"duh!" moments of frugality, simplicity

[creaker]

I was cleaning up shipping materials from some online purchases - a lot of it was 2 foot wide by 3 to 5 foot long sheets of lightly crumpled brown paper used for padding.

And it occurred to me - I was wanting some simple unadorned paper for wrapping presents, was going to buy some if I could find it, and here it all was! Duh!

Smoothed out the sheets, folded them, and I have enough wrapping paper for probably the next 2 years.

Now I can't believe I was just going to throw it all out (recycle).

Anyone have any "duh!" moments like this?

[sweetana3]

Hubby asked me if I could use some fantastic heavy cardboard boxes. These were used to ship frozen food and are plain on the outside. yippee!!! Matching storage boxes for closets that fit and are free, free, free. He gets about 3 a week and we are transitioning from copy paper boxes that are falling apart.

I save all my tissue paper and carefully smooth it out. You can also iron on a low setting and it looks new. I save every gift bag (unless the name is marked on it and I cannot cover it). I save all my chinese take out soup containers as they make the best ever containers for the freezer and free, free, free.

I dont yet clean and save my foil but feel guilty so use as little as possible.

[Selah]

I used to buy hummus at the store in little plastic containers. When the hummus was gone, I'd carefully rinse out the containers to go into the recycling bin. Then I decided to start making my own hummus to save money and the environment. When I was done with my first batch, I looked around and wondered what containers I should use for hummus. Doh! I'd already recycled DOZENS of perfectly sized hummus containers!

But at least I have made excellent use of the plastic boxes DH's cold cuts come in. They hold all manner of leftovers and can be frozen, dishwashed and nuked numerous times before finally giving up the ghost for the recycling bin.

[Mrs-M]

I have a small area (cupboard space) where I keep all my spices, and many years back, I was fall cleaning one year, and reached a stage and point where it was time to do something with all of the loose spice bottles, but what? I gave thought to all sorts of storage options and ideas, yet nothing in the way of workable brainstorms came to mind. So I cleaned on, and when I got to the cupboard where I store all of the reusable plastic food saver things, an old Rubbermaid meal-saver tub caught my eye. It was the perfect size, shallow (for ease), and it fit wonderfully into the spice space. Bingo! Problem solved.

[sweetana3]

I just remembered a new save. I got some baked thing in a clear plastic clamshell type container. I am going to pack it with 5 inch pieces of cotton fabric for a quilt gift. They fit perfectly. I am using the same type of larger sandwich clamshell to hold larger squares or a small kit.

[Blackdog Lin]

Mine was very recently: doing my "soup in a jar" for gifting for this year, and trying to decide how to decorate the jars. Most of the photos you see of them have a square of fabric over the top and ribbon around the ring. I don't sew, so don't have fabric, and trying to figure out how to frugally purchase some "Christmasy" fabric, and my small town has only a dollar store for shopping for such, so do I need to plan a trip out-of-town to look for fabric, and maybe I need pinking sheers for cutting, and how much is the ribbon going to cost etc. etc.

Thank goodness at some point it hit me to use tissue paper and the same lightweight tan packing paper creaker referenced. I found all kinds of recycled and never-used tissue paper in my Christmas-wrapping supplies, and ironed out some of the tan shipping paper laying around. Cut out squares, laid two in coordinating colors in a 6-pointed "star" shape (I went with red and tan and even found some prints that coordinated with the red and tan), and there was the topper for my jars. And instead of ribbon I used twine, which we already had, to wrap a bow on the rings.

I'm thrilled with how cute they turned out, and the materials didn't cost me a single cent.

[SiouzQ.]

I've been washing/scrubbing out Wholefoods plastic peanut butter jars (the ones with a blue screw top) and have been using them to store all sorts of food items like lentils, raisins, ground flax seed meal, etc. I've been doing it for over a year and have a burgeoning set of matching, easy to use storage containers for the kitchen . I have also been using the plastic containers from bullion cube jars (same type of jar with the same blue screw cap) to store spices in, as the opening is wide enough to dip my teaspoon in for measuring. These are slowly replacing the twenty-rear old baby food jar spice system! They worked pretty good, but the openings were too narrow. Plus the screw caps on those were getting kind of gross after all this time. Free, free, free, lightweight, and they stay out of the recycling bin!

[cdttmm]

I bought candles for a birthday cake for my partner's b-day back in October. Not wanting to throw them away after only one use, the candles have been sitting on the kitchen counter now for nearly two months. I hate using baggies for storage if I can avoid it, but couldn't come up with anything more practical. This morning it struck me, the a tin from the powdered green tea is the perfect size for storing b-day candles. And the tin fits perfectly in the kitchen drawer where I store random things like b-day candles. Problem solved without the use of a baggie!!!

[iris lily]

I have these moments--I just have to think of them.

[sweetana3]

My husband likes the chicken burgers from Costco but they come in so much packaging. I mean shrink wrapped and then put in a good sized plastic tub with a cardboard wrapper. I found a friend with a garden and she loves the plastic tubs to start seeds. So now they are being put to good use.

[Merski]

Duh! The blue plastic mayonaisse jar lid fits canning jars, so when I open some canned item that I won't be able to finish, on goes the jar lid. I have bought the white plastic canning jar lids once in the past but never again!

[Jemima]

I have a 'Duh Moment' at least once a week, I think. Last week it was coming across a whole bunch of old, non-rewritable CDs while decluttering and pitching them into the recycle bin. Shortly after the recycle truck came and went, I discovered a pattern online for making a very attractive wreath out of CDs. SIGH.

