They say that one person’s trash is another’s treasure. Well, before you start tossing away your treasure in bags made for trash, be sure you can’t reuse anything. You can save a lot of cash by spending your time turning “useless” into “useful”, instead of spending unnecessary money at the store.
1) Contain Yourself!
One very important and costly purchase you can instantly remove from your budget is garbage bags. This is simply done by keeping plastic bags from the grocery store and using them as liners for the garbage cans in your house. When they get full, tie them up and throw them your large, outdoor trash can. Grab a bag from your stash and replace it.
Do you find yourself throwing away a bunch of empty baby wipes tubes? Don’t be so hasty. These containers can be very useful as… well… containers. They can hold toys, pencils, accessories, coupons or just about anything else you could imagine. A fun idea may be to wrap it in paper, decorating and labeling it as you desire. This is also a great way to avoid making your house look like a nursery. Don’t use baby wipes? The same trick can be applied to any similar containers including cans and coffee containers.
Containers are made to hold things. Just because you’ve used it once, or consumed everything it once held, doesn’t mean it still can’t serve a purpose. Zip-lock plastic bags are an example. Depending on what it was used to hold, could it be washed out and used again? Don’t spend more than you need to on these types of household items.
2) Take Cover!
Our frugal grandmothers have taught us many things, one of them being how to wrap a Christmas or birthday present. Why spend tons of money on shiny wrapping paper that will be violently ripped off the instant it touches the recipient’s hands? Reusing newspapers and comics are a great, timeless and free way to wrap a gift. Want to offer something a little more visually appealing? Try using pages of a glossy magazine with great photos such as National Geographic. Besides being free, it will also be much more interesting and entertaining than another present wrapped in pictures of old St. Nick.
Do you have paper grocery bags lying around the house? Use them as book covers. While you may decide to use them on your novels as well, this is especially helpful with your children’s textbooks. It is cheaper than buying textbook covers (and certainly cheaper than paying for any damages that might befall an uncovered book) and it will give the student the opportunity to create his or her own cover. They can label it as they want, decorate it, doodle on it while the teacher drones on and on about the socio-economic statuses in the Industrial Revolution… whatever they want to give it personality!
3) Clean up your act!
You can save quite a bit of money while cleaning around the house. Instead of throwing away dryer sheets that were used once, dampen them and use them to help clean your sinks and showers. The dryer sheets will have the right amount of abrasiveness as you give the job some elbow grease.
People cycle through many t-shirts, throwing away the old ones that don’t fit, have been ripped or caught a stain. These shirts (and other retired clothes) can still serve a purpose. Frugal cleaners will save money on rags by simply using old shirts. No need to buy expensive cleaning hand towels; just use an old shirt! Keep in mind that old shirts can have many other second-life uses as well including jean patches, headbands and, when tied into a knot, a free and fun dog toy!
4) Stay creative!
Always keep an eye open for things that can be reused. What can your soon-to-be-garbage become? An old, burned-out candle can become a new pincushion, milk jugs can turn into bird feeders, and the bottoms of two-liter soda bottles can make for functional citrus juicers.
What do you reuse? Do you have any items that you’ve cleverly breathed a second life into? Tell us here or better yet, show us a picture on Facebook!
