Real People Unhinged Ways to Save Money!! (You Won't BELIEVE What They Do!)

Today, we are diving into the most wildest, weirdest, most ridiculously creative ways people are pinching pennies, and I'll tell you whether it's genius or just plain gross. Now you think you've gone to extreme lengths to save money, wait until you see what real people are out here doing. I've compiled a list of videos from social media and some of these money saving hacks are just so unhinged that you'll be questioning your entire budget strategy. Okay, let's take a look at this first one where this guy claims that he has the solution to the $1 breakfast. This is my $1 breakfast that I make every day as a frugal person. I think it's delicious and easy to make, so this is how I do it. So I start my day early so I have enough time to make breakfast before work because there's no excuses. I grab four eggs. Where I go grocery shopping, it costs $11 to get five dozen eggs, which is... I mean, five dozen eggs is quite a lot. I mean, if you're really going to invest in this strategy, I guess you've got to stock up at Costco or Sam's Club, but just wait until you see what he does with this. 18 cents an egg. I grab one tortilla. Notice how he grabbed the tortilla out of the freezer. I just caught that. It's coming out of his freezer, so he's clearly, again, stocking up maybe on the tortillas or just wanting to prolong the shelf life of a tortilla. So this is really interesting. Egg. I grab one tortilla. Tortilla from this pack is 16 cents, so I start by oiling my pan. I only do a few drops of oil because oil is expensive and it's fattening, then I just lubricate. Oil is expensive and oil is fattening. Okay, so it kills me that he only uses a few drops of olive oil because I can be very heavy handed with olive oil instead of putting the bottle of olive oil into like an olive oil bottle with a straw nozzle and olive oil. When I buy it from Costco during the pandemic, it jumped up to $23 from 17, so I know that it's pricey. The fact that he's only using a few drops is just so funny. No, you don't need a silicone brush job. So I'll grab my spices. Once the pan is hot enough, I start cooking my eggs and then some mornings when I'm feeling a little extra hungry, I will grab this yogurt. It is pretty pricey. Luckily, I found it on sale for $5 the other day, but I only have a couple of spoonfuls, so it doesn't really cost that much. The way he murdered those eggs, even with the olive oil, he just totally murdered the eggs. I plug in my microwave to warm up my tortilla. Okay, hold up. He just said that he plugged in his microwave to warm up the tortilla, so he's not even plugging in his appliances in order to save money. Yes, I keep everything unplugged in my apartment. Duh, of course. So then once the eggs are cooked, I plate them on the tortilla, jazz it up with a little bit of ketchup, which to some people it's gross. I think ketchup on eggs is good. Also I only drink water in my apartment because of course it's free. No coffee juice, anything like that. And bon appetito. I usually find something on YouTube to watch. I've been enjoying Trisha's podcast, but that's it. That is my simple $1 frugal breakfast. Thanks for watching. Okay, I have other comments on this because the ketchup on the eggs I don't mind because I feel like you're doing ketchup with hash browns and eggs and it kind of all just mixes together for me. So that doesn't really bother me. But what makes this truly unhinged is he did his breakfast without coffee. As an avid coffee drinker, I'm just like, that is mind blowing that he just started his day with water. And all you water drinkers out there that are like, no, I don't ever do coffee. Like kudos to you. I don't think I could handle my two children and my life without coffee. All right. This next one that I saw, she claims that she's doing embarrassingly cheap things to save money. And some of the stuff I actually agree with and other things I'm like, are we really saving money here? So let's check it out. These are the weirdest things I do to try to save money. Number one, charging things everywhere else by my own home. Okay. Sorry, if it's at my workplace. Sorry, if my boss is watching this at a cafe or wherever I was in public, if I have my chargers with me, you best believe that I'm waiting for it to hit a hundred percent before I leave. Honestly, I don't even pay my own utility bills at home, but I guess like I'm trying to help my parents out a little bit. So I just kind of charge it out in public before I get to my own house or two. Okay. So I see what she's saying. If she's out and about, she's going to be charging her phone in different places, maybe her computer. But I really question the strategy here because I'm not sure entirely how much energy is required that goes into charging a phone and how much that would be affecting your energy bill. So is it really saving money? That would be a hard one for me to determine and test because your energy usage fluctuates so much from month to month. I'm also assuming that she doesn't leave her phone charged in overnight when she's sleeping either. So if it's really important for her, because that would take up the most energy. I always have my phone plugged in when I'm asleep. So if she's not doing that, then I can see the emphasis on her wanting to charge it at public places in order to save money there. But I question the overall efforts, if it's actually worth it. Cutting up a toothpaste tube to get every single last bit. You'd be surprised by the amount of toothpaste that is in like the crevices of the walls of the toothpaste tube that you can use, but it's going to waste because you don't see it. I actually love the toothpaste hack. Even though toothpaste is not an expense that I find like, oh my gosh, toothpaste is so expensive because you're just using so little of it every single time you brush your teeth. But I like the idea in terms of not being wasteful and not wasting anything by throwing it in the trash. So cutting it off, I actually kind of like. Number three, taking advantage of all of the in-app deals stuff. So like if DQ has one of those free ice cream days, you best believe that I'm going to be downloading the app and getting my ass to