Showing posts with label Tightwad Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tightwad Tuesday. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tightwad Tuesday - So I have this fridge . . .

Tightwad-Tuesday

Tightwad Tuesday is about helping each other as we strive to be good stewards of all our resources: money, possessions, time, energy, and health.

(http://homeschoolblogger.com/reviewsandmore/)

You see, I have this industrial sized refrigerator that needs a new job.  The cooling parts do not work anymore.    It’s dead, kaput.  What do we do with this monstrosity that is no longer useful for keeping food cold???  You Google “uses for old refrigerators” and other such phrases.  What a wealth of information I found!!!!  

Here are some links:

From ThriftyFun.com: Tips and ideas for using an old refrigerator. Post your ideas.

  • make a 'Kegerator'
  • make a compost bin
  • make a smoker
  • storage for large dishes, pots, etc
  • a pantry
  • a bookshelf
  • animal feed storage
  • out of season clothing storage
  • tool chest
  • root cellar

From AnswerBag.com: Any good uses for an old refrigerator

  • watering trough
  • fish pond
  • yarn or cloth stash for the creative
  • smokehouse
  • doghouse
  • “red-neck” canoe???

From red’s random rambl’ns: Uses For Old Refrigerators (for some of these to make sense you need to know that the family had two fridges sitting on their deck)

  • Turn the frig on it’s back and get some friends and can sit side-by-side in the side-by-side frig and go down a hill with ice — doubles bob-sledding.
  • Take the doors and use them for snow sledding.
  • Use upright as extra shelving for storage.
  • An elective class for homeschoolers — fix’n frigs (would that be mechanics or something?).
  • Turn over as a table.
  • Place bricks under the doors as benches.
  • Make 2 picnic tables.
  • Make an outdoor bath.
  • Make a water fountain.
  • Other types of water features anyone?
  • Make a lily pond and use it as science experiments.
  • Fishing bowl/pond thingy where the kids can go fishing.
  • Harvest games — bobbing for apples.
  • Big sand boxes — one for cats and one for kids  (if only cats could be happy with just one).
  • Make into an elevator for a really big sturdy tree house.
  • Turn on it’s side long ways and stack — book shelves.
  • Take to local cabinet shop that does custom residential cabinets for them to use as a template when designing cabinets to go around refrigerators or as a display item to show what the finished product will look like around a refrigerator.
  • Boats (does anyone know if refrigerators float?  If they don’t, then the boat idea would sink. [tee-hee-hee] ).
  • Put wheels and a motor on them and enter kids in the next homemade derby race.
  • Planters for flowers, herb garden, or veggies (lots of potatoes!).

From eHow.com: Uses for Old Refrigerators

  • Store Extra Pantry Goods
  • Store Gardening Materials
  • Put Garbage in it until Garbage Day
  • Store Beverages
  • Sort Your Dirty Laundry in it

From Instructables.com: What should I do with this old fridge?

  • blow it up
  • cooler for ice at a big party
  • make a robot
  • age homemade cheese
  • a bed or emergency baby crib (with all doors etc removed)
  • air hockey table?
  • time capsule
  • air compressor
  • water cooler for computer case
  • a hydroponics system
  • fermentation chamber (beer-making)

Another eHow.com link: New Uses for Broken Refrigerators

  • Make an Icebox
  • Flowerbed
  • Root Cellar
  • Donate or Recycle

From GardenWeb forums: old fridge

  • cold frame
  • worm bed
  • pond
  • store potting soil for mixing and such
  • pet house
  • chemical storage
  • container garden
  • not recommended as a smoker – plastic of newer fridges is combustible

So what have we decided to do with our industrial refrigerator that died?  If we don’t “recycle” it ourselves, then we have to pay to have it recycled at the dump.  I believe J said that he decided to use it as a toolbox.  He’s going to put a frame under it that has wheels and store his tools in it during the renovation of our kitchen.  Currently these tools are taking up all the space where the new kitchen is meant to go.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Tightwad Tuesday – July 13, 2010

Tightwad-Tuesday Tightwad Tuesday is about

helping each other as we strive to be good stewards of all our resources: money, possessions, time, energy, and health.

(http://homeschoolblogger.com/reviewsandmore/)

My tip for today is:

MAKE AND USE A MASTER GROCERY LIST.

When we go shopping, we often go without a list.  When we do that we end up spending more money; we purchase “impulse items” that we wouldn’t necessarily buy if we had the list.  When the flyers come in the mail, my dh goes through and circles or marks everything that is a deal and that we need.  I take the flyer and highlight the items on my master grocery list.  Then I add other things that are needed – toilet paper (sometimes you need it whether or not it’s on sale!) or diapers a spice that I need for an upcoming recipe.  With a master grocery list, I feel like I have things more under control.  Also, the whole list is in front of us in the store, we might catch things that I didn’t catch at the planning stages.  I love my master grocery list and I am continually updating and modifying it to adjust to the changing needs of our growing family.

I know that many families make a menu before they go shopping, but for us, we do it the other way – we shop from the flyer and make our meals from what is on sale.  This doesn’t always work and we are working out those kinks.  For example, sometimes we forget to purchase meat (now it’s on the master list though, so we don’t forget as often).  Or there ends up being too many snack foods on the list.

I hope you will join us for Tightwad Tuesday.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,
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