Here’s a couple examples from my life:
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Safety Razor. I get a better shave and it’s like $15 for 100 razor blades, which lasts me a couple years. Way way way better than the disposable multi-blade Gillette things, which sell 5 heads for $20.
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Handkerchiefs. I am prone to allergies, so instead of constantly buying disposable tissues, we now have a stack of handkerchiefs that can just be used a few times and then thrown in the wash. This has also saved me loads.
What about you?
tldr: Being mindful and trying to find new ways of using stuff that I already have before I go buy new.
I reuse. All those bigly plastic bags from 20+ toilet paper rolls - I use them at least as thrash bags. That’s like simplest one, but also for example when my clothes are beyond being deemed worthy of being sleepwear, they get cut into cloths to live on as cleaning utensils.
When something breaks I tend to try to repair it instead of getting new stuff. If that’s impractical or not possible, depending on a thing I disassemble it, and salvage what can be useful. Also by doing this I learn how stuff was made, which I liked to know since being a kid :)
I found europalletes and repurposed them to make my balcony space nicer (made flooring and a small bench out of them) I also ask people if they have spare construction materials, like bits of wood or stuff like that. There are fb neighbour groups in my area, and it makes so much sense to me to use what I can get in my projects. I rarely have a full-on plan/vision of the stuff I want to make. I much rather have a storage with random materials and stuff and play adult version of Lego with them.
When faced with obsolete electronics, I try to repurpose it and assimilate into little Borg of mine (how I like to call my little network). I learned java a bit to write small android app to decode amiibo NFC data to control the stuff around my flat when phone (placed under the tabletop) detected Pikachu statue my lights toggled. Such stuff.
I dunno if with me it’s less about saving and more about how to use things in different way and getting most out of stuff. A chipped cup can still be an awesome pot for your new plant friend. Broken cutlery knife can be helpful as a tool when you wouldn’t want to use proper knife.
That said. When I have to buy something, like hobby-related, or electronics so guitar, piano, home recording studio shit like that, also PC parts - I set myself a budget, read upon things available, do my research and order stuff for 110% of my initial budget. What I mean by this, we have a saying in polish - chytry dwa razy traci - sly/greedy loses twice - as in you buy cheap shit, it breaks, you have to buy new thing again. When I set on buying something it will take me months to do my homework, and also because of my upbringing, lessens the anxiety from spending money.
One I don’t see here that we follow, if we didn’t absolutely need it yesterday we don’t want it today. Keeps us from buying things that seem like a good idea for aren’t really solving a problem for us.
Edit: Here’s another one. Buy cars for cash instead of a loan. Here’s how we do it: We save about ~$400 a month to buy a car, in a year we buy a ~$5000 car. We do it again and then sell that first car for about what we bought it for and put the new ~$5000 towards it.
Right now my wife drives a 2023 Ioniq 5 and I drive a 2014 Z51 Corvette with no payments. To be fair we’ve been doing this for a long time and we no longer do yearly upgrades. Last time was 5 years between upgrades and this time we think it’ll be 10 years between upgrades.
If you don’t own it, don’t pay for it. That’s one of my main principles and the motivation why I don’t pay for streaming services anymore. I also noticed that I wasn’t enjoying music and movies as much anymore anyway when it was in such high quantities. That’s just about saving money.
Other one is, I don’t buy anything of which i know of that it won’t work or keep much of its value anymore after several years. So I rarely buy anything with irreplaceable batteries, that basically ends up on the junk pile after 3 years.
I wash and reuse ziploc bags until they get too many holes in them.
Half an onion or whatever in the fridge, freezing meats in to portions, vegetable snack portions, taking crackers on the road, organizing little odds and ends, other stuff.
I do use containers and glass jars for other things and wash and reuse those too, but containers and jars take up too much space for some things and cost a lot more. The last time I bought a (100) box of ziplocks was like 6 years ago and it’s still half full so I’m ok with my method.
Definitely support this from the eco angle, but given how much you seem to use these bags (100 is a lot, but 6 years is a long time), do you not feel the $15/year is really not a big deal? Over that time, you’ve saved ~$75, which over 6 years… It’s not that much.
Not trying to discredit the method, I’m just curious as to what makes the method work for you!
Plants / gardening.
You get free food while reducing waste in its purest form. I have alot of indoor plants giving me seasoning, fruits and vegetables that are also pretty plants and great for the indoor environment.
