When I originally jotted down my title for this frugal living tip post, I labeled it “Throw Away Your Paper Towels!” But since then, I realize that paper towels can still be quite useful around the house so I’ll approach that title and tip for another day. Today, I wanted to share with you a frugal living tip I’ve been doing in in the kitchen for a while now. Our family no longer uses paper napkins or paper towels to wipe our hands or our face at mealtime. No, we don’t eat like savages and use our hands then wipe on our clothes, those days are long gone.

We now use cloth napkins.

Cloth Napkins Save Money and Cost Less

Using cloth napkins routinely at mealtimes has been something my family has been doing over the last year. I made the decision one day when I went to pick up a package of paper napkins at the grocery store, and thought I wasn’t willing to spend almost $3 for a package of napkins that would start to fall apart after the first wipe. Call me cheap, I call it frugal.

So one day, while I was at the thrift store, I started looking carefully in the linen section for cloth napkins. Since then, I’ve purchased a variety of cloth napkins for less than the cost of a few packages of paper napkins for our family. They usually run between $0.25 each to 4 to 8 for $2.00 and on half off days at the thrift store, even less. Of course, I could be even more frugal and make my own but I’m no sewing queen, not yet anyway.

Cloth Napkins Are Environmentally Friendly

When you start to live a more frugal family lifestyle, you start to analyze every penny you spend a little more and buying paper napkins or even paper towels for that matter was adding up our grocery bill. Every Tuesday, on garbage day, our trash can would be filled to the brim with unnecessary garbage and paper products. We now pay more attention to what can be composted, recycled and reused. Cloth napkins are not just a one-time-use them and toss item.  Cloth napkins cover way beyond one spill and can even last beyond one meal (if it’s not a meal like spaghetti).  Even used to the maximum capacity, cloth napkins end up in the hamper, not trash, which means…cloth napkins produce less trash!

Keep in mind that you don’t always have to buy matching cloth napkins unless you’re throwing a dinner party. We may have a matching set for a holiday dinner but I myself, love the different patterns.

Cloth Napkins For The Family Kitchen

Making the switch to cloth napkins may be a little challenging but here are some great reasons to start:

1. Cloth Napkins Saves Money and Cost Less: Search and shop for cloth napkins at your local thrift store, not everything you find there is dirty and stained. Sometimes, people get rid of brand new ones. Look on Ebay or you can sometimes find good deals at Walmart or Target.
2. Reusable and Washable: Save money and time by washing with other dirty towels and kitchen rags too. Meaning you don’t have to add another pile of laundry. Depending on how dirty they get, wash once a week.
3. Cloth Napkins Last Longer: Again, Cloth napkins cover way beyond one spill and can even last beyond one meal (if it’s not a meal like spaghetti).
4. Cloth Napkins Produce Less Trash: Cloth napkins can be used and washed and reused until they shrivel apart, and even then they can become “heavy duty” cleaning rags.  Less trash = better for the environment.

Besides, cloth napkins are nicer.  Every meal is a little bit fancy with a cloth napkin! :)

Does your family use cloth napkins? Are you inspired to switch?

Recent events in my family’s life have made us change the way we think about spending money each month. So instead of panic,  we’ve decided to discipline ourselves to become better at being frugal to save money and not let anything go to waste. We started thinking about ways to cut down our costs and switch to a frugal family lifestyle for good.

For starters,  I can be very resourceful and certainly do my part in really paying attention to how I use ingredients in the kitchen. Some examples: I make homemade breads, bagels and rolls for my family. If the bread doesn’t get eaten in a timely manner or if the ends dry out, I cut them off and use for bread crumbs to be used in making meat loaf or chicken nuggets or I can use the food processor and make my own croutons.  Flour can be expensive if I’m not careful when researching prices. I already know when I purchase a 5 lb. bag at the big chain grocery store, it doesn’t seem to last long. But if I buy a 25 lb. bag at Walmart for just a little over $9.00, I can make it last the whole month.

