Fix your own car!

I'm trying to sell my car.  It has 94,000 miles and is wonderful.  But my husband wants us to have something a little newer with fewer miles, plus AWD or 4WD for our mountain trips.  So, I listed my car on craigslist and yesterday, my speed and tachometer stopped working.  I was a little disheartened thinking that something was seriously wrong.  Today I took the car by my favorite mechanic and he said he didn't know how to fix it.  He had seen it before, but didn't know what to do.  So this afternoon, I looked it up online, just to check and see if others had the same issue......lo and behold, others not only had the same issue, but there were instructions on how to correct it FOR FREE!!!!  AND THEY WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm sure it save me at least a couple of hundred bucks on mechanics fees and no telling what else.  So google the problems with your car, microwave, TV, etc, before you call the service person, you may just save yourself some serious dough!

Swiffer

I love the swiffer wet jet for many reasons, but two of those reasons are not the cost of the solution refills and the cost of the pad refills.  So I did some searching and this is what I have found to work

For the solution:  once the bottle is empty, bore a hole in the top big enough for a funnel to fit, then add your own solution and then just stick a cork in it.  If your cork is too big, just trim away on the cork or you can make your hole a little larger.  But I recommend manipulating the cork versus the bottle.  I personally like to use a white vinegar and water solution, but you can just use your favorite bottle cleanr and dilute to package directions.

For the pad:  You can go several ways with this, but something reusable seems to be the cheapest.  I use plain old bar mops for dishtowels, and after one gets too stained, it makes an excellent replacement pad, just clip the backside with clothespins, binder clips or whatever you have handy, and when you're done, toss it in the wash.  You can also use old washcloths, microfiber cloths, or even old cloth diapers.

Happy Swiffering the cheap way!

Zote soap

Today I was in one of our little local grocery stores and noticed a soap I've never seen before.  It's called Zote laundry soap and it comes in both white and pink, and I found it down the Latino goods aisle.  After doing a little research, it is supposed to be a basic Mexican soap used for years for laundry done in rivers on washboards.  I'm going to try it in my laundry soap recipe and see how I like it.

By the way:

Fels Naptha is 1.39 for a 7ish ounce bar and Zote is 1.39 for a 14 oz bar.

I'll use it and review it.

Compost

Great soil for gardening or flowers is hard to find, and when you do find it, it's expensive.  So make your own.  I know, the word compost conjures us memories of terrible odors and grossness.  But's here's the thing, you don't have to have a big smelly pile of rotting material in order to have compost.  And you don't have to buy a $200 dollar compost bin.

Did you know you can compost right in your flowerbed/garden.  I never knew this until a gentleman in my neighborhood did it.  The trick is that you spread it out instead of dumping it into one huge pile, and you use one of those 3 pronged fork things (looks like a small pitchfork) and you turn your soil frequently.  What I discovered is that doing this helps the material you are composting decompose faster, and at the same time, you are turning your soil often which helps aerate it, and because it's turning, water absorbs more quickly and weeds are easier to pull, plus there are fewer of them.  Now I don't turn all of my soil at once.  I have 3 distinct patches of garden, so if I turn one every day or 2, I can keep up with it.  I also don't have tons of stuff to compost.  Mostly peeling, eggshells and stems and seeds.  We don't generally have cooked veggie leftovers.  I did it with rotten tomatoes that fell off the vine last year and within a couple of weeks, the seeds had sprouted into new tomato plants!

If you are still a little fidgety about putting your compost all over your garden, then just pick a small corner and do it there, then you just have to turn that one small patch every couple of days.  It'll work the same without have a big ugly separate pile to have to maintain.  Just have little ones instead.

Grilling

I love grilling in the summer because #1)the heat from cooking is outside not in; #2) the mess is outside not in, #3) the smell is awesome and #4) there is a lot you can do on a grill.

