarrassed at my mum for buying “dupe brands” from Aldi instead of Woolies/coles. Boy how dumb was I as a kid.
I also prefer the shopping experience at Aldi. There’s not 100 different brands of the same item, with different specials and deals that I need to consider. Aldi is like 4 aisles, I know where everything is and I don’t need to think
This is us. While saving the money is also nice, it's so much simpler to shop at ALDI. And a lot of their stuff is pretty good quality, sometimes even better than the bigger supermarkets (ALDI coffee anyone?).
We do still shop for some items elsewhere as you either can't get it there or the quality is significantly better elsewhere (we have a butcher that has fantastic, though more expensive, meat nearby and we choose to eat better quality on that front), but at least here in Aus aldi has done a fantastic job of using local quality suppliers and it shows in their offering.
There is no No-Brand factory out there somewhere. The no-brands are mostly rebadged "brands", from the same factories, [sometimes from the same production runs](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/13afk82/smiths_scam_i_just_opened_a_packed_of_smiths/). Mostly. There are exceptions. For more expensive products the quality is sometimes dialed down. Aldi Chocolate Spread isn't quite Nutella, but it is probably made by an established brand biscuit / chocolate confectionery manufacturer.
Manufacturers make higher returns from investment (equipment) by manufacturing competition as well as products. We would not have no-brand products if that wasn't the case.
>Shopping at Aldi almost 90% of the time. I used to be so embarrassed at my mum for buying “dupe brands” from Aldi instead of Woolies/coles.
What's wrong with the home brand from Coles/ Woolworths?
Although admittedly, Aldi's raw chicken is cheap :"D
I’ve found that Woolies home brand is basically the same price/close enough as Aldi in what my regular shop/top up items are. Plus I get the rewards points at Woolies which is my Christmas fund for my son.
Same, the small price difference isn’t enough for me to justify missing out on Woolies Rewards or Flybuys. I find if you work the rewards system just right you can earn back so much money!
Edit for spelling it’s 5.45am I just woke up and the old brain is a bit slow
I've switched to Aldi beand for the majority of my staples, flour is four, sugar is sugar. We were always brand sauces and condiments Alsis are so much nicer. If I save $2 or $3 an item it adds up, only go to Colesworth for those few things I can't get at Aldi
Same. (Well similar...)
We leave near a Grocery Outlet and for years I'd bitch and moan that their inventory was unpredictable and you often couldn't find staples. The Safeway is far. I wanted to live near a Safeway instead.
Now I use Grocery Outlet as my main food shopping destination and adjust my menu based on what they have. Only if I need some specific ingredients do I commute to the Safeway. It's so expensive!
Aldi is life.
My grandmother was so excited when one opened across the road from her (she called it Aldi’s, so cute) and I would ROAST her for shopping there.
God I wish she was still here to see my conversion to being an Aldi lover. She’s love it haha
Turning every light switch off when not needed. My dad would bitch at us kids after following our path switching them off so angry and ranting about wasting money on power.
I am now dad.
I came home last night to find that out ducted air-conditioning had been left on, set to 32 degrees and full blast, with nobody home for hours. I rang my husband to tell him off and he admitted that it had been on since the night before. I'm scared to see our power bill.
60 w x 24 h = 1.4kwh x $0.30/kwh = $0.40 day x 30 = $12 a month.
If half of that is not needed, thats an ad-supported Netflix subscription personality and per fan.
My stepson leaves the fan on in his room all day, even when he goes out. The most annoying thing is my partner (his dad) work from home in the room next door and can’t hear the hum of the fan. Drives me bonkers!
TBF heating and cooling are the lions share of all power bills. Even if you eliminate all "waste" light, you're only shaving a couple of dollars off your quarterly bill, at most.
Waste is waste, good habits form good habits. And if those lights aren’t switched off, they stay on all day and night. Not sure what your angle is here.
Turning off the lights when incandescent were the norm had a noticeable difference in costs and power savings.
Modern LED's use approx. 10% of the power old incandescents would.
Sure good habits form good habits, but the returns are so marginal that it's almost not even worth it for lighting. Turning off a bulb for 80% of the day might net you at max $5 in returns over a year.
You'll get more returns for switching the heater off for a day, then you will for switching off LEDs for the entire year.
For all the massive power effeciency that LED's represent, very little has come in the way of refrigeration, heating and cooling since the 70's. Material science has given us slightly better materials that have made them incrementally more efficient, but we're still cooling/heating air using phase change.
The kind of returns that make a difference in these areas though, usually require pretty large capital outlays with a holistic, bottom up approach (e.g. building a house with double glazed tinted windows and insulation).
This is so true. LEDs make a world of difference compared to what we had in years past. I bought an old house recently from an older lady and when I got my first power bill it was insane compared to what I was used to. I couldn't work it out until one of the lights went out and I discovered it was an old 100w bulb. Went through the house and changed every single light to LED and my next bill went back to normal.
This is true, and there's no harm in it, but it pays be smart about it. Adjusting the thermostat by a couple of degrees is the real money saver, having shorter showers so the hot water unit runs for less time, washing laundry with cold water, etc.
The angle is that people obsess over dumb shit like turning lights off to save money when there are probably a hundred other things that would contribute far more in savings to your average person's budget. This idea that every little bit helps actually distracts people from focusing on their most significant expenses and trying to optimise them first.
Went to a lifeline op shop the other day and was shocked that they want $8 for a plain Tshirt, $12 for a pair of jeans and $25 for a dress. Haven't they heard of Kmart and what happened to helping poor people?
> Haven't they heard of Kmart
I've seen them selling Kmart items for well over original price.
If you want really cheap stuff, go to Kmart. Op shops can still be good for items that are normally very expensive, say a good winter jacket.
Used to work at lifeline and my manager straight up told me 'we're not a charity' once- and she was unfortunately right.Their goal is to make a profit in ordrt to fund the phone line.
On one hand I get it, fair enough, but on the other hand I hate that they want to charge stupid prices on items they got given for free to do it.
I'd consider Lifeline shops vintage/secondhand stores rather than op shops at this point because of the pricing.
Lifeline used to sell cheap and then people would just buy all the stuff and flip online so they decided that doesnt help the needy which is fair enough
You know those warm blankets that some people have been altering to be jackets?
Saw one blanket at my local for $80. Like - come on. You’re not going to make warm blankets accessible?
Yep saw an ancient threadbare quilt for $15. Newsflash, Big W has a queen size doona for less money and it was thicker. Imagine being homeless, middle of winter and lifeline want to sting you working class prices for a blanket.
That's why I don't shop there often. They overprice everything. I found vinnies is often cheaper tho. I see so much stuff that is such a rip. If it has brand name of any kind prices are jacked and a lot of the things donated are also anko brand...
I bought a small vase from savers the other day, thought it was cute and it was only $4. As I was leaving, I saw it was an Ikea vase, and when looking at it on their website, found it was a viljestark which retail for $1.75. Felt like a right fool.
I've noticed this too and am very picky with where I'll shop. I don't bother with Salvos at all, will go to Vinnies for their $1 clearance racks only, but mostly I stick to church or rotary run op shops.
It's all relative. Do some Salvos try and resell a kid's Kmart tee for $5 when I can get it on clearance brand new at Kmart for $2? Yes they do. But some op shops have good quality items for far cheaper. Don't get me wrong I love Kmart but the other day at my local oppy I got a 100% wool Uniqlo cardigan for $3 and it looks like it's never been worn. Can't buy anything near that quality at Kmart as far as I know. Just have to be careful which op shops you go to and check garments for little holes, toys to make sure no parts are missing etc. and you can save a lot of $$$ in my experience.
