What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

He probably had a buddy that wanted and priced them [broken bike wheels] high so they don't sell.

No. He was just a jerk. The bicycle was beyond repair and nothing more than scrap metal. His employee knew the boss was off his rocker and said as much. It's OK. I ended up getting chickens and they make compost better anyways.

 

[gtaus]

I ordered four lynch pins through Gorilla's website. I know they will fit, and I ordered extras since the shipping was the same for one or four.

Lately, when it comes to buying only one or two special items, I have been going to Harbor Freight and buying a small assortment kit. I don't know how much you paid for the lynch pins from Gorilla, but here is what Harbor Freight sells an assortment pack at normal price...

Most of those hardware kits eventually go on sale or you can get a generic coupon sale to bring the price down to ~$6.50.

Recently, I needed some Allen head cap screws to fix our stools at the kitchen counter. I went to the hardware store to buy 3, but they wanted something like $1.50 each! I guess when you sell screws one at a time, they are worth more?

Anyways, I stopped at Harbor Freight on the way home and picked up this kit, on sale, for $4.50!

I still have an extra 8 screws for my stools, for future repairs, plus another ~100 screws of the most common various sizes if I ever need them for something else. Not a big deal because the kit already paid for itself. And it's not like the hardware is going to age out in my lifetime.

 

[fuzzi]

Lately, when it comes to buying only one or two special items, I have been going to Harbor Freight and buying a small assortment kit. I don't know how much you paid for the lynch pins from Gorilla, but here is what Harbor Freight sells an assortment pack at normal price...

View attachment 4118584

Most of those hardware kits eventually go on sale or you can get a generic coupon sale to bring the price down to ~$6.50.

I ordered the pins from Gorilla as I felt more confident that I would receive the correct item than if I ordered from A.

I like Harbor Freight, but they're on the other side of town. I'm not worried about burning more gas, but the traffic has gotten so bad that I don't want to go shopping.

 

[gtaus]

I ordered the pins from Gorilla as I felt more confident that I would receive the correct item than if I ordered from A.

I like Harbor Freight, but they're on the other side of town. I'm not worried about burning more gas, but the traffic has gotten so bad that I don't want to go shopping.

No, I understand. In your case, it probably made more sense to order directly from Gorilla and know you are getting exactly what you need.

I am pretty good at finding the size and type of hardware I need for replacement parts. And Harbor Freight is on my way into and out of town. So, I just stop in there and check out what's available.

FWIW, I have looked at those same assorted kits of hardware at Menards, Home Depot, and our Fleet Store. Harbor Freight just is lower priced than the competition and I will usually wait even longer for the item to go on sale if I am not in a hurry.

I don't live in town, so having those assorted kits of hardware in my garage has saved me a number of trips into town for replacement parts. Many times, I can take out a kit and find a suitable part for a quick repair, saving me the time driving into town and back and the higher cost of buying only one or two special bolts, or whatever.

 

[Sally PB]

I don't live in town, so having those assorted kits of hardware in my garage has saved me a number of trips into town for replacement parts.

Trips into town are planned as much as possible for me. We're 12 miles from an Ace Hardware store, 35 from Menards. It's not just the cost of the gas to drive there and back, it wastes my most precious commodity: time.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Trips into town are planned as much as possible for me. We're 12 miles from an Ace Hardware store, 35 from Menards. It's not just the cost of the gas to drive there and back, it wastes my most precious commodity: time.

That's what we do here also. And we're the same distance away from the hardware store, grocery store, 12 miles and Menards and harbor freight, 38 miles. We make a list of everywhere we need to go and everything we need to get.

 

[Smokerbill]

There's a hardware store and an IGA grocery in town, about 1.5 miles away, higher prices than Homedepot and Wmart that are a 36 mile round trip, and my favorite grocery store that adds 65 miles to the odometer.

Sometimes it pays to make the long drives, other times it's more frugal to pay a higher price and drive less. I add fuel cost to the cost of things I need to buy, then take the cheapest route. haha

The distant grocery store has good sales and that's what I buy there, in quantity, to make it worth the drive.

 

[Molpet]

Used to be it was a 36 mile round trip to the West through a city for a decent store. But I worked near there. Harbor freight recently opened there after I retired. But like you say the traffic is horrendous. I have never gone there . I have ordered online.
Now to the east, less traffic, it's lest than 6 round trip to grocery. Lowe's and home Depot less than 10.
But the little grocery at the corner and the hardware store in the village closed long ago. Way more traffic in the village.

 

[Smokerbill]

I still try to buy things often at the local hardware and IGA stores, more as support to help them keep from closing down. They still seem to get a lot of business, which is good. Pretty much always buy chicken feed locally.

 

[gtaus]

Trips into town are planned as much as possible for me. We're 12 miles from an Ace Hardware store, 35 from Menards. It's not just the cost of the gas to drive there and back, it wastes my most precious commodity: time.

Exactly. I typically only go into town once per week. But if I have something break down that needs repair right now, I will have to take the time to go into town to get repair parts. If I can pull out one of those assorted hardware kits and repair the machine, for example, I save myself time and money from having to drop everything and go into town.

That's why, for me anyways, it is often more frugal to pay a little extra and get a complete assorted hardware kit instead of only buying what I need for the immediate job. The way I look at it, it costs me as much as $8.00 in gas alone to go into town and back. That does not include the time spent getting parts at the store. If I use only one or two items out of my kits, I am well ahead in saving money.

Speaking of which, in the last few years, I have purchased a number of parts organizers from Harbor Freight and use them for screws, bolts, washers, etc...

Those organizers go on sale all the time. The ones I got are OK for my shop, but if I had to pack them up and use them on a job site, I would get a stronger organizer made for traveling.

In any case, over the past few years, I have purchased a lot of different hardware at stores when they go on sale. For example, I have one large bin organizer full of drywall screws, which I use a lot, with all sizes from 1 inch to 5 inches and everything in between. I have enough screws on hand to do any job, and I only refill, or top off a bin, when the drywall screws go on sale about every ~6 months. I have saved a lot of money by having a ready supply of screws for my projects and only buying them when on sale.

Of course, if I lived in town, I would probably have a different strategy because it would not take me long to get a handful of screws for the immediate job. And it probably would not cost me that $8.00 just to drive to the store. I might not want to invest in a ready supply of hardware and just get what I need, when I need it, at the current price. There is a cost to storing items and maintaining ready supply levels. In my case, it is worth it.