Take yesterday for instance,  I had a family pack of drumsticks I got on sale, and I decided to cook them all at once so I would have easy to reheat leftovers for lunches a couple of days.  In addition to those, I took a glass corning baker put a little oil in, chopped some zucchini that a neighbor gave me, added a tad of emeril's seasoning and put that on the grill (in the dish, uncovered), and I took 2 twice baked potatoes out of the freezer (from yesterday's post) allowed them to thaw a little while (maybe half hour), them put them in yet another small glass corning dish and pt that directly on the grill too and let them cook.  A word of caution on the corning dishes though, make sure you don't put them over high heat.  My grill is one of those where the left and right are separately adjustable, so I can turn down the side with the corning. 

I have even baked bread on the grill on a very low setting when the power went out after I had proofed it one day.  Took about the same amount of time, and it somehow even browned some - I don't know how on earth that happened.

Premade Convenience Reviews

Okay, so here's what I've been up to.  I have been forcing myself to make double batches of different types of foods and them freeze them and use them later.  For instance I have done this with chuck roast, ground beef, rice, pasta, meatballs, twice baked potatoes, muffins and waffles.  Then of course there is the cheese.

So far, everything I have made, frozen, thawed and used has been just fine.  Even the twice baked potatoes, and I wasn't too sure about how that one was going to turn out, but it was fine.  I just made them up, then instead of going into the oven for the second baking, I wrapped them individually nice and tightly and popped them into the freezer.  When I wanted them, I took them out, let them thaw for maybe 30 minutes, then put them in the oven with whatever else I was cooking (last time was the toaster oven).  I have also done the second baking of these on the grill too, and they were still fabulous.

The cheese has also done well.  The only difference I can tell is that pre-frozen cheese crumbles a little easier (it doesn't fall apart in your hands, but when you're shredding it, it crumbles a little, but not in a bothersome way, I just happened to notice it).  The preshred I put in the freezer is great too, no complaints there.  It all melts just fine.

So there, cook once, eat 2,3,4 times because the extra is frozen and ready when you are.  Dinner in a snap.  This also helps ward off last minute take out because of planning issues.

Pasta and rice look a little strange frozen, but when they thaw, they look normal again, I dont' really understand why, but I'm also not going to waste brain cells on it, I need all I got!

Cheese

My dear Lord cheese is expensive.  The best I can find at regular price is about $4 per pound.

So, on my way back from homeschool convention (which was awesome as expected), my sister and I stopped at Sam's, and I purchased more chese then ever before in my life.

• 5lb loaf of sharp cheddar $10.50
• 5lb loaf of mozzarella $11.25

I have a deli slicer, so some was sliced and packaged for freezing, some was frozen in small blocks and I shredded some and put it in the freezer in gallon sized freezer bags. 

I really hope this experiment works.  My family loves cheese and this way it was half price!

Share the Road....trip

Tomorrow morning around 8am I'll be leaving my home and heading on a 5 hour trip to Winston-Salem NC to the North Carolinians for Home Education annual Convention and Bookfair.  I am excited, and this year, instead of going it alone, I'm taking someone with me.  And it's not even a homeschooler, it's someone who has just been looking for an opportunity to get out of dodge for a few days.  She's not going to the conferences with me at all, she got a copy of the city bus schedule online and she's plotted out routes and times to different places she wants to go around town.  So, I only have to pay half the room and fuel price of last year because I have someone to share it with, she gets out of town on the cheap, and we're both happy - and we're not even doing the same thing.

Sewing

I am new to sewing.  I have had a sewing machine now for about 3 years, but just never got into it.  However, this year is different.  I have already created 2 skirts and 1 hanbag completely lined, padded and has inner pockets and zips shut.  I'm so proud of myself.  I even took a few minutes this after noon to go to the Cotton Gin and scope out the latest Vera Bradley's to see if I can  duplicate something like it for myself -  Hmmmmm, if I can get that one done, I may even post pics!

Sewing can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.  I would suggest that when you are beginning, get some old fabric from your grandma's closet or a thrift shop so that you're not wasting 10.99 per yard fabric on a skirt that is not done well.  I personally have used some of my husband's pants that he wore only once then they shrunk on him - he could't wear them, so they became fodder for my play.  The skirts were made from new material, but the leftover bits became parts for bags, hair wraps, etc.  A small cosmetics bag can be made from just a few small bits of fabric.  These are good practice pieces!  Old T shirts can have a new life as reuseable shopping bags is torn apart just a bit and resewn.Sewing is also a practice of independance.  I no longer NEED a Vera, I can make my own duplicate to the dimensions and level of organization that work for me!

