What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

So, @gtaus, what you're saying is,

Frugal Tip #437:
Be organized.

I aspire, I aspire.

 

[gtaus]

It means we need to build the infrastructure and the manufacturing base, and improve the technology.

I watched a YouTube video a few days ago about the rooftop solar condition in California. Evidently, there are so many rooftop solar panels producing electricity during the daytime that the electric company has TOO MUCH electricity and has to dump it because their lines cannot process it all!

If I remember correctly, they said that the amount of solar electricity dumped at midday is enough to power every house in San Franciso for a year! They just don't have the storage capability to use or save all that solar electricity. Then they showed fields of battery buildings that California is building to store some of the electricity for use during the night. In that case, it appears that the technology has far surpassed the infrastructure we currently have. Everything needs to be upgraded.

I bet electric vehicles will be the norm in the future.

I think so, too. But probably not in my future. It's going to take some time to work things out.

 

[gtaus]

So, @gtaus, what you're saying is,

Frugal Tip #437:
Be organized.

I aspire, I aspire.

Is anybody tracking all these frugal tips? Are we up to #437+ now?

Speaking of tracking stuff, does anyone know what happened to the OP of this thread, @LizzzyJo? I miss hearing from her...

 

[Sally PB]

Hubby and I have talked about installing wind or solar. The payback is not there in our lifetime, I would bet. The attraction is the security of not being on the grid during a power outage.

Are we up to #437+

I pull that number out of my head every so often. I used to use it all the time in my tool and die days. 7/16" is the tap drill size for 1/4 NPT water fittings on plastic injection molds.

7/16" = .4375

Some people rounded it up. I liked .437 because 4+3=7. Easy to remember, and I'm weird that way.

 

[fuzzi]

I really think they are rushing the whole electric vehicle thing. The technology just isn't there yet. The weight of them burns through tires and there is no way to recycle the batteries. Plus the fire issue. One caught fire in a parking lot a few weeks ago and they just had to let it burn itself out..

I also love the battery operated tools. I'm small so using a tool that weighs less is great for me

I am small, too, and I can handle the cordless yard tools, have hedge clippers, reciprocating saw, and a small chainsaw. Unfortunately the chainsaw won't work anymore, not sure why. But I got a great deal on two more new hedge clippers, which are fine for most of my trimming chores. I have a pair of long handled pruners for bigger branches, up to 2". The reciprocating saw does trees up to 6". Anything bigger I'll just have to hire a professional.

 

[gtaus]

I am small, too, and I can handle the cordless yard tools, have hedge clippers, reciprocating saw, and a small chainsaw. Unfortunately the chainsaw won't work anymore, not sure why. But I got a great deal on two more new hedge clippers, which are fine for most of my trimming chores. I have a pair of long handled pruners for bigger branches, up to 2". The reciprocating saw does trees up to 6". Anything bigger I'll just have to hire a professional.

Sounds like you have a nice selection of yard tools. My reciprocating saw with a 9-inch pruning blade was my main trimming tool for many, many years. I still use it, mainly for cutting roots out of the ground. I don't want to get any of my chainsaws into the dirt and risk ruining both the chain and the chainsaw.

In the past couple of years, I purchased a one-handed pruning chainsaw with a 6-inch blade. I use that a lot now for almost all the small stuff. It's nice to have some of the power and speed of a chainsaw but being able to operate it with just one hand on the chainsaw while holding a branch in my other hand.

Here is a picture of my pruning chainsaw...

I love it. It is smaller and lighter than my reciprocating saws which all require two-hands on the saw. Just about all the tool brands sell a similar sized one-handed pruning chainsaw. If you ever get another chainsaw, think about these smaller 6-inch pruning chainsaws because it sounds like a perfect fit for you.

Of course, they always recommend two hands on the pruning chainsaw, and I have yet to see a stock photo with a person operating the pruning chainsaw with just one hand...

Yeah, in real life, I would have one hand running the pruning chainsaw and the other hand holding on to that branch so I could quickly toss it into my wagon. It's a real time and labor saver for me that way. All my other chainsaws are bigger, and I have to have both hands on the chainsaw. For cleaning up that small stuff, a bigger two-handed chainsaw slows me down.

