What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

Any hints or tips to sun dry without fading the clothes?

Turn them inside out.

 

[gtaus]

I do like clean clothes! Still, I am trying! I grew up with wear once and wash.

Well, I like clean clothes, too. But the only thing I wear once and wash will be my underclothes and socks. I'll wear my blue jeans until they get dirty. My work outside in the yard tee-shirts do not get tossed into the dirty laundry until they are actually dirty, or sweated up so bad that I don't want to put that on again.

I have learned to re-wear work clothes,

I kept my work "outside" clothes separate from my work "at the office" clothes. Most of the time I worked in offices wearing a suit. Those clothes got washed all the time. When I became an RN, I washed my work scrubs after every shift. But when it comes to mowing the lawn outside, I don't mind wearing the tee-shirt a couple of times.

 

[gtaus]

I got one of those "solar dryers" that are like umbrellas. I have had some issues with it blowing over and it's a poor design.

The umbrella type clotheslines that I am familiar with need a pole cemented into the ground to prevent them from blowing over. I used to have a solid PVC pipe cemented into the ground and could slip the umbrella clothesline shaft into the PVC pipe. That worked good for me because I could take out the clothesline when I did not need it, especially for the winter.

Google picture of one I have...

My challenge is how to mount this clothesline out on our wooden deck without ruining the wood. I don't want to save a little money drying clothes in the fresh air but then costing me 100's of dollars in damage to the deck!

 

[Sally PB]

Underwear and socks = washed after 1 wearing.
Pants = washed when dirty, usually more than one wearing.
T-shirts = washed when dirty, usually more than one wearing.

Garden clothes in the winter = 2-3 wearings.
Garden clothes in the summer = peeled off in the mudroom, and there might be more than one set worn that day, depending on how much I sweated and when/how long my breaks were.

I take a lot (LOT-LOT) more showers in the summer.

 

[alwaystj9]

I have a heavy duty tripod that is height adjustable that I have used as a clothesline base. Only 2 problems are that it needs to be weighted down on windy days and I trip over the legs if not watching where I walk...I think either would work on a deck.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Garden clothes in the summer = peeled off in the mudroom, and there might be more than one set worn that day, depending on how much I sweated and when/how long my breaks were.

I take a lot (LOT-LOT) more showers in the summer.

I can definitely relate...some days I think sweats my middle name in the summer

 

[gtaus]

View attachment 3402016
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I have a heavy duty tripod that is height adjustable that I have used as a clothesline base. Only 2 problems are that it needs to be weighted down on windy days and I trip over the legs if not watching where I walk...I think either would work on a deck.
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I have a couple base units like that for a shade umbrella for the patio table which has a hole in the center of the table for the shaft of the umbrella. But the supports by themselves are not heavy enough to hold the umbrella clothesline without some other kind of bracing.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I try to mostly cook on the firepit in summer (we have a schwenker) but mostly for keeping the house from getting hot. This past summer we didn't run the air conditioning at all to cut the electric use. I kept the kiddie pool on the deck for the kids and it was a tremendous help to have freezing cold well water. It never gets too bad in the yard because we have lots of shade.

Same! We ran it so infrequently, it was nice!

 

[SmiYa0126]

I can definitely relate...some days I think sweats my middle name in the summer

Haha! Same! It's so funny though I only really started sweating after I started working from home during COVID. I used to overheat all the time because I would never sweat, even while working out. I wonder if it's because I was in climate controlled environment all the time.

 

[gtaus]

Is it frugal to pay more for item from an authorized seller?

Today, I received a notice from Honey, the online shopping helper, telling me that they found a "better" price on the Ryobi 40v batteries that I buy. Although I am using Ryobi as the example in this post, it applies to just about any brand I can think of.

First of all, Honey, how to do you know that I own Ryobi tools? I never told you that, or did I???? Does everybody know everything about my life?

Anyways, Honey is a great shopping helper that has saved me money on purchases before, so I clicked the link to find out more.

So, here's the deal. You could get this Genuine Ryobi 40v 5Ah battery (not a knock-off) for only $130 on Amazon! Holy Cow! That's about $50 less than Home Depot price at $180 per battery. I could save lots of money by purchasing the battery through Amazon.... or could I?

Here is my thinking, to save myself both money and aggravation that I will pass on to you. This advice probably applies to other name brand batteries as well.

1) Amazon is not an authorized dealer for Ryobi.

These batteries are sold by unauthorized third party sellers. Ryobi will not honor any warranty on tools or batteries sold by unauthorized third party sellers. Why? Well, because, believe it or not, lots of their stuff is either stolen and resold, or used and resold as new. Another scam is people buying a pallet full of product returns and reselling the items as new.

Read the fine print on Amazon and you will find out that you have a 30 day window for a return to Amazon, after that, you have to deal with the seller. Read the reviews, and try to find anyone who had as issue with the battery and attempted to return it to the third party seller - not going to happen! Most likely, that third party seller has gone out of business or changed their name and you will never find them again.

Essentially, you have a 30 day warranty on that $130 Ryobi battery you bought on Amazon. You could also think of it as $1560 per year for the life of the (30) day warranty.

2) If you buy the same Ryobi battery at Home Depot for $180, you can register it with RyobiTools.com and are guaranteed a full 3 years of service backed by Ryobi and Home Depot. Of all the Ryobi batteries that I have purchased from Home Depot over the past 15+ years, I only had one battery fail and Ryobi sent me a new replacement battery no problems (I did have to prove that I had purchased it from Home Depot).

Essentially, you have a 3-year warranty on the $180 battery from Home Depot, or how I think of it, $60 per year over the life of the warranty.

So, what do you think, is it more fugal to save $50 and take your chances on a 30-day warranty battery from Amazon, with no expected support from the third-party seller after that, or are you better off paying that extra $50 and buying the battery from Home Depot, an authorized Ryobi seller, and getting a full 3-year warranty backed by Ryobi?

Bonus Frugal Tip: Buy your tools on sale, in kits, and save lots of money.

Well, I buy my Ryobi tools only from Home Depot. I wait for them to go on sale and then drop the cash. Most recent case is that I wanted to get an extra Ryobi 40v 4ah battery for my Ryobi 40v chainsaw. The battery alone cost $180 at the time. But I found a Ryobi 40v snow shovel kit, with powerhead, snow shovel attachment, charger, and 40v 4Ah battery on pre-winter sale at Home Depot for $190!

I suppose you could think of this deal at least a couple different ways. First of all, I got all that stuff in the snow shovel kit and only paid an extra $10 for the 40v 4Ah battery. Or, you could think of it as buying the battery for $180 and getting the powerhead, snow shovel attachment, and the battery charger for only $10 more. In any case, all the tools and the battery are backed by Ryobi for the full 3-year warranty.

That, my friends, is how these companies get you into their tool line and battery platforms and keep you there. It would make no frugal sense for me to buy other tool brands with a different battery platform due to the high investment cost of these batteries.