Money-saving tipps

[Fietsrad]

I think we had this on the earlier forum.

I am planning to "save" money soon by collecting cherries. Makes a bit of work but it feels much better than buying fruit.

And I find myself re-reading a book I read more than twenty years ago. Saves acquiring a new book, I guess.

What other ways can one save cash (or time, or energy..)?
..
Someone once accused me of being "krankhaft geizig", pathologically mean. I was quite pleased, for I do try to be careful with other peoples money and energy too, not just my own.

[alma.freya]

Not filling up your vehicle with petrol at an Autobahn services. Only after the tank was full did I see the price for Super E10 was over 2.30 €. The price in Berlin was 1.85 €.

[Eric7]

Inspirational!

• Take one grape to the till. It won't register on the low-tech, insensitive scales so you will get it for free. Repeat this procedure 100 times or so and you have yourself a free bunch of grapes.

• Save money at Christmas by returning last year's cards to the sender with the simple inscription "Same to you".

• Only use the loo at work. Not only will you save money on toilet paper, but you'll also be getting paid.

• Don't waste money on expensive CDs or streaming services. Simply think of your favourite tune and I hum it. If you want to "switch tracks", simply think of another song you like and hum that instead.

• Shoes last twice as long if only worn every other day.

• Save money on expensive binoculars. Stand closer to the thing you are looking at and then it will seem bigger.

• Don't waste hundreds of Euros on expensive carpets. Simply buy two small pieces - attach them to the bottom of your feet and get that quality carpet feel throughout your home.

[Eric7]

Not filling up your vehicle with petrol at an Autobahn services. Only after the tank was full did I see the price for Super E10 was over 2.30 €. The price in Berlin was 1.85 €.

I made that same mistake last week, and actually compounded the error by accidentally choosing "ultimate" diesel instead of the normal stuff.

[alma.freya]

Not filling up your vehicle with petrol at an Autobahn services. Only after the tank was full did I see the price for Super E10 was over 2.30 €. The price in Berlin was 1.85 €.

I made that same mistake last week, and actually compounded the error by accidentally choosing "ultimate" diesel instead of the normal stuff.

I can only assume that ultimate means you'll never again need to fill up your vehicle.

[Eric7]

Not filling up your vehicle with petrol at an Autobahn services. Only after the tank was full did I see the price for Super E10 was over 2.30 €. The price in Berlin was 1.85 €.

I made that same mistake last week, and actually compounded the error by accidentally choosing "ultimate" diesel instead of the normal stuff.

I can only assume that ultimate means you'll never again need to fill up your vehicle.

To be fair, I did seem to get (a bit) more range out of the tank.

[Alberto]

I think we had this on the earlier forum.

I am planning to "save" money soon by collecting cherries. Makes a bit of work but it feels much better than buying fruit.

...

What other ways can one save cash (or time, or energy..)?
..

I make ca 200 jam jars per year, all the fruit is from my garden. Mostly cherry, some rhubarb, soon plums too. I planted some of them, so extra gratification. Cherry tree is huge, I manage to collect this much cherries only because the tree is next to my garage, I can climb the garage, which has a flat roof.

As for tomatoes: my best year was ca 200 jars, 2020, pity only modest harvest since, this year we will see...

I try to tank my car as little as possible: this year I aim at filling max 5 times.
"Not filling" is greener and cheaper than "not filling in the motorway, rather fill somewhere else".

When it comes to food, generally cheaper is healthier. And when it comes to energy, cheaper is greener. Not always, but more often than not. Pity they're very good at convincing us of the opposite, so they make money out of us.

[alma.freya]

I try to tank my car as little as possible: this year I aim at filling max 5 times.
"Not filling" is greener and cheaper than "not filling in the motorway, rather fill somewhere else".

Ohhhh this is fun. Let me try: How many children do you have, Alberto?

I have none. Which is greener?

When it comes to food, generally cheaper is healthier.

You are vegan right? I sure hope so, considering it is greener than a non-vegan diet.

[LeonG]

Back in the early days of internet there was a group on usenet named alt.frugal where members would share money saving tips and pretty hard core like making your own soap. Now I don't make my own soap but I've been broke sometimes so my tips are:

1. For grocery shopping, make a list and stick to it. Go less often. Both help you cut down on impulsive buying. Check your prices and get the cheaper brand. If you must have the finer foods because cheap foods make you depressed, scan the kaufda app for special offers.

