Today I was paying bills, and to my dismay, found that the last of our envelopes had glued themselves together to the point of being unusable.  Since I like to get things out in a timely way, the only solution seemed to be to go out to the store and buy some more, but that seemed like a lot of time and energy for just three envelopes. 

Suddenly, I remembered something I read about years ago, that I just yesterday demonstrated the concept of to my kids, how to recycle an envelope (not a used one, but the kind enclosed for bills, donations, etc.).   I checked my recycling pile from yesterday, and it had exactly three evelopes there, and this is what I did.  Firstly, you separate the flaps of the envelope, and turn the entire thing inside out.  Then you use a glue stick to restick the flaps back down (I bought packs of glue sticks at the beginning of the school year when they were 5 cents for a package of five), so this is a very nominal cost for me), and when you’re ready to seal it all up, just moisten the flap, and stick it to the inside of the envelope, instead of the outside. 

It probably sounds much more complicated than it is!  I was delighted to save myself a thirty minute outing to the store, and my husband also loved the ingenuity of it when I showed him.  I also liked finding a way to resuse something instead of tossing it into the recycling pile (which is better than throwing it away, but still uses additional resources).  I wouldn’t use this for my business mail, but for the type of things I needed envelopes for today, it was perfect.  It saved me time, gas, money, and energy. 

You just never know when a frugal tip will come in handy!

Avivah