‘What’s the cheapest thing you do?’ – 23 examples of heroically tightfisted people

The cossie livs continue to grind us down, so there’s no harm in finding ways to look after the pennies in the hope that the pounds will look after themselves. But can you be too extreme when it comes to saving money?

They’ve been chatting about taking being economical to ludicrous lengths on the AskUK subreddit after user Party_Shelter714 asked this:

What’s the cheapest thing you do? I don’t pour boiling water (ie from potatoes) down the sink. It goes into another saucepan that sits on the counter so I get ambient heat out of it.

Pretty genius really. And their fellow skinflints chipped in with tips of their own, like these…

1.

‘Leave the oven door open once we’re done cooking because it’s ‘free’ heat.’
–Thorey92

2.

‘My husband works at a dairy factory so we get milk and cream for free, I’ve been making my own butter for so long now, we barely buy oil and have only run out once.’
–ragandbonewoman

3.

‘I cut open the toothpaste when I think it’s finished and it’s not you still get a few more brushes out of it.’
–butterflya82

4.

‘Pour water into just finished shampoo bottles to make it last longer.’
–Fun-Shelter-4636

5.

‘I only ever wash my hands in the kitchen or bathroom with cold water. It takes longer for the hot water to travel through the pipes to the sink than it does to wash my hands, but running the hot tap for even a couple of seconds will cause the boiler to flash up and start heating the water.

That heated water then sits in the pipes going cold. So I just use the cold tap.’
–On-Mute

6.

‘I boil stuff like parsnip skins/tops, carrot skins/tops, broccoli stalks etc and make a kind of mash out of it and add it to my dog’s food along with all the leftover meat off the chicken carcass.’
–Ancient-Ad9861

7.

‘Buy yellow sticker everything for food.’
–a13zz

8.

‘Save cooked vegetable juice for watering houseplants.’
–pro-con56

9.

‘I save left over fruits and veg and good carbs and give it to my dogs. If there’s a lot I reduce the kibble. Also they lick the floor clean so I save on mopping if that counts.’
–Historical_Cobbler

10.

‘Use watered down washing up liquid in the washing machine. Clothes are lemony fresh. But, TBF, the grease cutting properties of washing up liquid seems to get stains out amazingly… But I may be imagining that.’
–LilacScentedStoat

11.

‘I lift up furniture to save money buying weights.’
–KatieCampbel1

12.

‘Potato water is used to parboil the parsnips, then the carrots, and then goes into the gravy! Or just ends up in the stew.’
–DameKumquat