What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[igorsMistress]

I also thought dry beans keep forever and bought a lot of them as cheap insurance before Y2K, and when we moved to where there was a Sam's Club.

They may keep forever but they are useable for much less than that.

My son-in-law's mother came to visit. She cooks beans and rice nearly every day. She tried to make some for us and that is when I discovered my few attempts at making beans using dried bean did not fail because I did it wrong. They failed because when dry beans are stored too long, they are not usable. She tried very hard to be polite but I will never forget the look on her face.

Basically, they do not absorb the water they are soaked in whether it is the long way of soaking them or the short way. Even with extra, extra, extra long soaking times. I tried that after she left. Then threw them out in the pastures. I didn't think they would compost in a reasonable timeframe.

My best guess is they were about ten years old when we tried to use them. Kept in a fairly dry basement.

Did you pack in mylar with O2 absorbers? I had some long term storage items before we moved from one state to another. My beans were still useable after five to seven years. I’m curious if maybe we were just in the window or usable or not.

 

[gtaus]

Yeah, I’ve seen people pick through their boxes of free food with disgust. I was like hey I’ll take it, I know how to cook beans and rice and my kids love peanut butter! What do they think they’re gonna get, vouchers for a Big Mac from MickeyD’s?

We have a local church charity Thift Shop that is open only on Tuesdays. I like to stop by there every week and see if I can find anything I need. A few times, they have put out food goods, for free, that were from the food pantry and the people who got that food did not want it. I take advantage of that and have brought home some dried beans, cans of soup, and a few other things I know I could use. Better that someone gets that food instead of ending up in a garbage bin.

Reminds me of a spin I heard on an old saying. If you give a man a fish, he eats for the day. If you teach him how to fish, he eats every day. Before doing either, a wiser man asks, do you eat fish?

Sometimes I think our best intentions are just off the mark.

 

[igorsMistress]

We have a local church charity Thift Shop that is open only on Tuesdays. I like to stop by there every week and see if I can find anything I need. A few times, they have put out food goods, for free, that were from the food pantry and the people who got that food did not want it. I take advantage of that and have brought home some dried beans, cans of soup, and a few other things I know I could use. Better that someone gets that food instead of ending up in a garbage bin.

Reminds me of a spin I heard on an old saying. If you give a man a fish, he eats for the day. If you teach him how to fish, he eats every day. Before doing either, a wiser man asks, do you eat fish?

Sometimes I think our best intentions are just off the mark.

My parents always told me that if I was hungry I would eat what I’m given. If I didn’t like it, maybe I would when I was hungry.

I understand if people have food allergies they wouldn’t take like peanut butter or whatever, but if you’re hungry I would think you’d find a way to use whatever you can get your hands on. We had to get creative as kids to have breakfast and lunch quite often. I hated eggs and still despise bologna, but I ate them as a kid because that’s what we had and I was hungry. Beef heart and kidneys were cheap cuts of meat, so I learned to eat them. Beef tongue and Lima beans would keep me away from the table, sometimes for a few nights. There was no here have this thing that you like, if you didn’t eat what was served you didn’t eat. Period.

 

[saysfaa]

Did you pack in mylar with O2 absorbers? I had some long term storage items before we moved from one state to another. My beans were still useable after five to seven years. I’m curious if maybe we were just in the window or usable or not.

No. They were kept in the original bags. Mostly plastic bags for the one or two pounds of beans, paper bags for the 25 or 50 pound sizes. The bags were in cardboard boxes or rubbermate totes.

Airtight containers with oxygen absorbers will probably last longer but I don't know the chemistry of what happens to the beans over time so I'm not sure. It may be simply drying more.

If you try some, let us know what happens.

 

[igorsMistress]

No. They were kept in the original bags. Mostly plastic bags for the one or two pounds of beans, paper bags for the 25 or 50 pound sizes. The bags were in cardboard boxes or rubbermate totes.

Airtight containers with oxygen absorbers will probably last longer but I don't know the chemistry of what happens to the beans over time so I'm not sure. It may be simply drying more.

