61 Frugal Tips People Swear By That Might Help Your Paycheck Stretch A Little Further Every Month (New Pics)

Saw a facebook ad from Staples featuring a office chair that I've been considering. I clicked it and was surprised to see the chair had an 'original price' of $319. I've never seen it even close to this price. To confirm, I looked back at my notes and saw that I jotted down a Black Friday price of $119. Pulled up the price tracker and was not surprised by what I saw.

I know it's common, but I'm just so tired of this slimy behavior.

Home made large flatbread egg hot pocket via a pourable batter, filled with veggies eggs, cheese, and ketchup. These flatbreads are cheap and easy to make. So many filling options.

Cost to make entire sandwich: $1.00

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup water, room temp
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp olive oil

For the past few months, I've been systematically reducing store bought processed foods and trying to replace them with homemade healthier stuff.

I experimented with 9 different recipes, none of which worked for the combination of chewy texture and relatively modest calories I wanted + taste.

So I experimented with 3 more self-concocted recipes before landing on one that's perfect for our taste buds.

This is a full sized tray bake and it disappears in 36 hours flat. So i bake these almost every other day now if not daily!

Recipe:

600g coarse cut oats
20g honey
80g oil
130g soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
A splash of vanilla
A pinch of salt
20g chocolate chips

Preheat oven 170 degrees Celsius

Line a large sheet with parchment

Throw all ingredients apart from chocolate in a bowl

Wear a food safe glove and work all the ingredients together rubbing them between your fingers

Dump it all out on a lined sheet. Spread out with your fingers raking it across the sheet

Place another sheet of parchment on top, and press down all over using a flat instrument eg base of another pan or another baking sheet.

Once flattened, use a sharp knife to create shallow cutting lines, not all the way down

Sprinkle on chocolate chips

Press chips into the oats with the back of a spoon

Bake 10-14 minutes until golden

Cut all the way through the shallow lines immediately

Leave to cool, then box up.

Tips

If you have an identical baking sheet,use that to press down the granola. You can also cover the whole thing with a clean towel or paper/cardboard, place all of it on a clean floor surface, then step on it with clean feet to press down.

Use your fingers to tumble the chocolate chips out of the shallow cuts and on to the actual rectangles

Instead of buying milk for my coffee, I make oatmilk. It is sooo much cheaper and really easy to make. I use steel cut oats which require them to soak for 20 minutes before blending and straining them, but it is super easy to make oatmilk. Highly recommend trying it! It’s about 1/2 cup of oats to 3-4 cups of water. That’s roughly $1-$2 per gallon instead of the $8 or so cost of buying it at the store! That adds up

So as the only coffee drinker in the house, and as such I realized making a pot of coffee and storing it in the fridge for iced coffee is the best way to stretch it out (it does get stale after a few days but nothing too bad).

But I do not have any good supply of coffee at work, and I do tend to drink 2 to 3 cups a day...so I figured I would start bringing my own supply by reusing my old glass pasta jars my wife and I kept around. I have a glass at work already and a ice maker so this should work.

I guess part of this post is just sharing a idea if someone else likes it, but does anyone use their reusable glass jars for anything "unique?" We use them for supplies, condiments, sauces we make, and fruit (pineapple being the biggest one!) but what else do you guys like them for?

I’m in the market for a new dryer and while perusing the online options from the famous orange home improvement store, I found one I was interested in possibly purchasing. At the bottom of the page there were other recommendations and I noticed that one of them looked identical to the one I’d been looking at.

Intrigued, I clicked the link and found that it had brought me to the same exact dryer—brand, model, features, etc.—only the panel buttons were in Spanish. It was also $150 less than the English one!

Now it is worth noting that both are currently on sale and that their MSRP are listed as the same, but all the same: that’s a big difference in price when the mechanical aspects are exactly the same.

I prefer to buy new appliances because with the delivery they’ll also take away your old appliance and install the new one for about $40. This also includes a warranty which would possibly be voided if not installed by professionals. To me, that’s a sound investment that you can’t get buying secondhand.

Anyhow: Something to keep in mind next time you’re appliance shopping!

