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5.) Drink up the extra juice that comes with the can. I LOVE pineapple juice, so when we open the can, I drink the juice. I also drink up an extra tomatoes/juice when I am canning, if it won't even fit in a half pint. Good vitamin C, there.
6.) Refridgerate cooled bacon grease. I keep it in my fridge in a sturdy plastic storage container, and use it to make cook pancakes and fry okra.
7.) Recycle used freezer bags. I already gave you an example, but turn them inside out and use a kitchen sponge and dishsoap to clean, rinse and hang inside out on your faucet and let dry out for a day. I use mine to bag up glass/plastic containers where I keep my seeds, as an extra seal. You can label them "Used" and you Will find uses for them. You will discover that are buying storage bags less often.
8.) If you use loose plastic shower curtains, save the old ones for gardening when you have to change it out. They make a great cover for early frosts, and when you have prepped an area and don't want any weed seeds to land and sprout on it. If you want to prune, like a rosebush, something small, you can lay this out to catch what you cut, then dispose of the cuts (as you see fit.)
9.) Buy ANYTHING that you periodically replace when you see a great price. I needed some new ice cube trays. I was at WM and saw 2 packs/$1 and I bought 4 of them, used 2 in my kitchen freezer and stored the other 6 for the future.
10.) Go to store closings and do like in #9. Treat them like an estate sale, looking for bargains.
BUT, recognize when the price isn't great. THAT means that the store is planning on selling their inventory to another vendor. DD's and I discovered that this was what PayLess did with Their inventory when they went under, bc they had their own Brand names of their shoes.
11.) Stores still do their best sales on the last FULL week of every month. I used to take advantage of B1G1 and the other deals, but Now I buy 2x.
12.) Here's something I learned when I was 17yo. Fashion. If some garment is in style and you look so marvelous in it that Everybody comments on it, buy a high quality version of it. You will wear it out.
If you don't look so hot in it, but have to get it Anyway, but it at WM or Meijer or Kohl's and look for a sale and use coupons. You want that thing going threadbare when it goes out of style.
Sweaters rarely go out of style. I am kinda "flat", if you know what That means, and I have bought some very nice Men's sweaters at Jos A. Banks.
13.) EVERYBODY is gonna hate this one. Start on a very long term diet. If you are overweight, like me, it took years to put it on, so take a year to take some of it off.
I am on one and I can tell that my clothes are getting looser. I don't step on a scale, and I have stopped buying treats for myself.
Pretty soon people without resources are gonna be hungry. They will either eat very badly and gain "that COVID 15" all over again, OR, they will be doing without meat every day and probably lose weight.
You DON'T want them to know that you have a freezer full of meat/pantry full of vegetables and pressure canned meals.
16.) Storage for extra food storage containers. I went to WM last week and bought a clear, 3 drawer storage cart. I don't have enough room in my kitchen to store ALL of my food storage containers, and I have bought some very nice ones over the years. So I bought This:
Buy Sterilite 3 Drawer Wide Cart, Clear Plastic Storage Drawers, Wheels Included, Black at Walmart.com
www.walmart.com
I am keeping mine in an especially nice spot, the closet in my guest bedroom off of the kitchen. My old house has an old laundry door that is below it, I have a nice 3 step stepladder to get Into it, point is, there is No traffic there to break it. I have been filling it with my extras. When I make a turkey I Need big storage. When I make bbq pork, I need freezer storage bc I tried pressure canning it and it turned out yucky, but it makes a nice 4 person meal when defrosted. This one has wheels so I can roll it out to fill, roll it back to store.
You will discover that you won't be running to the store to buy More plastic storage containers right before the holidays bc you'll take care of the ones your have.
17.) When you replace the broken cheapo storage containers that you DO have, buy these, instead:
These come in quart and pint and I have even found comparables in larger sizes. They are dishwasher safe and they last for YEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSS, long after the others went to the trash.
I am doing pretty well bc DD's and I stocked up on a great deal of non perishables, and long lasting perishables.
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