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Old 12-22-2014, 03:48 PM   #41
Recycles dryer sheets
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Originally Posted by mikefixac View Post
My wife likes to eat out for breakfast.

She orders her breakfast and I eat her hashbrowns. A side of toast is almost $2 and I buy a whole loaf for $1 at the $.99 store. So I make 2 hashbrown sandwiches with the toast I smuggle in.
I love the smuggled toast!

We went to a bagel place for lunch with an entertainment coupon so our sandwiches were 2 for 1. I of course didn't want to spend more, so I packed my lunch bag with 2 cans of pop which we drank in the car afterwards.
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Old 12-22-2014, 03:56 PM   #42
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I've seen/heard folks using pliers to get the last milligram of toothpaste out of the tube.
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Old 12-22-2014, 04:00 PM   #43
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I remember, back in the day...

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Originally Posted by Independent View Post
We keep rice and macaroni in a couple glass Tang containers that are at least 40 years old.

I still have 35mm film containers (plastic cylinders) in the basement just in case I find some use for them someday.
...those were very popular, at one time, for keeping a green/brown vegetable matter...which was also very popular in my circle of friends.
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Old 12-22-2014, 04:01 PM   #44
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Why eat at McDonalds?
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Old 12-22-2014, 04:35 PM   #45
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Pb4uski,
My Grandmother raised a family through the depression, and she was always very frugal.
For example:
- She would sit in the dark with all of the lights turned off. I stopped to visit, thought she was out, but she would answer the door when I knocked. I asked her why no lights, and she said she was just thinking, and didn't need to waste the electricity. She proudly told me that the electrical company had stopped over one day to see if anyone was living in the house, because her usage was so low.


- She also would double dip the tea bags. First into her cup for a short moment, and then into my cup. I balked when I caught her trying to start with a used tea bag.
Note: She could afford tea bags.


Kind of funny.




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Old 12-22-2014, 04:38 PM   #46
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Why eat at McDonalds?
Besides the bad food, it takes about $10 for a complete meal (here in Northern Cal).
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Old 12-22-2014, 05:01 PM   #47
Recycles dryer sheets
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My dad, who was born in the mid-20s used to pick up nuts and bolts that he'd find in the gutter or on the sidewalk. Run a die over the bolts or a tap through the nuts and he considered them as good as new. My mom didn't want them after he passed away, so I now have a cabinet in the garage that is full of jars of assorted nuts and bolts.

Along similar lines, I will stop and pick up a penny or any other denomination that I might encounter while walking. I once encountered a quarter that was epoxied to the sidewalk. I suppose someone nearby thought that was a funny joke to play on passersby. The location was near my workplace, so I just went back to work, grabbed a hammer and chisel, and that quarter was mine.
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Old 12-22-2014, 05:30 PM   #48
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My wife reuses the good plastic containers. The good jar-sized and sturdy ones are repurposed to store pasta or dry goods. The smaller ones are good to let dinner guests take home leftovers, and they do not have to worry about returning them. And as we host big family get-togethers all the time, that is frugal and practical at the same time.

About reusing ziploc bags, my wife would rinse out and reuse the bags for vegetable once more to store meat. Then, they get discarded.
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Old 12-22-2014, 05:43 PM   #49
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Yeah, I've always wondered why most people only use one side of the toilet paper. Wasteful in the extreme!



Sheesh! We get so many threads like this that inevitably lead to the Four Yorkshireman ...
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Old 12-22-2014, 06:21 PM   #50
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Once upon a time in a swamp far far away - shut off the electricity only use it in a compressed period to run the water pump, wash, and cook. Cut up swamp wood(blown in by storms and hurricanes for heat, forget A/C wear a sweater at work so your body can take La heat. Clothes line - dryer not needed. Beater car - car pool when you can.

