A few months ago, I asked on my Facebook Page for people to share one “weird” thing they do to save money. I loved reading the responses and compiled a list of some of my favorites — and some of the most shared suggestions.
1. Cut the End Off
Is the toothpaste tube or lotion tube almost gone? Cut the end off of tubes of lotion or toothpaste with scissors and you can get quite a bit more out! I do this for my face moisturizer and face wash can usually get a full extra week’s worth of uses just by this simple hack. (You can store it in a ziptop baggie once you cut the end off so it doesn’t dry out.)
2. Make Your Own Foaming Soap
One way to save a lot of money on hand soap is to make your own foaming hand soap. It takes literally less than 60 seconds to make and is so much less expensive than buying foaming hand soap or hand soap! Here’s the super simple details on how to make it.
3. Add Water
Want to get that last little bit of shampoo or dish soap or body wash or laundry detergent out? Add some water and shake and you’ll have at least enough for another use or two! You can also add broth or water to the pasta sauce jar and shake so you don’t waste any or do the same with milk in the salad dressing bottle.
4. Ask for a Discount
Vanessa said: “I ask service providers (mechanics, plumber, air conditioner repair, etc.), ‘Is that the best you can do?’ Almost always, they knock some money off the bill.”
5. Think in Terms of Hourly Wage
Whenever I’m considering trying a new money-saving tactic, I analyze how much money it will save me per hour.
For instance, let’s say that by making my own foaming soap it takes one minute to make and it saves me $1 from buying a container of foaming soap. That’s like saving $1 per minute or $60 per hour — which is a really good hourly wage. Plus, it’s tax free money! So, it’s totally worth my time. But, on the other hand, let’s say there’s another money-saving tactic that would only save me $1.50 for 15 minutes of work. That’s like saving only $6 per hour — which, depending upon your season of life and bank account — may or may not be worth your time.
6. Make Your Own Cleaners
Jerica says: “Soap, vinegar, bar keepers friend, and bleach pretty much cover everything I need, and are all extremely cheap.” (Check out this post for some homemade cleaner recipes.)
7. Don’t Buy Paper Towels
We stopped buying paper towels a number of years ago. It’s such a simple thing, but it does add up to a lot of savings — and we don’t really even notice that we don’t buy or use them! (Except when we have guests over and they ask for a paper towel!!)
I share more details here on what we use instead of paper towels.
8. Avoid the Stores
One of the best ways to save money is to stay home. Not only does this save on wear and tear on your car and gas money, but it also means you’ll likely spend less money… well, unless you turn to online shopping instead! (If that’s a temptation to you, set some good boundaries — like unsubscribing from emails or not visiting sites that make you tempted to spend money you don’t have or haven’t budgeted for that purpose!)
9. Scan Your Receipts
Earn a little cash back every time you buy gas or groceries or other items by scanning your receipts on Upside, Fetch, Ibotta, Swagbucks, Shopkick, and CoinOut. You’ll earn points each time you scan a receipt and you can then cash in those points for gift cards!
10. Eat from the Pantry
Challenge yourself once a month or once every few months, to skip going to the grocery store for a few days longer than normal and eat up what you already have on hand instead. You might be surprised at how creative you can get with what you already have… and maybe you can make it longer than you think without going to the store!
11. Don’t Use Dryer Sheets
Just like we don’t use paper towels, we also don’t use dryer sheets. If the thought of not buying dryer sheets just isn’t your thing, a simple way to save is by cutting them in half instead of using a full sheet per load. I’ve heard that it works just as well.
12. YouTube It
Christy says: “YouTube is the real MVP though. I’ve saved thousands over the years by simply looking up the issue and learning if it’s within our skill set, rather than hiring a professional.”
What’s something “weird” you do to save money? I’d love for you to add your ideas to my list in the comments!
I starting cutting my own hair and my kids and husbands hair and everyone looks great and we save a ton of money
I cut parts of sleeves and legs from fall/winter pajamas(for my kids) to make their spring/summer pajamas using fabric scissors. Long-sleeved to short-sleeved in less than a few minutes. I do not sew anything. I got this idea from Andrea Dekker’s blog post on her site(which I found from your site!). I’ve done it with regular shirts and pants where there was an obvious seam separating long-sleeve from short-sleeve shirts and pants from shorts. I started buying my kids’ clothing a little bigger, so it would for sure last at least one whole year. The sleeves and legs that are cut off can be rags. My younger son wears the hand me down of a pair of Nike shorts that used to be Nike pants from his older brother. 😆 I have found you cannot do this with all material, though.
I do this too! Love it! When boys get too old to fit into children’s jammies, I get them loose fitting plainwhite T’s and loose boxer shorts. They fit for years, and they find them so comfortable.
