The screaming blender

As a very frugal household, we're always looking for ways to cut back on spending money unnecessarily and more important, not wasting anything unnecessarily. That includes everything from food, to clothing, to appliances and transportation. Sometimes the solution is very simple, sometimes it takes a bit more of research and work, or we might have to pay someone to do it - but even with that extra cost, it's still worth it, as we're preventing things going into the landfill. 

A fellow blogger talked about how her immersion blender finally got replaced after 27 (!) years. That's a long time! What's funny was that she talked about how her blender each time she used it was making a noise as if it's screaming. How is that funny? Well, a few years ago our blender needed a repair. Although it worked again, the downside is that now I can't take the two parts apart (which makes washing up more of a hassle), but it's still functioning, so for the time being I'm not replacing it by a new blender. But here's the thing- since the repair, our blender also screams! And I always thought that our blender was a funny one and the only one that actually could scream 😂 Apparently, blenders are starting to scream as they're aging. 

I do love our immersion blender and use it a lot: for soups and sauces, but also for making mock tahini, even mayonnaise. In fact, I blended some sauce today. I guess there will come a day when our blender is beyond repair. Until that day comes, I don't really mind having a screaming blender and I'll keep using it this way.  🙂

Always be prepared

As I'm writing this, we're recovering from quite a long blackout. It started quite early- when we woke up for fajr (morning) prayer today at 04:00 AM, we found that our bedroom fan wasn't working so we figured it must be a blackout. That happens quite regularly, as in a few times a week, especially during the summer. But we didn't anticipate that it would be the longest blackout yet to experience. Assuming the blackout didn't start at 04:00 but, say, half an hour before that, and the electricity came back at 11:45, we were roughly 8 hours without electricity- possibly even a bit more. Since we experience blackouts every so often, I honestly don't really panick. Yes, it's annoying especially if you can't use a fan, or air conditioner when it's warm. 

I'm actually more concerned with the fridge. Even though the fridge is quite full and the two top shelves are nearly a freezer temperature during the summer, still, 8 hours is a long time for a fridge to be without electricity, especially in this heat. The same goes for the freezer. I've learned to be prepared for a blackout by storing a lot of bottles in the freezer. Usually it's broth, but if there's room left the gaps are just filled with bottles of water. Those bottles can go straight into the fridge in case there's a blackout. I put a few bottles in the fridge, just in case, and it probably did help, as those 8 hours powerless didn't seem to affect the temperature a lot. We did try not to open the fridge unless strictly necessary, so that helped too. Fortunately, I wasn't planning on using the washer or oven today, so that wasn't an issue. Another way we prepare ourselves for these kind of small calamities is to have an alternative source of light. Even during daytime, our house doesn't have that much sunlight, as our house was built to be insulated against the heat- not so much against the cold or to let sunlight come in, just like pretty much all houses here. We usually need to use lamps, especially in the kitchen.  Today it happened to be a cloudy day so that definitely meant we needed more light. Apart from our phones, we bought a lamp that can be charged either by electricity or by solar power (there's a tiny solar "panel" on the lamp). It's a very strong light so that comes in very handy. Much easier than candles. So even during daytime blackouts, we need to think about light, but obviously during nighttime blackouts that's even more of an issue. 

Water being cut off is more rare than electricity blackouts here, but still it does happen, especially since there is water scarcity. In our city it doesn't happen as much as in oather areas, but we've still found ourselves in situations with the water being cut off. Usually that happens a bit gradually, with the tap stream becoming weaker and weaker until no single drop of water comes out of the tap. There have been instances when neighbours had to ask us for water since they didn't have any. Honestly I don't really like asking others unnecessarily, even though I know my neighbours wouldn't mind at all. 

This is why I think it's important to be prepared. And I've noticed that a lot of people, even more so frugal minded people, talk about preparedness. But this preparedness is usually about greater calamities such as possible war or terrorism, wildfires, floods or earthquakes. To be honest, even if there is a chance that would happen, I think it's also good to look at the smaller calamities and it's much more likely we'll have to deal with them at some point. Now I understand that where we live blackouts are more common, but not so long ago, there was a blackout in a huge area in Spain, Portugal and even some areas in Morocco. I bet those people weren't really anticipating that either. It's not a major crisis (in most circumstances, anyway), but it's always good to be prepared. And yes, we should be prepared for bigger calamities, in my opinion, but also for the smaller ones. I would be quite annoyed if there's a blackout and my phone's battery is almost empty. Or our spare lamp wasn't charged. Or we didn't have enough cold water in the fridge. Not insurmountable problems, but still problems I'd rather be prepared for. 

                     Our nifty rechargeable lamp, in the kitchen

Cucumbers

My father in law regularly gives us leftover produce that he receives from relatives and other people when he visits his village. Because you can not let a guest leave empty handed, no matter the circumstances! So all you have is abundance of produce, that's a perfect gift for your guest. The thing is though, my father in law could never finish all that produce he gets. I mentioned the tomatoes he received the other day, that was around 10 kg and enough for around 6 L of tomato sauce. 

This time he was gifted a big amount of cucumbers. Which, to most people, is a bit more of a challenge than tomatoes, because after all- you're not just eating mounds of salad, are you? It's a challenge for me as well, but not in a negative way. Cucumbers have so much potention! It's been years already since discovering that cucumbers are not merely a salad food; you can prepare them in so many ways. Just because a cucumber is only known as a raw food, doesn't mean that's the only way to eat it. Most people might be unaware of this but you can boil and fry cucumbers; not to mention pickling and fermenting to extend their shelf life even more. There's so much to choose from. This is yet again an instance of having to think outside the box if you want to be resourceful. 

Today, I decided to simmer the majority of the cucumbers in a light broth. Boiling plainly without any seasonings is possible too, but that bit of seasonings make a big difference. I chopped the cucumbers in half circles, washed them, then combined them in a pot with some water and my seasonings: vegetable bullion cubes, ground parsley, ground onion, some red pepper flakes, a spoonful of tomato paste, and garlic paste. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes and let it cool down. 

There are still some more cucumbers left, which, after making more salad, I'll probably pickle. It's been very long since I had a properly pickled vegetable so that might be worth a try. 

Tunisian cucumbers look quite wonky 🙃

I had some of the cucumbers for dinner, with rice and seitan (it was leftovers night today...), and I really enjoyed it. I'll probably have some for lunch tomorrow, but with chickpeas instead of seitan. It does a taste a bit like cooked courgette/zucchini, although not exactly the same, but it comes close. 

Anyway, if any of my readers finds cucumbers at a good price... Make sure to at least try cooking it, especially if you like squash. 

Tightwad tip: the broom

It might surprise a lot of people, but I rarely ever vacuum the floors. And it's not that my house is dirty- quite the contrary. You see, I suffer from tinnitus and hyperacusis, which means I'm very sensitive to a lot of sounds. The vacuum cleaner happens to be one of those sounds that I really can't stand. I used to use it for my floors but then just decided to do what everyone else is doing around these parts, which is to use a broom. 

Honestly, using a broom is just so much easier! Our vacuum is quite big. It's a Numatic, the "old fashioned" type of vacuum, so no robotic quality involved, nor is it a stick vacuum cleaner type of model that's rechargeable (which, in my opinion, must be quite annoying). In fact, it's that big that it was hard to find a place where it could sit without bothering us and out of sight. We eventually found a place behind our sofa, and the handle is laying under one of our wardrobes. Every so often it's being used to clean the sofa and that's all. Usually my husband does that when I'm not there as to not get overstimulated by the sound. Like all houses here, we have tile floors, which are easy to maintain and easy to sweep. Owning a vacuum cleaner isn't something very common here- most people just do it the old fashioned way by using a broom and mop. And perhaps in addition to that, a manual carpet cleaner. Some people even borrow their neighbours/relatives' vacuum for those few times year you need one. Most car washes offer services to clean/vacuum cars, so that's not really a reason to own one. 

Using a broom regularly instead of a vacuum cleaner saves me money, by paying less for utilities, plus not having to replace the vacuum itself in just a few years. It also keeps me fit, as vacuuming isn't as labour intensive as using the broom is; I'm using more muscles when sweeping. I know, I know, I'll probably get the "what about allergies"- kind of question. The interesting thing is- I used to have dust mite allergy, but it seems like dust doesn't affect me like it used to when I always vacuumed. Also interesting: my mopping water isn't more dirty compared to when I still used the vacuum. 

Our very handy carpet cleaner

A broom definitely takes up less space! 

Zero waste-y kitchen activities

Time for an update on what I did to save some food from being wasted. I know i could always do better, but I'm still pleased with these accomplishments. With photos this time- I decided to get out of my comfort zone a bit 😂 

Fermenting watermelon rinds: this is what I do each summer. It works best with watermelons that have a thicker skin, thinner ones work too, but it's just a bit annoying to peel. This year I'd like to try to pickle some too. 

Two jars, one large and one small, of fermented watermelon rinds 

Melon ice cream: we bought a few very bland tasting melons, and upon some googling I found recipes to make melon ice, without an ice cream maker. Since I don't have an ice cream maker, nor am I planning on buying one, I decided to give it a try. It was so worth it, the ice cream was delicious and I didn't have to waste a melon. I think i should add that i'm not the biggest fan of ice cream so that must have been really good. 

Doesn't really look like it contains melon though, nor does it taste very melon-y, but it's still good!

Onion powder: as I was decluttering my kitchen cupboards I found a big bag of dehydrated onion peels. Probably a project I once started but then forgot about it, lol. So I figured it was best to finish it or it would never happen. So I ground the onion peels in my coffee grinder. That's all you have to do for homemade onion powder! It adds a nice, somewhat sweet onion-y flavour to many dishes. 

My homemade onion peels. It has quite a dark colour as the majority of the onions I use are red onions. 

Rendered chicken fat: 

I usually collect chicken fat/skins in the freezer until there's enough for a nice batch. So a few weeks ago it was finally time to render some skins.

