A MUM who lives in a mansion has revealed that she washes her kids clothes in the pool to save money.

Jeni Cox, who appears on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates, hates spending a penny on anything she doesn’t have to.

She explains: “I’ve always been really cheap, I just get a good feeling out of not spending a lot of money but still accomplishing whatever goal I have.

“I hate spending money on things I can’t see the next day if it’s gone.”

The mum-of-three limits herself to one gallon of gas a day which she tops up a day at a time to “limit where she can go.”

She says: “Gas is kind of like makeup, less is more. When you buy less, you use less and you save more.”

Fitness fanatic Jeni is prepared to make the journey to workout, but rather than forking out for a gym membership she just visits her local sports shop to use the equipment.

“Instead of going to gyms I just go to sporting goods stores for about 45 minutes a day”, she says.

“Going to a gym paying for a membership, that’s like $75 a month, it doesn’t cost me a dime to work out in that sporting goods store.”

Once back home, Jeni has figured out ways to save money on every bill.

She plops a couple of bricks into her toilet cistern to displace the water, meaning she uses 350 less gallons of water a month.

The biggest expense in Jeni’s life is the outdoor pool in her garden.

She says: “It’s very expensive to try and maintain this pool and I’ve done a lot of research of ways to try and save money on it.

“I still keep the pool because I’ve got three kids and we don’t go on a lot of expensive vacations so I figure that’s kind of like a vacation.

“One way to save money on this pool is to reduce the size of the pool. Just like putting a brick in the toilet.”

But instead of a brick, Jeni uses tables weighted down with containers filled with sand to decrease the water volume in the pool.

And Jeni has found a way that she can use the pool to her advantage when it comes to saving money.

“I do the laundry in the pool because the chemicals that are in the pool are similar to ones found in laundry detergent”, she says as she throws her kids clothes in.

“Running the washing machine costs money.”

One thing that Jeni is struggling to cut costs on is the pool filter which costs her $200 a month to run.

But Jeni has a plan, returning to the sports store to see if she can use the exercise bike to cut down her costs.

“If I build a bike generator to run this pool filter it will cost me nothing on my power bill”, she says.

Her plan works but unfortunately the sales assistant won’t let her take the bike home for free and Jeni isn’t prepared to part with the $199 to buy it.

She says: “My habits may be extreme to some people but I show it off to everybody, it makes me happy.”

In other real life news, this family took revenge on an "extreme cheapskate" by making her pay the $200 restaurant bill.

And this mum refuses to spend a penny over £700 on her daughter's wedding.

Plus this woman uses strangers' socks as sanitary towels to save money.

Source: Read Full Article