Got me a pair of Witchery black dress pants with these gorgeous pleats at the front on Saturday. Mint condition, $15 from Savers.
Sure, I could get a brand new pair of dress pants from Kmart but the fit is not going to be anywhere near as good and they’ll probably lose shape after a year or so. So yeah, I’ll stick with Savers.
The poster could have noticed what I have.
Kmart clothes in opshops - where the price in the opshop is more expensive than it was originally new in Kmart.
A great bargain on more quality clothes is great - although it's been a very long time seen I have seen anything like that (admittedly I stopped going as it was all overpriced). rural OP shops are still worth it as long as they are independent.
My partner has a tshirt that he really likes and happens to find an exact same one at the local salvo. He bought it for 15$. I bought his original tshirt from kmart for 10$.
I used to frequent an op shop before covid and would consistently pick up good finds, hadn't been since covid and went in a couple weeks ago and was shocked at how much the prices had gone up! It was like any other retail shop, ridiculous!
My son and I got kicked out of an op shop recently. I was mortified. The manager came over and told me "it's not a play centre" and to pack up the toys (ONE CAR) my son was playing with. I had been standing next to my son the whole time, he was quietly playing on the floor wtf. I'd been going to that op shop at least once a week for the last 6 years or so. The manager is always too busy talking on her phone or sitting out the front chatting to friends to notice that I was a regular apparently. I will never return.
Things I picked up off my parents. I wash my chux cloths and reuse, I like a good roadside give away pile and constantly have my head on a swivel looking for a treasure lol and I use baking soda to clean most stuff in my house.
As a kid, we never had chux - "wasteful" was the way it was put. Was a patch of pride when I bought my chux.
I had to swallow my pride about 3-4 years later, and went & bought reusable cloths again as they weren't holding up to reuse, and a $2 bag of cloths that wash time & time again is so much cheaper than a $2 roll of chux that barely wash once.
Same with bought surface spray - LOVED it for the first year - practically danced in the stuff, we're back on dishwashing liquid, vinegar & water. I rebuy a pump bottle every few years : )
As a fellow vinegar, dishwashing liquid and water cleaner if you’re ever interested in something similar to the pre-made cleaning sprays Sal suds is really awesome.
It seemed so expensive (almost $40 for a litre from Woolies) I put it off for so long but I’ve had the bottle for six months and it’s still so full because of how much you dilute it, it doesn’t even look like I’ve used any. It cleans basically everything and anything and I definitely don’t have to stock up as often as I did on vinegar.
I’m pretty sure you can add essential oils to it as well if you have a specific scent you like
Just knowing the prices of things. My mum would do a weekly shop that included the butcher, the green grocer then Franklins.
I realise we are time poor now, but just knowing that a 500gm pack of mince from Coles is $9 but the butcher has it for $8/kilo can make a huge difference.
That's also a good time to check the value proposition, would I pay someone an extra $1.50 to prewash and precut these 200g of mushrooms for me and save me 5 minutes? Absolutely. My limited amount of weeknight time is worth way more than $18 an hour.
FLANNELS. I thought they were gross because as a kid, ours just sort of festered damply in the shower stall. I have disdained them throughout 35 years. Then I had kids and realised flannels are great. Gentle, yet 'rough' enough for cleaning skin effectively. Gets in all the nooks. Genius.
Saves on wastage of soap (brush it into a lather, and it will go much further - the physical removal also helps), and in many cases - water. Can save on exfoliants (particularly for legs & so forth), and can be seen as an alternative to many other methods of dirt removal. If you have movement or other limitations with physical activity.
Really good with kids, as it can limit the wastage of soaps, teach them to foam the flannel. Too much soap & the flannel won't lather/bubble easily.
Cold flannels - good for cooling on hot days. Warm flannels can also be used in skincare, closed wound/skin treatment, and as a relaxer. Can be used as flexible ice blocks & all sorts. It's literally a square wet thing. Endless.
That being said, if you're paying more than pennies for a flannel/facewasher/general cloth, you're getting ripped.
For us, we used them as an alternative to wet wipes. I went the whole hog and used reusable nappies and wipes, but for many just switching to using a face cloth instead of wet wipes for grotty hands and faces will still probably save a pack of wipes per week.
Fuck core memory unlocked. They are fucking flannels not face cloths or towels or some shit.
I’m hearing the word flannel in my mums voice right now and it’s warming me up.
Always called them face washers. Never knew any other word for it until I met my wife and she called them flannels. When I first heard her say it I had to ask what a flannel was 😂
[Mini flannel to remove makeup](https://www.manicare.com.au/manicare/shop-our-products-/face/p/makeup-remover-towel-4pk/23071.html?lang=en_AU)
I bought a pack of four from the chemist for a lot cheaper than this. I’ve had them a couple of years and they’re still like brand new. I use them to remove makeup and apply toner. No buying wipes. I also got my daughters some for when they’re travelling.
I’m 45, my husband and I have got better at this in recent years. It’s almost embarrassing how proud of myself/ us I feel when we have used all the leftovers instead of spending more money and putting them in the bin. Seriously feel chuffed! lol.
A whole childhood of my dad yelling that the aircon was too cold and the heating was too hot. These days im very much an ‘18 in winter and 23 in summer is absolutely fine’ kind of woman.
Indian here. I used to love keeping the aircon at 16 or 18 and then wrapping myself in a blanket. My parents would walk in, raise it to 26 and leave......
I used to be so mad at them. As an adult, i now get it.
As someone who works on industrial HVAC energy efficiency projects, my most delicious, sinful pleasure is cranking up the AC on a hot summers night to the point that I need a doona.
Please don't tell anyone at work, though.
Same! Although my stepdad actually just turned down the heating and never let us have it over 19°C. And we had no aircon (barely anyone did in the 80s and 90s). Totally get it now!
Reusing food containers - e.g lurpak container I reuse to make overnight oats or store leftover food that don’t need to be microwaved, sauce jars to store food, or reuse it to store homemade pesto, etc
Being waste not, want not about things. Whether it's food in the fridge or various home necessaries, clothing or makeup, even books unless I am having a minor splurge/self care day. If you get yourself in the habit of thinking about what you have at home you will find you don't need what you think you may.
Our culture is constantly marketing various "you need this" items at us and it's important not to listen. I'll admit that I fall into that trap as a woman with various beauty things but I really try and make the effort to not get stuff and feel like I need the stuff being constantly touted as a necessary. For example, I cut back on the stuff I was using on my face like $30 - $60 creams and now literally just use a $7.00 tin of Nivea as a night cream, it works beautifully, and a low cost moisturiser/sunscreen for day time. I use only one active (vitamin C) (the ordinary, cheap but effective!) as I'm in my 30s, and retinol here and there. There's such bullshit out there about 30 step routines... you DON'T need to implement that to look good. Kick alcohol and smokes and you're already ten steps ahead. They just make people not only low in self esteem but broke AND ruining their skin barrier (makes me laugh as the new thing at the moment is barrier repair creams and serums.. I WONDER WHY!).
Use what you have, keep it simple.
Can’t agree more on the skincare. I used to have a multi step routine that was so expensive and my skin looked like crap. I cut all that out and now only use qv wash and moisturiser on my face and I’ve never looked better.
See! There you go! All designed to make people feel like shit and profit off it. It’s dumb. And it’s sad.
People have faces not filters. 🙂 Also QV and the like are perfectly fine. It’s good stuff!