I don't have a picture of the final result - it's still liquid here. But once it solidifies, it becomes a bit more light yellow. I love using rendered chicken fat for frying eggs, potatoes etc. Gives the food a nice almost buttery flavour. Or sometimes I just add it to random foods as a flavour enhancer. 

Banana peels mock pulled chicken: 

Isn't it nice to see all this food that would otherwise have gone to waste? Most of these are made with by-products such as peels, skins etc. I think it's good to realize that in most cases, everything of that particular food can be used- not just what's commonly known. Just think a bit outside the box and of course, internet helps a lot too. I really don't think I would have learned all these things without the internet, I'm definitely grateful for this modern convenience. 

That's it for now. I hope I can give an update soon with other nearly-wasted food tips. 

Some (frugal) cooking hacks

Cooking from scratch for 20 years surely teaches one a thing or two. No matter how much recipe books you own, the most you'll learn by experience. It takes practice and time and really is a matter of trial and error! You'll likely have to adjust to your spouses and children's preferences, adjust to what's available (especially when, like us, emigrating to another country) and perhaps even more challenging, stick to a budget which makes being creative even more important. 

Here's some of the things I learned along the way: 

When using garlic in dishes, the later you add it, the more garlic-y your dish will be. For a subtle garlic flavour, it's best to afford the garlic from the beginning, and for a strong garlic flavour, add it towards the end of your cooking time. 

Plain cooked beans go bad quickly, usually faster than I'd anticipate. If you're not planning on eating the beans within 48 hours, or have leftovers, you better freeze them. Beans cooked in a sauce/stew of some sort keeps well a bit longer in my experience. 

Another bean hack: most legumes are quite a pain to cook. Even though we eat a lot of legumes, I admit I don't like to cook them (let alone thinking of soaking them on time...). You have to wait for hours (ok, slightly exaggerated!) until they actually cook so you can stand right there to get the foam off. I've noticed, however, that cooking them with plenty of seasonings massively reduces the forming of foam. So then it's only the annoying long cooking time that remains. 

Soft carrots can be easily rescued by letting them soak in water for a few hours. The softer the carrots, the longer the soaking time. It really works, but you just need some patience. 

Onions are another vegetable I sometimes soak in water. Not necessarily to firm them up, but it does reduce the amount of tears involved in peeling and cutting them! 

Batch cooking saved my sanity. (LOL) However, some dishes taste better the 2nd batch, and some don't. There are just a few dishes that I only make a single batch of. 

The smaller the pasta shape, the further it stretches- I know this sounds a bit strange, but when we're eating a pasta made with "bigger" shapes such as penne or fussili, we never have leftovers and it sometimes even feels like it's barely enough. Whereas there's usually leftovers when using ditalini/elbow macaroni etc. Even when the quantity in weight is the same. This is the same for spaghetti by the way, that stretches much better as well. Weird but true! 

Thawing meat or just anything is best in the fridge. It does take a bit long, but it's best for the foods to thaw slowly, plus you'll use less electricity- win win. 

Speaking of pasta, obviously not all pastas are alike; there are literally hundreds of shapes. However, not each sauce suits all shapes. What I've learned (from experience... dear Italians, if this isn't accurate please be nice ok 😉) is that the bigger the shape, the thicker your sauce needs to be, and the other way around. So if my sauce is a bit on the runny side, and I was planning on using a bigger pasta shape, I usually use either a small shape or spaghetti instead. 

Soups are the solution for almost every food problem- not having quite enough on hand, not knowing what to make, not feeling like cooking an elaborate meal, having tons of leftovers and having to recreate a new dish out of those. 

Leafy greens go bad rather quickly, so I usually use them on the grocery shopping day or the day after. Alternatively, you can stretch the leafy greens shelf life somewhat by wrapping them in a damp cloth towel. It may sound a bit contradicting, but it really works. 

But when it comes to getting the most vegetables for your money, you might reconsider buying fresh leafy greens. After all, leafy greens shrink big time! Vegetables that don't shrink and don't need peeling (or just the bare minimum of peeling) are usually the most economical. That's why I love cooking with carrots, turnips and onions during the winter (seasons are changing obviously and it's summer now, but carrots are pretty much available all year long). Contrary to what many people think, frozen and canned vegetables are as healthy as fresh ones and depending on where you live, can be much cheaper than fresh. Where we live they're much more expand therefore not a frugal choice. But I know for many people it's the other way around and buying canned saves a lot of money. You just have to know how to prepare them to avoid that "canned vegetable taste". 

You can bake a muffin batter in nearly every shape of dish, just make sure to adjust the cooking time. This is something I found out quite recently! 

No need for a lot of condiments as long as you have a decent collection of dried (or fresh) herbs and spices. My stack of fridge condiments is quite basic: garlic paste, mustard, mayonnaise, homemade mock soy sauce and tomato paste (if that counts as a condiment...). Most other popular condiments are easy to make yourself as long as you have those on hand. For example, salad dressings, BBQ sauce, sweet chili sauce, and even ketchup. 

Don't be afraid to not follow a recipe to the letter- especially cooking/main dishes recipes. No need to buy an exclusive, expensive ingredient that you end up only using once for that particular recipe, that's just a waste of money and food.

To thicken soups and sauces, my go-to is cornstarch. However, no need to panic if that's not something you have on hand: there are many ways to thicken up liquid dishes. I've literally used anything as thickeners: from ground oatmeal to potatoes to stale bread. 

There's almost no end to what you can freeze. I mean, it's quite obvious that meat and ice cream can (should) be kept frozen, unless consumed immediately, but there's just so much more to freeze. Think of milk, bread (very logical to me but apparently in some countries it isn't), tomato paste, peels and bones (for future broth making), condiments (such as my homemade soy sauce which doesn't last too long in the fridge), leftovers, etc. At the moment, I have a freezer drawer full of pancakes, muffins and portion sized baked oatmeal, as well as one drawer full of dates. And my freezer doors are full with broth. They're in fact that full, not all broth I had did fit in there so I had to freeze some broth in "regular" containers instead of plastic bottles.

By freezing leftovers you can really avoid so much food waste. And during the weeks when money is a bit more tight, just clear out the freezer of all the leftovers 🙃 Or have one "left over buffet" once a week. It really does add up. During those times when I'm clearing out the freezer it seems like there's tons of leftovers, even though it might look like there were just a few. It's amazing how far that stretches. 

Something we all should try is to step out of the box and try not to cling tight to certain "food rules". Wether it's because of cultural practices or other- we're all guilty of it at some point. Who said we can't eat soup for breakfast, for example? We once stayed at a hotel where lentil soup was being served for breakfast, as the majority of the guests were Turkish. I certainly wasn't familiar with that but I really liked the idea! I assume it's common in a lot of other cultures as well, and why not- it's fast (especially when it's leftovers) and nutritious ar the same time. I remember when we first got married, my husband and I disagreed completely about what time pancakes should be eaten. I was raised with pancakes for dinner only, whereas he ate them for breakfast only. Eventually he did convince me of eating pancakes for breakfast and to be honest, I'm so used to it now thar pancakes for dinner seems to be a bit odd. Some people might consider eggs breakfast food. For me, it's usually for lunch or dinner and we rarely have them for breakfast but it's just so versatile I think we can have them at any time (or some boiled eggs as a snack... yum!) What I'm sometimes struggling with is my own food rules (because of pasta eating disorders, being autistic and some other factors...). For example, combining dairy and an iron source is something I really struggle with- even though a lot of people would see it as accomplishing their "protein goals", but since there's more to life than just protein, and as a former vegetarian, I was always taught to NOT.combine.dairy.and.iron... it's a bit hard to letting go of that. Even when it means I'm avoiding food waste by that. So that's definitely something I try to work on. 

Food doesn't need to be elaborate to be delicious. That's a grave misconception. And to be honest, I also think that over varying of dishes is quite overrated. I've talked about this before and I think I'm a bit repetitive, but I don't see the point of variation if that means that there are dishes that we'll eat only once and then forget about it completely. 

Tightwad tip: ditch the teabag

I'm a tea drinker. I absolutely hate coffee, no matter how it's made (trust me, I've tried so many forms of coffee over the years), but tea it is for me. Like most people, especially in Europe, using tea bags was just a given. Tea comes from a bag, it's that simple. Or is it? 

It might be the usual way for tea to be sold in Europe, but that's not to say it's like that everywhere in the world. Here in Tunisia, they do sell tea bags, but they're 1) outrageously priced, and 2) less tasty. One box of tea bags costs the same as 3 bags of loose leaf tea. Only that loose leaf tea contains much more - making it nearly 6 times as expensive! The other day I read an article on Sri Lankan and Indian tea, and how they usually use "rejected" tea (which isn't suitable for exporting to countries where they generally drink loose leaf tea) for tea bags. That does explain why the tea from tea bags here don't taste nearly as good as the bags of loose leaf tea. 

And then there's the issue of environmental impact. I really don't like unnecessary packaging. Each tea bags box has a plastic wrap covering the box, then each tea bag is in a small paper wrapper, and to top it off, there's the tea bag itself. That's a whole lot of packaging! Compared to just one bag of 200 grams of loose leaf tea- I don't need scientific studies on which one is worse for the environment. But packaging isn't the only reason. Apparently, even though tea bags are meant to be paper bags, they still contain microplastics. Do I really want microplastics in my cup of tea? Yikes! 

Yes, I know a tea bag is apparently more convenient, but it's really a matter of adjustment. For me, using a small tea sieve is just as convenient as putting that bag in a mug. It may be a few extra seconds of work, but that's fine - I'm a slow living advocate anyway. I've probably saved hundreds of €€ already by just switching to loose leaf tea, and I'm protecting myself from getting even more unnecessary microplastics. 

