Non-waster

I am a non-waster.  My kids accuse me of growing up in the Depression.  I didn't, of course, but I was raised by this guy, who did:

 I hate to waste anything, especially food, which is why I still have a bag of split peas that I bought for my biology class a few months ago.  We extracted pea DNA from a few of them, and it's been a challenge to use the rest of the bag, because I despise split peas.  But I don't waste food, so every time I make soup, I throw a few split peas in the pot.  Not many, because I don't want to see, smell, or taste them, but they get lost in the rest of the soup.  There's only about a quarter of a cup left in the bag now.

 

 There are about 20 split peas in this whole pot of soup.

I don't even waste the parts of food that we consider inedible.  These rinds are going out to my compost pit. 

 These are cards from the spelling curriculum I used several years ago.  The backs are blank, so I write my grocery lists, notes, etc. on them.

 I have a scratch paper file that is full of any junk mail that has a blank side.  Noah uses it for figuring long math problems.  Then it goes into the recycle bin, along with lots of other stuff:

 A true non-waster would make her own vegetable broth from vegetable scraps (and sometimes I do), but sometimes convenience wins.

 

   When I've squeezed out all the toothpaste I can, I cut the tube open and scrape out another week's worth.  Same with lotion, shampoo, conditioner, etc.

I don't even waste my cats' fur.  When I brush them or give them a trim, I throw their fur out in the yard for birds to use as nesting material.  Last spring I watched the parents of these baby robins pick up bits of cat fur from our yard, carry them back to this nest in their beaks, and weave them into it. I love the fact that these little birds grew up surrounded and warmed by my cats' fur.