Here is my favorie and I do it all the time.I have read (and it does work) that toothpaste will shine the chrome fixtures in the bathrooms.  My boys have theirown bathrom and they each have teir own sink. After they  finsish brushing their teeth  before school, there is always a big glop pf toothpaste that falls off of the brush  and sits in the sink.I use this glop to polish the chrome fixtures....it works and it's cheap!!

 Fire Starters:  Get free empty 12 ounce water bottles from friends and neighbors.  Push half full of dryer lint.  Pour 1 or 2 ounces of used motor oil into bottle.  Use only enough oil to wet the lint.  Reseal until needed.  The lint acts as a wick and provides a lengthy hot fire.  

Gift wrapping with newspaper:  Our nephews and nieces liked the idea of putting the cost of commercial wrapping paper in the gift instead of its wrapping.

Exchanging cards inside the card store:  At seasonal holiday periods my wife and I show each other the card we would have selected if we were miles apart.

Repackaging Soda Pop:  Half liter bottles of pop are bigger than I care for.  I purchase two liter bottles of Coke for $1.05 or the tastier Sam’s Cola at Walmart for $.79.  I have a few screw top glass 8 ounce bottles and now you can find 10 ounce plastic screw top pop bottles.  I chill down the two-liter bottle to lower the vapor pressure of the carbon dioxide that I don’t want to loose.   All of my smaller bottles are cleaned and fill with cold water.  I remove the chilled two-liter, from the refrigerator, and gently open it.  One at a time I empty the cold water from the each small bottle and gingerly pour the pop from the two liter bottle into the smaller bottle.  I fill to the very top and promptly screw on the cap.  The less gurgling and shaking the less CO2, carbon dioxide, fizz you will loose.  Refrigerate from then on.  

Gift bags that can be regifted:  Make gift bags from scraps of fabric and tie up with used ribbon.

DH has a dark navy bluecorduroy recliner. The only part that is worn is the edge of the footrest where his feet rub. I used a black marker to darken the area where the white cloth was showing through.

I cut old blue jeans into strips, sewed the strips together and braided them to make a rug and hot pads.

I save the large twist ties that are wrapped around leaf lettuce. I cut them into small pieces and use them to gently hold up seedlings to small stakes. I also cut up pantyhose to hold up plants.  I don't wear them so I asked a couple older ladies at church to save their old pantyhose for me.

Since I have a bathroom to myself, I practice "if it's yellow, let it mellow"! 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a good chuckle this morning b/c I was thinking about this thread as I wiped down the bathroom.  I buy those face cleaning clothes (on sale with a Q, of course), but I still think $2-3 is pricey for just 25 of those things.  I read somewhere about someone who cut their cloths in half, so I've been doing that for a while.  About a month ago a went off in my head and I started using the reverse side of the 1/2-cloth to clean down a section of the bathroom -- after I'm done washing my face, of course!  It's enough to clean one side of the vanity or 1 section of the toilet or the showerhead... you get the idea.  It does leave a soapy residue, but I just use my washcloth -- again, once I'm through with it -- to wipe up the residue.  Now I feel like I get my money's worth from those things!

I also use a flat cotton pad with rubbing alcohol to clean my glass lenses.  I often reuse the cotton pad 2 or 3 times, keeping it tucked in a zip baggie and adding a bit of alcohol each time I need to remoisten it.  After my lenses are cleaned for the 3rd or 4th time, I then use the pad to clean off the spots from the bathroom mirror.  If the mirror is clean I wipe down the chrome/steel part of my faucet and try to shine it up a bit.  A bottle of rubbing alcohol and three-sleeve no-name pack of cotton pads cost about $3 and lasts me about a year.

Helene:

The VERY cheapest thing I have done... well, when I have cut slices of bread and made sandwiches, I take the bread crumbs that are on the cutting-board and sprinkle them on top of the sandwich...

Really? We scoop them off the cutting board into a bag that gets stored in the freezer, and we use them in any recipe that calls for bread crumbs. We also save the wrappers from sticks of butter and margarine and use them to grease pans when we bake. Aside from being cheap, this is the easiest way I've ever found to grease a pan.