Bone broth times two

Meat is very expensive where we live. We don't have meat daily, especially red meat, which is more like an occasional treat rather than a daily necessity for us. So when we do have meat, I want to take advantage of it to the fullest. Part of that includes making bone broth. Not only is it a very tasty drink, it's also very nutritious, and a great way to flavour up many otherwise meatless dishes. I rather don't think of all those years of bones being thrown out when I didn't know there was such a thing as saving bones to make broth... But then again, it's just a learning experience. And perhaps I can inspire someone wherever they might live, who doesn't have a clue about what to do with bones to start making their own broth. Isn't that the fun thing of blogging? 🙂

So in June we butchered a lamb, and it wasn't until past Sunday that I used up the very last bag of lamb meat. I already made bone broth with around half of the bones a few months ago, but there still was a bag of bones in the freezer, waiting to be used. Everytime I wanted to make broth there was something that came up, and since it's supposed to be on the stove for hours there obviously has to be someone present in the house all day. It also has to be good weather- not terribly cold so that my north African tiled cuisine walls won't fog up too much, and preferably not even windy, so I can open a windows during the process. Yes, I'm a bit demanding I guess! 😉

But on Monday, I figured it was the perfect day to do some bone broth making - perfect weather circumstances, and not a lot of other food prep planned (or it wouldn't fit on the hob). You essentially don't have to do a lot - apart from being there, just in case. So that day the entire house smelled lovely. My children would disagree, but I absolutely love the smell of lamb broth. Most people when making bone broth apparently leave it to simmer for 24 hours, but that doesn't seem possible for me, so I put the heat off when I went to bed. Since it's quite a large pot and steaming hot, I just left it to cool down overnight. The next morning, when I came in the kitchen it was still a bit warm. So I just strained it (because of the seasonings I added) and transferred most of the broth into bottles to freeze for later use. I also kept some in the fridge to use right away. For some reason, it feels very reassuring to have those bottles there in the freezer - always being able to make a nice pot of soup out of that lovely broth! 

But here's where it's getting a bit extra frugal . After straining the broth, I put the bones back into the put, added seasonings again, filled the pot with water and there I had yet another day of making bone broth! Yes, apparently those bones can be reused. I found this out not that long ago and I knew I had to try it. This was actually Mt 2nd time of reusing the bones, and both times the 2nd batch of broth came out fine, albeit a bit less strong, but still good enough worth all the hours of simmering that broth. Perhaps it could be used a 3rd time even. That's what others tried with beef bones anyway, but I figured that since beef bones are obviously much bigger than lamb bones, it wouldn't be worth the effort and will come out too watered down, so I think for the time being I'm just sticking with only reusing the bones once. 

So that was a bit about making bone broth - why I do it, and how I make it extra frugal. Today, I'll be cooking up a pot of rice for my family, using the "2nd batch" of broth. And I'll enjoy a nice mug of broth for lunch. 

Tightwad tip: repurposing old towels

As of lately, we had quite a few towels that were thinning out and weren't really suitable for drying ourselves anymore. However, that doesn't mean to just toss them, there are still many uses for old towels. We did buy some new ones recently. Well, "new" as in thrifted, but in perfectly good shape! I really like how these thrifted towels seems to be of better quality than brand new ones. Unfortunately, bad quality is being used for most stuff nowadays!

Here's some ways I use old towels.  

Handkerchief: I use these a lot because I have a chronic cold. I prefer them over regular handkerchiefs, as they're usually a lot softer. They also tend to absorb more- even when they're thinned out. 

Washcloth: my daughter likes to sew and she made a few washcloths out of an old towel. We use washcloths a lot, since we use a bar of soap instead of gels when taking a shower. These washcloths may be a bit thinner than the usual washcloths, but still perfectly functional for this purpose. 

Reusable makeup pads: essentially the same idea as the handkerchiefs, but just cut in smaller squares. I do want to add that you have to make sure to always use a laundry bag to wash these when putting them into the washer! A friend of mine told me that a few of those pads almost ruined her washer, with even a lot of water damage on the floors. So beter be careful. 

Cleaning rags: I've used old towels as cleaning rags a lot too. I like their texture for cleaning, as it's somewhat similar to microfiber- minus the microplastics that come with many microfiber cloths! 

Cat: our cat always love to lay down on something, even during the summer, he doesn't like the bare floor. So I use old towels for him to lay on. I've read that some people even make cat toys out of old towels, but I'm yet to try that. I don't know if he'll like that anyway, as my boy is more of an outdoor cat, coming home just to catch up on sleep. 

Using an old towel as is: I like to keep at least one towel intact (there is one with a very retrospect design and a label with 'made in West Germany', so that's a very old one!). When I treat my hair with henna and I'm afraid it's going to be messy and my hair is leaking still some reddish water after rinsing, to protemy clothes, for example. Or when I rub my arm with oil/cream when my skin has dried out that much it starts to hurt, and I don't want to make a mess of my pillows and sheets. I also like to dry the bathroom floor with a towel. I do use a squeegee, but especially during the winter it dries a bit slowly, so I usually wipe it with a towel to make it as dry as possible (yes, I know some people use the very same towel for this that they use to dry off themselves. But we defenitely use our towel more than once, so that's not really an option in that case.

Those are just some examples, and I'm sure there are so many other reasons for keeping at least one old towel. Waste not want not! 

Saving on meat expenses

Most of my readers must have noticed that we're not big on eating a lot of meat. I was pretty much raised as a vegetarian, so I'm familiar with vegetarian/vegan eating. My husband, on the other hand, was raised with a more meat heavy diet and not eating meat for a day was out of the question in my MIL's home! So you can image that was a bit of a shock for both of us when we first got married. It took a while, but after some time we did find a good balance of meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan meals. Now, my husband says he couldn't eat meat everyday anymore - regardless of the price. And this goes the same for me; I couldn't go back to completely vegetarian. 

The thing is, meat can be very expensive so for most people, it's typically the biggest expense of all their groceries. We're certainly no exception to that! (Although olive oil is getting more expensive every year and will eventually become an even bigger expense... But that's another topic.) I remember when we went through hard financial times, meat was the first thing to cut back on. There are so many people in the world for whom meat is a rare treat. And for me as a former vegetarian, it was a logical thing to do anyway, as meat is so expensive and you technically don't even need it. Not that much, anyhow. We still had it every so often though, and really enjoyed it when we did. But it was a good way to cut back on our spending. As time went by, I've just stuck with my "less meat policy", as it just hurts to pay that much for foods. There are other ways to spend the money I would have spent otherwise on all that extra meat - but that's just me, I do realise that others value meat more than we do, and that's ok. Throughout the years, I've come up with many tricks to save on meat expenses. 

First of all, the quantity: try to have meat as an ingredient, instead of the main meal. We usually have meat as a side, with carbs (grains/legumes) and vegetables being the fillers. You really don't need that much even to satisfy yourself taste wise, in my experience. There are also many examples of dishes where  meat is stretched a lot. For example, mince (ground beef) in pastas- just use a bit less. A baked chicken/rotisserie chicken can be used for at least a few meals worth of meat - you can use shredded chicken in about everything; soups, salads, rice and pasta dishes, on sandwiches, etc. And then just try to stretch the meat as much as possible. When I make pulled chicken, I stretch it by adding low cost vegetables, such as onions and shredded carrots. That way you don't even notice there isn't as much chicken in it.

The kind of meat: red meat is most expensive, so that's obviously a thing to keep in mind. In a lot of dishes, red and white meat can be used interchangeably- it will affect the taste somewhat obviously, but it's still as good. You can even use fish instead - I like using sardines instead of beef/lamb mince for making kofta, and even fish haters don't notice it's fish. I've heard that turkey is the best replacement with mince. I've never tried that, as my husband doesn't like turkey, but I'm keen to try it. Texture changes the taste so I guess turkey mince should taste different from, say, a part of the leg. You can still splurge on red meat once in a while if you want to obviously, but it's good to realize that there are cheaper options and can splurge just every so often on the more expensive favourite meat. 

Vegetarian options: I obviously had to mention this one, but I really makes so much difference in your budget! Even when I compare our local legume prices with the cheaper meats or fish, legumes are much cheaper. One kg of lentils is about €2, whereas chicken is around €5 per kg. But, a kg of dried legumes will stretch a lot better than a kg of chicken, as the lentils will expand whereas the chicken not only just doesn't expand- it actually will shrink when being baked. So you'll even save more if you take that into consideration. You obviously don't have to eat only vegetarian meals, but a few times a week will make so much difference already. What I like to do is when I batch cook, we'll have one meal with meat and the other batch without. That way it still has the flavour- meat can be such a flavour enhancer. I do this too with legumes; when I make lentil stew in advance, for example, I cook some chicken in it for extra flavour. And then I take out the chicken to have with the meal we're eating that day. You can obviously cook lentils without chicken, but it does give the dish more flavour. I also like making my own tofu and seitan, which I hadn't done in a long time but recently started doing again. I know not everyone likes tofu, but I think seitan is definitely adaptable for meat eaters compared to other plant based alternatives, as it has a bit of a meaty texture. 

Nose to tail: I've talked before about how we love nose to tail eating, which essentially means to eat ALL the parts of the animal, not just the more popular parts. Not only is it healthier but it's usually cheaper too. You don't necessarily have to buy organ meats (although I would highly recommend it!), but there are many alternatives for the more expensive cuts of meat. And that's not just the case with red meat. When I want to use chicken breast, I never ever buy a chicken breast, but instead I buy a whole chicken of which I cut the breast off, then use the remaining parts for other dishes. I usually use the legs/tighs/wings together a dish and then what remains are the frames and the necks, which makes a very good base for any soup. My husband also likes to eat the necks as is, so if I have a lot of them I might cook them up separately and only use the frames for soup. 

