What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[RubelliteRose]

Speaking of being both frugal and practicing sustainable lifestyles, just wanted to mention again that I have been using my new power cutter from Harbor Freight to cut heavy packing cardboard into smaller strips to feed into my paper shredder at home. I then use the cardboard paper shreds, along with normal paper shreds and light cardboards shreds, as my coop litter. The heavier cardboard paper shreds add to a nice mix of paper shred materials.

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Even better, since I got the power cutter, we have not sent any heavy cardboard boxes to the recycle center in the past 2 months. Lots of companies ship products in recyclable boxes which are great for shredding up to make chicken coop litter. I'm talking about companies that are using paper tape instead of plastic tape on their boxes. Most of the boxes we get from Amazon or from QVC have all been environment friendly boxes. Good for them. Better for me and my chickens as I turn those boxes into coop litter, then compost for the gardens.

I bought the power cutter because my hands are getting old and if I used a heavy-duty manual scissors, my old hands would start to cramp up in no time. That's why I never bothered cutting up heavy packing cardboard boxes before. But now I do.

Of course, you don't need a power cutter to cut heavy cardboard into strips, but it just makes it so much easier. I have a big heavy manual scissors that if my hands were younger, that would work just fine. Or I could take the cardboard boxes out to the garage and use a razor utility knife to cut the heavy cardboard. Both those systems work, but the power cutter just does it better for me.

Frugal Tips: If something like that power cuter is of interest to you, they normally sell for $39.99 at Harbor Freight, but they typically go on sale for $24.99 maybe every 3 months or so. When I bought my power cutter, I got it on sale for $24.99, but I had a HF loyalty rewards check for $15.00 for a one-year anniversary of using the HF credit card, plus I had another $5.00 in HF rewards money from previous purchases. On top of that, the weekend I bought the power cutter, you got a free gift of ratcheting tie downs 4-pack worth $12.00 for any purchase of $24.99 or more. Worked out perfectly for me that weekend. Essentially, I paid $4.99 for about $52.00 worth of merchandise that I will use. I try to stack as many deals as possible when I make a purchase.

Thanks for posting this! I think I just found Christmas gifts for my mom and mother-in-law (and maybe for myself too)

 

[gtaus]

Thanks for posting this! I think I just found Christmas gifts for my mom and mother-in-law (and maybe for myself too)

Yeah, if you are seriously looking at these power cutters, there are many brands listed on Amazon. I think the original power cutter was made by Worx. Until recently, the Worx ZipSnip Cutter cost $45.00 on Amazon. I see that it is now on sale for $33.00. Like most Chinese products, it pays to shop around for the best price on these items as the exact same unit might only have a different color or branding sticker placed on the unit. Other than that, I suspect many of these products are pumped out by the same factory line somewhere in China.

I mainly use my power cutter mainly for heavy cardboard, but I think most people who buy this type of power cutter are using it to cut fabric. But you can use it for just about anything you would have used a manual scissors to cut.

I mentioned the Amazon listing of the Worx ZipSnips because it has over 13,000 reviews and sits at 4.5 stars. You can read about the many ways people use these power cutters and how well it works for them.

As for me, I bought my power cutter at Harbor Freight because it was on sale and I had an additional $20 in Harbor Freight money that could only be used at their store. Having said that, the HF power cutter has some upgrades over the Worx ZipSnip. The HF power cutter comes with an extra replacement blade and the charger uses the standard USB micro B type connector and not a proprietary round barrel end charger like on the Worx ZipSnips. That means you can recharge your HF power cutter from any power supply you might already have for a smart phone or Bluetooth devices. Or you can use the HF power cutter charger to also charge your USB micro B devices.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Yeah, if you are seriously looking at these power cutters, there are many brands listed on Amazon. I think the original power cutter was made by Worx. Until recently, the Worx ZipSnip Cutter cost $45.00 on Amazon. I see that it is now on sale for $33.00. Like most Chinese products, it pays to shop around for the best price on these items as the exact same unit might only have a different color or branding sticker placed on the unit. Other than that, I suspect many of these products are pumped out by the same factory line somewhere in China.

