While “living large” has its perks, in this day and age, finding clever ways to save here and there carries a good feeling that can’t really be replicated. But being frugal is more than just pinching pennies, it’s also a way to limit one’s impact on the environment and save a little at the same time.
We’ve gathered some of the best “frugal wins” shared by people online. We also got in touch with Keren Charles Duclosel, a thrift shopping expert. So get comfortable as you scroll through, prepare to take some notes, upvote the best posts and be sure to comment your own thoughts and experiences below.
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Bored Panda got in touch with Keren Charles Duclosel, a thrift shopping expert based out of Atlanta, Georgia to learn more about the benefits of thrift shopping and to learn some tips for folks who are new to it. First, we wanted to hear most people get wrong about thrifting.
“Common misconceptions about thrifting include that thrift stores sell junk and/or dirty items. Thrifting is for poor people or those of low incomes. Thrifting takes too much time and effort,” she shared as examples of what might end up keeping people away.
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Naturally, we also wanted to hear what tips she would give folks who have never thrifted, but would like to try. “My favorite tip for a newbie is to go thrifting often because the inventory changes frequently. So going often increases your chances to find items you are looking for. Always inspect items carefully. Look for quality brands to get the best bang for your buck. Lastly, buy items that you love and will use immediately.”
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Lastly, we asked her to share some examples of great finds she came across while thrifting. “My favorite finds are my collection of LV purses that I have thrifted from Goodwill. Christian Louboutin heels from Salvation Army and David Yurman Earrings and Bracelet from Unclaimed Baggage.”
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As a former Sears appliance technician, I take phenomenal care of my appliances and I’ll never have to buy brand new. Here’s why...
I worked for Sears appliance repair and have troubleshot most appliances around the house. I cannot count how many times I have heard customers complain about buying a pair of brand new washing machine/dryer sets and wishing they had their old set back. Not only this, but I’ve picked up the tricks to making appliances last. After having worked on the newer ones vs older, used appliances, this is what I’ve learned:
DON’T USE TOO MUCH SOAP!! People make this mistake all the time. Especially with washing your clothes, brands will sell you a detergent with the cap that has measurements on it. Never use these measurements. Even the lowest measurement is too much. If you are washing a normal sized load of laundry, all you need is 1 tablespoon of detergent. Yes, you read that correctly. Towels/blankets can use maybe 2 tablespoons. The reason for this is because most marketed detergents will have a little sticker on it that says “HE”. This means it is high efficiency, or in other words really really really really concentrated soap. 1 tablespoon of HE detergent is equal to about 1/4-1/2 cup of soap. If you were to add 1/2 cup of HE soap, it creates an over abundant amount of suds for your washer. Too many suds can cause balance displacement and mess up your suspension. If you have a washer that senses the moisture content of the clothes, the extra suds can cause your washer to work overtime to get rid of them. This causes the motor/shaft to wear out faster. The extra oil in the suds can also trickle down easier into the shaft and cause rust. Lastly, too much detergent will cause more mildew build up between the tub and basket of the washer.
That being said, never ever ever buy Tide Pods. They are expensive and will wreck your washer/dishwasher. Too much detergent.
Never use dryer sheets. They will coat your lint trap with wax and ultimately cause house fires. Also, get your dryer cleaned often! Lint doesn’t always stick to the lint trap. It can escape and get into the heating element, causing it to light up into flames. Open up the dryer and vacuum out the lint, or use a wet rag to wipe it up.
The salesman is quick to sell you on all the new gadgets, functions, and color of the appliance. DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM/HER! Say you are on the market for a washer/dryer. The big boy sets will have any function you want. It’ll have crazy settings specifically for bedding, towels, whites, delicates, self cleaning. Looks awesome... but in fact this is pointless. If you go this route, you’ll end up buying a brand new washer with 20 settings that you NEVER touch. Most people only use the Normal and Heavy setting on their washer, and trust me these 2 settings will wash your clothes just fine. Same with a dryer: most people only use sensing dry or timed dry. There is almost no practical use for any of the other settings when they do the exact same function as your most normal setting.
