I have a secret....

I’m cheap.

Yes, you can ask anyone I know, the idea of spending a penny to much sends me in this little form of a tizzy. Oh my and if I think you are wasting money… WHOOO OHHHH watch out, I get all sorts of mad and start waving the arms and expressing my thoughts and well to be honest it’s scary.

Because I am cheap I have found ways to help save and cut costs on items that are expensive or just unjustifiable in my head.

1.       For starters I make sure to not waste any food!

2.       I do not waste any soaps, or other bottled material

3.       Coupon, Coupon, Coupon

4.       Reuse, Reuse, Reuse

5.       Recycle

I’ll start by explaining number one. For starters I make sure to not waste any food! Come on now there are starving people in AFRICA! DUH!

This is actually very simple, make less = throw less away. In my house we make about what we can eat. Knowing that D does not care to kindly for leftovers and I personally do not care for left over fries and items like that. We try to cook less. However, when there are left overs I take them to work for lunch. If there are too many left overs D tries to eat them on his lunch break. We have started giving our doggy dog dog, some simple left overs too, items that would be good for her such as meats, I try to break the items up and put in with her food (almost as a substitute).

Of course there are always left overs that get lost in the shuffle. Because of this we try to do a “pot luck” day. What’s for dinner….LEFT OVERS!...... This is basically a simple clean out the fridge and eat what is there. For two people this is a little harder than a family. We have to be careful not to have too many left overs on pot luck day or you might have two pot luck days in a row.  D and I really do not care for pot luck day, so our way around this is to eat pot luck for lunch on the days we are home and still have a yummy freshly cooked meal for dinner.

Next, I try to salvage everything that is in a bottle….Yes!  I am one of THOSE PEOPLE! I allow my bottle of whatever to drain into a new bottle before throwing away. I do this with ketchup, dressings, mustards, BBQ sauce, you name it I have tried it.

Lastly, and the most brutal one…. I won’t go grocery shopping…. WTH, you ask.  The answer I give to you is “it’s time to clean out your pantry and freezer”.  We are currently on this stage right now. It is amazing what you can find in your freezer once you dig deep into the black whole. And your pantry, start using that mashed potato mix you accidently bought and won’t use it because its garlic potatoes.  This truly is the most brutal one in my opinion; as you start dwindling your food down you never have anything to complete a meal. So I have edited the “don’t go shopping” into “go shopping for only major things”. Items such as: milk and bread, possibly veggies, or fruits. Last night’s dinner consisted of hamburgers that were made out of ground beef found in the freezer, French fries that were found in the freezer and lettuce out of the garden.  Once my freezer and pantry are basically bare, it is time to go grocery shopping.

How do you not let food go to waste?