In the May 2010 issue of Reader’s Digest an article described some of the extremes people will go to to save money. The ones that leaped out at me were:

• Save a McDonald’s paper coffee cup to run into any McDonald’s restaurant and get a “free” refill. Another way to think about this is “stealing.”
• Reuse trash bags–they wait for the garbage man, dump the contents of the garbage bag into the truck and bring the empty bag back inside the house to do it again. Another way to think about this is “gross.”

Reader’s Digest invited readers to share their own extreme money saving tips and here is what some of them shared:

• Bring your own Tupperware to parties to bring home left over hors d’oeuvres.
• Reusing: toothpicks, paper towels, floss, plastic sandwich bags, tinfoil, and other things that are meant to be used once and disposed of.
• Retrieving toilet paper from the trees after someone’s house gets “TP’d.”
• Diluting shampoo, household cleaners, and liquor.
• Bring loved ones to the store and read out loud the greeting cards you “would have bought them” if you weren’t so cheap.
• Bring your own slice of cheese to fast food restaurants to make your own cheeseburgers.
• Swing by the recycle center or check neighbor’s recycle bins for magazines and the Sunday paper.
• Walk through fast food drive thrus and pick up the change that people have dropped but not bothered picking up.
• Look for food that is out of date at the grocery store–including dairy–and get it for half price.
• When traveling, bring an empty bottle and fill it at a water fountain after you go through airport security.
• Only put one bulb in a multi-bulb light fixture like a chandelier.
• Mail out Christmas cards without postage but put the recipient’s address in the return address spot, so the post office will deliver the card to that address stamped “insufficient postage.” (this too is stealing).
• Bathing only once a week to save water or saving your shower or tub water to flush the toilet or water your garden.