What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

Now when I get to the dishes I'm going to have problems. The stuff from my Grandmas and Mom are not going anywhere. I don't know where they will all go but they are not leaving. LOL

Well, they have value to you. That's good enough reason to keep them in my book.

I shop our local church charity Thrift Shop almost every week. Lots of stuff there from yesteryear. They sell the stuff for pennies on the dollar, and sometimes, depending on the items, they won't even take them in for free. Forget about donating your cassette or VHS collections to the store. They just can't sell them. I do see old dishware for sale for almost nothing, but most people don't want older, heavier, dishware that you cannot use in a microwave oven.

I have a few manual food processing items that my grandmother used ~60-70 years ago. I don't know how I ended with some of that stuff, but like the manual food chopper, there are a few things that still work and I use frequently. Every time I use it, I think of my grandparents, and that has a lot of value to me...

 

[Smokerbill]

Now when I get to the dishes I'm going to have problems. The stuff from my Grandmas and Mom are not going anywhere. I don't know where they will all go but they are not leaving. LOL

I'm dealing with the same problem. My mom had collections of clear glassware and some kind of Autumn themed stoneware. Plus some Frankoma stoneware. And some Fenton blue opalescent hobnail stuff. Somehow I ended up with boxes of the stuff. And I don't know what to do with it.

I wouldn't have a problem selling it but I don't think there's much of a market for it these days. My grandaughter most likely wouldn't want it when she gets older either.

I guess I was just as bad because I collected brown Marcrest stoneware stuff for a while, and I have lots of it too. I guess I should at least pull out a couple of the big mugs and keep them in the freezer for my beer. LOL

 

[gtaus]

I'm dealing with the same problem. My mom had collections of clear glassware and some kind of Autumn themed stoneware.

I guess I was lucky that my parents never had enough money to invest in collections of dishware. All I remember is a mix of stoneware plates, some stone bowls that maybe matched, or not, but most of our dishes were those plastic butter bowls that we washed out and used for years as our main bowls for cereal, soups, chili, etc... And I remember most of our glasses were from the fast-food restaurants when they gave you a "free" glass with a large soda.

Here is a google picture of our kind of reused butter bowls, stacked like that up in our cupboard, lots of different colors...

And our fine glasses...

And perhaps my favorites were the Looney Tunes...

Anyways, none of that stuff survived the years and is only a memory now. But for a family of seven people, those butter bowls and free glasses was about all I knew growing up. Good times.

 

[Smokerbill]

We drank out of glasses like that too, and jelly jars that had pop off lids, not screw lids. I remember some clear glass cowboy boot glasses too. Butter bowls were for food storage. All the dishware I have in boxes is perfectly useable, but definitely not in style. LOL
But the sentimentality of the stuff is the problem of getting rid of it. All of it is connected to memories of my mom and grandma.

 

[gtaus]

But the sentimentality of the stuff is the problem of getting rid of it. All of it is connected to memories of my mom and grandma.

Right. We have the right to keep things that remind us of family. There is value in that. We can be frugal and practicable in other ways. Well, that's what I say to myself.

 

[Sally PB]

Memories are priceless. Keeping them alive is a good exercise in frugality.

 

[NanaK]

I love the old things that have been in the family so long. When I am no longer here if they do not want them they can toss or sell them. For now they have a home with me!

The laced edge milk glass bowl, 2 hand made wooden bread trays used for biscuit and pastry making, 3 old rolling pins (who needs 3 rolling pins?), the old china, old corelle, stoneware, crystal glassware and my grandmothers 1940s china cabinet, the list goes on.

When we moved the old china cabinet to our home I was so worried! Still has the original glass. I wrapped it in 3 quilts. I was so thankful when it was set in place inside the house with no damage.

Yes more valuable than cash to me!

 

[fuzzi]

We drank out of glasses like that too, and jelly jars that had pop off lids, not screw lids. I remember some clear glass cowboy boot glasses too. Butter bowls were for food storage. All the dishware I have in boxes is perfectly useable, but definitely not in style. LOL
But the sentimentality of the stuff is the problem of getting rid of it. All of it is connected to memories of my mom and grandma.

The jelly glasses, I remember those!

We had The Flintstones, like these:

I recall the lawnmower one.

 

[Molpet]

I think I jinxed myself. Last night I broke my relatively new 5 tine hay fork that I use all the time. The wood handle broke off cleanly right at the metal collar of the forks portion. IIRC, that fork is less than 5 years old. What a shame it failed already.

I'll be looking at options to replace the handle, replace the fork with another wooden handle fork, or replace the fork with a fiberglass handle fork. Frankly, I have started using fiberglass handles more and more because they seem to last so much longer.

