A Penny Saved

"A penny saved, is a penny earned". "Waste not, want not".

Age old wisdom. I grew up hearing such words of wisdom from my grandmother. She was a young woman when the Great Depression hit. She survived it. She learned from it. She taught me, or tried to. Some of her teaching stuck, and some it was long forgotten until recently.

Recently. Recently, food and energy prices have been rising. Sure, it will get better, eventually. However, it appears it will get worse first.

For example, I heard on the news tonight that the flooding in the Midwest is destroying at least 20% of the corn crops...a few days ago, I read on the net that the U.S. now has only about 24.1 million bushels of wheat left in our foodbanks. Period. The article said it was enough to make 1/2 loaf of bread for each of us. The article reported that we were out of everything else. Another article reports on the devastated tomato crop in Florida due to recent salmonella alert. These are just a few of the indicators that tell me that the situation will get worse first. I won't even go into all the political and climate change factors...

...Will we have another Great Depression? I don't know.

At any rate, we need to deal with things as they are now until such a time as things do get better.

I think this is a good time to try to remember all those bits of wisdom that our grandparents and great-grandparents knew. Somewhere along the line, we forgot about "waste not, want not". We became such "good consumers". I know, it is sooooooo convenient to buy those sanitizing wipes to wipe down the counter in the kitchen...and then, just throw it away. It is so very convenient to buy those plastic baggies and use them once before throwing them away, too. The list goes on. Most of us don't even think about it (until recently of course), because it has been this way for so long, it just seems normal.

Thanks to my grandmother, I have some more frugal habits; but I still have a way to go before I could even approach my grandmother's talent. I am on a campaign to see just how good I can become at saving by re-using, recycling and substituting re-usables for the disposables in my life.

I figure, why wait until I cannot afford these disposables - if I eliminate my need for them now, that is a few more cents I can put towards food and fuel.

I am starting a new category for my index in honor of this campaign. I will be posting whatever little tips I have (and learn) under that category. I am open to any tips you may have, please leave them in the comments section. Let us see just how good we can get at being "bad consumers".

I will start with a few of my favorite tips:

Paper towels and other paper products. They are everywhere. Everyone uses them. Except, that I rarely use them myself. In fact, prior to moving in with my husband, I had not bought paper towels for years. He likes them, so I began to buy them. I noticed over the years that I became spoiled and began using them as well. I have recently returned to my old system.

• For messes - I keep old towels and rags for this purpose. I use them when needed and they actually do a better job than paper towels. Then I launder them in hot water and some bleach or borax and store them for the next time. Once the habit is there, it really is not too much trouble.
• For draining fried foods - Yes, I even have a collection of old towels that I use for this - just remember to launder them well to get that grease out.
• Keeping veggies crisp - At a long ago Tupperware party, I learned a trick to keep a tossed salad fresh and crisp in the fridge. After tossing the salad in a big bowl, place a couple of paper towels on top and close the lid. Turn the bowl upside down and store in the fridge. I have found this trick works for other veggies as well, like a head of lettuce - after I clean it, I place it in a large plastic bag lined with paper towels. Apparently, the towels pull the excess moisture from the veggies and hold it to keep everything fresh and crisp far longer than without. It works great. I have also found it works great with dish cloths instead of the paper towels. This tip is a saver on paper towels and on veggies. When the veggies last longer, you are more likely to eat them before they rot in the fridge.
• Not related to paper towels, but to disposable cloths for wiping counters - I use dish cloths for doing my dishes and wiping my counters. I don't use sponges as they can hide bacteria and are harder for me to get clean. A cloth, however is easy to clean. I keep a squeeze bottle of bleach alongside my dish soap. In between launderings and before each use, I hand wash my cloth with soap and often a few drops of bleach. Then, I can use it for washing dishes or for wiping the counters down. It only takes a few moments and works great. The trick to success is to be sure to really clean the cloth when hand washing it and after use, be sure to rinse well and wring dry before hanging it to dry. This prevents mildew.
• (edit: a few hours after publishing this post, I remembered these next two...) For dinner napkins - When I met my husband, he was a bandana addict. He got me hooked and I have joined him in using them for dinner napkins and hankies. I buy the 100% cotton ones at my local Hobby Lobby when they go on sale for 99cents. I like the 100% cotton as opposed to the half cotton/half polyester because the cotton is naturally absorbent whereas the polyester is not. It is up to you. I have found bandanas in a wide variety of beautiful patterns and colors. Using them as dinner napkins not only saves money and paper towels, they lend a touch of elegance to the table.
  
• For hankies, bandanas have no equal in my opinion. You know how those tissue sheets will irritate your nose when you have a cold? Instead of using the ones with lotion in them (I find they are less absorbent anyway), try bandanas. They will eventually rub your nose a bit, but it takes days longer (for me, anyway). I just use a little ointment like vaporub (good for congestion in just the right place under your nose!) to combat this. Save paper, save money, save your nose!
  

Okay. Those are my tips for the day. I hope someone finds them useful. Please feel free to leave your own suggestions for the elimination of paper towels or any other money-saving tips in the comments below.