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One of my favorite places to save is in the kitchen. I can literally taste the savings! Bad puns aside, here are 13 ways I save money once I purchase my groceries. What are your best kitchen money savers?
1. Revive brown sugar. We’ve all been caught between a rock and hard brown sugar. Toss your sugar in a bag with a piece of bread, close it and wait a day. The sugar will absorb the moisture in the bread, which turns stale. End result? Pliable sugar.
2. Uses for old vegetables. Veggies that are soft or aesthetically past their prime are excellent in soups and sauces. Both dishes hold an aura of cooking competence but are one of the easiest things to prepare. Just toss in with liquid, set on a low temperate, and wait. Casseroles also do a great job of hiding blemished food.
3. Cook eggs in boiling water for 7 minutes then let sit, with the cover on, for 20 minutes. You use less electricity/gas and get perfectly boiled eggs.
4. Buy re-usable quick-drying sheets instead of sponges. A sponge costs $1 and lasts three months. A drying sheet costs $2 and lasts for two years. Crunch, crunch, crunch. That saves you $6, plus stinky fingers from handling moldy sponges. When the sheet gets dirty, toss it in the washer with your clothes and let it air dry. I’ve tried running sponges through the dishwasher, and the cleaning barely holds a week.
5. Make your own cleaning products. Vinegar, baking soda, and lemon work wonders. I tested these natural cleaners against store-bought products and found natural cleaners performed well on kitchen sink stains and on grimy bathroom tile.
6. Buy in bulk and on super sale. When the pricing is right and you’ve got storage, snagging steep discounts will payoff in the long run. Just make sure to avoid bulk purchases on items you don’t eat regularly. Flour attracts bugs, as does rice and other grains that sit around too long.
7. Be a freezer diva. No organizational skills necessary, though you do need to be a clever packer. I didn’t realize I had inherited my grandmother’s freezer diva-ness until I unpacked my freezer and found two chicken carcasses, seven half-full containers of pizza sauce, and a tube of limeade syrup. I was sitting on a frozen goldmine of food. It’s amazing how many breads, sauces, liquid, fruits, and meats last well if frozen.
8. Stretch meals. My mother hates leftovers and I have no idea why. It’s a free lunch! All you have to do it re-heat! In my book, leftovers beats sandwiches any day.
9. Wash plastic bags, unless they had meat. I re-use plastic bags, from produce holders to bread bags, all the time. They can double as saran warp, hold a sandwich, or cover a bowl of leftovers.
10. Make it a game. See how long you can go without a major grocery trip by cooking with what you have on hand. The Leftover Chef lets you plug in ingredients and suggests what to make.
11. Cook in bulk. Make extra, then freeze. If you have a tasty sauce or meal that only needs to be defrosted, you are more likely to eat that instead of ordering take out.
12. Preserve herbs by freezing them in cubes of butter or water. Drying is an option, too.
13. Instead of wasting food, turn it into garden compost. You can make your own composter for about $3. After it’s turned into dark, fertile soil, feed it to your plants, flowers, or lawn. Compost is the ultimate money saver!
What tricks am I missing? Please fill me in so we can all save more!
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I’m not familiar with a drying sheet. Can you give more information?
@Marcia A “drying sheet” is my generic term for what many call Shamwow. It’s a light towel about 12″ by 12″ (they come in various sizes) and the material dries very quickly. You can get them at Trader Joe’s near the cleaning products.
If you put the eggs in cold water, bring the water just to boil…then shut off the heat and let the water cool, you will have PERFECTLY boiled eggs with no overcooked darker yolk color. Just golden yellow all around.
I learned this past weekend that fresh herbs (except Basil – which hates the cold) do best if stored in your fridge like flowers. In a small cup of water, standing up, but with a produce bag loosely draped over. They will last for over a week that way.
For Basil, give it a damp paper towel at the roots and leave it on the counter. Change the towel daily.
Great ideas! I’m definitely trying the natural cleaners!
Just a quick word on the brown sugar. I buy Domino’s brownulated. This never turns hard because it’s granulated. And…..my secret for keeping the chocolate chips from turning hard in the cookies,lol….try it.
Aluminum foil sheets can also be washed in hot soapy water and re-used. Hold up to the light, and if you see tiny holes or slits, use that foil to wrap baking potatoes, or to cover something you’re heating in the oven.
I, too, have found that cooking hard-boiled eggs for less than the old recommended time of 6-8 minutes works best. I usually make h/b eggs when I want soft-boiled for breakfast. I take the s/b eggs out after 3 minutes, turn off the heat, and leave the rest of the eggs in the pan until the water cools down a bit. Put the eggs into ice water to make peeling easier (remove from hot water with tongs), then pour the cooking water into a kitchen drain that’s been pretreated with baking soda.
And I’m curious about the ‘secret’ for keeping chocolate chips soft????? Any suggestions for keeping chocolate from turning white in storage???
If you do happen to have the kind of brown sugar that does get hard, don’t waste bread. simply put an orange peel in the box. I’ve used that and it works really well.
I actually like the brown sugar saver in terra cotta disc form! That way I don’t have to waste any food or have other flavors imparted to the brown sugar. :o)
Camping in England is merely bearable with actually good weather… and it’s still much a little nippy at nighttime still when it’s hot in the day . So it can be like doing a self abasement. Here in Greece it’s a whole different ballgame and with simply a few basics can be quite a sumptuous. I do love my air bed. But there’s no doubting that the atmospheric condition here is perfect for it. The lone thing you have to make sure of is that you’ve got some tincture over your collapsible shelter… preferably rendered by a tree (not constantly easy if you like beach encampment ). . It can get mighty hot real betimes in the good morning… No playfulness if you’ve been imbibing wine and star staring til the early hours . More detail about cheap store
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