A couple of things were mentioned in this article, ‘The Craziest Thing I Did to Save Money’, that boggled my mind just a bit.
First, one guy refilled their condiment bottles with those little packets you can get at restaurants. They even had other family members save the packets for them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I save the extra little packets at work just in case they short me next time. BUT, when you start involving others, I think that is a little weird. Plus, if someone in my family asked me to save them those little packets, I’d just buy them a whole bottle of the stuff. Wouldn’t you?
Here’s the one that really grossed out Mr. BFS (and me), one lady decided that the best way to save money on artificial flowers for her hobby was to dumpster dive at cemeteries! Yes, she’d actually root around cemetery dumpsters for the decorations that get tossed. EWWWW! I assume that cemetery dumpsters are like all other dumpsters – gross. I never will need any hobby that much. This is freeganism at its strangest (there you go Kris, I mentioned freeganism, lol).
I know the feeling of being broke. I remember college well. I also know that I hoarded almost all free food I could get my hands on. But you would never have found me near a dumpster on purpose.
I think the craziest thing I ever did to save money was to work 3 jobs, take 12 hours of classes, and plan a wedding at the same time. Occasionally, I’d stock up on 69 cent bean burritos from Taco Bell and have them for lunch and dinner a few days in a row. Peanut butter and jelly was also my sandwich of choice. 
What’s the strangest thing you ever did to save some cash?
I really don’t think I’d be grossed out by taking flowers from the cemetery dumpster. I would think it would be one of the cleaner dumpsters to dive because there isn’t likely to much there other than the flowers (no food waste or anything like that would be there).
I know that the cemetery where my brother is buried will have mowers throw away all flowers, even new bright ones, in order to make mowing quicker and easier for them. Several times my parents have either postponed putting flowers out or have taken the flowers up temporarily to keep the mowers from throwing them away.
As for dumpster diving in general, I’ve not done it at a cemetery, but I have occasionally retrieved everything from moving boxes to small furniture from dumpsters. Why let good stuff go to the landfill?
When we were making 36K, with rent/utilities of ~20K, and trying to pay down DH’s 10K student loan, we ate no red meat. Every 2 weeks we would pay for one set of subway tokens, and DH would go to the haymarket, which is like a farmer’s market except all the veggies are from California instead of local, and DH would buy whatever fruits and veggies he could get in bulk for $1/bag. Then we’d cook that up. Sometimes with chicken meat that I had gotten from boiling a family pack of 69 cent/lb leg-thigh combinations (boy that’s a pain to clean up after… and it doesn’t smell great while cooking).
When the loan was paid off and we finally had enough money to eat at a restaurant, I demanded steak. Which I ate and threw up on the walk home since I’d lost my ability to digest red meat.
@Annie Jones, I’m sorry you’ve already lost your brother.
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one, lol. The cemeteries I’ve been to are attached to churches where the receptions are held, so the dumpsters would have flowers and food. The smell alone of almost any dumpster makes me walk as far away from it as possible. Now, I may help take some flowers off the graves for the lawn guys if they’re okay with it BEFORE they throw them away, but once they’re in the trash, I’d consider them gone for good.
Although I do think that your brother’s cemetery completely sucks for throwing away all the flowers before mowing! That seems rude to the visitors and the deceased receiving the flowers!
@Nicole, I cringed that your victory steak made you sick! I’m a Texan woman that really enjoys a medium or medium-rare steak with some homemade mashed potatoes…I’d be really sad if I could no longer enjoy that once in a while. Fresh veggies and grilled chicken sounds good too though (now that you can splurge on chicken breasts). Does red meat still make you sick or did you build back up a tolerance for it?
There was a point many, many years ago when my husband and I were broke. We ate a lot of Bisquick style muffins and canned chili, that was pretty much all we could afford. I guess the most bizarre thing we ever did was plan out $2 meals at that time. Eventually, things turned around as work started to pick up, thankfully!
