Aluminum foil is great for keeping your leftovers fresh, but did you know it can be used for so much more? Take a look below at 10 additional uses we found for aluminum foil that are sure to blow your mind. Who knew it could be used in so many different ways? Take a look!
10 Frugal Uses for Aluminum Foil
1. Turn hard brown sugar soft again.
Don’t throw away that nag of brown sugar if it goes hard. Instead, wrap a chunk of it in aluminum foil and place it in the oven for a few minutes. You don’t need a really high heat, around 300 degrees is perfect. When you open the packet, the sugar will be soft again.
2. Make the perfect pie.
Wrap aluminum foil around the edges of your pie crust before baking. This will prevent them from burning. You can also do the same when baking a chicken. Wrap tinfoil around the ends of the legs so they don’t cook faster than the rest and burn.
3. Create a heart shaped cake.
No need to spend extra money on a heart shaped pan. Just form a heart shape from aluminum foil and place it in a regular sized baking pan. Pour the batter into the shape and bake as usual.
4. Keep ice cream off your hands.
Prevent drips when you wrap a little aluminum foil around the bottom of ice cream cones. You can also wrap it around the handles of ice pops to keep hands protected.
5. Make your silver shine.
Before you store your silver, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and then some aluminum foil. This will help keep it free from dust and debris as well as the air that could tarnish it. It also helps when soaking your silver to line the bowl with aluminum foil first.
6. Make your pots sparkle.
No need to buy fancy scrubbers to clean your pots and pans. Instead, just ball up some aluminum foil and scrub away. Toss the foil when done. How easy is that? The foil is tough and will chip away at residue and stains like you won’t believe.
7. Never clean your oven again.
Line your bottom rack (not the floor of the oven but the bottom rack) with aluminum foil. This way spills and crumbs are caught. When it gets dirty, just remove it and line it again. No more messy or stinky oven cleaning chemicals!
8. Iron clothes faster.
Line the top of your ironing board with aluminum foil then place an ironing board cover over it. It will help reflect heat back towards your iron. As you iron, the garment will heat up quicker and your ironing will go twice as fast.
9. Protect your mattresses.
If you have a child potty training, just place some sheets of aluminum foil under the mattress pad. This can help stains from soaking into the mattress.
10. Make robot hats.
This is a fun craft that kids will love. Let them use aluminum foil to make hats that are out of this world. Make horns, antennae, crowns, or whatever else they can think of. Look at pictures online for some fun examples.
Never look at aluminum foil the same way again. Give these ten uses for aluminum foil a try and you are sure to be amazed.
More Frugal Hacks
- 20 Ways to Use Honey
- 20 Frugal Uses for Salt
- 20 Ways to Use Lemons
- 20 Frugal Uses for Borax
- 10 Ways to Recycle Eggshells
- 20 Frugal Uses for Baking Soda
- 30 Frugal Uses for Witch Hazel
- 20 Frugal Uses for Epsom Salt
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elena says
Dear Kathie, aluminum is a quite expensive raw material to produce and is rather difficult to recycle. Just have a look how often it is already used in all the food packaging in the supermarket. From my opinion, we should use it as litlle as possible and not live frugal at the expense of our environment.
Paulina Piskorz says
Wow, who would have thought that aluminium foil can have so many uses? Great tips! Though, I usually soften hard brown sugar by adding a few drops of water and heating shortly – like this: http://www.listonic.com/protips/get/gexmqpqwnx
But your method is definitely worth a try 🙂 Thanks again for these awesome tips!
Rebecca | LettersFromSunnybrook.com says
I have exclusively used one or two balls of aluminum foil instead of dryer sheets for a year now. In the Winter, they even worked for all my fleece clothes to reduce static. The balls get smaller and smoother with each load, then I toss in a new one. If the foil is not icky from cooking, I reuse those sheets for the drier.
Alea Milham says
Great tip! That is a frugal (and chemical-free) to reduce static cling.