diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index d1fd732..5f15cda 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@
 	- actually don't need to save the vertex/normal buffers after passing to opengl
 - use a storage pool for assimp meshes allowing reuse across entities
 	- also cache textures from loaded meshes for re-use
-- replace remaining calls to malloc/free with safe(r) function in util.h
 - remove v2i/v3f... etc from util.h and either use glm everywhere, or write a smaller linear math.h
 
 ## LATER TODO:
diff --git a/src/render_group.cpp b/src/render_group.cpp
index 58b5024..b2c0b38 100644
--- a/src/render_group.cpp
+++ b/src/render_group.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 
 #include <sstream> // TODO: remove this and make something in util.h
 #include <cassert>
-#include <cstdlib> // calloc
 
 #include <glm/glm.hpp>
 #include <glm/geometric.hpp>
@@ -127,14 +126,13 @@ rgInitEntity(Entity* e)
 	rg->draw_mode = GL_TRIANGLES;
 	rg->use_normals = e->mesh_group.use_normals;
 	uint num_meshes = rg->num_objects = e->mesh_group.num_meshes;
+	rg->render_objects = UTIL_ALLOC(num_meshes, render_object*);
 
 	// apply translation/rotation/scaling
 	e->world_transform = glm::mat4(1.0);
 	e->world_transform = glm::translate(e->world_transform, e->translation);
 	e->world_transform = glm::scale(e->world_transform, e->scale);
 
-	rg->render_objects = (render_object**) std::calloc(num_meshes, sizeof(render_object*));
-
 	for (uint i = 0; i < num_meshes; i++)
 	{
 		meMeshInfo* mesh = e->mesh_group.meshes[i];
diff --git a/src/renderer.cpp b/src/renderer.cpp
index d166bb2..eac32c6 100644
--- a/src/renderer.cpp
+++ b/src/renderer.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 
 #include <vector>
 #include <cmath> // trig functions
-#include <cstdlib> // calloc
 
 #if defined (_WIN32)
 	#include <SDL.h>
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index d0dd037..c29a02a 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -89,7 +89,6 @@ utilLogAlloc(uint item_count, uint type_size, const char* file_name, const int l
 	return mem;
 }
 
-// TODO: search/replace other calls to std::free with this
 void utilSafeFree(const void* mem)
 {
 	if (mem != nullptr) {
@@ -116,7 +115,7 @@ utilDumpTextFile(const char* filename)
 	assert(length < MAX_FILESIZE);
 	// TODO: check error codes for fseek and ftell
 
-	char* buf = (char *) std::calloc(length, sizeof(char));
+	char* buf = UTIL_ALLOC(length, char);
 	assert(buf);
 
 	std::fread(buf, sizeof(char), length, fp);