What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

The plastic containers... What to do with them?

If they are BPA free, they would make a handy drink container. Nice tight cap, stackable, in case you want to cool a bunch in the fridge. If you drop one and it cracks, well, it was going to the recycle bin anyway. If it gets forgotten in the garage and dirty, no biggie either.

Do you ever need a bunch of ice cubes to cool something down? Or to put in a cooler, but not have but not make a mess when they melt? How about to freeze some broth or soup? They'd fit in a freezer better than round canning/freezing jars.

 

[LizzzyJo]

The plastic containers... What to do with them?

If they are BPA free, they would make a handy drink container. Nice tight cap, stackable, in case you want to cool a bunch in the fridge. If you drop one and it cracks, well, it was going to the recycle bin anyway. If it gets forgotten in the garage and dirty, no biggie either.

Do you ever need a bunch of ice cubes to cool something down? Or to put in a cooler, but not have but not make a mess when they melt? How about to freeze some broth or soup? They'd fit in a freezer better than round canning/freezing jars.

I looove saving broth from having cooked crock pot chicken. I save it in ice cube containers then put the cubes into a bag. I put them one at a time to stir frys

 

[gtaus]

The plastic containers... What to do with them?

If they are BPA free, they would make a handy drink container. Nice tight cap, stackable, in case you want to cool a bunch in the fridge. If you drop one and it cracks, well, it was going to the recycle bin anyway. If it gets forgotten in the garage and dirty, no biggie either.

Do you ever need a bunch of ice cubes to cool something down? Or to put in a cooler, but not have but not make a mess when they melt? How about to freeze some broth or soup? They'd fit in a freezer better than round canning/freezing jars.

Good ideas. I see the containers are recyclable #5, which I looked up and it is food grade safe.

Like the idea of freezing the broth. I save the juice from the canned vegetables for making vegetable soup later on. I think these containers would take up less space in the freezer.

As usual, @Sally PB appreciate your thoughts here and elsewhere on the forum.

 

[gtaus]

I looove saving broth from having cooked crock pot chicken. I save it in ice cube containers then put the cubes into a bag. I put them one at a time to stir frys

I have not heard that broth cube idea. Love it. Dear Wife makes stir fry all the time. Will have to see what she thinks of your idea. I'm all in.

 

[saysfaa]

I was watching Shark Tank tonight and they had Cabinet Health on the show. They make reusable glass containers for OTC meds. They are stackable, even. They sell refills with magnetic lables that give lot numbers, expiration dates, and such - in non-plastic compostable pouches.

I looked up a couple of prices - not terribly much more for comparable (small-ish) quantities.

I don't know if I will try it. We use almost no OTC meds. Maybe that makes this system a better fit. It just seems strange. I didn't like the website. I do like the idea of no more plastic meds bottles

 

[gtaus]

I was watching Shark Tank tonight and they had Cabinet Health on the show. They make reusable glass containers for OTC meds.

I do like the idea of no more plastic meds bottles

I'm old enough to remember soda pop in glass bottles. And grandma got her milk in glass bottles delivered to the house from a dairy truck that came through the neighborhood twice a week. I guess that makes me pretty old now.

In many ways, I think glass is better than either plastic bottles or aluminum cans. They used to reuse those glass bottles. However, I also remember people tossing out glass bottles all over the roads, breaking the glass, and creating a safety hazard for people. Aluminum beer and pop cans solved some of that safety problem. But we all know plastic and aluminum are filling up the landfills.

Having said that, I was out blowing snow off the driveway yesterday and found a broken glass beer bottle that I had to pick up and put in the garbage. So, I guess some people still have no problem tossing out the empties from their cars.

What's even worse is thinking of someone drinking while driving, and then tossing the empty beer bottle out the window to smash on the highway.

Maybe it's a package deal. It's hard to think someone would care about the environment when they show little or no concern for their own safety or others on the road.

I don't have an answer for the world's problems, but I would like to see that disposable items that only fill up our landfills should cost more than environmentally friendly, reusable products. As far as I can tell, we live in a world that is just the opposite.

But I am glad to see that more and more packaging is compostable. And I do think more people are thinking about the environment than when I was a young kid. If we could make environmentally friendly choices in line with frugal choices that save people money, then we would be on a winning track.

I like to think I am practicing a frugal, environmentally friendly lifestyle following the 5 (or 6) R's...

Reduce - the amount of consumables we use.
Reuse/Refill - containers as appropriate.
Repurpose - an item and give it a second life as something else.
Recycle - products when no longer needed.
Refuse - as a last resort. Minimize the amount of refuse we send to the landfills.

 

[gtaus]

If you want to write directly on the container, Marks-A-Lot brand is much better than all other brands.

That is good info. I usually want labels that are removable so I can reuse the container for something else in the future, especially leftovers in the fridge. But I can see where a permanent marker would be the ticket for marking up containers that will only be used for one purpose.

 

[gtaus]

We have a gauge on ours. It works well enough for our purposes - we know when to have a back up plan since it might run out in the middle of grilling something. Or, if there is company coming, we can tell if it is low enough to grill a few things in the days ahead of time to finish out the tank and refill it.

The people refilling the tank sometimes comment on how nice it is to have one.

I have heard that some new propane tanks come with gauges built in, and those are very accurate. I have not seen those tanks where I live, but I suspect they will be here soon. That will be nice if it becomes standard on new tanks.

The aftermarket propane pressure gauges are not nearly as accurate, but they might be good enough to give a person a little warning that they are getting low. If that's what you have and it works for you, then that's great.

I was going to buy one until I saw a YouTube video that none of the propane pressure gauges they compared head-to-head had the same readings. And, he also showed the same tank, with the same gauge, but at different outside temps and it completely changed the tank level readings on the gauge.

Anyway, the consensus was that weighing the tank was the most precise way to tell how much propane remained in the tank. But it's not the most convenient method and I expect a lot of people have their BBQ propane tanks screwed down securely to the BBQ frame, making weighing the tank impossible. I know my BBQ grill has a mounting hole for the tank and a long threaded screw to hold the tank down securely. It's a pain to take off the tank by design.

Anyways, I hope people picked up on the fact that most exchange propane tanks are only filled to 15 lbs, not 20 lbs as you might expect because that is what is says on the tank! Rip Off!

 

[saysfaa]

Ah, our propane tank came with the gauge. I haven't looked closely enough to see how removable it is. That might be why it works well enough.

 

[gtaus]

Ah, our propane tank came with the gauge. I haven't looked closely enough to see how removable it is. That might be why it works well enough.

I think the built-in gauges are accurate because they have some kind of mechanical float in the tank much like a gas tank on a car. From what I saw on YouTube, those built-in gauges are part of the tank and not removable. The guy on YouTube said those built-in gauges are very accurate. Like I said, I have not seen them yet where I live.

It would be interesting to know if the built-in gauges are calibrated to read 100% full at 15 lbs - which is how much is in the tank at the exchange centers - or if 100% is indeed the full 20 lbs refill capacity. I cannot imagine someone would want to pick up an exchange tank that reads only 75% full off the shelf. But I don't think they will start refilling the tanks back to 20 lbs either. They have a good marketing scam going on selling those 20 lb exchange tanks but only giving you 15 lbs of propane. Those built-in gauges might be a game changer.