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
Yep. In our house we don't flush the water at night (if just urinating).
Flushing is also pretty noisy and might wake others up.
If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow.
I just had this vivid mental image of you 'washing' the rice and veggies in the brown toilet water. Ewwww.
Bought a bag of mixed peppercorns and rock salt and separated it by hand because it was cheaper than buying a bag of each.
I reckon a quicker method would be to dump it all in a container of water. Scoop oit the peppercorns, which should float, then evaporate the salt water to restore the salt crystals! ;)
Good technique! Mine was to put them in a container and angle it slightly. The peppercorns were more round so they rolled to one end while the rock salt stayed in place.
I dilute glasses of milk with water for cheaper 'light milk'.
Only thing is, you're also diluting the nutritional content, not just the fat.
IIRC, skim, low fat and full fat milks have around the same amount of calcium.
If you're not concerned about that and just do it for taste, then it's a good idea.. but yeah…
Indeed, though in all seriousness the reason I do it is because I like the taste of milk generally but often experience gastric issues indulging in it, especially in the morning.
IBS
Hmm, interestingly… reading all these posts. You may have saved on actual dollars, although at a considerable expense of your own time? Is your time worth nothing? :D
Filling 10L buckets with collected rainwater and bringing it into the house toilet to refill flushes. Great cost saving strategy but gets surprised looks from guests every time.
Particularly when you go in to flush with your bucket right before they finish.
You can have that plumbed in I believe.. But that would require spending money
saves about 5 Cents per bucket
Snapped most of the stalk off the brocolli in the supermarket:/
I buy the large dental sticks for my small dog. It's $3 for a packet of 7 sticks.
They have two products - one for large dogs and one for small dogs.
It's the exact same product except the large sticks are longer and have more grams per dollar value.
I buy the large sticks and easily snap them in half for small my dog. That way he gets 14 sticks out of the packet.
It's a no-brainer really.
It's a similar thing with children's liquid panadol/nurofen…Labels say different ages and bottles of different sizes, but it's the same stuff inside.
The baby one is significantly higher strength so that you only need to give them a few drops.
Sorry, let me clarify. Nurofen 3m+ is 200mg/5ml, 1-5yr is 100mg/5ml and 5-12yr is 200mg/5ml.
The 3m+ bottle and the 5-12yr bottle have the exact same dosage table on the labels/boxes.
http://www.nurofen.com.au/infants-children/
I asked RB why they did this and they could not give me a valid reason.
If you were a dinkum no-brainer Ozbargainer, you'd be having a chew on those dog sticks yourself to save any future trips to the dentist.
Had a bloke at work torrent from his pc 24/7. IT knew what he was doing but i think he was taking a cut as well.
Yep charging my power bricks plus some custom ones i made up.
doing personnal work as apposed to works work but i get it done ina few hours so i have time to kill.
I wasn't torrenting at work but my network drive had 500gb of movies on it. the IT guy was "hey, you have to remove that…..but can you do it tomorrow so I can grab some stuff off it"
Fill up petrol to $xx.x2, pay with cash and save 2c
On Monday Public Holiday (Queen's Birthday in 2016), I did 8 trips with Opal so I get the other six days free for the week.
Now, after work wait until 6:30pm with Opal for the train after work to get 30% discount on the train trip.
With Bus, Willing to walk for the next 2 bus stops so I will get cheaper rate for $2.15 instead of $3.58.
When I was a student and money was tight I have done what I used to refer to as my 'Garlic bread diet' until the next payday.
Cheap garlic bread was <$1 and Multi can box of Coke Zero was <$1 a can (which I already had).
So for dinner; 1 Garlic Bread & 1 can of Coke Zero will fill me up (and I was a big guy then).. So all up it's around 12 bucks for a week of dinners. Thinking back on it I assume Carbs & C02 = full stomach, but my only science at the time was damn I'm full + it's cheap = win.
Probably not the healthiest diet though…
a guy I knew went away to uni in canberra and would have an egg mcmuffin for breakfast and then just coffee and cigarettes the rest of the day. he came back at the end of semester and his dad (a GP) looked at him and diagnosed scurvy.
