I wear my underwear twice. just flip em' inside out.

I totally cut my own hair. But it's curly. It gets cut in a straight line and any errors are curled into oblivion. I can pay $40 at the salon or I can do it myself. Sometimes I make my husband do it. But mostly I get out of the shower, say, "Man, I'm grumpy today and my hair is annoying me," grab the sewing scissors, and bam! new haircut!

Cutting your own hair or having a friend/significant other do it can be fine, as long as the person knows what they're doing. I have a cousin who is actually a beautician and she'll cut my hair for free so it works out.

I cut my boyfriend's hair because all we do is take a 3mm razor and buzz it all off. Looks the same as if we paid $12 at Super Cuts.

I can shave my own head just as well as a salon, and I paid $30 for the clippers... saves me $10-$15 each time and looks just the same.

If your haircut is just a buzz cut (like mine), cutting it yourself is a good way to save some cash. Anything more complicated than that and you should probably get it done.

The worst money-saving tips are usually those promoting false economy ... "buy cheap shoes," for example, when the cheap ones will last a single season but buying a well-made (and more expensive) pair may last you several years (and be well-made enough for a trip to the cobbler for resoling or reheeling) -- not to mention potential back pain and looking like you're wearing cheap shoes.

Now, if you only ever wear shoes for three months before getting bored of them, more power to you and you go buy those cheap shoes. But for most of us, it's a false economy.

(Cutting his own hair would be a false economy for my husband. It requires a trained professional!)

I reuse sandwich bags, always have. It's really not much of a hassle at all.

6. Don't use loo roll

I believe the article means "cutting your own hair if you don't know how to do it". One of my best friends is a former stylist...so she knows what she's doing. And has the requisite equipment.

My wife cuts myt hair. She's had no profesional training, but I've been happy with her work more often than I was happy with Supercuts.

Most of those tips seem silly.

@fonetek: You need to step it up on this troubled times. Go comando that way you save on buying underwear

Dammit I want a portable hand bidet. I have been assimilated to the murrican culture that wiping my ass doesn't gross me out as much as it used to :))

I keep considering getting blockout curtains to keep my apartment cool and saving on a/c costs. But then I'd have to turn on more lights just to keep from bumping into things. Maybe just trust the CFLs to be lower consumption. I am also wondering if I really want to be a troglodyte.

There is a way to save on hair cuts. Get your hair cut shorter than you normally would (it is great for summer!) and then you can go to the barber at longer intervals. Plus it also helps to find a good barber that charges less than $20, including tip.

#6 read my mind. Although, #4 actually seems like a good idea, and #5 doesn't apply to pants (Well, never has for me and I've never had any complaints). :)

Use small tins of paint to minimise waste

I can just hear my old man, a former paint industry exec, groaning. Paint hues varry can to can, do you really want a few dozen slightly different shades across your living room?

@NewsMuncher: Ugh. Sorry for the pernicious grammar. *hangs head in shame*

@fonetek: I assume you're male? This, er, doesn't work so well for women.

@I Love New Jersey: Hey that is what i do I wont ct my hair in about 6 to-8 wweeks at a time then I let the barber do the work for 14 bucks (12 if it is before noon) I dont really like the buzzcut so I rather pay for some scisors cut

I'm always surprised that those kits for putting a relaxer or texturizer in your hair don't get included in the advice about cutting your own hair.

The making your own clothing tip depends on whether you're good at it or not.

Reusing tea bags definitely should be avoided. That was something my mother used to do for a long time ... it was a frugality tip she'd learned a very long time ago (maybe in her childhood during the Great Depression).

She finally stopped doing this maybe 5 or 6 years ago when she realized, apparently on her own (she never listened when any of us told her to stop) that the tea from the second or third dunk just wasn't all that good and tea bags were cheap enough in the first place that the financial benefit was very small. It was just not worth it to her any more.

The thing I avoid doing is buying 20# paper for my printer (an old but still great-running Laserjet 5m). I always go with 24#, and it never jams.

@bria: Yeah, we do it all the time too.

No matter how cheap they are, I'd just feel guilty throwing them away unless they're really really dirty.

I loves me some wax-paper sandwich bags too. Less bad than plastic.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):

I'm with you on cutting my hair. I, too, have curly hair and I pull it out to the side and snip it. I can never tell if it's uneven because it's always a bird's nest anyway! :)

@HIV 2 Elway: And if your paint is drying out, you are closing the lid wrong.

Do it yourself funerals? [bit.ly]

@Copper: I cut my boyfriend's hair because all we do is take a 3mm razor and buzz it all off. Looks the same as if we paid $12 at Super Cuts.

I cut my own hair for the same reason. I don't see the point to pay someone to cut my hair a few times for the same cost as a razor to do it myself indefinitely.

@Copper: I like cutting my husband's hair (#3 blade). It's a bonding moment, to me. That, and it's free (minus the $40 investment for the razor).

