Saturday, January 30, 2021

Perpetual Pickles

We are a pickle-loving household, and usually have a few jars in the fridge and a couple back-ups in the pantry. This sounds excessive, but how else do you have spears, stackers, chips, and cornichons, and guarantee you won't have to fight over the last stacker on burger night? 

So inevitably, we go through several jars a year, each over half-full of that delicious, dilly, garlicky brine. 

You can use up that brine in anything that requires an acidic component, like marinades. 

But why not reuse it for its original purpose? Simply chop up a cucumber into your preferred shape, put it in the jar, and in a few days, you have round 2 of pickles. (I used 1 medium pickle to fill a 24 oz jar.) Make sure your cucumber is submerged and don't forget if you put chips in a jar labelled stackers. :) 

The original recommendation I saw for this stated it would take about 2 days to make these "fridge pickles" (good term to Google for other pickle reciples that don't require the canning method), but we found that at 2 days they were still crunchy and cucumber-y. They were perfect for us at about 1 week.

Not only did we get a second use of the jar and brine, but I didn't need to experiment with getting the right spice combination to make homemade brine from scratch, when we love that classic Vlasic flavor.

Average cost of a cucumber? $0.79

Cost of a 24 oz jar of pickles? $2.49

You've saved $1.70 (68%), and reduced your glass and food waste!





Saturday, January 16, 2021

Fabric Napkins: Not Just for Fancy Friday

I guess there's no time like quarantine to start spring cleaning early. I got an itch to organize my linen closet on Friday night (wild party!) and came across some cloth napkins I bought years ago. I'd forgotten about them, as I don't often entertain outside of Thanksgiving. 

It reminded me of all the "nice" things I save for a nice day, like that good bottle of truffle oil, only to realize it's gone bad by the time I deem an occasion special enough. So why save the fabric napkins and waste paper napkins? Put em on the table. Done! Keep them in a convenient drawer nearby or cute basket on the table, so that they are convenient to use.When they're dirty, put in the regular wash with your clothes. 

I highly recommend getting napkins with a print on them. They won't show oily stains like plain colored (I'm looking at you, ranch dressing!).

Do you only have holiday napkins? Both new and second hand cloth napkins are super easy find. There are tons at the usual thrift stores, but also don't forget antique stores. Still avoiding stores due to COVID? Here are a just couple options:

Ebay - you may have forgotten about them as the 1990's virtual garage sale, but they are still around and bigger than ever. Just select condition "pre-owned" for your search and you'll come across some amazing finds including vintage designer options.

For example, this lot of 8 vintage Vera napkins for $31.

Or this set of 4 vintage retro napkins plus rings for $31.

I love this set of 6 floral napkins for $14.

Go for a global look with this set of 8 batik napkins for $17.


And don't forget Etsy, which is great for both new handmade as well as vintage. I'm in love with these awesome, vibrant owls from Clear Sky Home, set of 4 for $22.

This is one of those super easy swaps, that takes a small investment up front, but easily pays for itself over the course of a year.




Friday, January 1, 2021

COVID Didn't Stop Us in 2020

2020 may have been discouraging in several ways (thank goodness it's 2021!). There were several things we couldn't do: coffee shops stopped accepting your personal reusable cups. Restaurants moved to takeout-only with piles of disposable napkins, utensils, wrappers and containers. Grocery stores stopped allowing reusable shopping bags... In so many ways, it felt like an insurmountable backslide away from the good sustainable practiced we'd made habit.

On the flip side, there were so many things we did better. For example, with many jobs moving to work from home, we had substantial less commuting. This both saved fuel as well as provided more time for cooking at home and DIY projects. In some areas, we learned completely new skills, and in others, we kept the habits we could, but moved them online.

Thank you for joining me for 38 posts. Through it, we learned a lot and saved a lot:

Clothing and Fashion

  • We went thrifting with friends and saved $187 on the perfect skinny jeans and a tutu-like formal skirt for a night on the town. 
  • In-person store closures led me to more online thrifting, and saving $96 on blouses and boots.
  • I got fancy, saving $104 by thrifting tuxedo pants and and a sparkly skirt. 
  • Adding an ankle strap secured my shoes with style. 
  • You don't need to splurge to explore your feminine side. I saved $173 on second-hand ruffles
  • Rental clubs helped us keep things interesting while not buying new clothing.
  • Second-hand allowed me to save $50 and explore new colors
  • I used Poshmark for the first time, expanding my options for second-hand marketplaces.
  • A combo of second-hand and DIY saved me $38 on an original Halloween costume.

Energy and Fuel

Pets

Kitchen and Cooking

  • We replaced our Saran wrap with beeswax wraps
  • We reflected on 24 ways we could honor Earth Day, despite quarantine. Just one example? We reused our "disposable" takeout utensils.  
  • We made flavorful sauces from the waste of jarred sundried tomatoes.
  • Portioning and freezing let us make the most of our hard-to-use-up ingredients
  • Oat milk was an easy-to-make alternative to dairy, avoiding both packaging and methane emissions.
  • We enjoyed our leftovers to the last bite, by incorporating them into new recipes.

Garden

Home and Bath

Party and Holiday

Community


Overall, we saved $710 this year while saving tons of resources. Here's looking forward to an even better 2021. Cheers!