@Little House, I remember a lot of mac and cheese in college. When Mr. BFS and I got married, our kitchen was so small that it ended up being easier and cheaper to split $1 menu items than it was to cook (although we did make a lot of grilled peanut butter and jelly)…
If you are ever in the situation where you don’t have enough red meat digestion enzymes in your gut flora…
From trial and error we figured out the following:
1. Start with the most processed sliced roast beef you can find
2. Move on to less processed roast beef
3. Then move on to hamburger (do not start with hamburger!) in small doses, gradually increasing in size.
4. Congratulations you can enjoy steak again without repercussions.
Of course, my college roommate had been a vegetarian for something like 7 or 8 years when she accidentally ordered an English breakfast while in London. Not wanting the animals to have died in vain she ate the entire thing without any ill effects. Some people are made of sterner stuff than I am, apparently!
We also ate a lot of potatoes and rice (and off brand mac and cheese at 10-15 cents a box…). I have an unfinished post about how to cook when you’re really broke, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it. I was really good at it, but it is not great for insulin resistance.
Dumpster diving the cemetery is really extreme. How many helping hands did she get while there?
Seriously, why didn’t she just work with the public flowers that are all around for decoration?
I’m not sure, maybe reusing wrapping paper? But the refilling the catsup bottle is waaay tooo time consuming.
@Nicole, I’m glad you can enjoy steak again!
I can’t even eat a whole English breakfast, so woot for your roommate!
@BeatingTheIndex, I’d have worked a second job of some sort to buy the fake flowers the good old-fashioned way, hehehe.
@Barb, I reuse gift bags all the time, but I agree that refilling the ketchup bottle would be tedious…why didn’t he just use the stuff directly from the packet?
Cemetery dumpster diving is crazy! Some things you just can’t do, due to basic social norms. Such as that.
For me…I’ve done enough interesting things to save money. Most of my “Squirreling Gone Wild” stories are about others though, as I have seen enough funny things happen involving others.
So, while it would be hard to rank my single best money saving attempt from over the years, I’ll give you one that I’m still in the habit of doing. If pick food up anywhere to go, I’ll grab some extra napkins, and a few extra plastic forks/spoons. I do it just because they’re available. I figure that I’m saving purchasing a few napkin packages a year, and maybe that saves $5 or $10? I personally don’t care if the napkin I use at home is from the supermarket or the Thai takeout place:)
I’ve heard of college kids donating plasma for money…scary!
Jenna- you stole my comment! I donated plasma twice a week in college to get spending money, on top of working. (I could only work so many hours at my college job because of my work-study restrictions.) I hated donating plasma, but it sure paid well.
Cemetaries up here don’t allow plastic flowers, so that hobby wouldn’t be very lucrative here.
So happy you mentioned freeganism. Actually, I would rather have a dumpster flower at my table than dumpster dinner!
Everyone has their college food stories, but I actually ate really well in college. I had multiple food service jobs and so did my room mates. There was always leftover food that we would bring home at the end of our shifts. Some places were cooler about doing that than others.
I’ve also snuck food at work. When I was banquet waitressing, we were forbidden to eat leftover buffet food even though it was going to get tossed. One day, me and another guy (egyptian immigrant also poor) got our plates of food, tip toed into the next room, turned of the lights, and ate in the darkness. A few minutes later, our manager came in, threw the lights on and we were so busted. We both got written up for that. It did sort of feel like we got caught necking by our parents.
A friends grandmother would handwash her paper towels and re-use them. You would go over to the house and she would have paper towels laid out on the dish drying rack.
Strangest thing I did to save money was to re-using toilet paper over and over. We’d wet the toilet paper after wiping it, then let it dry and use it again the next day. I’m not doing that anymore.
Ahh, college days… I remember when we use to look for fresh roadkill, we would then put them in a walmart bag and take them home and cook them up. RK surprise stew, yum yum… (lol)
I never did that, but I’ve worked with people that would find a freshly killed deer hit by a car in winter, and they would throw it in back of the truck and take it home…
venison is yummy! When my FIL kills one with a gun, I’ll eat some… how could someone randomly killing with a car be any different?
