Frugal February

Back at the beginning of January, I was cleaning horse stalls, and thinking of ways to reduce our expenses.  (Cleaning stalls is great thinking time. If world leaders cleaned stalls, most of the world's problems would probably be solved by now. LOL) 

January always seems like a time when people get interested in saving money--probably because they get their credit card statements from all that Christmas shopping--and are willing to try things they wouldn't normally consider.

It came to me, as I was sorting road apples from pine shavings, that perhaps I could share some of my penny pinching strategies.  Not only could I share some, I thought as I made a mental list of topics, maybe I could devote an entire month of posts to money saving tips.  So, I came up with a list of 29 blog posts--yay Leap Year!--and Frugal February was born.  Most likely not every reader will be able to incorporate every tip.  Some posts will only be applicable to those with children.  Others, to those that own the home they live in.  Others, to people who aren't restricted by homeowner association rules. Some won't apply if you don't have pets and/or livestock.  But I hope each tip will be helpful to someone.

This month, I'm going to do my best to post one new frugal tip each day.  Being a realist, I know weekends are usually tough for me to get online--something about sharing one computer between four of us at this little place here; most of my computer time is afternoons while DH is at work and our daughters are at school.  So, please excuse me if I have to post 2 or 3 on a Monday to make up for nothing new on Saturday and Sunday.

Without further ado, let us begin Frugal February with our first money saving tip:

No More Pan Spray!

This one is pretty easy, and will apply to anyone who doesn't buy tubs of margarine.  In other words, if you buy real butter in sticks, or margarine in sticks, rather than whipped spreadable form residing in a plastic container, this one will work for you!  If you currently do buy tubs, now might be a good time to switch to sticks. . .   ;0) 


I haven't used pan spray in. . .I don't know.  A decade, maybe more.  I know I've never had any at this little place here, and we moved to our homestead here in Sept. 2003. 

Instead of spraying your pans with an aerosol product from a can (we all know the major name brand one), save your butter or margarine wrappers.  I fold mine in half, and store them in the refrigerator in the back of my 'jelly box'--a small, shallow, plastic basket that holds our open jars of home made jelly & jam.

These wrappers work great for greasing pans.  If there isn't quite enough butter residue on the wrapper to grease the entire pan, just touch it lightly to your stick of butter (that is sitting on the counter in a butter dish so it will be soft and spreadable,  right?) then rub the wrapper over the surface you want greased. 

If it's a cake pan that you want to be able to remove the cake from, such as in making a layer cake, after you've rubbed the wrapper over the pan, put in a handful of flour and tilt the pan back and forth until the bottom and sides of the pan are coated in a light layer of flour.  Pour out any remaining flour before putting the cake batter into the pan.  This is the way Grandma did it before pan spray was commercially available, and guess what?  It still works in the new millennium!

For bread pans, use the wrapper to grease only the bottom if it's a batter bread such as banana bread, grease bottom and sides if it's a yeast bread.

For pizza pans, use your wrapper to grease pan then lightly sprinkle with cornmeal to keep the pizza crust from sticking.

On a related note, did you know that those paper muffin cup liners aren't necessary when you are baking muffins and cupcakes?  They're not, unless you want to add expense and be decorative.  You can grease the cups of your muffin pan with a butter wrapper, and your muffins and cupcakes will come right out.  Personally, I think using butter wrappers to grease the muffin pan instead of using paper liners has a double money saving feature:  1. you don't have to spend money on those fluted paper cups, and 2. you will get to eat all of the muffin or cupcake instead of just the 3/4 of it that didn't stick to the paper!

So, there's tip #1 for Frugal February.  I'm looking forward to sharing tip #2 with you tomorrow. . .