Best painless "stretching things" budget tips?

[Grumpy's Gal]

Also when I get the urge to redecorate I'll look around my house and see if there's something else I already have that I can repurpose or just move to a different room to change it up. Or I'll just rearrange the furniture and reorganize a little bit and clean so it feels like a new space.

or if you have a sister, friend or neighbor feeling the same way, trade some things for a few months. You can always trade back in the end.

 

[uconndz]

Wow, All great ideas. I don't have anything new to post but when I do, I know where to post it!
nancy

 

[bettyann29]

Well, I dry my stuff outside, when I can. On a really good day, my clothes can be dry in less than an hour. And DH hooked up a clothes line in the garage for when I need to dry inside. But, before he did that, I had 1 really big, metal drying rack(IKEA) that could hold a couple loads of laundry. I would just set it up in the bathroom before bedtime. By morning, my clothes were usually dry.

I dry most of my clothes on the clothes line outside on warm days.. during the winter or on rainy days I have a clothes line in my laundry room.. I tend to do a load of hang up clothes first so that I can get them on the line.. then I do several loads of things that will go into the dryer such as towels, DH's clothes, socks, underwear, etc.. I then tend to do my last load of the day as a hang up load.. so by the end of the day that first hang up load is usually dry and then I can hang up that one last load before I go to bed.. usually they are dry by morning or when I get home from work the next day.. this is my routine on Saturdays and Sundays.. all other days I keep to just one load of hang up clothes as I dont have time during the day for dryer loads since I am at work..

 

[bettyann29]

something that a checker at Walmart mentioned to me awhile back has stuck with me and I love doing it..

Its not a money saver or anything but it does help me recycle everything now instead of just tossing it..

I bought quite a few of the reusable grocery bags, but I tend to have them put the dog and cat food and a few other things in the plastic bags when I check out.. and sometimes I just dont have enough of the reusable bags so they have to put the rest of the groceries in a plastic bag..

I took a milk jug and cut a hole in it.. I cleaned and dried it out.. I now stuff those plastic bags in there each week after I've put up the groceries.. I keep it in my pantry.. Anytime I have recycles I pull out a bag and hang it on the pantry doorknob and put the recycles in it.. At the end of each night that I have a bag hanging on the door, I take it outside to the recycle bins I have..

Before I would get lazy because I might not want to run outside everytime I had a can or something to recycle, now its just easy to put it in the bag and go out once a day at the most..

 

[dreamer03]

Great idea! I will have to dig up some trays!

This is an awesome idea! Everyday I pour at least 4 cups dow the drain. If I would have thought, I should jus make a smaller pot of coffee but I know the equation for my perfect cup of coffee and now I wont waste it. Thanks so much.

 

[dreamer03]

I have grown to love my drying rack! I just went and bought another for pool towels. I put the drying rack in the mainfloor bathroom in the shower. You cannot see it unless you put your head in the shower and it is really big! This seems to be the most convenient place to put the towel rack so that I don't end up with wet towels all over the place.

I have gathered so many great ideas from this thread......I have been a fan from almost day one! Thanks for all the tips! Keep it coming!

My Grandmother dried all of her clothes on hangers in the shower but on drying racks around the house over her heater vents. She said it reduced her need for a humidifier during the winter months. Would you agree or is that something that she just thought up? I mean if it works, that would save me money on running a humidifier all the time.

 

[dreamer03]

I don't know how many loads you do at a time, but this is what works for me. I wash one load, put things everything I can on the drying rack except shirts. I hang the shirt on plastic hangers on my shower curtain rod. Then I put another load in the washer. When it's done, I throw the clothes on the rack in the dryer to damp dry/fluff, then put the clothes in the washer on the rack.

How do you avoid shoulder bumps in the shirts?

 

[pampam]

My Grandmother dried all of her clothes on hangers in the shower but on drying racks around the house over her heater vents. She said it reduced her need for a humidifier during the winter months. Would you agree or is that something that she just thought up? I mean if it works, that would save me money on running a humidifier all the time.

Anytime you dry clothes indoors you will increase the humidity in your house. It doesn't really matter where the clothes dry- basement, upstairs, the humidy still goes in the air, and no, you shouldn't need to use a humidifier if you have laundry drying. If your windows steam up, you will know the house has more humidy than the air can hold and it condenses on your windows, but you can get that even with a pot of soup boiling on the stove. It will save money on a humidifier running, plus save money on not using a dryer's electricity.

 

[chickflick]

Love this thread and as we head into the multiple holidays...thought maybe everyone would like to reread or catch up on this thread

Disney's waiting...saving every penny to get there

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

I like using ice cream buckets to hold those plastic bags from grocery stores. There so nice for scooping the poop from the cat.

 

[PinballFamily]

Whew - finally! Another tip!

When having alfredo cheese sauce for pasta from a jar, (like Bertolli, Ragu, etc.) I found an easy way to stretch it. When heating up the cheese sauce, I added milk to stretch it out (I think it is too thick anyway). We usually get 3-4 servings out of a jar (the bottle says "7 servings" - but get real! - especially not for main courses!), but this helped me get 6-7 servings out of the jar. I used just slightly less milk that the amount of the sauce (like 1/2 cup of sauce to 1/3 cup of milk) and added a tiny bit of butter. Still tasted great and actually coated the pasta a bit better!

