I live in a tiny, old, uninsulated, and electrically inefficient apartment. One of my windows is stuck open (top half won't stay up about 2in) and creates a draft. The heaters are electric and the main one takes up the length of the southern wall in the unit, and I'm scared to use it cause it makes contact with my bed. Bed is in the southwest corner, TV is on the east wall, dresser is on the north wall next to my closet. I live in North Dakota.

I'm wondering if it would be better to use a space heater in the main room, or if I should switch my bed and dresser around. The electric heat is more expensive than running my window A/C all day. Really don't want to burn down my building. The kitchen and bathroom heaters are shorting out, and the electrician said not to use them. :(

Halloween (and most holidays) tend to get pretty spendy. Has anybody seen the price of a bag of candy recently?? This year, I'm trying to be more conscientious both for frugality's sake and be less wasteful.

Halloween costume came from the thrift store and decorations are either natural items or creative re-uses.

Would love to hear other's tips! This community always has great ideas.

Image from: 1 Million Women (an Australian climate focused organization). I'm not affiliated with them, just like their stuff

PS: I wish we had a holiday flair

My office frequently orders food for visiting clients or project executives. Usually, everyone gets some and then there’s a TON left over. When I started working there, I noticed they would throw it away and no one ever wanted to take any home. So for over a year and a half about once a month (sometimes more, sometimes less) I take home all the leftovers, process them, and freeze it all. I’ll eat it for weeks and I don’t even mind. Mind you, I always ask if people want to take some too and they just never want to-I’d be happy to share, they’re just not interested. I am so happy because I save it from the trash and it’s literally free food! This time I had several large containers of black beans, pinto beans, Spanish rice, white rice, sour cream, fajita veggies, tortillas, cheese, salsa, and tomato onion salad. I made them all into tacos and, when I ran out of tortillas, made a burrito filling. :)

I just had my electric bill contextualized in a way I hadn't before- my 1950s 950sqft home is costing over 10% more than my parents' 1750sqft new build. I'm sure having all new lights and other electronics makes somewhat of a difference, but it's a large enough gap, in a house twice as big as mine, that I'm second guessing my electricity use.

I don't unplug things, but I do turn them off when not in use. I don't have anything insane pulling in a ton of power, I think, and I'm in that sweet spot season-wise where my AC has been put away for weeks and my heat isn't on yet. Water heater isn't electric.

Most days, 1 TV is in standby mode or off entirely, the other is playing in the background while I WFH. WFH station is plugged into 2 power strips, for laptop, an extra monitor, some other little electronics. Lights are off most of the day and evening, maybe a lamp in the living room or the overhead light in the bedroom right before bed.

I've got little things plugged in that are either using minimum power throughout the day, or in standby mode (plugged in but not on)- some pet water fountains, table lamps, phone chargers, electric blankets, a lighted plant stand on a timer, dehumidifiers.

The only things I consistently have plugged in AND running all the time are security cameras and an electric doorbell.

Almost every plug has a surge protector with extra sockets plugged into it. Again, I don't unplug anything, but almost everything is in standby most of the day. Am I misunderstanding standby mode? Does it actually use a ton of electricity? Should I be unplugging everything unless I'm actively using it? Or is something else going on with my electric bill that a house twice my size is costing a not-insignificant amount less in electricity every month?

I live in an old rental that has rotted windows. I want to cover them year round. They are cold in the winter, and let in moisture and humidity in the summer. My electric bills are insane!!!

Has anyone ever used clear vinyl? The heavier kind...like 20 gauge? I was thinking I'd buy magnetic tape with steel tape so that I can remove it if necessary. I can use some nails to hold some of the weight at the top. I plan to use painters tape to avoid damaging the wall.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this? I can't find anyone on YouTube who has used this method for window coverings. Thank you!

Some milk spilled in my fabric-clad car a few days ago.

I have deep- cleaned it - vacuumed it thoroughly, washed floormats.

