Cut the tv cable
Eat at home, rarely go out
Cook at home from scratch
Look up simple recipes
Don’t waste any leftovers
Wear an apron to save staining clothes
Eat more greens, meat is expensive
Drink water
Make coffee at home
Learn baking skills, don’t purchase
Eat more filling food – beans, lentils, potatoes, corn
Substitute ingredients with those on hand
Reuse, recycle old containers
Buy in bulk but only what you can eat – freeze, fridge pickles, peserves or home can
Home garden, herbs on the windowsill
Preserve food
Bake bread – only if less expensive than store bought, thin sliced cheaper than buns
Learn to diy home improvements, car maintenance,and repairs.
Full pantry – don’t make extra trips to store
Unit price – store brands usually better priced, don’t rely on store unit price
Downsize property
Use reusable cloth products – not paper towels
Exercise at home
Learn to sew, mend clothing, save notions, recyle, reuse, don’t throw out
Line dry laundry
Raise a/c temp, lower heat
Empty tubes of toothpaste and rinse out food containers, etc.
Use scrap paper
Remove light bulbs from multi lights
Free entertainment
Use cash to eliminate over use of credit cards and today’s card fees
Delay purchases - you forget you wanted/needed it.. Save for purchase.
Cut hair at home
Eliminate clutter but don’t throw out what can be reused, recycled, repurposed or given away.
Give handmade gifts
Swap or barter items
Shop thrift and second hand
Invest in classic clothing, not fads
Try natural remedies
Public library, online free books and movies
Be content with what you have
Don’t buy scented candles
You don’t need a warehouse of cosmetics or nails
Keep lawn watered and mowed so it isn’t taken over by weeds or gets snakey. Mow over autumn leaves. Don’t bag cuttings or leaves as that’s free fertilizer.
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How much food goes into the trash? That is money in the trash. Even with today’s prices, people can budget meals for each family member to $5/day without ever eating beans and rice or pasta but good meat and veg sides.
Never ever throw out anything that can be eaten or repurposed. Mend clothing rather than tossing it. Lose weight (calorie deficit is the best and no cost diet) to fit into your already bought and paid for clothes and no one on that tight a budget ever needs that oh so cute pair of new shoes or scented candles or more beauty products. Youtube has appliance repair videos so learn to fix it yourself. Never eat out!!!
Use lids or saucers instead of wasting foil and plastic wrap.
Never drain canned veg down the sink as that is “free” veg stock. Freeze it in repurposed containers and you’ll never have to buy stock again. Same with meat stock by freezing the cooked liquids and boiling the bones. Same with the liquid off fruit which can be turned into ice cream topping or top a bit on homemade pie/cookie dough or make popcicles or add to tea or koolaid. Veg or meat liquids can replace milk in gravy - and make it from scratch rather than buying gravy/mix. Use those liquids instead of water to cooking rice and pasta to get extra nutrients.
Fry/bake chicken skins for chicharones. When making chicken and dumplings, use the boiled skins, mashed with a fork or fingers, as the fat in dumplings. Save bacon grease and freeze any leftover bacon slices. Freeze all meat fats. Use the drippings to flavor another dish or add some fat to make gravy.
Make as much as possible from scratch. Dozens of batches of homemade yogurt is a no brainer which can be incubated in the oven in a quart jar (no lid in the oven) with only the purchase of a small container of store bought with live cultures and your batches chained. Yogurt can be used as a sub for milk/cream in everything and drained for a baked a cheese cake. Add a bit of powdered jello mix before incubating for flavoring.
An exception to the make from scratch rule currently is store brand cheap bread is more cost effective than homemade. OTOH, do make specialty breads from scratch if it fits in the budget - 6 Schlotzsky original sandwiches can be made at home for the price of 1 at the drive thru. Make the no kneed easy as nothing buns and bake in little 6” pyrex pie plates or those little corningware sauce pans to make it look like the real thing or bake it in whatever size/shape pan you already have and cut it into portions to serve. There are recipes for every restaurant online so there is no need to ever waste a week’s pay on fast food or going out.
Veg liquids can be frozen any which combination or separated for special recipes. Pea liquid may be too strong flavorwise for much more than one draining into a large freezer container for soup so freeze it separate for the liquid in pea soup which, of course, you saved a ham bone, too. Beet liquid can be frozen by itself and used in borsch soup or baking a chocolate cake or to turn white cakes and homemade flour tortillas and Easter eggs pink. You can make an entire batch of flour tortillas or Asian wraps for the cost of a couple store bought ones (ignore any recipe calling for baking powder because these are “flat” breads, duh). OK, maybe not save liquid from sauerkraut. Uses for leftover pickle juice are popcicles/snow cone for the kids, add a cup or more to a crockpot roast pork with onion, or if you’re out of pickles and need to flavor a potato salad, pickle some refrigerator cukes or vegs, or use as a sub for vinegar in homemade drain cleaner (yeah, down the drain!).