2. Clothes and gadget shopping: Do you really need it? Are you sure? Take a few days to think about it. You might find that you don't need it after all. If you do, shop around. For internet shopping there are sites like idealo helping you find a good deal. Sometimes a fix is in order. Pick up a needle and this old jacket might last another year. Soles of your shoes falling off? A bit of glue might help.

3. Outings: Instead of buying your petrol whenever and where ever you feel like it, use an app such as clever-tanken to find the best deal in your area as well as the time of day you should go. Instead of buying your snacks at autobahn stops, bring a packed lunch from home.

4. Water, Energy: Turn down the heat a bit and cozy up on the couch with a blanket. Turn off the light when you leave an empty room. Don't shower for an hour. Take a cold shower instead of a warm one or warm instead of hot. That or shower at work if you can. Or don't even shower. Just dance in the rain if you feel dirty.

5. Contracts: Know if you enter them, you're probably stuck for the duration. Be on top of giving proper notice to get out so you can shop around. Especially with internet, cell phones, gas and electricity, you can get good deals as a new customer. The provider you are leaving will probably try to give you a good deal as well. You can use check24 to find good deals. If you switch through them, they will remind you when your contract is coming up and it is time to look for a new deal.

6. You don't have to pay banking fees. Plenty of banks give you free accounts.

7. Non prescription items at the pharmacy: Buy them online. After having spent a fortune on a couple of items one day, I went to the website of the same pharmacy chain and found out I could have saved over 40%. Later found out that if you google what you want to buy, you get even better deals than when you go to the website directly.

8. Don't take it to a level that makes you miserable. Be good to yourself.

[Fietsrad]

Trouble with fuel prices: you go off the Autobahn to find cheap fuel, drive several kilometers, the gas station is on the other side so you have to go to the next roundabout or junction to change sides. Feels like a lot of time.

Some people are so mean, they drive to Luxemburg or Poland to fill up. Might be best not to use the first Tankstelle over the border, sometimes the prices there are higher than over here. But you only realise that back home when checking the receipt

[Robinson100]

I grow what I can - tomatoes, plums, raspberries, blackcurrants, a few potatoes, and broccoli.
Other things I forage for - blackberries, cherry plums (Kriechel), elderberries/flowers, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc

Whatever I cannot use straight away, gets processed for storing - either in jars, or in the freezer.

Comparing prices of items I do need to buy, and making the most economic decisions there also helps to save money.

Currently renovating the flat above my boyfriend´s workshop, and going to have solar panels on the roof, so also looking for ways to save money during this process - would be most grateful for any tips you might have!

[Fietsrad]

I make my own soup instead of buying, makes a bit of work, but is it cheaper than ready soup from the food store?

[Emkay]

I make my own soup instead of buying, makes a bit of work, but is it cheaper than ready soup from the food store?

I like making soups too. Always different and last fresh for a few days. Easy to freeze. Any seasonal regional veg. Latest news is that any tinned produce is not so healthy .

Beware of the ever increasing packaging/quantity con. Sometimes the packaging is the same size with up to 20% less content. We buy 10 kilos of Dehner bird food on a regular Amazon subscription. Last delivery, now 9kg and the price increased. It was only obvious to us as the formerly big bucket was noticeably smaller. As there was no prior notification of product change, I queried with Amazon. They refunded the whole order immediately.

Also, with supermarket pre packed fruit and veg, the given weight can be greatly different. Ie, 500g peppers only weighed 300g still packed. we’ve noticed too that our supermarket sells ever more items passed their MHD. It’s not illegal for them to do so and the product is probably fine though the items should be discounted at least. We took some Alpro longlife pudding back to the shop as it was more than a month over the date.….no quibble refund though they put the pack back on the shelf! Butter 3 weeks over is really not OK.

[Tap]

There are lots of ways to save money, some of which have already been outlined above. Another trick is to only buy fruit and vegetables that are in season, they will automatically be cheaper. I sometimes buy in bulk and cook enough so I can freeze portions. That way, I always have something healthy to eat if/when I don’t feel like cooking. Also, keep an eye on the kilogramme price, which is listed on most goods in the supermarket, that’s a really good guide to what’s better value.

