I recently bought a power bank for travel but what I am doing now is charging the power bank at work so that I dont have to use my electricity at home to charge our mobiles and ipads.
I also turn off the gas booster to my solar hot water on sunny days so all my hot water is free…..when the sun is out.
What do you do to save $$
WOW, Thank you all for replying. I didn't expect such a response.
What a community!
Some great ideas and some funny comments too.
Thank You
That's not stingy. It's good common sense. If it takes you four minutes to wheel the trolley back that's a rate of $30 per hour, after tax. Many people would be happy to earn that.
It is Stingy when he was 15km From Aldi in the first place
…and the wheels were permanently locked on wanting to do a right-hand turn.
And in the middle of summer
with bikies groceries still in it
Not when there's $2 at stake.. Plenty of deposit-free coles / woolies trolleys for that sort of thing.
Its better to pull up with a trailer , and load 30 trolleys on and take it to the local metal scrap recycler .
2 trips in a hours $300 later
Saw off the handle and get the best of both worlds
I would hope no one would take me seriously.
for a $300 trolley they could at least wheel in a straight direction !
[@nikey2k27](/comment/
$300 …..i am surprised that Wollie does fit gps tracker on each one
SO and I sometimes take a romantic de tour in the carparks and check for trolleys with coins inside of them,usually located right next to the 'return trolley' sign.
Couples that check together, save together.
I was in Germany when they changed over to the Euro. The shopping trolleys didn't adapt fast enough, and people were getting their shiny new Euros stuck in the trolleys. I'd tour the supermarkets with a pair of pliers and extract the stuck coins! :)
you mean to get back your $2 ^_^
Unglued a used but pristine postage stamp from a letter and used it again.
I've got $100+ worth of $2, $1, and 50c unmarked stamps, that I've removed from parcel over the years sitting on my desk at work.
Never sent a letter in my life but I can't stop myself removing them from parcel/letters I receive.
Bought a roll of stamps last week, they are now perforated
They're on to you xuqi
I do this for every unfranked stamp I receive (not that there are too many letters coming and going nowadays). Franked is rarer than unfranked.
I've always wondered why they don't put a line through it to indicate it's been used
They do but they quite often miss them, especially on small parcels.
Supposedly, AU post use cancel ink which only shows up under certain light. They likely do sampling every so often— but they might end up sending it back to the sender.
Reminds me of a trick my nephew & I used when I was in the US. Send without a stamp, put the destination as the sender- so they'd return for lack of postage.
It DID work! We were about 10 or 12- lol.
I spent two years in the UK and at first I didn't want one because it seemed ridiculous that they could detect us in a tower of 100 apartments. But the paranoia ate away at my partner until it reached the point where it was worth paying for a colour TV license just to put their mind at ease.
The entire time all I could think about is the episode of The Young Ones where he eats the TV after panicking when the TV inspector knocks on the door.
I reckon that’s a story the government tells people to scare them into paying for more stamps. Like those “detector vans” with big plastic dishes on their roofs that could supposedly detect if you have an unlicensed TV running, but really it’s just to scare gullible people into paying for a tv license.
You still need a TV licence even today if you live in the UK.
but they give you a 67% discount on the annual fee if you only have black and white. Bargain.
Haha. When we were over there, I also bought a PS3, so if push ever came to shove, we'd just say we just have the TV for video games (yes, there's a big of paranoia there to have to think of an excuse).
back in our grandparents day you used to need a tv license to legally watch tv.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#Australia
I’m too young to know if we ever had detector vans scaring people into paying their radio or tv license.
Oh yeah I do this heaps, I've got like 10+ stamps now. Definite money saver. Although need to post more letters to use them all sigh
Went next level when forms were sent to be filled in. Unsealed envelope carefully, filled in all necessary documents, returned in the same envelope and resealed then wrote wrong address return to sender. It got returned to the sender safely and only sender paid for the postage fee once.
I stop at my local Cole's/Woolies, every evening at closing, on my way home.
I find 50-80% off items in meat/dairy/pasta. Most (if possible) I freeze.
Saves me having to figure out "what's for dinner" & saves $$ (plus, allows me to sometimes partake in things I'd never have the $ to). I'm a single mum, so every $ counts for us to survive. We have no nothing related to TV. Not even a free-to-air antennae. All we need is what it takes for them to succeed via internet. That, has proven very bad— even moving house to a better node. I'm pushing my two to finish uni strong so that they don't have to (hopefully) scramble as their mum does.
Cheers
where is this 50%-80% off meat/dairy/pasta?
You gotta skulk near the guy putting the yellow stickers on.