DQ. I might not even be craving ice cream, but it's free. So like might as well go there. And honestly, like the amount of money that's being spent on gas is probably equivalent to like a small ice cream cone. So this doesn't really add up. Okay. So I think she is like, oh, I think I just contradicted myself because a lot of those in-app deals have certain stipulations to them, such as you have to buy an entree in order to get a free dessert. Also she kind of said there, like you have to drive to that establishment and spend money on gas in order to get that free item. So I think this could work if she was already out and about or right next door to something like that, that has a free deal. And if there wasn't any other purchase that you have to make in order to get the free item. Okay. This next one is all about spending money only on a certain day of the week. And when I saw this, I was like, is this genius or is this dumb? I saw this girl on here who only spends money one day, which I think is like the most genius thing ever. And so I'm going to try it. She calls it spend Sundays and I'm going to do it on Mondays because whatever. But we are going to do ours on Monday and we're only going to spend money on Monday. So we're going to do all of our grocery shopping, like you add everything to your Amazon cart during the week, all that kind of stuff that you just check out with everything on one day a week. So then you only have four or five days a week to spend money. And she cut her monthly budget by 30% and I don't think she was really trying. I'll tag her on here if I find a video. But I think it's a great idea. I need to try it too. I saw. Okay. So basically what she's saying is it encourages you to only make purchases on a certain day of the week. So people in the comments were like, okay, money Monday, that sort of thing. But so it encourages you to lump all your purchases together. So one Amazon cart purchase, one grocery purchase, one shopping purchase all within one day. So then you're not spending money for the rest of the week. But when I was reading through the comments, there were mixed reviews. Some people are praising the concept saying that it's helping them with impulse shopping while others are complaining that they need their little treat before work every day to get that daily dopamine. And if that's you, I'm scared for you. One of the comments said, that's a great idea because if my Amazon cart was $300, I'd be like, absolutely not. But if I spend 30 Monday, 40 Tuesday, 20 Wednesday, I think it's okay. So I get that concept. If you're like adding things to your Amazon cart, but then delaying it until you hit your money Monday and then you go through your cart and see, Oh, I actually, I don't need half of this stuff that's in here. It helps you curve that impulse buying habit so that you're a little bit more aware of what you're spending money on and if it's junk versus what you actually really love. But then I see other comments here that says, except I need my little treat before work every day, but I run out of alcohol like Thursday. I need the daily dopamine hit though. So a lot of people are saying like, they need to be spending money in order every day in order to feel happy. I would really question their relationship to money, but let's check out what other people are doing to save a buck. Let me tell y'all a little secret. Oh, you see the price of this garlic salt and I'll do the, okay. Okay. So $6.89 for the minced onion and $3.49 for garlic salt, $3.49 for a, how many, three ounce. Okay. And $6.89 for 6.37. If you head over to the international aisle, look what you can get. So much my bang for your buck. That is 11 ounces of garlic salt for $3.19 and five ounces of chopped onions for $10.99. So one of those favorite things I've learned on Tik Tok, but I'd share with you, but you probably already know that. Bye. Okay. So basically what she's saying is the spices that you find in the regular spice aisle can be found in the international aisle for a lot less. And it's basically the exact same thing. So somebody in the comments said, don't share our secrets. You can also get this with olive oil in the Hispanic aisle and commenters are also suggesting to buy spices at places like Dollar Tree, food for less or any Hispanic supermarkets. So it's literally the same spice, but it's just packaged differently. You can also do the same things for like cinnamon and sesame seeds. So hopefully this is something that you are taking advantage of or just having the awareness of how things are priced and package for different things. Okay. This next one was really fascinating. I had never heard of this and still until I stumbled across this video and this one is all about project pan. I thought I'd use this comment to explain what project pan even is because a lot of people don't know. And I didn't know either until I looked it up. So it has nothing to do with throwing away products. If you have before you buy new ones, for example, something I love to buy as lip products. So like here, all these lip products, I will not buy another one until all of these are gone. So I'm not throwing them out. I'm just not going to keep buying them until I use up all of these ones. And there's different categories you can make for yourself. So for hair products, I won't buy another hair product like shampoo and conditioner until I finish everything I already have. And I love buying stuff. That's my biggest problem. I just feel like this is a great way to start out the new year to clear out everything I already have so I can have a clean slate because I keep buying things and it just piles up more and more and more and I don't need all of that. So that's what project. Okay. So essentially what you're doing is instead of buying multiples of the same item, you're only using the items that you already have. You're utilizing them until they're empty before you purchase another item. So let's take a look at people putting project pan into action. This video is going to be super out of touch. I started project pan almost exactly one month ago and this is everything I have left. I finished one month, leaving me with six remaining. I'm currently using this one. It's about halfway done and this one I used