Frugality Ideas You've Tried, that Turned Out Not to Be Worth It (price, vintage)

[mshultz]

Originally Posted by Pip-Squeak

I cut my own hair once, never again. Live and learn

I cut my own hair during the great pandemic lockdown. It looked bad.

[twinkletwinkle22]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

....
Most vegetable gardens (when you tot up the seed cost and other costs and compare grocery prices)

Respectfully disagree a bit on this.
My small veggie garden doesn't save a lot of money on food costs but does provide exercise so I don't need a gym (money saved). Provides me with a hobby I enjoy that I can wear old clothes and the equipment once purchased lasts pretty long time.

Seeds are expensive only if you make that decision. I collect seeds after season is over and they grow next years garden. If there's a hybrid seed (these won't grow true from saved seed) or plant I desire maybe I can get it through trading, locally I trade plants and online I trade seeds.

There is so much more to gardening than comparing costs of food. I get more out of it than the money put into it.

[galaxyhi]

Originally Posted by selhars

I tend to debate whether doing something "worth it" when it comes to saving money.

For example, I saw (on a YouTube segment) a person talking about collecting the water that runs while she's waiting for the water to get warm.

Of course a person could get an instant hot water fixture. But like many people, I just let the water run a bit to warm up.

Well, in my case I'm wondering -- given the size of the sink, the way I have to capture the water to then funnel it into another container if the extra effort and time are worth it

And capturing the water slows my down getting ready in the morning....because while I'm capturing the running water -- I'm NOT brushing my teeth. And because I'm taking longer to get that done -- perhaps more water is running than if I just let it run and brushed my teeth and be done with it.

Even when I saw the video segment about this, I was asking my self is that really worth it?

This morning I tried it for the first time and captured ONE GALLON of water.

I suppose I'm wondering is a gallon a day worth it....and ....am I really willing to do these extra steps on a daily basis. And ALSO -- is a gallon a day worth it IF I'm only willing to do it twice or three times a week. And what about the "extra" water that's running while I'm doing all this -- that sort of negates -- at least in part -- the reason to even do all this.


Thoughts?

AND as the title asks -- as frugal as you are....have you had some frugality ideas you tried that for you -- you just didn't think were worth it....in time spent or money saved?

I know I don't:
-- drive as far as I used to to save on gas prices.
-- or shop and three to four supermarkets just to "shop sales." I used to go to additional supermarkets to get one or two things on sale. Unless they were non-perishables it got to not be worth it to me to spend most of my day grocery shopping and burning gas to go to the two additional stores to "save money."

I'm sorry but rather SOON you may come to absolutely CHERISH that "wasted" one gallon of water

I'm in upstate NY, and with a single snowfall like the 43" we got over bare ground in Dec 15, '20 in one 19 hours, or recently the highest snowfall in a suburb of buffalo NY getting a WHOPPING 81.25" of snow over 3 days, you'd THINK we'd be exempt from "water supply issues '.

No, this May it was hot (90s) and VERY DRY. We mowed our grass literally 1 time in all of May, June and July. It was dirty, dusty and DEAD grass.
Not only that..but the entire eastern half of PA was in "drought mode".. AND all residents were asked to REDUCE water consumption by 3-6 gals A DAY.
Didn't matter if on city or private well.

Our municipal water is well-derived, with the nearby river is so low, that you can walk across it, though you'll get your ankles wet.

In August, we could tell they increased the chlorine in our taps. We figured it was drawing from the bottom of the well.

Lake Mead, feeding a lot more f southern communities and states is extremely low.
The great and wide Mississippi river was so low that people could walk across the bottom and NOT get their ankles wet!

We have drastically cut our consumption. We bought a "camper shower " and extra batteries.
When the plastic guts of the faucet fell out, we decided to try it out for lots of use.
Spouse takes long showers, and LL ets water run the entire time.
I've never been a long showerer, 10 mins at most. I get clean, and don't dilly-dally.

We found: I can shower in about 4 gals, spouse 10 gals.

I think the rating for a shower is 80 gals without flow restrictor, 60 gals with flow restrictor (we have one in the shower head.

Now I turn on, get wet, turn off, soap, then turn on to rinse. (Like military showers)

So, instead of approx. 120-160 gals for both of us..we use 15 GG als at most.
Any water left in the bucket...goes to other uses..for summer was to plants.

You can dump that gal in your toilet tank, after/as you flush for morning constitutional. Or put it in sink and add hot water to wash dishes.

We have back-up water, SHOULD we have a dryer drought season next spring.

So, yeah it's a pain in the tukus, but you might reconsider your waiste water in a totally different view.

(We have a basic limit of 5,000 gals -whether we actually use it or not.

Best

[Sand&Salt]

Since we have go buy our drinking/cooking water, we are careful with it. I reuse lettuce-rinsing water for the plants; DH will save water for the toilet tank.

What wasn't worth it, was taking the bus to the airport. The stress and crazy roads/drop-off mountain roads with landslides---nope. I don't care if it's $12 vs. $160 taxi ride, we're taking the taxi. It wasn't worth it to me.

We only have one supermarket, so no choice there. But I never liked driving around to various stores for a "better deal". Just not into it. Get 'er done, lol.

[ILTXwhatnext]

Originally Posted by RamenAddict

They are common in Japan, where the toilet is usually in a separate room from the sink. I am surprised they haven’t taken off elsewhere, as it doesn’t really seem like there is a downside to this. That said, I did get a dual flush toilet in hopes I could save water and some of my pipes are still older/thinner so I don’t know that it’s really been that effective on a cost saving basis. On the other hand, the old toilet was the 6-gallon that ran all the time, so it was clearly wasting a lot of water.

I can absolutely see capturing cold water in places with water restrictions- having a gallon a day (or more, depending on how many people are using the bath daily) to water plants would be very helpful. I have considered getting a rain barrel on so many occasions as I have a part of my yard that tends to flood anyway and my vegetable garden is about as far as my regular hose will go.

My latest purchase was a mulcher for my leaves. We pay something like $4.25 a bag to dispose of yard waste, so that ends up costing a lot when you are paying for 15 or so bags and still need to get mulch for your garden beds. I figure that after this one season, it has probably paid for itself already. We will see how it turns out.

We bought a low gallon flush toilet for our old place and came to regret it. A plumber had to come out. He said that in the old pipes we had, a lesser amount of water just wasn't keeping all the TP and uh, other solids, pushing through. Eventually some things started backing up...I won't get TMI on you but trust me. He cautioned us to always use the full flush.

We really do waste a lot of water, though, just waiting for the shower to get hot etc. I guess there's also tankless as a possibility.

https://prudentreviews.com/tankless-...pros-and-cons/

[Lillie767]

Since I value my time very highly, there are not that many "frugal" ideas that are worth it to me. Costs too much time.

[Durpie22]

One idea to save heating costs in the winter is to plug your drain plug in your shower or bath and allow the warm water to stay overnight. All the heat from the water will transfer to the air along with moisture. Then just drain it in the morning.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by mshultz

I cut my own hair during the great pandemic lockdown. It looked bad.

You need a "Flowbee" !!

[oh-eve]

I am debating for years if it is worth washing out zip lock plastic bags. Not sure about environmental (water usage and trash) and $$ benefits (not buying new ones) of doing or not doing it. Most of the time I just rather use tupperware to avoid washing out/throwing away ziplock bags.

[SkyLark2019]

Honestly taking on crappy room mates.

Sometimes it's worth it to pay more to live alone and have peace and quiet.