Using everything: we're very big on not wasting anything, and this applies even more so for meat. As it's so expensive and does have quite a big environmental impact, I just can't not be frugal with meat. I really use everything - the bones (for making bone broth), chicken skins to render, sheep fat to render, etc. Scraps also make good cat food. When I make broth with chicken necks/frames, I take off the meat after cooking which our cat obviously loves! 

Tightwad tip: upcycling socks

As the weather is changing from unbearable hot summer weather to slightly autumn-ish (yes, it's a bit early this year), I've begun to wear socks again. It's not that cold yet but I just get cold feet very quickly. And I just really like wearing socks. Kind of silly maybe, but I don't really like the feeling of bare feet. It's probably a sensory thing. When I was younger, no matter how warm it was, I couldn't even sleep without socks on! While that has improved a bit and I do sleep without socks during the summer, I still wear socks a lot and start wearing them quite early on every year. The thing is, the socks that are being sold here aren't of that great quality. And even if they were - my opinion with good quality socks, too, is that they get worn out quickly and holes appear so fast. At least I'm glad that our socks don't get lost in the washing machine. 

We're a family of four and I have developed kind of a colour coordinated system, so each one of us has his/her own colour. Having socks from just one colour is a really good hack, in my opinion. If just one sock gets a hole beyond repair, I can still wear it - just combine it with another pair (preferably from another pair with of which one single sock that has a hole). There you have a "new" pair of socks, and with the other pair, there's still some options. 

Here's some things I do with old socks. 

First of all, try to repair. Small holes are usually repairable. 

I keep some pairs of socks in my bed side table to use as "gloves" at night when I rub my hands with cream/Vaseline (I get really dry hands during the winter usually). The socks are tight enough not to slide off my hands during sleep. My children need this every so often as well, so I need at least a few pairs of old socks. 

Cleaning: way back when we had blinds, I dusted/cleaned them with a sock on my hand. That was the easiest way to do it (although cleaning blinds can never be considered easy in my opinion...). Cleaning with a sock on your hand works the same for other areas with tiny openings. 

Crafting: if you like crafting, old socks are an inexpensive, environmentally friendly way to use materials you otherwise would buy. My children liked to make sock dolls and they were so cute!

Vacuuming: when looking for tiny lost items, or in case you're afraid those will be laying around somewhere, take off the floor brush and put a sock on the extention tube. Whatever will be vacuumed, won't be suck inside. Pretty clever, isn't it? 😃

Shoe protectors: put your shoes inside a sock while traveling. 

Hot water bottles: I like to wrap a sock over a cold water bottle for protection against the heat.

Or just use socks instead of rags as unpaper towels. 

So that was today's tightwad tip! It won't make you a millionaire, but little things definitely add up. I'm sure there are many many more uses... But these are the ones I can think of now, and that we implement ourselves. I'd love to read more ideas in the comments 🥰

Living with food shortages

This post is probably going to be a bit long, and perhaps triggering to some people. Just saying. 

Lately, food shortages, food insecurity and subjects connected to that are on my mind a lot. I don't know if it's just me, but it's almost like I keep reading about yet another food crisis: then it's rice, or wheat, or coffee, then it's sugar and then suddenly bananas are threatened with extinction. I honestly don't know what to think of it, as I know that there are so many people somehow benefiting from crises like these. But I'm not necessarily a conspiracy theorists so I'll just leave it with this. All I do know is that how the world is right now is giving me much anxiety. 

For all (or most, anyhow) of my adult life, I was very frugal, and as a result of that, very waste conscious. My husband and I married young and started off very humbly with not a lot of money. We really tried to work up ourselves. There were good times (in terms of finances) and bad times. And there were also very bad times (for reasons beyond our control, but I won't elaborate too much on that now). I'd say it was definitely relative poverty, as we were living way below the poverty line. But I must admit, I don't like to use that word a lot, because there are millions of people who are way worse off than we were. And when I say "very bad", I think mainly of how food was a major stress point. I didn't really care about our furniture being from garbage bins or thrift shops, or cheap outings, thrifted clothes etc. But food insecurity was much more of an issue. There were weeks that we had 20 € or less to feed the four of us - still we were very "lucky" that our youngest daughter, as a newborn back then had allergies so her formula was covered by insurance. But still, it was very tight. There was always this anxiety of not having enough for the whole week, or having unexpected guests and not being able to serve them something slightly decent. Even though our friends probably wouldn't have minded, but the anxiety was still there. With lots of hard work we tried to get out of poverty which we did and were proud of that accomplishments. Probably we would still have classified as "(very) low income", but to me, it wasn't really poverty because I didn't really stress about food anymore. Still, you can get out of poverty but it's more difficult for poverty to get out of you - the anxiety stays. Not with everyone, probably, but this is what I've heard a lot from "formerly poor people". I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing in and of itself- it's human nature to be aware for dangers and to be prepared for that. It does become a problem when it's causing anxiety though. 

Fast forward to now and I'm kind of in the same boat. Kind of, because it's not due to a lack of money. But the anxiety is the same. Ever since we emigrated we were used to having some food shortages, from time to time. A few years ago, it wasn't such a big deal because it was usually very temporary, and limited to one product at a time. It wasn't really an issue. And then came covid, which made it a bit more difficult - there were more shortages, with a few items at a time. And for longer periods of time. Then came the Russian/Ukraine war and with that, energy and multiple food crises, causing more inflation (and I mean, it's not that the economy was going good here before that). And dare I say, a crisis of greedy multinationals who can't stand governments subsidizing certain food items. 

So anyway, that's a brief summary of how things got how they are currently. We have been dealing with shortages of many staples: rice, flour, semolina, milk, sugar, tea, certain pastas, couscous, coffee, eggs, oil, chicken. As of lately, it's actually better than it has been for a long time; there's milk, semolina, and white flour at the same time! Yeast is yet again a new item that seems to be not available... sigh. But fortunately, we found a box of small sachets and bought that despite the higher price. Some products had been unavailable for a year or longer until they came back to the store shelfs- white flour, for example, has recently come back but hadn't been available for a year and a half. Rice is another staple that has been gone for around a year and a half. Subsidized oil even around two years. It's quite frustrating and as one item comes back, people can't help but wonder for how long the said products will stay- it has happened many times that they came back and then went unavailable again. Some products are completely unavailable, whereas other products are slightly available, or at a very high price. Oil, for example, is available but at least 5 times more expensive than the exactly same but subsidized oil (the only difference being the packaging). This is especially difficult because the price of olive oil has skyrocketed as well, so more people use vegetable oil now. Same with sugar, which is now mainly important from a neighbouring country, for double the price. Even if some items are slightly available, or available yet suddenly very expensive, I think this still talks under the umbrella of shortages, because the supply is still limited. And since we're dependent on importing that's another uncertainty- the border of Libya has been closed for a few months now. For a good reason, but it still affects the shortages even more. 

This whole situation does affect us more than one would expect. I think it's the uncertainty that is particularly difficult for me. And it brings back memories from our toughest financial situation.We could live without these products obviously, but since they are staples they're just used a lot by many people, including us. It's just having to be creative all the time and look for solutions, which can be quite tiring. And having to cut back even more for a lot of people since so many foods are a lot more expensive. It's always on your mind. It's being afraid you can't buy that flour anymore next week, and not knowing how long it'll be gone. 

There was a time that most pasta, couscous, and every kind of rice weren't available all at the same time. Now we were fortunate that we build a stockpile, but for those that didn't, it was quite a challenge. And for some reason, stockpiling isn't something most people here do, even after these years of shortages. What do you eat if all your go to staples aren't being sold anymore? At that time, even bread at the bakery was very limited. You could buy oatmeal or ground sorghum and make porridge of course. But at least for us, that's not really considered dinner foods- I know, it's food and very filling, and if that's all you have it's certainly better than nothing but it is an adjustment to switch to other types of foods. Also, sorghum and oatmeal are quite expensive here, much more expensive than pasta and couscous, so some people (especially with large families) can't afford to eat that three times a day. Fortunately, the couscous and pasta shortages didn't last long, which was a big relief for many people.

This is an important lesson. Despite the difficult situation, and it being a trigger because of our previous poverty situation, I think you truly learn to be appreciative, be even more frugal and resourceful and to come up with creative solutions. When there were milk shortages, I made oatmilk to use in pancakes, French toast etc or to just make some hot chocolate (I don't lile drinking oat milk as is). Despite milk shortages, there was always yogurt so we had that regularly, as well as sesame seeds and sardines for our calcium. I came up with rice substitutes, such as wheat/barley burgul and orzo pasta. I drink more herbal tea to stretch the bags of loose leaf tea that we still have at home as much as possible, herbal tea is better for you anyway I guess. In many recipes, I halved the sugar.  And I'm still planning on trying to make date pit coffee. Apparently it's quite good and almost similar to the real thing. My husband will need to test that, as I'm not a coffee drinker. I must acknowledge that we're privileged not to be poor anymore (and our poverty being very different from the poverty where we live now anyway), so if we do want to splurge on an expensive product, like rice imported from the neighbouring country, we can do that. The sad reality is that for many people, this simply isn't possible. It's either buying the regular, cheaper products and if they're short of those, poor people just have to go without. I sometimes feel sorry for people whose only "splurge" was coffee with homemade cake or something, can't even buy that anymore because sugar has become too expensive. Or they have to cut back on other essentials even more. That's the sad reality for many people. But if you're living in absolute poverty, things like a nice drink once in a while isn't a luxury but an essential to feel human (in my opinion), as being poor really takes a toll mentally and physically and you really need such a "splurge" sometimes.  

I truly learned to appreciate that we do have. Although we might not always have exactly what we want, it's always much more than we actually need. I also learned that as much as I like planning, sometimes it's best to just take things as they come- by just buying what's available instead of having everything planned ahead. We obviously went never without anything we needed, even if it meant that the type of food wasn't our first choice necessarily. It makes one very creative. As aforementioned, I found a lot of substitutes for everyday items. Even though my anxiety is still there, I've tried to be a bit more relaxed about it- trying to relativize, because we're not going hungry. It's just that we're going without some food items. Yes, that can be hard, but there are many people in much more difficult situations. 

