My mother and grandmother never ever got rid of a button. So now I can't either. I wash out my large gallon bags that I store things in and reuse them. My BIL did tell me that his mother used vinegar to clean out the ketsup bottle and I had never used that but it's OK. I know that many of the younger people do not cook much so I guess that 'tip' was fantastic for them.

Me too. I have been looking for more frugal tips and even the online sites don't have anything I don't already do. And some of the tips, I have better more frugal tips. I also noticed the same about quilting and sewing books for that matter, my favorite sewing book is from 1944. Why should I pay new price when I can buy old for pennies on the dollar and it's the same thing in a different color.

I had parents that were raised during the depression and I grew up observing their thrifty habits. Mom used to wash the plastic bags that brown sugar came in and re-use them until dishwater spurted out in all of the holes they developed! I also thought it was common knowledge to clean the last of the sauce out of the container with water, milk, or whatever made sense.

Oh yeah -- and if it is jelly, add a bit of warm water to dissolve the jelly and use it as syrup. My folks were young adults during the recession and they could stretch everything. I have washed out and straightened the tin foil (we used a barely warm iron), washed the pastic wrap (didn't have plastic bags til later), kept a piece of waxed paper in the crisco shortening so we did not use a new piece each time we needed to grease something. We would iron over a piece of waxed paper before starting to iron clothes -- and we would sprinkle clothes with water in a coke bottle with a sprinkler plug in it and store them wrapped in a towel in the refrigerator waiting for ironing day (wash day was Monday and ironing day was Tuesday).

I didn't live in the depression, but for some reason I hate to waste what is left in a bottle. I also save the ketchup packets from meals instead of throwing them out.

OMG, did you grow up in my house and I didn't know it?

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! :d

There was a thread on here about frugal tips. Some of them were quite good.

I have ironed and trimmed many miles of Christmas paper, washed out plastic bags, reused aluminum foil, have never thrown out a garment without removing the buttons and zipper, used both sides of sheets of paper (my mother would have a fit if blank paper got thrown out) - I thought this was all NORMAL ... lol

I hate wasting the last little bit in a bottle too. Has anyone noticed that in a pump bottle of lotion, it quits dispensing when there is at least an inch of lotion left in the bottle? Such a pain! So I heat it in the microwave nad pour it into something easier to empty. It is a hassle, but I am not throwing it out!