Monday Q&A | Plastic Food Containers, Long-Term Food Storage, and Selling Stuff
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
I was wondering how you felt about plastic storage containers.
I have a ton of Rubbermaid & their new recent line of canisters for sugar, flour, etc.
I also use & have a bunch of the Pyrex. But the Pyrex has plastic lids. I guess I just want my family safe...& I'm trying to be as green as I can be at the same time.
-Dorthey
I've switched out most of my plastic containers for Pyrex or stainless steel. I do still have some plastic containers for things like flour and sugar, though.
The plastic lids on the Pyrex don't bother me a great deal because they typically don't touch my food. Plus, they're very durable, and durable plastic is much more eco-friendly than disposable or poorly-made plastic.
If the plastic lids bother you, you could switch to stainless steel food containers. These are more expensive, though, and you can't see through them, which is a major downside in my opinion. When I can't see the food in my fridge, I'm so much more likely to waste it.
As a Christian, I was wondering what your perspective is on prepping or long term food/water storage?
-Suzanne
I feel fairly neutral about it. If a Christian decides to stockpile supplies, I think that's fine, as long as they're placing their ultimate trust in God and not in the supplies.
And by the same token, I don't think Christians ought to feel an obligation to stockpile.
I am about to let go of about 20% of all of my possessions. I could give it away or I could make money with it.
But how?
Do you have any ideas/resources on how to make money from what we already posses?
(Without spending hours and hour in front of the computer, trying to make it on eBay... I'm stingy with my precious time:-)
-Helena
Gosh, this is something I struggle with too, so I'm probably not the greatest person to ask! I get so frustrated with the time investment required to sell things, especially when the items don't even sell.
Because of that, nine times out of ten, I opt to give my things away, either on Freecycle or to a charity.
The only times I choose selling are when I have items that are fairly valuable. If I think I can sell something for $50 or more, then I usually feel it's worth my time.
One exception is books...I can list those super easily on half.com (here's how that site works) and print shipping labels from home, so I don't mind selling books that go for $10 or less.
You might want to see if there's a business in your area that specializes in selling things on Ebay. These stores work kind of like consignment stores...you drop your things off, they sell them for you and keep part of the profit. This would net you less money but would save you a ton of time.
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Readers, how do you sell things without wasting a bunch of time?
And feel free to weigh in on the other questions as well.
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Today's 365 post: Stupid blender.
I tend to be the opposite with my containers, everything in the pantry is in glass jars (I love my glass jars!), but we still use plastic containers for leftovers. I know we should be using glass instead, especially to heat stuff, but we take them to work and the leakproof ones are so expensive!
Helena, I'm in the same situation, and haven't come up with a solution either. I'm currently driving around with two boxes of books in the back of the car, hoping for a better solution than taking them to second-hand store to sell them for peanuts. If only half.com was available in Australia...
I use pyrex for my containers and LOVE them. I switched after researching BPA and the like, but I found the added benefit that they don't leach flavors/smells.
As for selling, ebay is a huge pain, especially since paypal will often hold your money for a long time after a sale. So my solution is usually more complicated. For kid stuff, I sell at a local consignment event. For books and movies, I sell them to a used bookstore for credit. But I still don't know what to do about adult clothes and some household things. I tend to donate them to Salvation Army unless it's worth more, then I'll go through ebay.
We sell things that are more likely to bring a fair amount of money ($50 or more) on Craigslist and have had pretty good success with it. It sometimes takes a few weeks to sell, but almost everything we've listed has sold.
If you do list things on CL, it seems to work best to post items on Friday night or Saturday morning, since people tend to shop more on the weekends. 🙂
We sell items mostly through garage sales, with the big items listed on Craigslist the day or two before. I know, we could make more selling through ebay than a garage sale, but my time is valuable too. And I can do other things to earn money and/or save us some money in that time saved.
I do use a lot of plastics for dry food storage. I have a large supply of gallon size and larger containers which I've gotten for free, and are ideal for flour, beans, grains. I store liquidy stuff in glass canning jars and gallon size glass food service jars. My reasoning is, if the food item is dry, then there's less transmission of the bad stuff from the plastic and into my food. Whereas if the food is a liquid, there's a good chance that what's in the liquid is acidic (tomatoes, vinegar, citrus) and would more likely leach out chemicals from plastic. For the freezer and brown bag lunches I use plastic. Convenient, lightweight and won't shatter.
Ah, a garage sale is a great idea! Why did I not think of that?