It's the usually the bits and pieces close to expiry date. Look for the discount stickers on the packaging - usually in the regular place, but put at the front of fridge/freezer/shelf by staff. They don't tend to last long, so you gotta go at the right time.
The best day I had was a half-trolley of fresh salmon, pre-made burgers, chicken, beef, steaks, pasta & store-brand pizzas (cheaper than buying a plain crust)….I think everything was 70-95% (true!) off. There was heaps there— but our freezer was already 1/2 full.
And yes— timing is everything. Like I said, I try to check every day. Also, it seems that some shops have more of this than others. We have two Cole's, within 5km of each other & one nearly always has something where the other, not so much. That being said, I snagged 50% off marinated lamb & chicken strips + nice sausages at the latter yesterday.
Woolie's is best for their bakery mark-downs every day, with the occasional good meat discount. One time they had a nice whole, smoked turkey breast reduced to 50% & it only had one day left. I asked the butcher if he could do any better & he marked it down to 70% off- lol. Hey, you don't know unless you ask.
Happy hunting :)
@Geekomatic: Very nice.
I used to frequently drive between Melbourne and rural South Australia, passing through Hamilton along the way. One evening, I stopped at the Coles in Hamilton, thinking I wanted a chocolate milk or iced coffee, or whatever I found on special. Instead I found a 1L bottle of regular full cream milk marked down to 17 cents as it was due to expire in a few days. Since then I've trained my eyes to hunt for those red and yellow mark-down stickers whenever I'm in a supermarket.
I find woolies bakery discount every night. I presume they want to sell fresh bread the next day, Coles doesn't mind selling the bread the next day I assume coz they always have lots at the end of day, like way too much that is not even on shelf it's still in the bakery racks.
Those pre made Ireland loathes probably last longer on shelf.
@cloudy: I walk my dog past Woolworths at 5am and they are always filling 2 or 3 shopping trolleys with yesterday's bread and rolls. A woman waits for them at the loading dock and fills her little car full of all the bread.
The do it in the last hour or two before closing. But trust me, on the meat you want to cook that stuff within the next 12 to 24 hours when its 50-80% off.
Yeah, because 50-80% of it is off.
i took this a step further and enquired what day my local supermarket restocks. Now I shop the evening before.
I use to do this. I'd go in half and hour before closing and get the cheap steaks and donuts usually. For some reason they marked down the steaks about 2 hours or so before closing. This were the ones that were already marked down heavily due to being the last date before use by.
This is because the butchers go home at 5pm and the bakers around 4pm. They mark down earlier. The dairycase will often wait until 7 or 8pm as they're there until 9 or 10pm usually.
I always do this as well!!
in my opinion I find woolies are more generous with the price of their reduced items, Coles only give a slight markdown. And Sunday is always full of gems!!
Hahaha if I go at around 7pm-7:30pm passing by a classy neighbourhood I can get so much good reduced meat/bakery/dairy. My best find so far has been 98% off!!
If I go to my local, all the scabs take everything :P
Coles is so much better than Woolworths for it as well.
When life hands you lemons, strong peopke make lemonade.
Why don't you take a UPS into work to charge up. You'd be able to run a small TV from it for a few hours saving about 10c. May as well buy some large containers and take some water home as well (carrying all that weight you'd no longer need a gym membership). Also don't forget to save your old toilet paper rolls for refilling from the larger ones at work
I'm picturing a toilet paper spindle.
mine bitcoin at work
Funnily enough I thought about that earlier this morning…
Then I remembered that my work PC is a pile of trash that is already frustratingly slow to use…
I built a rig and connected to a wifi dongle and left it in a storage room for about 15 months.
Mined a lot, I should’ve held onto it rather than mine and then sell.
this is a good idea
I guarantee nobody will beat this…
Say you buy something at Coles, costs you $5.50 total.
Using split payment, pay $5.43 by card.
Then you'll owe $0.07.
Select the cash option, and all you'll have to pay is $0.05,
netting you a saving of $0.02 for the transaction.
You can do this either for every transaction, or if you're brave enough for each item in its own transaction…
Thank me later.
Haha I actually do that myself. At woolies you don't even need to have the 5 cents, just leave 2 cents then press cash and it will spit out a receipt.
Wait a minute…can't you do multiple splits? Or is there a limit for cash? Because then if I do it 5000 times I pay nothing on a $100 shop..
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
I think there is no split button under the Cash option.So theoretically,you can only round off one-time 2 cents per transation.
Which Woolies? Recently? I recently tried this in Canberra - they seem to have changed the interface. If you do a split payment cash is first, card for the remainder.
