Hi, I’m Elisabeth, and I love to finish things.
Gretchen Rubin talks about “starters” and “finishers.” And while I love eating the first spoonful of peanut butter out of a jar (so does Indy!) or cracking the binding on a new notebook, I tend to find it more satisfying to finish things.
Use up the last of the leftovers. Read the final chapter of a great book. Drink the last glass of orange juice.
I try to do this on a small scale before any vacation, but ahead of our trip to Europe, I’ve kicked things into a higher gear. Here are a few reasons why:
- I find it satisfying.
- I love a blank slate—and I’d like to leave a (relatively) blank slate in the fridge and cupboards for the people staying at our house.
- It saves money. Fewer last-minute trips to the store, less waste, and no food expiring while we’re away.
Here are some of the things we’ve used up lately:
CANDY
I took Indy and his bestie to see a volleyball game a few weeks ago. Snacks at those sorts of events are not cheap (in general, I try very hard to not buy concession food!). I told them they could make their own little baggies of treats (and we brought water from home). An easy way to save money and clear out the last of our Halloween and Christmas treats.
FOOD
I’m on a mission to use up all the odds and ends in our fridge, freezer, and cupboards. I found slivered almonds, dates, and a bit of coconut. I toasted the almonds and coconut, blitzed them in the food processor, added the dates, a sprinkle of vanilla, sea salt, and cinnamon, then tossed in some chocolate chips.
I usually make date balls, but they can be a bit of a faff. This time, I just pressed the “dough” into a parchment-lined dish and sliced it into squares once it was firm.
- I also gathered up the last bread-product stragglers and turned them into a batch of baked French toast.
- Smoothies have been coming in clutch for breakfast lately and my freezer stash of fruit is disappearing at a rather alarming rate!
- I used up the last of our cheese and macaroni to make some Instant Pot Mac n’ Cheese.
- I defrosted our last can of lobster and bag of shrimp from the freezer to make a seafood casserole. I blitzed the odds and ends of crackers we had in the cupboard to substitute as breadcrumbs.
CHANGE
We keep a change jar at home. We don’t use much cash these days, but when we do, the leftovers go into the jar. I also try to keep a stash of loonies ($1 coins) and toonies ($2 coins) on hand for the kids’ allowances.
With this trip approaching, it felt like the perfect time to cash it all in. We sorted everything into old Ziploc bags (no coin rollers, but they did make us roll it at the bank before they’d accept it), counted it, and ended up with $62.05—not too shabby!
MAKEUP
e.l.f. Halo Glow lasts forever. I finally finished a bottle after more than a year! I bought a few tiny travel containers (complete with mini doe-foot applicators!) and decanted the very last bits from the big bottle.
Not only did I use it up—which is immensely satisfying—but it will take up a fraction of the space in my toiletry bag.
GIFT CARDS
We tend to use gift cards quickly (I treat them like cash lying around), but a couple had been lingering. I applied an Amazon card to my account to order some last-minute trip items, and Belle finally used her “Anycard” that she got last year for her birthday.
Multi-store cards are great in some ways—you can choose from an assortment of retailers—but they’re also a bit of a nuisance. You have to create an account, log in, select your store, transfer the balance… it’s enough extra hassle I put off dealing with it for A WHOLE YEAR.
But the time had come. She made her choice, we applied the credit, and voilà… she has $25 available to spend at H&M.
As if that weren’t enough frugality, I’ll be back tomorrow with another edition, more travel-focused this time.
Your turn.
- Do you prefer starting or finishing?
- What’s your best travel hack for makeup/toiletries?
- Do you use gift cards right away, or do they tend to languish in your wallet or drawer?
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Excellent use of all those odds and ends. And you have Halloween candy left?!? Your family is very different than mine. We’re lucky if it lasts a week!
I had to do the ” use it up” process when we went away for a semester . I think I left some stuff in the freezer. (This was a long time ago.) However, I fo remember doing a last load of laundry at like 3am to clean the towels my husband and I just used before we left.