No breakfast, and Sam's Club type granola bars during day and Red beans and rice types for dinner.

heh heh heh - great theory which I violated on a irregular basis - after all it was New Orleans. However did max deduct 401k/IRA and lived on the rest. Makes a huge difference when total utilities are less than $50/mo for electricity and dial up phone - no property tax because of 75K homestead exemption. Garbage pickup was free because we lived in urban unimproved - the official moniker for slum.
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Old 12-22-2014, 07:32 PM   #51
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You mean most people don't wash and re-use ziplock bags and plastic containers?

It didn't occur to me until I read this, that maybe other people really don't do that. And here I thought I was living the lifestyles of the rich and famous. I guess I just save ziplocks and containers automatically, because I hadn't actually thought about it. It's just, y'know, what you do with them....

I'll bet tossing them all the time makes a lot more trash to drag out to the curb.
It had never occurred to me that a ziplock bag was to be used only once.

The only time I ever toss a ziplock bag after one use is if it has held something really greasy - in that case, it isn't worth trying to wash and re-use it. Otherwise, they are washed and reused as many times as practicable. Same with plastic containers, and aluminum foil.

I guess my depression-era grandmother's habits made an impression on me. She did all this and more. She had the proverbial kitchen drawers full of string, plastic bread bags, rubber bands, etc. She did not waste a thing, nor did my grandfather. They are long gone, but I still thank them silently and often for their examples. I am the only one of my siblings who followed in their footsteps, and I am the only one not in debt up to my eyeballs.

My other grandmother, who was quite wealthy (but had grown up poor) used to re-use her teabags. Now that is one habit I did not pick up. I like my tea STRONG!
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Old 12-22-2014, 08:00 PM   #52
Recycles dryer sheets
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DW saves plastic bags from the cornflakes box to wrap leftover chicken, meatloaf, etc, for the fridge.


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Old 12-22-2014, 08:38 PM   #53
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It never occurred to me to reuse Ziplocs until we started our cut expenses to ER program. First on the list was eliminating as many disposable products as feasible and reusing plastic bags where I couldn't find a good replacement option.

I found a baggie dryer at a charity thrift store for $3. The ladies who worked at the store had to ask me what it was I was buying - they'd never seen one before -

http://www.amazon.com/Gaiam-Countert.../dp/B00CR4NBGW

I also just bought some holders to wash baggies in the dishwasher. I bought them used on Amazon. There are a lot of cool gadgets on Amazon that pay for themselves rather quickly in either time, money or both.
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Old 12-22-2014, 08:41 PM   #54
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I do use dryer sheets a second time.........thought I was the only one to do this, until I found this forum filled with so many members identified as "recycles dryer sheets."



Before ER:

--Brownbagged lunch each day; bought cafeteria food only 2-3 times/yr.
--Bought no "professional" clothes during last 5 years before ER (only "business casual" at best); anything purchased had to be something I'd want to wear as a "retired person" (fun/leisure)
--Shopped at Amish salvage stores (great bargains on groceries, toiletries and cosmetics: eg. lots of Revlon, L'Oreal, Maybelline products for 50 cents. The Amish don't use make-up)

After ER:

--Started washing out and re-using zip-locks (now having time to do it)
--Seriously purged house (closets, garage, basement) for big annual neighborhood yard sales.
--Vowed to buy NO MORE BOOKS. Use the library card instead. Have been able to find anything I want....just might have to wait for an inter-library transfer.
--Cook a LOT more; less eating out.
--Still enjoy the Amish stores.

Just more efforts at LBYM, now that there is more time. (Though a lifetime of LBYM helped make ER possible.)
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Old 12-22-2014, 08:52 PM   #55
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OMG, I've just realized that I'm a terrible spend thrift!!!! And I thought I was scaling back since we retired a few months ago. I have, on occasion, re-used a baggie after rinsing it and at the same time thinking how pathetic and I'm probably the only person silly enough to do it. Turns out I AM pathetic since it seems I'm the only one that does NOT do it on a regular basis. Well, that is going to change, starting now!