The newer appliances combine plastic and metal moving parts, which cause the need for more repairs. The older appliances are made mostly of metal and last forever if you take care of them. I find that older people hang on to their appliances for longer and it always seems to have gone in their favor. I have worked on their 20+ year old washers and dryers they’ve had since the 90s, and in my experience they wash/dry better than any new appliance on the market. Plus, over the duration of their life, they have had little to no repair needed on them. If you can get your hands on an old washer/dryer, I highly recommend it!
Older appliances still have replacement parts on the market, and they are cheap. You can buy mostly anything you need to repair the machine with the exception of cosmetics (the outer shell, sometimes handles, main display and buttons).
Take care of your appliance. Once a month you should be running a cleaner in your washer/Frugal tip for bedding.
Today, when I stopped at the dry cleaners, I asked if they sell or donate items that never get picked up. I was interested in a king size down comforter. They had 2, both looked in brand new shape. I picked the heavier weight one and paid $48 (the price of the cleaning) I saved approximately $200. They also sell some clothing, sleeping bags & curtains/drapes that aren’t claimed.Thrifting souvenirs.
Hi all, just a quick frugal tip. If you're one of the lucky folks who gets to go on a trip somewhere, you can save a lot of money by visiting a thrift store in that location to find great souvenirs. For example, when I was in Alaska for work, I stopped by a thrift store and found a nice Northern Lights sweatshirt and an Alaska Brewing Co. t-shirt. What could have been an $80+ purchase in a souvenir shop ended up being a $12 purchase. Someone complimented the sweatshirt today (three years later) and I realized I never actually shared this tip with you guys!I lost twice
Went out to dinner. Daughter wanted a fountain drink. I latched onto the "learning opportunity" and explained that a fountain drink costs about $0.25: $0.15 for sugar/flavor, $0.07 for the cup, $0.02 for the lid, and $0.01 for the straw. They charge $2.50 for the drink. Wife piles on and says "we'll stop at the store on the way home and get a 2-liter bottle of the same drink.
Well after the Walmart trip (whcih threw in some gummi worms, cookies, etc) rang up to $25.49, my daughter said as we left, "you should have saved $23 and just bought me the drink I wanted."
True.12 years ago my grocery store had a sale in my deodorant, $1 a piece.
I bought every single one. 12 years later, I'm on my last one. It's been a ride /sThe Manufacturers are on to us…
I am trying to be more frugal and the discussions and tips here have been very helpful.
One frugal behavior I’ve practiced for decades is to get every drop of shampoo, conditioner, etc. before opening the new one. I don’t mind using conditioner with a little water in it in order to get every bit out of the bottle. Recently I’ve noticed that my shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, etc. have lids that don’t screw off. It’s not that they’re hard to unscrew - it’s that they’re not made with threads to unscrew them. They won’t come off without cutting the bottle. The bottle says it contains 20 ounces. I don’t want to buy 20 ounces of product and only be able to use 18 ounces.
Anyway, I think they’re on to us.Being frugal has me literally in tears.
My local grocery store had 3 lb bags of yellow onions on sale for one dollar. I bought three bags and put them through the food processor and flash froze them in "pucks" using my ice cream scoop. Yes my house reeks of onion and I don't know if my eyes will recover (kidding) but I've got two gallons of pre chopped onions in the freezer for cooking!A $20 pen is a much more impressive gift than a $20 t-shirt
If your budget for a gift is low, instead of buying something on that average price, buy something that is usually a lot cheaper. The quality will probably be superior and the receiver would almost certainly never have bought it for himself or herself.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be the pen vs t-shirt example.
A $20 whisk is better than a $20 kitchen knife. A $10 pencil case is better than a $10 backpack A $5 chocolate is better than a bunch of cheap chocolate that adds up to $5.My spouse and I bought a house recently that had been empty and unsold for about 6 months. It was actually in pretty good shape, but the previous owner had left one of those blue cleaner cakes in the guest toilet tank. Well, six months of dripping into the bowl left grey-blue streaks and a dark ring in the toilet that could not be washed out. We thought our only hope was to replace the toilet. Fortunately, my spouse is pretty handy, but we have been busy with other things so hadn't been able to tackle that project yet.
