Washing & Drying Plastic Baggies

Soon, if they haven't started already, moms all over the country will be packing lunches to send off with their children to school. Many of those lunch items will be packed in plastic baggies. Ever wondered how much money you spend on all those plastic baggies? Ever wondered if there's a cheaper way?


The year my son entered kindergarten, I figured I sent him to school each day with two plastic snack bags. Each box of 50 snack bags cost about $1.00. So each bag cost me $0.02. So over the course of the school year that's about $7.20. That's roughly the equivalent of 2 gallons of milk. Now I have 2 children in school, so fresh bags every day would cost about $14.50. Plus there are all the sandwich, quart, and gallon size bags I use. Some of them cannot be re-used (for instance, if they've had raw meat in them), and eventually they get holes in them and become sieves instead of containers.

But, you know what? You really can wash those buggers  baggies out and re-use them.

But the problem is how to dry them? If they're not open as they dry, they tend to stick to themselves.

So, here's my solution:

This rack hangs out in my basement. At the end of each day, when we wash up the dishes from dinner, we also wash the baggies. If we do them every day it only takes a minute or two and the task doesn't become overwhelming. Last year I figured out that washing out my plastic bags saved me about $50.00 over the course of the year.


Give it a try. You'll be surprised how easily you can save a little money.

*Keep in mind, I never re-use a bag that's held raw meat.

This definitely Works for Us. For more ideas on how to save a little money, visit Frugal Friday.