Extreme Budgeting 101: How to Reuse Plastic Bottles

How can you reuse plastic bottles? This article will show you how. This is an article about extreme budgeting, for the person or family who just can't make ends meet and needs to find some way to make ends meet. If your gas bill has gone up $50 a week and you were just breaking even, you now need a solution. One solution is to come with creative uses for plastic bottles. Here are ten money saving ideas for reusing plastic bottles. This would include water or soda bottles that have clear plastic.

1. Cut off the top of the plastic bottle with a sharp knife so that the area where the cap was placed is now gone. Remove the label. You now have a clear bottle that can be used for something else. My first idea is to use this as a vase for flowers. If you put the flowers in and drape them around the bottle, you won't even know it's a plastic bottle. To keep the flowers from falling over, you want to put a few rocks at the bottom of the bottle to give it weight. You could even put in colored sand if you're using fake flowers, for an added touch.

2. Cut a slit in the side of a plastic bottle, with the lid on, and you've got a piggy bank for keeping extra change. You can't get the change out because it won't fit through the end where the lid goes onto the bottle. What's cool is that you can decorate the bottle. Try making paper mache' to cover the bottle, and then you can paint it to look like a pig or anything you want.

3. Use the plastic bottle as a flower pot. Try using the two liter bottles for this one. Cut off the top half of the plastic bottle. Now, put in some soil, and then you can put in your flower or plant. You'll save the money of buying a flower pot at Home Depot or Walmart.

4. Refill the plastic bottles. Instead of buying a twelve pack of water for $5 at the grocery store, buy a gallon of water for about $1 and then refill your plastic bottles. Often, you can find the same type of water you were drinking in single bottles in larger containers. This will save you about $8 a week if you were drinking 24 bottles of water a week!

5. Put beverages in the plastic bottles after you wash them for school lunches for kids. Instead of spending money on a thermos or other drink container, reuse a plastic bottle and put the kid's drink in there. You may have a gallon of apple juice, and you can pour some juice into the smaller plastic bottle for the child to take to school as a beverage.

6. Store things in the plastic bottles. Use the plastic bottle as a storage container/ organizer. For example, you could put about ten tampons in the packaging into a plastic bottle with the top cut off, to organize your unused tampons. Do this with toothbrushes and other things to put in your bathroom storage closet to keep everything separated and organized. You could also use the plastic bottle to put ink pens in so they aren't in a pile on your desk. Decorate the bottle if you wish.

7. Use the plastic bottles as dishes. If you cut the plastic bottle in half long ways, you'll have a banana split dish. Interesting! Or, the same plastic bottle cut in half long ways could be a butter dish or gravy boat. Just be creative. This will really save you money from buying these items. (Remember, these are extreme budgeting ideas for those who wouldn't be able to afford new dishes.)

8. Make designs with the plastic bottles. Cut up the plastic bottles into interesting shaped small pieces and glue them onto colored construction paper into shapes of objects. This makes a good art project. Try using green bottles from gingerale to give some color to this project. Or, you could use pieces of plastic bottles to make other art creations.

9. Use the lids to the plastic bottles for art projects.

10. Use the lid to a plastic bottle as a spoon replacement for taking liquid medicine. If you've lost the little cup that comes with Nyquil, use a plastic bottle lid. Just make sure you get the dosage correct.