I spend most of our money at Aldi’s. Do any of the cash back apps cover them?
Ibotta
Yes! Fetch works at almost every store!
I’m surprised “hanging up laundry to dry instead of using the dryer” isn’t on the list. Dryers are one of the biggest energy users in the house, and laundry lasts much longer when it’s line dried vs. dried in the dryer.
I live in a cold climate so can’t hang laundry outside at least 6 months of the year. During that time only towels and occasionally sheets go in the dryer and everything else gets put on a clothes rack or hung on hangers around the house. An added bonus is that it adds moisture to the dry winter air in the house and we don’t have to run our humidifiers as much on laundry days. In the summer everything goes on the clothes line.
A lot of places in the world, even first-world countries, don’t use dryers. I lived in Australia for years and didn’t even have a dryer. Everybody in my apartment block used the communal clothes lines in the gardens.
We used to always line dry clothes growing up. Surprisingly, pretty much no one mentioned that on the Facebook Post (there were hundreds of comments/suggestions but many of them were the same!) and it’s not something we do for a long list of reasons, so that’s why I didn’t include it.
Don’t replace stuff. If your spatula breaks, use a wooden spoon for awhile and see if you really need the spatula. If the markers all dry out use crayons. My blender died a year ago and I haven’t replaced it yet 🙂
You and I are so similar! 😉
Paper towels are fairly cheap and after you factor in the cost of water and detergent as well as the electricity to run the washer and dryer, plus the time involved in the process, I doubt that there is much of a savings. As far as the environment goes, yes there is less waste, but you are using more energy (dryers are one of the biggest energy using appliances), and water. Not everyone can afford the very expensive energy saving appliances and many people still have to transport their dirty laundry to a laundramat for washing.
We maybe only have 1-3 small towels added to our laundry per week by not buying them so it’s pretty much the same amount of laundry we’d do regardless. 🙂 Usually, we’re just using a kitchen washcloth/cloth to wipe things up (countertop, etc.) that we then rinse and re-use over and over again and it’s a cloth we’d already be using whether we bought paper towels or not. Now, if we were replacing buying paper towels with doing an entire load of towels/rags each week, that’d be a different story. But I’ve been shocked at how we just don’t need them nor are we really washing/drying any extra laundry as a result.
Hi, we have gone without paper towels before. The biggest problem we had was what to use to drain bacon and fried tacos those kind of things. Washing cloth napkins with grease in them was ineffective. Any suggestions? Thank you
We don’t ever fry things, so that probably helps. We make our bacon in the oven and put it on a cooking rack with a pan underneath it.
We try to use cloth but keep paper towels for greasy messes like bacon and ground beef, but now I want to know how you clean up the bacon grease! I do the oven method too, but I don’t want any grease going down the drain. I used to line the pan in foil, but now I don’t; so there is some grease residue to clean up.
I reuse a old coffee can or jar or can. Put a colander over top and pour into the colander and let drain
I haven’t tried it with grease yet but I’m trying to use cut up old t shirts for rags. Stuff that has holes in it that I wouldn’t donate or sell. If the rag is really yucky, I just pitch it. So I think you could use that for grease too. I have four boys so I have a decent supply of destroyed clothing. If the rags are mostly just wet then I wash them but I don’t feel bad pitching them either.
I keep a container by the sink and whenever I need to run water to get it warm, I collect the water in the container. I use the water I’ve collected in my washer the next time I run a load (check your washer to make sure it allows for this). This saves on the water and sewer bills.
That’s a creative idea!
I do that to water my plants in the kitchen and by the front door.
I’m not sure how much money it saves, but I hate wasting anything, so I “rinse” chocolate syrup bottles with milk. It uses up the last of it and someone gets a glass of chocolate milk, which I never buy.
That’s definitely a practice I can get behind! 🙂
I always do this too!!
This is really cheap. Save the end slivers of bar soap in a container. Can add liquid soap rinsed with water. When you have accumulated at least 10, add water and melt in pan on stove. Pour into a container. Remove when solidifies and use.
Thank you for sharing!
To save on medical bills, I literally have to call my insurance company to see if they ever received a claim from the provider.
What I am finding is that you have to call the provider to file the claim to your insurance and then call your insurance company to see if the claim came in and you might have to follow up on a few more times and then thankfully the bill will finally stop coming.
Secondly, you may want to talk to your pharmacist about how may the prescription price be reduced. Strangely enough, I had a prescription that would have cost $100. I told my pharmacist that I was told by the doctor I could get it at a different pharmacy for around $40. Lo and behold my pharmacist matched the price.
Never hurts to ask for a discount or to keep making sure that your claims are being filed with the insurance company.
Thank you for sharing!