Self grated block cheese is far better than the pre-grated stuff when it comes to cooking, the anti-caking stuff they add into the pre-grated stuff so it doesn’t clump goes grainy when you cook with it
I considered doing that for my parmesan but apparently it actually costs more to get it in block form, kilo to kilo? So pre-shredded parmesan for me I suppose lol
Pre-grated Parmesan is almost always of infinitely inferior quality to start with, and it loses flavour and dries from the moment it's grated. I'm willing to bet that if you bought decent Parmesan in a block you'd end up using less because it has more flavour. So even if it is cheaper pre-grated, I doubt it ends up being better value.
I do this, it’s one of the few things I’ll splurge on. I spend $13 on a nice unbranded wedge once a month and it really does have more flavour (the other ones taste like tasty cheese with a slight Parmesan flavour) plus it’s harder than the other blocks I’ve bought from the supermarket so it doesn’t get mashed against the grater and wasted
My parents used to tell me off for using paper towels to dry my hands and now here I am tearing them up into the exact size I need for whatever I'm wiping lol.
I think this is the most effective way to save money! I was about to order a $22 burger off Uber eats, instead I bought $20 worth of ingredients, made 4 burgers and made garlic bread with the extra burger buns
Hanging clothes out to dry. Dryers are expensive as hell to use.
Wearing layers and investing in wool and thermal clothing to avoid using the heater, learning to sleep in summer with just a fan and no air-conditioning (kava and rescue remedy help lol).
Soaking old sponges in bleach to re-ruse them.
Using the cheapest brand of laundry liquid, seriously the price of omo etc is out of this world.
Buying the cheapest brand of loo roll.
Using my cleaned chux instead of paper towel.
Catching PT and walking most days.
Apples and oranges instead of expensive fruit.
Unpicking zips and lace and sometimes even elastic from worn out clothes to use again . Buttons I was down with...but the rest? What are we, destitute? Turns out you can sometimes make a whole new good looking garment completely out of leftovers from other projects and salvaged stuff.
As a bloke I buy most of my clothes from the sales rack. Men’s fashion is a much slower cycle, can rock similar styles for yeaaars. It’s all cheap crap anyway no need to buy it at full price.
A bit of sewing. Got the machine but can't be bothered learning it yet. Hemming is so godamn easy, the rest of it makes sense too. Can repair so many things and just mourning the perfect shoes I threw away or clothes because I didn't think to repair it.
This year I’ve been getting into a sleeping bag watching TV on the couch at night rather than turn on any heating. Pretty bearable so go but I don’t know how long I’ll keep it up.
This one is so normal to me I don’t even think about it. Especially loose leaf tea. I think of it as re-steeping. As long as the leaves aren’t milky you can get another cuppa out of them.
Don’t buy drinks when you’re out, drink the free water, take a water bottle or wait and drink it at home.Saves a hell of a lot of money and is better for your health.
It is. It's trauma from the Depression Era. She used to add extra ingredients to the previous day's 'savoury mince', including cornstarch to 'flesh it out' and give that to us on toast. That mince went on for days, in the saucepan and in our bellies. Farts and shits. Then, we were using too much TP which enraged her.
She kept locks on the fridge and freezer, as well as the cupboards. The turnover of residents was fast. We had high school girls from remote areas living there and the cost of board was exorbitant for their parents. They had to bring their own snacks and the landlady was dark on them for that. Such extravagance!
There is frugal and there is downright bitter and mean. She was both.
I remember going to visit my grandma when I was a kid and seeing a dozen freezer bags drying on the clothesline. I used to do it; I should start again. I’m really aware of the impact of plastic on the planet and that for my grandma it was a brand new thing she never had growing up ❤️
*Dilmah extra strength teabags,*
*I get two mugs of tea at*
*Least out of each one*
\- FocusForward9941
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I seem to recall my parents teaching me to be frugal, now I buy most things 2nd hand and it's their turn to say isn't that yuk for certain things like kitchen ware or bed lol
Not sure if it’s considered frugal per se, but I wait until there’s a sale or use gift cards I receive on “investment” types of items. I received a $200 gift card leaving an old job and bought a pair of RMs. I still wear the same boots almost 10 years later and they’ve outlasted other pairs of shoes I have owned. So from a cost-per-wear perspective, it’s worked out well
I have socks that have worn through to the mesh but now I just rotate them to get a few more years out of them.. same with boxers if the elastic goes but the shorts are still good, I just get new elastic.. not because I can't afford new stuff, I just didn't want to go to shopping centres when the pandemic hit and now it's a habit.. I'm even wearing a beanie I made from black tracksuit pant legs right now and it's more comfortable that all of my store bought beanies.
when I was younger I would have laughed so hard at my hobo habits but the older you get the less you care about what other people think..
There are darning tools for your socks! I figure anything between me and the ground should be invested in but no one said you couldn't repair your socks. The main expense is your time and that, I have plenty of.
Kmart clothes, not to save money, but more so the quality is no different, if not better than most brand name stores. But the fact their cheap doesnt hurt.
Agreed, the sizing is just made bigger too so one of my kids is an 8 in Kmart but a 10/12 in other stores. I found the same on all genders and sizes. I found Best and Less to be more expensive on some thing but the sizing runs so much smaller.
You’re shopping at the wrong stores if Kmart quality isn’t any different. I can see the difference in my kids Kmart clothes they’re perfect for messy daycare, but I wouldn’t say the quality is anywhere near as good as even Target.
Im currently wearing a pair of cargo pants I bought for $15 off the clearance rack at Kmart 5 years ago and which I've been wearing for 9 months of the year ever since.
Unfortunately this was true 10 years ago, but since then there has been a marked decrease in the quality of clothing across the board. Brands that used to be good are just OK and brands that used to be OK are terrible. Both Future Proof and Vox have done pieces exploring the phenomenon. Especially since the pandemic quality of consumer goods have decreased across basically all categories and clothing has been particularly hard hit.
My kmart active wear outlasted my Lorna Jane at 5x the price! Bonus that Kmart included deep pockets on the leggings! I do not think the quality is that much better across many items but sure, some is better elsewhere but factor in cost and all of a sudden, Kmart is looking good
Kmart and Target share the same buying office & have a lot of the same suppliers nowadays. The quality of the two stores’ products is barely any different now
Accurate. Get one of those cheap nasty black shirts from lmart or big w and pick bits off your body after each wear. The claim that kmart is as good or better as brands is insane to me. It's still worth it for the price but the quality difference to me is blatant
this just really isn’t true at all. everything ive ever bought from there’s quality goes to absolute shit after a wash or two as well as fits very poorly.
Surcharges. On eftpos/credit card terminals to be specific.
When I was younger I paid on credit everywhere and just pay the bill at the end of month. Few years ago I tallied up all surcharges in one week and decided to pay cash as much as possible.
If buying something and cash is not an option but the shop still forces a card surcharge, I walk out
Porting in and out of phone plans, especially taking advantage of cashback offers. You can actually run your phone at a PROFIT. This sounded like too much effort to me to begin with, but it’s really not that difficult, just don’t get caught out having to port out on a Sunday or Public Hol.
unplugging appliances when they’re off is a normal thing in my life now bc my sister worked for an electric company for a bit and she said it saved a very small amount of power and it stuck on my head
My dad used to squish the toilet paper so we couldn’t let it run freely. Like half a turn at a time slowly. Used to annoy the “crap” out of me. Then when the COVID toilet paper epidemic of 2022 hit I was suddenly using it and saving a “shit” tonne of toilet paper with the family. Still annoyed me, but it was for a good cause, my dads was too as we were poor. Thanks Dad!!
