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
lol, saving money in hotels… sleep in the car.
That's what we (2 people) did on a road trip around Tasmania (in a small car). It was fun and amazing to see the sunrise/set at a different natural wonder every day. Just park near a public toilet at night. Very convenient to have all your property in arms reach as well. It's also pleasantly surprising how many public shower Tasmania has.
You're in your 20s aren't you.
Used my adult myki in the morning (where there are ticket inspectors in city loop stations), and used my concession myki on the way home because there are never ticket inspectors at my home station in the evening. Saved $2/day
Wouldn't you save half your fare instead by buying a pass?
why bother using the concession myki. I assume it is to get through the gates but you will still be fined if a ticket inspector asks to see a valid ticket and you are unable to provide a concession card.
I have a Freedom staff discount card (50% off at full retail)
So here is what I do to increase my overall discount.
Buy woolworths wish cards at 5% discount with my Amex Platinum Edge card. 3 points per $1. I use the points for big discounts on business class travel…..it takes a while but i get there eventually
Use wish cards to buy Freedom gift cards when on sale at Woolworths, normally 10% discount.
Stingy or not?
WOW,50% off for staff.The profit margin is unbelievable.Thank you for letting us know!
It's pretty standard for places retailers to mark up their prices by 100% of the cost price.
Yep, cost of rent and cost of staffing are often a lot more than the actual product, I was doing some work once and looking in through the window I saw the boardroom for a well-known bag retailer that had stock samples with the cost and retail price on them on a rack, the markups averaged about 1000%
100%? Probably more in places like Freedom.
@Baghern: No, I imagine theirs would likely be more. The one I saw is more handbags wallets etc and at most reasonable size shopping centres, the cost price on most things was around $3-$9.
Who said anything about profit margin?
I said I get 50% discount and I only get this because I have worked there for over 15 years
It must be a huge shock to all that retail stores mark up their product…..not
I empty the soap from the bathroom at work into an empty milk carton and send that milk carton to Ethiopia. It keeps a family of 12 clean for a month
Clean from inside after drinking it.
Claiming some offers repeatedly. Technically your not supposed to of course (though Im not 100% sure, as who really reads all terms and conditions of every offer) .
Many offers you just require a secondary email. Or just uninstall then reinstall an app etc . Muffin break is good for free coffees free muffins (free muffin birthday, free coffee on sign up) . Red rooster is same, free meal on birthday month (can say its your birthday any day) plus $5 credit sign up in app (or using card).
If they are nice about giving away the freebies etc, i almost always support the business later when i have money.
I banned my children from buying bottled mineral water that cost $3.50 for 6yrs when I have housing loan repayment. Now everything goes!
When ING had the 2% cash back i used to offer to 'pay by card' due tp difficulties splinting bills every time i'd go out for dinner with friends to get the cash back and they would pay me the cost of there meal in cash or bank transfer…
would save a dollar or so every time i went out
also do this for group bookings i use cashrewards i always offer to booking hotels/flights etc because if you got enough people you can cash back a fair bit of cash
That works well for Hotels.com.
stay 10 nights and you get 1 free.
i use this with cash rewards to discount the rooms for the people wanting to book and i get the free night!
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,
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.
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 :)
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.
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 super tight but i did put a single ply tissue paper over my xiaomi vacuums hepa filter.
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!
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.
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
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.
I've spent a grant total of about $60 on pre-paid starter packs, 12 months worth.
Woolworth's $30 telstra sims for $1 and coles had $30 optus Sims for $10.
Takes 5 mins to port out and saves me thousands a year.
Just recently purchased a 70" TV. As I was trying to maintain my ozbargain spirit, I decided to just pick it up myself and put it in my mini van.
My strategy was to take one of the shopping trolley from woolies/coles/big w and hoped that one of the staff would, at least, help me putting the TV in the trolley. Boy I was wrong, staff didn't want to help at all and told me he would prefer not to assist just in case something happened and he does not want to be held responsible.
I ended up looking so foolishly spending at least good 15-20 minutes trying to put it on the trolley. What made it worse, it did not fit really well. So I have to balance the TV at the same time I pushed the trolley to car park.
