What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[canne50]

I’m in my late 60s. I was raised in SE Arkansas to poor farmers. These sweet folks were my great aunt and great uncle. My great grandma & pa lived with us for some time. After a meal and clearing the table, I remember my g-grandma circling around the table saying, “Here. Eat this it’s just a bite and not worth trying to save it. You are so skinny! Eat!” I laugh at the memory and wish I could still have her following me around with the loaded tablespoon!
.These people had lived through the post civil war reconstruction, WWI, The Depression, Dust Bowl, and WWII. They knew first hand the deprivations of the poor plus the rationing of the most basic of necessities.
My aunt told a story as a young newly wed, my Navy uncle away on the USS BANDERA, her heavily pregnant & riding with great grands going to town to get their rationed flour, salt, and coal oil. The wagon was an old buckboard with no shocks bouncing and rattling them to and from town. On the return trip grandpa must have been surprised when the wagon bucked hard. The coal oil broke open and soaked the flour and sugar. They did what they could do to save the food and oil. She said she still can taste coal oil whenever she thought of the meals made with the flour and sugar flavored with coal oil. They could not afford to even throw away what we’d consider ruined food.
Everything was used until it wore out and the patches were no longer holding. Then the cloth would become a food siev or cleaning rag. When my great grand pa passed away, in his pockets he still carried the nub of a pencil with a slightly worn eraser. I have it now. He had not worked for several years, but tenaciously held onto his anchors.
we would have conversations about just about everything that needed repurposed. My first bicycle was an second hand bike my uncle had refurbished and painted sky blue. I felt so rich!
Not much was ever thrown away in our households! We canned everything we could. Our freezers were stuffed with wild game, fish, fruits and vegetables. We bought automobile gas at 29 cents a gallon. My aunt spent about $30 every week for groceries to stretch whatever was in season or in the pantry.
Thanks for the opportunity to share!
I probably won’t have an EV before I leave this world. I wouldn’t mind a flying car, though!

Oh, yes! I want to tell ya’ll about raising rechargeable batteries from death!
I tore off the end of an old cell phone charger and carefully laid the bare wires onto the corresponding poles. Hold it there about 2 mins. Plug in the phone charger. Take care not to zap yourself. Place the battery back on its charger. If it still shows error, zap it again, try on charger. Do this until you give up or have enough charge on the battery for it to trigger the recharge chip of the charger. I extended my Makita battery about 5 years doing this.

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

Advantages to buying quality cookware at a thrift store...

Once a month I attend a Senior's Citizen's Cooking Class. Every month our instructor shows how to make at least 3 dishes. Usually a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert. Some of the recipes call for certain types of cookware for best results. A few months ago, we learned how to make a dessert that should be cooked in a thick walled pie plate - not those thin walled aluminum pans. Size matters in cooking, I guess.

Of course, I did not have the pie plate with thick walls like the Pyrex pie plate the instructor showed us. But I put it on my list of items to look out for at the Thrift Shop. It took a couple of months before I spotted some on the shelf. But this week I snagged two Pyrex pie plates for 50 cents each. That's a great deal considering how much they sell for new at Amazon...

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In this case, I was willing to wait for what I wanted and needed. I passed on some other stuff that was close, but not quite right. If you can be patient and wait, sometimes you can get exactly what you want at a Thrift Store and save lots of money.

Now I have to take out that dessert recipe and try to make it for Dear Wife. I need to get my money's worth out of my "new" Pyrex pie plates!

I go to resale shops for the exact the same reason. I also like the kitchen appliances from pre-80's. They were made to last and usually I buy an old hand mixer or something, check the wiring and they never die.

 

[canne50]

I go to resale shops for the exact the same reason. I also like the kitchen appliances from pre-80's. They were made to last and usually I buy an old hand mixer or something, check the wiring and they never die.

I love thrift or resale shops!
a few years ago I found two pots with lids for my kitchen. These are great, 3 layers of steel and food doesn’t stick-stainless steel. They were a fraction of the cost new!

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

I love thrift or resale shops!
a few years ago I found two pots with lids for my kitchen. These are great, 3 layers of steel and food doesn’t stick-stainless steel. They were a fraction of the cost new!

I recently discovered that the plastic storage containers we use daily are leeching minute levels of various chemicals (some toxic) into our food. Especially if it's stored long term.

I hit the resale shops and estate sales looking for glass, ceramic, clay, stoneware and steel. (Turns out aluminum cookware isn't doing us any favors either.)

I'm changing everything over for a few hundred instead of a few thousand.

 

[canne50]

You are wise to get out of plastic for living.
I once knew a woman whose husband was I’ll all the time. She was trying to live a cleaner, healthier life. I watch one morning as she made his tea in his favorite cup. OMG! It was an old orange plastic cup he had used for years. The so-called safe plastic layer had been coming off in the recent months. I told her about plastics poisoning our lives. Most folks, including my poor family thought reusing a margarine container was thrifty. We now know the only thing plastic like that is good for is to store screws and nails.
I think the video documentary on safe water supply, showed us how poisonous Teflon is. It has been dumped into our river system and now can be found with other plastic compounds in our bodies. I think it was said that 1 in 4 people have it in their blood.
Scary, isn’t it?!
Best to you!

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

You are wise to get out of plastic for living.
I once knew a woman whose husband was I’ll all the time. She was trying to live a cleaner, healthier life. I watch one morning as she made his tea in his favorite cup. OMG! It was an old orange plastic cup he had used for years. The so-called safe plastic layer had been coming off in the recent months. I told her about plastics poisoning our lives. Most folks, including my poor family thought reusing a margarine container was thrifty. We now know the only thing plastic like that is good for is to store screws and nails.
I think the video documentary on safe water supply, showed us how poisonous Teflon is. It has been dumped into our river system and now can be found with other plastic compounds in our bodies. I think it was said that 1 in 4 people have it in their blood.
Scary, isn’t it?!
Best to you!

I have a specific list of materials food service items can be made of. And if it is altered with carbon or a non-stick surface, skip it.

Currently in search of a cylindrical glass tea pitcher with a lid. It ain't easy.

 

[gtaus]

Most folks, including my poor family thought reusing a margarine container was thrifty. We now know the only thing plastic like that is good for is to store screws and nails.

I guess I just assumed that a margarine container was food safe and could be reused as well. Maybe I'll look into a ceramic, or glass, margarine container at the thrift store.

I do try to repurpose old plastic containers for use out in the garage. I like containers that don't break into sharp pieces if it gets dropped. So, all my glass containers out in the garage have been replaced with plastic.

 

[LizzzyJo]

It’s common in my village (very small ohio “town”) to have garage sales that are actually just all free stuff. It helps people to cut down on anything accidentally collected too much haha. I just got a cute little vintage gravy boat last month from a “garage free”.

 

[Sally PB]

a “garage free”.

I love that!

 

[canne50]

I guess I just assumed that a margarine container was food safe and could be reused as well. Maybe I'll look into a ceramic, or glass, margarine container at the thrift store.

I do try to repurpose old plastic containers for use out in the garage. I like containers that don't break into sharp pieces if it gets dropped. So, all my glass containers out in the garage have been replaced with plastic.

What about a crock with a dipper, like the Old days…