Frugal living tip #20. May 18, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, chickens, critters, gardening, homesteading, pets, wit and wisdom.Tags: creative newspaper recycling, uses for old newspaper
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Silence Dogood here. It’s Monday, and as faithful readers know, our goal here at Poor Richard’s Almanac is to provide a Frugal Living Tip every single Monday through 2009. This week, I was torn (a pun you’ll soon understand) between two things I read in the newspaper. One was a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal called “Sites Let You Swap Till You Drop.” The other was in our local paper, The Morning Call, about a woman who was trying to save money by using shredded newspaper to line her hamster cages. Guess which one won.
All right, I promise to tell you about the swap sites next Monday. But I was tickled by the idea of a newspaper suggesting frugal ways to repurpose… a newspaper. Our friend Ben and I use newspaper to line our birdcages. It’s really an enormous source of satisfaction to put a sheet of newspaper featuring someone or something you despise in the cage, knowing its inevitable fate. Talk about cheap thrills! We also use shredded paper to pad our chickens’ nestboxes and keep the floor of their coop soft and dry. And we mix it with damp coir to make baseline bedding for our earthworms in their earthworm composter.
What else can you do with a newspaper (besides read it)? Well, you can use it to smother weeds and grass and make a path, covered with mulch or wood chips. You can use it to make fire starters. People say you can use it with vinegar to get glass shinier than any commercial glass-cleaning product. (But I’ve never understood how that could be—what about the ink?!) Of course you can use it to wrap breakables for transport or storage.
You can add shredded paper to your compost pile to balance high-nitrogen materials like grass clippings, chicken manure, and kitchen scraps. This little trick works in your garbage can, too. Combat smelly garbage by tossing a little crumpled newspaper in the can. Or use newspapers to wrap green tomatoes while they’re ripening indoors in winter so they’re separated from the other tomatoes. If one goes bad, it won’t rot them all. Many people make transplant pots from newspaper rather than using peat or plastic pots for their growing seedlings.
I use layers of newspaper to separate my boxes of canning jars so the weight of the next box of jars is distributed more evenly over the lower one. (Uneven weight can break the jars’ seals.) I also use them when I’m pressing leaves or flowers to separate the layers of plant materials from the weight on top and to absorb extra moisture. You can even use the Sunday comics section to wrap presents.
How do you use newspapers? Please let us all know!
‘Til next time,
Silence
Hello there Silence girl !
Yes !! .. newspapers have double duty here when they are not being picked up for recycling .. I use them to fill large containers that I want to put smaller containers on top of them with plants .. to boost them up to the right level against the larger ones .. my black urn is one case of that trick .. then in the Autumn I wrap my terra cotta containers with a layer of paper against each other as I stack them to put away for the winter .. it makes it easier to separate them in the Spring .. keeps them cushioned and crack free ? haha
Also to use papers to actually fill up some space with large container plantings .. the boost up the potting soil and they retain the moisture when you water that container ..
I have a lot of uses for newspaper as you can read ? LOL
These are great, Joy! I need to try that with my terracotta pots!!! Nothing like trying to pull them apart only to find that two are stuck together!
I use newspaper as weed control in my garden. I often lay it down in established beds and then add mulch on top. The thicker the newsprint the longer it lasts. It works for a full season, sometimes two. And it uses up newpaper and makes it into compost. Worms love it and I love worms so it seems to be a good thing in my yard.
That is a great way to use newspaper, Heather! And, since it’s biodegradable, you can feel good about using it instead of some kind of plastic fabric. I used mulch-topped newspaper to make paths through my Cultivated Wild Meadow, and it worked beautifully. And of course, it’s water-permeable, another great (and free) feature!
I use it in two ways. The first is newspaper pots. I love turning those nasty articles into something better. The second way is in my compost bin. I hadn’t been doing it in the past. I always recycled them. Now that my husband is bringing home his work’s coffee grounds and occasionally some kitchen scraps, I really need the carbon source. My leaf pile (my other carbon source) was made in the fall assuming I would just have my household waste and grass to deal with. I should have made it bigger.
I loved your photos of your transplants looking so cheerful in their newspaper pots, Daphne! You did a beautiful job. And I agree, shredded newspaper makes a great carbon source for the compost pile. Sigh. Now I’m jealous! I remember the good old days when I used to bring home my company’s coffee grounds, and sometimes the carrot peels and etc. from our cafeteria. Great composting days! I just wish there was a source of coffee grounds for freelancers!
Well there is – Starbucks, but I’m not sure they are out in the middle of nowhere PA. I used to get coffee grounds from Starbucks all the time.
You’re right, Daphne, there’s no Starbucks near us. But there are two coffee houses/cafes in nearby Kutztown, and I should have checked with them long since to see if they’d be willing to give me their grounds. Thanks for the much-needed kick in the pants!
I’ve only done this a few times, but it’s great for making papier mache. You can dip it in flour and water and shape just about anything out of it (helps to make a frame out of wire first) Last Halloween we covered big balloons with strips of it and made giant pumpkinheads for the kids to wear in the parade.
Good point about papier mache, Jen! I think that’s how we made it in elementary school, too. Good fun!!!