What thrifty things do you do that you're surprised no one else does?

Same as most people here. My granny used to make tea towels from old clothes, boil water for tea and put the remainder in a vacuum flask for later, never wasted any food and all sorts of other “tricks” but then she’d had to bring up 2 children single handed. She wasted nothing even to the extent of pickling betroot using left over mint sauce - do not do this as it tastes horrible!!

We use all the food we buy. Never throw leftovers out. It always horrifies me to hear of someone putting food in the bin.
Tapas days take care of all the yummy leftovers.
Even broccoli and cauliflower stems get added to coleslaw.
Peelings go into the compost heap and bones into the slow cooker for stock.

I always use tea bags twice.

I get the best bargains I can. Look on eBay for high ticket items that I'd like but prefer to pay less for and that includes toiletries. Having said that, Lacura from Aldi are fantastic and I have stocked up on their face creams in fact, Aldi have other great bargains in homeward and garden stuff so I'm happy to shop there.
I do miss Primark but look forward to the sales once shops open.

If I have any hand cream or face cream you are not keen on decant it into a small jar, mine says Dijon mustard, and stir in a teaspoon of granulated sugar and you have a body scrub. You can make it as strong or as mild as you want.

Nanny27 - you made me think of my mum who did this. I do now along with using old good quality pillow cases to make face masks as they are closely woven.I do most of the other tips as well as new labels on those envelopes suppliers enclose with some bills or catalogues. I haven’t bought envelopes for years.

I shall adopt the cutting off the end tip for toothpaste, and other cream substances as recommended here. Thanks for the tip

I have so many lotions and potions lying around, with all the hand washing (I used to use sanitizing gel a lot) I'm using them up! Also shampoos and shower gels both bought and acquired. I also re-use cotton vests and tee shirt for dusting and washing surfaces, they are very absorbent. Old sheets, I am presently cutting up to make laundry bags for the NHS

I don't use soap for showers or shampoo any more, and boil eggs in only about an inch of water, as they cook in the steam as well.
Use the slow cooker, which needs the same electricity as a light bulb, to cook stews overnight in winter. It will also cook a whole chicken, but the skin won't be crackly as it is when roasted.
And the carcass goes into the slow cooker too, no steam, and you can leave it on safely all night, or when you're out during the day.
All our moneysaving tips are also good for the environment too.

I make chutney out of fruit going a bit off, add water to dilute anything in a pump dispenser, or shampoo, conditioner etc, make soup from leftover veg, added nettles to soup, made 'honey' from dandelion heads, check ebay for clothes before I buy new, (was doing charity shops) and put clothes away at the end of the summer and bring them out again the following year - nice surprise since I forgot I had some things!

When I can't scrape any more out of a jar of Marmite I put some very hot water in and give it a shake to get the last bit out to use in a bolognese, stew or whatever I'm cooking that day.

To save on my water bill, I heard this saying about the toilet.
If it's yellow let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down. :-) It's fine living on your own. My sons thought it hilarious.

I learned much from my mother who kept us well fed during the days of rationing. Old habits die hard and many the time late H would ask 'what's on the menu today mum's ww11 pie' ? frequently asking for 'seconds'.

Reading down this list, I’ve realised how many of these I already do, I guess it goes back to my two grannies who had to survive a war with big families, they always taught us about Make Do and Mend, also Waste Not, Want Not. During lockdown I’ve been crocheting pram blankets and baby clothes from scraps of wool given to me ages ago by friends who are ardent knitters, I’ve been reading my way through a pile of books I already have (from charity shops or friends), these are then being doorstep dropped to other pals, also my home made soup and home baking is being shared out (in recycled containers at a social distance, obviously). In fact I’ve even started adding up the cost of the ingredients I use each day for our meals! We’ve certainly realised how little we truly need. My next plan is to pop some stuff on eBay then post it out in recycled bubble wrap etc.

I'm always making notebooks out of scrap paper - I've enough to last several lifetimes! I also do the 'tube cut in half' thing.

I save the cardboard inserts on tights and socks as well as packaging materials like bubble wrap and poly bags.

Just a (polite) note to Terribull. Thought that we are no longer supposed to feed ducks with bread - lettuce is the preferred alternative!

My sort of thread, with some great ideas! I never thought of cutting the ends of toothpaste tubes before although I do stick old slivers of soap to the new bar.
I save butter wrappers to grease baking trays - a habit picked up from my very thrifty mum.

Thanks to the person who started this thread. I love all the tips. I am an avid reader and buy all my books in charity shops, 50p each. I also look out for yarn in charity shops, usually 50p a ball. I knit baby clothes and donate them to a charity that supports new mums. My husband is the cook in our house and he makes soup with any leftover veg. When I buy a loaf I put half in the freezer as we cant eat a whole loaf without it going stale.

For an inorganic ant deterrent use sprinklings of baking powder/bicarbonatre of soda. The ants never seem to be particularly excited to see the trails but usually by the next day they have all departed. I surrounded the plate containing a freshly iced cake with a trail of BP. It was completely untouched the following day AND the ants had all gone. I later found a pile of dead ants under a frying pan I had left to drain

I turn containers of shampoo, body shampoo and other cleaning agents in liquid form upside down when they are "empty". It is truly astonishing how much is left in the container at that point.

The body shampoo one provides soap for at least four showers after it is supposedly empty.

I make my own stock and breadcrumbs too, bake my own bread, rarely buy soup, and keep worn out socks for polishing brass and silver, and have been known to make floor cloths out of old towels.

We turn off lights when we leave a room and turn off the shower while soaping ourselves.

*To save on my water bill, I heard this saying about the toilet.
If it's yellow let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down. :-) *
We've been doing this since the drought in 1976, when they told us to save water.

I add water to the last of the washing up liquid so the plasit bottle is properly empty.

I cut bits off clothes to make them the shape I want them to be, although this does not always work.

I fish the supposedly-empty toothpaste tube out of the bathroom bin after OH has thrown it away, and get nearly another week's use out of it!

If our bread has come in a plastic wrapper, I wash the bags out once the bread is gone, and use them for all kinds of things.

Little plastic tubs are kept for freezing small amounts of left-over food in - and bigger ones for larger amounts, obviously

As tubes of Nivea and toothpaste become too squeezed to squeeze comfortably I cut them in half and access the contents by removing the lower half as needed. This is not too hygienic for the Nivea, so it gets relegated from face moisturiser to body moisturiser.