I use Ebay for things that don't cost much to ship (clothing, small electronics, jewelry) and Craigslist for larger things (bikes, furniture, computers). I especially sell all of my brand-name clothing that I don't wear anymore on Ebay. Price things really low if it's worth it to have them gone. For larger things that have value but would be difficult to sell, (for example, a large sofa in Boston where living spaces are small) I put them on Freecycle or Craigslist under the Free section. For old CDs and DVDs, I look on Wherehouse.com to see if they have value - if they do, I sell them to the website. If not, I send them to a recycling center (google "CD recycling" for one in your area). City programs don't recycle CDs, so they otherwise get sent to the landfill! To me, it's worth the extra time to see what sells and what I can recycle before I drop everything off at Goodwill. Remember that Goodwill only resells about 25% of what it gets ... the rest gets dumped (minus some clothing that gets made into rags), so try to get rid of everything on your own before you make that stop!
I use Amazon to sell bigger ticket items like used cameras, other electronics, and textbooks. It's super easy because you can find the listing for the exact thing that you're trying to sell and you just click to sell yours. You can see all the prices of what everyone else is selling theirs for, along with the condition, so you know how to price them. Amazon does take a commission off of each sale, but they credit you shipping which is helpful. Ebay is a much bigger hassle in my opinion (taking pictures, knowing how to price it, etc.).
I also use Craigslist for bigger items that don't ship well. Lastly, I use local consignment shops for used clothing. It's definitely worth it to see what you can get!
I should give that a try...that sounds a little more like half.com than ebay, and that's appealing to me.
I think the "plastic is evil" ad committee has been fairly successful in scaring a lot of people with a lot of half truths and misinformation. That said if you're set on avoiding plastic ever touching your food when it's in your sight, then you can look into some of these: http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/pyrex/bake-serve-n-store-set-1087899 and never use the actual glass lids. No fear on the bands as they are silicone.
I'm having a hard time getting myself to *buy* glass containers to replace my plastic ones. I hate plastic leftover containers, not so much because I'm afraid of the BPA bogeyman but because I'm sick of tossing out stained, smelly and scratched up plastic containers. i'm finding that saving pickle jars and other glass containers works well enough and I can always get some actual storage containers later on.
I am another Pyrex fanatic... although apparently they recently got bought out by Corning, and the glass formula changed making it significantly less strong (this is what I've heard anyhow, although I haven't personally had any problems.)
For stuff that doesn't need an airtight seal, I'm a big fan of CorningWare casserole dishes with flat glass lids... the kind you can get cheap at the thrift store. They stack really well in the refrigerator, and the glass lids are much more durable and easier to clean. For everything else I use either glass or stainless with plastic lids. In a pinch I'll resort to plastic, but generally only for dry goods.
I know some people say fears about plastic are overblown, but I can only speak from my own experience. Sometime back in the 1990's I saw a documentary about environmental estrogen. The program showed scientists puzzling over hermaphrodite fish in streams where estrogen mimicking chemicals were routinely released, and even had a woman doing breast cancer research who's study was getting fouled up by synthetic estrogen leaching from the plastic test tubes and making the breast cancer samples grow wild.
I have suffered from migraines triggered by fluctuations in estrogen levels my entire life, and the documentary sorta made a light go off in my head. I decided to try to limit my exposure to plastics and other sources of synthetic estrogen (including herbicides, pesticides, and a plastic dental device I had been using.) People thought I was completely nuts carrying my water in a glass bottle and bringing my food to work in stainless steel containers, but the results were dramatic. I went from 4-5 headaches per month to 4-5 per year!
I realize this isn't exactly a scientific study... it could all be a fluke, and maybe it's all just "in my head" (yuk, yuk) but frankly, I don't care. Even if it is just the placebo effect, at least I'm not in pain all the time anymore!
I use glass jars, mostly canning jars, for refrigerator storage all the time. My daughter does this and bought only wide-mouthed jars but I already had both wide and regular, so that's what I use. For something sticky like rice, I give the inside of the jar a quick spray with something like Pam so it will release easily. I've put all kinds of things into them from onion halves to leftover roast, to soup. They're great vertical storage, don't grab odors, fit nicely into the dishwasher and are easily replaced if something happens to a jar.
It can be a little time consuming, but in our community, people have created groups on Facebook (mom's buy/sell/swap). You take pics or your items and post them with a brief description and a price. It's kind of like fishing! Throw in your line and let it soak for a bit! Eventually there's a bite! It's great because people will pick up the oddest little things! I don't let it interfere with my day as I can leave the item on my porch, and people have been awesome at leaving the money in the mailbox! Items range from books to clothes, shoes, purses, movies, cds, furniture, home decoration, etc. It's a great place to post garage sales, or ask where you can find desired items. In July, I made around $300 and was able to find some great used clothing and some toys for my kids. It's been a great way to buy and sell things, as opposed to garage sale-ing...not having to cart around 3 little ones is fantastic!!!
