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August 2008 That Reminds Me
Pinching pennies
 by Emily Schilling
Editor
With gas prices rising daily and prices for everything else also going up, up, up, we’re all pinching our pennies. We avoid making unnecessary trips in our cars and are putting off expensive, unnecessary purchases. Though we’ve been aware of the need to reduce, reuse and recycle, now more than ever, the three Rs make economic as well as environmental sense.
As a natural hoarder and crafts lover, I enjoy hearing how people cleverly take today’s junk and turn it into something useful for tomorrow. Of course, you can go overboard stockpiling stuff for other uses. There comes a point when you’re just cluttering up your space! But giving new life to something that would end up in the trash makes sense — and cents.
I’d love to hear how you’re reusing and recycling to save money. Send me your ideas, and I’ll highlight them in a future column. (The address is at the bottom left.)
In the meantime, here are some ideas I’ve found to stretch your dollars:
• Conserve water by taking showers instead of baths. But if you do take a bath, don’t drain the tub right away. Use the old bath water to water your houseplants or mop up the bathroom floor. Houseplants have no aversion to drinking “used” water.
• Save your small strips of gift wrapping paper, and empty aluminum foil/wax paper tubes and boxes. Roll the paper on the tubes, and place it inside the box. Tear off paper as needed to wrap small presents.
• When your soap bars become too small to use, collect them in a laundered old sock or knee high hose. Once you’ve got enough slivers to equal a bar of soap, tie the top part of the sock/hose closed with a hair elastic. Use the “soap sock” in the shower.
• Run your junk mail through a paper shredder. Use the shreds as packing material for mailing packages, as animal bedding or as a backyard compost additive.
• Foam packing “peanuts” make an excellent alternative to traditional potting gravel for your houseplants. Since they weigh little yet take up a good amount of room, your pots won’t be as heavy either.
• Real cheapskates who never throw anything away probably have an old roll of masking tape around that doesn’t stick anymore. Pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and it will magically “get a grip!”
• Clip old, clean panty hose into small strips and save them in a plastic bag. When you have enough, use the strips as stuffing for a pillow.
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 7/28/2008
Number of Views: 191
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