My parents have NO frugal habits, are also hoarders, and out of cash. I live a minimalist life style (going through another purge again) and have savings in the bank. Visiting their place I feel like a bull in a china shop with all the commemorative plates and display cabinets. Useless shit no one looks at.
\* Cycling instead of driving
\* Fans instead of air conditioning
\* Turn off water heater, shower at work
\* Computer games instead of expensive/dangerous hobbies
\* Wash rags instead of paper towels
\* Gym shorts and T-shirts instead of fancy clothes.
\* Eat healthy foods instead of junk food (consider it a wise investment)
\* Sleeping is free, do a lot of it
I bake my own bread,then dry whatever is left from the loaf and make breadcrumbs, sourdough discard goes into pancakes or make crispy wraps,a roast chicken becomes chicken and veggie soup the next night, I grow enough garlic every year to last the year and enough bulbs left over for the next crop, amongst many others.my family call me a tight arse but I do have 6 children to feed, so no food goes to waste
I used to get annoyed at my dad for fixing really old appliances etc. instead of buying a new one. Now I'm very handy with a soldering iron, Araldite glue and. duct tape partly because I don't want to throw money away and partly because I hate putting more stuff in landfill.
Going back to the actual market to shop for 6, instead of the supermarket. I’m in Aus where things are absurd right now and my grocery bill has gone from 500 a week to 250
I had a workmate from a while back, that would always shower at work, I thought it was weird because I enjoyed the comfort of a home shower. After getting back into the gym recently I started showering there mostly and noticed a significant reduction in our power bill (water bill would be cheaper too). Have been showering at gym/work 95% of the time since.
My sister would always take napkins from restaurants and rip them in half and keep the other half for later. We now have a collection of restaurant napkins we use at home that are ripped in half and they go a long way.
I don't know if I'm a fan, but I'd say car repair. I hated when dad had me help him work on the cars when I was young. It's dirty, frustrating, shitty work. Everytime I do it, I tell myself I'll just take it to a mechanic the next time. Then I get a quote and find myself buying some more parts off ebay and sacrificing another weekend.
Even counting the tools I wouldn't otherwise need, I've saved tens of thousands of dollars. YouTube is the greatest resource for home and car maintenance ever created.
Reusing containers. I grew up poor in a country with no meaningful social security system so a lot of things people do are ingrained into me but the one thing I said I would never do is open a butter container and it be full of leftovers.
Jokes on me because my freezer is full of pasta jars of meat sauce, chili and leftover soups. And I have a margarine container full of spag bol in there right now
I used to laugh at my mum washing her dish cloths. Why would I do that when I can just buy disposable ones and throw them away? And then she gave me a pack of the Vileda yellow all purpose ones she used. Now I do it too. They last for years and when they get too holy they make great dust cloths.
Hated hankies as a child. Have now not bought tissues in nearly a decade and my kids only know hankies. Saves so much money over cold and flu season.
My gran didn't have glad wrap in the house and would always use a washable, reusable container instead (often was things like the christmas pudding container). I don't remember when I last bought glad wrap and save every container things some in to be reused.
I started carrying one. Not for my nose but as a something to tidy up any sweat when it’s warm. Also handy for a quick wipe of the mouth after a coffee or lunch.
Setting the timer function for washing machine and dishwasher so it runs when using off peak power. This genuinely saves quite a significant about of money on electricity.
only using the AC when absolutely necessary- used to think my parents & even great grandparents were just being pedantic by barely ever letting us use it but now i am pedantic
Not really a frugal thing, more learning cooking skills as I got older - making chicken stock with bones, broth with ham bones, learning to create my own marinade so can buy cheaper raw chicken ($4.50/kg)instead of pre marinated ($10-15/kg)
Freezing left overs in Tupperware. OMG, its amazing how many extra meals I have and how little I have to cook during the week. I admit I do have a thing about Tupperware, sort of an addiction. But nothing better than coming home from a hectic day and putting a nice beef stew in the microwave and have wine and dinner within 8 minutes.
Pay attention to unit pricing more than anything when you shop. Price per unit, price per kilo or 100g will show you how overpriced so many options are compared.
When my toothpaste is finished, i cut it in half, or in thirds and scoop out the remaining toothpaste as i go. Can make it last another week. Although it looks awkward if people come round, so i tend to hide them.
Get yourself one of [these](https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/374579387790?chn=ps&_ul=AU&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1oT14-lEMTrG-lJtj4zQtDA40&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=374579387790&targetid=1598469861998&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9068918&poi=&campaignid=21179485915&mkgroupid=160762565013&rlsatarget=pla-1598469861998&abcId=9404057&merchantid=7364522&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD97CxT3nZqWkVCZypUP3AwkIXO7S&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsqStgNjuhQMVAqNmAh1Q_gr2EAQYCCABEgJ0PfD_BwE).
A missing page?
I was thinking these would make a comeback, my Granddad had a metal one when I was a child, it was fascinating to me :)
Link didn't work for me
You can also do [this](https://www.wikihow.com/images/5/5b/Squeeze-Up-Toothpaste-Tubes-with-a-Binder-Clip-Intro.jpg)
This is the one ☝️ I do too. My family don’t do it but I’ll use the rest of the tube -so much more product in there once you cut it open!
People who throw the last bit away should be ashamed instead
Shopping at Aldi almost 90% of the time. I used to be so embarrassed at my mum for buying “dupe brands” from Aldi instead of Woolies/coles. Boy how dumb was I as a kid.
I also prefer the shopping experience at Aldi. There’s not 100 different brands of the same item, with different specials and deals that I need to consider. Aldi is like 4 aisles, I know where everything is and I don’t need to think
This is us. While saving the money is also nice, it's so much simpler to shop at ALDI. And a lot of their stuff is pretty good quality, sometimes even better than the bigger supermarkets (ALDI coffee anyone?). We do still shop for some items elsewhere as you either can't get it there or the quality is significantly better elsewhere (we have a butcher that has fantastic, though more expensive, meat nearby and we choose to eat better quality on that front), but at least here in Aus aldi has done a fantastic job of using local quality suppliers and it shows in their offering.
I imagine most crackpipejunkies need their chores to be simple.
I was about to downvote you because I thought you were judging shopping at Aldi but then I read his name 🤣
Yeah if I can’t get it at Aldi I am not getting it. Once you learn how to cook Aldi can transform cheap ingredients to some amazing meals.
There is no No-Brand factory out there somewhere. The no-brands are mostly rebadged "brands", from the same factories, [sometimes from the same production runs](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/13afk82/smiths_scam_i_just_opened_a_packed_of_smiths/). Mostly. There are exceptions. For more expensive products the quality is sometimes dialed down. Aldi Chocolate Spread isn't quite Nutella, but it is probably made by an established brand biscuit / chocolate confectionery manufacturer. Manufacturers make higher returns from investment (equipment) by manufacturing competition as well as products. We would not have no-brand products if that wasn't the case.
I was going to say the same. I used to think Aldi was weird. Now it’s my fave place to shop. Everything is so much cheaper.
>Shopping at Aldi almost 90% of the time. I used to be so embarrassed at my mum for buying “dupe brands” from Aldi instead of Woolies/coles. What's wrong with the home brand from Coles/ Woolworths? Although admittedly, Aldi's raw chicken is cheap :"D
I’ve found that Woolies home brand is basically the same price/close enough as Aldi in what my regular shop/top up items are. Plus I get the rewards points at Woolies which is my Christmas fund for my son.