We have never been Prepper types. We own a pretty successful business, my husband a 22 year law enforcement veteran, and a former bi-vocational pastor. About a year and a half ago, I felt an urge to stock up on a few things here and there. My hubby doesn't really pay attention to what I purchase and had no idea. On his own, he had purchase some extra food items and household supplies(toilet paper, etc). He has also converted our savings into precious metals. We both began to talk about how we had felt led to do such things, and found it quite funny in a way. Well right now as I am writing this, our business has been idle with our CFO managing it for the last four months. My husband has become ill and we have been staying in a hotel that needs to be connected to the Mayo clinic. Our middle daughter, who still lives at home, is at home taking care of our livestock, dogs, yard, garden, etc. She has all the food and household items she needs. We were also able to sell some of our precious metals to cover some of our expenses for our stay. Although we are on a tight budget, my husband is able to focus on getting well, trusting that God led him to stock up for an occasion such as this. Our youngest DD, who is only 6, is with us, and since we homeschool, we were able to bring school with us. Sometimes, I think God leads us to "prepare" for the unknown for reasons such as this. Also, our ancestors did some of th very same things. They would put their harvests, go to town in the fall season to stock pile for winter months, etc. They are still trusting in God. I think he gave them the knowledge and faith to know that they had to do those things to sustain life to carry out what his plans were for them. I'm offering different perspective from someone who scoffed at those unsual "prepper types". Blessings,CJ
Our ancestors harvested food and stockpiled because they didn't have the year-round access to fresh food that we have now! They had to do it or they would starve!
I'm not against stocking up if a staple (toilet paper, canned tomatoes) is on sale but am not sure what the Christian connection is?
My point of view only:
I think sometimes God will lead us to "prepare" for things on occasion. As he did with Noah. People mocked him while he prepared his family for what was to come. As I said previously, I would scoff at people we knew who were preppers. I found them to be irrational. Mostly because our family areAgrarians ( back to landers). We took genesis 1:26,1:28 and 2:15 seriously. We grow and raise our own food, and are studying about permaculture. I think it is important to live with what God gave us. Should we rely on Year around food that has to be ship miles to us? Or should we do what our ancestors did and learn about what is available to sustain us in the region in which we live? Will the food supply always be available? Here in the South, when snow is mentioned, our shelves are wiped clean in the grocery stores.
So here it is:
I don't really think that stock-piling is the answer to anything. If God has led you to do, as he has many times in the Bible(Noah as an example). Then you should. This is our growing Season. Right now, I am sitting in a Hotel room instead of tending to my garden. My middle DD can take care of the livestock and pick the food we have grown. But she is not able to put it up without help(she has high functioning Autism). Therefore, it was a good thing that for some "ODD" reason my husband and I felt led to put a few extra things. We don't have crazy stock piles of junk. As I explained before, we are Agrarians and have no need for "stuff" that we can produce ourselves.
We do not stock up on Canned anything, prepacked food void of nutrients. We do purchase food from local amish and put up. If you have a cow to produce milk, then why would you need to buy powdered milk?
I am not trying to start a debate. I was actually giving a real life example of God calling a family to do something that is not normally in their character to do-"prepare for an unknown". Praise God he did because, I can now returm home in peace, knowing I put up(means canning and freezing) extra food that we did not need at that moment, but do now.
Interesting question about the Christian connection to prepping. I'm not sure if other religions practice this, but I know that Mormons are required to keep a two year supply of food in their homes at all times. Maybe that's where it started?
I've watched the show "Doomsday Preppers", and while some of the people are quite "out there", there are also some awesome examples of learning to become self-sufficient and how to get off the grid. I think that is a smart thing to do if you can, because not only would it save money in the long run, but it would give you some options in times of system breakdown, like when the power goes out for extended periods in storms or like what happened to CJ's family.
Again, I'm not sure what or even if there is a specifically Christian connection to all this, as I'm sure there are people of all stripes who do it. Some of it seems distinctly non-Christian, like the stockpiling of weapons and defenses, something many preppers do. Maybe the connection comes from the idea of prepping for the Apocalypse. However, there are many, many other worthwhile things out there to prep for. After all, prepping just means preparedness. In my area, Vancouver Island, we're encouraged to prepare for earthquakes.
Now that I think it through, I'm not sure there is a Christian connection to prepping, except that the visible minority (like on the show) do seem to be predominantly so.
Good question!
Could someone explain the stockpiling question to me? What does it have to do with Christianity?
So confused...
One way to save money and eat more nutritionally is by canning some home grown food each year. Each year I can 2-3 different items and store enough for a couple of years. It helps replenish the soil by planting different items each year.
I just found this (http://ebaytradingassistant.com/directory/index.php) which allows you to sell thing on Ebay via a third party.