Hmm, a whole semester is probably a bit long to go without a decent meal. :/
Was it to save money or because they liked it?
I don't think it was to save money so much. possibly it was because he came from a strict Italian home and he was never taught how to cook/ prepare
Damn, that's a rough diet. How long would you keep it up for?
I think worst case was literally a week. Generally it was only for a couple of days.
when filling petrol, i always add an extra 2cents of free petrol. e.g. $xx.x2 or $xx.x7
Only if your paying in cash.
Use your Amex Edge card for 3 points per $1 spend. Each point has an average value of 0.01
If I want to replace a faulty product out of warranty, I buy the same item, take the receipt and ask for a refund.
It's good to see that the Ozbargain DNA is alive and well and not being diluted :)
I can never think of anything I can do to save money, apart from buying stuff through here - and even then, when you work out how much stuff you've actually bought that you don't really need, I'm not sure that's true either!
Time to start reading through these comments and picking up some tips
Use a single chair for my study, and doubles as a 'sofa' for watching TV. Saves money from buying a sofa.
Don't own a dining table, just eat on your lap.
or just sit on the floor and use a cardboard box :P
when invite girls to your place, just say you don't believe in commercialised crap and is a metro hippy or something.
Register a new Starbucks account everytime I order to get the 50% off promo.
University parking. It's not cheap, and is absolutely oversold. Get to the university at 9.30 and you'd have to wait an hour to get a spot.. On a tight uni budget, i couldn't really afford it.
Two methods:
Uni parking permit, $9 per day or half annual is $158.
I just reprint the invoice I received first semester and change the date every week. It is used to validate your permit for 10 days from invoice date. It's been 3 years…
Second, if the changing date method isn't for you. Pay for your parking permit, wait 10 days after receiving it and claim it didn't arrive, get the second and sell it.
Or just park in the backstreet and walk.
when I was monash uni clayton campus 20 years and they had the paper tickets I just scanned and photo shopped my ticket for each day. (in bulk in advance)
Did you pay for the photoshop?
UNSW requires you to bring your cars rego papers in to register for a perking permit. Security patrols use rego plate recognition cameras to identify any vehicle in parking areas without a current permit.
You also get a parking permit sticker that must be attached to your windscreen which shows your rego plate and the permit expiry date. I assume they can check the colour and make of the vehicle showing the permit to their database holding the rego papers records.
Pinched all the hotel soap while i was overseas a while back. At first it was just for backup incase the next hotel didnt have any. Then for a laugh, then a hoard/habit. By a month in and I had to travel my suitcase was overweight and so I removed the "hotel soap bag" and tossed it. The bag weighed about 2.5kg. Never again :)
Now I just take 1-2 extra incase the next hotel doesn't have any and leave the rest behind.
I've sadly got addicted to those self serve car washes. Not a good savings measure i know but the pressure hose is too much fun and i live in an apartment block without a space to wash the car. However, I refuse to put in enough cash to adequately wash my car and keep getting caught with the timer running out in the rinse cycle. So i end up having to drive down the road and rinse the excess off at the servo using the water.
If you've insufficient space, adopt a 'rinseless' wash method. See the Detail Paradise forums for further info.
Thanks looks interesting. Found any good deals on rinse free wash ? What product do you use?
Spray with high pressure soap then wipe down car with no name chux/wipes then finish off with pressure hose rinse,also check the cost of these car wash places one near me is $1.50 for 1.5 minutes another is $1.50 for 3 minutes
I fill up Jerry cans of fuel when it is at the low cycle, just before it shoots up.
I also bring said Jerry cans when going on long trips, as rural fuel tends to be more expensive.
Initial investment of $16 each can (I have 2) and saves $4 (the average difference in the price of fuel when I need it) each cycle per can.
Very handy since the cycles have now gotten so long I can't last till the next cycle (even with the 7-11 app!).