Some here suggested that I put baking soda in a container, roll down windows, and spray w essential oil+water mix. (I can't find my previous post)

I have done all of that, too. The dried milk smell in the fabric isn't going away.

Taking it to a cleaning place is out of question. It's north of 150$+ where i live.

Can someone recommend anything?

I have a 2012 Ford Fiesta. But this car has been a nightmare. My wife has had it since 2016 or 17. Put maybe 60k miles on it.

It left her stranded twice. We found a 2002 RAV4 for sale for $1200 down our street.

I’m currently dealing with an electrical issue making the car not drivable. Not sure if shorted wire or fried PCM.

I’ve already dropped the transmission due to the shift forks sticking.

It’s been in a minor accident. I gotta take apart half the interior to access the airbag module to reset it.

Horrible rear camber wear from factory.

I was dealing with terrible eye strain working long hours on a small 6-inch phone screen, so instead of buying an expensive external monitor setup, I built my own budget cyberdeck out of scrap and repurposed materials.

Total build cost was practically almost nothing, roughly under 10 dollars (around 600 to 800 INR) since most parts were salvaged.

Here is what I used:

An old broken EVD video player housing as the base enclosure

Scrap PVC pipes that I cut and flattened to shape the custom chassis

A screen magnifier lens to blow up the phone display from 6 inches to roughly 12 inches without external power

A standard USB hub glued inside with custom cutouts for peripheral access

An old external keyboard I already had lying around

My daily smartphone running an Ubuntu Linux desktop environment

The phone sits inside, the magnifier enlarges the screen enough to comfortably code, write scripts, and work without hurting my eyes, and the whole thing feels like a rugged, practical cyberdeck Here how https://youtu.be/Du03X_asRKI Would love to hear feedback or suggestions for version two

When I say rich I mean like you won the lottery like say 10 million. It's an interesting thought experiment different from most posts here and I am curious what you all think. I really don't know what I would say.

Would it be something small that didn't save much to begin with? Something that saves a lot but you've always hated? Or would you not stop anything at all because it's not just about money?

Thanks, everyone, for your recommendations. I learned a few things about milk and about people too. LOL

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I always bought the shelf-stable milk at Dollar Tree, because I don't use much milk, and it was always spoiling, even in half gallons. It was $1.25, more costly than real milk, but I didn't waste any of it. Now it's gone up to $1.50 and even I am not going to pay $6 a gallon for milk.
For those of you who freeze milk, what do you use to freeze it? My friend says to freeze it halfway in freezer bags, then flatten it out and freeze it solid, so you can just stack them up, but I'd be afraid to do that. What if the power goes out? Can you imagine the mess in your freezer?

I’m going on a trip and this time I decided to spend a bit more to be in a hotel rather than in an Airbnb.

I’ll arrive at 6:20am and my hotel check in is not until 3pm. I am honestly not sure if I can survive until 3pm. My energy runs out quickly…

So I paid £30 more to check in earlier at 1pm. Still I’m doing lots of mental gymnastic to justify why I deserve to spend £30 to check in early.

Not just this. I do this a lot with other stuff.
I’m and my family is naturally frugal. It’s in our blood. We have enough money. I also have saved enough that I can retire (in my 40s) but I just don’t know why spending money is so difficult. Like I have to justify every purchases. I want to stop and live a little free of this thought.

So you do think an early check in is worth it?

Saw a few posts recently about homemade decorations. These were on my Facebook feed, I think they are super cute! Personally, I would have paper plates, paint and construction paper most of the time, as I have kids. But you can easily get those and googly eyes etc from dollar tree. Maybe $8-10 for the supplies. You could also make like a full moon, maybe a ghost. Scary hockey mask.

had an old android phone so decided to turn it into a dedicated mini server instead of paying for drive and streaming subs every month. no root needed and runs completely fine.

the services running:

filebrowser for managing storage over the local network

syncthing fork continuously syncing my camera roll from my main phone

jellyfin streaming movies and music to my tv over wifi

runs inside termux using a proot ubuntu container. ram stays around 400mb idle across all three services. power draw is around 2 to 3w and the phone battery works like an accidental ups during power cuts.

main headache was android killing background tasks. had to kill phantom process limits over adb and keep termux wakelock on so the container doesn't sleep. mounted the internal storage path so both filebrowser and syncthing can read and write without permission errors.