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Old 12-22-2014, 10:23 PM   #56
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Calico View Post
It had never occurred to me that a ziplock bag was to be used only once.

The only time I ever toss a ziplock bag after one use is if it has held something really greasy - in that case, it isn't worth trying to wash and re-use it. Otherwise, they are washed and reused as many times as practicable. Same with plastic containers, and aluminum foil.

I guess my depression-era grandmother's habits made an impression on me. She did all this and more. She had the proverbial kitchen drawers full of string, plastic bread bags, rubber bands, etc. She did not waste a thing, nor did my grandfather. They are long gone, but I still thank them silently and often for their examples. I am the only one of my siblings who followed in their footsteps, and I am the only one not in debt up to my eyeballs.

My other grandmother, who was quite wealthy (but had grown up poor) used to re-use her teabags. Now that is one habit I did not pick up. I like my tea STRONG!
I have three siblings and we are all recyclers and reusers thanks to a mom thavwas a depression era child and a dad who grew up in Europe during the war. My folks are comfortably set in large part due to their frugality. I have never bought a Ziplock in my life. I reuse tinfoil and sometimes even parchment paper if it didn't get mucked up. Use old dog food bags to line the trash can. I finally bought glass containers for food though as I started getting leery of using old plastics to store food.
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:43 PM   #57
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Originally Posted by JP.mpls View Post
Pb4uski,
My Grandmother raised a family through the depression, and she was always very frugal.
For example:
- She would sit in the dark with all of the lights turned off. I stopped to visit, thought she was out, but she would answer the door when I knocked. I asked her why no lights, and she said she was just thinking, and didn't need to waste the electricity. She proudly told me that the electrical company had stopped over one day to see if anyone was living in the house, because her usage was so low. ...
That reminds me that we razz my Mom because she rarely turns on the lights at night... she usually has the tv on and that provides enough light for her to get around her small place, but we'll be walking by or going by in the boat and see the light from the tv flickering in the living room and say "Oh darn, mom forgot to pay the power bill again".

My Gram constantly amazed me. She was widowed in the depression and raised 4 children on her own despite not having an formal education. I doubt that she made much more than minimum wage here entire life, but I know she gave over six-figures to her children in her later years. How in the heck does one do that? One of my aunts says that she never knew that they were poor until she was a young adult. Amazing woman.
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:52 PM   #58
Recycles dryer sheets
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Originally Posted by robnplunder View Post
I've seen/heard folks using pliers to get the last milligram of toothpaste out of the tube.
That's doing it all wrong. I just use a normal squeeze with my fingers, and once I can't get any more out, I use scissors to cut the end off. Then just put the brush head in and get the remaining paste. I can easily get another week's worth out of a tube that way. Just use a strong clip on the end to close it and keep it fresh. No need for industrial tools.
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Old 12-22-2014, 11:30 PM   #59
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Any money saved by eating McDonald's will be repaid in health care costs.

How do you wash ziplocs? I didn't know about this. The opening is too small and then it is a problem to dry it, do you put them in the dishwasher? And how to wash tin foil? I am wasting more than I realized...
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Old 12-23-2014, 06:21 AM   #60
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I've always reused plastic containers and glass jars but never really had much stuff to store so most of them go into recycling. I only learned recently from others to reuse ziplock bags.

I don't drink much tea but I did try reusing coffee grounds. Didn't taste that good so I stopped.

Dumpster diving has been a hobby of mine since grad school. Last acquisition was a nice trash can with a foot operated lid.

I hate buying paper towels as it seems so wasteful (both from a $ and environmental perspective). So instead I try to use various cloths / dish towels.

Recently I was annoyed that my socks had developed holes in the bottom (socks were not that old). I was going to throw them out but discovered they were just as comfortable if I flipped hem upside down even though they had a heel. Now my plan is to flip my socks before they develop the hole and apply a "wear leveling algorithm".







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