# And I thought I was cheap/frugal



## jd_1138 (May 2, 2017)

Neighbor lady said she buys ground turkey for 40 cents a pound or whatever and adds a few beef bouillon cubes to it to make it "just like real ground beef".


----------



## Caslon (May 3, 2017)

jd_1138 said:


> Neighbor lady said she buys ground turkey for 40 cents a pound or whatever and adds a few beef bouillon cubes to it to make it "just like real ground beef".



Some neighborhood, uhuh?


----------



## Aunt Bea (May 3, 2017)

I add a packet of Goya beef bouillon to ground turkey or beef when I make meatloaf or meatballs.  A packet of beef or chicken bouillon added to canned tomato sauce or marinara helps to boost the flavor.  Also try adding a packet of the ham flavored bouillon when you cook green beans.

This may not be a great idea for folks that are watching sodium intake but it does add a great deal of flavor.


----------



## ixamnis (May 9, 2017)

My mother-in-law grew up in the '30s (as did my parents), and used to save bread wrappers to wrap food and other items in. She also saved butter containers and Cool Whip type containers because she would never spend money on Tupperware-type containers when she could get containers for "free."  

When going on a trip, my wife tells me that they would make Kool-Aid and freeze part of the KoolAid to use as Ice cubes, because frozen water would water down the drinks too much. They were too frugal to buy sodas or any drinks along the way.  They also packed all their meals on a trip so that they wouldn't have to eat at a restaurant.  Too expensive.

My father-in-law had a huge garden and they would can everything: beans, pickles, fruit... you name it.  

They were always bargain hunting and coupon clipping.  They were the most frugal people I've ever met. 

BTW, my father-in-law was the local family physician and money was never an issue for them. When he died, he had over a million dollars in his IRA account.  It wasn't an issue of not being able to afford things.  That's just the way they were raised.


----------



## CakePoet (May 9, 2017)

We used to have fruit syrup frozen in syrup  bottles  ( yes ljus sirap bottles), just add water for our trips as kid, cheap and low sugared way of keeping us drinking water.  In Sweden to eat cheap, you eat falukorv,  it is useful sausages because you can add in to stews,  bake it, fry it, grill it, boil it,  I even seen  Falukorv Wellington recipes from the 70,ties.


----------



## Andy M. (May 9, 2017)

As a kid growing up, I never saw Tupperware, Ziplock, etc.  Mom used Wonder bread bags, and plastic tubs food was sold in.  She also washed out and reused plastic wrap and aluminum foil.


----------



## Mad Cook (May 9, 2017)

jd_1138 said:


> Neighbor lady said she buys ground turkey for 40 cents a pound or whatever and adds a few beef bouillon cubes to it to make it "just like real ground beef".


Oh dear!

Anyway, what's wrong with turkey mince? Turkey isn't my first choice even at Christmas but it's not bad enough to disguise.


----------



## Mad Cook (May 9, 2017)

And they think re-cycling is a new thing!

As a post-WW2 baby I was used to Mother, Aunts and Grandmothers saving useful packaging, etc., so have always done it myself. But I don't go as far as to wash aluminium foil. 

My favourite aunt used to save the brown paper bags that the grocer put hand-cut cheese, loves of bread etc., in and take them with her to be re-used for her shopping next time. When they were no longer useable she tore them into strips and twisted them into spills for lighting gas rings or cigarettes. (Lighting them from the fire and crossing the kitchen to the stove to light the gas was quite hair-raising to a watching child who was taught not to play with fire!)


----------



## Mad Cook (May 9, 2017)

Tea out of a thermos flask is really disgusting so we always took a little camping stove with us on picnics so we could make fresh as required.


----------



## LPBeier (May 9, 2017)

My MIL saves all plastic and tin containers (like cookie tins, not cans) to pack stuff up for all the kids after family meals. I don't see anything wrong with that and actually send a lot of mine over to her...that way I am assured of leftovers! 

I add some of my homemade super concentrated stock (beef, chicken, ham, veggie, fish) to many dishes including ground meat. I have to use a mix of poultry and pork meat to have low fat but if I want a beef taste (i.e. for tacos) I will add beef stock. I make the stock into containers but I also freeze some as ice cubes so I have it for those "small jobs".

I don't do it because I am frugal, I do it because we need to have foods without allergens and I still want to be able to have flavour!


