The bag lady, part 2

I have a long history of saving plastic bags for reuse. Lately I've even been saving the bags from those 16-ounce frozen vegetables. I wasn't sure how I'd use them, but figured something would suggest itself.

It did. 

Last week I found ground beef for 99 cents a pound. After making a meatloaf with half the package, I turned the rest into hamburger patties for the freezer. As it turns out, half a plastic vegetable bag is the perfect size to wrap a hamburger.

• Bing: What to do with your shopping bags
  

First I cut the ends off the vegetable bags and then cut each bag in half lengthwise. Each wrap was secured with two rubber bands; I have a ton of them because I still subscribe to a newspaper. Then I stored the wrapped patties in a Sara Lee bagels bag that I had also saved.

You can paint this one as extremely green/frugal, or you can use it as an easy opportunity to make fun of extremely green/frugal types. Personally, I prefer to look at it as giving existing plastic one more use -- and yes, I'm saving money because I didn't have to pull six lengths of Saran Wrap off the roll.

Besides, these bags are designed to protect frozen food. 

Originally I'd tried to give the vegetable bags to my sister, who owns a dog. She turned me down because (a) she prefers a bag she can tie shut and (b) big dog equals big poop.

Bigger than 16 ounces? Yikes. Another reason I don't own a dog.

Published April 6, 2009