Ha. It’s mostly the candy no one really wants!
I am expecting some 3 am tasks might have to happen in our household, too 🙂
Oh, I love this energy! Finishing things is deeply satisfying!
The “empty fridge before travelling” mission speaks to my soul. Kai is always slightly freaked out by our empty fridge a few days before we leave.
I must admit, it looks very bare, like “Old Mother Hubbard’s” cupboards.
But the way that you are doing it is very clever: homemade bars and French toast! It’s like you’re running a very efficient kitchen show called “Use It or Lose It!”
I love seeing an empty fridge but the rest of my family does NOT feel the same way.
I’m on an obsessive use it up drive ahead of our move. The movers are packing for us – the luxury – so it’s actually not a huge deal to move stuff, but I really like the idea of starting really fresh. We’ll have less space and less storage in the new house so it feels good to be finding all these bits and pieces and using them. I put away a nearly empty tube of toothpaste for some impending travel, and have been travelling with my shabbiest socks and underpants so I can toss them as I go along.
My most ridiculous use it up is 50 fountain pen cartridges – a friend texted on the morning of her (March 2020) wedding saying they needed permanent blue ink for the marriage certificates. So I bought a fountain pen, and a 50 pack (the smallest they have) of cartridges. I really prefer a purple or marroon ink but after these sitting in a jar for the past 5 years, I resolved not to buy new inks until these were all used up.
That is a lot of pen cartridges.
I think a move (or a trip for 3.5 months) is a GREAT time to reset all sorts of things. It makes it feel like a clean slate.
It’s very satisfying to “eat down” the pantry.
I have silicone containers to put all my toiletries in, but makeup, I just take as-is. The tubes are generally small enough. That said, you’re going to have to buy when you’re there! It will be fun to get European toothpaste!
I’ve never bought European toothpaste! Will report back 🙂
I love finishing things and fridge cleanouts. Some of my best cooking comes from “Ok, I have these random ingredients and I don’t want to go to the grocery store. Let’s go!”
I treat all gift cards like hot potatoes. They must be spent ASAP so that there is no chance that they don’t get used.
I mostly use up gift cards immediately, but a few always seem to languish (for no good reason). It was very satisfying!
I agree, finishing things is satisfying! We were just talking about how we need to clean out the freezer- I think we should pretend we’re going away on a long trip, and that we have to use everything up before we leave.
Gift cards are tricky- there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to use them up completely. One year my husband gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday, and I kept going to the store to browse, but didn’t want to buy anything because then my gift card would be gone! It made NO SENSE, and I finally made myself spend it. I’ve definitely gotten better since then (but there’s still an urge to hoard gifts cards).
That almond/coconut/date concoction sounds delicious!!!
I just ate the last date bar yesterday and it was so yummy! I was sad to see the end of them (but not enough to buy fresh ingredients to make more).
I didn’t even know the starters vs. finishers was a thing, but I am totally a finisher too! I get an inordinate amount of joy from using up little bits of leftovers to create a new meal. I loved reading your little successes!
Yay for Team Finish <3
I also love finishing! And I love that dollar coins are called loonies! I need to get round to having a dedicated place for coins.
Loonies… because they feature a loon on them 🙂
I love to throw anything away, so I’m definitely a finisher. I’d love to use up gift cards right away, but so many of the ones we have are for chain restaurants that we don’t go to. I keep saying we need to use them up, but then we never do.
You could give them to someone?? A few times I’ve given away gift cards to a friend when it was to a place I knew I would never go!
Me too! Don’t want to forget them. Let alone the gift cards that get lost- my husband lost one worth hundreds of dollars once. Gotta use them up fast!
Eeks! Losing a gift card would be so sad, especially when it was worth that much!!!
That tiny little foundation container is ADORABLE. I want to own one immediately, even though I have no idea what I would keep in it.