What's interesting is to see how people in general deal with this situation. People tend to gift each other bags of sugar as if it's the most valuable thing they possess, or coffee, etc. It's both funny and heartwarming at the same time. But unfortunately, as always, there are people trying to take advantage of the situation- I've heard of people trying to sell one kg of sugar four times higher than the original price. It's just ridiculous. But as long as people are willing to pay that price there are others that continue to do these things I guess. Witnessing less foods being wasted is something that really excites me. In the past, many people would buy their bread fresh everyday, usually more than actually needed. Leftover bread would be put near the trashcans on the streets "for the cats".  Only, stray cats (and dogs) couldn't finish all the foods being put on the streets- because it wasn't just bread, but also lots of leftover cooked pasta etc. It was just so much. Because of the way that hospitality is ingrained in the culture, people are used to cooking more than necessary for unexpected guests. But guests showing up unexpectedly isn't a daily occurrence, which is why sadly that extra food is thrown away. This is at least one thing in which a difficult situation still had some positive impact! It makes me happy to see that people are becoming a bit more conscious about food waste, even if the reason isn't necessarily the most fun. I do hope that once this shortages situation is over, people will remain this waste conscious. 

So, all in all, it's a tough situation but it had taught me gratitude at the same time, as well as ways to deal with my trauma based anxiety when it comes to food insecurity, food shortages etc. All we can do is pray that the situation will improve and in the meantime we'll just have to find ways to be creative and come up with substitutes and alternatives. There is however so much to be grateful for. 

Cleaning on a (tight) budget

Whenever people are mentioning their low weekly budgets, they usually tell "...and that's even without cleaning supplies". I get that getting by on a low budget can be stressful, having had personal experience with that myself. But, the cleaning stuff have never really been an issue. In fact, it's where we'd spend the least out of all groceries. I'm convinced that with almost no money, it's possible to buy all your cleaning necessities. 

As time went by, and our finances improved, I've noticed that our spending on cleaning stuff hadn't increased so much. Not spending a lot in this area isn't just a choice out of frugality, it's also for the environment- not wanting too much harsh chemicals in the home. I'm not completely using only good stuff and rigorously shunning all the chemicals, but I'm still glad our detergent cupboard doesn't equal some sort of chemical factory either. 

What do I all use? First of all, I probably have mentioned this a lot by now, but we try to use as little disposable products as possible, so that includes wipes. I really don't see the need to pay for disposable wipes that are usually much more pricey than the good old reusable ones. So, no disposable wipes it is. I only use a piece of kitchen roll when I clean the shower drain (we live here with three girls which means quite a lot of hair...). But, only if it's a lot and I always cut one piece of paper unto four squares. So one roll still lasts a long time. Another disposable product I use are sponges - I like referring to them as semi disposable as they don't get tossed right away, but still get tossed in the end. I'm still looking for a solution to that though, I do have a cleaning brush but sponges are just more convenient in my opinion. 

Now we'll move on to the detergents. I try to keep this as minimalistic as possible, and especially not using single purpose cleaners. Those are really a waste of money in my opinion. The main products I use are washing up liquid (which I buy in large 5L jugs), a block of household soap, which is insanely cheap here, powdered laundry detergent -not just for the laundry-, and vinegar. I also have a jug of "all purpose cleaner", which is a bit of a misleading name because there is no cleaner in that jug; it's just scented water which you can add to your mopping water or even throw some of it to the toilet bowl etc. And yes, I use bleach too. Bleach water to be exactly, not the concentrated stuff because bleach water is much cheaper here. But I try not to use that a lot honestly. I'll elaborate some on how I use each of the aforementioned cleaning products: 

Washing up liquid: for the dishes (duh!), as we don't have a dishwasher. And to me that includes the counter, sink and hob. I pretty much use this washing up liquid as an all purpose cleaner, adding some drops to a bucket of water for mopping the floors, or when dusting surfaces, cleaning the fridge etc. It's basically my all purpose cleaner, just a very concentrated one. 

Block of soap: I like this for cleaning the bathroom - rubbing it on a sponge and then cleaning the sink with it. And then for the wall tiles, toilet, shower surface, floor etc. I use it diluted in a bucket of water. I also make my toilet cleaner by diluting a bar of this kind of soap and boiling it, then adding some of the scented water that I mentioned. I also use this soap to remove stains out of clothes, which works great. Sometimes I rub some of this soap on stains before the clothes get washed in the machine too. Washing clothes by hand is something which is still done by a lot of people where we live, and because this soap is so powerful at removing stains, most will use this plain soap - also because it's insanely cheap (the ones that wash by hand are doing so usually because they're very poor). One bar of soap costs onder €0.30, which is very very affordable. 

Powdered laundry detergent: We buy big bulk sacks of detergent, of 5 or even 10 KG. The main purpose is laundry, obviously, but there are other uses. When I'm short of washing up liquid, I use this detergent, as do many people here (which they then mix with bleach... But that's something I would never do!). And I use it in the toilet bowl- whenever I'm not using my other toilet cleaner. Note that this detergent isn't exactly the same as every other powdered laundry detergent, it's a multi purpose product- at least that's what the package says. 

Vinegar: I used to use it a lot more than I do now, which is because quite a few surfaces in our home aren't suitable to be cleaned with vinegar. But I still use it as a fabric softener replacement, to descale taps, etc. Last winter, I made a cleaner with a lot of leftover lemon peels soaked in vinegar - then diluted with water because the peels make the vinegar even more strong. Not only is this a great way to use your leftover citrus peels (I used lemon, but orange peels are a great option too), it's also smelling less vinegary, for those who are put off by using vinegar because of the smell. I regularly use this in the toilet bowl and for other things that I would use regular vinegar. 

Oh, and this one is probably a bit unusual but I also keep some cheap shampoo for certain cleaning jobs such as heavy duty descaling, or when I need a "real" all purpose cleaner instead of washing up liquid. I already have shampoo ar home anyway, and thus way I'm avoiding buying expensive and big bottles of cleaners that I'd use a few times before it's just sitting endlessly in the cupboard. So I guess I'd need to add shampoo to my list too. You might not consider it as a real cleaner but I guess I do. 

Bleach: I try it to use it as minimal as possible, so one bottle lasts quite a while. I clean my bathroom with it every so often and the main use is when I've been cutting chicken. Sometimes I even dare to just use washing up liquid for that. 

So these are the main cleaners we use, which allow us to spend as little as possible on cleaning while at the same time staying organized because we don't have a thousand of different kind of detergents, cleaners and whatnot. Cleaning doesn't need expensive, ultra scented stuff (although that's fine too if that's important to you, but I guess for me it isn't...). Soap is usually enough, you might have to use some extra elbow grease at times. 

Tightwad tip - remember dates

My father in law is one of the most frugal persons I know. Seriously, he is even stingy at times, depriving himself from basic needs, even though his finances aren't tight. As frugal as my husband is (which is something to be expected when raised by parents that frugal), my FIL would describe him as a "big spender", just because he's not as insanely frugal as him. 

He does have very smart tricks though, even if they'd be categorized as extreme, but who cares? A while ago, we needed a washing up liquid bottle - we buy 5L jugs of washing up liquid, so I pour that into smaller bottles. We asked my FIL if he had an empty one. He did, and handed it over. I had to chuckle a bit when I saw the bottle, because it was typical my FIL. Apparently, he wrote on the bottle a date - probably the date of purchase or when he started to use it. I'm sure he set a goal for himself, that it wasn't allowed to get empty before a certain date. 

Even if this seems a bit extreme, I found it quite clever. I sometimes find myself thinking of how long ago I've opened a certain item - usually detergents. By simply writing down dates you can keep track of that. Being stingy or "extremely frugal" isn't always that bad, in my opinion- it's only bad when it negatively affects others. 

A kitchen without an oven

One thing in particular has caught my attention when it comes to being frugal with utilities, and cooking in general. And that is that we don't use our oven a lot. It seems like for most people, an oven is a kitchen essential, and they'd be lost without one. The other I saw someone on a Facebook group asking what other people make if they have no oven. This was supposed to be a frugal living group, so I assumed that most of the people there were like me and used their oven occasionally. But I was wrong, and most people's responses were that they absolutely didn't know what to do without one. 

That made me thinking of my use of the oven and what I do differently from others. First of all, the frequency. Last week, I used the oven twice- once for making a cake, and once to make baked chicken. I usually bake chicken on the hob, but I sometimes like the convenience of not having to flip the chicken every 10 minutes or so since I had other things to do. The cake was a big one, and I froze about half. That's not only healthier (if I wouldn't freeze it right away we'd surely be tempted to finish it anyway), it's also more frugal - less electricity used, as well as saving money on the baking ingredients. This week, I made some cookies and muffins. However, there are also weeks that we don't use the oven at all.  So I'd say, on average it's being used once a week. Another thing is that we don't eat casseroles as much. We rarely do, in fact. I like to make lasagna on special occasions- all of the ingredients are quite expensive, and it's a time consuming meal to make when you make about everything from scratch. Every so often, I make Tunisian tajine (which is like a crustless quiche), and makarouna bechamel, also known as "Arabic mac 'n cheese". But for the most part, we don't do a lot of other casseroles. Probably partly due to the fact that casseroles are considered cold weather meals (in our family, anyway), and around these parts, the cold weather doesn't last that long. For most of the year, it's nice warm weather or unbearable hot. And while I don't mind eating hot foods during the summer, for some reason, casseroles are a bit different. They're just too "heavy", and usually containing dairy of some sort which makes a meal more expensive. Casseroles aren't really a thing in Tunisian cooking anyway, and while I do make dishes from other cuisines from time to time, it's Tunisian foods that are our go to meals. Pizzas are a rare occasion here too, and a rare treat. Bread is either purchased at the nearby bakery or if it's homemade, it's usually stove top flatbread. 

