What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[igorsMistress]

My no knead bread was cooked in the Dutch Oven I bought. It was great bread. It never lasted long enough to go moldy. With commercial store-bought bread, we cut it up into little pieces and put it into the chicken bucket, a little bit each day as a treat depending on how much old bread there is.



When I was little kid, grandma used to make it a special thing to see who would get the "special" end crust. You felt lucky if you "won" the end crust. To this day, I still eat those end pieces and consider myself lucky!

Grandma was good about getting us to eat all kinds of food. Whenever we got something new on the table that we did not recognize, we would ask grandma if we liked it. "Oh yes, you liked it a lot last time we had this," she would say. Of course, that was the standard line even if it was the first time we had that food.

I tried to make croutons with left over bread and it did not turn out very good. I should probably give that another try. That bread pudding sounds tasty. We don't really use breadcrumbs for anything in our house. I would certainly like to explore other options first, rather than giving left over bread to the chickens. But almost none of our leftover food or scraps gets wasted now that we have backyard chickens.

Your Grandma was smart! I don’t mind the ends but they poof out over the side of the pan so it’s not easy to slice thin for a sandwich. I cube it up at the end of the week and throw it in the freezer until I have enough for pudding. This is a great way to use up some eggs too!

We don’t use crumbs often either, mostly in meatloaf because the fam doesn’t like it with oatmeal.

 

[Molpet]

Everything in plastic was to protect from germs and dirt. Cheaper than paper.
Of course now everyone is full of micro plastics which is probably worse than building immunity to germs.

 

[Smokerbill]

Homemade bread vs store brand white bread: The store brand would surely win on price. Homemade vs buying a loaf that has organic flour and no preservatives, I bet my homemade costs less.

I get organic flour at Costco for about $1/lb. A tiny, 2 pound bag of organic white flour at the grocery store is around $5, I think.

One last savings on homemade. Hubby makes his own bread now, and uses a "no knead" recipe. It's not made in a bread machine. Since he started making his own, he doesn't like to throw any out (into the compost bin, not trash). So less is wasted. He has gotten upset when a partial loaf got moldy. Store bought bread? Eh, just toss it.

I buy my yeast in one pound bags (on AMZN). It remains viable for a couple years if kept in the freezer, and a pound makes a lot of loaves. This one worked well for me.

 

[igorsMistress]

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/drying-general/packaging-and-storing-dried-foods/

The above link backs up my processes for dehydrating foods in case anyone finds it helpful. The website itself is an amazing free resource on home preservation in general including canning and fermenting. I haven’t checked, there may be freezing too.

 

[gtaus]

Vevor Products Warning

I may have posted how much I like my Vevor bench vise I bought last year from Amazon. I got a great price on it, and it works great. I thought Vevor made these items, but I learned that they only buy items and resell them. They don't actually make them.

Vevor sells all kinds of products. However, the company might not be as reputable as I previously thought. Seems like they bounce around with different name changes and no specific location. If you buy a Vevor product, you probably won't have much of a warranty after your Amazon return period. I don't think I will have a problem with my bench vise, but some products might be worth buying from another company that has better after sales support. I guess Vevor is having legal issues.

As much as I like to save money, I will pay extra to buy a product from a company that honors their warranty terms because that also has value to me. It all depends on the product, of course, as some items are more likely to fail than others.

Anyways, I saw that YouTube video on the Vevor company which I previously thought was so good. Maybe it's not...?

 

[Molpet]

Vevor Products Warning

I may have posted how much I like my Vevor bench vise I bought last year from Amazon. I got a great price on it, and it works great. I thought Vevor made these items, but I learned that they only buy items and resell them. They don't actually make them.

View attachment 4075386

Vevor sells all kinds of products. However, the company might not be as reputable as I previously thought. Seems like they bounce around with different name changes and no specific location. If you buy a Vevor product, you probably won't have much of a warranty after your Amazon return period. I don't think I will have a problem with my bench vise, but some products might be worth buying from another company that has better after sales support. I guess Vevor is having legal issues.

As much as I like to save money, I will pay extra to buy a product from a company that honors their warranty terms because that also has value to me. It all depends on the product, of course, as some items are more likely to fail than others.

Anyways, I saw that YouTube video on the Vevor company which I previously thought was so good. Maybe it's not...?

Yeah. The products sent right from China are also an issue.
I try to buy from a local store. If they don't have it in store but can return to store, seems to be better for a few bucks more. Unless it's a 3rd party just going through HD or Lowe's

 

[gtaus]

If they don't have it in store but can return to store, seems to be better for a few bucks more.

I always try to shop locally and support the stores in my hometown. However, more and more, they are making us order online for products that they used to carry in house. At that point, I just look for the best deal I can get online because usually the store will not accept an online return.

Speaking of returns, I bought all my Ryobi tools at Home Depot because if a unit should fail within the warranty period, you just brought it back to the store for an exchange. Not anymore. HD will not take tool returns [EDIT: for the full 5-year warranty period] in store anymore. You have to call up and work it out with the company. If you have to ship something back to them, it might end up costing you more money than it's worth.

This past summer I had a $80.00 multi-port battery charger fail on me within the warranty period. I called Ryobi, many times, before I finally got through on like the 3rd or 4th day. The rep walked me through some troubleshooting, determined the unit was malfunctioning, and just sent me out a brand-new unit. I did not have to pay to have the old unit shipped back to them. So, that was a win for me because the new charger is an upgrade from the model I had purchased. Sometimes you get lucky.

FWIW, I always register my tools online with Ryobi and I think that helps if/when you need to make a warranty claim. In the ~20 years I have been buying Ryobi tools, I have only had 2 items fail within the warranty period and Ryobi took care of me, no problems. I am happy to say that I am still using the tools in my first kit I bought 20 years ago. That's a value purchase!

 

[Molpet]

HD will not take tool returns in store anymore.

well that is not good. At that point I would buy somewhere else

 

[gtaus]

well that is not good. At that point I would buy somewhere else

Let me clarify, HD used to take tool returns during the full 5-year warranty period. Now, they will only take returns in their standard 90-day period. If a tools fails within those 90 days, you can still return it to HD.

But many of us valued the ability to return a warranty tool to the store in those 5 years, if needed. Those days are gone.

 

[Molpet]

But many of us valued the ability to return a warranty tool to the store in those 5 years, if needed. Those days are gone.

Yes
If I see 5 years warranty I expect the place I bought it from to take care of it. Otherwise why not buy something cheaper elsewhere.