Then someone on Reddit (not sure if it was this sub or not) suggested that a pumice stone will remove old stains on porcelain. I wasn't thrilled to take a stone to my porcelain, but we were replacing it anyway, so why not give it a try? In 15 minutes I had every stain gone, and no scratches.
$3.50 pumice stone from Home Depot vs $200 new toilet. Needless to say, spouse is thrilled!
To use an old phrase, "Thank you, kind Redditor!"Feel like I just discovered a cheat code.
Why did nobody tell me there are butchers/meat markets that are actually way cheaper than the grocery!?!? Here I was thinking it was all for bougie gentrifying upper middle class moms to get their 16/lb Blonde d’Acquitaine flank but nope!
There’s cheap butchers with tons of rotating items on sale, and you can buy in bulk!!! .85/lb chicken wings? Whole NY strip loin for 6.80/lb? Pork ribs for 1.60/lb? Sirloin tip for 4/lb? HELLO, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE
My meat devouring butt is in tears. Im just celebrating that I can now actually afford plenty of meat and freeze it for later. Plus I have access to plenty of offal and other cuts I ate growing up (liver, skin, cheek, head, shank, sweetbreads, tongue, turkey necks, tripe, fatback, hocks, neck roasts). This is life changing to me, literally. Thats my rant thank you.I really liked a $700 chair at a fancy furniture store, took a picture and did a Google image search. Found the same chair at Walmart for $200.
Not super frugal purchase, but saved $500 per chair.I stopped buying paper towels. My life went on. It’s been about 6 months since I’ve bought paper towels. The honest truth is I’m a paper towel addict. If they’re in the house I use them up so fast. Like one roll every two days. I was feeling pretty broke so stopped buying them for a few weeks and now I’m never going back. I have about 15-20 dishcloths / thicker cleaning towels that I use and wash all together every few days, sometimes with other towels and clothes. I use sponges for cleaning more. Good for the environment and my wallet. If you have hulu, log in and click cancel. Instead of cancelling they will give you “deal” options like $2.99 for 6 months. I’m guessing same deal with other services.
Get a discount on streaming services like hulu.So my husband and I love coffee, it's one of the things we choose to spend money on more than the average person probably would.
A little while ago our old espresso machine was showing signs it was probably nearing the end of its life, it was a relatively cheap one that had done well for a good few years. We decided to maybe have a bit of a splurge and ended up buying a pretty expensive automatic espresso machine, we did however get it for 50% off in the lead-up to EOFY sales so there was that at least.
After we got it, we didn't really think more about it and enjoyed our new purchase, until a couple of months down the line I realised we had basically stopped going out for coffee at all, something we used to do a fair bit. I had also started taking a latte in a thermos cup to work instead of buying one every day. The new machine just makes it so easy to make coffee.
So I did a quick bit of napkin math and a conservative estimate is that the machine will pay for itself in 6ish months. It's saving us about 45 dollars a week and that's not taking into account the fact that if I went into the coffee shop to get a coffee there was a high chance I'd buy a snack as well.I think I am frugal. My wife thinks I am a dork.
I always buy pump shampoo, conditioner, body soap etc. I find it last longer and is easier to control how much I use. I know I need exactly 2 pumps.
Well after the bottles are "empty" I put water in them. I just got 11 "extra" days out of my shampoo. I told my wife "Hey I got 11 days out of that shampoo!"
she says: "You counted?"
I said: "Yes! I got 9 days out of the bottle before that and 14 the bottle before that."
"I married a dork."Snack hack.
We raised 6 kids so saving money was key. When we would buy the big bag of munchie mix at Costco I would air pop some pop corn. I would mix it 50/50 with munchie mix.