Re-use Egg Cartons

There are several uses for leftover egg cartons, one I used today, one I use all the time, and there are others:

• Use the indvidual craters for different paint colors
• Jewelry sorting
• sorting other small items like beads

any other good uses?

DIY Sites

I personally love DIY type websites, partly because of the creativity, partly because of what you learn, and partly because DIY is usually much ceaper than non-DIY.  So here are a few of the sites I love to check out when I want to do something.

http://www.instructables.com/
http://www.ehow.com/
http://www.doityourself.com/


Have fun doing it yourself!

Summer savings

I find myself  in the same dilemma every late spring/early summer - what can I do to help my husband's income stretch as far as possible?  So this year is no different.  Many of the things I will try to do are rehashed from years past, and some will be experimental, but here is where I am so far:

• Meal planning with baking scrutiny - what I mean here is that in the summer it is hot, and the AC is on trying to cool it down, so the more I bake, the more heat I'm putting out into the room and the more the AC is having to work to counter it.  That means using more elctricity.  So, I'm working on my meal planning to include multiple meals so that I can have one or two baking days, but still have food for the week without having to heat my house up every day or 2 for baking.  Stove heating only takes a few minutes and doesn't heat up the house nearly as hot or as long, so that I don't mind.  Of course this also means planning my baking days around the coolest days o the week also to help the AC bill - we'll see how that one goes
• Hanging clothes on the clothesline
• Using our fans
• Going outside more
• Drinking lots of cold liquids
• Keeping extra bottles of liquid in the freezer to freeze and help keep the temperature in the freezer steady, and it helps keep the freezer from running so much, the trick is tospread the bottles out a bit.
• Keep unused electronics off when not in use.  You would be suprised how much heat a computer and other electronic devices create when they are not being used.  They also could use a cooling off period anyway to rest the motors.

Plug away and save that cash -

Harris Teeter Triples

Triple Coupons on April 28-May 4 ! The usual rules apply :)

Preparing ahead in warm weather

It's spring, and if you're a typical frugalie, your windows are open, fans are on and oven is off as much as possible to keep the heat down.  But you still have to provide lunch and dinner for your family.  Oh poo. 

Sunday was a beautiful day, and I still had to cook, so since my kitchen was hot already, I cooked extra to be prepared for the week so I would not have to heat the kitchen up again quite so hot.

Here's a brief list of things that are easy to cook extra of on Sunday afternoon (or any day) and keep for several days in the fridge:

• Noodles - something fun like penne or farfalle are very versatile, just add a sauce or heat in a pan with some butter and salt.
• Rice - I'm thinking rice as a quick side dish, added to burritos, fried rice with leftover meat and veggies, etc.
• Bread - if you're heating up your oven for 1-2 loaves, why not go ahead and make 6-8 and freeze the extras
• Veggies - if I'm making frozen peas for tonight I can double the amount and have them again a couple of nights from now as another side
• Potatoes - twice as many mashed potatoes means potato cakes later in the week! Or shepherd's pie topping ready to go!
• Meat - this one is a little trickier because meat is best on the first go around, unless it's sauced or seasoned for a specific dish, then you can't really tell.  For intance, if you are having meatball subs on Monday and Tacos on Thursday, go ahead and cook all of the ground beef while the pan is hot, ten your taco dinner just took 15 minutes less and you didn't have to heat up the pan or the room all over again.  Chicken can be done similarly if you're heating up your oven for one, can you fit a second one in there if you are having another chicken dish in the near future?

Be creative, use your time wisely and see if you can do little extras that take little to no more time but keep you from having to work as hard another day of the week.  This can be helpful for busy moms

Craigslist

I have recently become a big fan of craigslist.  I have purchased from it and I have sold on it.  I have also had a little spam from it, but that's pretty easy to identify.

