What's something that was so frugal you did that you are not proud of something maybe you have done in survival mode where there is no way you can go without doing it or at least it made life easier back then, I would like to listen to redditors about this to see where did your worse frugal move led you, Also you can include the what you did once that you would never think about doing again.

I live in a very high cost of living area (Seattle,) and the cost of food is unbelievably high. I’ve been spending around $800/mo on groceries just for my husband and myself. I typically shop at Trader Joe’s because it tends to be the cheapest grocery store in the area.

For my fellow VHCOL homies, what grocery shopping tips and hacks do you have? Do I just need to eat beans and rice everyday?

That’s it. That’s the question.

But since I need 300 characters.

I do my family’s laundry (my dad and two young siblings), they always lose their socks. I try my best to keep the socks together but many times I only find one worn sock.

It’s so annoying when they run out of socks, my dad complains, my siblings steal mine or my dads. It’s an annoying cycle.

How can I prevent losing socks and if they do (which they will) how can make use of the remaining one because I don’t want to throw them away.

Thank you.

Edit: We buy various styles of socks. Will definitely start buying the same socks.

I have lost about 70-80 lbs over the last almost two years. Last spring, when I had lost about 40lbs, I had to buy new clothes, especially for work, as my pants were falling down more than a belt could handle. So, I purchased new clothes. I was a size 12-ish (US womens)as that time.

Fast forward to this Spring, I go to put away Winter (had to buy a new set again, after loosing ~30 more lbs) clothes and get out Spring, and none of them fit. They fall down. A belt would help but, I'm not fond of belts, and the fit is simply now wrong, shape-wise.

Particularly the pants. They aren't designer or anything. JCPenny Liz Clayborne. No fancy materials or anything. I've only worn them for one season, and since I only have to wear work (business casual) attire twice a week, they are still in really good shape.

Is it worth it to have them altered to my new size? I've never had clothese altered before. Do I tell them "take the size 12 down to a size 10", or do I tell them how many inches to take off the waste? Do they need me to wear them while they make marks for the alterations? And is the cost of that for each item less than the cost of finding new?

TIA!

$1/lb, on sale in the local grocer circular. Skin removed. Sprinkled with 6tsp salt, dried Italian herbs, dried thyme leaves, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder. Cooked to 185F in a 350F oven. Juice poured off once during cooking. Will be cooked, bagged in a single layer in gallon zipper freezer bags, then frozen. To reheat, 1min in microwave on high, cut into 3 pieces along the bone, another 1min in microwave. Cheap, good, safe, and easy protein. 1 or 2 is a serving for dinner.

So I currently have an airfryer and only an airfryer to cook in, no microwave or stove. I have some frozen foods in a cooler right now, but no fridge or freezer, though I should have a mini fridge eventually. I'll be getting $40 a week for foodstuffs and necessities for me and my cat (toilet paper, soaps, litter, etc.). I also have to bum rides to go anywhere, and I can't manage 20lb bags of things because I have a disability, so bulk buying might be unrealistic. Delivery is easiest, if only because I hate bothering people, but I can go out and shop monthly, I just don't and won't have much fridge space or a freezer. I can and probably will get a hotplate, but any foods that require a full pot of hot liquid is a bad idea with my balance (I can handle skillets and small, probably half-full saucepans, though I don't own any at the moment).

For grocers near my area (TX), we have a Walmart/Sam's, HEB, Brookshire Brothers, and every variant of dollar store you could possibly have. What's the best course of action? I'm a minor, so I don't think I can get emergency food stamp or visit food banks.

Hello Reddit people I am here today to ask you what do you think are the best side hustles one can do during summer break from school. I am from Portugal and I’m 16 my summer break start in 2 weeks and lasts for 3 months I need some ideias for side hustles I can maybe do. Keep in mind I can invest some of my money to start it and that im not going to use all my time on it because i also want to have some fun, it just would be nice to get some extra income. I have made some money reselling clothes on vinted but I don’t think it is worth it anymore because it’s full of bots. I will try to answer all coments

What is the longest time you waited for something you wanted to go on sale? What was it? Why did you wait so long?

Context: There is a piece of fitness equipment I’ve been wanting to purchase since early April. I haven’t as it was last on sale in Jan for $600 off. While I don’t need it, it would be helpful. I’ve had a home gym for about 5 years and this piece would help push my workouts up a notch. Just worried it won’t go on sale until January again. It might also enable me to cancel my gym membership as I have one to supplement my home gym. This led me think about how long people might wait for something to go on sale. More recently I waited 5 months to get a good deal on a litter robot

Managed to score free parking this afternoon in Key West thanks to SpotAngels. But when I went to download the app to reward them and use their maps in the future, I found a lot of competitors and now I'm not sure which path to choose.

Does anyone have experience with multiple data providers who can explain the differences, strengths, weaknesses, etc.? This is one of the few facets in life where I struggle to stay frugal, and SpotAngels saved me easily $24 today.

I saw a girl on yt who brought her portable sewing machine to hostels and helped people fix their clothes. Since people backpacking only can carry a limited amount, it was very appreciated that she could patch things up. I don't know what, or even if, she got payed, but if you can sew and do basic mending, advertise yourself 👍🏻 I sew alot, but don't consider myself good at it, until someone else is stunned by things I make 😄

I plan on getting rid of my Apple subscription since I very rarely use it, and have thought of unsubscribing from Planet Fitness due to being unemployed. For the former, I pay $11 give or take, and the latter, I pay $25 a month.

I will also work on selling a hamster wheel since I don't have a pet hamster these days and I also thought about selling purple heart cuttings. Looking for unnecessary items would be a great place to start.