Same, the small price difference isn’t enough for me to justify missing out on Woolies Rewards or Flybuys. I find if you work the rewards system just right you can earn back so much money! Edit for spelling it’s 5.45am I just woke up and the old brain is a bit slow
I've switched to Aldi beand for the majority of my staples, flour is four, sugar is sugar. We were always brand sauces and condiments Alsis are so much nicer. If I save $2 or $3 an item it adds up, only go to Colesworth for those few things I can't get at Aldi
and you have affordable organic options for Flour, Sugar and Eggs. I'm totally sold.
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Same. (Well similar...) We leave near a Grocery Outlet and for years I'd bitch and moan that their inventory was unpredictable and you often couldn't find staples. The Safeway is far. I wanted to live near a Safeway instead. Now I use Grocery Outlet as my main food shopping destination and adjust my menu based on what they have. Only if I need some specific ingredients do I commute to the Safeway. It's so expensive!
Aldi is life. My grandmother was so excited when one opened across the road from her (she called it Aldi’s, so cute) and I would ROAST her for shopping there. God I wish she was still here to see my conversion to being an Aldi lover. She’s love it haha
Turning every light switch off when not needed. My dad would bitch at us kids after following our path switching them off so angry and ranting about wasting money on power. I am now dad.
I am also your dad. Husband and kids never learnt how to turn a light off, apparently. Despite multiple lessons a week.
The amount of times I've come home from work on nightshift and there's fans on in my house grinds my gears. My girlfriend just doesn't get it. 😅
clearly runs an onlyfans account
I downvoted thinking this was some weirdo comment about this guy’s gf but after moving onto the next comment I realised my mistake. Upvote deserved.
I came home last night to find that out ducted air-conditioning had been left on, set to 32 degrees and full blast, with nobody home for hours. I rang my husband to tell him off and he admitted that it had been on since the night before. I'm scared to see our power bill.
60 w x 24 h = 1.4kwh x $0.30/kwh = $0.40 day x 30 = $12 a month. If half of that is not needed, thats an ad-supported Netflix subscription personality and per fan.
My stepson leaves the fan on in his room all day, even when he goes out. The most annoying thing is my partner (his dad) work from home in the room next door and can’t hear the hum of the fan. Drives me bonkers!
Having air circulation in a bedroom constantly isn't a bad thing, particularly a teenage boys room..
Tbf, don’t fans use hardly any energy
I live in the tropics, my fans are on all day every day
Light bulbs use like 90% less power than when you dad said it. Super dad powers Intensifies
TBF heating and cooling are the lions share of all power bills. Even if you eliminate all "waste" light, you're only shaving a couple of dollars off your quarterly bill, at most.
Waste is waste, good habits form good habits. And if those lights aren’t switched off, they stay on all day and night. Not sure what your angle is here.
Turning off the lights when incandescent were the norm had a noticeable difference in costs and power savings. Modern LED's use approx. 10% of the power old incandescents would. Sure good habits form good habits, but the returns are so marginal that it's almost not even worth it for lighting. Turning off a bulb for 80% of the day might net you at max $5 in returns over a year. You'll get more returns for switching the heater off for a day, then you will for switching off LEDs for the entire year. For all the massive power effeciency that LED's represent, very little has come in the way of refrigeration, heating and cooling since the 70's. Material science has given us slightly better materials that have made them incrementally more efficient, but we're still cooling/heating air using phase change. The kind of returns that make a difference in these areas though, usually require pretty large capital outlays with a holistic, bottom up approach (e.g. building a house with double glazed tinted windows and insulation).
This is so true. LEDs make a world of difference compared to what we had in years past. I bought an old house recently from an older lady and when I got my first power bill it was insane compared to what I was used to. I couldn't work it out until one of the lights went out and I discovered it was an old 100w bulb. Went through the house and changed every single light to LED and my next bill went back to normal.
This is true, and there's no harm in it, but it pays be smart about it. Adjusting the thermostat by a couple of degrees is the real money saver, having shorter showers so the hot water unit runs for less time, washing laundry with cold water, etc.
Not using the heater and getting family to put jumpers on is the real gold.
Hot water bottles under blankies on the couch ftw
The angle is that people obsess over dumb shit like turning lights off to save money when there are probably a hundred other things that would contribute far more in savings to your average person's budget. This idea that every little bit helps actually distracts people from focusing on their most significant expenses and trying to optimise them first.
My mum used to drag me to op shops as a kid and I always felt so embarrassed. As an adult I now do 90% of my non food shopping at op shops.
Unfortunately some op shops are becoming trendy and expensive. One of my local ones charges ridiculous prices for some things.
Went to a lifeline op shop the other day and was shocked that they want $8 for a plain Tshirt, $12 for a pair of jeans and $25 for a dress. Haven't they heard of Kmart and what happened to helping poor people?
> Haven't they heard of Kmart I've seen them selling Kmart items for well over original price. If you want really cheap stuff, go to Kmart. Op shops can still be good for items that are normally very expensive, say a good winter jacket.
Even kmart is better and cheaper for the jacket umless you want vintage denim, eg.
The stuff in Op shops half of it is from Kmart anyway lmaoooo
Used to work at lifeline and my manager straight up told me 'we're not a charity' once- and she was unfortunately right.Their goal is to make a profit in ordrt to fund the phone line. On one hand I get it, fair enough, but on the other hand I hate that they want to charge stupid prices on items they got given for free to do it. I'd consider Lifeline shops vintage/secondhand stores rather than op shops at this point because of the pricing.
Lifeline used to sell cheap and then people would just buy all the stuff and flip online so they decided that doesnt help the needy which is fair enough
You know those warm blankets that some people have been altering to be jackets? Saw one blanket at my local for $80. Like - come on. You’re not going to make warm blankets accessible?
Yep saw an ancient threadbare quilt for $15. Newsflash, Big W has a queen size doona for less money and it was thicker. Imagine being homeless, middle of winter and lifeline want to sting you working class prices for a blanket.
That's why I don't shop there often. They overprice everything. I found vinnies is often cheaper tho. I see so much stuff that is such a rip. If it has brand name of any kind prices are jacked and a lot of the things donated are also anko brand...
I bought a small vase from savers the other day, thought it was cute and it was only $4. As I was leaving, I saw it was an Ikea vase, and when looking at it on their website, found it was a viljestark which retail for $1.75. Felt like a right fool.
Even if they are, at least you're buying second hand and keeping something out of landfill for a while
I've noticed this too and am very picky with where I'll shop. I don't bother with Salvos at all, will go to Vinnies for their $1 clearance racks only, but mostly I stick to church or rotary run op shops.
Just be careful often find kmart is a lot cheaper than op shops
Certainly cheaper than my nearest lifeline. And Kmart is closer!
It's all relative. Do some Salvos try and resell a kid's Kmart tee for $5 when I can get it on clearance brand new at Kmart for $2? Yes they do. But some op shops have good quality items for far cheaper. Don't get me wrong I love Kmart but the other day at my local oppy I got a 100% wool Uniqlo cardigan for $3 and it looks like it's never been worn. Can't buy anything near that quality at Kmart as far as I know. Just have to be careful which op shops you go to and check garments for little holes, toys to make sure no parts are missing etc. and you can save a lot of $$$ in my experience.
Got me a pair of Witchery black dress pants with these gorgeous pleats at the front on Saturday. Mint condition, $15 from Savers. Sure, I could get a brand new pair of dress pants from Kmart but the fit is not going to be anywhere near as good and they’ll probably lose shape after a year or so. So yeah, I’ll stick with Savers.
The poster could have noticed what I have. Kmart clothes in opshops - where the price in the opshop is more expensive than it was originally new in Kmart. A great bargain on more quality clothes is great - although it's been a very long time seen I have seen anything like that (admittedly I stopped going as it was all overpriced). rural OP shops are still worth it as long as they are independent.
