Find and cook roadkill? That is probably the most revolting, stomach turning suggestion to save money I have heard in my entire life.

@Radi0logy: Keep the leftovers on the counter--refrigerators use too much electricity, and the stuff that grows in them will just add protein! Can't waste food!

"If you've got a printer, many of you advocate taking out the cartridge and giving it a shake when it's running low (I've done this with HP cartridges and it works a treat)."

I worked on a newspaper in college (back in the day) where this was official office policy for the 11x17 proof printers, because the toner cartridges were expensive, we ran through them like crazy, and we were cheap. I spent many, many nights of my college career shaking and reshaking toner.

It does work!

"charging mobile phones in the office, and thus reducing your electricity bill."

My husband totally does this. He also showers at the gym to save water. Which probably isn't as efficient as he thinks it is since he doesn't go to the gym that often. :)

Personally, I'll decamp to public buildings with air conditioning, like the library, when it gets stinky hot and I'm feeling too cheap to run the A/C.

Haha my sister's neighbor does the second one. It doesn't even have to be dinnertime. The kids will come over just to ask for food despite their own house being next door.

@Radi0logy: Here in Tennessee, I believe there is an actual law on the books that says if you hit it with your car, it is fair game for dinner. Nothing says loving like squirrel dumplings from the oven? Blech, I may vomit.

"always ask for a jug of tap water when dining out - not only is it free, it's environmentally friendlier than bottled water, too (just let that snooty waiter dare make a fuss)."

One last comment ... we went to a local fancy-schmancy restaurant where they WOULD NOT SERVE US TAP WATER. The only options were alcohol, soda, or MINERAL water. This was fine with me, but my husband didn't want alcohol since he was driving and was intending on working late after we had dinner, and he LOATHES mineral water and won't drink it (I think that's ridiculous, but I have no room to talk since I won't eat pudding).

Anyway, he asked the waiter for a glass of tap water and after much back and forthing, he confirmed that he was not allowed to serve us tap water, not even if we paid for the mineral water and he brought us tap water, and that the owner/manager simply would not allow it. So my husband ended up having Sprite with his duck and we never went back.

We bitched about it to the owner later, who defensively insisted it was to ensure the food was properly set off by the beverages. I can't really think how soda sets off high-end food, or how plain water fails to.

@jennyplain: I think that's mostly for deer, though. In many states, good deer meat goes to waste because the state has to come pick it up and go through all this paperwork and by then the meat is no good.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I'm not 100% certain, but there may be a law against this. Oh and, no limit on post length or replying to yourself!

@Radi0logy: Yeah, our area has a lot of problems with drought, so they pass temporary laws from time to time that restaurants can not put pre-filled water glasses on the table, and any water they do serve should be bottled. I guess the theory is it saves a little of our local water by trucking some in.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I used to run university computer labs, and you had to be able to prove that the toner cartridge had been "rocked" (i.e., vigorously shaken, leaving the lab monitor's clothes covered in a fine mist of toner particles) at least three times before the IT overlords would let the lab have a new one.

@Radi0logy: I think that depends on state and municipality.

It'd be tempting to bring in an empty bottle and fill it from the restroom tap. I would enjoy contesting a "corkage fee" for that.

@K-Bo: Bottled Evian or something would have been fine -- slightly annoying that we couldn't just have tap, but fine. (We live in the midwest where we don't really ever have restrictions on restaurants serving tap water.) The problem was that they only served mineral water, which makes my husband gag, and totally refused to find or serve us "regular" water.

They actually had tap water at the bar downstairs, as well as bottles of plain water, but refused to let us have any. The whole thing was moronic.

@Radi0logy: People should really hunt fresh meat. Too many damn squirrels

@jennyplain: I have had squirrel. It's not that bad actually. I wouldn't pick up a roadkill squirrel though -- probably not much left of him after the tire flattens him.

1) When savagely cold winters hit around my parts and the weather's down to the low 60s and the 20MPH winds threaten to rake my flesh off, I stand downwind from the portly tourists. They make for the best windbreaks!

2) Invest in an extra-large oven so when wandering, lost children enter your gingerbread house, pushing them in becomes so much easier!

3) For those blessed with Lycanthropy, don't bother to shave those days before the moon becomes full. It's like getting an extra razor and can of shaving gel free, every year!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Got another goodie for ya as a frugal mama...don't get suckered into buying baby toys. The kiddo will love an empty box as much as anything else. I used to tape shut Costco-sized boxes and give them to my toddler as giant building blocks. And if she crushed 'em, they went for recycling, no big deal, nothing wasted or ruined.

