Cost cut in a lab

Equipments and chemicals in a lab are normally expensive. Actually one can't find any exception on earth. Thus lab-workers may have to figure out their own way to cut cost as much as possible. I think re-using tips and buffers may be one of the most common manners in each lab. Here I find some interesting examples of know-how (from The Scientist, Volume20, Issue 1, Page 55): 1. Stay away from the latest technical developments, and make do with the previous generation of equipment. 2. Make your own reagents. # This is why I make my own TBE(10x), TE(10x) buffers instead of purchasing new ones for my pcr. I see some people even make their own Taq and markers as well!! (amazing! How do they do that?!) 3. Grow your own cells. 4. Ask for free samples. # Like the GoTaq from Promega...but actually it's been too late; Kerry'd ordered Eppendorf HotMasterMix before the in vitro sales came to us. Anyway, can GoTaq perform hotstart? 5. Buy fusion antibodies. 6. Avoid top-shelf reagents. # So I don't need Taq from Qiagen. Also we may extract nucleic acid with traditional method (phenol/chloroform method) which is much less expensive than DNA/RNA prep kits (e.g. spin column). 7. Scale down recipes. # We usually do this one. 8. Reuse antibodies. # I did this when I was performing Western blotting in ex-lab. 9. Avoid chamber slides. 10. Autoclave, don't filter. # ...but filter sterilization is still needed when autoclave is unsuitable (e.g. enzymes). 11. Split the use and the cost of research animals. 12. Reuse, reuse, reuse. # Hah! This is gold-standard method for budget saving!! Reuse agarose gel, electrophoresis buffer and tips, etc. 13. Buy plastic bagged instead of racked. # Can anybody suggest where we can purchase plastic BAGGED filter tips?? 14. Use sterile items only for sterile techniques. 15. Get biotech company leftovers. 16. Create the equipment you want. # In other words, "order-made".