A few years ago my mom gave me a set of rubber spatulas – and I fell in love with them! These spatulas have sturdy handles and a rubber blades. The rubber blades are the key to a “clean” scrape. What I really like about these little tools is the fact they can actually save money by eliminating waste.
I’m surprised every time I use a spatula at the amount of food that I can still get out of the pan or dish. For example, after I finish spooning out chocolate chip cookies from the mixing bowl, I can use the spatula and get another 1 or 2 cookies from the dough left in the bowl. Same with brownie mix, before the spatula I was literally wasting brownies. The horror!
And spaghetti sauce, I never realized how much I was washing down the drain. If I use the spatula to scrape the skillet, I can get an extra tablespoon or two. Just think of the possibilities – peanut butter, pancake batter, relish, cake mix, mayo, jelly, and the list goes on and on.
So, does using a spatula really save you money? Yes!
Getting an extra 1 or 2 cookies doesn’t sound like very much. However, since I make cookies every week just salvaging 1 extra cookie per week makes 4 1/2 dozen a year. That’s 54 cookies – an entire batch of cookie dough. Now that’s a lot!
In addition, I make at least one dish a week that contains spaghetti sauce, so if I can get 1 extra tablespoon each time by scraping the pan with a spatula, that’s saving 3 1/4 cups per year. I could make two extra meals of spaghetti with that! The little things really do add up.
The spatula not only saves money in the kitchen, I also use a spatula when I’m making homemade soap. I can usually scrape out an extra bar of soap out of the pan with each batch. That’s worth about $3. I also get the last bit of lotion out of the container by using a small spatula. The possibilities are endless.
So the next time you’re about to throw out that “empty” mayo jar – ask yourself if it’s really empty. Then grab the spatula and I bet there’s enough for another sandwich in there!