Most (most, #6 is pretty icky) of these tips taken in isolation as a way to save money are stupid.. but as just habitual things some of us do everyday anyway (like the sandwich bags), they're not all that dumb.

Plenty of people use baking soda to brush their teeth and swear by it. Times Online didn't even test it: "presumably vile." Snobby single-use-teabag-Brits!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I cut my own hair, of course its not hard to mess it up when you shave it all off everytime.

1. I do reuse sandwich bags, depending on whatever was in it before and how messy it got the inside of the bag. Or I'll reuse it for a nonfood item like paper clips or something.

3. My husband's family has tried to cut back on gift exchanges so we aren't buying for 25 people. Our rule is we draw names to get one person, then everyone buys something for the kids. Sure some people still buy for everyone but that's really on them.

7. I cut my husband's hair (clippers) but won't let him touch mine.

Making your own clothes was the most laughable one on there; you just can't compete with China (what with their economies of scale and near slave labour), buying the fabric alone would be more expensive than most garments. Even assuming your time and labour cost nothing you've already lost money.

Also, you can easily get a second cup out of a tea bag, maybe even a third if you're desperate, but by the fifth you're just drinking hot water.

The tip I see a lot and HATE, is the "don't buy shaving cream , use a bar of soap instead you'll save $$$"

But shaving cream is cheap. One of the great bargains out there. For 99¢ I get a can of Barbasol that lasts over year. As a guy who shaves 6 days a week. It's literally less than a penny per use.

@outoftheblew: I'm a guy with longer hair then most womens.....I just save on all of the above.

@shepd: Are you using the American term "pants" or the English one? Makes a big difference.

@littlemisslondon: Then might I suggest Edguitar's comment?

@Rectilinear Propagation: "The making your own clothing tip depends on whether you're good at it or not."

It also depends on if you have at least $500 to buy a decent sewing machine or not.

@littlemisslondon: Then commando is your answer.

@bria: I just stopped using sandwich bags altogether and only use plastic containers. I save containers from everything: yogurt, cottage cheese, margarine, peanut butter; then use those to keep leftovers and such stored in.

@I Love New Jersey: I do the same thing, I always get it cut a bit shorter than I'd like - because within a week it's grown out perfectly; which i'd prefer over loving my hair for a week then saying it's too long again.

@squinko: I'd say the cost of fabric is more of an issue than the cost of a sewing machine. I've had my <$100 sewing machine for 10 years and it makes all the straight and zigzag stitches I need for shirts and pillow cases.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I cut mine, too. But mine fluctuates between waist length and tailbone length so it's not like it's that hard for me to trim it myself. :)

Where the heck can you get old second-hand calendars?

@mizike Drinking hot water - that's what great-Grandma did. As a frugal old Vermonter, she re-used her tea bags several times. Then realized that mostly she just liked the hot water and relaxing, so she never bought another tea bag! She did leave a very nice estate for her children - but somehow I wish she'd have just had a nice cup of tea every now and again.

@lintacious: Same with the washable containers thing. I got some cute bento boxes just to brighten up my boring lunches.

On the Craigslist frugal forum, reusing ziploc bags is quite an inside joke.

@NewsMuncher: I have (cheap) blackout curtains. They still let in a bit of light at the top but do help keep the place cool. I like to use this awesome hand-powered technique called "moving the curtains aside" when I need more light during the day - it doesn't let in too much heat, really. ;) As for the evenings when you'd need lights regardless of curtain choices, well, CFLs are easy to install. I think you're about to embark on a win-win, NewsMuncher.

We've seen a pretty significant change in our energy bills since implementing changing the bulbs, adding curtains and a programmable thermostat (for a fairly low start up cost). The steamy state of FL requires AC for ~7 months of the year and it certainly adds up!!

@squinko: Not to mention decent garment fabrics and patterns are NOT cheap! You can usually hit up a sale but you just can't count on it anymore. And my local fabric store is mostly crafty and quilt fabrics these days. I really miss having a good fabric selection.

Plus you have to factor in the time you spend sewing to the overall cost. So no, it's not really cost effective. I sew because I enjoy it, not because it's cheaper.

Same with knitting. Sure I can buy cheap plasticy yarn at Walmart, it still takes time to knit something. If I can buy a pair of knit gloves for a few bucks I will. But I'll spend the time knitting a nice pair of gloves out of decent yarn for the sheer enjoyment of the process.

@JulesWinnfield: Not to mention you can download blank calendars for free for any desired year.

Some of you are being kind of close-minded when it comes to making your own clothes! I make all kinds of adorable blouses and dresses from old clothes I already own or find second-hand. It's called reconstruction and it's fun!

I love taking my boyfriend's button downs and re-tooling them, let alone what you can do with t-shirts! Skirts, dresses, all kinds of tops...

When you get good at it it's indistinguishable from something premade, plus I can do my own alterations.