If I could modify (sand, carve, whittle) the handle and form it to fit in the curve of the metal collar, I would do that. But it looks like I have too much straight handle and not enough to make that curve.

Here is a google picture of where my handle broke off right where it meets the metal collar...

View attachment 4181180

I have a lot of forks, shovels and hoes that break at the same place. Water gets in there. Coating with oil prevents that, but I forget anymore.

Well, they have value to you. That's good enough reason to keep them in my book.

I shop our local church charity Thrift Shop almost every week. Lots of stuff there from yesteryear. They sell the stuff for pennies on the dollar, and sometimes, depending on the items, they won't even take them in for free. Forget about donating your cassette or VHS collections to the store. They just can't sell them. I do see old dishware for sale for almost nothing, but most people don't want older, heavier, dishware that you cannot use in a microwave oven.

I have a few manual food processing items that my grandmother used ~60-70 years ago. I don't know how I ended with some of that stuff, but like the manual food chopper, there are a few things that still work and I use frequently. Every time I use it, I think of my grandparents, and that has a lot of value to me...

View attachment 4181609

I have 2 of those choppers. One is rusty. I don't know why I haven't gotten rid of it. I can't remember which relatives it was.

We drank out of glasses like that too, and jelly jars that had pop off lids, not screw lids. I remember some clear glass cowboy boot glasses too. Butter bowls were for food storage. All the dishware I have in boxes is perfectly useable, but definitely not in style. LOL
But the sentimentality of the stuff is the problem of getting rid of it. All of it is connected to memories of my mom and grandma.

The jelly glasses, I remember those!

We had The Flintstones, like these:
View attachment 4181841
I recall the lawnmower one.

I still have some of those glasses. If I remember I'll take a photo

 

[gtaus]

Better Method to Remove Labels Using Goo Gone

I don't know how many of you use Goo Gone, but it's great to remove labels and glue from items you might want to repurpose. I bought of bottle of Goo Gone ~10 years ago and still have over 80% of the bottle to use up.

The directions on my bottle say to spray it on, wait a few minutes, than rub off the glue. I think I have found a better way.

Today, Dear Wife got a new shirt in the mail from Amazon. It came in a nice, resealable clear plastic bag. It was actually vacuum sealed flat with some shipping labels glued on it for shipping. The clear bag was the perfect size for many of my owner's manuals for my tools in the garage, plus, with the zip seal on the bag, it would be perfect for some of my recent purchases that included special tools and/or extra parts that came with the item.

It was worth trying to save the bag if I could get the shipping lables off of it. At first, I tried to lift up a corner and peel of the label. No such luck as the label immediately started to separate, leaving the glued on white portion of the bottom of the label on the bag. The whole idea was end up with a clear resealable bag that I could slip my owner's manual and parts in it for storage.

That frustrating phenomenon is often called label delamination or label separation — specifically, when the top printed layer of a label peels off but the bottom adhesive layer (usually white and sticky) stays behind.

Here is the better method I discovered...

Peeling off the label was not working. So, I decided to spray the entire label on the bag with Goo Gone, getting it pretty wet, and just let it sit for 15 minutes. In that time, the Goo Gone was able to soak down into the label to the glue layer, loosening the glue, and had a bit more time to dry off. After 15 minutes, I was able to peel off the label easier than peeling a banana and ended up with a perfect, clear, resealable bag for one of my owners manuals with extra parts. I can keep everything together without having to worry about things falling out of the bag.

Well, it's not a big thing. But I try to save and reuse things a time or two before I send them to the landfill. In this case, the clear plastic bag will hold my owner's manual and spare parts for many years.

Speaking of reusing items, I needed a handful of plastic storage containers for parts out in the garage. Of course, you can buy plastic storage containers at a tool store, for just over a dollar or two each, but why would you do that when you can buy a jar of peanut butter from the Dollar Tree, eat all that yummy peanut butter, and then reuse the jar for storage?

Years ago, grandpa and dad used glass jars for storage out in the garage. However, if/when you drop a glass jar it breaks into nasty pieces that you have to clean up. These plastic jars are much safer. If you drop one and it cracks, at least you don't have to worry about glass splinters all over the place. Also, I can toss a plastic container in a tool bag and not worry about it breaking into sharp bits of glass if a tool cracks the plastic jar.

I have taken off the labels on a number of plastic jars of different sizes for reuse out in the garage. It's good to have size options. The plastic jars I have saved from food items are as good, if not better, than the plastic storage jars sold in the tool stores. So, I save some money, get some nice peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and save some plastic from the landfill when I repurpose them for the garage.