----------



## Aunt Bea (May 9, 2017)

Mad Cook said:


> And they think re-cycling is a new thing!
> 
> As a post-WW2 baby I was used to Mother, Aunts and Grandmothers saving useful packaging, etc., so have always done it myself. But I don't go as far as to wash aluminium foil.
> 
> My favourite aunt used to save the brown paper bags that the grocer put hand-cut cheese, loves of bread etc., in and take them with her to be re-used for her shopping next time. When they were no longer useable she tore them into strips and twisted them into spills for lighting gas rings or cigarettes. (Lighting them from the fire and crossing the kitchen to the stove to light the gas was quite hair-raising to a watching child who was taught not to play with fire!)



My grandmother used to do the same thing when lighting her old wood/gas combination range and then bang the teakettle down on the burning twist of paper to extinguish the flame, sparks and little bits of ash would fly and float around the kitchen.  We were all terrified of that old stove!!! 

_King Oscar II of Sweden_: “I would rather have people laugh at _my_ economies than _weep_ for _my extravagances_."


----------



## Cooking Goddess (May 9, 2017)

Andy M. said:


> As a kid growing up, I never saw Tupperware, Ziplock, etc.  Mom used Wonder bread bags, and plastic tubs food was sold in...


Himself and I refer to cottage cheese and yogurt tubs as "Allentown Tupperware". If you open an upper cupboard door in any of his PA cousins kitchens , you learn quickly to first put your free hand up to deflect any possible falling tubs.

I have two small gift bags in the basement that store my entire stash. They do come in handy when sending food up the street to my SIL or my neighbor friend who loves my soups.


----------



## jd_1138 (May 9, 2017)

Yeah my grandmother who was born in 1909 saved all the plastic containers and also those little packs of plastic silverware from like Kentucky Fried Chicken.  You know the ones with the napkins, fork, knife, packet of salt/pepper.

I myself save condiments from Taco Bell.  They give you tons of those little sauce packets.  They are great to put on microwave burritos.  

Oh the same neighbor who puts bouillon in ground turkey also makes chili with the Taco Bell packets.  So I guess she never buys salsa either.  Ha.  Everything requiring some heat gets the Taco Bell treatment.


----------



## buckytom (May 9, 2017)

I'm not sure I understand the original thing about using ground turkey.

My wife makes a decent meatloaf, and extremely good meatballs with ground turkey.

She's had people ask for her meatball recipe because they were so good, and they were shocked to find out that they weren't beef, pork, or even veal , or some combination thereof.

But I don't understand why making turkey taste good is bad.


----------



## Dawgluver (May 9, 2017)

Have you posted your wife's ground turkey recipes, BT?  They sound delicious.

I'm one who rinses and reuses aluminum foil.  When it gets too many holes in it, it goes into the tin can bin for recycling.  I'm also one who is a saver of cottage cheese containers.  It got to be a bit much a few years ago, so I put most of them in the plastic recycling bin.  Otherwise I had what my grandma called a Fibber McGee cupboard.  Like CG's Allentown cupboard, you never know what might fall on your head when you opened it.  It still tempts me to save the containers, but I just don't have the space.

I also have a nice collection of plasticware along with different restaurant sauce packets.


----------



## Aunt Bea (May 9, 2017)

I keep a couple of those little packs of plastic silverware, you know the ones, in my glove compartment.

I remember wearing those Wonder bread bags over our socks to keep our feet warm and dry in our old boots when we went out to play in the winter.

My  mother always carried a wet washcloth in a little sandwich bag, tucked  in her purse.  She was always on the lookout for a little kid that  needed wiping off! 

No matter how much I have I will never let go of the little money saving habits that I grew up with.


----------



## Dawgluver (May 9, 2017)

My mom used spit on a used kleenex when we were little.  I don't think she tried it on other people's kids, but who knows.


----------



## Addie (May 9, 2017)

We always went to school with our sandwiches wrapped in Wonder Bread wrappers. If your mother had none, then it was wax paper. We folded it when we were through eating and brought it back home to be reused the next day for our sandwiches. 

My sister always would take any paper towel she used to wipe her hands or even a wet one to wipe off the table, and hang them around the kitchen to dry and be used again. Me? I have a collection of chicken and beef, pork bones in the freezer along with little pieces of meat. I had intended to make a mixed broth this past winter, just kept forgetting I had them in there. Oh well, they will keep. On year I tossed them all together in one pot and it turned out to be the best beef barley stew. I couldn't stop eating it. Neither could Pirate.