It didn't stop there, I spent another good 30 minutes in to put it inside my mini van..I was quite sure I almost broke my backbone that time.
Then another 30 minutes putting it out from van to my house.
Was it worth it? Yes, but it was probably not a wise decision for my body.
The only main reason I wanted to do it myself is because the shop is only 5 minutes drive, so I thought it should not be that difficult. But I was wrong LOL.
Interested to hear story from my fellow ozbargainer. What is the most cheapskate thing you ever done?
Access Ozbargain from work computer to save mobile data
A LONG time ago I charged my (at the time) GF $1 for a slice of Dominos pizza. It was a $5 pizza but I figured that I had gone to the effort and expense of picking it up so I factored that in. My friends still rib me about this.
I bet your ex still tells the story to this day as well.
Sure does!
Yeah but for different reasons.
I keep and reuse the plastic bags that the newspapers come in (we get two per week). Come in handy in the kitchen or to dispose of cat litter.
The month before plastic bags were getting phased out at super markets I started my bag collection
I took 3 massive stacks from Woolies and piled them at home. Should last me a while.
Just pitch up often to a family members house or a mates house at dinner time and get a free feed…
When you arrive - "Welcome, welcome"
When you leave - "Not him again. He always rocks up unexpectedly on dinner time, empty handed and without notice. Should we pretend were not home next time?"
Families can put up with that (for a while) but your friendships mustn't last very long.
If I want cool drink, I never buy at shopping center, just go to the parent room and there is the cool drink.
why a neg vote on this?
Picked up food that was in a grave yard
Currently considering rooting through fast food bins
Reuse tissues I've had in my pocket
I have done this once.. Was not proud of myself but it was just cold chips left out by somebody at a train station.
Well thats the difference between you and I. I was proud of myself :D
I endevour to prosper from the waste of others.
Oh I meant I was ashamed I let my guard down.. I mean I could have easily caught something knowing the kind of people who do that in my neighborhood. Food was shit too since it was raining so double loss for me.
Mr. Humphries died in real life from hep A, which surprisingly he caught from eating food handled by someone with hep A. Don’t you worry about things like diseases you could catch from eating someone else’s food?
Can't help you there. I wouldn't eat someone elses food unless I knew the person eating it. Not even if I hadn't eaten in a week.
I have been known by my friends as the racoon. I raid the trays left on the aisles of fine hotels when away on tour.
I send them photos of the fest all the time.
I saw a group of hipsters come into a restaurant and clean up somebody's leftovers after they'd left..
I think they may have just been homeless.
Haha reminds me of a convo regarding a colleague, him and the guys I was chatting too are all management/sales so all well off ie 150k+ easy
They spoke at a work lunch how he eyed a couple who left, had barely touched a bottle of expensive wine they bought, chatted abit about it to get the courage then went and scoped it for their table
I steel toilet paper from public toilets.
steel toilet paper sounds mighty uncomfortable, you'd be standing for a month afterwards
I shit in the bushes and wipe with leaves as there is no toilet paper in the public toilets.
I don't scan the bags when at woolies lol
Downvote all you like, there are no signs or price tags on the bags at my woolies :P lmao
Used a Pokemon code that someone on ozbargain posted so I could sell the one I had.
despicable me
I like it, keep up the good work.
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.
This is, largely, straight up stealing, which IMO isn't in the true spirit of OzBargaining. Not trying to judge you but just wanted to share my opinion.
What I also want to share is that apparently the stAlk contains a larger amount of nutrients than the florets. I always hated the stalk as a kid but now as an adult I've grown up and realised the stalk tastes the same so why waste it?
I am sorry to hear you where force to eat the stalks as a child.
Stealing where, free fruits and napkins.
tomayto, tomahto. Lol that's in my opinion
stalk has different texture.
Stalk takes longer to cook, and that's money.
I hope you check if those storks are carrying babies wrapped in blankets before you snap them off.
Yep stalks I see it, did you reply at 1am in the morning? you could post that you only surf the web after midnight to save money on the power bill, :)
Ok mum. Point noted. I'll try and get to bed a bit earlier.
… and hand off snakey.
I've noticed oddly sometimes the vine ones being cheaper!
Twice I used items from minibars in hotels and replenished them next day. No hefty bill.