I'm finding this thread thought-provoking, because my reaction to almost every response is, "That's not cheap, that's just frugal!" So I started wondering: what exactly is the distinction between thrifty and cheap? I guess to me, the word "cheap" suggests that you are not merely saving money, but saving it in ways that are, for some reason, inappropriate. For example, the term could refer to saving by sponging off someone else (e.g., always dropping in on your folks right around dinnertime) or to skimping in ways that will cost you more in the long run (e.g., spending an extra $100 on heating every winter because you won't shell out the $800 to insulate your attic). I've done a few things that some people might consider cheap in that respect, like giving people gifts that came from yard sales (though my parents certainly didn't mind, and my sister-in-law didn't know, so it's hard to see the harm in it). But most of the penny-pinching things I do (like using the water out of the dehumidifier to wash the laundry or water the garden) strike me as perfectly valid--not "cheap" at all.

jjnee:

Repackaging Soda Pop:  Half liter bottles of pop are bigger than I care for.  I purchase two liter bottles of Coke for $1.05 or the tastier Sam’s Cola at Walmart for $.79.  I have a few screw top glass 8 ounce bottles and now you can find 10 ounce plastic screw top pop bottles.  I chill down the two-liter bottle to lower the vapor pressure of the carbon dioxide that I don’t want to loose.   All of my smaller bottles are cleaned and fill with cold water.  I remove the chilled two-liter, from the refrigerator, and gently open it.  One at a time I empty the cold water from the each small bottle and gingerly pour the pop from the two liter bottle into the smaller bottle.  I fill to the very top and promptly screw on the cap.  The less gurgling and shaking the less CO2, carbon dioxide, fizz you will loose.  Refrigerate from then on.  

Does this work? I get really frustrated because seltzer always goes flat before I've used it up. I started buying it in the slightly more expensive 1-liter bottles, rather than 2-liter bottles, and I always try to stick the bottle way in the back of the fridge to keep it as cold as possible so that the CO2 will stay in solution, but even so it never stays fizzy quite as long as I'd like. But if it is going to lose fizz when you open it to pour some, then won't it also lose fizz when you open it to decant it? And if you just get it extra cold first so that it doesn't lose fizz, then wouldn't it work just as well to keep that big bottle extra cold until you've used it all? (Or am I missing the entire point of your post, because you are actually repackaging the soda so that you can take smaller bottles with your lunch, not so that it will stay fizzy longer?)

haverwench:

jjnee:

Repackaging Soda Pop:  Half liter bottles of pop are bigger than I care for.  I purchase two liter bottles of Coke for $1.05 or the tastier Sam’s Cola at Walmart for $.79.  I have a few screw top glass 8 ounce bottles and now you can find 10 ounce plastic screw top pop bottles.  I chill down the two-liter bottle to lower the vapor pressure of the carbon dioxide that I don’t want to loose.   All of my smaller bottles are cleaned and fill with cold water.  I remove the chilled two-liter, from the refrigerator, and gently open it.  One at a time I empty the cold water from the each small bottle and gingerly pour the pop from the two liter bottle into the smaller bottle.  I fill to the very top and promptly screw on the cap.  The less gurgling and shaking the less CO2, carbon dioxide, fizz you will loose.  Refrigerate from then on.  

Does this work? I get really frustrated because seltzer always goes flat before I've used it up. I started buying it in the slightly more expensive 1-liter bottles, rather than 2-liter bottles, and I always try to stick the bottle way in the back of the fridge to keep it as cold as possible so that the CO2 will stay in solution, but even so it never stays fizzy quite as long as I'd like. But if it is going to lose fizz when you open it to pour some, then won't it also lose fizz when you open it to decant it? And if you just get it extra cold first so that it doesn't lose fizz, then wouldn't it work just as well to keep that big bottle extra cold until you've used it all? (Or am I missing the entire point of your post, because you are actually repackaging the soda so that you can take smaller bottles with your lunch, not so that it will stay fizzy longer?)