There was more than enough seasoning to cover the popcorn and it stretched the bag twice as far. No kid ever complained.
We often could get bread at 25 cents a loaf. I would cut it into crouton size pieces and toss with a bit of oil/butter/margarine whatever I had and add a tiny bit of vanilla. Then toss with sugar and cinnamon and put in oven till crispy.
It made a fun snack for lunches or after school
Kitchen scissors were my friend. I would cut chicken breasts and sausages in half after cooking. The kids could have more but it saved waste as often they would take a whole item and not eat it all. We started this when friends came over. Their kids would take a big portion, not finish it and then it was wasted.
I also cut French toast/pancakes/waffles into strips when they were leftovers. Kids loved them as a snack to dip with syrup or jam.Homemade iced tea is better and CHEAPER than store bought.
I’m sure it’s been posted before but I haven’t seen it this year yet …. Make your own iced tea for pennies compared to store bought. You can make it as strong or as sweet as you like it. Don’t like black tea? Make iced green or mint tea. Sooo many variations and delicious! A 12 pack of name brand soda is going for 10-12$!!Anyone still cutting hair at home?
So, I got into the habit of cutting my hair during covid, when all the barbershops were closed and stuck with it afterward. Not only does it save money, but it's very convenient to be able to have a quick cut first thing in the morning, or to touch up a cut in between things.
Anyone else still doing this? One other question I would have is experiences with hair clippers...I got a fairly cheap set to try out, but wasn't sure what a decent "upgrade" would be now that I know I'm sticking with it.Not owning a car is like a cheat code to building wealth.
Sooo many of my friends have $600+ car payments, depreciation, pay hundreds on insurance, gas, and parking. Then pay thousands when they get into an accident or have their catalytic converters stolen, or their car gets broken into. Over a thousand dollars per month just to get from point a to point b!
Meanwhile, my monthly bus pass is $75 and my bike (second hand only was $200) takes me places for free (with the occasional $10 maintenance at my local shop)!!!!
I can’t imagine owning a car in this environment
That extra money goes straight into my pockets!PSA: Bedbugs are insanely expensive to deal with and frankly traumatizing to live with. Here are some tips.
A few years ago my wife and I lived in an apartment that got bedbugs. A lot of this might seem excessive or crazy but trust me you don't want to chance this stuff.
Whenever you come home from someone's apartment or a hotel stay, immediately put all fabrics (clothes, luggage, sleeping bags) into the dryer. Even if you can't see any bugs, the eggs are too small to see and can live in fabrics for up to a year.
If you have an expensive mattress, get a bedbug liner. My wife and I had to throw out a 6 month old $1,200 mattress because we didn't spend $25 on a cover. It's really not worth trying to salvage the mattress once its infested, even if you kill all the live bugs you still need to worry about eggs.
Don't waste your money on "natural" products to kill bed bugs. We tried several and they were straight up ineffective. Rather than buying products that are safe for pets, just buy products that actually work and keep your pets away from the affected areas until you've cleaned up.
If you're going to buy furniture off craigslist (which I will no longer do) try to avoid apartments. No this isn't a stereotype against low income people, the problem is that it's basically impossible to clear a building of bedbugs unless the whole building is treated. Most apartment complexes will try to treat on a unit-by-unit basis which just doesn't work. In addition the risk of re-infestation is high because a lot of infestations start by people bringing bugs home from school or work. More people = higher probability of bedbugs.
Do not let your landlord try to bully you into keeping a security deposit if you are leaving a place that is infested with bedbugs. We had this happen since we didn't try and salvage their wall to wall carpet. They tried to charge us $500 plus our deposit to fix the carpet. Eventually it ended up in collections but after providing state mandated guidelines on dealing with bedbug infested apartments, they backed off, gave the deposit back, and it never ended up on our credit report.I never saved more money since I started going to church. I'm not religious at all but my wife is so I go to church with her on Sunday. I got to know some of the other church goers and it's crazy how much "free" stuff I have gotten. Need help moving? A carload of Christian teens and a moving truck shows up and loads all your s**t no problem. My roof was leaking? Turns out Jerry owns a roofing company. Gave me the materials at cost and a group of church guys put it up for me. My wife's diamond fell out of her wedding ring? Tom is a jeweler and fixed it for free. I could go on and on but I have never saved more money since I started going to church! My wife likes to get spray tans and bikini waxes before vacations. To save money, I bought the equipment and now I do both for her.