I still wash my ziploc bags and reuse them. It’s more for the environment than to save money, but it does save some.
When I was a 16 year old student visiting Japan, I ran out of cash and sold some of my dirty underwear for a pretty penny.
Those 2 are probably the craziest things I’ve done. I’ve done more, but they are tamer.
I can’t remember the last time we bought napkins or paper towels. We use wash clothes instead. I guess we could use the paper products, but a nice soft towel feels so much better and is more absorbant. (plus, I’m cheap)
Then we throw the dirty cloth(s) in to the washer with a regular load. TP paper is another story tho’ …. not sure how that one could ever change.
@Squirrelers, hahaha, we keep and use the extra napkins as well. They usually put a bunch in the drive through bags, so we keep the extras in a drawer and use them as normal. We also buy paper towels for the dog accidents and messes, but the napkins are what we use when we’re eating.
@Jenna, I thought about it but couldn’t find a place nearby my college that would buy plasma.
@Everyday Tips, as far as money-making activities go, plasma selling seems to be a good deal for everyone involved. And yes, I rather have a dumpster cemetery flower than a whole dumpster meal as well…
@Sandy L, hehehe…caught with your hands on the food…I can’t believe they cared so much. I love leftovers, so if I ever have to hire a caterer in the future, I’ll be sure to ask for the leftovers as well (and offer to share them with the staff, lol).
@Molly, I think if I was willing to wash paper towels, I’d use cloths instead…that just doesn’t seem too sanitary, lol.
@Henway, I so hope you’re just joking…ick…
@Money Reasons, we ate a deer that jumped in front of my grandpa’s Volvo, lol. Grandpa said it “seemed damn stupid to just leave it there to rot”. My mom even shot a squirrel and rabbit to go with the deer in the stew. It was actually really good stew!
@Nicole, like I said above, I’m all for it if it’s fresh…I don’t think I’d take a chance on roadkill that I just drive by, but in my grandpa’s case, he knew when the deer died – about 10 seconds after it put a giant dent in the side of his car and tore off the mirror there…
@Julie, reusing Ziplocs seems really frugal to me, but not crazy at all. Selling your dirty underwear was ingenious, lol!!!
@ODWO, that’s not a bad idea at all. I wonder if Mr. BFS would go for it…
BFS..I think henway is spam. His website is all colon cleansing products. Gotta give him credit as his comment made me click on his link.
That deer your grandpa hit was a fresh kill though! The guy I knew drove along a route every day to work and one day he saw it laying along side the road. Since it was winter, I’m sure it was still good, but still…
Well… I’ll hafta admit that under the influence of a street-smart boyfriend, I’ve been known to dumpster-dive for food.
He learned that day-old bakeries throw out unpurchased bread. It all goes into a trash pick-up bin, and ONLY the two- or three-day old bread goes into the bin. Well, in those days all bread was full of preservatives — in the U.S, you actually couldn’t buy real bread the way you can now, at places like Sunflower and Whole Foods. So “old” bread was not “stale” bread. It was (comparatively speaking) perfectly good. By observation, Paul learned what day the Holsum bakery would toss its unsold stock, and after dark we would sneak over there and pick out a few tightly wrapped loaves. He would never take a loaf that wasn’t wrapped in plastic.
We never got sick from it, so I guess it must’ve been OK.
