8 Frugal Tips and Tricks to Fight Inflation
I’m going to share with you frugal tips and tricks that you might not know about or have forgotten about. They may seem like small frugal tips but they add up to big savings.
1. Soak mushrooms
Soak mushrooms before you cook them in water or milk for 10 to 15 minutes and they'll cook a lot quicker, and they will stay juicy rather than being dry.
If you're going to fry them rather than put them in a casserole, soaking them, then draining the water off and frying them helps tremendously.
2. Cook with bacon fat
Excuse the state of this pan but that's the second part of secret. We had bacon yesterday and we don't like to waste the bacon fat. It really just tastes fantastic and that's how we're going to fry mushrooms.
So don't waste your bacon fat and save it for at least one more meal. Some people dip bread in it but we like to fry mushrooms in it. You're saving money on oil because you don't need to add oil or lard to whatever you’re frying.
3. Reduce phantom energy sources
Right this little secret tip isn't probably that much of a secret but it's all about phantom energy. Now this is my little girl's bedroom and across her ceiling she has LED lighting and it's turned off with the remote at the moment.
As you can see it’s all turned off all around the room. I’m going to draw the curtains and then just show you when the room's dark if the LED lights are still taking some energy even though they're turned off.
They are plugged in and the switch is on down so it's on but they're actually turned off with the remote control at the sensor so for all intents and purposes they're turned off.
Above is the LED lights when fully on.
And here are the LED lights turned off but still plugged in, emitting a little light!
Right I've drawn the curtains and as you can see the LEDs are still taking some energy from the socket. I'll go a bit closer so you can see and when they're actually turned on so you can actually see the difference.
I'm going to turn them on now by the remote and now I'm going to turn them off and they're still taking a little bit of energy.
The LED strip on the left is still plugged in but off. The strip on the right is unplugged and dark. Unplug appliances rather than just turning them off!
4. Freshen clothes without washing
If you've got a basket full of clothes that aren’t really dirty or mud-stained but may need to be freshened up, you don’t need to do a full wash cycle for 60 or 90 minutes.
A 15-minute rapid wash is more than enough to clean up these clothes.
5. Sweep rather than vacuum
This is a bit of a messy child’s bedroom floor but this little tip helps if you have floors that are wood, vinyl, or tile.
Rather than vacuum, why not sweep all these bits by using a good old -fashioned dustpan and brush. You’ll save energy on vacuuming.
6. Avoid freezer burn
This simple frugal secret keeps your porous food, like bread, cakes, and buns, from taking on that stale freezer burn taste.
Prevent it by double bagging the items. We're going to freeze this bread and defrost individual portions so they won't taste like the freezer.
I'm just going to double bag them and pop them in. I've just got a clean bag and an old bread bag and then I'm not going to bother tying the bag.
7. Make mascara last longer
Make your makeup go further. If you think your mascara is all used up, take a minute to pop it into a cup of hot (not boiling) water from the sink.
It heats up and moistens the mascara inside the tube so you can get another few uses out of it.
8. Make lipstick last longer
Make your makeup last a bit longer by using good old petroleum jelly. When you get down to the last bit of your lipstick, there's often a bit of plastic holding the last little nub of color.
That little nub can last you another month. Use a lip brush just to get the last bit of color out and pop it on your lips.
Use bits of lipstick for blush, tooUse it also on cheeks as a little bit of blusher. The petroleum jelly helps moisturize, too.
Frugal tips and tricks
It’s very satisfying to make use of things in frugal ways. I hope these small, but great little secret frugal living tricks and tips help you make your things last longer.
Let me know your secret frugal living tips and tricks in the comments below.
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