What is one everyday thing you think is THRIFTY, but your friends/family think is CHE

[Out-to-Lunch]

I wear clothes completely out. Example: My wholy underwear are good until I pull them up and the elastic band tears off. Then and only then do they go in the trash. They are darn near see through by then anyway!

Reminds me of a quiz question from Dave Barry:

10. When is it okay to throw away a set of veteran underwear?
a. When it has turned the color of a dead whale and developed new holes so large that you're not sure which ones were originally intended for your legs.
b. When it is down to eight loosely connected underwear molecules and has to be handled with tweezers.
c. It is never okay to throw away veteran underwear. A real guy checks the garbage regularly in case somebody -- and we are not naming names, but this would be his wife -- is quietly trying to discard his underwear, which she is frankly jealous of, because the guy seems to have a more intimate relationship with it than with her.

 

[tb001]

They are from Costco near the automotive area... I think the package says shop towels. A loose terry, that is washcloth sized. I don't bother to bleach then y so they are no longer white. But they are clean.

We also have the yellow micro fiber cloths from Costco. I use those for dusting, and wiping down car surfaces, cleaning the window blinds.

Thanks! Will look for them next time I’m there. We use the yellow ones too.

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

My grandmother used to live on a farm and still remembered the depression vividly.

Her habit that I considered strange at the time was reusing paper coffee filters.
I remember the stained fluted cup like paper drying in her sink.

My dislike was mostly how hard it would be to clean the grounds out of the filter without losing the grounds into the sink. What I failed to consider was she may well have used a garden hose to rinse it over her compost pile. (or god forbid (lol) the unused guest toilet.)

I buy the filters at the dollar store and there are 150 filters per $1 and i have no compost pile or yard in the condo. However I was having to use 2 filters at a time to keep them from collapsing during the coffee making process until i discovered taking the filter from the bottom non open side kept the structural integrity better so only one cheap filter was needed.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Didn't everyone's grandma used to save bread wrappers and twisties ? The bread wrappers went over your socks in the winter time before you put on your boots. I'm not sure what grandma used the twisties for, but she had them in case she needed them.


Empty cool whip containers were used to freeze garden produce.


A lot of my grandma rubbed off on me.

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Didn't everyone's grandma used to save bread wrappers and twisties ? The bread wrappers went over your socks in the winter time before you put on your boots. I'm not sure what grandma used the twisties for, but she had them in case she needed them.


Empty cool whip containers were used to freeze garden produce.


A lot of my grandma rubbed off on me.

I luv twist ties, true funny fairly recent story.. Ordered a bunch of twist ties off of amazon maybe 200 or 500 fairly long black .
Got the padded envelop which seemed really light and flat. Opened and found nothing at all in it. Got the refund but made me wonder if it was robot filled or something. I used them to fasten all sorts of cables and cords together...

 

[Al in Ohio]

When there’s a handful of napkins and straws in the fast food bag I add them all to my kitchen table napkin holder and kitchen drawer.

 

[Lienlord]

One of my favorite (and most relatable) Jeff Foxworthy lines:
"If you have a 12 piece matching set of salad bowls that say Cool Whip, you might be a redneck!"

 

[O2Bfree]

I buy the filters at the dollar store and there are 150 filters per $1 and i have no compost pile or yard in the condo. However I was having to use 2 filters at a time to keep them from collapsing during the coffee making process until i discovered taking the filter from the bottom non open side kept the structural integrity better so only one cheap filter was needed.

Ugh, nothing put a damper on my morning like a collapsed coffee filter!

I cut a yogurt container down to half-height then push my stack of cheap coffee filters into it. It squeezes the filters into shape, making them more rigid. Haven't had a collapse since I started that, no matter which side I take the filter from.

 

[O2Bfree]

We save envelopes and sections of blank paper from mail to use for notes and shopping lists, even though there are at least a couple dozen unused notebooks and tablets of various sizes in the house. I'm sure the notebooks and tablets will be used for some grand purpose someday!

 

[JoeWras]

Ah, depression era grandmothers.

Here's my grandmother's favorite thrifty trick. Never, ever, waste bacon grease. Throw a slice of bread in the pan, soak it up and eat it. Not ready for that? Save the grease and use it on your bread for an afternoon snack.

Meanwhile, her son (my dad) took maybe a shower a week, and always limited it to a few minutes. Must turn off water while soaping. Dad never smelled bad. I don't know how he did it.

 

[Dtail]

Ah, dpression era grandmothers.

Here's my grandmother's favorite thrifty trick. Never, ever, waste bacon grease. Throw a slice of bread in the pan, soak it up and eat it. Not ready for that? Save the grease and use it on your break for an afternoon snack.

Meanwhile, her son (my dad) took maybe a shower a week, and always limited it to a few minutes. Must turn off water while soaping. Dad never smelled bad. I don't know how he did it.

