19 Money-Saving Hacks That Older Adults Swear By

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22-06-2025

It's always a good idea to save money when you can, and sometimes that means thinking out of the box. Recently, Redditor u/YouKnowYourCrazy asked the older adults of the Reddit community to share the "extreme" money-saving tips they learned from their parents or grandparents, and I never thought about some of these:
"My mom would water down the orange juice when we were kids and call it 'orange-aide.' We had no idea."
—ChrisNYC70
"My dad could fix anything. He used an old hairdryer from the '60s or early '70s, and when there was a short in the cord in the '90s, he replaced the cord rather than buying a new hairdryer."
"My mother baked over three loaves of bread a week by hand to keep us out of the grocery store. Every time we didn't go in, it saved us about $100!"
—Global_Fail_1943"
"At my house, if your rubber band broke, you either got a new one off the broccoli, or you tied the old one back together."
"My mom would stick slivers of soap together to make a new bar."
—Sapphyrre
"Saving used lengths of sewing thread and rewinding it onto the spool."
"The one thing that will always stick in my mind was when my mother sat us down to discuss rationing the toilet paper. She also refused to use anything but euphemisms, so it took her several tries to convey what she was getting at. If I remember correctly, the phrasing she settled on was: 'I don't have money for expensive things like toilet paper. You can only use one square when you go potty, and maybe two if there's anything solid.'"
—milee30
"Try to use everything multiple times, including aluminum foil (just wash it off). Tea bags also always get used twice. Also, powdered milk. Don't complain to me about your bills unless you are drinking powdered milk!"
"My father-in-law is the cheapest person I've ever met. He washes paper plates, pours out his pee in his yard whenever he uses the urinal, and only showers once a week (if that)."
—KeyAd3363
"My mother would grill meat until the base was full of fat. Then, she'd heat it, strain it, and refrigerate it for further use."
"My grandmother used to save used wrapping paper and ribbons. She would iron them and put them away until next year. I still do this, but I don't iron anything."
—Bucsbolts
"We made area carpets by recycling and braiding scraps of fabrics and clothing. We used jars as drinking glasses and saved nails and buttons."
"We put water in ketchup to get the last drop. We did that with dish soap, too. You can get a lot more suds out of a bottle if you add water."
—Apotropaic-Pineapple
"My grandmother would harvest yarn from sweaters that were beyond repair to make something else."
"My parents were young adults during the Great Depression, and my mom grew up dirt-poor on a farm with no electricity or indoor plumbing. What they grew up with is completely foreign to anyone alive today, but most of it rubbed off on me. For example, my mom would wash and reuse Ziploc bags. She also saved bacon or other grease in a metal container by the stove. As for my dad, he'd buy a new car every 3–4 years, but they would be stripped, meaning there was no radio, power steering, power brakes, AC, etc. I asked him once why he traded cars with only 40-or-so-thousand miles on them. He said that when he was young, he could only afford junkers and was constantly fixing them, and vowed that if someday he made enough money, he would drive new cars."
—Paranoid_Sinner
"We still use the backs of envelopes and the opposite sides of printed paper to write. It's sustainable, and unless you can afford everything you want, why pay for something when there is a free alternative?"
"My mom saved the wrappers from sticks of butter to grease baking pans. She also offered two kinds of medicine: Vaseline or aspirin. If you could see the problem, put Vaseline on it. If you couldn't, take the aspirin."
—mister_pitiful
"Grandma would unwrap bath soap right away after she bought it so it could dry out and last longer."
Lastly: "My mother used to pick weeds out of the lawn and by the side of the road for salads. Dandelion leaves, mainly."
—YouKnowYourCrazy
Honestly, adding water to get the last of the dish soap is a MUST in my household, too. What are some money-saving tips or hacks you learned from your parents or grandparents? Let us know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit your story using the form below!