Quirky little frugal things

I do a bunch of quirky little frugal things.  I seriously doubt if any of them save me loads and loads of money. But it's the attitude I maintain, that I think is important. If I'm doing these little things, then hopefully when it comes time for the biggies, like buying a new (to us) car, my attitude will be such as to avoid wasteful extravagance. (I say wasteful extravagance as I think there is a place for extravagance, when you can afford it and it fits the occasion.)

Some of my little quirks:

Saving half packets of splenda
After church, when I'm making my cup of coffee, I open and use 1/2 packet of splenda. Instead of throwing away the other half (it's still half full, not half empty), I carefully fold over the top edge of the packet and tuck it into my pocket. When I get home I empty my pockets and place half full splenda packets on the sugar canister in the kitchen.  I cannot bring myself to throw that half packet away.

Saving the crumbs when I slice homemade bread
While I wait for my bread to toast, I take a minute to slice the rest of a loaf of bread.  I don't just dust the crumbs into the sink, but get a container out of the freezer (my bread crumb container to add to "neatballs"), and scoop them into that.  It may only be about 1 tablespoon of crumbs, but I simply can't bring myself to waste.

Calculating the cost of each meal
At the dinner table, sometimes I'm silent for a bit.  Then I'll suddenly spark with conversation, "guess how much tonight's dinner cost?"  Of course, expecting everyone else at the table to be riveted with interest over the extremely low cost of my meals, I answer before they can even get a word in. "$1.67, and that's for all five of us!," I'll exclaim.  It's just a quirk of mine, to calculate the cost of many things during the day.

For those of you wondering, no, I don't make my family follow the same.  If they waste a half packet of splenda, or 1 tablespoon of crumbs, or don't care how much dinner costs, well its on them, is all I can say! Kidding -- I do know that the world and our bank account will not collapse if my family does not follow my lead.