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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Half the Effort, Half the Price

I get excited when I can save money, especially if it's as much as 50%. I also like to find ways to save time and effort. Sometimes the two work together but most times you might have to put in a little more effort for a 50% money savings. In some of the cases below you might not save exactly 50% effort but it still works out to a large savings

1. When baking a cake, I always bake 2 layers. One gets frosted and eaten and the other gets frozen for a later date. I found that we are just as satisfied with one layer of cake as with two. To freeze the cake I let it cool completely, wrap in two layers of wax paper and two layers of aluminum foil. I write on the aluminum foil with a sharpie what flavor it is and in the freezer it goes. This is like getting two cakes for the price of one. 50% money savings

2. When making mashed potatoes, I make a large pot, at least twice what we would eat in one meal. Half is used that night and the other half is either frozen or put in the fridge.  If we are going to eat mashed potatoes later in the week, I put them in the fridge, if not they go in the freezer. 50% effort savings 

3. I cut dryer sheets in half and only use one half of a sheet with each load. Since I hang most of my wash out during the summer, a large box of dryer sheets can last almost a year. 50% money savings.

4. When I cook, I plan for leftovers for lunch and put the leftovers in individual serving containers. This way I can just pull them out of the fridge and put them in our lunch boxes. 50% effort savings and way more that 50% money savings. Lunches are expensive!

5. Take the clothes out of the dryer immediately. This saves more than 50% effort, I haven't actually ironed anything in a really long time so I am going to say 98% effort savings, because it cuts so much of the ironing time out.

6. Put dirty dishes in the sink as you cook.  Every time you turn on the water or wash your hands they are getting rinsed.  And all the food doesn't get stuck on so the dishwasher can be ran on a normal load instead of pot scrubber.  This saves money and effort.

7. When using the slow cooker, I always cook a large amount of meat. Like tonight I have 5 chicken leg quarters in the slow cooker. We will eat half of them tonight then the rest will get shredded and turned into another meal later in the week. This saves nearly 50% effort and some money because you aren't using as much electricity to heat up the next meal as you would to completely cook the meal.

8. I clean my solid surface stove top with baking soda. After I scrub the stove I use the same dish cloth to scrub the sink. There is enough baking soda on the dish cloth to give the sink a good scrubbing and I am getting double duty from the baking soda. I count that as 50% money savings.


Are there any things you do that save you 50% money or effort?  I would love to hear them.

Have a great day!
Mae


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