----------



## rodentraiser (May 10, 2017)

Wow. I really can't think of anything I'm that frugal with when it comes to food, except I hate to throw anything out. Last month I bought a pint of cream and when I saw I wouldn't use it by the expiration date, I made it into butter and froze that.


----------



## Mad Cook (May 10, 2017)

LPBeier said:


> My MIL saves all plastic and tin containers (like cookie tins, not cans) to pack stuff up for all the kids after family meals. I don't see anything wrong with that and actually send a lot of mine over to her...that way I am assured of leftovers!
> 
> I add some of my homemade super concentrated stock (beef, chicken, ham, veggie, fish) to many dishes including ground meat. I have to use a mix of poultry and pork meat to have low fat but if I want a beef taste (i.e. for tacos) I will add beef stock. I make the stock into containers but I also freeze some as ice cubes so I have it for those "small jobs".
> 
> I don't do it because I am frugal, I do it because we need to have foods without allergens and I still want to be able to have flavour!


Waste not, want not as they used to say. 

There's so much packaging used by manufacturers these days. It can't all be essential for food safety puposes or even keeping times. I bought a bar of chocolate the other day to ice a cake. It came wrapped in foil inside a cardboard box inside a plastic wrapper. On which planet do the climate/or storage facilities require that? 

As far as possible I re-use packaging, glass, plastic containers, I buy loose fruit and veg and avoid buying meat in polystyrene trays and I buy my milk in glass bottles. I live alone and I have three recycling bins which I have to empty 3 times a week and most of what goes in the bins shouldn't have entered the house in the first place. Heaven help a family with a couple of children!

I think I'll start a campaign for everyone to dump the rubbish (er excess packaging) on the checkout table before they leave after shopping. It might make the supermarkets think about it.


----------



## buckytom (May 10, 2017)

It's taken me years, but I've finally gotten my family to really make an effort to recycle. We now strip away any paper or plastic from any food packaging and that goes in the recycling cans. Same goes for glass or metal containers, but there seemsvto he fewer and feewer of those as time marches on.

Where we used to put out a full garbage can or two twice a week for regular garbage puck up, but now we only put out one, and it's often not filled. However, our recycling cans are always overflowing. I just put out 2 completely full 50 gallon "garbage" cans for recycling, along with another large box of just paper goods.

I'm looking forward to see how my neighbors respond. They are all very snooty and terribly competitive, so no to be outdone by us, I hope they start to recycle more as well (simply because they are better than us, of course. Lol).

Getting back to frugality, I keep and reuse almost all plastic containers from takeout food or whayever container that has a decently tight fitting lid. I use them to store leftovers, or to bring food in to work, or even to use for marinating food if they're large enough. 

Why buy tupperware, or especially those cheap Glad brand containers that never seem to have petfectly matching lids, when you get better sealing containers for free from takeout?


----------



## PrincessFiona60 (May 10, 2017)

I do the same, Bucky.  I re-use until they get too warped from microwave use and then they hit the recycle bin.


----------



## Dawgluver (May 10, 2017)

I compost any vegetation and egg shells, and recycle glass, metal/tin, paper, cardboard, and plastics.  We have a wonderful trash service even out here in the sticks.  The company provides a massive trash can, along with a small container for recycling.  We usually have one partially filled grocery bag a week to go in the bottom of the massive trash can.  Mostly filled with used kleenex.

One of our neighbors must order from Amazon every day.  When we go by their house on our walks before garbage day, they have at least 5 big trash bags along with a full trash can, and a whole bunch of cardboard boxes.  I've never seen their recycling bin out, they just throw everything away.  And there's only two of them.


----------



## CakePoet (May 10, 2017)

I never use plastic in the microwave that isnt  microwave save,  so if it has been ice cream in the plastic tub, it will be filled with something cold  and then head to freezer or fridge and I use a  glass or porcelain bowl to reheat food.


----------



## CakePoet (May 10, 2017)

Oh and when it comes to the rest, I live in an apartment , I have to recycle, I have 5 bins under my sink and  two by  the door, just I wont get a fine.


----------



## jd_1138 (May 11, 2017)

Dawgluver said:


> I compost any vegetation and egg shells, and recycle glass, metal/tin, paper, cardboard, and plastics.  We have a wonderful trash service even out here in the sticks.  The company provides a massive trash can, along with a small container for recycling.  We usually have one partially filled grocery bag a week to go in the bottom of the massive trash can.  Mostly filled with used kleenex.
> 
> One of our neighbors must order from Amazon every day.  When we go by their house on our walks before garbage day, they have at least 5 big trash bags along with a full trash can, and a whole bunch of cardboard boxes.  I've never seen their recycling bin out, they just throw everything away.  And there's only two of them.



