What will -- or won't -- you do to save a buck?

Recently blogger Yazmin Cruz revealed "12 crazy things I do to save money" on the Bargain Babe website. Some of them sounded sensible.

However, one tip (reusing stamps) is illegal and another (flashing a student ID a year after graduating to get discounts) is ethically questionable.

Cruz later amended the post to explain that:

• A postal worker told her it was OK to reuse noncanceled stamps, and that she's lately seen "many" people do this.
• She's taking an online class so doesn't that mean she's technically still a student?

Just because you can get away with things like these doesn't mean you should do them. At what point does frugality become theft?

On the other hand, the blogger's suggestions to save butter wrappers for greasing baking dishes, harvest garden seeds from year to year and use teabags more than once make sense. That is, if you don't mind being what Wise Bread staffer Kentin Waits calls "quirky."

In a piece called "30 signs that you were raised by frugal parents," Waits cites dead giveaways like "You can calculate any product's price-per-ounce in mere seconds" and "At least three pieces of your household furniture were acquired through dumpster-diving, a yard sale, an estate sale, or thrift store."

Quirky? Nah, just frugal. "Quirky" is stuff like my two-part Head Cold Frugal Hack:

1. When I'm all rhinovirus-y I use toilet paper to blow my nose instead of running out to buy tissues.
2. The paper goes into the bathroom trashcan -- within reach of the toilet. You know why.

Yep, that's incredibly cheap, not to mention a little embarrassing. But a friend recently copped to doing the same thing.

So why out myself if it's so embarrassing? To pose the question: What will you do, or not do, to save money?

Reduce, reuse, recycle
Here are a few more of my personal frugal quirks:

When I use paper towels I cut off the amount I need and fold the rest up for future use. (Yes, I know you can buy towels perforated in small and large sizes. But I'm still working my way through rolls I bought a few years ago.)

I eat "old" bread. Sometimes that's a long-in-the-tooth loaf from the bakery bakery outlet, and sometimes it's bread that just got overlooked in my own kitchen or freezer. You can't tell that it's stale if you toast it.
I use the plastic liners from cracker or cereal boxes as protection against freezer burn when putting meat in the freezer. On my drive up to Alaska, some of these bags held the sandwiches I made to eat along the way.

I print travel itineraries, social media vouchers and personal letters on the unused sides of press releases and old printouts.

When the pretzels are all gone, there's salt in the bottom of the bag. It's fine for seasoning homemade soup.

What's your offbeat habit?
Some money-saving tips are sort of silly, i.e., you wouldn't want anyone to see you doing them but you still believe they're worth your time.

Time is the issue here. Certain frugal tactics may not be worth the money you save. As a broke single mother, I did all our laundry by hand -- including diapers -- because every quarter counted. (It also beat having to carry soiled didies, soap, bleach and a baby to the laundromat after working all day.)

I had more time than money then. Now that I have a job, I no longer do things that take too much time away from my ability to earn a living. I can make considerably more per hour by writing than by doing my laundry in the sink.

Yet I still use the money-saving tips noted above (and a whole lot of others), even though I could technically afford to let them go. I consider them eco-thrifty moves, i.e., they save me money and reduce waste.

How about you: What odd economies do you use? Do you do them stealthily or proudly? Do you get teased by friends or family?

More on MSN Money:

• 'Frugal' doesn't mean 'deprived'
• Earn more or spend less?
• 8 things you shouldn't cheap out on
• Are rebates worth it?