Frugal Ice-Packs and Learning to Plan Ahead
I assume we all know the emergency tip about using a frozen bag of peas or corn on a nasty bruise. But what about when it's not exactly an emergency? This past week our daughter Pip had her wisdom teeth out- three cut out and one extraction, and she needed to apply ice packs every thirty minutes for half an hour. I don't have enough frozen veggies on hand for that, even if I wanted to use them for that purpose.
There are a number of ice-packs you can put together from what you have in your hand. I especially like this idea- first make a wrapper from a sock that has lost its mate or its usefulness- leave one end open.
Fill a ziplock bag about half full of water, fold it in half (so it will fit in the sock wrapper) and freeze it on a flat surface. Keep several ziplock bags filled this way and frozen so you can cycle them out for sustained ice packs.
Sometimes a ziplock bag will leak, and another way you can keep an ice pack going without the risk of leakage is to get a wash cloth wet, wring it out just so that it's not sopping and dripping everywhere, and then fold it neatly, slip it into a ziplock bag and freeze it (lay it flat on a cookie sheet for a nice, flat pack, these are more comfortable, more flexible, and also take up less room in the freezer).
For a larger pack, fill a gallon sized bag (or rinse and freeze two washclothes together) with just enough water to be about half an inch thick when laid flat, then wrap or pin a dish towel or a pillow case around it when frozen.
Keep two or three of these in the freezer all the time and you will always have one when needed.
Another tip I assume you already know is to keep at least a couple of bottles of water in the freezer- use old two liter bottles from soda or several old water bottles or a milk carton. We use these in the ice chest when we are going on a longish shopping day.
When I was a child my mother bought milk in waxed cartons (such as half gallons of milks come in). When we finished the cartons, she rinsed them thoroughly, filled them with water, and froze them, stapling the top shut. When we needed crushed ice for iced tea or making ice cream, we would take one of those ice cartons out to the patio and fling it on the concrete a few times, wack it with a hammer a few more times, and then dump out the refreshing crushed ice into a bowl or pitcher.
One prinicple that all these tips illustrate, regardless of whether or not you have a need for home-made crushed ice or ice-packs, is that one of the most important keys to frugality is planning ahead, which makes frugality much harder for me than it should be. I suspect that's true of a lot of us, and many of us dismiss certain frugal ideas as being too hard or burdensome or just 'not us.'
But planning ahead is an important skill to have- and rather than viewing it as a burden and an excuse to avoid certain frugal skills, we might learn to embrace the discipline as beneficent, something to help us learn new and better habits.
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8 Responses to “Frugal Ice-Packs and Learning to Plan Ahead”
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 am
I love the crushed ice tip. Juice comes in those wax packs too and may be easier to clean out.
I have used very similar home made ice packs before and they always work like a charm.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
If you add a some rubbing alcohol to the water you are freezing it will stay slushy. I reused mine like that a long time until the bag finally gave out. I am not sure of the amounts but I think it is half and half.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
I love the tips. I believe one of the main ingredients necessary for frugality is thinking outside the box.
Great blog.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
I would love to be able to freeze ice in containers like that, but my freezer is too small. I can’t even fit ice cube trays in anymore. =/ I have my eye out for a secondhand deep freeze, but until then, I suppose I’ll go iceless. Great tip with the frozen washcloth, though. That will fit even my freezer!
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I made some ice packs with rubbing alcohol and water in a ziploc bag, then I put that bag in a food-saver bag and vacuum sealed it so we would have any leaks at all. The alcohol keeps it from freezing solid and it stays flexible.
Planning ahead is definitely the easiest way to be frugal, from soaking dry beans to thrift-store shopping for next year’s clothes.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
that is supposed to read “wouldn’t have any leaks”, sorry.
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Have done both of these…can’t tell you how many times a frozen dampened washcloth in a ziplock bag has come in handy at my house.
I freeze 2-liter bottles and milk jugs of ice all year round. They help keep the freezers full [which keeps the freezers colder and saves $$], plus I use them to quick-chill corn on the cob after I blanch it and before putting it in bags for the freezer.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Great tips. Hope your daughter got over that pain quickly. I seldom think to use an icepack unless it’s an obvious bump.
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