View attachment 3667051

I mainly use my power cutter mainly for heavy cardboard, but I think most people who buy this type of power cutter are using it to cut fabric. But you can use it for just about anything you would have used a manual scissors to cut.

I mentioned the Amazon listing of the Worx ZipSnips because it has over 13,000 reviews and sits at 4.5 stars. You can read about the many ways people use these power cutters and how well it works for them.

As for me, I bought my power cutter at Harbor Freight because it was on sale and I had an additional $20 in Harbor Freight money that could only be used at their store. Having said that, the HF power cutter has some upgrades over the Worx ZipSnip. The HF power cutter comes with an extra replacement blade and the charger uses the standard USB micro B type connector and not a proprietary round barrel end charger like on the Worx ZipSnips. That means you can recharge your HF power cutter from any power supply you might already have for a smart phone or Bluetooth devices. Or you can use the HF power cutter charger to also charge your USB micro B devices.

I'm curious how long your shredders and these cutting tools last? I just burnt out my shredder...it was a used one I picked up at second hand shop. Trying to decide if I want to buy a new one or hunt the second hand stores again. I'd love and tips and tricks to making them last longer.

 

[gtaus]

I'm curious how long your shredders and these cutting tools last? I just burnt out my shredder...it was a used one I picked up at second hand shop. Trying to decide if I want to buy a new one or hunt the second hand stores again. I'd love and tips and tricks to making them last longer.

I buy/bought my shredders at our local church charity Thrift Shop. I paid less than $5.00 per shredder. Over the past 4 years, I picked up 4 good used paper shredders from the Thrift Shop. None of them have broken yet, but if they do, I have extras. My used shredders have been in service for almost 4 years now and they are still working great.

My tips to prolonging the life of these shredders are:
1) know the sheet limit for the shredder and stay under that,
2) shredding a little paper each day is better than overworking and overheating the shredder on a massive shredding operation. My shredders have a maximum run time of less than 10 minutes before you have to let them cool down. If I shred the paper every day as I get it, I only am shredding paper for maybe a minute or two at the most.
3) if you shred cardboard, cut it into narrower strips to fit down the "credit card" if the shredder has one. I cut my heavy cardboard into about 2 inch wide strips and feed it down the center of the 10-sheet shredder.
4) don't shred any cardboard if your shredder cannot shred credit cards because it could jam the motor and burn it out or break the gears in the shredder rolls.
5) Clean out the bin frequently. Paper shreds can fill up the bin fast and prevent the new paper from flowing into the bin correctly. This can cause jamming, which could lead to overheating of the motor or breaking the plastic gears.
6) Newspaper can be shredded if you alternate it with regular paper or light food box cardboard to clean the rollers. The problem with newspaper is that it so very soft that it tends to re-roll up on the rollers and can cause a jam. So, if you shred newspapers, just shred a little newspaper and then a couple of sheets or regular paper to clean the rollers. You have to experiment with your shredder to see what works best.
7) You might be able to disassemble a shredder, clean it out, and put it back into service. I had one shredder that jammed up bad on something and would not work. Easy to toss it out since I only paid $3.00 for it, but I decided to take it apart to see what was wrong. There were some paper bits that had jammed hard between the rollers. I removed them with a needle nose pliers, put everything back together again, and it has been working fine for over a year.
8) Listen to the motor on the shredder. If you hear it bogging down, hit that reverse switch to clear it out, then refeed maybe only half the amount of paper that was causing the problem. A lighter load is much easier on the shredder.
9) Oil your shredder every once in a while to keep it in good working condition. You don't have to buy expensive shredder oil. Any vegetable-based oil should work fine. Don't use WD-40 or other aerosol oils to lubricate your shredder as they can be a fire hazard.