I purchased a Vera Bradley bag brand new from an  exchange list (I'll describe this is another post later) for $30 shipped, carried it for 6 months, and now I want something different, and so I listed it on craigslist for $30, and got an offer.  So if I sell it, I basically got to carry a $98 Vera in perfect condition for free!

Plus, craiglist has no seller fees, except for  a few things, but I'm not sure what.  It also has local branches kind of like freecycle so the participants (generally) are local folk.

Have a wonderful day and go see craig and his marvelous list!

Razor Blades

Do what!!  Yes, it says razor blades, and let me now tell you why:

• Cost - about 1.50 for a pack of 10 single edge (which is what you want)
• Grout - after you scrub grout, there is usally this little bit of gunk you just can't get out, well, I get it out with virtually no effort with a razor blade
• Gas cooktop - you know what I mean, the little bit of dried oil, butter, food, etc that get burned, brown and stuck on right there under where the flame comes out, a razor blade takes them off easily, just be careful not to dig so you don't scratch your surface
• Nonstick cookware - **don't do this if you have any type of warranty because it will nullify it.  But if you have the cheaper kind, I personnally have used a razor blade to get stuck on pam spray off before.  My hubby is usually the only one to use the nonstick and clean it, and sometimes if little bits of the spray gets left on, it will burn on and it's hard to get off -
• Glass - get stray spray paint or other stuck on matter off of glass in a cinch - I personally love to do this on my toaster oven because it's hard to clean the door
• Small appliances - I have a kitchen aid stand mixer that I use almost daily.  I wipe it down after I use it, but sometimes I like to take if apart and just give it a good bath.  Well, since I make a lot of flour products, bits of flour dust get left behind when I wipe it down, and because it's not far from the stove, grease particles maket he flour stick, and sometimes you get gunk around the screws in the back of the machine, so when I give my mixer the spa treatment, I get the razor blade out and scrape gently around the joints and screws and my baby comes out clean as a whistle.
• I use a clean razor blade to slash bread tops before baking too, you can get pretty creative with the art this way because the slashes are so clean.

The razor blade is fast becoming one of my good friends, however there are a few instances when a razor blade should never be considered:

• On humans - do I really need to get into this, just don't use it on people
• On animals - can't think of  a good time to use it on critters either
• If you have a mentally unstable person living with you - then you may want to forego razor blades in the home at all

So, I like to use razor blades for certain jobs, but I keep them in a safe place and far away from where my kids could find them.  I also store the little case they come in inside of another container, to further hide them.  Used cautiously and responsibly though, they can be handy little suckers and save you a lot of cleaning time and headache.  Plus they are dirt cheap themselves.

**Please read disclaimer to the bottom right of this blog!

Free Healthcare!

I was having a conversation with a woman from my church not long ago about healthcare and related things and her comment to me went something like this:  "When I was a kid, we never went to the doctor unlss we were really sick.  If we had a cold, momma prayed over us.  If we had the flu, momma prayed over us.  If we had a headache, momma prayed over us.  Nowadays, people take their kids straight to the doctor or emergency room for every sneeze, sniffle, fever and vomiting.  It's needless and stupid.  If people prayed over their kids again and used their common sense, they'd save a ton of money and time in the doctor's offices and on medicines they don't actually need."

There are some things that need medication, but as this wise older woman has so clearly pointed out,  people don't take the time, put their hands on their children and fervently pray.  They also don't use common sense.  They say things like "Oh, it's just a $20 copay" or "Medicaid is paying for it anyway." 

People please - there is no such thing as free healthcare - that is except for taking the time to pray over your sick loved one.  There is no charge for prayer.  Medicaid costs, copays cost, even free clinics need donations because they cost money to operate.  Prayer is and always will be free of charge. 

Common sense if free too, if you don't have any, I suggest you find someone who has some and begin to ask them questions so that some seeds of common sense and wisdom may be planted in you to cultivate and grow and use yourself - then pass it on to another person in need of more common sense so that one day, it may actually be common again!