More and more retailers nowadays are offering some form of “shipping protection”. The idea is that you pay a few extra dollars for the online retailer to “protect” your product in shipping. If your package is lost or damaged, they will replace it or refund it.

What they won’t tell you is that, in the majority of cases (may not be universal everywhere, but is the generally accepted standard in the US) is that the seller is already responsible for the delivery of your product. Regardless if you’ve paid the extra dollars. You purchased the item with the understanding you would receive the item in the advertised condition. Even the FTC suggests to file a chargeback if an issue arises and a seller is uncooperative.

So, next time you see “Shipping Protection”, save your money. It’s not shipping protection, it’s the option to give the retailer free money. A lot of less-reputable retailers will also have the box checked by default. So, be careful you don’t buy it unintentionally either.

This part looks like cardboard but is not cardboard, it's made from a mineral called mica in a composite sheet and it's there to let the microwaves in while keeping the food splatters away from the electric microwave generator. There is no need to buy another microwave oven if you see arcing inside the oven cavity, you just have to change this part which only costs a few dollars online.

We are having air quality problems in my State due to the wildfires. We don't own an air cleaner. Was thinking of going to get one but i want to do my research first. Also, I hate modern things that are electronic. Probably has blue tooth, an app and have to register and so on. And modern air cleaners have expensive filters. I figured there must be a way to filter with a simple fan.

So, did some research and came across a Corsi-Rosenthal box. It consists of four 20x20x1 inch Merv 13 filters and a 20 inch box fan. You create a cube and set the fan on top of the cube. The cube is the four filters with the air intake pointing inside. On the bottom, seal with a piece of cardboard. Duct tape the bottom and sides so they are enclosed and no gaps. Also, helps to make sure the pleats of the filter are running vertically rather than horizontal which tends to make them more likely to sag or collapse. Then you set the 20 inch box fan flat on top of the cube with the back of the fan on the cube and air flow blowing out. Then you tape around the fan edges and everywhere to seal and prevent air escaping or entering. You can take a piece of paper to see if it sticks to the filter and verify that it is pulling air.

I just made one and it's running.

Shirts from goodwill bins (by the pound), sewing machine was gifted from A friend. Instructional books were from a used bookstore. A newbie at sewing so I'm open to feedback, be nice

Still working on the waist but it was my first attempt at elastic. Might do a drawstring or zipper . I call this "throwing paint at the wall and seeing what sticks."

Excited to make more for sure

If you’re trying to stretch groceries, this has been a solid option: Basic press-in crust (flour, butter, salt - it's literally as easy as playdough) Egg + dairy base (3 eggs + ~1¼ cups milk/cream)

Add whatever vegetables/cheese you have I used broccoli + cheddar, but it’s flexible.

Added fresh Tarragon and a few things which was surprisingly delicious.

Costs are pretty low depending on what’s on hand, and it makes enough for 6-8 slices. Holds up well in the fridge.

It feels like kinetic sand it’s so satisfying to make.

Anyway, this solves the problem of not being able to buy it in bulk because it goes hard and stale before I can use it all.

I found some unsulphured molasses for $2 at the discount grocery store and I recently got a great deal on sugar so obviously I bought 25lbs of it and here we are today.

I think I’ll keep making it as needed. Cheers!

Rooting compound is probably been the single best gardening investment we've made.

Rooting compound is a plant hormone that stimulates root production. It's used to propagate plants from cuttings, and gardeners are often willing to give away cuttings for free.

We bought a small jar of rooting compound ten years ago and it's still half full. Although there have been viral videos about propagating roses using a potato, IMO rooting compound is the better deal.

For those not in the know, tortilla pizzas are a wonderful option for those of us in tight financial situations or in need of watching health concerns.

I go to Trader Joe's and get a 12 pack of Mexican flour tortillas ($2.29), a jar of organic chunky marinara ($3.49) and 1lb of mozzarella ($4.49). That makes me 12 meals for about 89 cents each, and 250-300 calories each.

