How cheap is your household?

Very cheap

I refuse to waste my life agonizing about money. I'm sure my boyfriend would do the toothpaste thing if I were crazy enough to live with him.

I do that too.

We’re both medium-profligate. Just a few minor peeves about my husband- e.g., he goes through phases of buying way too much fresh produce, lets it sit for a week, then he’ll try to make us eat it when it’s on the verge of gone bad. So I watch the produce bin with vigilance and try to use it up on days 1-3. And sneakily throw some of it away on its last days, before he notices.

Rinse out tomato cans I've just emptied by adding water and pouring them into soup. Use vegetable scraps and rotisserie chicken carcasses for stock. Sprout scallions in water. Dehydrate excess produce. Use remaining peanut butter in jar to make satay sauce. Make stale bread into crumbs and croutons.

Drives my partner nuts

Are all you cheap weirdos on the spectrum, because my husband certainly is.

I made good life choices and obtained an advanced degree so I don’t need to degrade myself this way. Also, good life choice = no kids.

R5 - none of that is cheap. You're just not wasteful. I also do some of those things (and "worse").

There’s trying to save money and then there’s OCD about spending money.

R7, people who act like this often have no real money problems. That’s not the issue.

I cut a beef steak in half so I can add oyster mushrooms - per pound they look more expensive, but they are much more filling per ounce.

I substitute greek yogurt or sour cream for milk as milk goes sour too quickly for my cooking needs and I don’t drink the shit.

My brewed coffee lives in a thermos that I can drink at any temperature because I take it black, like my lungs.

I smoke a tobacco pipe because I’m stingy with smokes and only demented people ask for a hit off tobacco pipes while everyone asks for a cigarette.

I used a serger to turn my old linen sheets into wash rags. I’ve gone paper-free except for asswipe - an experiment taught me that I really do need paper for the butthole.

An ex of mine would ask everynight how much the inredients cost for the dinner I would make. This was in the 1990s but I got down to 4 to 6 dollars usually. One time to show my resentment it was a dollar something for rice and beans. They tasted good though. It didn't last.

I’m supposed to wear pants four times before washing! I have not tried it yet, but that would be cheap. I don’t want to smell my own junk, but not having to iron them every time would be nice.

People from third world countries obsess over waste for obvious reasons. I once dated a guy from the Philippines who obsessively told me I was wasting meat because I left tiny little pieces on the chicken leg. Those people strip meat off the bone more efficiently than ants.

R4, that's not being cheap as a household that's being wasteful.

If R5 is cheap, I am too. But in reading his list, the only activity that struck me as truly cheap was dehydrating produce. Otherwise, I do everything else on the list not because it's cheap but because it's practical and the results taste better than more convenient options. For instance, when making a tomato-based soup, of course I rinse out the can with another ingredient whether it's stock or water. When the peanut butter is close to running out, I always make peanut sauce out of what remains in the jar because it makes a convenient container and hardly a week goes by that I don't make something that isn't better with peanut sauce. And I even sprout scallions because I have a recipe for Korean eggplant that only uses the green parts, so I sprout the whites and in two weeks have enough greens to make the dish again, and in the interim I have a lovely green pot on my windowsill that grows regardless of the time of year. But the ultimate is making stock from leftovers. Hubby loves the rotisserie chicken from Costco, and I always make a big delicious pot of stock with the carcass and root vegetables — so much better than canned stock it's laughable.

How long do you stew your broth, R16?

This thread has made me so very grateful 🙏....that I live alone.

I let it simmer for anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours, R17, depending on everything from how much meat was left on the carcass to how busy I am with other tasks. So easy and so much flavor!

R19, I was taught that my ham bones should stew for a few hours with vegetables before adding to beans., I was just wondering about chicken.

I use funnels to transfer the little bit left in bottles to the new bottle. I don't think I've ever cut open a toothpaste tube, but I have done that to expensive tubes of medication. When I add canned ingredients to stews or pot roasts, I rinse the bits of vegetables with water or broth into the pot.

I've never serged rags before, but my mother always tore up old towels and sheets to use as rags. That's old-fashioned house keeping, AFAIC.

Sorry OP but you stole that story from comedian Neil Bargatze’s stand-up special, and don’t try to deny it! Is your life so pitiful that you have to lie about it? Shame on you, Plagiarist!

