What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

Repurposing Plastic Jars

Although I try to reduce as much plastics in my life as possible, we always have too many plastic things coming into the house. Mostly plastic food storage units that get tossed into the recycle bin when we empty them. It seems like such a waste.

I try to repurpose as much plastic stuff that comes through the house as possible. Recently, Dear Wife bought some fancy nut mixes from QVC that were "Special Value." Yeah, I don't know how much that special value cost, but she was happy with the purchase. We got 5 of these square plastic jars with a round lid on top...

Despite the "Special Value" pricing, I imagine she paid a lot more for those mixed nuts than I would be willing to pay. Having said that, the stuff is good to eat. She is happy. Life is good....

Anyways, I looked at those square plastic jars and knew they would be great as small parts storage jars for my garage in their second life. If you had an arts and crafts setup and needed storage for beads, buttons, etc... these would be excellent for that as well. The plastic is solid and I expect it will last many years, even if tossed about in my tool box filled up with screws, bolts, etc...

If you bought a small parts storage jar at Menards, for example, it would cost you $1.60 each for a plastic jar like this...

All I had to do was peel off the mixed nuts label and I would have a clear small parts storage jar for a second life in the shop.

On the first jar, I peeled off the label and it came off pretty good, but it did leave a lot of label glue on the plastic jar. My go to fixit solution for removing label glue is Goo Gone...

Just spray it on, leave it for about 5 minutes, and then wipe it off. Sometimes it takes a second application to remove all the glue, but the stuff works pretty good on lots of things. I bought a spray bottle of that stuff about 7 years ago and still have about 80% of it left. It lasts forever.

Another good option for removing labels off of jars and cans is using a hair dryer to heat and soften up the underlying glue.

I tried that approach on the second mixed nuts jar plastic jar and when I peeled off the label, all the glue came off with it! So, I did not have to do anything more with that jar other than washing it out for reuse as a small parts storage jar for the shop.

I guess I should have tried the hair dryer approach first. Depending on the label and the glue, sometimes the hair dryer method does not fully remove all the label glue, so you need to use that Goo Gone anyways.

For only a few minutes of work, I got some nice plastic storage jars for the shop, saved money from not having to buy storage jars from Menards, and kept some plastic out of the recycle bins.

I know it's not a big deal, but it's often the little things that we can do like this that add up over time. It can save you money, and keep a few more plastic containers out of the recycle bins for a number of years.

 

[Sally PB]

And, being square, they don't roll when they fall off the shelf!

If you have a round container that gets knocked on the floor, there is a direct relationship between the odds of it rolling under something and how badly you need the contents.

 

[fuzzi]

Repurposing Plastic Jars

Although I try to reduce as much plastics in my life as possible, we always have too many plastic things coming into the house. Mostly plastic food storage units that get tossed into the recycle bin when we empty them. It seems like such a waste.

I try to repurpose as much plastic stuff that comes through the house as possible. Recently, Dear Wife bought some fancy nut mixes from QVC that were "Special Value." Yeah, I don't know how much that special value cost, but she was happy with the purchase. We got 5 of these square plastic jars with a round lid on top...

View attachment 3995333
Despite the "Special Value" pricing, I imagine she paid a lot more for those mixed nuts than I would be willing to pay. Having said that, the stuff is good to eat. She is happy. Life is good....

Anyways, I looked at those square plastic jars and knew they would be great as small parts storage jars for my garage in their second life. If you had an arts and crafts setup and needed storage for beads, buttons, etc... these would be excellent for that as well. The plastic is solid and I expect it will last many years, even if tossed about in my tool box filled up with screws, bolts, etc...

If you bought a small parts storage jar at Menards, for example, it would cost you $1.60 each for a plastic jar like this...

View attachment 3995335

All I had to do was peel off the mixed nuts label and I would have a clear small parts storage jar for a second life in the shop.

On the first jar, I peeled off the label and it came off pretty good, but it did leave a lot of label glue on the plastic jar. My go to fixit solution for removing label glue is Goo Gone...

View attachment 3995336

Just spray it on, leave it for about 5 minutes, and then wipe it off. Sometimes it takes a second application to remove all the glue, but the stuff works pretty good on lots of things. I bought a spray bottle of that stuff about 7 years ago and still have about 80% of it left. It lasts forever.

Another good option for removing labels off of jars and cans is using a hair dryer to heat and soften up the underlying glue.

View attachment 3995339

I tried that approach on the second mixed nuts jar plastic jar and when I peeled off the label, all the glue came off with it! So, I did not have to do anything more with that jar other than washing it out for reuse as a small parts storage jar for the shop.

I guess I should have tried the hair dryer approach first. Depending on the label and the glue, sometimes the hair dryer method does not fully remove all the label glue, so you need to use that Goo Gone anyways.

For only a few minutes of work, I got some nice plastic storage jars for the shop, saved money from not having to buy storage jars from Menards, and kept some plastic out of the recycle bins.

I know it's not a big deal, but it's often the little things that we can do like this that add up over time. It can save you money, and keep a few more plastic containers out of the recycle bins for a number of years.