I use the bacon grease to cook the sunny side up eggs.

 

[jurgs01]

We catch our water as the shower is warming up in a bucket, and use to flush the toilet.

 

[travelover]

I luv twist ties,......

I use this rubber coated wire sold to anchor plants, from Dollar Tree. It works great for electronics cords. It is seasonal, so I can't find the Dollar Tree link, but this is the same stuff at Ace for much more. LINK

 

[kcowan]

I do take home the unused soaps and used/unused hair products from the hotel, but not the used bar soaps.

So that's why they installed those gawdaweful dispensers of shampoo and bodywash on the walls!

I also just retired my iPhone4S bought used in 2012 for $100 and bought an SE 2020 for $25/mo, no charge for usage.

We have moved beyond many of the habits described here. We have taken Blow That Dough thread to heart. Plus the market has spoiled us.

So we only reuse ziplocks when they are almost clean anyway just to get the oder out. Love the Costco yellow cloths and wash them.

 

[Retire2013]

We catch our water as the shower is warming up in a bucket, and use to flush the toilet.

Do you pour the water directly into the toilet? Or into the water tank of the toilet?

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Here's my grandmother's favorite thrifty trick. Never, ever, waste bacon grease. Throw a slice of bread in the pan, soak it up and eat it. Not ready for that? Save the grease and use it on your bread for an afternoon snack.

Part of a great British breakfast is frying both sides of the bread in the bacon grease after the eggs have been cooked. Don't knock it till you've tried it, it's absolutely delicious and comes out crispy.

 

[braumeister]

I'm not a bread eater (LCHF diet) but I've kept a can of bacon grease in the frig all my life. Easy to spoon out a little to get a skillet going for cooking just about anything. I use a strainer on top so the can holds just the grease.

This is a great example:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013U3F6E8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Do you pour the water directly into the toilet? Or into the water tank of the toilet?

Pouring water into the bowl will flush it.

Also, re: bacon grease, it won't use much of it, but I like dipping a teaspoon into it (just to coat it) and stirring my coffee with the spoon. It has some of the mouth feel of cream, but with a bit of salt, which some people add to their coffee to reduce the bitterness.

 

[Lucie]

Didn't everyone's grandma used to save bread wrappers and twisties ? The bread wrappers went over your socks in the winter time before you put on your boots
I thought everybody used bread bags in their boots! How else would you keep your hand me down socks dry?

 

[Arizona1]

In the 80s I bought a little heavy wire frame that holds a plastic bag you get when buying something. I’ve mounted it on the inside of a cabinet everywhere I’ve lived. It has a lid so there’s no smell.
Never bought garbage bags.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

+1, the free grocery store plastic bags have been my bathroom trashcan liners for as long as I can remember. I live in California and now we have to pay 10 cents for "reusable" bags that are a little thicker. My states effort to cut down on plastic waste backfired on them when Covid19 came along and we were no longer allowed to use these reusable bags in the stores and the stores had to buy more of the cheap single use trash bags again.

 

[JoeWras]

Didn't everyone's grandma used to save bread wrappers and twisties ? The bread wrappers went over your socks in the winter time before you put on your boots

I thought everybody used bread bags in their boots! How else would you keep your hand me down socks dry?

I vaguely remember bread bags in the boots!

We make our own bread and use a large ziplock bag. I have to use new so as to avoid any mold spores from a used bag. The good news is we find the bags work well as cat litter containment packages. Clean the box, and deposit the accretion disks into the ziplock, where you can trap the odor and throw away.

I suspect any of these bags would also work well for dog poop. No need to go out and buy special poop bags.

 

[Markola]

Man, I’ve been accused of squeezing the buffalo off a nickel but I have met my match on this string! We must have scared off the OP, who hasn’t been seen since. I can’t throw away a twist tie or rubber band but all y’all who reuse your dental floss are on your own. *

 

[braumeister]

Yes, over 30 years of using the disposable grocery bags for cat litter.
When coming home from the store, the bags automatically go into a bag hanging over the washing machine. Removed as needed for any purpose. We have never NOT recycled them in some fashion.

Another little thing is that I don't think we have ever thrown out a towel. They go into a bag in the laundry room for use as rags or whatever. After use, they can easily be thrown into the washing machine for reuse. Probably saves some enormous amount that would have been spent on paper towels.

 

[athena53]

I'm not a bread eater (LCHF diet) but I've kept a can of bacon grease in the frig all my life. Easy to spoon out a little to get a skillet going for cooking just about anything. I use a strainer on top so the can holds just the grease.

My late husband was born in 1938 and grew up very poor. Bacon grease was "seasoning" to pour over cooked vegetables. They mostly had cabbage because it was cheap. As an adult, DH refused to eat boiled cabbage.