R22, Perhaps Neil stole it from a queen on DataLounge - we’ve been cheap since 1995

Nate Bargatze…..

R16, I mostly dehydrate onions, leeks, mushrooms and shallots, which I vacuum seal. I have made sundried tomatoes and dried berries and cherries I throw into granola. I started doing it because my partner couldn't find raisins and dried fruit without nitrates, which make him sick.

I have heard of dehydrating greens for green powder in smoothies but I've not tried it.

Got the dehydrator years ago on Craigslist.

It doesn't bother me to spend money. I don't like to waste it and I try to bypass processed and convenience foods.

I would compost if my partner would let me but he won't.

He got me to shop at Whole Foods and buy organic, when left to my own devices, it would be Aldi and ethnic groceries.

Guess which of the two of us is always borrowing money.

Unless it's had raw chicken in it, I typically wash, air dry and reuse ziplock bags

I knew that the DL demographic was aging, but I had no idea we had so many among us who grew up during the Depression.

Making cat toys out of tin cans and beans and string.

We have a friend who collects stuffed animals for the dogs at Good Will and washes them for us. The dogs always have tons of toys. We buy her spices and other treats from Penzey's.

I have a Heywood Wakefield patio set that I thrifted years ago but thrifting is probably another thread.

I also get my Retin A from India--six tubes for about 80.

I don't cut toothpaste tubes open, but i do lay them flat on the counter and take the back of knife to scrape the tube in order get all of the paste that's left inside up to the opening, so that it can be squeezed it out easily. Less messy than cutting the tube open. I can usually get three or four more brushings from what's inside the tube by doing that. Like R21 says, I also do this with a prescription medication and a couple of OTC products I have that come in tubes.

r31, you should get a tube key. I use it for hair color because it drives me. fucking NUTS to pay 20 bucks for hair color and if it's in a metal tube not be able to use 20 percent of it.

Your tube key has to exceed the width of the tube you purchase! Buy a really large tube key and it will accommodate every tube!

Smart House Inc is pretty. It’s good for smaller tubes, but not wide enough for shaving creams or hair gloss.

I’m currently debating my large sized Rainbath bottles. I could get milage out of them.

I won’t throw away change, ever. Not even a penny. If I see one, I pick it up.

I will throw away the hard-to-get stuff in jars, cans, tubes, etc. and that’s probably work more than a penny.

I guess it would be considered cheap, I use a silicone spatula to get every last bit of sour cream or yogurt out of the large containers.

[quote]I smoke a tobacco pipe because I’m stingy with smokes and only demented people ask for a hit off tobacco pipes while everyone asks for a cigarette.

Do you also drive a Subaru and use a cane on account of an old softball injury?

No, but my lesbians love me because I’m fucking adorable, R36

You cheap cunts should take a page from the ferociously cheap Dutch and buy (or "borrow") flessenlikkers. -- long spatulas, as R35 describes, to scrape the very last bits from the of long skinny jars and other difficult to access vessels.

CHEAP?

My Snatch is so tight it whistles when I walk

Willfully waste makes woeful want!

My household of two isn't terribly cheap, though I have a few habits that fit the scope of cheap:

Use cheap brands of basic cleaning products that my grandmother might have favored. (Dishwashing pods or liquid merit more attention to how well they work.)

Use the most basic laundry detergent, and less than manufacturer recommended. No fabric softeners. No scents.

No dyer sheets. They smell worse than cat piss and who cares if my socks static cling stick together.

Use the cheapest basic white paper towels and toilet paper. No printed or embossed designs or quadruple ply of quilted woven patterns. Nothing that falls apart in your hands, otherwise it's fine.

Use generic trash bags.

I'm conscious of not consuming tons of disposal things and excess product packaging, bags and boxes. I buy most furniture and art at auction, much of it has been around for hundreds of years already, and some new as well but don't buy things that are temporary: a cheap rug that will last a couple of years, a sofa that will be found beside a dumpster in five years, cheap electronic gadgets that take up space until trashed or given away. I don't have a huge wardrobe of clothes, nor scores of sets of bedding, and very little stuff that isn't bought for keeps or the long term. That's a different sort of "thrift" I suppose, but it's my natural inclination to buy things for the long or very long term.

R39, that would have been funnier if you had written:

CHEAP?

