Paper grocery bags...

[lucie]

Use brown paper grocery bags, which you cut open and in sheets, to put your cooked bacon, sausages, donuts or other greasy foods, instead of expensive paper towels, like Bounty...

The paper bags absorbs well the grease without having the food stick to the thin paper towels and the great thing is that it's free!

[lynn]

great tip! Thanks for sharing, Lucie.

[Admin]

Yes, Lucie, you know my grandmother use to do that when she made homemade fried donuts for us...and for bacon as well. Good idea. Most stores here now have converted to the plastic sacks though. I miss the old brown ones..and there are so many used for the brown ones...The plastic just sits in the landfills. I take them back for recycle, but I prefer the old way..KWIM?

[lucie]

Carolyn, so your grandma did this! I guess we all knew I had not come up with this idea. lol But I read it somewhere this week-end and never had thought about it before, so I thought maybe it would be new to others...

Ah Carolyn, yes, I prefer brown bags than the plastic ones. I save my plastic bags and give them to my friend who owns a bread outlet, this way it recycle the bags and she doesn't need to buy as much. More and more customers are also doing this and now she only buys one box of plastic bags a month--before it used to be 4 or 5 boxes a month.

You know, I heard here in Quebec, plastic bags will be banished within a few years. They want to pas a law that stores no longer will be allowd to use them...Have you heard this for your country...?

[Admin]

No, I haven't heard this Lucie. But I wish they would. I think plastic was ok in its prime, but now it does nothing but fill up the landfills and takes eons to disintegrate. If it ever does. One year I used brown bags and holiday wrap. I cut the bags open and then stamped cute snowmen and snow flakes and Santas and other things on them. Then tied some with jute, and some with old fashioned white string and some with tore strips of homespun fabric. It was a cute look. Give me brown paper sacks any old day.

[braided-rug]

My memory of brown paper grocery bags is way back when I was first married. The plastic shopping bags for food were actually made to break down. The shop I go to has banned them. We have a new law coming, but it hasn't come in yet. Last shopping trip I had meat that was dripping, drip into my box and over my sour cream, I don't think it is safe.

In the meantime, the soap manufacturers have taken away laundry powder in boxes and put more in plastic bottles. Also people are buying plastic bags to replace the ones they used to get with the food shop. I use them for everything when I can get them. Thankfully my greengrocer still likes them.

Those boxes are heavy, sometimes there are none. I wouldn't like to be pregnant with them. I don't feel I could wash out the green bags or the calico ones. If you have ever seen polypropelene break down you wouldn't necessarily like the green bags anyway. Most of the old people use them.

My grandparents used a cane shopping basket and sent the girls to get their food one on each side of the basket with a note.

The brown paper bag thing my Mum did all the time, but there are no bags on butter or on shopping anymore, so I am unsure if she still does it.

There has been a new bag designed that will break down but a major chain didn't buy them.

Will provide a link for that later.

With a large family green bags I feel would not go back into the trolley, but the boxes stack up quite well. I try to fill my trolley up, and it does cut your spending habit to have to carry the things home. Give me a few plastic bags to throw in the car anyday.

Back back the paper ones though, they are lovely. I imagine not many Australians would remember them.

www.myshoppinglist.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=219&highlight=plastic+bags