On an unrelated note you should check out my 7-11 receipts showing savings of almost $20 on a fill up.
You only carry around 8 litres of fuel?
IDK about your car but my tank is 60L and I generally fill up when it is half way (30L) because my fuel gauge is broken. I might look into this but it seems only enough for 'emergency fuel'.
8L?
Each can is rated 20L (I can squeeze 25L), plus I commandeered another 2x 10L cans, but I don't really need to use those unless I'm travelling.
20L x $0.20/L = $4 per cycle.
I usually save more on the first can (it will be closer to the top of the cycle) and less on the 2nd can, and I considered a 3rd, but I calculated it would take a very very long time to recoup the cost of the can so I didn't. (this was before I found another 2x10L cans)
Worst case is that if you get into an accident, the extra fuel will keep you warm for the rest of your life.
That's handy to know. I might buy a few 20L jerry cans from SCA and store them in the boot of my car. I will need to make sure there are no dangers carrying fuel in the car.
never tear open a letter, use knife to surgically remove content from letter, then reuse envelopes with cooked rice to seal :)
Raised by parents who reused printed papers as note pad, I used to re-use sticky notes. That was until one of my former companies screwed me hard until I got into depression.
Now I am not so thrifty with paper, instead I just go almost paperless in my current job. Going digital.
i worked with some guys that would steal the toilet paper, coffee, sugar, tea from work to save dollars
I drink work supplied instant coffee instead of buying a coffee. Save $4 everyday.
I sometimes eat breakfast at work and use work's milk. Not only do I save milk, it also makes me come in earlier which the bosses like. (Also save on a little bit of soap and water to wash up.)
On weekdays I make meals that can be brought to work the following day. Save $10 there.
We once bought a cow's heart to play a practical joke on a dude from work sleeping with a butcher's wife. (stabbed a note from the butcher through it with a knife) A guy asked if he could take the heart home to feed it to his cat.
Officeworks Glebe in Sydney used to charge $2 for parking, but would reimburse you the $2 if you bought something and showed them the parking machine receipt. Most people did not understand this, so there would always be receipts left in or near the machine. There was free 1 hour street parking outside. So I'd park outside, walk in through the car park, collect 1 or 2 receipts, and always get reimbursed someone else's $2. If my wife was there, we'd both do it. It got to the stage that anytime I saw an officeworks price, my mind would automatically subtract $2 from the price. Unfortunately they've changed it since to just have free parking for customers :-/
i would've so abuse that…. buy a $0.4 item and reimburse the $2 …
I try to turn appliances off at the wall. Noticed Origin Energy suggest it as a tip to save electricity also. Guess it helps :)
https://www.originenergy.com.au/for-home/electricity-and-gas…
Maybe it's just me but isn't that a no-brainer? I'm pleased that my son has taken that habit onboard (he is 7), turns stuff off the wall when finished with it (think tv, playstation) as well as lights when leaving the room. I don't know how accurate the "average usage" graph on the power bill is, but mine has been always below 1 person household even with 3 adults and 2 small children.
I think this is unwise long term. Most modern devices use miniscule amounts of power in standby, yet turning them off daily means lots more thermal cycling, which means much higher risk of premature failure.
You can save 10x power power by simply putting the exact correct amount of water in the kettle when you boil it, or 100x saving by line drying your clothes instead of using an electric dryer.
Shake out all the rubbish/dust from the vacuum bag into the garbage bin so I can reuse it
Wow that's not good for you lol.
Quite some substantial savings but damn that's a lot of dust!
1 - I love gardening. Seedling supports cost money. I 'conveniently' pick extra coffee stirrers from 711. $1 coffee + bunch of sticks. So far I have picked over 100 sticks.
2 - Charge my phone, tablet and batteries at office. I am afraid of charging them while I sleep. Paranoid? Cheap saving trick? Meh.
3 - Use paper-clip to take out trolley coin.
4 - I reuse red-costco disposables to plant seeds.
5 - Only buy salad from coles/woolies if it is near expiry and is between 60-80% off.