I saved a lot of money by this all setup you can do all same like me

lab bench power supplies online usually run anywhere between 60 to 120 bucks for basic entry level units, which felt way too overpriced for everyday electronics testing and battery charging projects.

decided to build my own multi channel bench supply on a budget. I bought cheapest 4 dollar psu frontech and added cheap buck converters, binding posts, and digital voltmeter displays off aliexpress/local parts.

ended up with 4 dedicated output rail (3.3v, 5v, 12v, plus an adjustable channel) with independent switches and basic current limiting. total out of pocket cost was just around 10 dollars for the small hardware bits.

it has been running my electronics prototypes and testing loads without a single issue, saving me from dropping 100 dollars on branded lab gear.

curious if anyone else here repurposes old pc electronics or dead appliances for workshop tools instead of buying ready made stuff? what salvaged tool saved you the most cash?

Been looking on facebook marketplace and local but everything seems to be $200+ I wear a 50R and want to look at second hand. Only issue is size. Any suggestions would be helpfull as I see amazon and walmart but ordered them and they feel very cheap/look cheap. I even asked around church and being a bigger guy seems to be the stop point. Would it just be better for the long term to just bite the bullet and get a tailored suit? They have it advertised 3 suits for $350 at a local place. Thanks in advanced.

I'm 23 and trying to move cities and just need a roof over my head for a year or two so trying to find a place that's cheap. I've been strongly considering the idea of finding a place where I'm sharing a room with a stranger, but everyone's telling me it's a terrible idea.

But it honestly doesn't sound that bad to me. As long as the person is chill and respectful it should be fine, right?

Has anyone here experienced sharing a bedroom with a housemate? What's it like?

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Our old Sealy mattress was many years old and getting worn out. We paid around $1,000 for it new, and I really wasn't looking forward to spending that kind of money again or more, especially with inflation these days.

So I started looking around at used mattresses for sale locally. Not the cheap stuff, but the expensive brands that people paid a fortune for and are now trying to get rid of.

I ended up finding a queen size Tempur Pedic LUXEbreeze Soft for $200. From what I could find, this thing originally sold for around $4,500.

The lady selling it said she had only slept on it for about a month. It was too soft for her and was hurting her back, so she moved it into a spare bedroom, where it had been sitting ever since.

We went to look at it, and sure enough, it was basically in perfect condition. No stains, no mold, no strange smells, nothing. It looked like a mattress that had barely been slept on, which is exactly what she said it was.

We bought it for $200 and hauled it home ourselves.

Now, I know some people wouldn't dream of buying a used mattress, and that's fine. But if you're willing to do it and take the time to inspect one carefully, there are some incredible deals out there.

My advice is to look for expensive mattresses that people are practically giving away. A lot of people buy mattresses, decide they don't like how they feel, and end up replacing them. Once they've been used, even briefly, the resale value drops like a rock.

Obviously, check for bedbugs, stains, odors, and anything else that might be a problem. I wouldn't buy one without seeing it in person.

Even if we only get another five years out of this mattress, that's $40 a year. Considering what it originally cost, I think we did pretty damn good.

Just thought I'd share because sometimes you can save a lot more money buying something expensive used than buying something cheap new.

Morrisons have a brilliant Chicken Tuesday offer where you get 50% off chicken, up to 3kg per order.

On top of that, Just Eat regularly offers 40–50% off vouchers for orders placed between 9am and 3pm, Monday to Thursday. The best part is that you can combine these vouchers with Morrisons' existing offers for even bigger savings!