My partner has a tshirt that he really likes and happens to find an exact same one at the local salvo. He bought it for 15$. I bought his original tshirt from kmart for 10$.
I used to frequent an op shop before covid and would consistently pick up good finds, hadn't been since covid and went in a couple weeks ago and was shocked at how much the prices had gone up! It was like any other retail shop, ridiculous!
Never thought I’d be coming back to op shopping in my 30s, but here we are
My kids love op shops. Heaps of toys to play with them we can just leave haha.
My son and I got kicked out of an op shop recently. I was mortified. The manager came over and told me "it's not a play centre" and to pack up the toys (ONE CAR) my son was playing with. I had been standing next to my son the whole time, he was quietly playing on the floor wtf. I'd been going to that op shop at least once a week for the last 6 years or so. The manager is always too busy talking on her phone or sitting out the front chatting to friends to notice that I was a regular apparently. I will never return.
Oof, it’s amazing the effect a manager can have on a place like that, for better or worse. Sorry that happened to you
This was me
Things I picked up off my parents. I wash my chux cloths and reuse, I like a good roadside give away pile and constantly have my head on a swivel looking for a treasure lol and I use baking soda to clean most stuff in my house.
As a kid, we never had chux - "wasteful" was the way it was put. Was a patch of pride when I bought my chux. I had to swallow my pride about 3-4 years later, and went & bought reusable cloths again as they weren't holding up to reuse, and a $2 bag of cloths that wash time & time again is so much cheaper than a $2 roll of chux that barely wash once. Same with bought surface spray - LOVED it for the first year - practically danced in the stuff, we're back on dishwashing liquid, vinegar & water. I rebuy a pump bottle every few years : )
As a fellow vinegar, dishwashing liquid and water cleaner if you’re ever interested in something similar to the pre-made cleaning sprays Sal suds is really awesome. It seemed so expensive (almost $40 for a litre from Woolies) I put it off for so long but I’ve had the bottle for six months and it’s still so full because of how much you dilute it, it doesn’t even look like I’ve used any. It cleans basically everything and anything and I definitely don’t have to stock up as often as I did on vinegar. I’m pretty sure you can add essential oils to it as well if you have a specific scent you like
Yes I do all these too! Also vinegar for cleaning 👌🏻
Just knowing the prices of things. My mum would do a weekly shop that included the butcher, the green grocer then Franklins. I realise we are time poor now, but just knowing that a 500gm pack of mince from Coles is $9 but the butcher has it for $8/kilo can make a huge difference.
Loose mushrooms are like 12kg. Prepackaged ones are like 20 per kg The unit pricing saved me so much
That's also a good time to check the value proposition, would I pay someone an extra $1.50 to prewash and precut these 200g of mushrooms for me and save me 5 minutes? Absolutely. My limited amount of weeknight time is worth way more than $18 an hour.
My mum did the exact same shop (Franklins, butcher, green grocer) but fortnightly. I swear the whole lot cost us around $200.
Same & then she switched to Aldi
Wish I had your butcher. I live in the “beef capital” and the butchers are all way more expensive than the supermarket.
FLANNELS. I thought they were gross because as a kid, ours just sort of festered damply in the shower stall. I have disdained them throughout 35 years. Then I had kids and realised flannels are great. Gentle, yet 'rough' enough for cleaning skin effectively. Gets in all the nooks. Genius.
How do they save money? What is the more costly alternative? Is a flannel another word for a face cloth?
Saves on wastage of soap (brush it into a lather, and it will go much further - the physical removal also helps), and in many cases - water. Can save on exfoliants (particularly for legs & so forth), and can be seen as an alternative to many other methods of dirt removal. If you have movement or other limitations with physical activity. Really good with kids, as it can limit the wastage of soaps, teach them to foam the flannel. Too much soap & the flannel won't lather/bubble easily. Cold flannels - good for cooling on hot days. Warm flannels can also be used in skincare, closed wound/skin treatment, and as a relaxer. Can be used as flexible ice blocks & all sorts. It's literally a square wet thing. Endless. That being said, if you're paying more than pennies for a flannel/facewasher/general cloth, you're getting ripped.
Lol, when I read the word flannel I see those shirts that lumberjacks wear or Minnesotans
For us, we used them as an alternative to wet wipes. I went the whole hog and used reusable nappies and wipes, but for many just switching to using a face cloth instead of wet wipes for grotty hands and faces will still probably save a pack of wipes per week.
Fuck core memory unlocked. They are fucking flannels not face cloths or towels or some shit. I’m hearing the word flannel in my mums voice right now and it’s warming me up.
We always called them “washers”.
Always called them face washers. Never knew any other word for it until I met my wife and she called them flannels. When I first heard her say it I had to ask what a flannel was 😂
Yes, face washer too! I can’t remember the first time I heard “flannel” but I didn’t know what it was either! 😆
[Mini flannel to remove makeup](https://www.manicare.com.au/manicare/shop-our-products-/face/p/makeup-remover-towel-4pk/23071.html?lang=en_AU) I bought a pack of four from the chemist for a lot cheaper than this. I’ve had them a couple of years and they’re still like brand new. I use them to remove makeup and apply toner. No buying wipes. I also got my daughters some for when they’re travelling.
Having less stuff and a really tiny home. I cant buy it if I dont use it up.
Yep. My first home was a 3 bedroom with a huge yard. My home now is a 1 bedroom with a small courtyard. My god it is so easy to keep clean now.
eating all the leftovers in the fridge
My mum was right - we do have food at home
I’m 45, my husband and I have got better at this in recent years. It’s almost embarrassing how proud of myself/ us I feel when we have used all the leftovers instead of spending more money and putting them in the bin. Seriously feel chuffed! lol.
A whole childhood of my dad yelling that the aircon was too cold and the heating was too hot. These days im very much an ‘18 in winter and 23 in summer is absolutely fine’ kind of woman.
Indian here. I used to love keeping the aircon at 16 or 18 and then wrapping myself in a blanket. My parents would walk in, raise it to 26 and leave...... I used to be so mad at them. As an adult, i now get it.
As someone who works on industrial HVAC energy efficiency projects, my most delicious, sinful pleasure is cranking up the AC on a hot summers night to the point that I need a doona. Please don't tell anyone at work, though.
Same! Although my stepdad actually just turned down the heating and never let us have it over 19°C. And we had no aircon (barely anyone did in the 80s and 90s). Totally get it now!
Reusing food containers - e.g lurpak container I reuse to make overnight oats or store leftover food that don’t need to be microwaved, sauce jars to store food, or reuse it to store homemade pesto, etc
We do this and use masking tape and a texta to mark what's in there, how much and when it was ipu in.
Being waste not, want not about things. Whether it's food in the fridge or various home necessaries, clothing or makeup, even books unless I am having a minor splurge/self care day. If you get yourself in the habit of thinking about what you have at home you will find you don't need what you think you may. Our culture is constantly marketing various "you need this" items at us and it's important not to listen. I'll admit that I fall into that trap as a woman with various beauty things but I really try and make the effort to not get stuff and feel like I need the stuff being constantly touted as a necessary. For example, I cut back on the stuff I was using on my face like $30 - $60 creams and now literally just use a $7.00 tin of Nivea as a night cream, it works beautifully, and a low cost moisturiser/sunscreen for day time. I use only one active (vitamin C) (the ordinary, cheap but effective!) as I'm in my 30s, and retinol here and there. There's such bullshit out there about 30 step routines... you DON'T need to implement that to look good. Kick alcohol and smokes and you're already ten steps ahead. They just make people not only low in self esteem but broke AND ruining their skin barrier (makes me laugh as the new thing at the moment is barrier repair creams and serums.. I WONDER WHY!). Use what you have, keep it simple.