 

[mykidsand_i]

Another along the same lines...don't use fabric softener, use vinegar instead (it really does work, I promise!!). Vinegar also works well instead of JetDry in the dishwasher.

I just started doing this last month and I'm shocked at how well it works! SUPER cheap too!

 

[MELSMICE]

This is along the lines of stretching your food budget just a bit............

I occasionally make salt potatoes. I always make the entire bag & would put them in the fridge for leftovers. Like so many other things, they eventually got tossed. I finally started cubing the leftover potatoes, laying them on a cookie sheet & freezing them. Once frozen, I toss them in a ziploc freezer bag & use them for fried potatoes.

I have also started boiling, cubing, freezing & "bagging" potatoes that I know are starting to get old instead of tossing them. This keeps from wasting food & also saves money because instead of buying hash browns, tater tots or frozen french fries, I just pull out my cubed potatoes & either pan fry or oven bake them for dinner or even breakfast.

For leftover bread I've done the bread crumb thing, but how many bread crumbs can you have????????? We always buy fresh loaves of bread each week - white & wheat - even if the previous loaf is not gone. I hated throwing it away because it wasn't moldy or anything - just not fresh. I began freezing the leftover bread each week & now use it for french toast or grilled sandwiches when we have them.

Of course, these ideas will only save a few pennies/dollars at a time, but a few pennies/dollars here or there can add up!

 

[luvsJack]

This is along the lines of stretching your food budget just a bit............

I occasionally make salt potatoes. I always make the entire bag & would put them in the fridge for leftovers. Like so many other things, they eventually got tossed. I finally started cubing the leftover potatoes, laying them on a cookie sheet & freezing them. Once frozen, I toss them in a ziploc freezer bag & use them for fried potatoes.

I have also started boiling, cubing, freezing & "bagging" potatoes that I know are starting to get old instead of tossing them. This keeps from wasting food & also saves money because instead of buying hash browns, tater tots or frozen french fries, I just pull out my cubed potatoes & either pan fry or oven bake them for dinner or even breakfast.

For leftover bread I've done the bread crumb thing, but how many bread crumbs can you have????????? We always buy fresh loaves of bread each week - white & wheat - even if the previous loaf is not gone. I hated throwing it away because it wasn't moldy or anything - just not fresh. I began freezing the leftover bread each week & now use it for french toast or grilled sandwiches when we have them.

Of course, these ideas will only save a few pennies/dollars at a time, but a few pennies/dollars here or there can add up!

What are salt potatoes?

 

[MELSMICE]

What are salt potatoes?

They are small potatoes the come in a 5 lb. bag (I think) that you boil with a ton of salt. The salt is sold with the bag. It's at least a pound of salt that you boil them with. Then you smother them with butter........mmmmmm. Very good, although probably super healthy.

You just plop them on a plate, cut them up & eat them after you drizzle some of the melted butter on top of them!

 

[2Eskiedogs]

This is along the lines of stretching your food budget just a bit............

I occasionally make salt potatoes. I always make the entire bag & would put them in the fridge for leftovers. Like so many other things, they eventually got tossed. I finally started cubing the leftover potatoes, laying them on a cookie sheet & freezing them. Once frozen, I toss them in a ziploc freezer bag & use them for fried potatoes.

I have also started boiling, cubing, freezing & "bagging" potatoes that I know are starting to get old instead of tossing them. This keeps from wasting food & also saves money because instead of buying hash browns, tater tots or frozen french fries, I just pull out my cubed potatoes & either pan fry or oven bake them for dinner or even breakfast.

For leftover bread I've done the bread crumb thing, but how many bread crumbs can you have????????? We always buy fresh loaves of bread each week - white & wheat - even if the previous loaf is not gone. I hated throwing it away because it wasn't moldy or anything - just not fresh. I began freezing the leftover bread each week & now use it for french toast or grilled sandwiches when we have them.

Of course, these ideas will only save a few pennies/dollars at a time, but a few pennies/dollars here or there can add up!

Thanks for the idea! Never thought of freezing up cooked potatoes. I've chopped up onions and green pepper to put in freezer containers. I've also froze any leftover mushrooms from a can.

Keep the ideas coming!

 

[micheleq]

bumping had a lot of additional expenses this month and always looking for great tips like these...

 

[mama4]

For leftover bread I've done the bread crumb thing, but how many bread crumbs can you have????????? We always buy fresh loaves of bread each week - white & wheat - even if the previous loaf is not gone. I hated throwing it away because it wasn't moldy or anything - just not fresh. I began freezing the leftover bread each week & now use it for french toast or grilled sandwiches when we have them.

Of course, these ideas will only save a few pennies/dollars at a time, but a few pennies/dollars here or there can add up!

Not sure if this has been mentioned but my mom uses frozen leftover bread to make bread pudding. Not my favorite but lots of other people love it when she makes it!

 

[pampam]

If you have a coupon that says good for any size, try using it for trial sizes. For example if you have a $1.00 coupon for shampoo and the trial size is $.99 you will get the shampoo for free.

 

[Swmr359]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet. I add frozen veggies to canned soup, makes more and it tastes better!