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
I do this too, can be a PITA at times when the networks take a while to port the numbers over, but the savings of $80 per month is worth it (family of 4)
the stingiest thing I do repeatedly these days is not ordering any drinks when I eat out regularly, only drink the free water with my meals.
Also do this when we eat at Fast Pasta. Wife will get a drink, i'll just get the water…..
haha, looks bad as well, especially when you sit next to a family of 6 and they all have a drink in front of them. Oh well, that's the price you pay for being stingy.
@Blottski: exactly, i rarely drink soft drink/juice at home, so don't see the reason why to drink it eating out, as for beer, although I do enjoy the occasional beer, can't swallow the ridiculously high prices that restaurants charge.
Yeah it does look kinda bad but the way I justify it is i'm trying to stay away from Beer/soft drinks. ;) Can't think of a healthy drink Fasta Pasta sells TBH….
@JetLi: "hi, can I get a glass of coke which will be in a thick walled glass which contains 60% ice and pay $6 for it? thanks"
@altomic: good point, which is why there are people who say "no ice" in their glass of coke. When I first came across this no ice request by others, I thought the reason behind it was they didn't like their drinks being too cold, little did I know back then.
I glue back/sticky tape my snapped drumsticks together.
Another option would be to use chicken drumsticks as drumsticks instead :D.
Doesn't the icecream melt?
An old boss of mine was having a house built. The builder phoned him up and told him to put down a half metre square concrete pad and the brickie would knock up a letter box . Boss was on the phone trying to buy half a bag of cement. Reckoned the rest would just sit in the garage and go hard.
where are these comments? (not me of course):
people that used to go through bins to get those coke labels during that coke rewards thing.
not scanning or selecting a different product at the self service checkout? i thought there were heaps of people that do that. after all how much do supermarkets claim to lose due to the self serve checkout theft?
personally the only thing i can remember is while drunk i was looking for a table in a food court and found a table with a barely touched plate of food just sitting there. we are talking literally had maybe one spoon eaten from it.
so i finish my meal and by the end still drunk and hungry decided to eat that meal.
no idea who's it was, they never came back.
i swore to never tell a soul but now you guys know.
I used to go to the movies back home where they had the same movie playing over the whole day. I would walk into the cinema and eat any leftover pop corn bags that I could find. Once I had half a hot dog too
My sister has been to the cinemas and instead of leaving, gone into another cinema and watched another movie… lol!
Second hand popcorn is just gross dude. People have shoved their dirty hands in those buckets, scoffed the food, and I highly suspect many have licked their salty fingers before going in for another rummage with said hand.
So gross.
… don't forget the ecoli on their dunking fingers.
Lmao that's awesome.
i swore to never tell a soul but now you guys know.
'salright. When you're drinking you have a temporary form of invincibility.
To save money from buying toilet brush I used to use roommate's toothbrush.
That wasnt their toothbrush…
It was the toe funghi brush
Take the early bird train to the CBD, makes the morning journey free. 2 hour ticket on the way back. Few days work from home, my total travel expenditure hovers around $60 for month.
Reading a lot of these makes me feel a little wasteful lol. But taking toilet paper from work? I wouldn't even bother touching my behind with that sandpaper, I only buy 4-ply embossed, and only use 4 squares a day, no need to save money there, I've always wondered how people use so much. Best thing I ever did was take home a damaged carton of 72L garbage bags from work, 6 years later and I only just ran out!
what about serviettes ?
they are pretty ok to my bottom.
Only use $0.01 usb led light with powerbank for eating, shower, and carry wherever I need the light at home. Also the cheap xiaomi fan with powerbank instead of using aircon when it's getting hot. My utility bill has been very low and they even suspected the meter was broken and sent someone to check.
That's incredible. Living off the grid with a powerbank and a few Xiomi accessories.
Discarded pizza boxes are an inexpensive source of cheese.
some of the things i used to do
done this everyday over 3 years to save up for a house deposit, while some young-uns are complaining about missing smash avos or sharing with parents on smh. hah!