Standard home oven at 425° for 6-8 minutes results in some really good crisp. Sometimes I'll add toppings like bacon and fresh garlic if I'm feeling extra. The crispness can hold one or two toppings. Any more than that gets a little floppy.

It's a perfect quick lunch that I've been eating for years. In a pinch it beats the shit out of eating ramen and beans, and it takes barely any more time than making white bread sandwiches. I can be finished eating 15-20 minutes after I start cooking. Pizza power, my friends.

My heat pump stopped blowing cold air yesterday. Instead of calling out an emergency technician and paying a massive diagnostic fee and markup I checked the panel myself. Took a while to find a store that sold one.

​The Issue: A blown dual run capacitor.
​
The Fix: Found the exact 40+5 micro farad replacement locally for twenty five bucks.

​The Result: Staying cool while keeping cash in my pocket.

Store bought glass cleaner is made up of mostly water, then some alcohol, ammonia, and a small amount of detergent. I don't personally find the alcohol necessary for a streak free finish on glass, so I just make mine with 1/4 teaspoon dish detergent, 2 tablespoons of ammonia, fill up the rest of the 32 ounce spray bottle with water. with 1/4 cup of isopropyl alcohol, the cost would increase to $0.29 per refill.

Ammonia is an excellent degreaser. it's purpose in glass cleaner is to cut through the grease in fingerprint smudges, but this same property makes it work well for things like grease splatters on the stovetop from cooking. big caveat here that ammonia can be harmful over time to some surfaces such as natural stone and ceramic, so make sure anything you use it on won't be damaged.

I know nobody is going to get rich saving $2.40 on bottles of glass cleaner, but most of us already have dish detergent and ammonia in the house, and it's less annoying to make up a bottle real quick than have to wait for a grocery run to get more anyway, IMO. bonus points if you're environmentally minded and want to reduce your single use plastics consumption (since you can make 64 batches out of the two plastic bottles of cleaning products.)

Just finished a road trip (to get there and back to a bike riding tour). Two of us, retirement age, no kids with us. Some fun along the way, most really low cost, but some planned $$ and definitely which could be adapted to any locale :)

1. Collected fossils in a known deposit. These are 1 to 100 million year old leaf fossils. The local residents have a ‘optional $5 donation box’ to help maintain the area. I donated as requested. Look for rock collecting sites on your trip.
2. Picked 4 boxes of wild blackberries. Just can’t beat free!
3. Picked a box of apples from a tree that was signed ‘free’
4. Passed through a small town festival that had raspberry ice cream for $2 (wish I could’ve eaten two!)
5. Hiked to a natural hot springs and soaked da feet :)
6. Wine tasting with appetizers! By buying bottles (I was pretty sure I would) and using a coupon it came to $68 for a special couple hours treat.

My bag I’ve been using for all my college books broke at the strap. I thought about getting another one but didn’t want to waste the money. So I busted out my sewing kit for the first time and re attached the strap at the base and fixed a tear in the strap. It’s not perfect but it gets the job done! It feels stronger than the other straps now lol. Maybe I should add some extra thread to the other straps to prevent them from breaking in the future.

**Just** about done moving, still haven't brought the boxes of DVDs or books out of storage yet... Finally got the computer desk set up on Sunday, even though I put people to work 2 weeks ago for the heavy stuff. Hadn't cleared it off, so it didn't get moved when I had a crew.

Today's fun was building a TV stand from free wood at work. Hour of my time, much better than buying something on FB marketplace for 4-5hrs of labour. Even a basic stand is now $100 at Walmart.

Still deciding if it's worth spraying it with varnish, the empty shelving beside it for my DVDs has lasted since 2015 without any protection (another self-built).

So, few days ago I was able to get my hands on Too Good To Go pack from organic shop. Usually don't shop in there as prices are not the best, but this time I have finished with nice pile of foods for next day, and nearly a kilogram of bananas that would not survive much more. So, in a frugal, zero waste manner, they got turned into a banana bread. Very tasty, it will be a nice snack, or going with coffee.

Work required all black shoes. Wore these considering they are black but they pulled me aside saying I needed completely black ones.