Workout DVD Rentals

I haven't posted about renting DVD's from the library in about a year and a  half, so let me reiterate.  Most libraries have an online catalog that you can search and hold specific items, including DVD's.  I do this often, and each free rental is 3 weeks long.  Here is  list of titles I have gotten recently:

• Jungle Book 2
• The Rescuers
• Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred
• Denise Austin Pilates
• Denise Austin Yoga
• Disney Classics Collection (includes Casey at the Bat, Morris the Midgette Moose, Ben and Me, and several others on the same DVD)

This is a very small sample of available titles.  If your library is like ours (and we are NOT in a large town at all) then it is linked to several local libraries and they transport titles back and forth for you for free.  There is also the opton of interlibrary loan, which is sometimes free, and for us, sometimes it costs $1 - which is still cheap for a 3 week loan.

Take a few moments, and find a good DVD/book/CD from your local library system and entertain for free!

Healthcare Tips

For those of you who don't already know this, I am a Registered Nurse, and when I do work (which not very often anymore, only about 2-3 times a month) I work in the Emergency Room.  With this healthcare bill passage looming, I think it's time to post a few tips for you because, I believe as a nurse that this bill is going to seriously hurt a lot of Americans, and most of my cohorts in the Emergency Room agree based on what we deal with on a regular basis.  So it's going to be more important than ever to stay healthy and not have to use the healthcare system except when you really need it.

• Vomiting one time is not a medical emergency.  Vomiting many times and not being able to keep any liquids down to compensate for the fluid loss, or adding in fever or diarrhea deserves a call to your doctor (who has your medical history available and can make the determination on whether or not you need immediate medical attention).  And remember vomiting has a functional purpose too, it's not all bad.
• Fever of 100.5 is not a medical emergency.  A fever of 105.0 however, is a different story - and please don't not treat the fever because you don't want to 'mask the fever', we want you to treat a fever that's high instead of letting it just get higher and higher and possibly have febrile seizures.  If the fever is 102.0, treat it and call your doc to see what they think-.  Also remember that fever too has a functional purpose and is also not all bad - it's your body's way of killing off bacteria and viruses.  Most health professionals don't even recommend treating a fever under 101.0, but if you're concerned or want to hear the opinion of someone who knows you personally, ask your faily doctor or nurse since they know your history and can give you more personalized information based on your medical history.
• Eat healthy - people who eat nothing but junk don't have the optimal physical condition to naturally fight off infections
• Exercize - people who exercize regularly are generally healthier (this doesn't mean you need a membership, this means get your butt off the couch and clean your house, cook your own meals, work in your flowerbeds, walk the dog, play with the kids, go for a walk, etc)  MOVE MORE!!!!
• Wash your hands - this can't be said enough, but wash your hands with plain old soap and water several times a day - when they are dirty, before you eat, after using the bathroom, and after play.
• Don't be a germa phobe - things like over using hand sanitizer, scrubbing every surface with bleach like a mad woman and spraying lysol on everything is not necessary.  DO take precautions, DO practice good hygiene, but DO NOT obsess to the point of craziness.  And believe it or not (and you can research this for yourself) exposure to normal germs is good for your immune system.  Now I'm NOT saying to go lick the dog or the gas station bathroom floor, but if your kid eats a God-knows-how-old Cheerio out of the corner of your living room, don't head to the ER to get his stomach pumped either.
• Call your doctor's office for questions, that's why they are there
• Invest in one of those home remedies or home medical manuals, they have lot's of great informaiton out there (and you can find them at most thrift shops)
• Get plenty of sleep - this also helps you fight off infections
• Get annual exams, once a year check ups for healthy adults is a good way to catch problems before they become BIG problems.  Regular cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride screenings are helpful in making sure you are doing your part in maintaining good health.
• Immunizations - this one is controversial, so all I'm going to say is to do your research and make your decision then take whatever precautions are necessary depending on what your decision is.  We personally did not get the H1N1 vaccine, but my kids are also not in public school or daycare, so our risk was lower than some other groups.

Anyway, more to come on this later - I'm not into writing posts that may make your eyes pop out :)

PAID OFF AGAIN!!!

As of today, my minivan is PAID OFF!!!

Our family's overhead is now decreased by $650 a month.

Next up , the computers!!