Reusing and repurposing - frugal ideas and tips on how to reuse and repurpose virtually everything!

kimwp

The plasticky tape that vets use to keep cotton wool on my cat's legs after a blood draw are brill for plant ties (it sticks to itself really firmly, but nothing else), but I imagine that's a really niche thing to need to find a reuse for 😄

otb666

I have started returning all my soft plastic to the supermarket. It makes a big difference to the amount of rubbish i have and means i do not need to empty my kitchen bin so often. Did not think it would make a difference but give it a go and i am sure you will be surprised as i was.

Elisheba

Nelliegrace said:

I save the meat dripping to have on hot toast or to sauté vegetables. It adds flavour to soups. If there is a lot I clarify it so it will keep. 
Yellow stickered double cream 300ml for 71p made 155g of lightly salted butter and about 100 ml of butter milk for baking. I freeze the butter in weekly ration portions. 

I keep looking out for yellow stickered cream for butter making, but haven't ever seen any and it has been years now!

Floss

My Asda had YS double cream today... 600ml at £1.58, 300ml at 60p. Guess which I bought...😂

kimwp

I saw a YouTube short where someone made a cosmetics bag out of ribbons they had collected and my purse is getting very threadbare,  I can't decide whether to patch it or try to make a new one with the ribbons I have.

PipneyJane

weenancyinAmerica said:

Question? If you have put the grease into the egg carton, if it is a cardboard egg carton, would it be possible to use it as a firestarter? If you cut the egg carton in one or two sections, do you think it would work that way?

Yes, @weenancyinAmerica you should be able to burn them as a fire starter, but guess what your fire will smell of?  

Humans burned animal fat for centuries in candles and fires.  Mainly tallow, which is sheep fat.  Anything that tasted nice would be reused as food, from spreading beef dripping on toast, to deep frying in lard.  

kimwp said:

I wrap folded paper towels round my rapeseed oil bottle to catch the drips so I have a handhold that's not sticky (I use the many elastic bands that seem to appear from thin air to hold them on). Although I don't light fires, I did set fire to one of these aper towels out of interest - it burned with a big flame for a long time, so I imagine would be pretty good for a firestarter.

Now that is clever! @kimwp Most ingenious.

- Pip



ETA: 

otb666 said:

I have started returning all my soft plastic to the supermarket. It makes a big difference to the amount of rubbish i have and means i do not need to empty my kitchen bin so often. Did not think it would make a difference but give it a go and i am sure you will be surprised as i was.

We’ve been doing this for a while @otb666. Have a plastic shopping bag suspended from the kitchen door’s handle, specifically to collect soft plastics.  When the bag is full, everything goes to the soft plastics container at the supermarket.   Hopefully, the soft plastics actually do get recycled and don’t end up going to landfill in a far flung country.  

Floss

I take my soft plastics to Tesco, hard plastics to the tip and paper / card / cans / bottles go in the recycling bin. In my kitchen I have 2 large bins to keep recycling & plastic in, a wire paper basket for soft plastics and a food caddy for general waste with biodegradable liners, which means I'm not using plastic bin liners.

millie

We are fortunate that our council have just started to recycle soft plastics and it all goes in the same bin as the other stuff. My bin soon gets full since they have started doing this. Hardly anything goes in the rubbish now, I have 1 small bag a week.

Nelliegrace

Mrs Nella Last, (Housewife 49,) wrote of a neighbour who couldn’t be bothered to clarify fat to save it for frying, and put it on the domestic fire. This set the chimney alight and she was in trouble for wasting food and breaking the blackout regulations. 

PipneyJane

Nelliegrace said:

Mrs Nella Last, (Housewife 49,)
opowrote of a neighbour who couldn’t be bothered to clarify fat to save it for frying, and put it on the domestic fire. This set the chimney alight and she was in trouble for wasting food and breaking the blackout regulations. 

I’d forgotten about that, @Nelliegrace.  It’s been a long time since I read my Nella Last books.  (Absolutely gripping diaries of a WW2 housewife, if you’ve never heard of her.). 

Yes, it is worth mentioning that using fat as a firefighter can be fraught with danger.  It flares up a lot!   Just think of those chip-pan fire videos from the 1980’s and ‘90’s.  My original thought that WeeNancy would use hers on an outdoor fire, so her biggest worry would be predatory animals.    (I have no idea if her part of America has wolves and bears, but that’s what sprang to mind.)

It’s worth sharing here some instructions for clarifying fat:

1. Drain your fat into a deep container and allow to cool and solidify.  (I usually refrigerate it.)
2. Once solid turn out and scrape off any debris from the bottom.
3. Make sure the container is clean.
4. Put the fat back into the container and pour over boiling water.  
5. Allow to cool and solidify again.  
6. Turn the solid fat out onto a chopping board and repeat steps 2 to 5, if necessary.
7. Place the fat into a saucepan, preferably one with a pouring lip, and melt.  Pour into a clean jar - or two - cover and allow to cool.
8. Store in the fridge and use for cooking.

FWIW, I use the above to clarify the fat from our Christmas Goose.  

- Pip