They also have to be certified non slip and these are the only non slip shoe my entire family has so there r kinda my only option.

I could buy a new pair for 50 bucks but also money be tight so this is my solution. Dollar store paint which I already had (1.50$). Voila

I wanted to make my family a dessert so instead of going out to the store and buying cake mix or an already baked cake. I decided to make my own, I already had all the ingredients at home so why not?

Well, after all said and done, I did the math and utilizing all the ingredients I had at home and comparing it to a box of cake mix, it was slightly cheaper to make from scratch at home, but substantially cheaper than buying already store bought made chocolate cake AND arguably maybe even healthier from the lack of preservatives. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Interestingly enough, so here’s what I found out. With my home ingredients I made roughly around a 3.25lb chocolate cake. This included the homemade cake itself, the homemade chocolate frosting, and the shaved chocolate toppings. Total cost for the entire cake around $5.60 of all the ingredients. I cut it into 10 slices which made each slice of cake about $0.56 each. Looking back at it now, the most costly ingredient was the dark chocolate bar I used for making the chocolate shavings. Overall it costed $1.74 per lb. I could always skip that for next time, and it would have been $1.43 per lb. but this was my very first time trying that and Im proud because the cake came out fantastic.

In comparison a Betty Crocker cake mix and chocolate frosting bought from my local walmart would only yield about 2.65lb and cost about $1.50 per lb. So essentially, in this attempt it was technically cheaper making the cake from scratch at home ($1.43lb vs $1.50lb) but not by much AND that’s if I would have just removed the chocolate bar shavings AND it was based on the recipe I followed on YT. Now, if you can find cake mix on sale for close to $1.00 per box and another $1.00 for frosting then I’d say that’s the more economical choice and you’d be saving some time from combining all the ingredients together.

Overall, I’m happy with me trying my hand at baking this at home and then comparing side to side the expenses. Oh, lastly, I didnt add the cost of the cherries because I didnt pay for them.

Ngl, the cake quality came out fantastic though. The cake wash rich and thick, and the homemade chocolate frosting was actually MUCH better tasting than store bought imo, so much so that Id rather just buy the boxes of cake mix on sale and just make the topping at home. IT WAS THAT GOOD, I’m truly convinced of the quality difference.

Wow. I had no idea how much water the ac was actually dripping until now. I should have bought a bigger size container to catch all this water. I'm going to use this water for my plants 🪴 I wonder how much money this will save me from using this water instead of my sprinkler system? I feel like I hit the jackpot in recycling and reusing.

Apparently this post has to be 300 words and I dont know what else to say about this, but I'm oddly excited about it.

Update: to answer a few questions -

1. This is not under a window unit, this is collecting the condensation from a pipe coming out of my house from central AC
2. This is not covering an AC unit, this is a rain barrel
3. This is not for drinking - its for my non-edible plants
4. I realize after the math...this is not going to save me money unfortunately. But now I have a source of water that is not just pouring into the ground, its feeding my plants.

Money is pretty tight for us right now, and my 8-year-old really wanted a bike. After about a month of checking local listings, I found someone giving away a children's bike. It was rusty and needed two new inner tubes, but the brakes worked, so €8 in tubes and some cleaning later, he had a working bike. I also bought an €8 pump.

The problem was that he quickly became too fast for me to follow on foot, so I started looking for a cheap bike for myself. Then I found someone selling two rusty bikes for €80 together. Having successfully repaired exactly one bike in my life, I was obviously a bicycle mechanic now, so I bought both — one for me and one for my wife.

I cleaned them up, attacked the rusty chains with WD-40, and we finally went for our first family rides. On the second day, I decided that if a hill isn't 90 degrees, it isn't really a hill, stood on the pedals... and snapped my chain.

I briefly wondered whether my €40 bike had survived for exactly two days. Turns out a new chain was €5 and surprisingly easy to replace myself.

Three weeks later, all three bikes are still going strong and we ride together almost every day.

Total: €80 for two bikes + €8 tubes + €5 chain + €8 pump = €101.

I've also learned that WD-40 isn't actually chain lube.