I think the loophole is closed or closing.
The 7-11 fuel lock thing is way more lucrative than the 2c Colesworth thing anyway. That's one I do - better still in regions with high prices.
Please explain this fuel lock…
Similar in Coles,set aside 2c and press cash after card payment.Transaction is done.
It only works on non-card-only machine in both.
Dont do it on card-only machine coz you have to pay 2c later.It make sense that rounding is only for cash payment.
How many minutes to save 2 whole cents? I feel even at minimum wage you've wasted your time.
Just walk a little faster to the car and you make the time back
I agree.Just do it for fun or ditch some coins in your wallet.Not efficient in saving money at all!
You my Sir are a God among men.
He's a god alright. Koalemos to be specific
This also works at woolies, but us
ing your example, pay 5.48 by card and 2c will be owing as cash…pop a 5c coin in and it will return the coin and clear the sale, if you dont it will still be waiting for 2c!!!
Was doing this about a year ago, at the time stopped leaving $0.02 balance to be left to be paid at coles, machine would spit out a receipt but stuffed the machine up for the next person/attendant as still had stuck on the screen balance to be paid $0.02. Not sure if they fixed that but now just do $0.07 and get rid my 5c. Never had issue at woolworths with $0.02 balance. Kids like the idea of putting money in the machine at coles and woolworths when they come along as well
You are wasting 10 sec of time to save 2c, that's way below minimum age. You could of earn way more by collecting empty cans in SA/NT :)
We have washed those red cups from Costco so we can use them again :|
That's a sensible use of resources and conservation of the natural environment. So much disposable stuff can be reused - just chuck it in the dishwasher with all the other stuff.
I think he meant so he can get free refills again…
I get free water included in my rent.
Maybe I can get a hydro generator and run the bath tap 24/7 to generate free power.
@idonotknowwhy: as a landlord who has to include water as part of rent as it isn't separately metered in the apartment block… Please don't. All you'll do is up the overall cost - which will be reflected in the rents for everyone within the block into the future.
But i'll give you some serious points for ingenuity and thinking outside the box!
@Ozbargain Lurker: eating animal products is your single largest toll on fresh water both in terms of consumption and pollution. The generator would consume and pollute less. Google "water in hamburger" if you want to know more.
Can't think of any examples where being cheap would be significantly more destructive to the environment. Most ozbargainers have a sense of morals, we don't like it when people abuse the goodwill of others. e.g if a store gives something for a free as a promotion which is one per person, we don't approve of people being greedy and abusing the promotions by trying to get it multiple times.
@Ozbargain Lurker: it need not be - but look at the food related deals on ozb and decide yourself what they're most often about.
@idonotknowwhy: They did the maths here https://what-if.xkcd.com/91/. Basically it's not worth it.
@matthewperk: Don't worry, my wife wouldn't let me do it anyway. She doesn't even want me running the dishwasher / washing machine daily due to the environment cost (even though the water is free and I kick them off just after 11pm to get the off-peak power).
The comment I replied to just got me thinking, if the goal is purely "make as much money as possible without breaking the law", and no other constraints, what would I do?
Luckily she doesn't know how much coal-based power my mining rigs use :)
@not a bot: lol. That's a really inefficient way of doing it though. You'd need to attach it directly to the tap.
You can buy a "Hydroelectric Generator Faucet Induction Generator" for about $10 from some of those Chinese shops which always sell Xiaomi products to ozbargainers.
Looks like you could get ROI within a few of months.
@not a bot:
Someone rang DrKarl with a similar idea. Putting turbines in the feed pipes of a house, working off mains pressure. As many would know, there's no free power. The idea was politely shot down.
@kiitos: It turns pressure into power. Reduces pressure. Cost of boosting pressure to allow for it defeats the purpose.
They're fairly silent on using vpns to access content and dodgy microsoft keys….
Beware though, not all plastic types are suitable for reuse, specially if you wash them with soap or dishwashing liquids.
Really, I didn't know that. Is there any way to tell? I generally wash plastic for reuse by hand with dishwashing liquid as I thought the dishwasher would damage them.
Yeap… look for the number inside the triangle as described by comment of @johnkimble. You’d be surprised that its found in almost all the household plastic devices.
The point of the soap / dishwashing liquid is that, certain plastics types may / can contain harmful substances but are trapped initially and dishwasher or soap may dissolve part of the outer layer releasing them into what you store in them afterwards.
I sometimes find a torn off coloured spa/sauna band at the pool and then just wrap it round my wrist… so nice getting that free sauna at the end of a hard day!
I wheeled an aldi trolley all the way back to aldi for $2