I've looked around, but I actually haven't seen a thread like this. Hopefully this is the right place to put it, if not, will someone please move it for me? Thank you!

Anyway. The reason for the thread.

I just recently discovered something pretty neat. Now, I love cherry coke, but it's RARE around here, and I can't really drink it when I DO find it because diabetes and regular coke don't work well together. HOWEVER, I can drink Coke Zero without things going wonky on me...I just don't really like the taste.

There's this neat stuff called Mio water enhancer. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it. It comes in 'normal' and energy-boosting, and a bajillion different flavours, one of which happens to be black cherry.  Black cherry Mio in water doesn't taste that great, almost like watered down cough syrup...but two drops in a 12 ounce bottle of Coke Zero? INSTANT cherry coke, and of a kind I can drink! Plus, bottles of Mio last for forever even when you use 'em for water flavouring, like I do, so whenever I have a coke zero as a treat I can turn it into cherry coke without additional cost, since I more than likely will already have a bottle of Mio sitting around somewhere. 

Now, story 'example' done...this is where you come in. What little life hacks like the above have you found? They could be anything, not just stuff to do with food or drink or whatever, but anything. Post them here. Let's see how many neat little tricks and tips we can get together, because hey, it might make all of our lives just a little bit easier!

When I have to go long periods without much sleep, I'll drink fruit and vegetable juice and have fewer meals. I just tried it once to see how much energy I'd save, and I definitely felt the difference. Now I resort to it almost every time I know I'm going to have an all-nighter.

I used to try to figure out my most unproductive hours of the day, and then shift my sleep schedule to get my sleep in during those hours. I haven't done this in a while, but it worked really well for me during particularly busy weeks.

I have several

- If it's in your way, try to buy your grocery wholesale. I live near such a district and I can spend $20 of a week-supply of veggies rather than $30 at Wal Mart, the cheapest place in D.C.
- Also try to buy in bulk. At Whole Foods, you can buy (usually) bulk spices, but also nuts and pasta if you like them. You only take what you need, saving on freshness while usually saving on cost too.
- Still about food: try buying large quantities if you won't lose them. A case of 24 beers is less expansive per bottle than a case of 12 or buying individual bottles. But do be careful because it can NOT be the case sometimes.
- Buying a generic brand, as long as the active ingredient is the same, can save you half the price. Last time I went to Walgreens, I noticed that there was a generic Allegra with the same proportion of the active ingredient that was 40 percent cheaper.
- The same thing goes for food: the house brand is usually as good as the popular brand but 10-20 percent cheaper (be careful with canned salmon; the No Name brand tastes awful).

- I now use my cell phone in order to take "ephemeral" notes like my grocery list and my exercise routine. It takes much less space and the ink doesn't bleed out nor does it get so wet I can't write on it.

- When looking for ways to move around, always look carefully for the cheaper means AND the fastest one. In D.C. it's possible to get a yearly subscription for the bike sharing service for $75; in comparison a weekly bus pass is $17.50. It still use it when it's raining/snowing/icy but I otherwise can afford to bike wherever I need.

EideticMemory : Ooh, that about the juice and things when you have to pull an all nighter sounds REALLY helpful. I'll have to remember that one.

I wish I could do the same thing about my sleep, but that wouldn't work for me. Not the only person living here, so sleeping at odd hours wouldn't quite cut it. That's useful if you're in a place where you are able to do that, though! Neat 'life hacks', thank you!

Yunimori :

No problem, haha. I've also learned to use technology and limited amounts of caffeine to drastically cut down on time I spend on various things. As you can see, I've focused most of my effort on 'hacking' my time.

In a way, I see it as prolonging my life. That might be a strange way to look at it, but I feel like if I have done twice the amount of things I would have normally completed in a day, I've not only saved that many hours, but lived more in that time period.

janus: I didn't see you post before I replied, whoops!

