30 Of The Most Useful ‘Poor People’ Life Hacks, As Shared In This Online Thread

100%. All my socks are black tall crew and nobody can tell if they match or not.

Buy high quality socks and keep your toenails cut. I've had pairs last 5 years plus.

I think I have about 2 or 3 dozen of the same sock.

Big timesaver too. No laundry matching. No debate over sock choice. It's black socks, or it's tights.

Recycle those with holes to use as cleaning rags.

It is surprising how much you waste if you don't do this.

They made really cheap reusable plastic doodads with thin slots that you slide the tube bottom into, and then move the doodad up as you empty the tube. All the goop gets squeezed out at the opening.

My family do this and I’ve grown to do it aswell, I thought everyone did this

There's a line between between being frugal and being OCD.

Same. I reuse old food containers too. Like those plastic butter containers too.

I sometimes get paper bags , but instead of re using them I cut off the handles if they have them and then the cats have hours of fun. Their favourite was a very fancy bag from a high-end brand that I actually paid money for, apparently my cats are fancy and prefer a Hermes paper bag, they pretend the didn't all come from the SPA refuge.

Doesn't everyone? We all should.

I have a grocery bag of grocery bags

I have two-gallon ziplocks that I prep my horse's meals in for the week; some of them have been used over 100 times. Pro tip: this is one of the few things where it pays to buy name brand; the seals on the generic ones poop out very quickly.

Barry

Barry

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There are a ton of free streaming services

For me the library ended up being more expensive! They charge a fee to bring books in from other libraries, so I ended up spending 50p per book, then got busy so got a couple of late fines. In the end it would have been cheaper & far less hassle to just order them from Ebay.

Yeah great....then I sit there and eat waaaay too much.

I live by myself, hate cooking for myself a complete balance meal (meat, veggies, carb.) on a regular basis. I just make a big pot of stuff that contains everything needed for a complete nutritious meal, and have leftovers galore.

A person after my own heart.

Does anyone have a good easy basic recipe please?

YES!

I used to love this, but more and more test proove that they leak chemicals, especially when temperatures change after cleaning with hot water or freezing them. Theee are no actual regulations other than short term food safety, so they may shed more plastic as well. PS Even regular containers, made for storage, leaks far more chemicals than "anyone" (with profits to make) could imagine.

I save the plastic containers that you get with takeaways and use them for batch freezing meals. They also make handy sandwich boxes for my daughters for school. It doesn't matter if they lose or break them.

I used to eat cottage cheese. I kept all those containers. They have come in handy now and again.

Tip - if you want to reuse plastic containers with print on them, 90% (or higher) isopropyl alcohol and some elbow grease will get the print off. I use that trick to save and repurpose the pretty little jars cosmetics come in, and those tacky promotional cups

in Balcan everybody does that

Make the jacket a sweater, then you have no leaks in the front or worse, cold buttons and sippers. Blankets for the win, when you are really cosying it up for winter.

Those kn95 masks work really well when your nose is cold

This option depends on where you live. Up where I live, it can get to -25° F (-32°C). We go into hockey arenas to warm up.

Me to my husband every winter for +20 years! You’re sitting on the couch watching the History Channel, put a throw over you.

Unless you have trouble creating body heat. I have such a hard time with creating my own bubble of heat and I get cold SO easily. I get heated blankets, jackets and chair pads to compensate for this. My husband is hot in temperatures that are making me shiver.

Thrifted clothes are great. Most of the clothes you buy from Walmart are what we call "fast fashion" They look great, but don't last very long. Buy thrifted clothes and they will last longer than anything you buy from Walmart.

I relate to this comment the most- I started out with frugal habits, doing all the things in this article out of necessity, but since entering the workforce I do them out of choice, but it's not out of fear it is now who I am even if I came into money I would not change these habits.

I read this and thought: "Why?"

I have recently turned the collar on two of Mr Auntriarch's favourite shirts, first attempt, I'm feeling rather chuffed with myself. Just wish I could tell my nan about it...

When I wasn't doing so well money wise when I needed a new piece of clothing was thinking about buying it, out of the blue a friend would come up to me and say, Brian I have this piece new or near new of clothing I think it will fit you. So he help me out a few times like this. One time I was thinking of buying a toaster oven because my oven on my stove quit working. He came to me and said I have a toaster oven, do you want it or could you use it. I said yes. So I got some free stuff this way. It's been about a year since he passed away. I miss him. He was a good friend,

I really liked this one

I don't roll up the coins anymore. My bank has a machine that counts and separates it for free now. I even have a special bag for it. It's a small canvas bag with a dollar sign on it like in cartoons. I love bringing it INTO the bank.