People Share 30 Money-Saving Life Hacks That Seem Small But Really Work

We grow a big garden and are going to harvest potatoes and sweet potatoes soon. I hope to be able to keep them stored and use them until spring. This is really free food because we used the sprouted ones from last year to plant this year. I have a dog and am going to make my own dog food. It’s important to follow a good recipe because they need specific vitamins and minerals along with carbs and proteins in balance, but I want to give it a try. I can’t imagine eating only dehydrated, packaged foods every day so I wonder if it will make a big difference in dog health. I also think that some table scraps, like meat from neck bones or gizzards, could actually be incorporated into the dog food instead of just being a treat in addition to dog food, which would be more economical

I don’t buy cards with gifts. I tell the recipient “ I spent the extra $5 on your present, rather than a card you will throw away.
Gift +card is a scam.

Switching to a safety razor, the blades are SO much cheaper. It’s been so long I can’t remember the exact savings, but I think I saved about 80-90% of the cost of razor blades when I made the switch.

Menstrual cups. I'm straight up not having to buy pads/tampons anymore. (Aside from keeping an emergency stash stocked). Saves around 10 a month.

Handheld French press. All I need is boiled water and coffee grounds to make my own coffee anywhere. I choose this over coffee pots and keurigs at home, but it's also super convenient when traveling. (Hotel/Motel coffee makers can be super gross if you look too close.)

Buy frozen fruits veggies when they're cheaper. Freeze them yourself when they're not. There are reusable bags made for this, but using and cleaning out a decent/sturdy ziploc bag works for me.

I *never* buy brand new furniture. In fact, anything not consumable, I first see if I can get for free, by perusing my local Buy Nothing group, checking Facebook Marketplace & Craigslist, and by asking around.

If I can’t get it free, I look for it cheap.

Of course, I live in an area with a lot of turnover, so that’s possible to do for me.

I also build/make things rather than buy them. For instance, my husband, son, and I built extra long twin bunk beds, for my six-foot-plus sons, out of lumber and a used Ikea king sized box platform, which is only actually two XL twin box platforms, screwed together.

I want a greenhouse, so I tore down a free junky shed for the lumber and anything I could salvage, and have been collecting old fancy wrought iron or steel storm/security doors I got for free or cheap. For the floor, I hauled away a patio’s worth of pavers I got for free. The only thing I haven’t been able to find for free is what I need for the roof.

Editing to say: we seldom eat out, and only get carry-out when we do, bring beverages with us for the road so we don’t buy drinks, no manicures, no hair coloring, and I stick to one thing with cosmetics & don’t shop for novelty items. For example, once I find a good lipstick, that’s my color all the time until they discontinue it.

I buy less than one roll of paper towels a year. 15 years ago, I bought a king size flannel sheet at a thrift store for $3. I cut it into 1 foot squares and put two together and finished the edges on my serger. I keep them in a basket in my kitchen and use them for everything most people use paper towels for, including draining bacon and wiping up spills. I have about a dozen of them and wash them several times a week.

At a conservative estimate of $3 per roll of paper towels and one roll per week, I save $156/year. Over 15 years, I have saved $2340, enough to buy five sergers and a tall stack of used sheets, even considering the laundry expenses.

Not eating fast food. Making my daily coffee. Buying the big bag of Halloween candy and eating a piece or two a night to satisfy late night junk food craving.

I bought a used yogurt maker on facebook marketplace, and it was the best $15 I ever spent!! 1 gallon of milk makes 6 large servings (for me, ymmv), which is much cheaper than buying yogurt. Also, it's fresher, tastes better, has no preservatives (never lasts long enough to go bad!) and I can mix in whatever I want. Lately I've been buying bulk hazelnuts from Whole Foods, roasting them, and putting them in the yogurt with chocolate chips. Delicious!!

I hang most of my clothes to air dry so that the heat from the dryer won’t damage the fabric.

Pricey coffeehouse coffee is too strong for me, so I get much cheaper iced coffee at Wendy’s.

Nine times out ten the store brand is better than the name brand. The dollar stores have the best store brand.

I pick up fast food receipts off the ground and enter the receipt code into my fast food apps for the reward points. Then I get free food items and spend nothing. That has added up to 187 free food items on just the app that keeps track of full history. The redemption value so far has been $925 since I always take the most expensive food item reward offered each time. Also, if I see someone waiting for food and they spent a lot without using the app I will ask if I can scan the code for the reward points. They usually have no idea that it is a free item for about $24 worth of spend so sometimes I get a free item by scanning the receipt some guy is holding for a big order.

I pick up discarded hardware store receipts and send them in for the 11% rebate so I get the rebate without spending anything. I do the same for the stores that price match. That has added up well over $2500 since I started doing that. Then I buy tools and hardware that I want or need for my side hustles. I checked my tracking spreadsheet for the totals but they changed how the tracking works so I can't track it all the way back to see what I got once they are delivered so it is more than the total on my spreadsheet.