Wow, what wasteful people they are.  Sounds like my wife's best friend whose husband buys everything on Amazon.  He even bought a huge yard waste plastic trash bin from Amazon.  He drives past 5 or 6 stores that sell general merchandise like that on his way home.

It came in a massive cardboard box.  I was over there helping them move in, and I saw it.  I think he even bought a lawnmower from Amazon.  And they bought their 55" TV there too.  I'd be afraid the fragile stuff would be handled roughly by the delivery people.

On the rare occasions we buy things online, I take the cardboard down to the local recycling center in our small town, or I keep the boxes to re-use for when I sell stuff on ebay.


----------



## jd_1138 (May 11, 2017)

I made "poor man's dinner" the other night.  I was surfing around on YouTube and came across a video of someone's 90 year old grandmother making it.  He and his friends love it, so she makes it for them when they go to visit her.  She said her mother would make it back during the depression years, and she learned how to make it then as a teenager because she'd have to help out.

You basically peel and slice potatoes and put them in a skillet with a little oil, then add some diced onions, salt/pepper.  Then slice up hot dogs (or kielbasa, sausages) and put them in along with a can of drained green beans.  A little water and some tomato sauce (or pasta sauce).  I used Old Bay seasoning and cooked it in the crockpot all day.  It was yummy.

But his grandmother used a cast iron skillet and cooked it on the stovetop.  She cut her taters really small so they cooked faster.


----------



## Katie H (May 11, 2017)

buckytom said:


> It's taken me years, but I've finally gotten my family to really make an effort to recycle. We now strip away any paper or plastic from any food packaging and that goes in the recycling cans. Same goes for glass or metal containers, but there seemsvto he fewer and feewer of those as time marches on.
> 
> Where we used to put out a full garbage can or two twice a week for regular garbage puck up, but now we only put out one, and it's often not filled. However, our recycling cans are always overflowing. I just put out 2 completely full 50 gallon "garbage" cans for recycling, along with another large box of just paper goods.
> 
> ...



Bravo, bucky!  

We live out, literally, in the sticks and there is no recycling available but in a nearby town I pass about every two weeks, and all that consists of  is a big recycling roll-off container at the YMCA.  So...

About two years ago, I began an aggressive "green" campaign in our house.  All vegetable matter went into the compost area, saved the egg shells for gardening, the appropriate protein waste went into our canine garbage disposal, Harley, then all glass, plastic, metals and paper/cardboard went to the recycling center.

The results have been wonderful.  Our 13-gallon kitchen waste container only has to be emptied once a month.  Seriously.  And, before anyone gets any icky ideas, there's nothing in it to cause any odors.  As Dawg already mentioned, it contains mostly tissues and non-recyclable packaging.  When I took the bag to the trash can outside at the first of this month, I could carry it with my pinkie.

Our big curbside trash container only makes its way to the street about once a month, too, sometimes barely full.  I've even talked the refuse company to reduce our quarterly fee.

I take all the recycling items to the Y at the first of the each month on my way to "play" with my best friend.

Less work for everyone and we're kinder to Mother Earth.  I say less work...it didn't seem like it in the beginning but it was something we had to get used to.  Just a change really.


----------



## rodentraiser (May 11, 2017)

I don't think I've ever lived in a place where I've had to recycle. I don't think recycling became really the thing to do much until the mid 90s and then I was living on a horse boarding stable where everything just got put in the dumpster. Since then, every place I've lived at has had only a dumpster for throwing out garbage.


----------



## CraigC (May 12, 2017)

Every day, when I come home from work, I dump my pocket change into a gallon glass jar. The last time we "recycled" that jar, it had about $300.00 in it. Enough for a special treat or two.


----------



## Aunt Bea (May 12, 2017)

Earlier this week I cooked some broccoli florets and saved the gigantic stems.

This morning I trimmed the broccoli stems, simmered them in a pint of ham stock I had in the freezer from the Easter ham bone and buzzed it in the blender until smooth.  

The garbage can goes hungry and I get a couple of _free _lunches!!!


----------



## CakePoet (May 12, 2017)

I have re cycling house as part of this apartment complex, it standard, I have bin for everything and even compost ( it becomes biogas for the the local buses, still no free rides) . It easy and well I have to or I can get a fine.