I don't know how much various brands sell their pruning chainsaws for these days, but when I bought my Ryobi pruning chainsaw, it was on sale for about half the price of a larger 12- or 14-inch chainsaw. If you never plan on cutting down large trees, you might never need anything more than this for typical yard clean up jobs around the house.

 

[gtaus]

Furniture Dolly Hack and Other Uses

I just saw that Menards is having a sale on their furniture dollies this week...

I have purchased a number of these type of dollies, mostly from Harbor Freight, because they are rated for 1,000 pounds. That means each wheel is rated to hold up to 250 pounds. If you bought a 250-pound rated wheel/caster by itself, you would pay more than $5.00 each. My hack is to buy these dollies and remove the wheels for my projects.

I have built a number of pallet wood workbenches for my garage and used these dolly wheels on the workbenches to make them mobile. For inside the garage on hard cement, these wheels work fine. I would never suggest using them outside on a lawn. Also, they do not have any locking mechanism on the wheels, so I would not use them on something that needed to remain rock solid and unmovable. For what I need them to do, they were perfect and saved me a lot of money.

If I need to make a workbench totally unmovable, I'll just put a little block of scrap wood under each leg by the wheel, just enough to raise the wheel up off the floor. Then the workbench will not move. When I need to use the wheels again, I just lift each corner and kick out the block of wood, putting the wheels back on the floor. Easy!

I also use these dollies, as moving dollies. I have a number of large plastic garbage cans that I have filled with pallet wood ready to be used in my projects. Those garbage cans full of wood are too heavy for me to move around the garage. The solution for me was to place a dolly underneath each garbage can and now I can easily move them around the garage...

I know some people store their chicken feed and grains in metal garbage cans to keep the mice out. Those metal garbage cans can hold a 100 pounds or more of feed. Why not put a dolly underneath that metal garbage storage can and move it with ease?

I used to store my chicken feed in large garbage cans. They were far too heavy to move when filled with feed. So, I now transfer my feed from the 50# bags into two 5-gallon buckets with lids. It's much easier for me to move a 25# bucket of feed with the handle on it. Even so, I often times have three or four 5-gallon buckets stacked up on each other if I buy feed on a good sale. That's when I will put a dolly underneath the stack so I can move them all together if I have to.

At any rate, Menards has the lowest price I have seen on these 1,000 pound rated furniture dollies in years. Take advantage of the 11% mail in rebate and save even more money on future purchases at Menards.

 

[gtaus]

How about using a wingnut instead of a nut?

Just a quick follow up. I bought that wing nut assortment kit at Harbor Freight today using a 30% off coupon. If you remember, the Fleet store wanted $1.19 for a single wingnut, but I found this kit at Harbor Freight for $5.99 and put it on my list. With the 30% off coupon, I just got the 150-wingnut assortment kit for $4.19. I think that was a great deal.

For anyone interested in checking out Harbor Freight for deals this weekend, the 30% off coupon applies to non-members as well, for items less than $10.00. Members get 30% off for items less than $20.00.

 

[fuzzi]

Just a quick follow up. I bought that wing nut assortment kit at Harbor Freight today using a 30% off coupon. If you remember, the Fleet store want $1.19 for a single wingnut, but I found this kit at Harbor Freight for $5.99 and put it on my list. With the 30% off coupon, I just got the 150 wingnut assortment kit for $4.19. I think that was a great deal.

View attachment 3914513

For anyone interested in checking out Harbor Freight for deals this weekend, the 30% off coupon applies to non-members as well, for items less than $10.00. Members get 30% off for items less than $20.00.

View attachment 3914523

Winner winner chicken dinner!

 

[gtaus]

Percent Off Calculator

I just purchased an external HDD case for my media center setup. It was originally $19.99, but it was on sale for 20% off, plus an additional 10% discount coupon. So, how much did I save and what real percentage discount did I get?

I found a nice little online percent off calculator to figure out the math for me. All you have to do is enter 2 amounts in the calculator and it will calculate the missing fields...

In my case, I knew the original price of $19.99 and the total price I paid of $14.39 after all the discounts and sales prices were applied. Turns out I got 28% off on that purchase saving myself $5.60 on that order. Not bad.

It might be a good little app to add to your website favorites at home or on your cell phone if you are interested in finding out how much you might really save on those discount prices.