My husband and I are huge coffee drinkers. After I make a pot of coffee,  instead of  throwing away the coffee grounds. I will pour them into our garden. Coffee grounds provide nitrogen to the soil and our garden will really benefit from it. I purchased extra ice cube trays a while back from the local  thrift store so that when we have leftover coffee, we won’t throw it out. We will pour it into the ice trays and freeze for when we want iced coffee.

Potatoes are another staple in our house. When I fry or bake them up, it’s always with the skin on. When we have mashed potatoes, I will on occasion peel them but I will now make sure if I do peel them to throw the peels in our compost. Instead of wasting the water after I boil potatoes, I will save it in the fridge or freeze it. It can be used later in my soup recipes or bread making.

Another staple in my kitchen is onions. I’ve been known to forget and not think about saving the outer peelings and simply just tossing them out. I will now save them to be used in making  my chicken broth and chicken stock. Same with any vegetables like carrots, celery, etc.

Instead of buying chicken breasts, I will switch back to purchasing a whole chicken at the grocery store. I can save the neck and other parts that my family doesn’t eat for making chicken broth. Leftover bones will be used in making my own chicken stock. I read that if I crack the bones I will get more minerals and nutrients into my stock from the marrow that is released.

Some of the recipes I make call for an orange or a lemon without the zest. So I will not waste anything.  If I grate off the peelings and freeze them, I can use the  zest in another recipe that calls for zest.  We love bananas, but they do go bad if not eating in a timely manner. I will start paying attention more to freezing them and use them to make banana bread or banana muffins.  The banana peels will just head off to compost.  When I use eggs and crack them open, one thing I already do is rinse the eggshells, crush them than put them in our garden near the tomato or pepper plants.  The calcium in the shells will help the vegetables.

Another frugal thing I’ve started to do is when my laundry detergent bottle or dish soap bottle is empty,I simply fill them up with water and save them.  You can use the soapy water to wash dishes on a camp-out, etc.  Just need to remember to think before we throw anything away.  Keep this frame of mind–Think how can I use this item.  I am sure you can think of a use for it.

Do you have any other suggestions?  How does your family live frugally? I would love to hear them.

Save money and make sure not to waste those tasty leftovers from your weeknight dinner. Need some inspiration? I’ve got it.

I confess. We do eat leftovers and if my schedule is busy for the week, I do plan our meals for leftovers. We love leftovers and sometimes it just taste better the next day. Especially Lasagna, right?  I really can’t imagine why someone would not like leftovers. Yes, serving leftovers does give me a night off in the kitchen but it’s also a way for me to be creative with the leftovers and it saves not only money but  delicious food from going to waste.

Future Meals for the Week

When meal planning for the week, think of leftovers…can you freeze them for a future meal? Create a new dish another night during the week? Maybe cut down the expense of eating out at lunch? These are just a few factors to take into consideration when you’re meal planning. If you do, you may learn to love leftovers. Here are some simple guidelines for tackling leftovers.

Limit the Leftover Serving Time

Don’t serve your leftovers (if it’s the same dish) for dinner more than two nights in a row. If you have any leftovers after the second night, package them well into two cup portions, label and stash them in the freezer.

Sometimes, I’ll even rotate the leftovers in the menu in future weeks. On my meal planning calendar, I use an {*} and arrows to show when leftovers will be served and how they are to be used in another dish that week.

 Just Eat It

Leftovers can be eaten for breakfast or lunch. Your leftover dinners don’t have to be served just at dinner time. When cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner, pack leftovers in a container and bring to work with you. I do this all the time and it’s cut down my eating out costs BIG TIME. Plus it’s a lot healthier. Breakfast is another time leftovers can be eaten. A warmed-up meal of brown rice and black beans are really beneficial  as whole grains and beans have the necessary carbohydrates to fuel the brain. Our kids love leftover foods like this for breakfast because they just toss it into a tortilla, roll up and warm up and they have themselves a breakfast burrito.

Mark your Leftovers!