Many years later, a friend told me that she and her husband, a tenured full professor of zoology (i.e., a guy who was earning a decent living!), continued a habit they’d learned in graduate school. Grocery stores, like bread stores, throw out produce that’s been on the shelves longer than a mandated number of hours. Nothing is wrong with the produce — it’s just been there past the “sell by” date. They would raid dumpsters for fresh fruit, veggies, and salad greens, stocking their refrigerator for free.
not so much crazy – rather consistent
1) i always search and apply online coupons before going ahead with a purchase online
2) i always pick up coins (pennies) i see anywhere. it costs me more to waste that second to bend over and pick it up, but i do it out of principle. i have several transparent piggy banks full of pennies – they make for a great show piece
using money to live the life i desire is what i am all about. that said, i do have a lot of financial discipline, and saving is one component of that
Have to disagree with the plasma comments. My son donates his plasma–he gets about $70 (maybe more now) for two donations a week. He has figured his pay at about $15/hr, including travel time. He goes with friends, usually. This has covered all his spending money during his college years.
Before I comment on the artice…grilled peanut butter & jelly?!? You have just given me something else to try (adding OJ to my smoothies being the first).
I can’t remember doing too many extreme things to save money, just the normal stuff that doesn’t make much sense. I would add water to most things in a jar or bottle. I’m not talking about buying concentrated soap and splitting it into 2 bottles. I mean having .001 oz of ketchup left and pouring a little water in the bottle and shaking it up. Probably saved me $.02 each time I did it!
Or when I used to drive around forever looking to save a few pennies on gas – probably burning up more than I saved!
Speaking of adding water…I almost always add water to salad dressing. I use less of it on my salad because its not so thick and it last longer. Another thing I do is save paper napkins. I will put some napkins in my car…its amazing how many times they come in handy. I will almost always add water to the bottom of a liquid soap dispenser to get the last few drops of soap. I do the same with the last bit of liquid laundry detergent. Otherwise, I don’t do anything too crazy to save money. I’ve never dumpster dived, but was tempted to one time when I was at Starbucks. It was late and I had just purchased a muffin and coffee when the clerk started throwing everything away that was in the case. I hated seeing all of it go to waste. As far as roadkill goes, no way!
@Sandy L, I thought Henway was spam too but he/she left another comment elsewhere – both go with the topics, so I give them a reprieve, lol.
@Money Reasons, yeah, I don’t think I could do that…
@Funny about Money, you’re the first person I know that actually knows a freeganist! I know it’s cheap and most probably won’t get someone sick if they’re careful, but I just can’t imagine doing it. That’s my line of frugalness. Glad you never got ill!
@Sunil, I pick up all change too…it’s a crazy habit I cannot break, but my husband’s coin jug is nice and full because of it, lol.
@frugalscholar, like I commented above, I think plasma donation is a smart way to make a little extra cash – help some people out and make some fun money to boot.
@Khaleef, I use a sandwich press to grill the peanut butter and jam sandwiches – it’s especially yummy with milk! If you don’t want to heat up the contents, just toast the bread first then add the spreads – that’s also really yummy!
@Norman, it sounds like we have the same ideas. I always add water to my shampoo and conditioner bottles at the end to get an extra use or two…
For me…I’ve done enough interesting things to save money. Most of my “Squirreling Gone Wild” stories are about others though, as I have seen enough funny things happen involving others.
My Grandma has a friend who does the cemetery “circuit” on Mondays when the flowers are still fresh from family visits over the weekend. She almost always has cemetery flowers in her house.
My mother-in-law washes her paper towels to reuse.
This weekend, we’re going to go glean a few potato fields. The harvest was so good in places, the pickers only took the BIG potatoes. The rest are left to rot or sprout, so, free taters.
When I was 18, I’d stock up on McDonald’s cheeseburgers whenever they had the 59 cent sale. That’s all I’d eat for a week.
@Jason, that’s what I did with the Taco Bell burritos, lol.
Maybe it’s my age or the fact that I read a lot of supernatural fiction, but I would not take cemetery flowers. I’d be worried about taking away from the pretty that the family meant for their loved ones to have or that something would haunt me over the flowers I stole, lol…yeppers…I’m a nut…
I ate PBJ and Ramen for a month, and supplemented that with vitamins.
@John, although I would not approve of that diet long-term, it was ingenious you did it for a month! Were you saving for something or just super broke for some reason?
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