Inspired by the squeezing toothpaste tube thread. Yes, I press toothpaste tubes against the edge of the bathroom counter to squeeze out every last molecule of toothpaste. Why? Mostly because I was raised in a household run by Silent Generation parents who lived in the wake of the Depression and that sort of act of frugality was simply normal behavior. My mother used bread wrapper liners in our winter boots when I was a child, washed out plastic baggies, carefully opened gifts to re-use wrapping paper, and kept a jar of bacon drippings in a jar under the kitchen sink. Those sorts of things were not regarded as being exceptionally miserly behavior back then…or so I assumed. Come to find out after getting married these sorts of things were NOT commonly practiced by my in-law’s family whose household was generally in better financial condition during the 60’s through the 80s.
So what sort of incredibly cheap things did you do as a child that were possibly of dubious economic benefit? How many of those things went by the wayside when you established your own households? What incredibly cheap things do you still do?
When I was a kid there was an item that you could actually buy for 1 cent - gum from a gumball vending machine. I think the smallest coin any machine takes these days is a quarter.
I have trouble getting the sliver to stick reliably to the new bar (see also: First World Problem).
Now, I accumulate them, shunting them over into an empty bar soap wrapper, and then – when a fair quantity of scraps is reached – shove them into one of these:
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I save lightly used paper towels (like, the ones we might use as dinner napkins) and use them for less savory tasks later. I never ‘build up a hoard’ of them – just a couple that I always find use for quickly.
I also do this, and consider myself quite clever for doing so. My wife, however, scoffs at the practice.
Although we almost always use cloth shopping bags at the grocery store, we will occasionally leave them in the car and use the plastic bags provided by the store. These make handy trash can liners for the bathroom and bedroom closets. And they’re free.
I like that sisal soap saver bag. I’ll have to hunt one down because saving soap slivers is something I do as well.
Oh, and I save lightly used paper towels in exactly the same manner. Also keep every napkin that comes with take out, and use them for our own dinners. Will also reuse aluminum foil if not badly crinkled and dirty.
What do y’all do with those little condiment packets like ketchup, mustard, mayo, and soy sauce? I have a designated bag we store in the fridge and make a point to actually use them up (one time we were out of ketchup but managed to make meatloaf anyway using 20 packets from the fridge.)
I’ve been known to dry and reuse a paper towel if it was just damp, like used to dry a hand. And I also save carry-out/delivery napkins and plasticware (the forks/spoons get used in my kid’s lunch). I don’t save condiments unless it’s something unusual because we own enough ketchup and soy sauce that no one is ever going to use the packet from Arby’s c.2014
My grandparents were pretty classic post-Depression savers. Not hoarding, the place was always clean, but the doorknobs were all adorned with “saved” rubber bands that would crumble into dryrot dust if you tried to use them, there was a long-reused Styrofoam cup with browned interior by the kitchen sink and, famously, my grandfather removed the lightbulb from inside the refrigerator to save money on electricity.
I do the soap sliver thing. I just get a feeling of satisfaction of using up every last bit of the bar. So it’s more of an OCD thing. I will reuse sandwich bags if they’re clean. If I get a a delivery in a box, I will use that box as a bin for recycling so that I can just throw the whole box in the recycling can outside when it’s full.
Not me, but my wife’s mother used to try to dry out paper towels and reuse them.
On the other hand, back in the 50s, per the Jetsons, we were all going to have disposable clothes etc in the future made of paper, thrown away after one use.
These days my wife & I do have durable shopping bags which we take to the store.
It’s a drop in the bucket in the overall picture, of course.
Rubber bands for sure.
I’m bad with coins and some here in Australia are $2 !!! -
I do recall penny candies…no more.
Parents were 'make do" generation…canning the garden produce, keeping pencil stubs. Built their house in the 30s with $100 in the bank…lived in it for 72 years…different times.
We’ve recently discovered 10c refunds on pepsi and protein drinks so storing those now. Important when bus fares now down to 50 cents.
Mostly it is environment driven but the 10 cents adds up. Five Pepsi cans = 1 bus ride.
I find the amount of waste dismaying…so much packaging…at least we have a very large country to store it in.
Mind you a regional recycle centre fire set us back. Don’t toss lithium batteries in the trash.
Plastic grocery bags are £0.30 in the UK. I still buy one from time to time as they are useful in the food recycling bin. I have one stashed in every coat in case of unplanned stops at a shop. I washed out a zip-lock style bag about an hour ago.
I just bought some re-sealable freezer bags to store soup in. They are supposed to be re-usable. We will see.
I used to stick slivers of soap onto the new bar. I found that it was best to soak both in the bath first, which made the sliver flexible. We don’t use bar soap anymore, having gone over to liquid from an electric pump.
We have our groceries delivered, and they put all the meat in red bags. These bags fit my small countertop bin perfectly. It’s meant for composting, but we don’t, so I use it as a handy bin when preparing veggies.
I reuse paper plates, if the food they first contained is something clean, like a sandwich. I feel guilty enough about using something so single-use, so I just stack them up and reuse the plates until they contain something that can’t be brushed off.
I have a scrap metal pile next to the barn. It contains stuff like engine blocks, bicycles, brake discs, etc. I’ll take it to the recycling center soon. But I also have a Ziplock bag I throw small metal things into, like small springs, screws, nuts, etc. It will go to the recycling place, too, even though it probably contains ten cents worth of metal.
I’ve been doing this for years. In fact, I get annoyed when something drips on the plate enough that I have to toss it.
I’m also a soap sliver saver. I need to get one of those soap saver bags. Last year I finally tossed a bunch of slivers because I couldn’t get them to stick to the new bar.
I do a lot of these things as well. Here’s one that caused a friend (knowing already what a cheap bastard I am) to laugh his ass off when he found out:
Most of my socks have holes worn through the heels. Some are quite large! As in, the whole heel pokes through when I put them on. I used to throw them out but then one day I had an epiphany: I can wear the sock upside-down, so the hole is in the top!!
Sure it doesn’t fit quite as well, becuse there’s some bunchiness where my foot meets the ankle. But not so much as you’d expect because of the hole in the material. My foot is happy and doesn’t mind a bit. Whee, my sock-lifespan just doubled!
I go one step beyond this: after flattening the tube and getting as much out as I can that way, I cut it open and scrape toothpaste out of the corners. Usually I have to seal the compromised container in an air-tight enclosure so it doesn’t dry out; I typically get another two or three days of use out of it that way.
I understand that bar soap is quickly falling out of favor with consumers and that younger customers prefer to buy the liquid hand soap that requires a dispenser. I KNOW all the cheap bastards on this thread already understand that bar soap is much more economical than that liquid soap stuff, even if you’re buying the big refill bottles. So to the generation that’s buying the plastic liquid soap dispensers we implore you to think of the environment and not buy the product on ecological grounds.