6 - Bring home toilet rolls/ kitchen towels from office.
While we are on the subject of 7-11, I had a hot chocolate there the other day and let's say I didn't really know how to use the machine… Everyone has milk in their hot chocolate yeah?
So, I press the milk and it only goes to half full, I think that's weird but don't really pay that much attention. Press it again and it's just about full. I then can't find the sugar anywhere (admittedly didn't look that hard) so I put in sugar syrup.
Best $2 I've ever spent!!!
Charge my 16000mAh Xiaomi powerbank at work. Done this about 5 times. Charged it at home once, which was the day I received it in the mail.
Electricity saved? Priceless.
Im barely stingy at all but I love to buy used on gumtree. Laptops/Camera/Games I doubt Ill ever buy a new car or motorcycle. Im actually looking at an apartment opportunity now and frustrated with the premium you pay for it being new.
Not getting Married!!!!!
I hear not having kids saves heaps.
Me goreng
Rather than pay ridiculous parking fee, dropped my passenger off and drove around the block for 2 hours, stopping aside on those fee 1/4 P slots.
i hope you factored in the cost of petrol + vehicle wear & tear, as well as getting close to your scheduled service date for those 2 hours of driving
Save all glass jars and hard plastic tubs (ice cream etc) , wash and use as pantry storage containers. Wash super oily takeaway containers at work so I save on hot water and dish soap.
Refill up my hand sanitiser bottle at work (them things are expensive!). Use work's wifi to download/update phone apps because I have limited quota at home with abysmal Adsl speed.
Print HJ's vouchers at work because the website sometimes is a pain to get to when you are in a rush and keep them folded up in my wallet.
Only buy treats from Colesworth when they are 50% or more off.
Take dumps at work so I get paid for crap and save on toilet paper ;) bahaha.
Phone is fine for HJ vouchers
In the last 12 months I merely just have to mention the deal through the drive thru or at the counter and they just look it up. Saves you having to waste power on your phone screen!
phone is fine
Great to know that you steal hand sanitizer from work for your own personal use…
Yup, they don't provide soap at the sinks and I don't wanna go to the toilets just to soap my hands.
I have lied on my tax return for 20 years
Yeah, and I know you Dont Care.
alright don't cry
Weird that this comment has a positive score but the ones about defrauding supermarkets are negative…
The government has taken more than there fair share to make up for whatever it is you lied about ;)
not from me they haven't.
Separated existing 3 ply toilet paper into its individual plies. 3 times the value.
This also means that I only need one 3 ply sheet when separated, (one ply up, one ply down, and one ply to polish).
And then having to fold the 1 ply, 3 times over, so you dont break through.
why don't you just get a bidet poo on your fingers is disgusting
Poo is life
Respect the Poo
Have been known to take a roll or two of toilet paper from work home.
Thief, just kidding. If you are fortunate to retire, you will look back on your life and wish you took more.
Waited 3 years to get a headset which was finally discounted for about 70% rrp (used normal phone headset till then)
Deleted and created new uber accounts to get new sign up user discounts / free rides
(used normal phone headset till then)
So you killed your ears for 3 years with shit sound. Your hearing also worsened with age for 3 years.
Then you bought a nice headset, which you can't appreciate as much as you could have 3 years ago.
I do flight arrivals at airport and I get free food on board
There was a story years back about an older lady who recycled almost everything. Edit; the story was a long time ago but I just have this vague recollection of recoiling at the sorts of things this poor old sausage was actually going without.
Saving money is one thing but even in Australia which has relatively high living expenses you can still get by on a low income and not live with totally deplorable standards fortunately, but I’d assume that you’d largely go without luxuries, which is all relative anyway.
Buy Groupon vouchers and in the event that merchants miss out scanning,go back after a few days and use it again(or maybe again…).
I think I've shared this before on Ozbargain, but getting home from dinner sometimes wife goes to toilet I would ask her not to flush as I just piss in it afterwards and save a flush of water.
I also rinse rice and wash veggies in a bucket that's used for plants, in summer