For someone who's spent his whole career behind a computer, I'm pretty proud that €101 and a little DIY got the whole family cycling.

I’m currently on unpaid maternity leave, so I had about $50–75 to work with for ~30 people. I ended up spending around $60 total (plus some fruit and odds/ends I already had at home).

I was honestly so nervous putting the charcuterie board together. I had to use sliced cheeses, stretch everything as far as possible, and just hope it came together in a way that felt full and pretty.

But it actually… worked.

I did salami roses + a “river,” folded the cheddar to give it more dimension, and filled in with crackers, pretzels, dried fruit, nuts, and everything I could layer to make it feel abundant. I also made homemade whipped fresh herb butter and strawberry chia jam to add a little something extra without spending more.

When I stepped back, I almost cried. It looked like something I never would’ve thought I could pull off on that budget.

The best part though—

The bride-to-be was completely blown away and so grateful.

A bunch of the women kept coming up to comment on how beautiful it was (I’d say at least a third of the room).

And one of the women helping set up told me she expected “just a tray with some meat and cheese” when she heard a friend was making it… and was genuinely shocked (in a good way) when she saw the full table.

That honestly meant everything to me.

I really wanted to give my best friend’s daughter something special, even if I couldn’t spend much—and I’m so glad I was still able to do that.

I needed to wash a small white rug and my tiny washer is too delicate, so off to the laundromat. I had read somewhere that most people use too much detergent in their washing machines, so I decided to risk washing my rug without adding any detergent at all.

The photo shows the result. Almost too many suds to rinse out properly ... I'm glad I didn't waste my own detergent.

About three months ago I asked if we should reupholster our almost 30 year old couch or buy new. Almost everyone said reupholster. It has a solid oak frame and was in good condition. It just looked sad. Got it back today! It was $2700, about $800 under the first estimate. It's comfy and should last as long as we do! Our kids jumped on this couch and now their kids will do the same. Definitely the right choice.

Bought a 10 pack of Chicken Thighs, Green Onions, 1lb of white rice, dozen eggs, pack of jalapenos.

I threw everything together by putting the chicken thighs in the air fryer and the rice in my rice cooker and added some salsa that I already had in the fridge. Overall, I totaled the meal cost and it came out to about $2.15 for the plate.

Chicken thighs $7.00 for 10pk of 5.85lbs (cheapest I found around), white rice .88¢ per Lbs. jalapenos $1, eggs 1 dozen $2, batch of green onions .66¢. It was quite a good substantial amount of food for the price and making it was relatively easy.

I wanted to share this win to show that system optimization is alive and well if you chain your rewards programs together. By combining loyalty points to drop the base price, stacking promotional discount gift cards purchased through specific savings portals, and timing my fill up perfectly to hit the absolute pump floor I managed to walk away with a completely full tank for less than the price of a gumball. It takes a little planning ahead of time but the payoff is incredibly satisfying when you beat the system.

Pickle Jar Coffee Vanilla Ice Cream

No machine, no cream, no problem! A creamy coffee vanilla ice cream made in a pickle jar with just 5 ingredients.

INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 4 cup ice (for the ice bath)
• 1/4 cup table salt (for the ice bath)

STEPS

1. Add 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 pinch salt into a large clean glass jar. Seal the lid tight and shake until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Fill a large bowl with 4 cup ice (for the ice bath). Pour 1/4 cup table salt (for the ice bath) generously over the ice — don't be shy, this is what drops the temperature low enough to freeze your mix.
3. Nestle the jar into the ice bath. Shake vigorously for 2-3 minutes, then let it rest in the ice for 5 minutes. Repeat for 20-30 minutes until the mixture is thick and milkshake-like. ⏱ 30m
4. Transfer the jar to the freezer for 30-45 minutes. ⏱ 45m
5. Remove from freezer and stir well with a long spoon, scraping the frozen edges into the middle. This breaks up ice crystals and keeps it creamy.
6. Return to the freezer for another 30-45 minutes until scoopable. ⏱ 45m
7. When the ice cream holds its shape and scoops cleanly, it's ready. Serve straight from the jar!