They also do 50% off fruit and veg on Wednesdays, which can be combined with the Just Eat vouchers too.

These deals have been running for well over four months now, and I've genuinely saved hundreds of pounds on my shopping. By combining different offers throughout the week, I manage to get pretty much everything I need for a fraction of the usual price.

The offers show no signs of stopping, but I'd definitely recommend taking advantage of them while they're still available! 🙂

So my husband and I would go out to Breakfast for our Weekly Date. Because it was cheaper. But now we are cutting back and preparing for retirement. And I have been more encouraged to cook and eliminate food waste. So now the break I bake towards the end of the week is getting dry, so I cube it up and make a breakfast casserole. I will add veggies, and breakfast meats, and a little bit of cheese. Mix in Milk and Eggs with seasonings and let it rest in the fridge on Friday Night. Saturday Morning, I get up and bake it. While baking I will make either Hollindaise if I use Canadian bacon, or country gravy, if it is sausage. We have Breakfast for Saturday and Leftovers for Sunday. It has become our Weekend Tradition and we are eliminating food waste. I started doing this two months ago and Each breakfast out was like $60 up here in Seattle. That is $480.00 in Savings. On top of less food waste.

We have cats. They need to eat grain free wet food. We’ve been doing the Iams perfect portions but it is so expensive. We have Costco, Amazon and then just regular local stores like Petco etc. Has anyone found a more affordable grain free wet food option, or a more affordable way to buy the most popular brands? We are struggling to afford most things right now. I don’t want to impact their diet by going back to the super cheap stuff with tons of additives, but would like to see if there’s a more affordable way to buy their grain free food. Thanks!

Currently there is a coupon deal at Staples for Crayola products to get them 100% free. You will get your entire money back (less tax) in Staple Points. If you know you will buy from Staples (printer ink, office supplies) in the future, it's a good opportunity to stock up on Crayola goods/toys for Christmas/Holidays and prepay for office supplies. This deal ends on October 17th.

Also, if you pay with Paypal you get 3% back in addition, so you are actually making money in net value on this transaction.

There is a Pokemon 115 piece coloring kit.

It's time to replace my i-Phone and I'm feeling overwhelmed. Not sure if I want to continue with Apple. Phones are also soooo expensive and there are so many options - how do you choose and how do you know if you are getting a good value? I don't use tons of apps/features. I use maps, IG, camera, texting, email, maybe a few other apps.

I'm also considering changing phone plans from Verizon. I'm over 55 and may go T-Mobile's over 55 plan. At this juncture I mostly use my phone when it's connected to wireless so I don't use tons of data.

Would love your thoughts on how you make these decisions. Thanks

I’m getting ready to move out of my parents house and I wanted to know what are some ways I can keep grocery cost slow beyond shopping at stores like Aldi’s or something.
I know about avoiding using apps like DoorDash every time or eating out. In terms of my overall finances, I have a stable income at a job and I don’t have any massive debt from a car or student loans.
Is there any app I’m not mentioning or store I live in the Midwest

On my own for the first time. Feels good, and I just got a promotion, but there are a lot of things to pay for and I’m still trying to save as much money as possible.

I’m seeing Walmart equate, which is about 0.90 cents per scoop, but I’m wondering if I can find it cheaper than that?

I work out a lot, so I try to hit 180-200g of protein a day. Currently, to get my bulk protein for the dirt cheap I buy chicken leg quarters which I find for about a dollar a pound. Can’t beat it.

Along with my leg quarters, for my protein needs I’ll be having a scoop for breakfast, and 2 scoops right before bed, every day.

Can also suggest alternative cheap protein sources, but I do want something that is easy, because I work a ton. 12-14 hour days sometimes, and weekend work all of the time. Juggle it with working out, and I value saving time. The chicken leg quarters are easy, because all I do is season them and pop them in the oven for an hour.