I don't oil my shredder very often, maybe only once or twice a year. But I don't run lots of paper through it like a business would. Also, these companies want to sell you their shredder oil so of course they recommend a much higher use of frequency than I suspect is really needed.
10) If you can find a good used shredder, you can save lots of money. I got a couple $100 shredders brand new for about $3-$4 each used and they have worked fine for over 2+ years now, that is a big savings.

Well, those are some tips that come to mind off the top of my head. I shred almost all my paper products at home and use the free paper shreds as deep bedding coop litter for my chickens. When I clean out the coop twice a year, the old paper shreds are dumped into the chicken run composting system to make compost for my food gardens. Better to reuse that paper as coop litter then hauling off all that paper to a "recycle center" where I suspect the paper just ends up in a landfill somewhere.

 

[Sally PB]

I keep forgetting to ask this, @gtaus. What do you do with envelopes that have the clear plastic window over the address, instead of an opening cut into the envelope? Do you remove the plastic?

I still pay nearly all my bills by mail. Yes, with a stamp. So I get several of this style of envelope in a month.

This time of year, when we have the woodstove going, it's no problem to use up nearly all the paper/cardboard that comes into the house, turning it into kindling. Late spring to early fall, though, it piles up in a box to go to the recycler, if I don't need it for something.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I buy/bought my shredders at our local church charity Thrift Shop. I paid less than $5.00 per shredder. Over the past 4 years, I picked up 4 good used paper shredders from the Thrift Shop. None of them have broken yet, but if they do, I have extras. My used shredders have been in service for almost 4 years now and they are still working great.

My tips to prolonging the life of these shredders are:
1) know the sheet limit for the shredder and stay under that,
2) shredding a little paper each day is better than overworking and overheating the shredder on a massive shredding operation. My shredders have a maximum run time of less than 10 minutes before you have to let them cool down. If I shred the paper every day as I get it, I only am shredding paper for maybe a minute or two at the most.
3) if you shred cardboard, cut it into narrower strips to fit down the "credit card" if the shredder has one. I cut my heavy cardboard into about 2 inch wide strips and feed it down the center of the 10-sheet shredder.
4) don't shred any cardboard if your shredder cannot shred credit cards because it could jam the motor and burn it out or break the gears in the shredder rolls.
5) Clean out the bin frequently. Paper shreds can fill up the bin fast and prevent the new paper from flowing into the bin correctly. This can cause jamming, which could lead to overheating of the motor or breaking the plastic gears.
6) Newspaper can be shredded if you alternate it with regular paper or light food box cardboard to clean the rollers. The problem with newspaper is that it so very soft that it tends to re-roll up on the rollers and can cause a jam. So, if you shred newspapers, just shred a little newspaper and then a couple of sheets or regular paper to clean the rollers. You have to experiment with your shredder to see what works best.
7) You might be able to disassemble a shredder, clean it out, and put it back into service. I had one shredder that jammed up bad on something and would not work. Easy to toss it out since I only paid $3.00 for it, but I decided to take it apart to see what was wrong. There were some paper bits that had jammed hard between the rollers. I removed them with a needle nose pliers, put everything back together again, and it has been working fine for over a year.
8) Listen to the motor on the shredder. If you hear it bogging down, hit that reverse switch to clear it out, then refeed maybe only half the amount of paper that was causing the problem. A lighter load is much easier on the shredder.
9) Oil your shredder every once in a while to keep it in good working condition. You don't have to buy expensive shredder oil. Any vegetable-based oil should work fine. Don't use WD-40 or other aerosol oils to lubricate your shredder as they can be a fire hazard.

I don't oil my shredder very often, maybe only once or twice a year. But I don't run lots of paper through it like a business would. Also, these companies want to sell you their shredder oil so of course they recommend a much higher use of frequency than I suspect is really needed.
10) If you can find a good used shredder, you can save lots of money. I got a couple $100 shredders brand new for about $3-$4 each used and they have worked fine for over 2+ years now, that is a big savings.

