I clean and sterilize many things ! If its plastic its saved ! A few years back hubby wanted to try some of the frozen dinners ! He found out pretty fast that they were made for people without taste buds ! Dogs ate well for a while but I saved the containers ! Also the plastic containers that sandwich meats come in are used for things like single servings of casseroles, some are large enough for two servings ! Cottage cheese and sour cream containers are used for beans, soups, stew, chili ect ! I have seen some two compartment containers at Dollar Tree but dumb me didn`t buy them ! Need to check again ! Basically I think about almost everything,, what can I use this for ! They also come in handy if someone is ill and doesn`t feel like cooking ! Load up a few and all they need to do is thaw and heat up !
I am frugal to a degree but now with the government change happening here I will have to go back to searching for the best price on everything we need and stocking up the freezer and pantry. Government shutdowns are no fun, Randy works for one branch of the government... we have, in the past, gone through shutdowns of 2 weeks to 4+ months and more than one time a year.
Apart from food shopping, most of my purchases are from eBay. Over 500 purchases in about ten years Far cheaper than stores. Even for trivial things, I needed a new 50w lamp for one of the eight kitchen ceiling spotlights I usually have a few spares but had run out. I could have gone to Homebase by car and paid £3.50 for one. I ordered a pack of 10 of them from a lighting supplier. on eBay, £10 post free. My aging Humax HDR 2000T's remote control was playing up. Humax wanted £27 for a replacement. A new one from a supplier in China (who probably make them for Humax) via eBay cost £6.49 post free came a couple of days ago and took only about a week to arrive. The only discernable difference was it didn't have the word "Humax" above the model number printed on the base. It works fine.
Well,, You can buy from Wal-Mart who gets them from China or buy direct from China and save money without leaving home ! Irks me to have to do it but sometimes you have no choice !
No Mart I do not think you are a cheapie but a SMARTIE like us Yes we were raised right by our parents and we do the same here Things that have a long shelf life we purchase in bulk from wholesaler but in small quantity like a carton or so. Sometimes we get special gifts and discounts too because they like us Yes if it is a saving it is a effort well worth practiced! Recycle, reuse and repurpose is also a great way to save and not forgetting stems or discount vouchers
Before covid, I used to "shop" at the 'take it or leave it' at the town dump. When my kids were small, It was great for children's toys. I could bring the toys our kids had outgrown and typically find something they could enjoy. The 'give and take' is now closed due to covid, but it was a great place to get plant pots, vases, etc. I could give bouquets of flowers from the garden in a vase from the dump. Or cookie tins for Christmas cookies! It was also a great place to get rid of stuff that is still serviceable but not needed. The 'give and take' was a hub of activity on a Saturday! I do miss it. I know it will open again.... Maybe next spring?
I also love to save a buck. What really erks me is "planned obsolescence" of perfectly ordinary things. Nothing seems to last anymore. Water heaters, refrigerators etc, all used to last 18-20 years.
Exactly! I have a Santon water heater above the wash basin in my garage. I was given it in 1976, when it was being chucked out as surplus to requirements during a re-fit of one of my employers' retail shops, so it was of an indeterminate age then. It's working just fine. We had a new kitchen sixteen years ago, every appliance was new and all have had to be replaced twice.
If things were made to last as they used to be,, companies would go out of business ! That appliances lasted used to be a selling point,, not today ! CM,, I love those places ! Have more fun "shopping" there ! Now they do not do that and hardly let you in ! I furnished my entire apartment when I stayed in Louisiana to help my daughter when she was PG from thrift stores, dumps and garage sales ! Had a blast doing it and it was nice stuff ! Got many compliments on the decorating ! Once found a large vase for $2.00 and went into the empty lot next door and got dry weeds to put in it ! Looked great ! Also found a large poster for Casablanca with stars pics put it in an old frame that I had restored and still have it over my headboard !
One of the things that I just keep on using are jars to keep jam, tom concentrate and honey in. I just keep on re-sterilising them and using them year after year. Most of what we use are old commercial peanut and veggie jars. Some folks save them for us and drop them off and in exchange I give them a jar of honey or jam. When we first began gardening more than twenty years ago we got started by ordering some jars and lids from a wholesaler. We still have a few jars and lids left from that time. What breaks the cycle are friends who ruin the lids getting them loose. They do keep returning them with dents snd holes in them...even after I have explained several times that they may throw the lids away as they are ruined for use. Haha. They mean well though. This thread is not about jars and lids, but I can tell you that there are some good commercial lids out there that are easy to open. Seriously though, there are many things that do not need to be thrown away, rather re used for the same purpose, repaired or used for a different purpose. Everything from curtains for plant protection to empty veggie jars for canning reusing string to tie-in plants to repairing electrical equipment. The possibilities are there if one is open to them.
My mother was a depression baby, she used to wash and reuse tin foil. Because of ecological reasons, i try not to use plástic bags. When I do, i reuse and reuse and reuse them.
Oh, you people make my heart sing! I reuse foil and waxed paper. Jars, especially small ones, I save to store dried herbs. I found two dozen wide mouth canning jars at the thrift store--no chips or dings and I was thrilled (one never has too many canning jars). I reuse plastic freezer bags--my husband made me a "tree" to put the washed bags on to dry. I save string from feed bags. Feed stores use the real cotton string, not that plastic, impossible to untangle stuff. If more people were like you all, there would be less trash and more prosperity!
anyone use parchment paper? it isn't single use my friends. you can use it over and over and over until it is brittle and breaks. I also reuse jars. you can buy new twist on lids in all sizes from an online site , bee supply catalogs, even at little amish stores. they have all the mm sizes in bins and you can buy them individually for a jar. I save lots and lots of jars and reuse them. I even can in some of them. I have jars that might be as old as me if not older.
Carolyn, I do that! All the time! I wrap stuff in it, then put it in a reuseable plastic bag & store in the fridge.
I use parchment paper to bake my cookies for the markets on. wipe and reuse wipe and reuse. I have a stack of sheets for choc chip cookies a stack for oatmeal w/pecans a stack for the lemon cookies I make... just so no one hopefully gets a cross contamination if they have an allergy. after umpteen times of baking on them I finally toss them and start a new stack. I line my bread pans but I have found they darken the bread more than I like so I change that more frequently.