Costco-sized vinegar jugs (I use the stuff for cleaning) are also a super funtastic toy for a little kid. Other kids would visit and fixate on them...put stuff in, dump it out, repeat for hours...

This weekend I took a strip leftover from a roll of stickers and tied it to a stick and my daughter ran around the yard with it like it was one of them there fancy silk ribbons on a plastic stick. Only this one made fart noises, which was so much more awesome.

Yay for frugality!

@Trai_Dep: Double-check that your Secret Santa doesn't have a Dark Mark placed on him. Because sooner or later, Deatheaters will ensure he's not around to buy your reciprocal gift.

Hee hee, I had this happen to me at the Rainbow Room in NYC back when dotcoms used to shower us journalists with fancy meals so we'd cover their latest server lines.

I don't do alcohol so the snooty waiter trying to offer me various alcohols was freaked out already, so I thought I'd make his life easier by saying, "I'll just have some water, please."

Then he offered me five choices and I hadn't heard of any of them.

I said, "Couldn't I have some tap water?"

He looked at me like I'd asked for swill. I guess it was NYC...

I said, "I don't know what all those choices are. Tap water would be fine."

He sneered and asked, "Do you want BUBBLEZZZ or NOT?" You have to read that line like an offended Inspector Clouseau to get the right effect.

I meekly said, "Not, please." And was brought an entire caraffe of Evian. And stared at the label reading it backwards the whole meal. Sheesh.

@kaceetheconsumer: My favorite toys when I was little were:
- a pen & one of my mom's yellow legal pads.
- bubble wand and an olive jar of Palmolive and water.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): To heck with water.
You don't like pudding?! Nor flan, créme brulée or creams?
How did this unfortunate life deformity happen, poor thing?
Or, have you verified that you aren't a space alien switched at birth?
How can you not like the creamy goodness that is (home-made, unpackaged) pudding?! One of life's simple, unadorned pleasures. What's next, finding out that fluffy kittens bouncing on your Sunday morning bed annoy you? That puppy breath makes you grimace? That - gasp - you don't like cake?!
My faith is shaken, madame. Shaken indeed. To my core.

@kaceetheconsumer: "don't get suckered into buying baby toys."

Also as a first grandchild on both sides of the family, he has grandparents, aunts, and uncles galore who are sending them by the boxload, lol!

@kateblack: When I nannied, I used to give the kids a big kiddie paintbrush and a cup of water and invite them to paint the patio. They're at it for HOURS and there's zero mess to clean up!

@Trai_Dep: LOL. I can't stand the texture. I mash the skins in my potatoes, too, so they have something other than smoothness, and I only eat yogurt with fruit or wheat germ mixed in. Smooth foods creep the hell out of me! Like, ice cream is fine, but soft-serve I can't eat at all.

I do like kittens, puppy breath, and cake, I promise. (Although WHAT body part the kittens choose to bounce on on Sunday mornings makes a bit of a difference. Or so my husband tells me, as kittens cannot distinguish feet and fingers from other body parts when playing the "pounce the thing under the covers" game.)

@kaceetheconsumer: Kudos on the box thing. You can even try this method with old shoe boxes. Wrap them in cheap, colored construction or warpping paper and voila, you now have overseized lego style building blocks. Great for keeping kids entertained for a few hours.

@Cat_In_A_Hat: *oversized !!!!edit button !!!!

One thing that saves my wife and I an easy $3 per week: We go out to eat once a week, normally at a place that offers free refills on soft drinks. We order 1 soft drink and 1 water, then we share the soft drink and get as many refills as we need. The servers have never said anything or tried to charge us for 2 drinks. First time that happens the cost of the second drink will come out of the tip. I guess that is why they never try to call us on it!

@pupu: You'd undertip waitstaff for calling you out on stealing? Granted, it's cool that the waitstaff is willing to be cool with it, since pop IS extremely cheap to make anyway, but it is technically stealing if you're getting refills. It's the same idea (but to a lower degree) as ordering a buffet for one person and letting the other person go to the buffet too.

I'd say once the waitstaff says something about your drink-thievery, you should just pay for it and NOT undertip the waitstaff.

@kaceetheconsumer: They will start wanting real toys soon enough so might as well save your money while they are young enough to not know any better. Kids under 4 will play with just about anything, just make sure its safe for them to play with.

@pupu: That's not frugal, that's theft.

@Radi0logy: If you hit a deer yourself, and know how to dress it, it's a great way to get a freezer full of fresh venison. It's not uncommon to do this in Maine.

But you don't go looking for other people's roadkill, that is gross.