All in all, I think that an oven isn't really an absolute necessity, although it's a nice extra. I've had people asking me what in the world we have for dinner if we don't use our oven regularly. Well, just that: soups, pasta dishes, potatoes, rice dishes, couscous, stews, and I think I can go on and on. I, on the other hand,wonder what they do serve for dinner if they can't function without an oven! My husband was raised in an oven-free household for the most part; my MIL didn't have one until he moved out of the house. And now she doesn't really use the oven anymore and is just used as a storage space. My MIL did have a "wonder pan", a pan you use on the hob and functions as an alternative for an oven. She used this when making cake, among other things. For cookies, the communal oven (which I wrote a post about earlier) was used. She didn't really make casseroles and when baking bread she used the tabouna (outdoor oven, which is comparable to an Indian tandoor). This bread tasted absolutely amazing. 

Here's some other ways we save on electricity when it comes to the oven, other than just not using it very frequently: we have a toaster oven, albeit a relatively large one, but still smaller than most average ovens. This takes less electricity. When we do bake, we tend to do a "baking marathon", as preheating the oven does take more electricity. So we might make muffins and right after that, cookies or bread for example. This is actually quite an old fashioned thing to save on utilities- most women did a baking day once a week. Also, I might be a bit stubborn but I go against some conventional "rules" when it comes to baking. I rarely adjust temperature, for example, and our oven is set at 200° c (which in reality is more like 180° c - talking about stubbornness, ovens kind of do have their own characters I guess 😄). I also don't really preheat, which is an advantage of having a separate/toaster oven, as they heat up much quicker. I turn off the oven before it's "officially" ready, and make use of the residue heat. Yes, I do this when baking cakes too. I must say that I usually stick to the easier recipes, so I'm not sure how that would work out with more complicated recipes. 

Anyway, those were some insights on the use of ovens. I could definitely live without one, although it's a nice extra to me. But a necessity it is not (in my opinion, anyhow). 

Pasta vs rice

As some of my readers have noticed, we eat quite a lot of pasta! Pasta, in my opinion, is the frugal cook's best friend. The variety of sauces, protein sources and whatever else you add to this starch are just unlimited. Not to mention the kind of pasta you're using, there are just so many choices! 

Where we live, pasta is insanely cheap, costing a bit less than €0,15 (or $0,16...) a bag. A bag contains 500 grams/1.10 lbs. This is due to government subsidies on certain food items, to keep them available for all people, including the poor. There's also subsidized bread, semolina, milk, and couscous. But for some reason, pasta seems to be the most popular starch of choice- probably because couscous can be time consuming to prepare. There's a history behind the reason of pasta being so popular. Apparently, around 100 years ago, there were many Sicilians living in Tunisia who brought with them various kinds of pasta. And they quickly fell in love with the pasta! Nowasays, pasta is consumed almost as much here as it is in Italy. I must admit that when I first came here, I was overwhelmed by the variety of pasta shapes and sizes. In the Netherlands we usually did our groceries at a budget supermarket chain where they had spaghetti, elbow macaroni and maybe some bigger shapes such as penne or fussili. Here, the pasta aisle is the most elaborated one of the entire supermarket. Not only are there a lot of different shapes, each shape has different sizes as well, suitable to use in different dishes. Overtime, I've learned which shape and size works best for which dish and we know our preferences. There are also some more luxurious pastas that are more expensive, such as cannoli and lasagna, but most of the pastas are cheap. They also go by different names, in some cases. Most shapes have their original Italian name, but some are changed to Arabic or French, possibly to make pronouncing a bit easier. I think it's fair to say that we don't even eat as much pasta as many other locals here, they consume it that much. 

Rice, on the other hand, isn't really a thing here. And not just because it's not a culinary tradition, but the cheapest rice here is 6 times as expensive as pasta. So for many people, including us, rice is really an once in a while treat. I personally am also a bit sensitive to rice. I had no idea that it was a thing (being sensitive to pasta is understandable... you know, wheat, gluten and all that!), but after trying again and again I've noticed that- with many kinds of rice, many ways of preparation- soaking, not soaking, using water, using broth etc. Everytime I eat rice, my esophagus really hurts, as if it's being suffocated or something. I do like rice though, so sometimes I can't help but to "hurt" myself and still eat rice when I prepare it for my family. And every single time I regret it again. I did find some decent replacements, to eat when my family eats rice. These include burgul (or bulgur) wheat, barley, and orzo (rice shaped pasta). It's still different, but a decent replacement in case you can't buy or tolerate rice. 

So pasta it is for us, on a lot of days. How do we eat them? Here's some ways we enjoy them most often: 

The most well known traditional Tunisian way (recipe soon to come). 

Makarouna bechamel, also known as the "Arabic mac 'n cheese" 

Italian pasta all'ortolana (with mixed vegetables) 

Aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil) 

The "Dutch way" of pasta with red sauce, mince, and lots of veggies

Pasta with a creamy sauce and whatever vegetables we have on hand; we had this on Monday, when I used up a lot of chard 

Pasta salads during the summer 

Pasta based soups; such as mhamsa (Tunisian pearl couscous soup), or makarouna jaria (another kind of soup with small pasta shapes), cream of chicken soup with vermicelli/orzo, etc. We eat these mainly during the winter. 

Steamed pastas: vermicelli and nouassar (which is, I think, a very traditional shape that isn't even found in Italy - it's flat, like the shape of a small postage). We also have a steamed orzo dish regularly. Steaming pasta is probably a very north African thing to do, and it's very yummy. Some steamed pastas are one pot meals whereas others have a separate sauce/stew added on top. 

And of course, pasta is very suitable for using up all kinds of leftovers! This is probably one of my favourites as you never know what you end up with and it's never disappointing. 

We do eat some Asian style dishes with noodles too, however, I don't think that fits in this post and probably needs it's own post. 

So, these were some of the reasons why we eat a lot of pasta and how we eat them. 

Summer savings

I  guess I was on a blogging binge yesterday. It can happen... 😃 

We've had a few weeks of nice autumn weather, in March and April, but especially for the past two weeks it's been very hot around these parts. It might not be "officially" summer yet in the northern hemisphere, but the weather is certainly more summer-like than spring-like here! I'm aware of the fact that summer is not something everyone necessarily enjoys, especially very hot summers. I still prefer summer over winter though. Even though we don't have very cold winters, I quite enjoy the heat. The added benefit of summers is that there's a lot of things you can save on. 

Air conditioning: Our days without putting on the air conditioning are probably numbered, we can only delay it so much... But, every day without having to put it on is yet another one! Yeah, I know living without air conditioning is the ideal, both frugality wise as environmentally wise. There was a time when I didn't want one for these two reasons, but I'm glad we eventually purchased one. It was during a heat wave, when temperatures outside reached nearly 50°c... (which is 122° f). Living in a desert without air conditioning can be like living in Siberia without heating! It didn't feel as a luxury anymore and we were so relieved after ours was installed. Both my husband and me suffer from the heat when it reaches a certain temperature in the home. He sweats a lot, and gets warm easily. I'm quite the opposite, where the heat kind of stays in my body and doesn't come out because I can't sweat. I also have asthma and a lot of muscle contractions during the summer which both decreased immensely since we have an air conditioning. Still, we try to be relatively frugal with it - we put it on when it becomes almost unbearable and it's set on 26° c (78° f), never lower. We only have one unit in the living room- I guess that's one of the benefits of living in a small home. In our bedrooms we have fans, and I actually prefer sleeping with a fan on rather than AC. Also, the air conditioning is not on all day long. That's how we still try to use it minimal but still make it more bearable during the summer heat. Still, I've found that our "minimal air conditioning use" tends to be cheaper than minimal heating during the winter. 

Another way of saving on utilities is by using cold water. Our pipes are outside the house which means the water heats up fast. On very hot summer days that means you can have a warm shower with "cold" water. This applies to the washing machine too- I usually turn the temperature setting completely off, as it's usually still at least 30°c, if not more. Same with doing dishes. We also try not to cook dishes with a long cooking time to avoid heating up the kitchen, and use the oven less. 

Speaking of laundry: since line drying is something we do all year round, it's not necessarily a saving, but it is much easier now than it is during the winter. Also, since the house isn't cold like it is during the winter, we wear less layers of clothes. Less clothes = less laundry. 

Gas: our car is mostly used to drive and pick up the children from school. Since they have a three month long break during the summer, we're defenitely saving on gas. We still use the car during the summer break, but much less than our average use. 

Fun things: since it's so hot here, it's not adviced to go outside during most part of the day, so we really need to find ways to entertain ourselves at home. This usually happens to be a lot cheaper too! We do enjoy going outside at night for a stroll and an ice cream every so often. Vacations are not something we do a lot, last year was the first time in 4 years that we went on a small vacation. To be honest I'd rather stay home, but I did enjoy the children having a great time. I'm not sure whether we'll go on a vacation this year or not, but if we go, it'll be as frugal as possible. We don't go abroad but stay in our country. Since we live in a small country, it's just a few hours drive to get to the coastal region. 

Food: we generally eat less during the summer, and prefer lighter meals with more veggies. In season produce is quite cheap here, fortunately, so that's a big saving right there. I've also noticed that some foods that can spoil quickly (like eggs) tend to be cheaper during the summer months. 

Use what you buy

There's this phrase "buy what you use, use what you buy". And I think that's one of my main "rules" when it comes to cooking and grocery shopping. Many people have a somewhat weird way to do groceries- they supplement their supermarket hauls by a few ingredients that they found in the cupboard, when it should be the other way around, in my opinion. This makes people just so dependent on grocery stores and takes away all the creativity. Creativity is one of the most undervalued yet important skills any home cook should have, and frugal cooks in particular. Frugal cooking is inherently important, as we're all faced with fluctuating prices, off season produce, or just very expensive items in general. Or even food shortages (which we're having to deal with for the past few years). Even though we have a corner shop right in front of our house, I still try not to go there for every single item. I must admit that I have quite a large stockpile of various foods, but if I want to use something that isn't at the house, I try to find a solution before I run across the street. 