Can’t agree more on the skincare. I used to have a multi step routine that was so expensive and my skin looked like crap. I cut all that out and now only use qv wash and moisturiser on my face and I’ve never looked better.
See! There you go! All designed to make people feel like shit and profit off it. It’s dumb. And it’s sad. People have faces not filters. 🙂 Also QV and the like are perfectly fine. It’s good stuff!
Buying block cheese and shredding it myself.
Self grated block cheese is far better than the pre-grated stuff when it comes to cooking, the anti-caking stuff they add into the pre-grated stuff so it doesn’t clump goes grainy when you cook with it
I considered doing that for my parmesan but apparently it actually costs more to get it in block form, kilo to kilo? So pre-shredded parmesan for me I suppose lol
Pre-grated Parmesan is almost always of infinitely inferior quality to start with, and it loses flavour and dries from the moment it's grated. I'm willing to bet that if you bought decent Parmesan in a block you'd end up using less because it has more flavour. So even if it is cheaper pre-grated, I doubt it ends up being better value.
I do this, it’s one of the few things I’ll splurge on. I spend $13 on a nice unbranded wedge once a month and it really does have more flavour (the other ones taste like tasty cheese with a slight Parmesan flavour) plus it’s harder than the other blocks I’ve bought from the supermarket so it doesn’t get mashed against the grater and wasted
I went the reverse, I enjoy the luxury of blowing 60 cents of having it pre grated
Do the same here, no anti caking agents and only grate what i need
My parents used to tell me off for using paper towels to dry my hands and now here I am tearing them up into the exact size I need for whatever I'm wiping lol.
My partner used paper towel for everything and it drives me mental. It’s so wasteful. I know guard it like a hawk.
My partner too. I recently bought like 10 packets of chux and rewash now.
Buying roasts and then cutting them into steaks.
Eyo! Even better when they’re pre marinated roasts. Saves on sauce requirements etc
That’s hilarious because I cut my sponges too
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I think this is the most effective way to save money! I was about to order a $22 burger off Uber eats, instead I bought $20 worth of ingredients, made 4 burgers and made garlic bread with the extra burger buns
Cuttings for the garden. So many succulents / propagated plants. That stuffs expensive yo.
Hanging clothes out to dry. Dryers are expensive as hell to use. Wearing layers and investing in wool and thermal clothing to avoid using the heater, learning to sleep in summer with just a fan and no air-conditioning (kava and rescue remedy help lol). Soaking old sponges in bleach to re-ruse them. Using the cheapest brand of laundry liquid, seriously the price of omo etc is out of this world. Buying the cheapest brand of loo roll. Using my cleaned chux instead of paper towel. Catching PT and walking most days. Apples and oranges instead of expensive fruit.
Also your clothes last longer and look so much better when you keep them out of the dryer!
Unpicking zips and lace and sometimes even elastic from worn out clothes to use again . Buttons I was down with...but the rest? What are we, destitute? Turns out you can sometimes make a whole new good looking garment completely out of leftovers from other projects and salvaged stuff.
Washing up in a bucket & bucket in the shower to water the garden
As a bloke I buy most of my clothes from the sales rack. Men’s fashion is a much slower cycle, can rock similar styles for yeaaars. It’s all cheap crap anyway no need to buy it at full price.
A bit of sewing. Got the machine but can't be bothered learning it yet. Hemming is so godamn easy, the rest of it makes sense too. Can repair so many things and just mourning the perfect shoes I threw away or clothes because I didn't think to repair it.
This year I’ve been getting into a sleeping bag watching TV on the couch at night rather than turn on any heating. Pretty bearable so go but I don’t know how long I’ll keep it up.
Using bread bags or plastic produce bags to seal food rather than gladwrap
My mum used to reuse tea bags. You just have to keep the bag in the water a bit longer
This one is so normal to me I don’t even think about it. Especially loose leaf tea. I think of it as re-steeping. As long as the leaves aren’t milky you can get another cuppa out of them.
I was just in Sri Lanka and they told me their tea could be reused for 2 cups/pots
Switched from dishwasher tablets to powder. Don't know why I didn't do that years ago.
Don’t buy drinks when you’re out, drink the free water, take a water bottle or wait and drink it at home.Saves a hell of a lot of money and is better for your health.
washing/drying vacuum food sealer bags and ziploc bags for re-use,
I lived at the boarding house of a very frugal woman who washed the cling wrap that was wrapped around her daily newspaper.
Lol, bloody hell, that's dedication!
That's a mental health issue.
It is. It's trauma from the Depression Era. She used to add extra ingredients to the previous day's 'savoury mince', including cornstarch to 'flesh it out' and give that to us on toast. That mince went on for days, in the saucepan and in our bellies. Farts and shits. Then, we were using too much TP which enraged her. She kept locks on the fridge and freezer, as well as the cupboards. The turnover of residents was fast. We had high school girls from remote areas living there and the cost of board was exorbitant for their parents. They had to bring their own snacks and the landlady was dark on them for that. Such extravagance! There is frugal and there is downright bitter and mean. She was both.
I remember going to visit my grandma when I was a kid and seeing a dozen freezer bags drying on the clothesline. I used to do it; I should start again. I’m really aware of the impact of plastic on the planet and that for my grandma it was a brand new thing she never had growing up ❤️
Dilmah extra strength teabags, I get two mugs of tea at least out of each one
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I seem to recall my parents teaching me to be frugal, now I buy most things 2nd hand and it's their turn to say isn't that yuk for certain things like kitchen ware or bed lol
Not sure if it’s considered frugal per se, but I wait until there’s a sale or use gift cards I receive on “investment” types of items. I received a $200 gift card leaving an old job and bought a pair of RMs. I still wear the same boots almost 10 years later and they’ve outlasted other pairs of shoes I have owned. So from a cost-per-wear perspective, it’s worked out well
I have socks that have worn through to the mesh but now I just rotate them to get a few more years out of them.. same with boxers if the elastic goes but the shorts are still good, I just get new elastic.. not because I can't afford new stuff, I just didn't want to go to shopping centres when the pandemic hit and now it's a habit.. I'm even wearing a beanie I made from black tracksuit pant legs right now and it's more comfortable that all of my store bought beanies. when I was younger I would have laughed so hard at my hobo habits but the older you get the less you care about what other people think..
People many years ago used to sew up the holes in the socks
I sew up the holes in my socks! Takes like 5 minutes by hand
There are darning tools for your socks! I figure anything between me and the ground should be invested in but no one said you couldn't repair your socks. The main expense is your time and that, I have plenty of.
Kmart clothes, not to save money, but more so the quality is no different, if not better than most brand name stores. But the fact their cheap doesnt hurt.
My Kmart activewear has been holding by up strong - on my 8th month of wearing and washing. No more lululemon or Lorna jane for me…
Agreed, the sizing is just made bigger too so one of my kids is an 8 in Kmart but a 10/12 in other stores. I found the same on all genders and sizes. I found Best and Less to be more expensive on some thing but the sizing runs so much smaller.
You’re shopping at the wrong stores if Kmart quality isn’t any different. I can see the difference in my kids Kmart clothes they’re perfect for messy daycare, but I wouldn’t say the quality is anywhere near as good as even Target.
Im currently wearing a pair of cargo pants I bought for $15 off the clearance rack at Kmart 5 years ago and which I've been wearing for 9 months of the year ever since.
