'I can eat healthy for an entire week for under $100, usually less.'
,"What is a weird frugal hack that you don't think you would have realized if it weren't for a weird set of circumstances?" Honestly, this thread is full of sooo many good tips and tricks that would have never occurred to me.
Here are some of the best responses:"My landlord was too cheap to fix the dishwasher, so I hand-washed everything for like two years. It sounds miserable, but it accidentally taught me to cook with fewer dishes: one-pot meals, sheet pan dinners, and reusing the same cutting board and knife. When I finally got a working dishwasher again, I realized my water bill had dropped noticeably AND I was spending way less on groceries because one-pot cooking naturally uses fewer ingredients.""All my sofa and chair cushions have a trash bag over the foam, under the cover. I have senior pets, and accidents happen. The cushion covers are easily machine-washed, but the foam is a nightmare to get clean and dry. After the second round of fussing with heavy wet foam, I just slipped a garbage bag over the foam and put the laundered cover back on top.""I hate where I live. I’ve been living here with one foot out the door, ready to load up my car and flee toward the state line at the first opportunity. It's reworked my brain, turning me into an actual minimalist. I’m sort of gleefully hate-living here, refusing to get too comfortable, refusing to decorate my living spaces. Motivated by the burning and singleminded goal of packing the f*** out, I have been living far below my means. My annual spend is so low and my percentage of savings is so high that I had to triple-check the math. Despite this, I feel like I live very well. I'm thriving.""I got a basic sewing machine on sale, and it has been great to have! I shorten all of my PJs. I have fixed broken straps on carrying bags. I have quickly sewn a little window valance for various apartments. I ran up a simple table runner using some remnant fabric and used it many times. I made myself a soft bag to cover my ski goggles to protect from scratching. It has easily paid for itself multiple times over.""Meal planning with mostly the same ingredients. I'd buy a whole chicken and roast it. I'd have chicken one day, then chicken salad the next, or chopped chicken with ramen. Then I'd eventually make a small batch of soup stock with leftovers and bones, and throw it in with rice and mixed veggies. One whole chicken got me at least four lunches and dinners while I was broke. I can eat healthy for an entire week for under $100, usually less.""If you are semi-mechanically inclined, do car mechanical work yourself. It’s not as intimidating as you think. AutoZone has limited lifetime warranties for brake pads, and I think you can swap them out three or four times for free. I’ll do my brake pads and rotors at the house, and I have two different sets for my car so that when I do my brakes, I’ll have the brand new set ready. I then bring the used set back to AutoZone and they give me a brand new box to keep in stock for next time. I have been doing this with all my cars my whole life, and it's such a money saver.""I had a crap car that chugged oil. After a while of buying one-quart packs of oil, I realized it was much cheaper to buy five-quart packs of oil.""I never would have guessed how sweet cooperative living can be. I’m sure it varies, but holy moly — I’m paying historic housing costs, I have nice neighbors, and most of the maintenance is done for me. It’s too good to be true, but it’s true. Not surprisingly, they need no advertising and the waitlists stay full from word of mouth alone.""When I was a kid, our dryer kept blowing the fuse when we started a load, so we started drying our clothes outside all the time. We got the electrical upgraded, but kept drying the laundry outside, at least during the warmer months. Now that I’m grown and live in a mild climate, I strategize when I wash the laundry so I can dry it outside.""Live like a hermit crab! Do not rent a place to live that is bigger than what you need at any given moment. If you’re starting a family, do not rent a place with more bedrooms than you will need in the near future — and if you do have kids, realize they will be in your bedroom for the initial few months at least. There is no rush. You could save THOUSANDS of dollars by not renting more space than you need.""I realized you can eat 20 pounds of oats a month and save over $1,000 a year in groceries. Eating enough every day is hard for me, and blended oats are the easiest, cheapest calories you'll find. It's my breakfast and post-dinner snack.""Walmart used to run sales on quarter hams that would beat all the deli prices. But they were hard to cut up, so someone told me to just take the meat to the deli and ask to get it sliced. Then, I started buying whole pork loins and would have the meat department slice it to the thickness I wanted. But the wait got tedious, and I figured I needed to learn how to slice the meat sometime. So, I bought a sharp knife and started practicing. I now just buy a whole pork loin or quarter ham and slice it all up at home.""I pick many, many gallons of berries. I make jam and pie fillings and freeze them. I try to plant shrubs and trees that produce food around my city, too — guerilla gardening style.""I stumbled onto discounted gift cards completely by accident. A few years ago, I was complaining to a friend about how expensive DoorDash had gotten, and he just casually mentioned that he never pays full price for it. He showed me that you can buy gift cards at, like, 10-12% below face value on resale sites. It seemed sketchy, but I tried it anyways, and it worked perfectly. I've been using it ever since for basically everything: Uber, Amazon, Target, gas.""On a cycling trip, I accidentally booked an Airbnb in the middle of nowhere that didn’t have a kitchen. I learned that you can cook pasta in your kettle by just continuing to turn it on. It also makes for easy water removal, because you just pour it out like you would for tea. It's not exactly 'frugal,' but it means you can stay in cheaper accommodations that don’t have ovens or full kitchens when you're traveling."And lastly:"Canceling a free trial on day one and still getting the full trial period. Most services let you do this, and it means you never get hit with the surprise charge. I discovered it by accident when I rage-canceled something right after signing up, then realized I still had access for the remaining 29 days. Now I just automatically sign up for a trial, immediately cancel, and enjoy the free month."
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