Money Saving Habits

I think it is not until you live with other people that you realize the habits that you subconsciously perform day in and day out without even thinking about them can be a bit...odd. Apparently I have a lot of odd habits because they have been commented on. Often. Here's my list of odd (but money saving!) habits:

• When I do laundry, I use about a quarter of the recommended soap. My clothes aren't really dirty plus the water here is soft which means it takes more effort to rinse the soap out of the clothes so less soap is a good thing.


• I always cut dryer sheets in half. I like the anti-cling part of the sheets but I'm not a fan of overly perfumed things so cutting the sheets in half seems to be ideal.


• I use leftovers religiously. Many people will save leftover food then end up tossing it out eventually. I tend to base the next day's meals on whatever was leftover from the night before.


• I use one tea bag for two cups of tea each morning for the hubby and I instead of a tea bag for each cup. It seems to work just fine.


• When shopping I love the day-old bread rack, the discounted items bin, the loss leaders, and other sale items. Also, I tend to buy generic/store brands for many items (there are some store branded items I don't care for but most store brands are impossible to tell from highly advertised national brands).


• I often like to make my own food items from scratch (ie: we were at the grocery store with my sister in law and she was going to spend $5 on a small tub of hummus, I told her I could make a great hummus for less than a dollar from scratch). I do this for many products which seem horribly expensive compared to the "from scratch" price.


• Whenever shampoo, conditioner, or laundry soap gets nearly empty, I always add some water and shake. I like being able to use every last drop of a product.


• Whenever soap gets to be too thin to use, I get the next bar of soap lathery then smoosh the older sliver of soap on top, then let it dry; that way I can use every last scrap of the soap.


• When we go out to eat, hubby and I always split a meal. We don't do this so much because of the money, although this does save a lot of money, but because when we realized that we were never able to eat the trough-sized portions of food that was served to us, we decided it just made sense to split the meal. Also, we only drink water at restaurants, in fact we only drink water at all meals...it's a long-time habit.


• We don't drink alcohol of any sort (no wine, no beer, no hard alcohol) just because neither one of us likes the taste of alcohol. Between the two of us, this is just normal behaviour but it seems like ALL of our friends have the habit of wine with dinner or a beer after work.


• I love to use coupons, always send in rebates, and always ask for discounts (ie: senior discount for hubby, military discount when I know it is offered, etc). It's like free money and I seriously hate to pay full retail prices!


• When the door squeaked, I sprayed a dab of Pam cooking spray on it. It works!


• When I bake, I tend to bake a lot of different things at the same time. I figure it saves money on heating and reheating the oven.

Well, that all of the odd habits I have been made aware of recently. I think I picked up many of these things from my depression-era grandmother who used to do these things and more to save money.