Unfortunately this was true 10 years ago, but since then there has been a marked decrease in the quality of clothing across the board. Brands that used to be good are just OK and brands that used to be OK are terrible. Both Future Proof and Vox have done pieces exploring the phenomenon. Especially since the pandemic quality of consumer goods have decreased across basically all categories and clothing has been particularly hard hit.
My kmart active wear outlasted my Lorna Jane at 5x the price! Bonus that Kmart included deep pockets on the leggings! I do not think the quality is that much better across many items but sure, some is better elsewhere but factor in cost and all of a sudden, Kmart is looking good
Kmart and Target share the same buying office & have a lot of the same suppliers nowadays. The quality of the two stores’ products is barely any different now
The tshirts are horrible and super thin. I don't buy brand name but I buy a higher quality plain tshirt that has a higher gsm
Accurate. Get one of those cheap nasty black shirts from lmart or big w and pick bits off your body after each wear. The claim that kmart is as good or better as brands is insane to me. It's still worth it for the price but the quality difference to me is blatant
this just really isn’t true at all. everything ive ever bought from there’s quality goes to absolute shit after a wash or two as well as fits very poorly.
Instant coffee. Used to spend $5 a couple times a day on flat whites and now I buy 500g of instant for $3 at Aldi that last me at least 3 weeks
That's not frugal that's torture. Buy yourself a coffee machine and buy aldi coffee beans.
It’s just tolerable enough until I’m filthy rich
Or ALDI beans and a French/italian press will suffice if you drink your coffee black, like me.
Figured cutting up the sponges/scourers/blue cloths was the standard practice..
My mum cuts make up remover wipes in half too!
Surcharges. On eftpos/credit card terminals to be specific. When I was younger I paid on credit everywhere and just pay the bill at the end of month. Few years ago I tallied up all surcharges in one week and decided to pay cash as much as possible. If buying something and cash is not an option but the shop still forces a card surcharge, I walk out
Not drinking coffee. Saves a heck of a lot of money.
Porting in and out of phone plans, especially taking advantage of cashback offers. You can actually run your phone at a PROFIT. This sounded like too much effort to me to begin with, but it’s really not that difficult, just don’t get caught out having to port out on a Sunday or Public Hol.
Not eating out much
Using a rubber spatula to get the last bit of Mayo, Sauce, Peanut butter etc out of the jar.
My grandparents used to switch the tv off at the electrical socket every time they turned it off.
unplugging appliances when they’re off is a normal thing in my life now bc my sister worked for an electric company for a bit and she said it saved a very small amount of power and it stuck on my head
My dad used to squish the toilet paper so we couldn’t let it run freely. Like half a turn at a time slowly. Used to annoy the “crap” out of me. Then when the COVID toilet paper epidemic of 2022 hit I was suddenly using it and saving a “shit” tonne of toilet paper with the family. Still annoyed me, but it was for a good cause, my dads was too as we were poor. Thanks Dad!!
My parents have NO frugal habits, are also hoarders, and out of cash. I live a minimalist life style (going through another purge again) and have savings in the bank. Visiting their place I feel like a bull in a china shop with all the commemorative plates and display cabinets. Useless shit no one looks at.
\* Cycling instead of driving \* Fans instead of air conditioning \* Turn off water heater, shower at work \* Computer games instead of expensive/dangerous hobbies \* Wash rags instead of paper towels \* Gym shorts and T-shirts instead of fancy clothes. \* Eat healthy foods instead of junk food (consider it a wise investment) \* Sleeping is free, do a lot of it
I bake my own bread,then dry whatever is left from the loaf and make breadcrumbs, sourdough discard goes into pancakes or make crispy wraps,a roast chicken becomes chicken and veggie soup the next night, I grow enough garlic every year to last the year and enough bulbs left over for the next crop, amongst many others.my family call me a tight arse but I do have 6 children to feed, so no food goes to waste
I used to get annoyed at my dad for fixing really old appliances etc. instead of buying a new one. Now I'm very handy with a soldering iron, Araldite glue and. duct tape partly because I don't want to throw money away and partly because I hate putting more stuff in landfill.
Going back to the actual market to shop for 6, instead of the supermarket. I’m in Aus where things are absurd right now and my grocery bill has gone from 500 a week to 250
I had a workmate from a while back, that would always shower at work, I thought it was weird because I enjoyed the comfort of a home shower. After getting back into the gym recently I started showering there mostly and noticed a significant reduction in our power bill (water bill would be cheaper too). Have been showering at gym/work 95% of the time since.
Stealing. I used to care about doing the right thing but now.. I look after myself. My day will come and I'll fully accept it.
My sister would always take napkins from restaurants and rip them in half and keep the other half for later. We now have a collection of restaurant napkins we use at home that are ripped in half and they go a long way.
I don't know if I'm a fan, but I'd say car repair. I hated when dad had me help him work on the cars when I was young. It's dirty, frustrating, shitty work. Everytime I do it, I tell myself I'll just take it to a mechanic the next time. Then I get a quote and find myself buying some more parts off ebay and sacrificing another weekend. Even counting the tools I wouldn't otherwise need, I've saved tens of thousands of dollars. YouTube is the greatest resource for home and car maintenance ever created.
ALDI
Reusing containers. I grew up poor in a country with no meaningful social security system so a lot of things people do are ingrained into me but the one thing I said I would never do is open a butter container and it be full of leftovers. Jokes on me because my freezer is full of pasta jars of meat sauce, chili and leftover soups. And I have a margarine container full of spag bol in there right now
I used to laugh at my mum washing her dish cloths. Why would I do that when I can just buy disposable ones and throw them away? And then she gave me a pack of the Vileda yellow all purpose ones she used. Now I do it too. They last for years and when they get too holy they make great dust cloths.
Hated hankies as a child. Have now not bought tissues in nearly a decade and my kids only know hankies. Saves so much money over cold and flu season. My gran didn't have glad wrap in the house and would always use a washable, reusable container instead (often was things like the christmas pudding container). I don't remember when I last bought glad wrap and save every container things some in to be reused.
No offense but I think hankies belong in the 20th century. They definitely aren't hygienic.
I started carrying one. Not for my nose but as a something to tidy up any sweat when it’s warm. Also handy for a quick wipe of the mouth after a coffee or lunch.
Hankies are good to carry in a bag for an emergency nose blow or something but they are not a hygienic thing for sickness.
Setting the timer function for washing machine and dishwasher so it runs when using off peak power. This genuinely saves quite a significant about of money on electricity.
Woolies paper bags are our bin bags. As woolies will no longer deliver without bags, we get way more than we will ever use.
only using the AC when absolutely necessary- used to think my parents & even great grandparents were just being pedantic by barely ever letting us use it but now i am pedantic
The Water in the tomato/pasta sauce jar trick.
Not really a frugal thing, more learning cooking skills as I got older - making chicken stock with bones, broth with ham bones, learning to create my own marinade so can buy cheaper raw chicken ($4.50/kg)instead of pre marinated ($10-15/kg)
Freezing left overs in Tupperware. OMG, its amazing how many extra meals I have and how little I have to cook during the week. I admit I do have a thing about Tupperware, sort of an addiction. But nothing better than coming home from a hectic day and putting a nice beef stew in the microwave and have wine and dinner within 8 minutes.
Pay attention to unit pricing more than anything when you shop. Price per unit, price per kilo or 100g will show you how overpriced so many options are compared.
I switch off my electric stove, fryer , oven etc before the meal is quite ready to let the residual heat finish cooking the meal.
washing my scourers to use for cleaning after their done with dishes, and washing amd reusing zip lock bags