Using what you buy usually means coming up with certain alternatives, or simply making do without. It might seem a bit intimidating at first, but using replacement is easier than one thinks. Since I've been doing this for so long, it doesn't really feel like I'm using "an alternative" anymore (I did a post on cheaper ingredient/alternatives, in which I offer a few suggestions, but ofcourse it's not limited to that list if you use your creativity.) Doing without is also something I'm big on - some ingredients I just refuse to buy as they're outrageously expensive. I refuse to buy mushrooms, for example: they cost about 4 euros a kg, which is very expensive here, and they're only sold in small packets of 250 grams. Add to that that I've also heard that they aren't tasty at all when you're used to western European mushrooms. So I just do without. It's quite funny how you're getting used to not using certain ingredients anymore- in the past, I used them a lot, whereas now I can't really think of a recipe in which mushrooms are irreplaceable (except for mushroom soup, maybe?). A year ago or so a relative brought some tinned mushrooms, and to be honest, apart from one tin, they're still sitting in the cupboard... Now honestly, tinned mushrooms are less tasty than fresh ones, but it's more because of the fact that we're just used to doing without. Another example is minced beef: that's just so expensive here and while we sometimes do buy red meat (lamb or goat), mince I just found too expensive and not quite worth it. If I'm making meatballs or mixing in some mince in the pasta, it's not noticeable at all if you replace it by a cheaper kind of meat. This eid ul fitr, however, my kids requested me to make lasagna, specifically with minced beef. So it was the first time in 5 years (!) that we bought half a kg of mince. Was it good? Absolutely! But I still don't find it worth it to buy that often, for that price. Very recently, I've heard that apparently they want to raise the price of lamb and beef to 20 euro per kg, which is just very ridiculously high. It probably all comes down to what's important for you. For us, meat isn't on top of our list, but I can see that for other people it is. If we'd eat meat every day, we'd probably be in debt, and I'd rather spend my money on more important things. So far the "buy what you use" part. 

As for "use what you buy", this can be a bit tricky, and this is the very reason that I'm not very fond of recipe books by most famous chefs. People want to try out specific recipes (not even knowing whether they're going to like them or not), that require specific ingredients that they otherwise would never use. Of course, from that bought ingredient only a small amount is being used. What I don't understand is how those famous chefs, with all their culinary knowledge, don't even consider mentioning decent replacements of those recipes. That would surely avoid so much wasted money and wasted food. This is something I refuse to do. I won't buy specific ingredients that otherwise wouldn't be used. Instead, I'll look for replacements, or reconsider making that specific dish altogether. This is how I make sure to "use what I buy". I can't recall how often others gave me half used packages of spices, grains etc "because that's what the recipe called for and I don't know what else to use them for". Yes, I'm well known as someone who can use up little bits of this and that because she hates wasting foods. 😉I even got a big bag of soy flour from a friend once, which I made lovely pakoras with, among other things. I think being able to think in solutions when it comes to ingredients is not something everyone can do easily, so I won't judge people who can't do this, but I guess that's also why my blog is here. It's not impossible to learn these skills. 

I know people will say, 'it's just one bag of thrown away food', or just a few cents/euros being wasted... While I think it's very important to avoid waste altogether, I think it's not always about the waste in and of itself. It's also about knowing what you do when a calamity occurs: when you don't have as much resources (which can happen all of a sudden), what to do when prices skyrocket/when there are shortages. There can be all sorts of crises in which you need your creativity. As I mentioned, we do have to deal with shortages, which honestly is much more difficult than one would expect. In such a situation, I feel so privileged to be able to come up with solutions to problems which shouldn't be problems if the food system wouldn't be so corrupt. 

Reheating foods without a microwave

Apparently it's surprising to some people that we don't own a microwave. People have become so accustomed to using appliances for about everything that we kind of forgot how to do things in a more simple/old fashioned way and even think it's impossible unless you have a device doing it for you. We did have a microwave in the past, but haven't owned one in over 14 years. When my sister's oven died, we gave our oven to her, which was a small microwave/oven combo (we had a stove with bigger oven, so never really used the oven part of the microwave). That's when I realized that a microwave wasn't a necessity for us. Apparently, this is quite a controversial topic. Probably because the reason why some people refuse to use a microwave isn't exactly evidence based and people tend to link that to conspiracy theories. I can understand that, which is why I firstly wanted to make clear the reason behind not owning one. And I don't judge people for being into "conspiracy theories" or believe certain things that aren't considered evidence based; I just wanted to make clear our reasons behind this. Which is quite simply just not seeing the need to own one. 

Isn't it interesting that one day you're convinced that you actually need a certain thing, only to find out you can easily do without after it's gone- the opposite way would be a lot easier. What's also interesting is that people here generally don't have microwaves either. They do sell them obviously, although there aren't quite a lot of different types. The combo things like we once had aren't even being sold as far as I know, so it's just individual microwaves. I actually know only one person that owns a microwave and she doesn't really use it a lot. People generally were just brought up reheating foods the old fashioned way and probably don't feel the need to buy something that does it for them. Which also plays a role is that they don't sell foods here that need to be microwaved- there's not a lot of convenience foods, and certainly no "TV dinners" kind of foods. So what do you do with a microwave then, after all. 

Anyway, here are some tips on reheating foods without a microwave. It seems like people would like to live without one, but aren't sure how, so I'll share some practical experience that I've gained throughout the years. 

• Soups, stews and other liquid foods are a no brainer to me, but I'm including them anyway. All you need is a saucepan of some sort. I'll be honest, I sometimes use an old frying pan, to make reheating quicker (the narrower the pan, the longer it takes to heat). 

• Pasta dishes: I reheat this in a frying pan on very low heat, stirring occasionally. I do this too with rice, although with rice I prefer to add a few spoons of liquid. Then just heat until the liquid has evaporated. With mashed potatoes this works as well. 

• Couscous: just the same way as it's being prepared- by steaming. This doesn't necessarily have to be a steaming pan, you can also use a meat sieve or colander. I'm not sure how it will turn out when using instant couscous as I've never used that. This will work for plain rice too. 

• All kids of foods that have been fried up previously, such as baked potatoes, fish, eggs, chicken, vegetables etc. Eggs are probably not the first food you think about when it comes to leftovers but I thought I'd include it anyway, 'cause you never know. These you can all re-fry again, on a low temperature and flipping regularly. 

• Food that's already on a plate is a little bit more complicated to reheat. Just a little bit. I have two methods: either to heat it up with the water bath kind of method, when you have a plate on a hot saucepan and let it simmer for as long as needed, usually not longer than 10 minutes and then letting it sit there for another 10 minutes or so (be careful when you take off the plate!). This works best with soup plates. My other method is to use my cast iron pan which I use to bake bread on the stove. I heat up this pan until it's very hot and then put the plate of food on it. If the plate isn't too big, I put another pan on top of it and cover that with something hot. I nearly always have hot pans on my stove, so when I just made something that needs to rest I'll use that. Sometimes I put a small saucepan on the lid of a bigger pan (they're metal lids, for safety reasons I wouldn't try this with glass lids). Another wat of water Bart heating is to put glass jars in a pot with water and let it reheat slowly. It's important to use cold water and let it heat up slowly as it could break the jars otherwise. This is especially handy when you have multiple small leftovers and you don't want to use so many pans. I use my glass jars a lot to store leftovers anyway, so this way I am saving a lot of extra dishes to wash. 

• Pancakes, breads, waffles etc. can be heated (and thereby, revived) easily in a frying pan, but I use my cast iron pan that is specially designed for making bread. We usually have either homemade flatbreads (north African style, which is kind of similar to pita bread), or baguettes that we buy at the local bakery. Especially the baguettes become stale quite quickly, and by reheating them they taste almost freshly baked again. It's also a way to defrost bread- just make sure the flame is set very low and that the bread is being flipped regularly. 

• Another kind of using residue heat is to use the oven. I have a toaster oven (albeit bigger, but it's an individual oven not attached to the hob), and especially when baking something that has a long baking time it can get quite hot on top. So I might use that every now and then to reheat foods on, by simply putting the plate there. Or just to keep foods warm. I also like to use it to dehydrate certain foods, but that's for another time. Another way to keep foods warm is to put pans on top of each other. This works well when pans can fit on top of each other, which isn't always the case, but when they do it's quite a handy way to keep foods warm until it's time to eat. This was done a lot in the 1950s, and apparently it was even propagated to do by the Dutch government, to encourage people to use less cooking fuel. 

• Steaming can be used not only for couscous but for so many other foods. I know my father in law sometimes steams his bread when it has become stale. And my grandmother reheated poffertjes (tiny Dutch pancakes) this way- she didn't have a "real" steaming pan but just used the metal colander which I mentioned earlier. This, she called "the poor man's microwave". 

• This is where I cheat a bit: I sometimes use my air fryer. I especially do this with small things as ours isn't that big. I reheat my baked oatmeal for example, although it's not limited to that. Other foods I can think about that I use my air fryer for are donuts, muffins (either savory or sweet), etc. To be honest, if it were me I wouldn't have purchased the air fryer, but we were gifted one. I do find them convenient at times though. If I wouldn't have an air fryer, I would probably have reheated the baked oatmeal/donuts by steaming. 

• Of course, you can also use an oven to reheat foods. I don't really do that, as it's very energy inefficient in my opinion. Even though our oven isn't as big as most other ovens, it still takes a lot of energy to heat up. With casseroles, this is probably the best and only solution (although, if using a round oven dish, I'm sure my previously mentioned method of the cast iron pan, will work just as fine). We don't eat a lot of casseroles and if we do, we usually don't have a lot of leftovers. But all in all the oven is the last option for me. This reminds me of when we had blackout of our gas and my mother in law wanted to reheat her tea. She ended up using our oven! She couldn't use hers, as she has a gas oven.i found it a bit weird honestly, but it did work. 