Ruler + toothpaste tube is more effective!
i have the same tuna, veg, noodle meal also. I go with the homebrand aldi 5 back (about 90c total) and just flavour it up with the flavoured tuna.
Didn't check ozbargain for a month straight.
A friend of mine in high school had Austar pay tv (Now Foxtel?). His father proudly told me that when the batteries in the remote were flat that instead of replacing the batteries he would call Austar and report that the remote was faulty and they'd send a replacement WITH fresh batteries.
I used to ring my mum STD from work to save on my phone bill. I’ve taken small amounts of printing paper from work for my printer. On our current trip we are taking public transport, or walking places, even with our full packs, to avoid paying for taxis.
"I’ve taken small amounts of printing paper from work for my printer." That's called stealing…
It was printing paper that had already been used when someone’s print run had gone haywire and was being discarded,
You should've said "printed paper" or "scap paper" - people assumed you meant unused printing paper….
Only if you're caught.
Pilfering?
I was going to say it is pilfering, but that would be closer to putting a pen in your pocket, knowing that you intend to return it, then don't.
You gave your mum an STD
Subscriber Trunk Dialling, I am very old, I can remember when the government actually delivered services.
I Used to grab items from a disused storeroom where I used to work sometimes, you could tell it hadn't been regularly used for ages because all the packaging was very dated and they had heaps cases of floppy disks just sitting in unopened. Paper, pens, batteries. Probably got about $50 worth of stuff over a year and it's probably all still there
About 10 years ago I was living & working in London. I had access to several company cars & used to take them to the local Sainsbury supermarket. They charged £1 to park in the car park but reimbursed it if you spent £10 in store. I did my shop (during work time) got my £1 back then kept the receipt & got £1 from petty cash at work to cover parking costs.
So essentially made £1 profit to do a shop and deliver to my home whilst getting paid.
I also used to collect all parking receipts discarded in other company cars & get petty cash for them also. I usually pocketed an extra $30 to $50 a week.
Taking "extra" napkins from Macca's, Hungry Jacks etc to use at home or leave in the car
Yes, I do the same, especially when i get bad hay fever
Use to do that with straws. Started with just taking a few extra when I bought something. Ended up as just walking into the store, opening the top of the dispensor, grabbing a handful and turning round and walking out
All addictions start small, lol
I have the popcorn boxes and softdrink cup one each each cinema. I make the popcorn at home and fill the cup with my soda and take it to the movies. Bring the box/cup back home wash and reuse. If you are opportunistic look for clean popcorn boxes lying around to take home. Doing my bit for the environment
Last time I went to the movies I just made microwave popcorn at home, and put that, some soft drink and lollies into a bag and brought it in with me at the cinema. I don't think they have a no outside food policy, just no "hot food", as far as I know.
And honestly, are they going to say you can't bring a bottle of coke in from outside? I would just say here's my movie ticket, mind your own business. They can have all the policies they want, doesn't mean you have to follow them. What are they going to do call the police because you brought in a soft drink?
for 6 months I faked being in a coma so I could get free accomodation at a hospital.
Join ozbargain!
Probably just not eat for days.. sleep for days…Not shower for weeks
Damn dude. Were you going through a tough time at the time, or something
Haha actually I was recovering from one.. still am ;) being in control of my food, sleep and hygiene has actually taught me a lot about myself and still does today.. don't realise how much of a rat race life is until you slow down.. still got a lot of work in progress to go but I am in a lot better place now than say I was five or ten years ago haha lol.
Yeah.. when it came to the rat race I guess I must've had my shoes untied, because I could never quite get started on that one. I've gone back to the basics too. The good news is that it doesn't take much in natural world terms to go from the bottom to the top, and I truly believe someone with the basics all setup and in full control of themselves can become successful in just a few years.
@outlander: thanks I try to tackle each new day one at a time now instead of just watching it pass by.. still have many struggles but who doesn't just hoping in time it will always get better.. I mean it has to because the only other option is bust.
How do you force yourself to sleep for days? I am not being a smart arse but are you sure you don't have an untreated or undiagnosed health condition? Depression maybe?
I can over sleep sometimes but I cannot just force myself to stay in bed for days. I also get cranky if I don't eat for more than 12-16 hours.
