What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[ChicksnMore]

I just take the almost empty bottle out until there is enough space in the full one to upend the almost empty one over the almost full one and let it drain for the day. It usually needs to be propped so the kitchen is more convenient than the bathroom - there are more containers to use for propping.

Does anyone have a good method for using the slivers of bar soap that are too small for certain people (like dh) to bother with? For a while, he would "glue" them onto the new bar by pressing them while both were wet. That used to work pretty well, it would be a fragile bond for a few days, then be strong enough to hold well enough. Lately neither of us can get them to stick hardly at all.

I use soap sacks. They're little woven bags about the size of a bar of soap. All my slivers go in there and that's what I use in the shower.

 

[igorsMistress]

I find that I’m much more frugal when I’ll use any excuse NOT to go shopping. I will pull out all the stops to be creative with meals in order to not go to the store. Chili dogs on the heels of the bread loaf with whatever cheese is around. Fried rice made with a leftover pork chop, a couple eggs and a mix of fresh and canned veggies. I will plug my ingredients into a search engine and look for recipes that use them in order to not leave the house.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Exactly! Sometimes I pretend I'm a contestant on Chopped ... what can I make with these weird ingredients that don't belong together at ALL? Lol.

 

[igorsMistress]

I just take the almost empty bottle out until there is enough space in the full one to upend the almost empty one over the almost full one and let it drain for the day. It usually needs to be propped so the kitchen is more convenient than the bathroom - there are more containers to use for propping.

Does anyone have a good method for using the slivers of bar soap that are too small for certain people (like dh) to bother with? For a while, he would "glue" them onto the new bar by pressing them while both were wet. That used to work pretty well, it would be a fragile bond for a few days, then be strong enough to hold well enough. Lately neither of us can get them to stick hardly at all.

I save them and put them in a knee high stocking, then hang one on each water spigot outside for hand scrubbing.

 

[Sally PB]

I will plug my ingredients into a search engine and look for recipes that use them in order to not leave the house.

Now that's an idea I can try!

I have found fried rice is a great way to use up leftovers when there is "just a little bit" left. I have put in leftover refired beans, a bit of taco meat, sprinkle on a bit of parmesan (because it's easy) and called it taco rice.

 

[igorsMistress]

Now that's an idea I can try!

I have found fried rice is a great way to use up leftovers when there is "just a little bit" left. I have put in leftover refired beans, a bit of taco meat, sprinkle on a bit of parmesan (because it's easy) and called it taco rice.

I just made fried rice last night for this very reason I had one leftover pork chop, so I added a couple of eggs for more protein. It’s a great clean out the fridge meal.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I put leftover chili on top of leftover alfredo noodles from a restaurant for a lunch the other day. Didn't expect it to be wonderful, but it turned out to be an elevated chili mac!

 

[gtaus]

Knockoffs versus Original Brand Tool batteries - can you save money?

I find this question a lot on the forums. Let's start off with what many people consider the cost of an original brand battery, here for example, a Ryobi 18v 4Ah battery sold at Home Depot...

Wow, that's a lot of money! So, you go to Amazon and find a nice set of 2 knockoff batteries, 4Ah, for half the price of just 1 original Ryobi battery...

That's a much better deal, don't you think? Well, maybe not, and here is why.

1) Ryobi batteries deliver the rated capacity of their batteries, all the time. Knockoff batteries almost always exaggerate the capacity and deliver maybe only 50% of their stated capacity. I know, I have run some tests on my testing equipment at home.

2) Ryobi batteries are under warranty for 3 years. Knockoff batteries typically only have a 1 year warranty, but you might not find the seller of the knockoff batteries listed after a few months. Read the many negative reviews of people trying to get replacement knockoff batteries if they go bad within the warranty period.

3) Ryobi uses new battery cells in their packs. The knockoff batteries are known to harvest used cells from other packs and repackage them for resell.

4) The build quality of the original Ryobi battery is usually much better in terms of soldering, wire used, connectors, etc... compared to the knockoff batteries which use less expensive materials to cut costs.

5) You should never buy Ryobi batteries at full retail price. You don't have to. At least a couple times a year, Ryobi has specials that if you buy a battery pack, you get a free tool. Right now, you can buy a 2 pack of Ryobi 18v 4Ah batteries with charger for $99 and get to pick out a few tool options.

I have been considering getting a new 6-inch pruning chainsaw and that comes with the current promotion. The pruning chainsaw retails for $150.00. But when you get it for free with the purchase of the 2 pack 4Ah batteries, it magically goes down in price in the cart for $60.00, and the 2 4Ah battery combo kit with charger is reduced to $40.00.

Now, how much did you actually pay for those genuine original Ryobi 4Ah batteries? If you were already going to purchase that pruning chainsaw, I guess you say that you both saved $50 on the sale promotion and the batteries and charger were free. If you decided to return the batteries and charger to Home Depot and just keep the saw, you would only get back $40.00.

But we started off with a 2 pack of knockoff batteries, without a charger, selling for $50 on Amazon! So, are you really saving money by buying knockoff batteries? IMHO, no, you can't save money on knockoff batteries if you know when and how to buy the Ryobi tools on their promos.

I suspect the same is true for other brand named tools like DeWalt, Rigid, Milwaukee, etc... The special promotions basically give away batteries to keep you in their ecosystem.

I have been in the Ryobi 18v One Plus tool system for over 15 years. I have never purchased a battery at full retail price. Almost always I buy a new tool on my list on these special promotions and get more batteries for free. Over the 15+ years, I now have over 42 Ryobi tool batteries. Much more than I need, but they were free for the most part purchased in kits or on these special promotions.

Here is a picture of my battery shelf with some of my batteries ready to be used....

 

[LizzzyJo]

I save them and put them in a knee high stocking, then hang one on each water spigot outside for hand scrubbing.

That is so smart I’m going to have to do that.

 

[gtaus]

I find that I’m much more frugal when I’ll use any excuse NOT to go shopping. I will pull out all the stops to be creative with meals in order to not go to the store.

Dear Wife is a Filipina. A few years ago, she went back to the Philippines for about a month to spend time with her family. So, I had to make all my meals. I emptied the shelves with all our canned and dried goods and decided that I would use what I had. With the exceptions of buying fresh milk and bread, I just used up whatever we had in storage for those 4 weeks.

I'm not saying I had my favorite foods at every meal, but I did manage to reduce all our canned goods in half and made a nice dent in the dry goods as well. Also, I took advantage of that process to use up all the oldest food in storage first, kind of rotating the food stock at the same time.

I think I only went to the grocery store once that 4 weeks, like I said to buy fresh milk and a loaf of bread.

When Dear Wife got back, she was happy to see how much stuff I had emptied from the shelves. I have since tried to convince her that we need to do something like that periodically, and empty those cupboards of the stored food, but that runs against her nature. Back to going to the grocery store 3X per week, buying new food for supper, and the old canned and dried goods just get shoved to the back of the shelves.

Oh well, if she goes on vacation again, I'll have lots of new "old" food to go through for another 4+ weeks.