Well, those are some tips that come to mind off the top of my head. I shred almost all my paper products at home and use the free paper shreds as deep bedding coop litter for my chickens. When I clean out the coop twice a year, the old paper shreds are dumped into the chicken run composting system to make compost for my food gardens. Better to reuse that paper as coop litter then hauling off all that paper to a "recycle center" where I suspect the paper just ends up in a landfill somewhere.

Thorough as always! Thanks @gtaus

 

[gtaus]

I keep forgetting to ask this, @gtaus. What do you do with envelopes that have the clear plastic window over the address, instead of an opening cut into the envelope? Do you remove the plastic?

Yes, I remove the plastic windows in the envelopes. But I do it every day when I pick up my mail, so it's never a big task. I don't want to have plastic in the paper shreds for the deep bedding coop litter, and I don't want to have to pick out plastic pieces when I make the compost.

This time of year, when we have the woodstove going, it's no problem to use up nearly all the paper/cardboard that comes into the house, turning it into kindling. Late spring to early fall, though, it piles up in a box to go to the recycler, if I don't need it for something.

If I had a woodstove for the house, I would probably burn the paper also. Heating is much more expensive than coop litter. Having said that, will burning paper in the woodstove gunk up your stove pipes?

IIRC, we only burned wood in the house when I was growing up, but paper, cardboard, etc... was burned in the wood barrel out in the garage to add heat.

Years ago, I watched some YouTube videos of people soaking paper in a 5 gallon bucket, letting the paper fall apart into a paste like substance, and then pouring it into brick sized molds. I guess they made excellent burning logs that lasted for hours. I think they also used a mud mixer on a drill to break down the paper in the 5-gallon bucket. It looked like a bit of work, but I guess it might be well worth it if you don't have to pay for heating fuel.

For many years, we just collected our paper products and hauled them off to the recycle center. But now I shred almost all our paper products to use as deep bedding in the chicken coop and then compost it later when I do my twice a year cleaning of the coop.

I like to think that shredding all that paper is a much better use of used paper products then bringing it to the recycle center and ending up in some landfill.

And as I previously mentioned, I am now using my power cutter to cut heavy cardboard into 2-inch-wide strips to put into my paper shredders. That heavy cardboard makes nice shreds, almost like using wood chips. Very little paper products get sent to the recycle center from my house!

 

[Sally PB]

If I had a woodstove for the house, I would probably burn the paper also. Heating is much more expensive than coop litter. Having said that, will burning paper in the woodstove gunk up your stove pipes?

No. It's great for getting the fire going. We use it as kindling.

I still take catalogs and the "shiny" paper junk mail to the recycle center. Not all paper is the same! The shiny stuff is harder to light with a match. Phone book paper? The BEST for getting a fire going. I have about 10 big fat phone books in the basement. When they stopped printing them, I told friends that I'd LOVE to have their old phone books. Newspaper is good too, though it can absorb more moisture from the air and feel "damp" sitting in the basement. Phone books are more compact and stay drier.

 

[gtaus]

Just a little cross-post from the gardening thread because I think it works as well here on frugal tips...

Earlier this past summer, I talked to one of the managers at Menards and asked him why they had so many tote lids but no totes in the store. He told me people had figured out that a $20 industrial tote was bigger and less expensive than the "planter boxes" they sold in the garden center for over $100 each. Essentially, they are both plastic containers, so lots of people bought out all the large totes to grow food in but did not need the lids.

For example, a 40-Gallon Tote for $20.00...

And their 32-Gallon Raised Bed in the garden center...

I know the pictures look deceiving, but that is why I said the tote was 40-Gallons and the planter was only 32-Gallons. The tote is actually bigger. The Elevated Garden Bed on legs might look better but I would bet that the industrial black tote is stronger and would last longer. At any rate, lots of gardeners agreed and they bought out all the large totes for use as planters. Bottom line, you can buy 5 totes with over 5X the growing capacity for the price on only one of those elevated raised beds.

 

[TooCheep]

I use one of those totes as a brooder and for chicken-stuff storage. I can vouch that they are heavy duty and good quality.