Feelin’ Frugal: Reusing Produce Bags
I am often in awe of how living a frugal lifestyle goes hand in hand with living a green one. Perhaps I should change this segment to “Feelin’ Frugal/Green!”
I do strive to be green, but I must confess that I’m still using the plastic produce bags at the grocery store. I have a friend who sells fabric reusable produce bags on her Etsy site and I should really place an order. Until then I have found a way to give my bags a second life: I use them to store my frozen breast milk!
It is best to always use your oldest bag of frozen breastmilk first. Therefore, it helps me to stay organized by storing my milk in produce bags and labeling them with the date range. Using the produce bags also helps me fit more milk in my freezer since it is tightly bundled together.
Of course I could use specialty freezer bags, but this is free!
If you decided to store frozen breast milk in produce bags, always double bag your milk. The produce bags are made out of very thin plastic and can tear easily from the milk’s sharp corners.
I have officially stopped my daily pumping. I’m grateful that I put in the time to do it, but pumping every single morning for a little over a year was long enough for me! However, now I need a new way to reuse my produce bags!
What are your tips for recycling produce bags? Have you tried using fabric produce bags?
Two other uses for your bags—
1. use them in the freezer for anything–I always double bag stuff I put in the freezer and produce bags can be one layer.
2. stick a couple in your diaper bag—when you have a really messy stinky diaper mess you can seal it in a produce bag. Then when you put it in the trash at your friends house you don’t have to worry that it’s your last visit.
I love the diaper bag idea!! On a related note, I have friends that save produce bags and newspaper bags (rain protection) for when they walk the dog and need to clean up someone else’s yard! I thought that was a great idea, but for me… not having a dog is an even better idea! HAHA!
I use the produce bags as well, and I’ve been torn about how to give them a second life – I don’t know why I didn’t think to just double-bag them and use them to freeze stuff! This is a great idea, especially for items that once they’ve defrosted you wouldn’t want to reuse the bag (like raw chicken). I hate to waste an expensive freezer bag for just one use on something like that, but with produce bags, I’d actually feel like I was getting an *extra* use out of the bag!
I don’t usually use produce bags. I just put the produce in the cart (cucumber, green pepper, etc) I only use them if the greens I’m buying are dripping wet. Good Ideas though =)
Hello! we use them for out bathroom trash can. They fit perfectly!
I don’t think I’ve ever bought bathroom trash bags! 🙂