Tag: frugal things we do

There are many ways to save in the kitchen. One of them I am sure you know like not wasting food. We never throw out food. It is too expensive to feed our garbage can. Eat your leftovers at another meal or three. It is not going to kill you to eat the same food 2-3 nights in a row.

I go through my fridge, especially the produce drawers, every other day or so. It only takes a few minutes. Any produce that is getting old is used up that night or the next or it is frozen. Peppers I will slice and freeze for fajitas. Carrots I will slice or make carrot spears and freeze. The sliced ones go into soups and stews. The carrot spears get sauteed in butter and used as a side. Onions get sliced or diced and used in casseroles or omelets. I have frozen tomatoes many times and used them in casseroles, soups, gumbo, or in spaghetti sauce. I just freeze them whole in a food saver bag. Celery does not freeze well. That I will use to make a side and stuff it with cream cheese and diced olive. My Hubby loves this. My mom used to make it every holiday.

I put my leftovers together on a certain shelf so that we always know where they are. Right now, I have French toast and sausage that Hubby will reheat for a brunch. There is also a small container of corned beef hash that will get used within a day or two.

We have 1/2 of a bag of the tiny potatoes that should get used soon. So I will cut them in half and put them in a skillet, cover them with a little water and bring them to a boil. Then I cook them on medium for 10 minutes and drain them. Next I add a bit of oil to the same skillet, heat it and then put the potatoes back in cut side down and saute them until they are roasted and brown. We love these. We will have them with chicken tonight and if there are leftovers we will eat them with our eggs the next brunch.

But there are other ways to save in the kitchen one of which I have told you. I use lemon Koolaid to clean my dishwasher. I never buy the expensive special cleaners. I am still using the bag of them that I purchased years ago when they were $.10 each.

I clean my garbage disposal with baking soda and vinegar. First I put about 3/4 cup of the soda in and then put vinegar in. It will foam way up into your sink. Then just let it sit for a few minutes and then run the disposal. It cleans it and gets rid of any funky smells. I have a black plug that keeps things from falling into the disposal like utensils. I put that in the top rack of the dishwasher whenever I run it.

I never use the self cleaning cycle on my oven anymore. If I cook a pizza or something at 400 degrees or more, I will wipe it out when it has cooled down a bit. If there is something I can’t get off, I put a small bowl of ammonia on one of the racks and let it sit overnight with the door closed. In the morning, everything wipes out. The self cleaning cycle takes a lot of energy that I prefer to save.

Also I use Scrub Mommies in my sink to do pots and pans and dishes that I do not put in the dishwasher. That sponge goes into the top rack of my dishwasher when it needs to.

When I am washing the dishes or pans in the sink, I fill the 2 sinks about a 1/4 of the way. One has soap added for cleaning and the other has water only for rinsing. Don’t let your water run down the drain while you do that. You can waste gallons of water. I try to do that all of the time. I am not perfect so I get distracted sometimes just like everyone.

When I am done with the sinks, I spray them with an all purpose cleaner and rinse and then wipe them dry with the dish towel that I used that day. I change my 2 dish towels every day. I have one color of towels for dishes and a different color one to dry our hands. That way we don’t get them mixed up.

We use our 11 in 1 countertop stove for almost everything. We also use our instant pot, crock pot, and microwave for meals that we don’t put in that oven. We do grill outside now a lot and plan on using that right through the winter unless we are buried in snow.

Catch your water in the kitchen in a big pot or bowl while you are waiting for it to warm up. You can use that water to clean with, water plants, or to boil pasta, etc. Don’t just let it run down the drain. When you do use your stove top, cover your pots and pans. Things will cook faster.

We use a small hand vacuum that is always charging in my kitchen to clean up any crumbs on the counter or that fall on the floor every night to keep things clean. It saves us from lugging the larger vacuum so often. Once a week it gets a full vacuum to clean the floor. This keeps it clean enough that Hubby only has to clean and polish it once a month.

