Waste Not Want Not

One simple thing that has stood the test of time and been proven to save money, is the practice of using what you have, first. Always. Our great, great, great grandparents would roll over in their graves if they knew how we waste and replace these days. We have lost an appreciation for the art of making things last. It’s so easy to toss and buy again that we don’t often have a real reason to work hard to salvage something. However, this was one thing I intentionally set out to be better at this year. I knew this would be one that would impact our budget and our life more than anticipated. When I thought I needed to go to the store and buy something, my challenge was going to be to look high and low and use some creative thinking to make whatever I could, work. 

This has manifested itself in a myriad of ways over the course of the last two and a half months. On day 8 or something like that my child brought me a white-out cartridge in literally a tangled web of white sticky string, and I immediately began walking toward the trash can. But just before tossing the valuable office tool into the white bag of decaying nastiness, I paused, looked at the disaster in my hand and sighed a heavy “this isn’t really what I meant” guilty sigh. It took me over ten minutes to sort, untangle, tie and restring that red plastic white-out dispenser. But I tell you what, I’ve never been so proud of my diligence. It worked, I no longer NEEDED anything again. I had solved the problem, solved the need and my list for the store remained at a balance. 

The same idea has come into play countless times in the last ten weeks. We think we NEED  to buy shirts for the upcoming parties at school, but I used materials we already had in the craft room and they came together beautifully and kept our hands busy on a snow day. Using this practice once or twice doesn’t add up to very big savings, but a habit of considering all options BEFORE purchasing something new, will lend itself to a surprising amount of money left in your pocket! 

Even though I’ve been meal planning, and we aren’t eating out, there are still days where things don’t go as planned and still times when the refrigerator has a random assortment of food left and it’s taken some major creativity to create a decent meal. Last week, this looked like baking chicken breasts in a bath of marinara sauce, shredding some mozzarella and spreading it on the top and naming the conoction “pizza chicken”. It wasn’t too bad, actually. This weekend however, it looked like making one of my absolute favorite things ever, overnight oats! I had some strawberries and raspberries on their last few days. Slightly soft, and ready to turn. I thought about just tossing them, and then I remembered this awesome make-ahead breakfast or snack! You just put the oats in the bottom of some glass jars or plastic containers, (about 1/3 cup) pour 3Tbsp milk onto the oats. Top with a couple spoonfuls of yogurt, sprinkle of berries and a drizzle of honey. Let sit overnight and enjoy! These are so great! My son and I love these and will take for lunch even sometimes. Also, bonus, they’re just so beautiful! It was the perfect way to use up some slightly mushy fruit and make use of every dollar I had spent at the grocery store!