A few weeks back when I had too much organic plain yogurt on hand, I decided that it could be salvaged by making yogurt cream cheese, so I ordered a yogurt-and-jelly strainer gizmo from Lehman's. Minutes later, it dawned on me that a fine mesh sieve and an ordinary mixing bowl (I have both) would do the job. I tried to cancel the order, but it was too late. Lehman's kindly gave it to me for free since I had done my best to cancel and they didn't catch it. Now I don't know what to do with the gizmo, except maybe keep it to strain jelly, which is something I'm not sure I'll ever do. (The minute I throw it out, you know what will happen....)

[Bastelmutti]

I have always used free CDs for coasters at my desk.

Fine mesh strainer? Sounds like it could be used for sprouting!

[Jemima]

I have always used free CDs for coasters at my desk.

Fine mesh strainer? Sounds like it could be used for sprouting!

The strainer only holds about a cup of yogurt at a time so I don't think it would work very well for sprouting, but it does make me think of a frequent Duh Moment that I'm gradually overcoming, and that is to take household tips word-for-word. Everything I've read about making yogurt cheese calls for cheesecloth, which I haven't seen in a supermarket for years. Lehman's has it, but it's $5.95 plus $7.95 for postage and that doesn't make any sense at all, nor does running all over town trying to find some to save maybe three dollars worth of yogurt.

I had an old, unopened package of cheesecloth that I recently attempted to use to hold spices in some recipe or other, and it disintegrated, leaving debris throughout the food. That was the beginning and the end of my experience with cheesecloth.

[Marianne]

Instead of cheese cloth, I have a couple of men's white hankerchiefs that are designated for kitchen use only. I hand wash them with dish soap (so they don't get washed with the socks) and hang to dry so there's no fabric softener residue. Then back into the kitchen drawer. It fits nicely into my colander to drain yogurt for yo cheese. :o) also fits into the little mesh strainer. Save and freeze the whey in ice cube trays. It's great for buttermilk substitute in bread/biscuit recipes. Oops, sorry for the thread hijack.

I have had so many 'duh' moments through the years that now it's hard for me to part with some stuff - you never know.... I still have my spices on small lazy susans in the cupboard. I used an ancient metal record holder (remember those 33's and 45's?) to hold packaged gravy mixes, that kind of stuff, for years.

[Jemima]

I have had so many 'duh' moments through the years that now it's hard for me to part with some stuff - you never know.... I still have my spices on small lazy susans in the cupboard. I used an ancient metal record holder (remember those 33's and 45's?) to hold packaged gravy mixes, that kind of stuff, for years.

Thanks for the tip about the whey. The writer of my yogurt cheese recipe mentioned saving it for other recipes, but didn't say what kind. It looked rather sickly to me.

Yes, I remember the record holders. Heck, I even had some 78's given to me by relatives. I distinctly remember having "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer" and some other Christmas songs on a translucent red plastic 45 when I was a kid.

I'm getting hesitant to do any overly enthusiastic decluttering, myself. I keep hoping I'll find the desktop file organizer I swear I packed up someplace, because it would make a great rack for pot lids. I bought two, and one of them is a few feet away holding cardboard envelopes of Avery labels, Priority Mail envelopes, et cetera, and it works much better than just piling the stuff up and then having to dig through it.

Another Duh Moment was a week or two ago when I was inwardly bemoaning not having a crock or pot large enough to make saurkraut. Fortunately, before I bought an expensive crock from Lehman's, I remembered that I had previously bought a large canning pot - too large - that I took out to the shed. All it needs is a plastic liner and a weight to make sure the upside-down lid doesn't let any air in. Whew. I should make it a rule to never buy anything I think I need for at least a week. :|(

[frugal-one]

Jemima... I recently took a fermented vegetable class and the instructor did not use a crock. Instead he used a gallon (or other large glass) jar with a wide mouth and inserted a wide mouth pint jar on top of the cabbage to use as a spacer and then loosely screwed on the cover. It was great because you could see what was going on with the cabbage.

I've also used whey in pickle recipes in place of salt. Works great!

[mara61]

The cd's make pretty ornaments for a tree to.

[pinkytoe]

My most recent duh aha moment happened while overhearing all the holiday ads. The blaring messages of "save" right now when you take advantage of this or that sale. How is it we are "saving" if you are spending money in the first place?

[Marianne]

Desktop file organizer for pot lids? Brilliant! (another duh moment here)

That whey tastes pretty nasty to me, but it's great in some baked goods, honest.

[early morning]

I have a lot of Duh moments :|( ... last week we were having guests and I was going through my paper goods stash to set out some small holiday plates and napkins. Had plenty of napkins, but no plates. Actually put paper plateson a shopping list! Then realized that I have plenty of REAL Christmas plates in several sizes. AND we have a dishwasher, so no more work involved! Problem solved without expenditure, but embarrassing to realize how quick I was to add something I didn't need to the grocery list. Even though the cost would have been less than $2, the fact that I didn't automatically think it through bothers me.

[Mrs-M]

Originally posted by Early Morning.
Even though the cost would have been less than $2, the fact that I didn't automatically think it through bothers me. Isn't that way although, we scramble wildly to get on the up-and-up, to get organized, and to stay one step ahead of the game, so no wonder so many things elude our thoughts and better judgment.

[Merski]

DH bought me what I considered an expensive Christmas tree scent candle to enjoy. My duh moment was that I don't have to burn through it this year. I'll put on the vacuum lid and put it away for next Christmas and get more wear out of it. Not such a luxury when we do that...