Today's Frugal Thoughts

One fail and one success today:

I am all out of paper towels today. I rarely use them except for absorbing oil/grease when frying or microwaving. So I used some brown paper bags to soak up oil from some breakfast sausage. Verdict; it didn't soak up much and really showed how greasy the sausage was. I am leery to use newspaper, though I have read about others using it before. We might walk up to the local convenience store (We're down to one working car and hubby has it) and get some paper towels or wait til the hubby gets home to buy my favorites, Viva brand. They're expensive, but so tough and absorbent that I use less.

We have a ton of dry pinto and white beans from the food distribution that we've begun getting since Eric's cancer was found. Last night I soaked my usual kidney and red beans in preparation for chili and I decided to throw in some pintos and white beans too. After I cooked them today, the colors have melded and it looks fine. We use plenty of dried beans, but even so we have a lot.

We also have an abundance of canned green beans (used plenty in yesterday's turkey pot pie), white rice, Pasta (not whole wheat), and some sugary stuff we'd never buy. The kids love the new snacks though. And I'm doing my best to use these gifted foods. Think I need to slip some Beano into some family members' food though!