plastic bags – Frugal Things Every Day

Our government here in New York has banned plastic bags effective March 31, 2020. Knowing that they were probably going to do this, I have been saving every one that comes into the house for months and I will continue to save them. I have a plastic bag dispenser inside one of my pantries for the ones that I will use over the next few months. The rest are being stored in empty Kleenex boxes in my basement stockpile.

Why you ask? Because I reuse them for my garbage. In our town all garbage must be bagged before you put it in your trash can. So I empty waste baskets from all over the house into these little bags. That way I can save the expensive tall kitchen garbage ones that I buy for just the kitchen waste basket.

We have some people who walk their dogs in our neighborhood who don’t live in here and don’t always pick up after their dogs. So those bags are what I use to clean it up. Most of my neighbors pick up after their dogs.

I expect that when the new law goes into effect here that tall kitchen garbage bags and those black trash bags will rise in price. So by using what I have, I make mine last longer.

Last month I found a new product that we love. It is G Hughes Smokehouse Sugar Free BBQ Sauce. Walmart carries it for $7.52 for a 2 pack. We tried the Hickory flavor but they have other flavors too which Hubby and I will be trying. This is delicious! So many SF products don’t taste good but this one is definitely a keeper. I made a pan of BBQ chicken the other night and even Hubby loved it. And my Hubby is very fussy. So if you have a diabetic in the family or just don’t want sugar in the products you eat, give it a try.

I am rearranging my kitchen cupboards again to make things easier for me as I age. This is the results after I rearranged my beverage cupboard. I think you have all seen that I keep my Keurig on my kitchen counter along with our sugar free syrups and whipped toppings that we make our coffee with. Everything else is in the cupboard above these things. The only new container I purchased was my
tea box . Th organization doesn’t need to be pretty. It just needs to be functional.

For those of you that don’t know, you can click on the pictures and they will get bigger. That is a tip for my senior readers who may not see as well as they used to and that includes me.

Today will be a quiet day spent at home. I will continue working on my organization projects. Dinner tonight will be mandarin orange chicken for Hubby so that he can finish up the rice. I will finish the last bit of BBQ chicken and the broccoli.

Any of you doing any organizing now that Spring is here? Feel free to leave a comment and share with us.

2019 Goal: Reuse All Plastic Bags

I have been faithfully returning all of the plastic bags that I get when I shop to the recycling bin in the supermarket. I do this with all of the ones that are not recyclable.

However, I have decided to save them to replace some of the garbage bags that we have to buy. I have started putting meat scraps, bones, and the wrappers from meat in these bags and double wrapping them and throwing them directly in the garbage can in the garage. This keeps my wastebasket in the kitchen from smelling and lets me use just one bag or less a week. I use the garbage disposal for other peelings or scraps after I make stock with them.

Those tall kitchen garbage bags cost a lot of money to buy just to throw away. So the fewer I use, the less money I spend in a year on them. I usually buy quality ones in bulk at Walmart or from Amazon. If Walmart or anywhere else has a better price after coupon, then of course I would buy them there.

Without all of the scraps, bones and wrappers in them along with no recyclable items, it is pretty easy to get along with one or a half a bag a week. We use grocery store bags for wastebaskets in other rooms.

I will be using grocery store bags to wrap leftovers too. I also wash and dry our ziplocs that have not had poultry or meat in them and reuse them over and over again. I try to buy as few ziplocs in a year as possible. Last January, I purchased a lot of zippered bags with Christmas writing on them on clearance at Office Max for $.23 a box. I am still using them.

As I told you in my prior post, I have been saving all of the bread bags to reuse for my homemade breads.

Sometimes we get large bags from department stores. Those fit nicely in our kitchen wastebasket. The veterans also send a bag for donations. When I don’t have any donations, I use them for the kitchen wastebasket also.

I have started saving the produce bags from the market for leftovers. I reuse many of the cereal bags that are in the boxes for food use too.

Just look around you, there are many plastic bags that you can use over and over again. When they no longer work, take them to your local supermarket for recycling. Don’t let them end up in your landfill.

Do you reuse plastic bags? What do you use them for?