Stop eating. No energy. Sleep. Wake up. No energy. Sleep.
I have anxiety and depression and take medication for it.
As a kid I used to collect bottles on the way home from school and return them to a shop and buy lollies for the refund money.
What sorcery is this? Do they do this in SA or something?
Wow I've read those so many times but never read them as return to the store. Always assumed it was at a special collection place.
SA residents must be rich with this deal!
In the 90s in Victoria you could return glass bottles for 20c. Fuelled my arcade game addiction back then (when a credit use to cost you 40c!)
@Herbse: yeah I don't think you can return them to the store, but there are quite a few collection places scattered around SA
Overseas, somewhere where drinking in public is ok and throwing your empty grog bottles to the ground is ok as well as there's plenty of people to come collect it (as you can't be bothered to haul it back to a shop yourself as you're more interested in getting pissed). If I recall correctly the recycling rate for glass/pet bottles was around 97%.
i would search the long grass around phonebooths for dropped coins to buy lollies as a kid, it became very profitable when the $1 coin came out.
I get excited when I get food in containers because I hoard them. I used to wash ice cream and butter containers but my partner thought it was weird and went and bought me new ones.
Take heaps of splenda/ equal packets, napkins and hand towelettes from big businesses.
Always ask for no ice at take away places because I get more drink.
If I see stuff I want at the shops I will always compare and will wait weeks to get it a 10th of the price from eBay.
I refuse to pay for water, I'd rather go to the public bathroom and take a water bottle with me everywhere.
I exchange my Qantas points and market research points for gift cards I use to buy Christmas/ bday presents.
And I'm always making mental notes of free facilities or places to get food in case I'm ever homeless. E.g. gym membership = free shower facilities, local hotel poker area = free food/ drinks etc.
I really don't know why!
My grampa did this. When he died and we got to rummage through his stuff full on half his cupboards were just stacks and stacks of takeaway containers xD
Moved back in with my mother.
Biggest mistake ever.
Do you live with your mother or does she live with you?
When they are giving away freebies at like a train station or something, I try going to each person there to get another freebie then I have something to snack on/drink either in my break or something to have at home
Painted my nails to get free burgers at grill'd.
Created a "Sam" in uber to get free rides to work for a week, saving in public transport costs.
Used the atm at 7/11 for a balance enquiry (ING, no fees). Printed the receipt. $2 coffee for $1.
Later, improved on that one. Just grabbed a receipt out of the bin each time.
I used to just use whiteboard markers from work to pretend I painted nails and rub em off immediately after ordering.
Idk if your method is even worth it… I'll assume an efficient Xiaomi power bank, say their 20,000mAh. It can store 74Wh. After losses we'll say 65Wh of charge provided to your devices.
We'll assume you get 500 cycles out of the PowerBank. That's a total of 32.5kWh. Even on the most expensive power plans in the most expensive place for power in the world, that's around $15. The PowerBank costs $30+.
tl;Dr: it's literally not worth the power cycle of the PowerBank to save the 65Wh.
Edit: I didn't consider the fact wall chargers aren't efficient… But even if we say it's 50kWh saved, same situation - the power degradation on the battery is worth more than the power saved.
I thought that too….
I re use my dental floss. Use it, sit it on the side of the sink and keep using until it's too frayed. You can get 3-5 days of use out of it most of the time. At, say, $3 per 100m and using 50cm at a time, I figure I save 1.5c per day
Is that hygienic? Don't wanna get infected gums so I don't think I want to replicate this lifehack. Infected gums really hurt
Purchased 2 second hand toilets for a property renovation. Both for 50 bucks total. Pristine clean too :)
Can also eat for free forever at hungry jacks . I dont know why people go hungry. Its not great nutrition, but it is OK food . Just complete survey from receipt, get free hamburger for doing it. Then repeat. I think the managers etc get kudos from their bosses if they get good feedback in the surveys. Our local HJ managers usually would give us a receipt for the free burger we collected, then just do the survey again.
Certainly not a recommendation for healthy diet, however… when your hungry and cannot afford anything else. Its an OK tasting free feed.