We have 2 ceiling lights in the kitchen. We also have a hanging 3 bulb light over the sink area and recessed lighting in the ceilings over all the counters. We only turn on the lights where we need them for the task we are doing. When it is daylight, we rarely turn them on unless it is dark and stormy outside. All of the bulbs are LED’S.

I know where everything is in my refrigerator so that I can quickly get whatever I need and close the door. We don’t want to let all that cold air into the room.

I keep my two pantries in my kitchen stocked with what I usually use so that I don’t have to run to other areas of the house to retrieve things. I put my meat that I will use for the next two weeks in my refrigerator freezer so that it is handy. It also prevents me from having to open the chest freezer as often. We also have small lights in our pantries so that I can see what we have. They are also LED’S.

Lastly, we use our garbage disposal for food scraps off our plates with the exception of potato skins, any kind of bone, fruit rinds, and egg shells. These things will ruin your disposal. All other waste goes in our kitchen 30 gallon container. I push those items down so they compact. This way we do not have to use as many plastic garbage bags which are very expensive. I used to use the brand names but I switched a while ago to the Great Value 30 gallon ones. They look and are as thick as the brand name ones.

I think that is about it for saving in the kitchen. If you have other ways that you save in the kitchen, please share them with all of us via the comments.

The flowers in the picture are for Mother’s Day from my son who lives in the eastern part of NY. They are just beautiful with so many roses and lilies. Seven lilies had yet to open when they came. Today they are all open. I have been enjoying them while we eat our meals.

I use a car wash that gives a free wash after you collect 5 coupons for other washes. I had 5 so I went up and got the SUV washed. That saved us $12.00 and they also gave me a coupon for the free wash. When I got home I cleaned the inside of the car and vacuumed it out. It is amazing how many stones were on the mats.

While I was out, I went to Fast Cash and redeemed $ 3. 50 worth of bottles.

Hubby never cut my hair because he had an achilles problem and can’t stand for too long. Since my hair was so bad, I found a $ 12.99 coupon for Great Clips and had it cut. The stylist did a great job so I will continue going to her when I need to. I got a $ 2.00 off my next cut coupon.

We got a refund check from the hospital for my last CT scan for almost $29.52. I wasn’t sure why and was about to call them. Then I remembered that they made me pay my co-pay up front. That is unusual because between Medicare and my health plan, you never know what they will pay. So it was a refund of that over payment.

Top’s had NY premium strip steaks on sale again for $10.99 a lb. I picked up 3 more packages of 4 each. We really love these.

This past week, Hubby grilled steaks, and fried haddock. I made chicken fajitas and red beans and rice. We ate all the leftovers the other nights. No take out or restaurant meals for us.

We always have leftover steak from dinner so Hubby sliced it up and cooked it with butter and garlic. He made eggs to go with it for a late breakfast.

The landscapers came a week ago Friday and weeded all of our gardens, put a new garden in by the shed, and mulched all the gardens. Then they transplanted two bushes from the garden that has our spruce trees in it to the new gardens near the shed. The garden with the 3 spruce trees was planted over 14 years ago and they have kind of taken over. So the smaller things needed to be moved. The garden that was done last year needed a couple of more bushes. Hubby knew exactly what he wanted but the landscaper said he would have to have the nursery order them because they don’t carry them. Hubby said no he would order them and plant them. They came last week and he has done that. That saved us quite a bit of money.

We also had two bushes in the garden out front that had gotten big and scraggly over the years. So the landscaper removed them and replaced them with smaller bushes that are similar.

Two loads of laundry were done: one load of clothes which I hung and one load of winter blankets that I washed, dried, and stored for the winter.

Because I am doing so much scratch cooking, I am using my dishwasher more often unless I use paper plates. So it has been run every other day.

Have you done anything to save a bit of money?

I want to wish all of you Mothers on here a wonderful day tomorrow. We will be staying home and Hubby will most likely grill filet mignon and I will put some baking potatoes in the small oven and cook some broccoli. This is my very favorite meal.