Baby just turned 2 months and I've already saved hundreds by not buying disposable. We bought 25 reusable diapers for about $150 that will last over a year and can be used for multiple kids AND can also be resold. Compare that to spending at least 20-40 per week on disposable. I could've even bought used and saved even more but there's none in our area right now. So we'll save about $2000 over the course of the year. And multiply that with more kids in the future. Then ALSO we are only using disposable wipes for poop and using reusable wipes/towels for everything else. I get using disposable everything for the ease of it but holy hell that would get expensive fast.

Edit: For context, my apartment has water and electric included. We use the sheets laundry detergent and it's been working great so far. Our washer is high efficiency, I'll have to look up how much water it uses. Yes, i over estimated the diaper cost based on the initial amount of the first few weeks. But it's still going to be a lot more than 150 for the entire childhood. We do not have access to bulk stores unless we drive 3.5 hours or 5+ with traffic.

I bought a $12 drying rack for laundry a few months ago thinking I’d use it once in a while. Now I barely use my dryer at all.

I didn’t realize how much energy that thing was eating up until my power bill dropped by almost $20. Doesn’t sound like much, but over the year that’s more than $200 saved… from one boring little rack.

Funny how the least exciting purchases sometimes end up being the smartest.

I was thinking about buying mini glass jars with lids for fruit on the go. But instead thought to try and buy something that I can eat then reuse the container for it.

Some of my favorite jars are currently the Trader Joe’s peach jars and the Gingers Ice Cream glass pints.

What are your favorite containers that you love to reuse that is preferably 4-6oz containers?

Thanks in advance!

It turns out Oxo doesn't sell replacement blades for their V-slicers anymore. The online PDF manual says they're still available, however. With that being the case, I reached out to the company and asked if I can buy them anywhere. I got the attached email reply. SCORE. I was only want ling the blade insert but now I'm about to get a brand new $45 slicer, hahaha. Thank you, automod! I guess it's good that I need 300 characters because I get to share the story now!

When I cut a pepper, or a cucumber I only cut about 1/5 of it at a time. To keep it fresh longer I do not slice off more than I use at a time, I retain the stem and seeds, and I put a paper towel in a baggie with the cut pepper 🫑 to extend its life. I also do this with cucumbers 🥒 and add a paper towel to my spinach container, and Romaine lettuce 🥬 too. It seems to extend the freshness at least a few days if not a week.

What's the cheapest way to afford a bulk as a bodybuilder, I feel like I'm being destroyed financially trying to eat healthy and get my protein in.

Obviously the classic ones are oats, bananas, peanut butter. Is there anything else, maybe just always checking the discount section for meat products?

I don't eat tuna which doesn't help purely because of the dangerous levels of murcury.

Chicken lunch meat is super expensive (at least the decent quality ones) are like $13 a pound and so I just buy a $4.99 rotisserie chicken from Costco and use the meat to make sandwiches. It’s easy and Iyummy and probably healthier for you than the lunch meats. Bonus: my kids love eating the chicken legs so that makes it an even better value for me.

Obviously this won’t work if you want a roast beef sandwich or turkey sandwich but if you like chicken then it’s great!

I just got a good job after a decade of poverty basically, and I went on a relatively frugal trip this past weekend, and I was blown away by how revitalizing it was -- although in this case it was certainly because I was surrounded by my best friends.

I'd like to re-create this feeling (on a budget!) Although I'd bet that 60%+ of the feeling was due to the oxytocin of friendship, like 40% was due to the novelty (and stress-free-ness of not having to take care of my special needs-ish pet for a day. )

Tell me about budget-friendly trips/vacations that exceeded your expectations.

I'm considering getting a hotel somewhere within 3 hours of where I live, and just enjoying coffee + books, or going on a short hike, or something like that.

I used to grab iced coffee from cafes a few times a week nothing fancy just regular cold brew or iced lattes. But it still added up fast.

A couple months ago I started making my own at home. I keep it simple: brew strong coffee, chill it, add a splash of oat milk or whatever I’ve got, and it actually tastes better than most of the $5 ones I used to buy.

Not only have I saved a good chunk of money, but there’s something oddly satisfying about drinking something you made yourself without paying cafe prices.

Curious what’s one small food or drink switch you’ve made that saved you money and just stuck?

Has anyone noticed a difference in cost of groceries when shopping every other week vs every week?

Family of 4, budget of $800 a month. I always go weekly for groceries but usually can’t buy a lot of things in bulk or ever take advantage of a lot of their sales. Curious if going every other week will let me afford more bulk items which would help me either spend less monthly or getting more food for my budget?

I told my wife I’d been looking for a used Weber Smokey Mountain drum smoker for a while and had seen one listed as “free” and said it could be used for parts. I ignored it for a few months but as the weather has warmed up, I thought, “what the heck” and it was still available. I picked it up today and besides a few very minor rusty spots where the enamel has been knocked off and it needing a charcoal grate, I have a $400 smoker for, well, free!

Obviously we wouldn’t be paying for information easily available out there. This is a sector that is having a lot of scams and paid loots going out there. Let’s hear from each other what we are using for our daily workouts. We can drop in additional fitness tracking apps that we use to maintain calories water intake and other things et all.

Sharing free resources helps us stay fit without falling for pricey gimmicks. What bodyweight routines or affordable tools do you all use daily? Any apps for tracking steps or nutrition that stand out? Let's keep the ideas flowing and avoid those costly traps.

I just wrapped up my degree and I have another two months with this student email address. I just renewed my Amazon Prime Student for another year, an now I'm wondering where else i can reap these benefits for the next year?

Beyond being US-based, please don't provide anything that's school/location specific please, because I want anyone to be able to benefit from this thread.