Does anybody buy pen refills anymore?

This came up in conversation a week ago, about how we'd buy refills for our retractable ink pens and reuse the mechanical part of the pen.

I have a very specific pen that I like. The ink flows smoothly and dries very quickly. This makes for very fast writing for me. I can write my notes faster with a smooth-flowing pen, and I don't smear the page, as the ink dries so fast. I've gone through a couple of 5-packs of these pens in the last year, spending about $7 per package, or $1.40 per pen. The other day, knowing that my last of these pens was running low on ink, I thought to check for refills on Amazon. Sure enough, this pen that I use has multi-packs of refills for a substantial savings per pen. I ordered a 12-pack of refills for $10.55, or 88 cents each refill. That's about 40% off the price of a new, whole pen.

It just got me to thinking that we have become so accustomed to treating our everyday products as disposables, when some of them can be reused, refurbished, or refilled. Anyway, I slipped a refill into one of my used pens and I'm back in business. Less waste, lower cost -- that sounds good to me.

By the way, several brands of pens do make refills. If you have a favorite pen, check Amazon or Office Depot to see if refills would save you money, too.

Many cooks in the house lead to leftover-waste

With several cooks in the house these days we seem to have more leftovers that go unused.  A cup of rice here, some soup there -- foods get put into containers with good intentions, then the original cook never eats them.

There was a time when I prepared every food that went into my family members' mouths. If I made rice and had leftovers, I made a mental note to use that leftover rice in the next day or two. Now, I'm not the only one making rice, or soup, or pancakes. Someone else's mental note does not get added to my mental list. What's the "head" cook to do?

I started with cleaning out the kitchen fridge. One of our issues was the large one-gallon jugs of condiments for refilling smaller containers were being left in the kitchen fridge. My usual place for these containers is the garage fridge. These large jugs can block the view of other foods. I'll just have to remind others to return the large jars to the garage fridge after refilling small containers. Another issue was opaque shopping bags used as wrapping for leftovers. While this is very thrifty to use a shopping bag, the opaqueness was contributing to overlooked leftovers. I found 2 and 1/2 pancakes wrapped in a tan shopping bag. I also found the brand new, but open, package of bologna in another, similar bag. I put both of these leftover items into see-through containers, and I labeled the lunch meat for use or freeze by date. My plan is to keep sticky notes and a Sharpie by the fridge, so that other family members can label their items, and either the opening date or a use by date.

It wasn't a lot of waste, but it was enough to be a wake-up call for me to encourage all family members to be responsible for the foods that they cook, and either consume them or freeze in a timely manner. I was able to use enough of the leftovers, along with frozen leftovers, to make a tasty casserole for Tuesday's dinner, which in the end was a time-saver for me. Nonetheless, I need to find some solutions to this "new" issue, now that there are so many cooks in the house. For breakfasts and lunches, we all seem to want something different, creating a lot of leftovers for the fridge.

Any suggestions?