I'm so tight, my Snatch whistles when I walk

Speaking of chicken, I will debone breasts and spatchcock chickens myself. The two pounds of Norwegian smoked salmon I just bought at Costco will be re-wrapped and vacuum sealed into 4 oz packages.

During the lockdown, I taught myself how to make a few dishes I formerly ordered in--pad thai, basil chicken, kung pao chicken, dan dan noodles--when takeout entailed very long waits. it was trial and error but eventually I got it down.

I make my own postage stamps and lube.

R30, do you need a script?

Yes, I cut up old towels and sheets to use as rags!

My best friend will take leftover shampoo from hotels ( during her travels) and use them when she gets home.

R42: “ During the lockdown, I taught myself how to make a few dishes I formerly ordered in--pad thai, basil chicken, kung pao chicken, dan dan noodles--when takeout entailed very long waits. it was trial and error but eventually I got it down.”

Do you have reliable recipes that you can share?

For the Dan Dan noodles and Kung Pao, go to the Woks of Love blog. For Pad Thai, go to Hot Thai Kitchen. For Basil Chicken, try Chef John (below) The pad thai does require purchasing dried shrimp and preserved radishes along with the tamarind. The Dan Dan noodles require a special mustard greens.

My partner saves the water he washes the rice with and does not flush the toilet each time after Number 1. Admittedly he grew up in a country with little access to clean water, but it drives me nuts.

If it’s yellow, let it mellow.

I observe the 5 second rule.

I like lots of these ideas and will be using them in my household. (The tube key is GENIUS - I never even knew such a thing existed). It's not so much lack of money, although I was relatively low income for the first 10 years after I graduated from graduate school. It's more because I deplore waste and adding more than my fair share to landfills. ). I had a Japanese friend who was making sukiyaki at my house one time. I offered to do some vegetable cutting. One of the ingredients was Napa cabbage. I had used my cleaver to whittle down the cabbage, but there were some thick tough(and slightly dirty) leaves at the very base, so I left about an inch of those. She berated me for my wastefulness.

I did have a friend who would LINE DRY paper towels if they had been lightly used. (Not ones with grease or food stains. That always struck my as excessive.

I don't like the word "cheap" for these money-saving practices. I like to reserve that word for how I lived my sexual life. I prefer the word "frugal".

We use tableware that we picked up from the curb during the pandemic in Manhattan.

PS If any frugal genius above has ideas how to get the last 1 inch plus of moisturize out of large pump bottles, please share. I like pumps and I use a lot of Aveeno lotion, but it makes me so angry to go through 5/6ths of the bottle and the pump stops working while there's still a ton of product in there. I've used knives and other items to try to spoon out the remaining product, but it sort of defeats the convenience of a pump!

This feels cheap but maybe it's really not... I buy bags of Mexican laundry detergent powder, sold as Ariel, Foca and Roma. They are sold really cheap in corner stores in many cities. I pour some into a leftover liquid detergent jug, and water and shake it up to dissolve the powder. I prefer to pour this liquid into the machine instead of the powder, which can spill and is messy to clean up. The powder tends to start to build up in the soap dispenser and build up to a nasty, pasty mess.

I mix dishwashing liquid and water into an old sriracha bottle to a thin-ish consistency and squirt this onto a sponge to wash dishes. This thinned out soap is easier to squirt and rinses off dishes quicker than the thicker soap right out of the container and the sriracha bottle is easier to handle than the manufacturers container. Also, you get much more uses from the soap.

R49, I'm not clear what you're saying about the rice water and the toilet. Does your partner take the water from rice-rinsing and dump it in the unflushed toilet with his pee? Or are those two different things that he does that are cheap? TIA.

There are risks in diluting body lotion with tap water so use filtered water, dilute it and slather it post shower. Then discard anything that's lefr in the bottle.

Two separate things. He uses the rice water to water the plants. It’s nutritious. But stinks. And he hates wasting water through flushing the toilet after peeing. He also hates it when I let the faucet run for more than 2 seconds at the sink. We live in a state with LOTS of water.

^for R49

R54 Menluvinguy, my tactic is to notice when it’s more than 50% consumed, then add a tablespoon of water and shake up the container. The watered down moisturizer or conditioner will be much easier to extrude.

Thanks, R49/58. I was so confused!