@pupu: Paying for water but getting unlimited soda refills? I'm surprised you have a wife who agrees to immature behavior and petty theft.

@pupu: I agree, my wife and I do this and I don't feel guilty about sharing a drink (bottomless or not). I've never heard of any kind of rule against this. In fact I even tell waitstaff what I'm doing and none of them has ever said anything about it.

Best cheap eating is splitting a large pizza and one drink. If you're pigs you finish it, if you're not pigs you even have leftovers for the next day! All for about $15 with tax and tip included.

@GuinevereRucker: Yeah exchange thousands of dollars of body work for 100 pounds of meat that doesn't taste that great to begin with :P Lets hit the road!

@Trai_Dep: Don't you mean Aurors? Dark mark goes on the followers of Voldemort, not on his enemies.

@pupu: I would happily sacrifice my ten percent tip for the sheer joy of watching your plan be foiled. Muwaahahahaha.
Wherever you're going, the servers need to grow a pair. My boss would not be happy with his servers allowing customers to steal for the sake of their tip.

"When we have toast and jam, I spread the butter on the outside edges of the toast and spread the jam in the middle to fool my other half. Looks proper but doesn't really taste any different."

Really? So I'm guessing from this hint that you might save a stick of butter every 4 years?

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): NH stockpiles in freezers all illegally killed deer and moose, then donates it to the foodbank

As someone who constantly finds herself feeding other folks and rarely getting a free meal, I'm a little annoyed by tips one and two. I like feeding my friends, but if they were deliberately abusing my hospitality to save money it would really tick me off.

@Radi0logy: it may depend on where you are, perhaps as to local water quality also.
but i did find that in europe i had a lot of problems getting tap water in belgium. many restaurants told me it was illegal and most of them looked at me like i was crazy

@Stephmo: also seems like it wastes so much time

@MaytagRepairman: I believe the technical term for such foodstuffs are "squirrel jerky". Especially on a hot summer day on a road that isn't cleaned as often as we'd like.

@Radi0logy: It depends on the roadkill. If you're talking about a week-old bloated up snapping turtle then yes, do not eat that holy crap. But if it is a deer you just hit on accident, score! That is a TON of good meat, and hopefully a little bit of consolation for the car repairs.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): In one of our houses that had a basement, the 'rents made a rec room down there, and gave the chillens one (just one) blank wall and paint & brushes. The only rule was that the wall would come down if the drop cloth was ignored, and when we wanted to reboot the wall, we had to have them help us paint it.
It was pretty awesome, actually. Imagine a gaggle of kids being able to do murals whenever we wanted, planning them, sketching, negotiating who got to paint what, etc. Teh Moms even sly introduced art history into the mix by getting various movement books "for herself" then leaving them lying around for us to abscond with and take downstairs. Then we'd take whatever movement we were trying to do - Cubist, say - then try to mimic it on our wall. I stress TRY, since kids are kids and our ambition was often defeated by spontaneity or shaking, muppet-sized hands.
If I ever have kids, a basement and a wall that no grumpy adult types would see, I'd do the same thing for my little hellions. Sneaky as all get-up way to teach them so many things, and very fun besides.

@theblackdog: Don't they also go up when Death Eaters slay someone?

@kaceetheconsumer: I had many toys that were just repurposed cardboard when I was a kid and they were great. My mom cut out guitar shapes or painted piano keys on some and we would lipsynch to music while miming with the toys. One time she cut out wings that we strapped to our arms and ran around like morons pretending to be parrots for the entire day.

We had a mimosa tree out back and my favorite thing to do for a long time was to cut a branch off, notch the top and bottom and wrap some string around it to make a makeshift bow-and-arrow with the bendy wood. Some of my favorite toys!

@italianscallion33: I get the feeling that Pupu is the fine type of fellow who thinks a $1.50 is a generous tip - any meal. Don't you?

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Hah! I have the same sort of hangups with food textures. It's the reason I cannot stand any sort of carbonation at all (drinking soda feels like I'm swallowing knives). There's a whole list of food that I dislike eating because it sets off my weird "oh god this texture freaks me out" senses. I have it with other things too, like velvet fabric and foam mattresses. Touching that stuff heebies my jeebies in a bad way.

Wow, a lot of these tips sound like straight-up mooching.

Hitting friends up for food, or hanging out at their house so you can save on utilities isn't bad in moderation, but you can't rely on that sort of stuff or else you risk losing friends when they get tired of paying for your ass.

@Trai_Dep: That's true too, but the Dark Mark over someone's house vs the Dark Mark being placed on a person are two different things.