Life hacking refers to any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life.
This thread is for posting any promising or interesting ideas for lifehacks you've come up with or heard of. If you've implemented your idea, please share the results. You are also encouraged to post lifehack ideas you've tried out that have not been successful, and why you think they weren't. If you can, please give credit for ideas that you got from other people.
To any future posters of Lifehack Ideas threads, please remember to add the "lifehacks_thread" tag.
Not related to upfront costs per se, but here are some additional thrift tips.
A top-loading freezer loses less heat when opened than a front-loading freezer. Regardless of which kind you have, though, packing all the space not taken up by food with bottled tap water will greatly reduce the heat loss and save you money on your electrical bill.
If you're in the US, you're probably using fabric softener when you do laundry. I have experimented with the concentration of liquid fabric softener, and found that you can dilute it with water down to about 5-10% of its original strength and it still softens the clothing. I do laundry for a family of 3, and I only have to buy fabric softener once every six months or so, if that.
Laundry detergent is not quite as extreme as fabric softener, but I've found that diluting it (or if powder, just using less) to about 80% of its original concentration works fine, unless your clothes are really dirty or really smelly.
Still on the topic of laundry. Most of the time, there is no reason to wash your clothes with hot water. Unless they are really disgusting, cold water works fine, and save electricity.
If you don't want to switch from disposable razors, you can greatly extend their life by stropping them (against your arm works fine; just remember not to do it in the damaging direction).
If you eat out (not very thrifty to begin with, but sometimes time is precious), remember that even a non-alcoholic beverage is probably adding $2 to your bill ($2.40 with tip). Switch to water when eating out, and if you do so once a week, you're saving about $125/year.
Diluting (liquid) laundry detergent instead of just using less sounds weird to me, but maybe your washer works differently than mine.
In similar vein: slightly counterintuitively, front-loading washers are more efficient than top-loading. If water is expensive where you live, selling off the old one and switching is a good fiscal choice. Also consider getting newer toilets, if yours are old and use a lot of water per flush; the new designs are a lot more efficient.
Another perk of the "bottles of water in the fridge/freezer" trick is that it will k... (read more)