I live by myself so I let it mellow.

I buy the cheapest, one ply toilet paper for pee and better stuff for wiping my ass.

I use the runoff from my portable air conditioner to water my plants.

I get Walmart or amazon brand baby wipes in bulk and just add bleach to them for cleaning everything. Clorox wipes are like, 5 bucks for 50 or something ridiculous. Baby wipes are 20 bucks for a box of 12 packages of 100 (or similar). bleach tablets are maybe $4. Dissolve in a small amount of water and add to the baby wipes package.

I would never use paper towels for cleaning, yuck.

While relentlessly fighting to save a few bucks here and there, most of y'all probably have subscriptions to NetFlix, Prime, HBO Max, Peacock, Hulu, etc. and hardly ever use some of them!! LOL

[quote]Unless it's had raw chicken in it, I typically wash, air dry and reuse ziplock bags

What's special about chicken? You wash your hands (presumably) after handling it, and then go on to touch other things, including food, in your kitchen.

I’m not cheap, I’m a classy lady.

R63, this is true.

r64, I have no explanation except it would gross me out (which is admittedly dumb)

r54, just get flexible replacement tubing an inch or so longer than the container and switch the tubes.

R54, take out the pump and microwave the bottle for 5 seconds, then try a little longer until it's liquid enough to pour into the next bottle. Don't try to save time and trouble by microwaving for, say, 25 seconds. That might make the lotion as thin as water and hard to control (learned this the hard way).

I use Gold Bond anti-itch lotion and there's always some left at the bottom of the bottle.

R54 Discard the pump and tip the bottle upside down (with the cap on) for a couple or so hours. Most if not all of the liquid will come out.

Buy high end clothing on eBay for pennies on the dollar. $4990 Ermengildo Zegna sport coat for $95 looks like it’s never been worn and fits perfect

In the 70s we had a septic tank, so dad insisted we only flush after a poop. He also kept the thermostat pretty low, so the whole family habitually wore our bath robes over our clothes around the house.

We live well and try to restrain our frugality.

The question is how low-rent is your household?

People can be very strange sometimes. I have a coworker who has several high-end cars and is obsessed with designer clothing, and is drowning in credit card debt. And yet she obsesses over buying generic detergent instead of name brand to “save money.”

Well…, we don’t use water, so we don’t drink it or use it to wash, do laundry or clean anything, either. Livin’ off the land bay-beee!

I poop scoop to supplement my social security, to the tune of 80.00 per month, x 34 houses =over 2700 per month.

My freezer has bags of vegetable clippings and chicken carcasses. Makes okay soup. Not for this time of year.

A turkey carcass makes the best soup ever.

"I poop scoop to supplement my social security, to the tune of 80.00 per month, x 34 houses =over 2700 per month."

Enjoy the toxoplasmosis spillover!

[quote]There are risks in diluting body lotion with tap water so use filtered water, dilute it and slather it post shower. Then discard anything that's lefr in the bottle.

Sounds like a household with a lot of rules.

About 15 years ago I realized everything I’m surrounded with in my home will have to be dealt with when I die. I wish I had developed that attitude early in life. I have hundreds of DVDs, most of which I have hardly watched, etc. Now, I only buy things I need like food, and I only buy new appliances or items when the old one breaks.

R46, when I traveled in the early 2000s, I, too, would take the body lotion and body washes bottles from hotels. I finally used the last Neutrogena lotion and it made me feel a little sad. I routinely traveled 12-15 days a month.

R54, I turn the pump bottle upside down and use what I can then I keep the pump bottle on it's side. All you have to do is remove the pump,tap the bottle upside down in the palm of your hand and use the remaining lotion until nothing comes out.

I put water in the hand soap dispenser and give it a shake each time I need it if I don't have a refill.

We were lower middle class and I remember my Mom using Dad's stained (from underarm deodorant) and/or holey t-shirts and our underwear with holes in it as dusting rags.

I didn't grow up with A/C. We had doors with screens and box fans. I set my A/C to 77 at home. I don't need the house so cold I can see my breath or need to wear a sweater. I like it comfortable and 77 is fine. As a matter of fact, this morning on the Today Show, Vicki Nguyen said one way to save on energy is to set your thermostate to 78.

