Alternate food colors for easy inventory

A kitchen-inventory list helps you to plan and organize your meals. You waste less, too. It can be as easy as using a dry-erase board, notebook or printable sheets; you can use a simple slash system to keep track of what you have on hand. One example can be found on my forums. The first tip below is a quick way to keep track at a glance and add variety, too.

FOOD CODE: If I bought Burbank/Idaho potatoes last time, I’ll try to buy red potatoes this time. The same for eggs — I try and buy white and then brown and then white. Also works for apples, pears and such. I do this to help me use the oldest food first. If the old potatoes are nearly gone and they’re red, then I get Burbank. It’s really obvious to me when I go to grab a potato what’s the oldest. Same with eggs and onions. The eggs, onions and potatoes are where I use this the most. — Judi, New Hampshire

REUSE PLASTIC BAGS: I love to do jigsaw puzzles (1,000 pieces and up), and I keep a lot of them to work again later. I hate losing the pieces, so I use the gallon-size plastic baggies for storing the pieces. They work great because I sometimes send a puzzle to my mom out of state, and this way I know she will have all the pieces. — Cat, Ohio

STRETCH DISH SOAP: Everything today is “concentrated.” But I noticed that my kids overuse the dish detergent. When they do dishes, we can go through a bottle in a week. When I do it, the bottle lasts for a couple months. I learned a trick. I save an empty bottle. I fill it one-quarter with the detergent and then top with water. Ah, but it’s watery, no one likes watery soap. So add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt to it, and shake it up. It will gel again. I use dish detergent for hand soap and do the same thing. My husband has to use two pumps, what a waste. But once reduced like this, he’s using really a half squirt, if that. One bottle now lasts two to three months. — Noella, Canada

HOMEMADE BABY FOOD: I finalized my adoption. I am the new mother of a 9-month-old. I remember trying to save money when my others were little, and I made my own baby food. Well, I did it again. This time, I pureed a bag of peas, green beans, potatoes and chicken. All of these were separate. I took my muffin tins and covered them with piece of plastic wrap twice as large, and filled each spot with the food. Then I covered them with another piece of wrap. I did four separate muffin tins and stacked them up, making sure there was plastic wrap between everything. I left them in the freezer for a day. This morning. I pull all the frozen separate foods and put them in a freezer bag and labeled them. I tested them, and it takes 45 seconds to thaw in a microwave. I can also put them in a carrier, and they will thaw before lunch. So now I have enough for at least two weeks. — Louise, Georgia
NOTE FROM SARA: Ice-cube trays work well, too. You can also simply drop spoonfuls of the food onto a wax-paper-lined baking sheet and put it into the freezer. Once frozen, transfer to freezer bags.

Posted by Sara Noel on June 20 2009. Filed under Frugal Tips.
Sara Noel owns Frugal Village, LLC and is a nationally syndicated columnist with Universal Uclick. Bio, Follow me on Twitter, Join us on Facebook