What's the most ridiculous way you save money?

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

yeah. the typical percentage is 8.9 cents on the dollar. So you're losing $9 out of every hundred. Not a bad deal, considering the time and effort it takes to roll all that money. I guess it comes down to what your time is worth. I find my time to be worth more than that, so to me it is no big sacrifice, but since this is a "cheapskates" thread I expect I'll be in the minority

Well, considering my bank does it for free, I guess I don't see the point. All you're saving is whatever time you have to wait in the teller's line.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

I have seen machines like that that charge a percentage.

The ones around us charge 7% which seems really high.

If you are using the "change jar" and have kids - do what I do, use it as a learning tool for your kids. I'd have Anthony sort through it and divide it into Quarters, Nickels, Dimes, Pennies....then tell him how many of whatever it would take to fill up the roll and have him count out that many, by counting by that denomination. He is great at making change now and loves to go to Papa's to help him count change every couple of months.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Well, considering my bank does it for free, I guess I don't see the point. All you're saving is whatever time you have to wait in the teller's line.

lucky you for having a bank that does it for free. mine would laugh in my face.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

I was planning on going to 3 grocery stores tomorrow morning. They're all within a quarter mile of eachother, so that's nice. Probably head to Costco tomorrow and buy 73 pounds of microwaveable biscuits. I clip coupons each week, but then i forget them at home. I try to buy milk when its cheap, but then I never use it.

I was at BJ's today (like Costco) and bought 16 bars of soap b/c radii told me he thought we were out (I don't use regular soap), only to find out this evening we still had 8 bars under his sink...so now we have 24 bars of soap!

I love shopping at those places and for the most part use everything we buy, I've found it's especially great for pet supplies...a 7 lb box of dog treats is like $6.99, and the regular size maybe 1 or 2 lb box at the grocery store is close to $4.00

[pennywisesb]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

I have a change jar. Every day I empty my pockets, and dump the loose change in the jar. When it gets full, I take it to the bank and put it in savings. I have no idea how much money that turns out to be, but it's probably 100-200 dollars a year.

I do exactly the same thing, except mine totals around 75-100 dollars a year.

I also make my own lunch everyday rather than going out which probably saves me about 20-30 dollars a week.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

The ones around us charge 7% which seems really high.

If you are using the "change jar" and have kids - do what I do, use it as a learning tool for your kids. I'd have Anthony sort through it and divide it into Quarters, Nickels, Dimes, Pennies....then tell him how many of whatever it would take to fill up the roll and have him count out that many, by counting by that denomination. He is great at making change now and loves to go to Papa's to help him count change every couple of months.

Watch out...if you keep doing this, when he grows up he'll be that weird guy who rolls his change and gets mocked for it all over the internet!

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Mac Howard

A friend of mine used to boil the kettle, make his cup of coffee/tea and then pour the rest of the water into a thermos flask. For the rest of the day he would make his other cups of coffee/tea from the flask. The tea was awful!

That's a good one! I'll use the same tea bag if I'm going to have 2+ cups of tea in one night, but what's he need to conserve water for?

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Watch out...if you keep doing this, when he grows up he'll be that weird guy who rolls his change and gets mocked for it all over the internet!

[seinfeld] "you expect me to roll 6,000 of these? what, should I quit my job!?!?! [/seinfeld]

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I don't understand the idea behind 'saving' change in a jar. Putting it in a jar just means you're going to break more bills than you normally would have, leading to more withdrawals from the bank and possibly additional service charges. Plus, you are not earning even the minute amount of interest a savings account gives when that change is sitting around in a jar at home.

If you are removing the money from your own bank and they are charging you to do it, you are with the wrong bank. I've saved my change for years. I purposely use bills just for the sole fact of getting change back to then save in my jar. I'm able to save about $100 dollars every 2-3 months. It's not money I would normally have in my savings so I'm not really loosing any interest and even if I was it would be a slight amount of like 3 or 4 bucks. Plus it's more fun to save it up this way.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

I've found it's especially great for pet supplies...a 7 lb box of dog treats is like $6.99, and the regular size maybe 1 or 2 lb box at the grocery store is close to $4.00

Now if only you had a dog ...

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Now if only you had a dog ...

That would be a funny comment, except we do have a dog! Leo...he is my baby until we have a baby, except he's about 40-45 lbs now so I can't really carry him around with me, or pick him up for that matter. But he is spoiled rotten and rules the house

[Poli]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I do that too. Goes even faster with our $1 and $2 coins

FM

How do you say it...Oones and a toon?

[Poli]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I try to cheat with coupons. Like if it's a coupon for NEW NACHO CHEESE CHEEZE-ITS ONLY and I am buying the regular ones. This always makes my wife nervous, too, like the Coupon Police are gonna gallop up and beat us with rolled up coupon circulars.

Silly wife.

I had the coupon police stop me in the store once. The cashier actually, but she did throw the BS flag.

We were penalized 15 yards and a loss of down.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by dangarion

If you are removing the money from your own bank and they are charging you to do it, you are with the wrong bank.

Well, all banks charge you a fee ($3 here) for withdrawing from an ATM that belongs to a bank other than their own. That's probably what he was talking about.

[lungs]

To save money I smoke GPC cigarettes and chew Grizzly tobacco.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by lungs

To save money I smoke GPC cigarettes and chew Grizzly tobacco.

to save even more money, I don't smoke at all...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

How do you say it...Oones and a toon?

loonies and toonies actually

FM

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

That's a good one! I'll use the same tea bag if I'm going to have 2+ cups of tea in one night, but what's he need to conserve water for?

Saves him the cost of boiling the kettle again

But if you've ever tasted tea made from water at around 90 degrees C then you'll know why I always asked for coffee when I visited

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

loonies and toonies actually

FM

That describes Canadians quite nicely, too

SI

[Craptacular]

Originally Posted by pennywisesb

I also make my own lunch everyday rather than going out which probably saves me about 20-30 dollars a week.

This is something I've tried, but I just get sick of it.