That first one is one my family does already, and it really is a life saver. We have a grocery store about 30 miles away, and it's a giant discount grocery. You never know what they'll have beyond the basics, but usually it's good stuff and it is WAY cheaper than walmart, and you can buy in bulk if they have it. Good place to do things like stock up on pasta, paper towels, and dog food. 

We buy some things in large quantities out of necessity, but that's not as useful (at least for my family) because of space issues. Tiny house that is over 100 years old and has very little in the way of cabinet space, I'm afraid. XD

Generic branding, though, that's a good thing. Usually generic is just as good and sometimes better than name brand, and around here that REALLY saves money, unless it's spices. Spices are expensive no matter what they are unless you're lucky enough to have a salvage store nearby. 

The cell phone thing is a neat trick. I hadn't ever thought of doing that. I'll tell my little sister that, since she's the one with something other than an ancient flip phone and she goes grocery shopping with the parents more often than I do. That might be a handy saver trick since the grocery list remains forever lost once it's written.

Unfortunately, the public transport thing won't apply to me, but hopefully others who live in an urban area will get some use out of it. Other than school buses, there is no public transport around here, and you have to have a car. Bicycles won't get you anywhere before dark except to a neighbor's house. Maybe. XD

Yunimori : Yeah, the transportation trick applies to larger cities. Back in my parents' town (a suburb), bus service is rather limited, biking is impractical six months a year and everything is far away.

As for space: where there's a will there's a way. Before the previous roommate moved, the fridge was simply jam-packed. But a slight reorganizing can always make things fit. When you thought doing puzzles was just a waste of time .

Some time back I actually ended up finding a video that shows you how to make a "ghetto stylus" for a tablet.

Take a cheap ball point pen such as a Bic, and twist the end off so the ink well and cap come out of the plastic tube so you're left with a hollow plastic tube end. Then take a sponge, cut the scrubby side off (it's usually a green color, depends on the sponge). Then wash out the sponge of any pre-contained soap thoroughly. Then cut along the width of the sponge about a 1/4 inch or so from the end (may need a little trial and error), then cut that strip you now have about half way also down the width. Moisten up the sponge strip just a little bit, then twist the piece of sponge into the empty pen tube. You now have a "ghetto stylus". The sponge may need to be moistened up every so often to make sure it works properly.

It actually works because most touch screens for phones and tablets these days are activated by the electrons that come off your hand, not by finger prints or heat. When you grip the "stylus" you're sending electrons through your hand into the plastic, which in turn transfers them to the sponge which the touch screen actually picks up. You'll notice when your fingers are closer to the sponge while it's in the tube you'll get better results since the electrons can transfer more easily from your hand through the stylus.

AdxAdrenix : Ooooh, that's one I'll actually use, I think. Mostly because I keep losing my one and only 3DS stylus since it's broken and won't go into the back of the 3DS any longer. I'll have to make myself a couple and keep them stashed around my room and in my bag. Thanks for the neat trick, that'll come in handy!

Yunimori : Actually it doesn't work with a DS, only things like iPhones, iPads, Galaxy's and other things like that. The DS is actually an exception in what I said because if you notice, the stylus you use for them is purely just plastic. That's not quite enough to transfer electrons from your hand into the screen. DS screens actually work through pressure, you can test this by pushing on the screen with your finger nail. You may notice it has little bit of give, that's so the screen can take detect where the pressure is coming from. Hope that clarifies things.

AdxAdrenix: Oh, I know about the pure plastic thing, but I figure a slightly softer thing than my fingernail might be good for my 3DS touch screen in the long run? I can use a stiffer sponge to make a tip and it should still work, if a super-squishy pencil eraser tip (what I'm using right now) does, right? I'm trying not to scratch my 3DS up too much, really, so if this works it would be nice. If not, I can give it to my sister for her phone, since I don't think she even has a stylus for it any longer.

Yunimori : You might need a slightly finer point than a sponge I imagine, since the stylus that usually comes with those has a fairly thin pointed end for precision. But it's worth a shot if you're up for it.