Living Frugal on Cape Cod

Wax Paper Please

June 21, 2009

Are you thinking of getting rid of the roll of wax paper that is collecting dust in your kitchen drawer? Well think again. I know it may not come in handy all of the time, but when you read about the different ways your wax paper can come in handy you may start using it more often. I was told recently by my sister-in-law Tabitha that she uses wax paper to line a cupcake tin when baking cupcakes. No need to go out and buy special cupcake liners anymore. Just tear off small squares or circles and stuff into each cupcake hole and spray with a little non stick spray, and viola, your own homemade cupcake liners.

After you have baked and decorated a beautiful cake, do you want to risk writing a message with frosting right on the cake and possibly messing up? A no fail way to write a message on a cake and have it look perfect is to write your message on a piece of wax paper, freeze for 1/2 hour, loosen lettering and place in your cake.

Make dusting easier and place wax paper on the tops of bookcases, kitchen cabinets and shelves that are high up. Every 2 months or so just fold up, dispose and replace with new.

Ball up some wax paper and wipe it along the bottom of a snow tube, snow slide or a shovel.

Press leaves between wax paper, melt to make a bookmark.

Frugal Tip: Use the plastic bags that hold your cereal as wax paper. When your cereal is gone, just rinse, cut and reuse as if you were using wax paper. Cost $0.

When freezing meat patties, fish steaks, chicken strips or any other meat, you can place a piece of wax paper between layers to help the meat to not stick together.

Rub a piece of wax paper along your shower curtain rod. This will make your curtain glide back and forth, no more sticking.

Place a piece of wax paper between wet art projects, wet pages in a book or magazine. Let dry.

Trace a pattern using wax paper. You can copy an image from a book or even off of your computer screen.

When storing candles, wrap with wax paper. This way the colors from the candle will not bleed onto fabric or anything close by.

Wrap a sandwich with wax paper instead of a plastic baggy when packaging a bag lunch.

Wrap a gift with wax paper, add some ribbon and a bow. Watch video here.

Use wax paper when making candy, chocolate, cookies and more. Lay some wax paper on the counter before rolling out cookie dough to make cleanup a breeze.