A few years ago, my wife came home from a Brazilian wax appointment and told me that she'd had a terrible experience. The wax was too hot, the technician (or whatever you call the waxer person) was grumpy, and a lot of hairs left behind. She said, "Honestly, I bet you could have done it better!"
That gave me an idea. "You know, I bet you that I could."
So, I read some articles online, found the right supplies, we watched a few training videos together, and, long story short, she has never been back to another waxing salon.
It cost a couple hundred dollars for the right equipment and supplies to be able to perform each of these services, but neither was very hard to learn. It only took about 3 spray tans before I'd gotten really good at giving them.
Brazilians were a bit more of a learning curve. I practiced waxing my own thighs for a couple of months before I attempted waxing her. I started with really small strips and the first few took forever, but now I can do one in about 25 minutes and she tells me that the results are better than any salon she ever went to.
The key for both services was purchasing professional quality equipment and supplies. I did a ton of research and tried a few different products before settling on what we found to work best.
The equipment paid for itself within 6 months. Now, each spray tan costs about $2.50 and a wax about $2-3.
My wife loves that I do them for her. She doesn't have to get naked for a stranger and she gets waxed consistently enough that it's far less painful qnd can keep a nice tan all summer with the perfect amount of color every time.
Do I enjoy providing her these services to her? Yes, I absolutely do. My wife is beautiful and I love taking care of her. However, I would not do them for her if it had not been her idea to have me learn to do them for her.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Edit: For those asking about supplies:
I order waxing stuff from Honeycomb Wax Company and spray tan solution from MineTan. Both have starter kits available. The spray gun in the MineTan starter kit isn't great. We upgraded to a gently used Norvell m1000 a few months ago and it is much better.
Rule of thumb with equipment and supplies: You get what you pay for. As you are not paying for someone to do the application, spend up and get nice quality product (ie, professional products, not stuff from the drug store).What’s the most penny pinching thing you do?
For me I’d say its charging my devices at work (keyboard, mouse, airpods, battery pack and phone). I know I’m saving a negligible amount of money but it feels nice using someone else’s utilities.6 months into my " no buy year" and, I've never been better. How freeing it is for me, not to look for things to buy cheaper, but instead, skipping the buy all together. Not to wake up and look on Marketplace, in case there's an opportunity I wouldn't wanna miss. It's not like I was buying that much at all, but it was the void I was filling with the possibility of owning something new. Now my place just has the bare essentials, and I feel so silly that I wanted to have more than I needed! I don't "need" an airfryer, I want one. Now I understood that mindset or wanting, versus needing for real. Like, I need new winter boots this year cause, I've got none, mine were too damaged to keep. That's a real need to me. The airfryer? I can cook in my oven just fine. All I spend on is the food( with a budget), hygiene essentials, my rent( all charges are included) , the city bus, and my internet bill. That's it. I've got no more phone bill ( using Fongo for free), I don't buy clothes ( I've got plenty already), home decoration, I don't eat out ( I wasn't in the first place) and live on a 100$ a month grocery budget, eating plenty as a whole food plant based vegan. Meal prepping everything, it is the best thing I did for myself. It's insane how much I was spending on food because I was not prepping in advance, being influenced by recipes I would see on YouTube and buying more food when I already had plenty. I had all those triggers to spend, all because I felt like I had to. I'm even thinking of doing it longer, since I manage it so well and don't lack anything!!! I don't have a project with the money I'm saving, it's just there for any future emergencies, or my old days. I'm already 50 so... Anyway, anyone else doing a no buy year and completely fell in love with the experience?Ditching prime and Amazon was the greatest money saver.