 

 

Transferring pop to smaller bottles:

Yes it does stay fizzy. 
Keeping the fizz, small serving size, and drinking pop on the cheap are my goals

Keeping the fizz; the crux of the biscuit is the air space left within the pop bottle, whatever its size.
 
When you reseal a pop bottle, tightly of course, the dissolved CO2 will re pressurize the bottle.  A sealed, partially filled pop bottle, will become firm from the CO2 that comes out of the pop.  The Shwish you hear when you open a pop bottle is escaping CO2.  The more you loose the flatter your pop.  Notice when I decant, all at one time, I fill my receiving bottle to overflowing.  The pop has about a 1/4 inche of space to loose CO2 into.  If the bottle cap is tight there will be little loss of gas beyond the extra pour cycle.  Two liter bottles that are 1/2 or 1/4 full will be pretty flat when reopened.  Notice however that there is enough gas to make a plastic bottle firm for a few openings. 

If you follow my instructions and serve over wet ice I think you will have more gas in your glass of pop than if you were to pour freshly opened pop over ice that has frost on its surface.

You might also enjoy performing a double blind taste test with family.  When we did this with Coke and Sam's Cola we all agreed which pop was Coke and that it was better.  Well; after we decoded our pop trail we determined that it was not Coke but Sam's Cola that we had chosen as best.  Name brand adds a lot of flavor to life?

There are air pump devices that fit 2 liter bottles.  I have no experience with these.

You might also try belting your 1 liter bottle to eliminate air space.  I haven't performed this experiment.  

jjnee:

Transferring pop to smaller bottles:

Yes it does stay fizzy. 
Keeping the fizz, small serving size, and drinking pop on the cheap are my goals

Keeping the fizz; the crux of the biscuit is the air space left within the pop bottle, whatever its size.
 
When you reseal a pop bottle, tightly of course, the dissolved CO2 will re pressurize the bottle.  A sealed, partially filled pop bottle, will become firm from the CO2 that comes out of the pop.  The Shwish you hear when you open a pop bottle is escaping CO2.  The more you loose the flatter your pop.  Notice when I decant, all at one time, I fill my receiving bottle to overflowing.  The pop has about a 1/4 inche of space to loose CO2 into.  If the bottle cap is tight there will be little loss of gas beyond the extra pour cycle.  Two liter bottles that are 1/2 or 1/4 full will be pretty flat when reopened.  Notice however that there is enough gas to make a plastic bottle firm for a few openings. 

Thanks! I'll see if I can get my hands on some little bottles so that I can repackage the seltzer from a big 2-liter bottle. (We don't really drink soda in our house, just seltzer. Mostly in egg creams, and sometimes to make a spritzer with juice.)

Love this thread!  I shred all of our empty toilet paper rolls and throw them in the compost bin. (do this with newspaper too) Use newspaper for weed control.  Use vinegar as fabric softener.  Make my own car freshener with old pantyhose and shredded Fels Naptha soap.  Clean everything in my house with hydrogen peroxide, also makes a wonderul glass cleaner.  I'm big on re-painting things to make them look new....hubby wanted to replace our outside brass light fixtures, made them look new with a cheap can of black spray paint.  Line dry my clothes, made a clothes pin holder out of an old apron...I just sewed the bottom up to make a huge pouch for the pins.  (my neighbors tease me when they see me out back with my apron on).  I grow sunflowers and then use the seeds for my bird feeders in the winter.  Also, share seeds with my neighbors and ask for the seeds from their flowers. This fall, I'm putting a sign in my yard to have neighbors drop off leaves on side of my house, will mulch them with the mower and use as mulch. Uuuummm, I have more but I better get back to work.  ;)

LJcoolJ:

Love this thread!  I shred all of our empty toilet paper rolls and throw them in the compost bin. (do this with newspaper too)

Can you do it with the color supplements? We don't get a paper, but we do get tons of those advertising circulars. I thought of composting them, but I was afraid the inks might be toxic.