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'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?
@NEEDHELP: there are definitely many deals through the month saying from experience of 4+ years of continuous monthly porting
@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.
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.
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)
Designed a perpetual energy machine in order to generate free electricity.
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.
Didn't check ozbargain for a month straight.
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"
When I was working in an office I used to shower when I got to work (hot water), ate my muesli at my desk (milk), set aside time in my day for #2's. Heck, I got so comfortable that I started doing an online course during work time…boss thought I was writing reports, but I was actually just doing assignments. Checked the news every hour or two as well…
Thats just being smart honestly,
I sleep in the nudie-rudie so that I can save on jammies 8D
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!
Fill up petrol to $xx.x2, pay with cash and save 2c
Also, at the “Scoop and Weigh” section, walk back and forth topping up with one nut at a time until the price reads $x.x2, to save 2 cents when paying by cash.
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!!!
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.
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
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…
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.
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
You can read The Age and bypass the 10 articles per month limit by reading it in your browser's private mode (i.e. Incognito mode for Chrome).
Since I'd like to promote ethical ozbargain practices and this could be argued as theft I should say that I personally think most mainstream media are a complete waste of time with very low ratio of quality to rubbish reads, so I dont see myself paying for it in any possible parallel universes. I'd much rather tune into VICE. The only reason I'd spend time on it is one, I am in china, and two, I am bored at work. If you do want to support The Age, please pay :)
Same with news.com.au sites, so much garbage, click baiting, 2.5 people got offended on social media=outrage, 30% devoted to NRL, infomercials presented as expert advice, and bit of relevant news.
There is a referer extension for browsers, where you can override the referer (let's say to google.com.au), whenever certain URLs (domains) are matched. Not that I do such things ;-)
I find it bemusing that you consider Vice as an upgrade on the mainstream propaganda that it's imbibed here en masse. What distinguishes them from the rest? They regurgitate essentially the same inane nonsensical talking points as the rest of them.
And thank you guys for some good laughs. I love the creativity and humour of this community!
As we push the boundaries of frugality it's inevitable that we enter the grey area of ethics (a good way to get people to think about ethics). I would love to see the Ozb community continue to grow as it will influence people to be more money wise, but hopefully we can do this ethically and make a positive change for individuals and societies.
Money is time, and time is priceless :)
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
When I buy chewing gum I rip the strips into fourths or fifths. A packet of 14 would last me maybe 2 to 3 weeks than a week. I find chewing on a full strip is a waste.
I would drink most of the milk at my work and charge my phone/charger at work.
If I am at home and have had lots of water to drink and need to use the loo, I sometimes don't flush if it is clear since no one would know lol (soz TMI). Saves a flush and water I guess.
Flushing is for hygienic purposes, not just for looks. Even then you still need to clean your toilet bowl regularly.
… if it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down.
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.
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.
for 6 months I faked being in a coma so I could get free accomodation at a hospital.
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.
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.
Just thought of another one. If you live close to two adjacent train stations with no gates, you get off at the stop further away from your starting station, walk/drive home and then go to the station behind to tap off. For example if catching a train from Central to Turramurra, get off without tapping off then go home and drive down to Pymble station to tap off. It could work along most of the north shore and northern line stations as many aren't gated, the suburbs are reasonably close together and you might find adjacent stations cost less if you tap off there. Also, some stations are fortunate enough to have express trains stop by them. This one might only be useful for those that live within say 600m to the station and the other station costs less to get to in petrol than the savings made.
Another example: central to Eastwood on an express train, get off at Eastwood, drive car to denistone and tap off to save $1.
Seems to be a bit of effort to drive down, find parking and get out of the car to tap off; but I guess that's the point of the question.
Not getting Married!!!!!
I hear not having kids saves heaps.
Not super tight but i did put a single ply tissue paper over my xiaomi vacuums hepa filter.
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
Is it stingy to realise that I haven't eaten pre packed cheese and crackers that have been in my bag for 3 weeks (still in date!) but buy a new one and then exchange the old one?
That gives me a wonderful idea actually! Wait until the use by date is like tomorrow, buy one new, refund it and then get the other one at a discounted rate/reduced!
It's morally questionable at the very least.
It was still in date and hey I exchanged it. I could've been immoral and refunded both because she didn't circle it on the receipt.
I take offices toilet paper when I leave work as I start the earliest and leave the latest. (I'm a manager of an accounting firm and earn excess $150K+)
Also if I work weekends I take 6 pack of beer at the end of everyday.
I used to work at an accounting firm and someone was taking a couple of extra beers home.. He ended up being let go.
Can you please hire me for a year? 20 hours a week is enough and im willing to work with no salary, plus I will pay my own taxes and superannuation costs.
This sounds too good to be true!
For immigration purposes.
A mate of mine whenever he filled his car with fuel would always grab the bottom of the hose and lift it up so any residual fuel left in the hose would run into the tank. I have no idea if that works or not.
I used to do this too, but later I read that the meet reads from the nozzle, and so it didn't make a difference. Not sure if that's true, though.
When i was young and mobiles were expensive, a macca's straw and public phone both, free phone calls!
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.
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….
@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.
@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.
when we were younger, we would glue together 2 x 5c pieces, painted them gold and used them at the Adelaide Show. (terrible I know)
It was so busy that no one ever picked up on it. (obviously we put a few in among real $2 coins)
I'm not sure whether to neg you because I'm horrified that someone would do that, or upvote you for thinking of such a creative (and in the right circumstances genius) idea!
We were young kids. yeah pretty shitty thing to do when I look back now that i'm older (40) but for our age, it was quite brilliant considering no one picked up on it. (I think we were around 11 from memory)
I was expecting more Negs to be honest…. :)
Hahaha yeah most stingy ways of saving money are on some level morally questionable..
Have to admire an 11yo's brilliance though!
It's been raining, so I went out to my car during lunchbreak and wiped it clean.
that's not stingy at all.
Me goreng
unsure if this is considered stingy, but if i have a really large lunch and im still full at dinner time, i just wont have dinner. save money y0.
I do this as well.
bought one grape and the weight was so low it was 2c, paid cash = free
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
If I want to replace a faulty product out of warranty, I buy the same item, take the receipt and ask for a refund.
man…i have been broke few times and I have done it all…plus going into a no food diet for 1 to 3 days a week.
man…i have been broke few times and I have done it all…plus going into a no food diet for 1 to 3 days a week.
$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