----------



## Mad Cook (May 12, 2017)

rodentraiser said:


> I don't think I've ever lived in a place where I've had to recycle. I don't think recycling became really the thing to do much until the mid 90s and then I was living on a horse boarding stable where everything just got put in the dumpster. Since then, every place I've lived at has had only a dumpster for throwing out garbage.


I used to recycle as much as possible even when it was optional long before it became complusory to separate the stuff for the council's refuse collection.


----------



## GotGarlic (May 12, 2017)

rodentraiser said:


> I don't think I've ever lived in a place where I've had to recycle. I don't think recycling became really the thing to do much until the mid 90s and then I was living on a horse boarding stable where everything just got put in the dumpster. Since then, every place I've lived at has had only a dumpster for throwing out garbage.


Most towns and cities have places where you can take items for recycling. We had one not too far from our house before the city started curbside recycling. One enterprising teenage boy started a business picking up people's recycling and taking it to the central location [emoji2]


----------



## Addie (May 12, 2017)

LPBeier said:


> My MIL saves all plastic and tin containers *(like cookie tins, *not cans) to pack stuff up for all the kids after family meals. I don't see anything wrong with that and actually send a lot of mine over to her...that way I am assured of leftovers!
> 
> I add some of my homemade super concentrated stock (beef, chicken, ham, veggie, fish) to many dishes including ground meat. I have to use a mix of poultry and pork meat to have low fat but if I want a beef taste (i.e. for tacos) I will add beef stock. I make the stock into containers but I also freeze some as ice cubes so I have it for those "small jobs".
> 
> I don't do it because I am frugal, I do it because we need to have foods without allergens and I still want to be able to have flavour!



I have about three of those tins. When I am going to toss some article of clothing, I remove all the buttons. White ones in once cookie tin, black in another and the other odd ones in the third. Grandchildren love to play with those buttons.


----------



## Kaneohegirlinaz (May 12, 2017)

*Cheap Or Frugal?*

Have you ever noticed the price difference in facial tissue between the different shaped boxes they come in?

Target : Expect More. Pay Less.

Target : Expect More. Pay Less.

The small cube shaped box, which goes lovely on a family room side table, under a decorative cover only has 80 tissues in that box.
Where as the larger, more unattractive box has 160 tissues.
Their the same price!!  320 total count vs. 640.... which would you buy?



I asked my Mother who loves to do needlework, to make me several tissue box covers that I have scattered around the house; I change them out with the seasons.  
I bought a four pack of the small cube boxes, cut away the top portion and "recycle" them, in other words, I simply refill them with tissue from the larger, less attractive box that is stashed under the bathroom sink.

Cheap, Frugal or just plain smart?


----------



## Cooking Goddess (May 13, 2017)

Smart, of course...because I've done that, too.  I can go one cheaper. My old microwave cabinet can accommodate a 96-count Puffs box, sliding right underneath the small upper shelf. But the almost-200 count are way cheaper. I keep refilling the shorter box with tissues when they run out rather than buying more shorter boxes.


----------



## Addie (May 13, 2017)

When I take the meat out of the styrofoam trays to prepare for the freezer, I save three of the large ones. Wash them thoroughly, then dry. When I am going to bread some food, I use them. One for bread crumbs, one for flour, and one for the beaten eggs if there is not a lot to bread. 

Saves on cleanup after use.


----------



## cjmmytunes (May 13, 2017)

My great aunt and grandmother used to open presents using a knife - cutting where the tape help the paper together.  They would save the boxes and tissue paper in the boxes, and fold the wrapping paper carefully to save and reuse also.

I always save ham, turkey, and chicken bones for soups.


----------



## Cooking Goddess (May 13, 2017)

Addie said:


> When I take the meat out of the styrofoam trays to prepare for the freezer, I save three of the large ones. Wash them thoroughly, then dry. When I am going to bread some food, I use them. One for bread crumbs, one for flour, and one for the beaten eggs if there is not a lot to bread.
> 
> Saves on cleanup after use.


 And yet you're still alive! Does Po know this? If he does, I'm surprised he hasn't give you a good what-for and how-to. NeverNEVER reuse a meat tray for another food purpose. Heck, I won't reuse them for anything other than reinforcing the bottom of my under-sink trash bag after I've washed them...and that bag goes to the garbage can every day or two.

The nitty-gritty: Do not reuse porous packaging materials such as paper, paperboard, and expanded foams (for example, styrofoam cups and foam meat trays). *They have air spaces that will harbor food particles and microorganisms*.


----------