around Halloween and that's how much is done from it. These four are completely unopened. Embarrassing. Also. I love that she's calling herself out in this video and clearly she has a love and fascination for Bath and Body Works products. I finished one hand soap this month, leaving me with five completely unopened hand soaps and my current one, which makes six. I finished one candle this month, which leaves me with seven unopened candles and nine candles that are still in progress. Actually 10 candles that are still in progress. I forgot this one. This is my current one and I am finishing this one first. Unfortunately, this one is a Christmas one and these two are Christmas ones. Why do I have two of these? I don't know. So these I'm going to wait on. I also went through one concentrated room spray, which leaves me with four. I know I have three here. I forgot one under my kitchen counter. Went through one mini hydration lotion this month, which leaves me with three full size slightly used hydration creams, one mini completely unused hydration cream, two lotions that are about halfway used, four lotions that are slightly used, two completely unopened lotions. That is 12 lotions and hydration creams in total. I also have two. That is so many lotions. I usually rotate between like two or three lotions and I thought, Oh, maybe I don't need this many, but this putting it into perspective and the thing about her using up all of these lotions and candles and shower gels is like, she's obviously after these one of a kind unique scents that only Bath and Body Works really delivers. I get that. It's something unique and cool and you want to change up the scent and kind of change up your mood according to seasons. I see that she has some of these kind of like spooky ones. They're like seasonal holiday focus. She's got some summer scents and so you kind of want to change it up when you're going through the seasons, but this is truly like very crazy and the way that she's saving money here is she's just stopped her impulse shopping. She stopped overspending on these products by using up the stuff that she already has, but let me tell you where Project Pan goes wrong. Okay. This is truly insane. She has literally a whole drawer of all these different. It looks like little mini hand sanitizers, little lip balms. It's just bags and bags of product. She has probably, I'm guessing at least 20 of these body creams inside of this bag and the caption says Project Pan 2035 is looking good. I don't know if that's a typo or what she's wanting to do, but maybe she's planning on using all of this stuff within the next 10 years. If so, I just question whether or not she's actually saving money because this is actually misusing the whole idea by bulking up and spending all this money to get all of these products for what just, just for you to use and switch. I feel like she's not actually changing her spending behavior or really truly saving money because then you can see literally like 30 different different lotions. This type of content actually goes back to overconsumption. You know, you're just constantly chasing that daily dopamine hit by having all of these items and for what are we really, really truly finding happiness and contentment here by placing emphasis on stuff rather than reflecting on your core values of who you truly are, which is separate from spending money. Your core values has to do with the things that make who you are, that fill you with joy that are free and if you've made it this far in the video, you are not going to believe what this woman did to save money. One time I took a ---- so large that I clogged my toilet and my plunger was doing absolutely nothing for me. So I called a plumber and I asked him how much it would be for him to come out and unplug my toilet and he quoted me $400 and I was like, $400 is way too much money. I can do it myself. I drove to Home Depot. I bought a $60 auger and I came home and I unclogged my toilet and then I was like, what am I going to do with this auger because it's, it was massive and I didn't know how to store it because it literally had ---- on it. And so I thought about getting rid of it, but no, I'm not going to get rid of it. I'm going to store it in my closet in a trash bag in case I need it again. And two months later, lo and behold, I did need it again because I took another massive ----. So I unclogged my toilet and while I was unclogging it, I was like, you know what sounds good? Thai food. So after I got done, I went downstairs, got ready, and I drove to go get Thai food from my local restaurant. And I'm a regular there. And I was talking to the lady and I was asking her how her day was and she was like, it's been okay. You know, someone clogged the toilet and we can't get it unclogged, so I'm going to have to call a plumber. And I was like, no, no, no, no. Don't call a plumber. They're going to charge you way too much money. I got you. And I drove home and I got my auger and I went back to the restaurant and I unclogged the toilet and she gave me a hundred dollar gift card. And that is how taking a massive ---- saved me $40. I was just like, I cannot even believe this. Basically kudos to this woman for openly talking about poop on the internet and specifically like her own BMs because that takes a level of just comfortability that you just don't get anywhere else. Also, she does reference in her comment that she saved herself $400 twice by purchasing her $60 auger and the generosity of this woman to go back to that Thai restaurant and just say, you know what? I got you. I know how to do this. And the Thai restaurant owner being like, amazing, here's a hundred dollar gift card. I think that is pure genius. And the fact that she was so open to share this story on the internet is just like, wow. And she says that that's how we justify our tool purchases. Sure. I mean you, this person, this, this comment here says, ma'am, you are now the plumber, which I absolutely love. So I have to admit it's a little gross, but she did save herself a lot of money. Do you find any of these examples truly unhinged? Or is there something that you're like, actually, no, that was genius. Let me know in the comments below and I'll catch you in the next video.