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
Most of them are probably joking. I doubt people really steal toilet paper 🚽
I certainly don't actually scab recipes out of the bin at 7/11 irl.
The OP charging his power brick at work is probably joking. He'd be saving $0.50 per year doing this, and wear out his battery.
I'd take these comments with a grain of salt.
My uncle takes rolls of toilet paper from the Qantas Club (and he's not even a member, he's usually a guest of a paid member!)
Reminds me of someone I know who, when travelling on the aeroplane in economy, sneaks into first class to take a "royal dump" ;)
Is his name Leo?
I used to work as a waiter and if you left anything in the bathroom - like a spray bottle of cleaner or a wash cloth - you could guarantee it would be gone by the end of the evening
When I first moved to Australia from the UK through work, I was told by the move coordinator (big global American company) that I could take a 20ft container of my stuff or just air freight a pallet worth of stuff and get the money for the container costs instead. I didn't have much stuff, so decided on the latter.
Got over here and the local HR department refused to give the money for the container as they said it wasn't policy here and the global move coordinator had made a mistake (which she had). I was pretty p*ssed off about it, so I used to steal finish dishwasher packs, toilet rolls, washing up liquid etc from their storage cupboard for my share house. Never felt bad as they owed me about $5k from the container.
Also got them to pay for my PR and immigration agency costs (7-10k) after a few years, then left about 2 months after it went through for a better company. Suckers!
So before Masters closed down, they had decided to renovate their stores and give them a modern/different look to attract customers.
Anyways, the stores undergoing renovation used to discount various items massively $50 item for $10. So, I used to buy it at one store and return it to another store without receipt. The policy they had was if you dont have a receipt money is returned on the gift card. And each store didnt run the same discount. So I used to get refund for $50 as a gift card which I used to buy groceries at woolworths. I believe I was responsible for Masters closing.
I believe there's a word for this, fraud comes to mind… Lol
Reuse the Costco soft drink cups for the machines at the kiosk.
When we visit the states we can stay for a month. I buy one cup at 61 cents when we get there and keep it in the car, and try to stretch the free refills in the one cup for the whole trip.
It's pretty much disintegrating and leaks a little by the end but I save 61 cents! Plus my mother in law really looks down on it so that's added incentive
Also, pretty low, but I've pulled off the coffee cups from the dirty tray conveyor belt at ikea, rinsed them in boiling water from the coffee machine and scored myself free coffee.
Put a plastic cup, inside the costco cup
Do a number 2 at work so I get paid for pooping and free toilet paper!
But you also have to weigh up entering the post apocalyptic zone called "the mensroom" at work. This is a place where people wipe their snot on the back of a toilet stall door, pee on the floor/walls and get smears of poo in all kinds of places that somehow defy gravity and logic. This in hand with the groans/wails of grown man literally pray to god while they violently force the spoils of hell out of their bowels at light speed, really adds to the ambience of trying to take a modest dump.
Don't even get me started on the smell….
Yeah I was totally for this until I changed jobs and now the toilet paper is like wiping your arse with cling wrap so it's a debate between taking your own toilet paper or just bite the bullet and do the dump at home.
All ruined by the slaughterhouse conditions of mens bathrooms. Things have to be pretty dire before I consider a work cubicle. These days I prefer to drive home since its only 5 minutes down the road. I'd spend longer trying to restore the work toilets into a semi usable state.
Finch?
I never use condoms, I just use the pullout method. only stuffed it up twice, hmmm… so maybe not so cheap.
I charge my phone and tablet at work everyday that's not stingy is it?
Thats part of your employment package.
It basically equates to $3 of electricity per year.
Per device….Ozbargainers have like 30 phones, tablets, wifi dongles, DS consoles, and other miscellaneous devices.
A charger uses 3 watts.
Let's assume 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 46 weeks a year (1,840 hours)
3 Watts x hours = 5,520 = 5.520 kilowatts
X electricity tariff of 25c per kWh = $1.38 per device per year.
So tempted to set up a little charge desk at work with about a dozen devices and take a picture to post here as a joke. I like my job too much to risk it ;-)
Just multiply amps by volts for output. 2.4V * 12A = 28.8A so 30W is pretty right. But of course they're not 100% efficient.
68%-80% efficient, up to somewhere around 43W while actually charging for the most power hungry chargers. Those ones tend to charge the phone in much less than 3 hours.
http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-ap…
You're still talking a few dollars a year. But $1.38 is probably a tad low.
