Free Food Safe Containers

Plastic two liter soda or sparkling water bottles are the perfect size for storing many things. They're almost ideal, as a matter of fact. The lids are airtight, you can see what's in them and you can store them either upright or stack them on their sides. You can store liquids (as in water) or solids (as in rice, flour, oats, pastas, grains, salt, sugar...) Even if you don't buy soft drinks in these containers, they're so common that someone you know will surely save a few for you.

Cheaper thread for hand sewing

If you're hand sewing and need a certain color, buy embroidery thread instead of spooled thread. It's cheaper and the colors are easier to match your project. You can separate the threads and there's actually quite a bit of single ply thread on a skein of embroidery yarn!

Containers for your garden

Need containers to plant things in? Unless you want them all to match (and maybe even then!) you might already have containers. Got a coffee can or two? Take off the label and there you go. Or how about an old wheelbarrow? Or a big vase? Or a child's sandbox bucket? Anything that can contain something is fair game. Look around the house and see what you can find before buying pots and containers.

Dehydrating food

Do it without spending extra money. That's the only way it makes sense. Why buy "survival" dried food, when you can dehydrate food for yourself? It doesn't even take an electric dehydrator. Look into solar dehydrator. Or do it the old fashioned way and just put food out on trays in the sun, covered with a light cloth to keep the bugs out!

How to Really Save Money on Lighting

First, you don't save a lot right off the bat if you buy CFS bulbs for four or five times the cost of four incandescent bulbs. Let's be real.

Secondly, unless you turn the lights on and leave them for hours, you're not going to save as much in electricity as the ads would have you believe.

Thirdly, no matter what bulb you use, it costs less to use a lower wattage and it costs even less to not use them at all. Do you really need a night light burning all night in the bathroom? Do you need a light every time you go into the kitchen, even though the refrigerator (where you're headed) has a light of its own?

Think about it.

Pennies and aluminum cans

They're both the same, you know. A lot of people won't bother to bend down to pick up either a penny or an aluminum can. I do.

Why?

A penny times ten is a dime and a dime times ten is a dollar. I'd stop to pick up a dollar any time. Wouldn't you?

Make the Basics

Are you still buying paper napkins?? Why not take some of those old clothes you set aside for rags or donating to make some cloth napkins? It won't cost a thing except a little thread and some of your time. Just cut out squares (size isn't critical) and hem them. Handkerchiefs are the exact same. Just designate which one for which use.

There. You've saved money, storage and even gone a little green.

Are Salvage Grocery Stores Extreme?

Is it extremely frugal to shop at salvage grocery stores? I got into a conversation with someone who thought so. She thought the food there was out of date, crunched cans and ripped packages. I tried to tell her that the government didn't allow food like that to be sold for human consumption.

So... do you shop at salvage grocery stores? I do. And I don't think it's extreme, but I think it's smart.

Whiten clothes for free

Here's one that might gross you out, but I'm told it works (no, I haven't tried it).

To get white clothes really white, soak them in human urine.

That may not even strike some as extreme, but it will cause a few "ewwws" out there. I can hear it.

Dibs and dabs

Do you save the salt from the pretzel bag? How about the sugar from a package of candied ginger? Cookie crumbs? Bread crumbs? Those things add up faster than you might think if you have a special place to put them. And USE them. There's no sense in keeping dibs and dabs if you don't use them.

The last package of candied ginger I used yielded enough sugar to sweeten a cup of tea. Why not? I paid for it.