11 Frugal Ways To Use Kitchen Scraps

There's no way around it, we have to spend our hard-earned money on food. And since our option is to either comply or starve, why not make the most of this monetary obligation? We don't mean throwing a smile on your face and pretending you like it; we mean getting all you can out of the food you buy (and we're not just talking about making stock with leftover scraps -- though that is a good idea).

We throw so much away -- banana peels, day-old rice, apple cores -- when many of these items can serve another function. From shoe polish to stovetop cleaner to fertilizer, your scraps (or trash, as you may have previously thought of them) can fulfill many surprising and useful roles in your home. Click through the slideshow below to start taking advantage of your kitchen scraps.

Have a tip on using food scraps? Leave a comment!

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Comments

[brokenleoheart]

02:44 PM on 06/05/2012

i want to try out the lemon whitening teeth one

[mkthinker]

06:47 PM on 06/04/2012

Sew some uncooked rice with a couple of spices in an old all cotton cloth and it makes a microwavable hand/foot heater. Reusable and you could put any nice smell in there you want. Jasmine, cinnamon, whatever. Nice replacement for a space heater and probably saves electric.

[RachelEHC]

12:45 PM on 06/04/2012

I like to throw my lemon rinds down the garbage disposal with baking soda after juicing. It helps keep the drains fresh.

[gdzilla2]

09:09 PM on 06/03/2012

I never peel apples or cucumbers and rarely potatoes. Using halved lemons and potatoes for cleaning is not using scraps. But they are good for the things listed. I usually mix left over rice in my dogs canned food but also like to put it in my home made bird suet and cakes. I save all cereal, bread crumbs, stale crackers, left over oatmeal and cream of wheat and mix them with melted lard. Birds love it in the winter. Left over danish or doughnuts and pie crust scraps are all frozen until needed for my birds.

[liamslia]

08:49 PM on 06/03/2012

I have been doing the Bokashi Compost method for my kitchen scraps. No worries about brown and green ratios, vermin, weather and time.

[Marilyn Hewitt Bellotti]

05:37 PM on 06/03/2012

Apples and Aluminum? Aluminum sheds itself when being cooked in. Isn't it interesting that after making a nice tomato sauce in an aluminum pot, the pot becomes brighter? That's because a layer of aluminum is now in the sauce.

Have you ever covered a wonderful dish with aluminum foil and when you removed the aluminum you see holes in that aluminum cover? Yes, it happens ALL the time and that aluminum is resting on the food to be eaten....

A study was done that showed that Alzheimer's patients have a very high amount of aluminum in their blood and brains.

RECYCLE ALUMINUM. Get rid of it. Take all your pots and pans to your local metal scrap yard and make a few dollars.

[IndyvoterRob]

03:04 PM on 06/02/2012

Great advice for the Obama economy. Snatch the kitchen scraps out of the dog bowl and make a soup.

[bteach]

09:29 PM on 06/01/2012

I sent this to my dentist

[Joe Pantuso]

04:52 PM on 06/01/2012

The peel of potatoes is one of the most pesticide laden things to go through your kitchen. Your picture of rice shows uncooked rice, which if someone were foolish enough to do because they didn't read closely has potential to kill a bird.

[gdzilla2]

09:10 PM on 06/03/2012

Actually, rice cooked or uncooked is not harmful to birds. That is an old wives tale and my state conservation magazine speaks about it quite often. It is safe to use both ways.

[homer winslow]

01:11 PM on 06/06/2012

The potatoes that go through my kitchen are pesticide free since we grow them ourselves. Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and produce abundant amounts per plant if done right. Of course we never peel potatoes. Rice is fine for birds, cooked or uncooked. Many such as the bob-o-link eat wild rice as a major part of their diet.

[organize74]

12:25 PM on 06/01/2012

Is this true? ok i'll try to get my stuffs from my pot and pan organizers and see if this really works.

[dtroppy]

12:21 PM on 06/01/2012

Really good ideas.... I shared this link on my Facebook page because who knew that lemon peels could whiter teeth???

[GeeBee]

03:02 PM on 06/01/2012

They will also soften and pit them. That is the dumbest piece of advice I have read in a long time.

[madcityy]

12:20 PM on 06/01/2012

if u can buy time on the nest,,this tale is not for u.............

[porcamiseria]

12:15 PM on 06/01/2012

People should be throwing out their aluminum cookware.

[cheesecake chick]

12:17 PM on 06/01/2012

i love mine.

[GeeBee]

03:02 PM on 06/01/2012

Why?

[porcamiseria]

08:02 PM on 06/01/2012

Aluminum, in cookware, drinking water, etc. has been linked to Alzheimer's.

[Vampy1]

12:02 PM on 06/01/2012

Coffee Grounds do help, but it also makes the soil more acidic...

[GeeBee]

03:04 PM on 06/01/2012

But they make the yard smell great too! Some Starbucks give away bags of "Grounds for your garden". I always pick some up when I get the chance and dig them into my rose beds.

[1shadow1]

11:56 AM on 06/01/2012

We have a barrel outside that we put all those things in, including egg shells and some dirt. We started this last year. Now we have great compost for our vegetable garden.