Tip for hungry poor/broke ppl who might read this … customise the bbq cheeseburger they issue by default, eg. Change sauce, even add tomato, etc . I once even turned one into a veggie pattie burger (just paying for the veggie pattie as an extra)
You still have to purchase something to get the free burger so it's not really "eat free forever". But it's only $1 for a drink or side of chips. I do this once a week. It's my fast food treat.
If the staff there are nice (which they usually want to be extra nice if you give them positive feedback to their bosses via survey) then they are happy to give receipt without buying anything.
ie. They offer me and my friends a receipt when we collect the free burger. Or they can give you a receipt for a ketchup (also free) .
I think manners go a long way really. Be nice to the staff and they will usually be more than happy to give away free stuff. It doesn't cost the staff anything , and manners are free for you to serve up 😉 . So its a win win
@87andcry:
Try using manners, you'd be surprised. And good customer service builds a customer base. Its basic marketing really.
And what makes you think that i dont spend money there ? What makes you think i dont have a job ?
Your obviously ignorant and making false assumptions.
You obviously have no manners, hence your ignorant to the benefits of being well mannered.
So enjoy trolling buddy. Im sure being a rude and ignorant troll will get you far in life
Hmmm. I don't think Hungry Jacks staff are going to be "nice" for long if you became the scab that goes there everyday and doesn't spend any money. If the shoe was on the other foot I'd be thinking "damn, not this time waster again, trying to get some freebies. Get a job you bum". Manners will only get you so far. Good luck with your HJ exploits.
Designed a perpetual energy machine in order to generate free electricity.
I sleep in the nudie-rudie so that I can save on jammies 8D
Oh boy…where should I start?
Carried for 2km a 50" TV that was on special at the local shopping mall. All using velcro straps that I have recycled from the packaging of IKEA mattresses, transforming it in a nice – 1.5x1m-large – backpack.
The biggest reward has been probably the startled expression of the store guys while they were trying to figure out what was I doing. If that would have been the good old time of Panasonic plasmas, my biggest reward would have been an herniated disc.
While many may argue that I would have been better paying the delivery, I must reply that I had not much left of my budgeted amount to afford even the ~$50 that it costed. I am (still) paying the insanely huge ticket price (immi costs) to live the Australian dream.
To the ones that would counter-argue that if I'm strapped for money I shouldn't buy a TV, I reply that if I am going to leave on the shelves a good deal only because I cannot pay to have it delivered, then I should give back my OzBargain account.
This all pales however with what I had to do when I was paid ~$30/day (slightly more than $2/hour), washing cars while trying to pay my university studies.
So yeah, probably this post would assume a totally different tone when applied in another context.
Why didn't you nick a trolley from woolies for the journey haha
I once sold the fuel in my rental motorcycle to a local in Columbia. I siphoned it out with a straw and nearly starred in the TV show banged up abroad. Would recommend
Seems like no one else got the reference.
I've eaten someone's leftover grill'd chips
I've done so also, but stopped now when I once saw a homeless person forage leftover plates for chips at nandos. I felt like I was taking from the homeless.
Lmao. You're a good samaritan :)
OP, you realise that charging you stuff at work saves you maybe $3 at most a year?
My brother has psychological issues about pilfering electrity.E.G. takes a laptop bag full garden power tool batteries and chargers.Brags his Mower takes 3.5 kW to recharge at $1.70 each time plus the trimmer, edger,drill etc batteries.
When his wife was very sick he also used the oven in the office kitchen to make bake complete diners and brought in a slow cooker.
At the movies he comes out of the parents room with 4 bags of microwave pop corn.
I think he is mistaken with his electrical calculations.
$1.7 worth of electricity is a hell of a lot to store in a lawn mower battery.
Assuming he is talking 3.5kwh input
At 50% efficiency thats a 1.75kwh battery
At 36v (assumption) thats close on a 50ah battery
and a 36V 50Ah battery would need a ute to move.
At the end of the day it's not a fair price to be paying. It can hurt the smaller MVNOs and even though the other telcos will survive, they're still going to raise prices somewhere else to compensate.