If you try some, let us know what happens.

All I have to go on is what I’ve read, never stored beans for that long. As I understand it, oxygen and light are the issue; the plastic bags the beans come in will only keep them about a year. Mylar with O2 absorbers are preferred over even buckets with gamma lids.

 

[TooCheep]

My parents always told me that if I was hungry I would eat what I’m given. If I didn’t like it, maybe I would when I was hungry.

We've grown *very* complacent and soft as a society. Almost no one knows what it is like to go without luxuries that weren't available to kings from years past. The peasants of those times had it much harder.

No. They were kept in the original bags. Mostly plastic bags for the one or two pounds of beans, paper bags for the 25 or 50 pound sizes. The bags were in cardboard boxes or rubbermate totes.

Airtight containers with oxygen absorbers will probably last longer but I don't know the chemistry of what happens to the beans over time so I'm not sure. It may be simply drying more.

If you try some, let us know what happens.

Long-term storage of dried rice and beans can keep them for 25 years. Oxygen, moisture, light and pests (mice/insects/etc) are the enemies of long-term storage. Mormans (LDS) are experts at this. Plastic bags are fine for buying from the store, but achieve none of those long-term protection functions.

If you are serious about such long-term storage, there are plenty of YouTube videos about how to store using O2 absorbers, mylar bags and 5 gallon buckets. This is good storage info, but not really a how-to:

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@igorsMistress - The mylar is good for 02, moisture and light protection, but the bucket is important for keeping out pests, so I use both.

 

[igorsMistress]

We've grown *very* complacent and soft as a society. Almost no one knows what it is like to go without luxuries that weren't available to kings from years past. The peasants of those times had it much harder.


Long-term storage of dried rice and beans can keep them for 25 years. Oxygen, light and pests (mice/insects/etc) are the enemies of long-term storage. Mormans (LDS) are experts at this. Plastic bags are fine for buying from the store, but achieve none of those long-term protection functions.

If you are serious about such long-term storage, there are plenty of YouTube videos about how to store using O2 absorbers, mylar bags and 5 gallon buckets. Here is a good one:

I agree.

 

[saysfaa]

I dunno, there are certain items we go through faster than others so I can’t always get things on sale. If I see a sale I’ll take advantage of it, but otherwise I stock my pantry as needed

There is a pattern to when things go on sale. At least there was for the big sales at the stores we used when our kids were little. "Big" meaning deeply discounted, not necessarily many things at once. We got pretty good at buying enough to last until the next big sale of that item without having much extra by then or having to change our eating patterns much. Well, much extra besides the planned extra for emergencies/margin. And, to be fair, it doesn't take much change of eating patterns to make a lot of difference when there are five teenagers at home.

Now that there is only the two of us at home we don't pay as much attention to that. Or maybe it is because our consumption habits have changed so much - we don't use nearly as much of the things that go on sale like that. We rarely eat pasta any more, or boxed foods, or tin cans of food, or food from the frozen section, and such.

 

[igorsMistress]

There is a pattern to when things go on sale. At least there was for the big sales at the stores we used when our kids were little. "Big" meaning deeply discounted, not necessarily many things at once. We got pretty good at buying enough to last until the next big sale of that item without having much extra by then or having to change our eating patterns much. Well, much extra besides the planned extra for emergencies/margin. And, to be fair, it doesn't take much change of eating patterns to make a lot of difference when there are five teenagers at home.

Now that there is only the two of us at home we don't pay as much attention to that. Or maybe it is because our consumption habits have changed so much - we don't use nearly as much of the things that go on sale like that. We rarely eat pasta any more, or boxed foods, or tin cans of food, or food from the frozen section, and such.

My husband and I eat far differently than our grandkids. We don’t like pizza, popcorn chicken or tacos and rarely have pasta. They don’t like fish that isn’t a stick, curry dishes, most vegetables or fruits.

 

[saysfaa]

Thankfully, the kids also eat better too, for the most part. We just didn't know how much it mattered until we learned more.