Remember to cut blossom end off cukes when canning as the enzimes will cause limp pickles. Add a couple grape or oak leaves to jar to help make crispy.
Rinse out cans and bottles to get every last bit of food out. Save the dregs of condiment bottles in fridge to rinse and use in a dish. Heat jelly or gelled items to pour out easier.
When making more coffee the same day, continue using the same filter and add a wee bit less new grounds to the old grounds.
Save every teeny little spoon of leftovers. At the end of the week, clean out the fridge for a whole extra family meal and top a homemade pizza dough with leftovers or stuff them inside homemade dough for empanadas or dumplings or a soup or casserole or stir fry. Put the last bit of meat into a food processor and add mayo, pickles and onions to make a sandwich spread. Don’t let anything rot in the fridge, use it or freeze it. Rotate the pantry but if there are loooong expired items (expiration dates don’t mean much to anyone but the company) in the pantry, set them on the counter so they’re in your face to use immediately.
When making jelly, get as much pulp off seeds and skins and use leftover pulp to make butters.
Zest all citrus for free zest. Let dry on a saucer on kitchen counter and store in old spice jars.
Save and dry produce seeds on a saucer on kitchen counter and store in paper envelopes. Freeze if possible. Roast pumpkin seeds for a snack.
Grow a “kitchen garbage” garden and herbs on sunny windowsill. Ask friends for herb cuttings.
If a potato has a green area, cut off that part, let is scab over and plant.
When slicing onions, cut off all the edible bits around the stem and root. If an onion goes bad, plant it. Run paper dry onion skins through processor and store in large recycled spice containers for use in dishes.
Save and freeze the stems and skins of produce to use in broths.
Make cheaper substitutions of ingredients when cooking. Use water instead of milk. Cut the sugar in half. Fluffy pancakes only require baking soda and no eggs or fruit to make them fluffy. Tortillas are flat breads so ignore baking soda found in many of today’s recipes = flour, water, fat.
Ask neighbors for the drops of fruit or nut trees. Get off your backside (me!) and pick all from your own trees. Preserve them. Sell or trade.
I’m still going through your posts of treasures, wonderful advice. It reminds me so much of what granny would post. ;(
Mind if I copy it and use it as a topic one week?
Use lids or saucers instead of wasting foil and plastic wrap.
Use reusable cloth products – not paper towels
Never drain canned veg down the sink as that is “free” veg stock
Exercise at home
Remember to cut blossom end off cukes when canning as the enzimes will cause limp pickles. Add a couple grape or oak leaves to jar to help make crispy.
Zest all citrus for free zest. Let dry on a saucer on kitchen counter and store in old spice jars.
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So many bits of wisdom! The above are my favorites. Some of them I didn’t know, like about cucumbers. I’ve had to throw out a lot of my canned pickles and I just have given up.
Lids or saucers to cover food items, what a great idea.
I had to laugh about the exercising one. I have a friend in California that pays to go to exercise class, and also pays people to come clean her house and take care of the lawn. I figure I get free exercise by cleaning my own house. Plus I don’t have anybody messing with my stuff and I get the pleasure of knowing I did it myself.
That is a wonderful post! Thank you
That is a wonderful post! Thank you
I hate waste...I even wash out zip lock bags.
There are several herbs that are perennials even here in NH. Sage, thyme, oregano, and garlic.
My oregano is growing like crazy. I'm actually to the point of needing to pull it up and just tossing it.
Also, oregano and thyme make great ground covers. Great if you want to surreptitiously plant them in your garden that the local HOA restricts.
Use applesauce instead of oil for baked goods. I use half oil, half applesauce for my zucchini bread and it comes out far better. Now as heavy.
OIN the past, I would use applesauce instead of oil for boxed cake mixes when I'd make cupcakes for events, and everyone loved them.
It also adds some natural sweetness so is another way to be able to cut sugar.
One of the many kitchen tips my Italian grandmother passed down to her family was to always cut off the ends of cucumbers because it made the cucumbers bitter.
When my dad married my mom his older sisters taught her to do that and she taught it to us.
And now my generation has passed the tip down to our children and grandchildren...