I thought this week I would spotlight what we have in our fridge that makes it a FRUGAL FRIDGE!
First a question: Do other people leave notes all over their food in the fridge? :o)
We do! Our boys, now young men, almost always come home from school, work or other places (lol) after we go to bed. This is partly because of their schedules and partly because we are old and have to go to bed early because we wake up really early!
So its not unusual for my sweetie (who cleans up the dishes most of the time) to yell from the kitchen, "Honey, how do you spell souffle?!!!". We label the food with the free sticky notes I get from sales people where I work. Each leftover is labeled with the contents. Sometimes a plate of food is made for each boy, (I mean young man). So one plate will say "Jacob's" and one plate will say "Justin's". Sometimes an item will say, "Do not eat, this is for tomorrow night" or "Don't eat, this is for Jacob's lunchbox tomorrow".
The point is this seems to make the leftovers disappear faster and therefore we save money on food. If you just look in the fridge and see a bunch of bowls of food, and you weren't sure what they were, they'd likely just sit there. When you are 20 something, its easier to just go for the convenience food. With notes on there, they seem to think, "yum, london broil", or "yum, sweet potato souffle", or "I wish I could eat that, but its for tomorrow". LOL. Even with see through containers, it would be beneficial to label them! This is helpful to me also in planning meals. At a glance I can see what's in there that can be used. A date would also be a good idea. I'll have to suggest that to sweetie!
These are some more of the frugal things you might find in our fridge at any given moment:
1. Upside down bottle of store brand ketchup bought on sale, or name brand ketchup bought on sale with coupons. Even when it seems to be empty I will put a little water in it, shake it up, and add to pasta sauce or vegetable soup. Same principle applies to salad dressing, bbq sauce, and mustard, etc.
2. A Brita water filter pitcher bought at a yard sale for $1.00, full of tap water.
3. A 2 pound bag of Food Lion brand mozzarella cheese purchased on sale for $4.99.
4. A half used jar of Mama's home made sweet pickles. :o) yum.
5. A plastic container of leftover pizza, with 2 pieces left, just enough for my son's lunchbox today.
6. Home grown sweet green bell peppers.
7. Water bottles refilled with tap water over and over.
8. Three boxes of my favorite margarine found on sale.
9. A package of cubed steak purchased at lunch yesterday on sale to be used for supper tonight to avoid eating out on Friday night.
10. A gallon of milk purchased on sale at Walgreens.
11. A canned drink found in my son's room, still 3/4 full, with a note on it that says, "Drink this Jacob". (yuck, will be flat, but he doesn't seem to care)
12. A whole chicken purchased for .69 per pound on sale to be used for Sunday Dinner. I can cut it up or roast it whole. This chicken will make at least 2 meals, and produce chicken broth.
13. Reused margarine or sour cream containers filled with leftovers for sweet daughter and family to take home that don't need to be returned.
14. 1/2 can of dogfood with doggie lid. Much cheaper than the small cans, but my elderly small dog can't eat a whole big can. (without having problems!:o)
15. Sandwich meat. A sandwich made with ham or turkey taken for lunch is so much cheaper than eating out at fast food restaurants, even if I need to purchase something to go with it.
16. In the freezer compartment: re-freezable lunch box cooler thingies, bulk on sale meats broken down into smaller portions and frozen, frozen chicken broth, high quality frozen pizzas purchased on sale for $2.50 each. 2 of these feed us four for $5.00 with leftovers for son's lunch the next day. Frozen home-grown vegetables.
17. Yeast. It will last much longer in the fridge and can be used to make some frugal bread or pizza crust.
18. Packets of seeds in a gallon size zip lock bag. They will last for years this way.
Let's not forget the outside of a frugal fridge:
1. I try to always have a running list of groceries needed.
2. Menu plan for the week.
3. Picture of Grandbaby for free entertainment!
A biggie: When was the last time the coils under your fridge were vacuumed? This needs to be done regularly. It makes the fridge run more efficiently, saving electricity, and will make the fridge last much longer!
Please go to www.biblicalwomanhood.blog.htm for more Frugal Friday tips!
3 comments:
I get tons of those post-its from work, too! I think I'll bring some home and use them like you do. Smart idea!
That's funny you worked at Woolco. I believe that Woolworth's and Woolco operated at the same time--maybe they used different names in different states. Kind of the way Edy's Ice Cream is Dreyer's in the west. (I wonder why they do that?)
PS...I do the upside down bottle thing, too!
PPS...thanks for the nice comment on my blouse!
Good post! I think my fridge is pretty frugal too. I also do the upside down bottle thing. The post it's are a wonderful idea, as my kids (and hubby) won't open bowls either. At one time when the kids were little, I would save all leftovers in the freezer and make soup. (idea from the Tightwad gazette) My kids would call it tightwad soup and it was always, always yummy!
I think the posties are cute!!
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