•The sun: since we live in a generally warm country, with plenty of sun, using sun warmth is obviously the most sustainable option of all! I might forget to take out a baguette from the freezer or something and just lay it outside in the sun. This works very good. I can't put everything there because of the cats in our garden, but defrosting bread isn't something that you can't do with the cats. When the heat is very intense during the summer, this should be possible with any food, although I must admit I haven't tried it a lot. 

• Heaters: I grew up in a home with a wood heater. There was a flat surface on top of the heater which was very useful to heat up foods, which my parents sometimes did. It will also work with most radiators. The heater we use right now isn't suitable to put things on, unfortunately, but when we did have radiators we used that to heat up foods. Just make sure you don't put that heater on for the sole purpose of reheating foods- in that case, you can even better use an oven. 😉

• Apparently, you can even use the dishwasher to reheat (or even cook!) foods. Since I don't own a dishwasher (and am not planning on getting one) I'm not sure how, and if, this works. I just read that others do this. If it does work and you're running a load of dishes anyway, why not? Probably most people find it gross, but with all the water inside the machine, I'm assuming that the food is covered properly anyway, so I don't see a problem there. But again, I can't attest to the correctness of this. 

So these were a few of the things I do. Kindly note that I'm not claiming these are the most healthy or safest ways- I'm simply sharing what works for us. What I'm sharing probably goes somewhat against most official guidelines. But then again, I personally don't really care about most rules and I guess I have my own kinds of guidelines. I mean, some things are obviously common sense, but I personally don't agree with the caution against reheating rice, just to give an example. That's going overboard with food safety concerns and I just think it leads to so much wasted foods. But, if it's a concern to you, just know that this is not necessarily meant as an encouragement to go against official guidelines. My intention is simply to share some of the things that works for us. 

It's only single use if you use it once

Single use products are typically not very wise to use because you're paying for something you're essentially throwing away within seconds. You're tossing money directly into the trash, not to mention it takes a couple of hundred years (!) for that plastic to break down. And even if the products aren't made of plastic, but aluminium or cardboard instead, the environmental impact still can't be neglected. Of course, sometimes single use products are beneficial. Think medical single use products, period products (especially for women who don't always have access to water), and it can extend the shelf life of foods, etc. This is why I'm not radically against single use products, as it sometimes just makes sense. 

However, here's the thing: I've found that not all single use products are truly single use. In fact, there's a LOT of things around our home that are officially single use products, yet are being used over and over. That doesn't mean they last forever, but using them just once because marketers tell you to do so is just silly, in my humble opinion. Of course, I'm not talking about the obvious single use products that involve personal hygiene -other than tooth brushes- (although I have seen people reusing diapers here, which really is out of dire poverty). 

Of course, marketers, driven by their capitalist world view, want us to believe all their products are single use, and bad things will happen if you dare to use them more often. How else will they profit from the working class and destroy the environment? I'm very grateful that my parents taught me to think outside the box. It really is a necessary life skill to ask questions and come up with creative solutions for things "that are just the way they are". As a young girl, I remember that one of the presents I have the most vivid memories of was some sort of appliance that could cut styrofoam with heat. Those appliances were a rage in the 1990s, with toy shops selling them quite expensively. The one I got, however, was hand made by my father. My father was very handy- he once made one perfectly functioning car out of two older cars, need I say more? It didn't matter to me that it was handmade and had a bit of a "homemade look", I just remember the excitement of getting such a present. At that time a lot of foods were packed with styrofoam so I did a lot of crafting with that. Unfortunately I can't remember what actually happened to the styrofoam cutter, but I hope it was either disassembled (which is most likely, knowing my dad), or given away to someone else. Either way, looking back I think that even though I haven't been always as waste conscious as I'm now, my parents defenitely instilled this mentality from early on. 

Back to the "single" use products. As mentioned, there's obviously things that cannot be reused. But then there are so many products that *can* be reused! 

Bags: I try to always have a tote bag with me but plastic bags coming in the house still happens. I generally use them to freeze meat. You really don't want to re-use bags in which meat or fish has been. When I do use store bought sandwich baggies, I sometimes reuse them. Especially when they were used for freezing produce, if the produce comes out dry/clean (such as broad beans), I just hang them to dry and put them in a drawer in which I store my pre-used baggies, which works so well. Oh, and hoe could I (almost) doet er bread bags? They seem to last ages and are very suitable for freezing.

If that's not possible, I tend to divide the baggies in two, especially if I'm freezing smaller amounts. Other bags I use for the garbage bin. Sometimes, there are holes in the bags so they aren't really suitable for the garbage, but I use them instead of plastic wrap. 

Egg boxes: when my children were smaller, they did a lot of crafting with egg boxes. If you don't have small children you can also donate your egg boxes to local schools, or so I've heard. I'm yet to decide whether the crocodile or the train was their favourite egg box crafting project. You can also use them in your kitchen drawer to store small things that would otherwise clutter up the kitchen: thumbacks, rubber bands, etc. They're also very suitable for gardening, as you can grow seedlings in the holes. I have also used the boxes to sprout cress seeds. There's certain games you can play with your toddler using egg boxes, such as matching game. 

And lastly: I usually put some of the egg boxes in our trashcan- under the bag. That way, if something spills or leaches, you don't have to clean up the trash can immediately. 

Toothbrushes: my father had a huge collection of old toothbrushes, which he used for his car and many other things. Now I won't keep hundreds of them like he did, but I do have some old toothbrushes that I use for certain cleaning chores. Speaking of toothbrushes, it's a myth that you have to replace your toothbrush every few weeks. This is again a marketer's trick. Some people think it has to do with hygiene, but that's not the actual reason why this is adviced. It has to do with the brushes being "worn out", and because of that, don't function as they should. If you're not an angry brusher, you really don't need to replace it that often. And if your concern is hygiene you simply disinfect your brush with boiling hot water. 

Balloons: Now I think this is somewhat of a slippery slope. How on earth can someone be environmentally conscious AND even think of balloons? Don't worry, we generally don't buy balloons. Actually, I've always found them scary so it's rather a good thing they're considered bad for the environment. That way, at least I have a valid excuse to avoid them altogether! But, sometimes my in laws give a balloon to the children during our eid holidays, and I don't want to judge them for that. I think one balloon a year is quite good, though. Anyway, I've found that balloons can sometimes be blown up again when it's beginning to shrink. This way, my youngest daughter once had a balloon for months- instead of a few days. 

Disposable containers: I think most people will consider plastic food containers reusable, especially when they have a lid. But I'm talking about the plastic/aluminium boxes similar to disposable plates etc. We sometimes order cookies and they come in such boxes. They are very reusable. I like to use them for when I myself send food over to others, because if you give a plate they feel obliged to give something in return. (Which is OK, but especially when someone is ill or has just given birth or something, cooking food for someone else isn't the first thing that is on their priority list.) 

Food packaging: back in the Netherlands, we used to buy 5 KG rice sacks that were made from very firm plastic. I reused them over and over, especially when baking bread or other foods that needed plastic wrap. I now have some plastic from a bulk bag of sugar which is made from the very same material. As I mentioned earlier, milk cartons are very reusable too. I use them a lot in the freezer, as well as plastic bottles. 

Tins: we go through a lot of tomato paste, which comes in 800 grams tins. While I don't always reuse them, my husband has quite a few of those tins in the garage, as they're very handy to store tools in. I also use some in the kitchen: one for the breadcrumbs that are left after cutting bread, one for my small spoons, etc. If they're not reused, I use them as garbage tins. I've noticed that a lot of vendors at the local market use clean emptied tins as a "measuring cup", to scoop out their dry goods, and I found that genius! People in Tunisia are truly very resourceful.

Razors:  if disposable razors are your shaving method of choice, costs can add up when using them according to the "official" instructions. Still, there are ways to extend the use, which is by sharpening the knifes. A disposable razor can easily be sharpened using a small piece of denim fabric. I use a small old pair of jeans of one of the children. Some people also use a box of matches for this purpose, but I haven't tried it myself so I can't tell whether it works as good as denim fabric. 

Bottles: Throughout the years, I've seen so many ideas using bottles- from decorations (such as curtains), to planters, to homemade toys. We sometimes do an old fashioned game of bowling with empty bottles and the children have a blast! Not only water bottles can be upcycled. I have detergent jugs that I use for storing bulk bought or homemade detergent, and made some into baskets in which I store my unpaper towels. I also have planters made out of old detergent jugs. 

Aluminium foil: I try not to use aluminium foil a lot, but there's still some things it's used for at our house. For example, when I bake chicken in the oven, I always cover it with aluminium foil. That piece of foil is perfectly fine to use another time. Since we don't eat oven baked chicken often enough to leave that piece of foil in the fridge, I keep it in the freezer until the next use. 

Coffee filters: let me preface that I'm not a coffee drinker, so I can't make claims about the taste of the outcome of certain methods. However, my husband does drink coffee. When he uses a disposable filter, he uses the filter multiple times (it's important to let the filter air dry in between uses). He tried a reusable filter but unfortunately it didn't work as good, and the coffee he mostly drinks is made with a percolator. So this reusing filters thing is something done every so often if he feels like trying out something else. 

Kitchen paper/kitchen towel: I try not to use it often (I have a box of unpaper towels in the kitchen), but when I do and it's not too dirty I reuse it after having air dried. That second use is usually for more "dirty" stuff. Wiping spilled foods on floors (oh, and something that has to do with summer... and starts with a c and ends with ockroaches 🤫)  

I really could go on, but I think it's elaborated enough now. The point is that you really don't have to be afraid to (re)use your "disposable" items.