26 Money-Saving Habits Frugal People Swear By

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7 days ago

Saving money feels harder than ever here in 2025, but frugal people will always find a way to waste less, save more, and get the most out of every penny. Recently, frugal folks on Reddit shared their "weird" little habit that they swear by, and I'm definitely going to adopt a few of these myself. Here's what people had to say:
"I suck at meal planning. I can't figure it out. What works for me is to double the recipe of the food I'm cooking and freeze half. Do the same every day with different food as long as it freezes well. On days I'm lazy or have no time, I have something to reheat."
—britzm
"I save water from boiling eggs and other things. I let it cool down and water the plants with it."
"I cut my own hair. I learned how to do it during the pandemic by watching YouTube. I even cut the back. I like my hair more now, actually, perfect cut every time."
"I save $220 each year with monthly rubbish collection instead of weekly rubbish collection. Our city doesn't do free rubbish collection; it is handled by private companies. I make a conscious effort to make less rubbish. I'm sure I also save money by not buying surplus. That just isn't as easy to count. I save even the smallest leftovers. It can be a snack for later."
—Bunnyeatsdesign"Between the recycle bin and the compost pile, I have very little trash. I called the trash pickup company and asked if I could switch to a monthly pickup plan, because I had so little trash. (Well, there is no monthly plan.) But! I discovered that the trash company I was going through would pause your service while you were on vacation, and you could be 'on vacation' for as long as you like. Once you resumed service, you had to leave it on for two weeks, but then you could go 'on vacation' again. They didn't charge you for the time you were on vacation; it basically extended your plan for however many weeks."—Witty_Commentator
"Saving napkins from restaurants to use instead of buying paper towels!"
"I have an e-bike. Whenever I use it, I put away money that I could've paid if I rode public transportation. I know it still consumes electricity, but saving and putting away money in one habit puts less pressure on saving money."
"Sun drying clothing and bed linen. The scent can't be duplicated (it's a unique scent that is nice to experience while falling asleep). And on hot days, things dry fast, so you can knock out a few or more loads if you just get that done rapidly."
—Adorable-Flight5256
"Taking home any leftover food from breakfasts or luncheons at our school. I wait until the end of the day and take home non-refrigerated items like bagels, veggie trays, desserts, and unopened bottles of drinks. Also, every Friday, garbage bags full of day-old bagels come via our secretary. I make sure to have my gallon ziplock bags to take some home with me. I usually freeze them or give them to my son to take back to college."
"I cut kitchen sponges in half since it doesn't require much extra effort to scrub the counter."
"I use bread bags for my grandbabies' dirty diapers and to pick up dog poop instead of buying those little poop bags."
—mamaperk
"I use silicone mats on my baking trays instead of tin foil, and I have halved the amount of foil I used previously. I also use silicone freezer and lunch reusable bags and have almost replaced using Ziplock freezer and lunch bags altogether."
"I make my own drawer organizers out of cereal boxes. My silverware drawer, office supplies, junk drawer, bathroom, etc., are all organized with carefully cut cereal boxes (and cracker boxes and brownie mix boxes, etc.) I saved like $100+ (and another bag full of plastic) by not buying drawer organizers."
"Doing one or two 'struggle meals' a week (depending on the mood), like $1 meals: pasta aglio e olio, sausages with onion, etc. This cut definitely makes a difference. I have quite a few of these I came up with over the last few years."
—Less-Kiwi1317
"I use a tablespoon of sugar and my drugstore face wash as a weekly exfoliator. Works as well as the pricey, fancy stuff."
"I save all the little leftover soap slivers and mush them into one big Frankenstein soap bar. It looks weird as hell, but it works, and I haven't bought soap in months."
"Any time I use my credit card, I calculate the interest on the purchase so I can see the real price. Multiple people in my life make negative comments about it, but it severely cuts my spending and helps me to be more mindful."
—PikPekachu
"Just use old clothes that you're gonna throw away as rags. Cut it up to the size that fits you. You can wash all the rags and mats once every few weeks."
"Save absolutely every sauce packet, straw, napkin, and single-use utensil from takeout. When I throw parties, my guests usually use them. Sometimes I run out of soy sauce to make fried rice, and I'll use up the 50 soy sauce packets I have lying around! Same with honey mustard for burgers, etc."
"People shudder when I talk about it, but I buy markdown meat all the time. I either freeze it or eat it shortly after purchase. Never ever had a problem, and I've been doing it for 20 years."
—Queen_Of_Left_Turns"I specifically shop early on Monday mornings just for the markdown meat. They always stock up the meat counter for the weekend on Friday after their truck comes, since so many shop on weekends these days. This means on Monday, they markdown most of what is left as they're doing their restock first thing. We pretty much only eat markdown meat these days."—RelativelyRidiculous
"I bake a lot and save the butter wrappers for greasing pans. It's so handy to have a nice square of pre-buttered parchment that I can pull out of the fridge!"
"I don't buy something unless I know what I'm going to donate to make room for it in my place. Everything has a place and I am at my item threshold, if I get any more things I'll start to feel depressed and claustrophobic. Namely if I don't have shelf space for everything to look neat."
"After the pump for my foundation stops dispensing product I use a brush to scrape out whatever I can (you can use any long and narrow brush). I've been able to get several weeks' worth of product from this process. The same applies to lotions and toothpaste."
—arcticskies
"I plan meals and restocks around grocery store sales. The local ads and coupons come in the mail on Wednesdays, so when the discounts are big enough for items I actually buy, then that is what I cook for the week and/or stock up on. I'm talking things like eggs on sale for $.99, laundry soap coupons for $5 off, $3.50/lb off for bulk ground beef… not things like a $.09 discount on canned corn that will eventually expire in my cupboard. I also do a quick look around the house to make sure I am not buying something on sale when I already have six months' worth of it in the freezer."
"I started unplugging things like my washer and dryer, stove, and power strips when not in use. I've noticed my power bill has dropped."
"I use those plastic produce bags from the grocery store to line my small trash cans at home. I always double-bag my produce purchases to make sure I don't run out at home."
—71stMB
And finally, "I only shop for food based on 'unit' pricing. I track unit pricing on my most purchased items in a Google sheet and reference it when making a grocery list and shopping."
What's a frugal habit that you swear by? Tell us all about it in the comments or via the anonymous form below: