After dinner, I decided to browse through my copy of the Tightwad Gazette II, the real handbook for frugal living. In one section, there was a round up of reuse ideas. Many of the materials used in these ideas are quite unusual. So, I thought I would share some of those ideas with you, and add a few comments of my own.
Burned Cookies
The Tightwad Gazette recommends that you shave off the bottoms of the cookies with a coarse kitchen grater. They don’t mention anything about using the resulting crumbs, though. In our family, a cookie doesn’t ever get burned. That is not to say that I am an amazing cookie cook, but that when cookies are baking, the oven is usually surrounded by at two or three kids who watch the cookies bake through the glass window.
Six-Pack Rings
The Tightwad Gazette had a very interesting use for these rings. The book suggests that the rings be turned into a volleyball net. To join the rings together, use twist ties. They also suggest indoor volleyball using a balloon. That sounds like a fun rainy day activity. I wonder about the durability of the twist ties and would probably chose to staple the rings together.
Bread Tabs
You know those little plastic tabs that are used to secure bread bags? The Tightwad Gazette has two suggestions for bread tabs. The first is to use them as stitch counters for your knitting. The second suggestion is to use the bread tabs to divide index cards by taping the tabs on both sides of a card.
Wax Paper Box
This is a very creative idea. The Tightwad Gazette suggests that something you might not even consider useful to reuse, the serrated edge on a wax paper box can be use to create picture frame hangers. Just cut the edge into small sections and bend them into shape. Then, mail the edges onto frames using small nails. Having cut myself before on one of these edges, I would suggest blunting them first if possible. Foil and plastic wrap paper box edges should also work well.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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