Recycle Week: Re-use, Recycle and Save Money

In the 1980s we lived in Germany and a certain type of meat salad was sold in squarish glass jars with plastic re-sealable lids.

We saved about 20 of these for storage and are still using them for dried herbs and spices and homemade jams and cranberry sauce etc. One or two lids have succumbed to the ravages of time but otherwise they are all still good to go. Not bad after more than 35 years:beer:

We are big on recycling and reuse in our house.

We cleared a relative's hoarded house with very little going to landfill. Everything was sent to charity, ebayed, car booted, freecycled or as a last resort recycled or binned. We donated their book collection and it is now in a national organisation's reference library in their name.

Much of our house has been furnished with second hand items from car boots and ebay. The same with a lot of clothing and toys.

My books come from car boots and I resell when finished. The same with toys. Clothing is usually donated to charity where they can resell the good stuff and get money for the rags.

I use cloth sanitary protection and used cloth nappies on both of my children. A great saving was made by using the same nappies on both children. I then sold them on again to be reused by someone else, saving me even more money, and them saving money by getting a good bargain.