Amazon is no longer cheap. It has become a convenience excuse. I use online Walmart, Kohls for better bargains. Also Aliexpress and Temu. I got a kids backpack from clearance aisle in Kohls which costed 11 bucks, same thing in Amazon is like 29. The clothing is Amazon is not even good fit. So long Amazon! I was addicted one time, now I’m done.Small frugal wins on road trip today. Today I had to drive about 8 hours from my new city to my hometown. Things are tight and I wanted to make the trip as frugally as possible! I needed gas so I filled up at a Shell in a rural area on my way—cheaper than in town and I got the 5 cents off a gallon by being a rewards member. I used Google maps to help navigate, but as I have a not-unlimited data package, I turn off the app when I know I’m cruising on the same road for awhile. I’d packed snacks and a cooler, plus water for me and my pup, so I didn’t spend money for refreshment on the road…but did help myself to a few ice cubes at another gas station bathroom break stop. Wanting a bottle of wine for a hostess gift, I stopped to buy it at a place right before the state line—some things like tobacco and alcohol are taxed more heavily/more expensive in some states than others! Finally, I was happy to use an old gift card I’d had forever at a restaurant in my hometown—this place has family-style Italian food, so giant portions, and I never felt like dining in while I lived here. But getting a giant fancy salad as a to-go order put my gift card to use & gave me a healthy dinner + leftovers after a day on the road. These little frugal wins feel great—though it goes without saying that saving $ on a road trip means driving defensively and (mostly, ha) following the speed limit. Tickets and accidents are so expensive! Happy trails everyone.Amazon Day is a marketing event, not a deal day.
For those who are unaware, Amazon has been doing Prime Day, a day where they claim to have the most amount of deals for 2 years now. However, research, consumer sentiment, analysts are able to show that Prime Day is more about getting users to sign up for Prime and marketing the brand, than it is about providing deals to existing customers.
I strongly recommend you use a historical price checker like CCC or Keepa to actually verify the prices are lower, as it is a common tactic to raise prices before a sale and then trick customers into feeling like they got a deal with a large % drop, like 50% off. Also keep in mind many sites will be pushing the event despite lackluster deals, because they want people to come to their site to see the aggregated 'deals' (getting ad revenue), and some of them will be linking to Amazon for that sweet affiliate money on anything you buy.7 random things I do to be Frugal.
I live in wifi 99% of the time. Most cell phone plans are under $10 for 1GB of data. Tello starts at $5
Bunny Ears / Antenna provide over 20 channels of great content. ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, and more for free.
The library is not your library of the 90s. From PS5 games to great movies. Check out weekly for tons of free entertainment.
Cash "Stings" more than swiping a card. If you want to stick to a budget, hand over cash on your impulse buys and feel that sting. Studies show, even on 0% interest cards, you spend 20% more when swiping. Save money buy feeling the money leave your hands.
When going to live events, football games/concert. Park and wait until the game starts. I have seen tickets drop from $150 to $8 multiple times by just missing the kickoff and then walking in. We have set in seats on a premier concert which started at $500 ticket, missed the opening act and got in for under $60. Big Ten College basketball games for under $4 ticket after fees.. People panic when selling 3rd party tickets after the event starts. Enjoy the main act and save up to 95%.
Designate a "no spend month" twice a eyar. February is a good place to start with fewer days. Use every single thing in your house to eat, look for coupons, eat rice and beans. Try to live like you've never lived 2 out of 12 months and it really helps.
Panera Sip Club. Sign ups usually give you 3 months free and next 3 at a discount when you sign up. If you live within a couple of miles, get large drinks without ice and take home. You can get Coffee, Iced Coffee, Tea, Iced Tea, Soda, Bubbly, etc. Go a couple times a day and have plenty of drinks to share without the ice or have multiple times. An Iced Coffee with my own ice, makes 5 cups of my own cups. Full price is $11.99/month. I have been a customer for a year and yet to have paid that much. Probably spent $3,000 in retail pricing.