Last year i discovered the Cascade dishwasher pod dupes at Dollar Tree. I use them for light and small loads and they are just as good as Cascade. Haven't used them for full loads or heavily soiled loads so I can't speak to their performance for heavy duty. This has cut my need to buy the $30+ Cascade pods in half.

I have hit that stage myself R81 and have prioritized my needs purchases over my wants.

[quote] I use them for light and small loads and they are just as good as Cascade.

No they're not. You get what you pay for.

I, too, have been known to re-use ziplock bags.

Family tradition: when there (almost) no liquid detergent pouring out anymore, dilute with water for another load or two of wash.

My friend’s partner tears napkins in half as he claims we don’t need an entire napkin. But he spent the first few years of his life in a dirt floor shack in Burma so I guess it stays with you.

[quote,]About 15 years ago I realized everything I’m surrounded with in my home will have to be dealt with when I die.

I'm always a bit puzzled by this line of thinking. If someone wants to clear a crowded house of now useless things and unloved geegaws and open the space up a bit, fantastic. If they want to rid themselves of things that neither they nor their heirs not anyone will want to be bothered with, great. But I'm not setting up a plan x decades before my estimated date of demise to gradually reduce my house to bare bones minimalist.

I don't see the point in making it a years long task to own only a bowl, a spoon, and a tatami sleeping mat at the time of your death.

I have notebooks of photos and receipts and descriptions if valuable things to save people from wondering what's if value and what's not. That's it. The test my heirs can figure out ir hire someone to deal with liquidating things. I've done it before; it's not that difficult. I think some huge percentage of Americans have been damaged by watching too many episodes of Hoarders.

[quote]How cheap is your household?

‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools

Bringing us down

When they all should let us be

It's a good thing DL doesn't know where the poultry carcass posters live.

One Christmas notoriously cheap governor andf presidential candidate Mike Dukakis said they made turkey soup from the carcass.

He ended up with 28 of them, including somebody who mailed the remains of the turkey.

“I use [Cascade dishwasher pod dupes at Dollar Tree] for light and small loads and they are just as good as Cascade.”

We recently bought high-end appliances for our kitchen. The sales person advised us to use the cheapest possible dishwasher pods we could find. According to him, the more expensive pods have casings and ingredients that can gum up the dishwasher jets. And they have too much detergent. So far, he has been correct. And we have a really long warranty for the dishwasher. So if he turns out to be wrong, then it’s on his dime.

The fabled Jane Brody turkey carcass soup.

Here we go.

Even if you’d like to save money, it is awfully hard to find anything store-bought that is as good as boiling the remnants of a turkey and making soup out of it.

[Quote] people who act like this often have no real money problems. That’s not the issue.

Some are conservationists and have waste. Instead of tossing out produce before a long trip they will make and freeze veg broth or try to give things away

[quote]Even if you’d like to save money, it is awfully hard to find anything store-bought that is as good as boiling the remnants of a turkey and making soup out of it.

Among my peculiarities, I generally dislike bone and skin and fatty bits of things on my plate. I have made stock from a chicken carcass, but not often and not in this century. And never again. It's just too grizzly and the disgusting finally of the David Cronenberg 'Existenz' bits at the very end...that *crunch* of the very last of the beast, or is it the last?

Anyway, I'm not to be mistaken for a sturdy, fat-handed Prairie Woman in her modest plain clothes and greasy splatters of large bird carcass on her apron. It's not a path of d-i-y I enjoy travelling done (though you might be surprised how many times those who do can work a jolly work picture of "carcass" into their conversations.).

Enjoy your hard won carcass broth. Mine comes from a shop. Boiling down bones and nasty little bits is not for me. I'm buying the expensive homemade-style stuff that someone has done for me, at the gourmet grocers.

Carcass soup is hard work. There are a million tiny ribs and other small bones in a turkey carcass. The recipe above says to strip all the remaining meat from the bones after you have strained the liquid and cooled everything down. Um.....no, just no. I've done it, and it's a pain in the ass. A much better plan is to strip as much meat from the roasted turkey after you have served it as you can easily get, (it will already be cool to the touch by then). then discard the rest of the carcass. Use the little bits of meat in a soup if you like, but don't bother boiling all those bones. If you want to get some of that bone flavor, buy some bone broth from the store and add the bits of meat you have saved along with whatever simmering vegetable you want and simmer for 1/2 hour on the stove.