Don’t let your leftovers get eaten until your ready! I’m telling you from experience on this one. If you plan to have leftovers for another dinner that week or add to your week’s lunch, MARK YOUR LEFTOVERS.  I have to put notes on food to remind my kids and the hubby not to eat something. I can’t tell you how many times in the past I’ve gone to pull out the leftovers and they’re gone. Thus resulting in a back up dinner plan. Labeling your leftover food also helps when putting it away in the the freezer too.  I use to always think I’ll remember what’s in a container or the freezer bag but I would forget. So now I label and add it to my freezer inventory list.  Your labels don’t have to be fancy.  A piece of scrap paper attached with a masking tape, or an Avery label and a black sharpie are easy and inexpensive methods.

What’s on your meal plan this week?  Any leftovers?  Does your family love leftovers?

Meal planning can be one of the biggest time savers you have in the kitchen.  You can save money, time and resources by taking just 15 to 20 minutes one day a week to meal plan. Your money is saved by purchasing only those items that you need. Your time is saved by not running to the grocery store every day. Resources are saved because you have a plan and know what is needed so nothing goes to waste.

The light at the end of the tunnel and the biggest benefit to meal planning–things just run smoother. It’s a peace of mind knowing you’re family has a meal at dinner time and you’re not trying to scramble up something with little or no ingredients as soon as you walk through the door. If you’re scrambling, you’re most likely going to resort to unhealthy fast food choices.

 Make Meal Planning Simple

1. Plan Ahead

Early Sunday morning when the house is quite is my meal planning time for the week. From the meal plan I’ve created, I create my grocery shopping list.

I like to keep track of all my family and upcoming school activities in my agenda book then transfer them to a calendar page on the fridge where the whole family can see what the upcoming family and school activities are for the week.

If I have any evening meetings or telephone conferences during the week, that means I need to plan a quick dinner, have leftovers from a previous night or serve one of my make ahead meals from the freezer. If I time it right, I can put a quick crock pot meal together and it’s ready when we’re ready to eat dinner.

2. Make a Meal Plan and Post It

I post the weekly meal plan front and center on the fridge so the whole family can see it. Everyone likes to see it and it’s a reminder for me if I need to take something out of the freezer, change a side dish,  or if I decide to add something to the menu that I may have forgotten. I always try to make sure I glance at the weekly menu the night before or early in the morning.

Our kids cook dinner one day a week. Before I sit down and plan the weekly meal, I always ask the family for ideas on what they’d like to see on the menu and cook. It’s usually pretty simple…mac and cheese, pizza, spaghetti, taco salad.

3. Keep it Simple

Family meals don’t have to be a full fancy course. Keep it simple. Sit down with your family and find a favorite meal. For us, it’s Zesty Taco Salad. It consists of taco meat, (which I always make a big batch of taco meat and store it in two cup portions in the freezer so it’s easy to pull out and thaw), beans, chopped veggies (pre-chopped on prepping day), tortilla chips and Catalina salad dressing. From start to finish it takes less than 25 minutes to make. Everyone can make it AND enjoys it.

Beans are inexpensive and a great staple to have on hand in your pantry. They are also full of dietary fiber, and easy to freeze. Serve them weekly or bi-weekly and you’ll find that there are many ways you can serve them. Get into a good habit of pre-soaking them on your weekly meal prepping day or a weeknight when your schedule is not so busy. Then slow cook the beans in your crock pot, serve the same night or let cool and store in two cup portions in the freezer. *Beans can also be stored in the freezer after soaking for 24 hours. Drain and divide into two cup portions, label “ready for crock pot” and freeze. When you’re ready to cook them, pull out and put into the crock pot with water or chicken broth.

Here are some of our family’s previous weekly meal plans. Once you start meal planning, you’ll begin to see how simple meal planning really is and truly what a time saver in the kitchen it is. When your family asks “What’s for dinner?” your always prepared. Give it a try. Happy meal planning!

Do you meal plan?  Are you consistent?  What’s your method – paper and pen or some high-tech method?

Homemade Christmas gifts always make such a lasting impression. I found quite a few ideas this year and I’m sharing them on Pinterest.

I’ve created a board Holiday Gifts From Your Kitchen to share all of those great homemade gifts that I  hope to find the time to try all of them. Well, maybe not all of them but most of them. Here are some wonderful inexpensive ideas that can be made from your kitchen.