There’s an app for your phone that will tell you the petrol prices in your area at different petrol stations: clever-tanken.de

There are lots of ways to cut back, it just takes a bit of planning. I’m a freelancer and one of my main customers has just gone insolvent. I’ve lost a third of my monthly income overnight, so I’m making the effort to cut expenses just now, but it’s ok, it can be done.

[Fietsrad]

Weigh letters and try to keep them under 20 Gramm.

The stamp prices in Germany are complicated, and a "Standardbrief" is smaller than a "Kompaktbrief"! I would have thought kompakt was smaller than standard

Besides the Deutsche Post, there are private post services with lower tariffs. But I guess we save a lot already by using @mail.
..
I have "saved" a lot of money with my 49€ train Ticket. I travel more too, and I take the "Mercedes mit Chauffeur" (bus) into town.

[Krieg]

The app Too Good To Go has been a success in our family. It took some time to find the stores that give the best deals, but now we are down to a couple of bakeries we buy from through TGTG at least once a week, sometimes twice. For less than 5 EUR we get 2 to 4 sandwiches, croissants, simits, apple pies, etc, two bags of bakery goods, not bad.

[Eric7]

I recommend keeping an eye on https://www.mydealz.de/ for any potential bargains.
You can set up alerts for whatever you are looking for and if a new deal appears you are automatically informed.

Whenever I need something, I always check on there first to see if there are any current offers.

[Feierabend]

Bottled water. Why, why, why? (Sure, if you really can't stand the taste of tap for some reason.)
Expensive, huge fuel transport usage, bottles carted round from the ends of the earth, empty plasic bottles dropped everyewhere, poorer quality than tap water generally reported in studies.
And I get so annoyed about the refusal to offer tap water here in restaurants. Especially when I'm drinking expensive alcohol anyway. I wouldn't even mind a small table charge for a jug. In other European countries it's either placed on the table as a matter of course or brought on request without any scowling or argument. My cheapo solution here is to have a good slug from the bathroom tap now and then. (Hard sometimes when the taps are adjusted for about 2 seconds flow. Haven't quite resorted to scooping it from the toilet bowl yet!!)

[Emkay]

Bottled water. Why, why, why? (Sure, if you really can't stand the taste of tap for some reason.)
Expensive, huge fuel transport usage, bottles carted round from the ends of the earth, empty plasic bottles dropped everyewhere, poorer quality than tap water generally reported in studies.
And I get so annoyed about the refusal to offer tap water here in restaurants. Especially when I'm drinking expensive alcohol anyway. I wouldn't even mind a small table charge for a jug. In other European countries it's either placed on the table as a matter of course or brought on request without any scowling or argument. My cheapo solution here is to have a good slug from the bathroom tap now and then. (Hard sometimes when the taps are adjusted for about 2 seconds flow. Haven't quite resorted to scooping it from the toilet bowl yet!!)

When we bought our house, stupidly, we didn’t realise that there was a water filter attached just beyond our water meter. Hence, thankfully, our Gemeinde chap advised that it looks terrible (visible, if one looks closely , sludge type build up) and needs to be replaced. They need to be backwashed every 6 months. Easy to do though he said many people don’t do it. Seemingly, these water filters filter particles rather than unwanted chemicals. Standard requirement for properties built after a certain date….20++ if I recall correctly. Highly recommend for older properties too. Protects water appliances and better drinking water quality. The jug type filters do more to remove unwanted chemicals.

We replaced ours with a mains filter that doesn’t need to be backwashed. Just replace the filter easily every 6 months, annual extra hygiene thing. Not very sustainable though easier to do. The waste filter is supposedly recyclable. Here’s the link, seems a very popular option. On Amazon etc, the price is much lower.
https://www.bwt.com/de-de/shop/BWT-E1-E ... 3-4/840384

[LeonG]

The app Too Good To Go has been a success in our family. It took some time to find the stores that give the best deals, but now we are down to a couple of bakeries we buy from through TGTG at least once a week, sometimes twice. For less than 5 EUR we get 2 to 4 sandwiches, croissants, simits, apple pies, etc, two bags of bakery goods, not bad.

Sounds good. I'll be trying it. Another tip would be to check if any of your local grocery stores mark down baked goods in the evening. They are often 50% off in the last hour or two.

You can check the bargain bin at your grocery store too but watch out for expiry dates and still compare prices. A brand name butter on sale may still be more expensive than no brand regular price.