Tuesday Tip

A quick, painless money saving tip every Tuesday

Save bread crumbs in a bag in the freezer and use them later in recipes. I keep a quart size freezer bag on my freezer door and put in it the crumbs from the cutting board when I slice homemade bread, cracker crumbs from the bottom of the box, and any ends of bread that have gotten stale. Then when I go to make meatloaf or something similar, I dump the contents of the bag in the food processor, pulse once or twice to even out the crumbs, and add them to the recipe.

This might sound silly or gross, but if you think about it, the crumbs are part of the same bread or crackers that you've been eating, only broken up. As long as you're saving the crumbs from a bag, box, or clean cutting board, they should be perfectly fine!

I started doing this a few months ago, and it's amazing how quickly the bag fills up! It's one of the those little things that can actually make a difference, both physically and psychologically. It makes me feel good to know that not only am I not wasting any part of our bread, but I am also saving a few slices of bread and thus a few pennies every time I cook with breadcrumbs.