At an hour a day let's say 40Whr * 5 days * 48 weeks = 9600 Whr
Peak usage is more like 35c than 25c
9.6kW * 0.35 = $3.36
Still under $5….heck if you used it 2hrs a day, it's still under $7/yr.
If your employee was setting up to charge multiple devices I'd be more concerned at lost efficiency of the employee than stolen electricity.
You appear to be correct. They can go up to 30W. I would assume they use 30W when charging, before clocking down once charged. I will investigate with a meter.
Ha ha!
Smart. That also saves wear and tear on your home wall sockets, which’ll save you more precious cents and is a no brainer if you don’t value your time and plan on living forever.
posted a letter without a stamp to save $1 and put the address I wanted to send it to as the return address on the back of the envelope
You sir, are a genius!
Tried this as a test once but AusPost just sent it to the address on the front anyway.
Just saw a young uni student looking guy raid at least 5 to 10 bananas from the free kids fruit basket at Woolies…
LOL
What a great idea!!!
Some of these are so ridiculous and barely worth the time, savings and effort required.
Absolutely. I think that the lifestyle and convenience costs of most of these measures heavily outweigh any financial gains. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for frugal measures (e.g., filling up petrol before the tank is completely empty if fuel prices are low and a spike is anticipated, shopping at Aldi, withholding from purchasing non-essential clothes until an inevitable asos/iconic sales comes up), but I think measures like only charging devices at work (which another commenter noted only saves a couple of dollars a year) are a bit too much for me.
I agree. My free time is precious to me so any tips that involve saving a dollar or two at the expense of time just isn't worth it. Everyone has different priorities of course.
I stopped eating lunch.
I sold my keyboa
Did you sell your on-screen keyboard as well?
It'd be easier for me to give up breakfast
I used to work with a bloke who would fill 2 thermos flask with water so he did not waste his electricity making coffees at home.Around the same time there was another employee who used to catch his cars oil leak in an icecream container and put it back in the engine before going home.
No one will top this one……. Out of pure boredom one day at Coles I was buying cherries when they were on special, i discoverd that if you take the stalk off them and they cherry was small enough ,a and due to the special price, an individual cherry could come up as 2c…. well the rest is history, after spending over hour weighing individual cherries that came up as 2c cents each, id done about a kilo and a bit of cherries. and at 2c they all rounded down to 0c !!!! And i had individual receipts for each and every cherry I "purchased"!! BAHAHAHAHA I searched for one of the receipts i took a pic off and found it!! But dont know how to post it here!!
Don't you feel any shame or self consciousness?
Did the attendant or manager eventually come over and interrogate you?
I would feel so weird and cheap doing that. Not to mention standing there for an hour mucking around with their self service machines. You were being watched and HO probably has you on some 'infamous customer' list.
I felt no shame or self consciousness at all. Looking back at the receipt it was at 2am (when all Coles were open 24/7 in Victoria)
and I clearly remember being the only one there in a bank of 8 self serve machines. The only checkout chick working at the time thought it was ingenious and jokingly asked me to come back tomorrow at the same time and fill a bag up for her. Why would they interrogate me? I was doing nothing wrong, I was legally purchasing 1 cherry at a time. HO would love me, as a family we spend more than $300 a week at Coles alone.
I lol :)
Would you do it again? Say On a Saturday afternoon in full view of dozen of shoppers?
Nice try, pretty sure they don't even have the self serve machines open past 10 or 11pm these days.
@cloudy: That's what I was picturing. However, during the graveyard shift with a cute coles checkout girl you can have a laugh and offer her your cherry ;)
@serpserpserp: i miss 24 hour Coles. although there is 2 in Melbourne that still are 24/7, but not close to me
Just a FYI, keeping the stalks on cherries ensures they last longer :)
Interesting! I think you have to post the photo on an external site and then link it here. Try Imgur
Refilling expensive brand name bottles of alcohol with Aldi house brand alcohol especially for my in laws and for Friday drinks at work. E.g. refilling a Hennessy bottle with baroque brandy and home brew beer in used imported beer bottles for my father and brothers in law or refilling Disaronno amaretto ,also Midori and grey goose vodka for my sisters in law and mother in law.
I love the bargain saving tactics and display of creativity of this forum but I really think some posters need a hobby. I'm usually so fried from the day and/or working out that a dollar or two here and there is ok to waste.
Try peeling the skins from onions before you buy! Lol
How about buying half a banana, the inner half. No point paying for the skin when its only going in the bin.
I pull the centres out of capsicums sometimes. That core with the seeds and stem often has the most weight.
