Does It Really Save Money to Wash Those Flimsy Plastic Bags

As I was washing out the plastic bags on Monday (yep, that's how I spent my Memorial Day, doing housework), I was calculating the cost of washing those thin grocery store, produce, and bread bags as compared to the cost of a roll of plastic wrap. We have several food items for which we prefer the flexibility/conformity of thin plastic wrap or bags as opposed to rigid food storage containers. When bags were free with grocery purchases, it seemed like we had an endless supply of them. Now that those bags are no longer available (most of our stores have switched to non-complimentary paper sacks), I've turned to washing most of our bags. (If a bag is torn or has held meat, I throw it out.)

If I didn't wash the bags to reuse, I'd use thin plastic wrap, the kind that sells for $1.97/200-foot roll at Walmart. I estimate I'd use a sheet about 12 X 20 inches on average. A sheet this size costs me about 1.6 cents. I washed 16 bags the other day, or the replacement for 26 cents of plastic wrap.

Water and soap isn't free, however. I washed all of the bags together in a large sink of water (with a squirt of soap in the wash water, clear water for 2 rinses). I used about 3 gallons of water in each sink-full, or 9 gallons of water total. A gallon of water (with wastewater disposal) costs me about 1.1 cents per gallon. I used about 10 cents of water and about 1 cent of dish soap. My water had to be heated, so I'll add 2 cents to the wash calculation. Washing my 16 bags cost me about 13 cents. I hung them to dry on the laundry rack afterward, no cost there. I saved myself about 26 cents on the plastic wrap. So, I netted 13 cents by washing the bags.

There's an extra factor to consider. If I had something more lucrative to do in those 10 minutes, I could have earned more money than I saved. However, I didn't have anything better to do Monday morning. I'll take the savings.

I wash bags every other week, about 15-16 bags per time. I wait until I have enough bags to make the work worthwhile. In one year, I'll save $3.38. I certainly won't get rich on that savings. But as is often quoted, pay attention to the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. Another way I look at it when finances are tight -- it's better to save some money than to spend some money.

Using Chive Blossoms

Some years we're eating quite a lot from our garden by the end of May. Not so much this year. It's been very cool and rainy for the entire month of May. Even the kale and chard have been sluggish. What I do have in abundance right now, though, are chives and chive blossoms. So, I've been brainstorming different ways to use them in meals. Here's what I've been doing with the chive blossoms:

I began with making chive blossom vinegar. Each year I make two or three kinds of flavored vinegar. Chive blossom is always one of them. I also make a green herb vinegar (usually rosemary and/or thyme). And some years I make a fruity vinegar (plum, blackberry, raspberry, or blueberry). Flavoring plain white vinegar is both inexpensive and extremely easy. And having a variety of flavored vinegars on hand throughout the year provides a head-start in making salad dressings from scratch. The above is one week old chive blossom vinegar. I'll leave the blossoms infusing in the vinegar for another three weeks before straining out the blossoms and decanting the liquid into a bottle. BTW, I use repurposed commercial pickle jars for the infusing process. One of the problems many folks have with reusing pickle jars is the vinegar odor is sometimes hard to eliminate from those jars. Well, no problem when making a flavored vinegar, right?

I've also been adding chive blossoms to salads. Monday night I made a lentil, barley, greens, and chive blossom salad. The blossoms have a fresh onion flavor when raw. 

We did burgers for dinner this weekend. I'm down to the last few whole onions, and I don't want to spend too much money on more onions until I can buy a 50-lb sack of the new crop in late summer. In place of sliced onions on our burgers, I made a 1000 Island type dressing for the buns, subbing chive blossoms for the relish I might normally use. The chive blossoms added a mild oniony flavor to the burger toppings.

I've also been cooking the chive blossoms. Cooking the blossoms mellows the oniony flavor. This is a potato and chive blossom soup. I used about 2 cups of fresh chive blossoms, cooked in almost a quart of veggie stock. I added about 1 cup of potato flakes, salt, and pepper to the soup. I simmered for about 15 minutes. At that point I removed the pan from the heat and allowed it to cool for 10 minutes. Then I pureed the soup in a pitcher blender. I estimate this soup cost about 25 cents (for the potato flakes) and made enough for 4 servings. This could also be made with leftover mashed potatoes or 1 potato diced and simmered in the stock. My stock for this soup was also a bargain. Last week, I peeled 7 large carrots to make a bucket of carrot sticks for snacking. I saved all of the peels and used them to make a stock. After simmering and then straining, I had about 1 quart of carrot stock, which I kept in the fridge until I made the soup over the weekend.

So far, these are the ways I've found to use my abundance of chive blossoms. I'll continue to seek out new uses over the coming week or two. Using what we've been given and grateful for it.