I have a couple jars like those, but mine originally held dog treats. They sit on the kitchen counter next to the sink and are used for compost items.

I also captured a baby copperhead snake in one of those containers, years ago. I got a nature group to pick it up for release deep in the swamps. Big copperheads in my yard don't leave my yard on their own, but feed wildlife in the woods next door.

 

[gtaus]

If you have a round container that gets knocked on the floor, there is a direct relationship between the odds of it rolling under something and how badly you need the contents.

That's my experience, too!

Having said that, most of the plastic jars I have saved for reuse in the shop are round. It was just a special find that these mixed nuts plastic jars from QVC were square.

I also captured a baby copperhead snake in one of those containers, years ago.

Yikes! I would keep the covers on my empty jars if I were you.

BTW, I mentioned that Dear Wife ordered those 5 mixed nuts jars from QVC. I really don't know how much she paid for the Holiday bundle on "Special Value", but if I reuse those plastic jars as small parts storage containers, I guess that would be worth about $8.00 if I had to buy empty storage containers at Menards.

A couple of years ago I had a lot of excess eggs. I decided that I wanted to pickle them, but I did not have the type and size jars I needed. I found some Applesauce in a glass jar with a nice screw on plastic lid that was perfect for a second life for pickling eggs. I bought 2 jars of that Applesauce, had to eat more Applesauce than normal for a few weeks, but in the end, I had some great glass egg pickling jars!

Maybe that thinking is just set deep in my mind. When I was a young kid, my parents would buy butter in those big plastic bowls that were the main dishes in our cupboard for cereals, soups, chilis, etc... In fact, I don't remember using anything but a reused butter bowl when I lived at home with my parents.

Recently, we ran out of peanut butter. I bought some new peanut butter in smaller 10 oz. plastic jars at the Dollar Tree ($1.25) each, not because of the lower price, but because I wanted some smaller plastic jars for parts storage in the garage. I have replaced almost all my old glass storage jars with safer plastic jars in the garage. It's nice to have different sizes. And, when you think about it, that plastic Dollar Tree jar of peanut butter alone is less expensive than buying an empty plastic small parts storage jar at Menards. I call that a win-win for us! We like peanut butter.

 

[saysfaa]

My latest discovery in the frugal/sustainable area is cinnamon sticks as travel food. Well, maybe they are frugal only if you have a source for the long sticks - not so much if you buy spice jar size/quantity. No, i think even spice jar versions would be more frugal than any alternative I've considered.

The cinnamon sticks are dual function - something for the mouth to play with that lasts a long time AND an extreme taste jolt depending on how you chew them.

Plus, you don't fill up like with veggies or pretzels.

No sugar, fat, carbs, or nonfood ingredients (like coloring or aspartame).

And they keep very well between trips. That is important because it takes so little to last so long.

 

[gtaus]

My latest discovery in the frugal/sustainable area is cinnamon sticks as travel food.

The only cinnamon sticks I am familiar with are the rock-hard sticks that we put into some apple juice if we warm it up on the stove to make hot apple cider. Are there chewable cinnamon sticks, or do you break up the sticks into small pieces that you can suck on for a long time? Also, I don't think I could suck on the rock-hard cinnamon sticks that I have. They would be overpowering for me. I do like cinnamon, I just never have heard of it used like you do.

 

[saysfaa]

The rock hard kind put in apple cider is the kind I mean. I broke of small pieces (maybe a third the size of a bazooka gum at the most). Chewing hard at it makes it overpowering; just moving it around and very gently chewing gave taste without too much power.

I hadn't heard of it used this way either until dh did it. I don't think he knew how they are usually used. He was just looking through the kitchen for alternatives to junk food while on the computer.

 

[Sally PB]

I have never heard of someone chewing on a cinnamon stick. I really like cinnamon, so I might try that sometime.

 

[gtaus]

The rock hard kind put in apple cider is the kind I mean. I broke of small pieces (maybe a third the size of a bazooka gum at the most). Chewing hard at it makes it overpowering; just moving it around and very gently chewing gave taste without too much power.

I have never heard of someone chewing on a cinnamon stick. I really like cinnamon, so I might try that sometime.

I think I still have some cinnamon sticks around the kitchen. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[bearcreekbees]

This sounds really great! I bet your carbon footprint is really low. Not sure about the trash, but like you said it’s mostly paper. I know that styrofoam is bad to burn, but landfills are bad too. Everything else sounds like it’s great for the environment.
What types of things do you can? I can a bit, but I’m always nervous to not use vinegar so everything ends up being pickled. I prefer to freeze things, but then the freezers fill up.

FYI- lots of research on mealworms and waxworms being utilized to eat styrofoam. The last study I read stated that the mealworms are perfectly safe for feeding to, well, to critters, humans, anyone. The only caveat was that there is some doubt as to whether the FRASS is safe for use as fertilizer or not. But the worms are a-okay. So maybe set some waxworms or mealworms up to help get rid of some of that bulky, unrecyclable styrofoam.