Another good one is breaking the stem off the bottom of broccoli as all the weight is there too.
I also see so many people eating half a bag of grapes at the supermarket like it is their god given right to do so.
10,000 grandmas can't be wrong
why not just steal it entirely? or put it through as onions?
I got caught once at a self checkout by a mad Coles employee who very loudly explained peanuts aren't cashews and apples aren't greens beans. Peanuts were stale after all that and she bruised the apples so had to return them.
Things I do
- Peel the outermost layer of lettuce off at shop
- Take the vine off truss tomatoes and then do self serve
- Snip the end of bananas
It goes on and on :)
I had an electrician doing some work at home and needed some conduit in a hurry. Bought it at a mitre 10 that is close to my place and got it installed.
Then the following week I saw it way cheaper at Bunnings. Bought the same amount of conduit there and when to mitre with the receipt and returned it on my way back home.
I've done this buying clothes at places with free change of mind returns.
Bought a new shirt & kept the receipt. Next week I saw the same item went on sale so I decided to buy it again at the discounted price. Next day went back to the store to return it using the original receipt.
I don't see how it can be theft. I gave them 4 pieces of conduit in the same condition that the ones they gave me.
This isn't theft.
Not theft. Cheeky :)
I haven't had a shower for 3 days. I get to retain my body's natural oil, stop mould in the bath room and save on the power bill.
My BO is distracting me. I must shower. NOW.
Rinse your pits and rub hand sanitiser on them..
I have wet wipes that I use for that. They also work well for numbers 2's. I don't mean to be crude, just sharing my routine.
People like you disgust me. Zero self respect and no dignity.
Yuck!
You are totally wasting your time and money with the chargers. Your phone will consume at most about 20Whr (5w x2A x2hr) to get a full charge (0.02kWhr), which will cost about 0.6c (0.02kWhr x 30c/kWhr = 0.6c). Allowing for waste heat, I'd say it would cost 1c to charge your phone. Meanwhile the portable charger has a maximum life cycle of about 1000 charges. So a really cheap one costing $10 but lasting 1000 cycles will also cost you at least 1c per charge ($10/1000 = 1c).
Given my conservative estimates, I'd say charging your portable charger at work is costing you more money than charging from the wall at home.
penny wise, pound foolish
Taking the late train to work to save $1.63/day. Sorry boss.
Bonus is that you also get extra sleep and more of your own time back. Pretty priceless!
I'm also freeing up one spot on a peak hour train - it's give & take
I ported my mobile phone number every month in the last 24 months in order to consume my prepaid starter kit (Cost $1-$10)
Which carriers have prepaid for $1-10 each month that you port back in?
$1 for Woolworth $30 starter pack (with 4GB data) - Bought from Woolworth last year
$5-$10 for Optus $30 starter pack (with 1.5GB - 3GB data) - Bought from Optus web site, Coles and Woolworth
$8.50-$10 for Boost Mobile (3GB data + 1GB every weekend) - Bought from Groupon
@NEEDHELP: there are definitely many deals through the month saying from experience of 4+ years of continuous monthly porting
I've never seen the woolworths one for that price. What happens after that month if there isn't a cheap port in option available?
@uniwon: I realise that, but I mean what if no carrier has any super cheap plans to port on for 3-4months?
@Baahubali: What is available at the moment for under $10 then? Kogan normally go the $1 new customer offer, but then sometimes they're $5 or $10 as well. There are other providers all around the $20 mark.
@NEEDHELP: just bought $5 optus couple of days ago from optus website. Don't know if the offer is still live
Same..the last 2 years of sim slutting has cost us about $180 total between 2 and saved us conservatively in the region of $1400 thanks to a combo of $1 Woolies starter kits and random $5 deals on starter packs from a range of telcos.
Its actually saved us considerably more when you factor in that we traveled for about 6 of those months whereby not needing to pay for a service at all.
Dony you lose your numbers or do Other people lose your number everytime you swap?
No. I think your number gets held for 6 months (without use/recharge) before it becomes recycled
I do this too but I feel slightly bad about it. I've spent $41 net amount in the last 18 months. If you include the $35 Yomojo cashback deal from a while back it'd be $21…
Why do you feel bad about it? I don't feel the least bit bad.
Some people are creative. Some are stingy. And some people have some issues related to their mental well being.
The person who steals from public toilets, the person who doesn't pay for using public service. These kind of people should see a counselor rather than shamelessly bragging about their exploits on this forum.