You are doing such a great job of winnowing your consumables in advance of your European adventure. I am very impressed.
Ha. It IS cute, right???
Winnowing is the best word for it and it is both satisfying and feels odd to literally be looking at BARE cupboards.
Team finisher as well! I find it so satisfying to use something up! My husband is NOT team finisher, though, because he will leave the smallest amount of chips in a bag. I think he is such a hardcore moderator that he will stop eating something when he’s full, even if it leaves a very small portion in the bag… I admire his discipline because I will eat more than I really need to to finish off something…
I am very much a minimalist when it comes to make-up so that makes it very easy for me to pack for trips! I take a very tiny little make up bag that goes into my dop kit bag with my quart bag of liquids. And nothing in my make up bag is considered a liquid so my make up can stay completely separate from my quarter bag of liquids!
Ha. I do NOT leave little bits of any food (not a good thing), but my kids have no trouble leaving ONE Oreo. Not because of self-control, but because they don’t want to throw the bag in the trash. Sigh.
No liquid makeup is genius!
Look at you – so many loose ends that you are tidying up. I love to unclutter things and I am apparently the only person who lives here who is capable of combining the cereal boxes or eliminating things that are almost empty. I rarely wear makeup, so no travel hacks there. I do have a few tiny travel containers for a few hair products that I can pack when I fly. We have a bin of gift cards and I wish I was more on top of what we have – I tend to notice the cards After I’ve shopped somewhere or after Christmas. We generally dig in the bin, if we are about to go out to dinner to see if we have anything that will steer us in a certain direction. Coach just found a partially used gift card in his email. It’s a gift for Reg from his godmother and he will be thrilled to go to Dick’s Sporting goods when he’s home for spring break. E giftcards are so easy to lost track of.
I laughed out loud at this: “I am apparently the only person who lives here who is capable of combining the cereal boxes or eliminating things that are almost empty.”
Yes to it being tricky to keep track of all the gift cards!
I am the person who lets stores make a profit on gift cards. For a very long time (longer than I care to admit), I always thought gift cards should be used as gifts for other people. It literally never occurred to me to use a gift card, but just to pass them along. And now I WILL use them, but I just forget about them. My boss gave me $50 in gift cards for a restaurant at Christmastime and I have used $0. But you might remember the rebate I was procrastinating about, but finally dealt with? That garnered me a gift card and I’m planning on using it for groceries tonight when we go. I WILL NOT LET THE STORE WIN THIS ONE.
Go, Engie!
I love gift cards that are easy to use: a grocery store I always frequent, a local pharmacy where I buy toiletries. Those get used immediately by me. My FAVOURITE is getting a gift card to my favourite cafe. I know I’ll use it AND it feels so lovely to waltz up to the cash and pay $0 for my tea.
OK, this isn’t frugality, but I had a thought when you talked about cleaning out your fridge. What if you left the family that will be staying in your house a small grocery list? Just enough to get you through a day so you don’t have to run to the store when get home? You could leave them money, or ask them to pay, but either way, how lovely would it be to come home and find breakfast / sandwich things / a frozen dinner in the house?
I plan on doing this! A jug of milk, a fresh box of cereal, some bread, some bananas, a container of cottage cheese, etc.
I agree, Elisabeth. There’s something satisfying about using the last… and knowing not a bit of it went to waste!
I’m absolutely a finisher. I love finishing up a jar/bag/package of anything. I never really thought about how satisfying it is, so thank you for bringing this to the world’s attention.
You did a great job, especially with all the goodies in your pantry and fridge!
Oh, and I had to google the word faff! HA, that was a new one for me. Thanks for that.
That’s thanks to the Great British Baking Show. There was a contestant that said faff a lot and I just love the word now 🙂
ISN’T IT SO SATISFYING???? I have been a finishing “junkie” lately and getting the satisfaction A LOT.
Love love love using things up and get vicarious satisfaction from seeing your process! Also, that tiny makeup bottle is the cutest thing ever!