If you're new to my frugal foreigner posts, read all about what we're doing in india here! You can read all previous posts in the series here.
I was smart and packed some ziploc bags to bring with us to India. I brought some gallon sized bags and some sandwich and snack sized ones. I also brought some reusable Ziploc containers. But I didn't bring enough of either.
I am not normally a bag reuser. In fact, I try to avoid using Ziploc bags at all. Yes, reusing them is better for the environment, but not using them at all is best. For some reason containers are costly in India. That wouldn't be an issue if I could keep them forever, but when I just need them for a few months, it's kind of a waste of money. So I tried the indian plastic baggies. They were 70 rupees for 10 (or 16 cents each). Check it out.
I had to rescue my rolls with a pair of scissors, meaning I couldn't reuse the bag even if I wanted to. I guess I'll keep rinsing out my Ziploc bags from home until they fall apart (we're mostly using them for bread and chapati, nothing gross).
Do you wash and reuse your plastic baggies?
Related forum discussions:
If I were in your situation, I would do whatever I needed to do to get by.
I don’t wash baggies but sometimes I do reuse them, like you said as long as nothing gross was in them.
I’m all for it. Do you know how many bags I use for my husband and kids lunches?? It seems like such a waste to use a new one for crackers every day. L
I send those to my MIL in India. I buy it at Costco and mail it to her. They are literally weightless, so I buy it at Costco when it’s on sale and send it to her. I spend about $7-8 for postage. If you really need them, try to get some one from here mail it to you.
When I was in Ukraine recently, I reused bags all of the time. Why don’t I do that at home? Hmmm… now I’m thinking…
I remember when I was young my dad would wash out ziplock bags with soap and water and turn them inside out to let them dry over the sprayer on the sink. Always thought it was silly…until I started buying my own.
Everyone laughs at me when they see my Ziplock bags drying on the washing line.
I do re-use them but for a lot of the time I use them to store all sorts of non-food items such as small toys that need to be organised and garden seeds and small DIY bits and pieces.
The list is endless.
And then when they cannot possibly be used again I put them in the plastic bag recycling bins.
However my favourite food storage is vintage tupperware which I buy at charity shops and car boot sales and they can be washed and re-used over and over and look really good too:)
I will reuse them for the same thing. Like my husband’s lunches if he takes Doritos I will hang onto it to reuse the next time he wants Doritos, etc.
I somehow ran into ur post.. 😉 i enjoyed going through your posts .. very interesting read 🙂
Being an Indian living in the same city, I could get a different view of things .. 🙂
likes 🙂 enjoy ur stay !
You will get ziploc in ‘ Food World ‘ a grocery shop in Koramangala 7th blk ,near Fennys .I used to buy from there. 🙂