Stretch Your Savings

My Mom has sent me some handy new books about quirky household & money-saving ideas. So far, I've found out that fabric softener & the sheets are pretty darn multi-functional. * You can spray your broom with 3 parts water & 1 part liquid fabric softener to reduce the amount of dust it kicks up.  I WILL be trying this at work (at Starbucks) because simply re-arranging the dust in the cafe is annoying to everyone. * You can apparently dust your TV & computer screens with a used fabric softener sheet to get the dust AND static off. * An unused fabric softener sheet can be used to clean up pet hair.  Just wipe it on the sofa, carpet, your dog...anywhere the hair's stuck to. The name of the books are Who Knew? and they've published 3 volumes so far.  They're written by Bruce & Jeanne Lubin & I plan on sharing a lot of their hints with you. Have a great week!  :)

Well, folks...I think it's finally happened.  After 80 long weeks of price matching which has cost me countless hours of combing through grocery ads, there is finally an easier way! I found a website (whose services are now free!) that I've been using to price match all of my grocery & household items for the past few weeks.  They're unlike any other site I've been using & I'm hooked.  Here's why: *  The prices are good.  They don't just lazily post every price in the weekly ads (because some of those prices are downright highway robbery).  I know if the price is on this site, it at least deserves a second glance. *  The dates are accurate.  They're very quick to update the info, so you aren't seeing a 2-day sale price that expired 3 days ago. *  They include most of the ethnic markets whose prices are MUCH better than traditional grocery chains. *  You can arrange the departments in the route you specifically travel around the stor

Drumroll, please!  Here are the results from our latest Money-Saving experiment.  I was pleasantly surprised at what happened! ...despite a bumpy start. I heard that green onions will keep regenerating themselves in water.  So, I headed to the fridge to grab some (that I got for 20 cents thanks to some price-matching prowess ),  filled a canning jar with water & stuck 'em in.  Here's what they looked like after a few days : Not great, but notice all the new growth! There were 7 or 8 new onions growing up from between the old ones.  To be honest, this was an older, semi-slimy bunch of onions to begin with, so I wasn't expecting stellar results.  I was just impatient (as usual) & wanted to get started right away with whatever I had on-hand.  (I also stripped the slimy outer layer off of these before placing them in the water which turns out to be a mistake since the new onions grow out of the 'cracks' between the current ones.  Leave them as much of t

Well, Pinterest strikes again!  I swear, I adore that site.  I found a healthier, easier recipe for fried pickle chips.  My little sister's coming into town today and we WILL be making these. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these crispy, salty bites of Heaven, you can find them at Smashburger in Las Vegas.  They're the perfect side dish for a spicy burger.  For my Southern readers, you're probably already addicted to these & are currently opening a jar of pickles in anticipation for this recipe. That's me in New Orleans last year...recovering from an infamous bout of the stomach flu.  Really infamous.  A foodie like me being queasy in the Big Easy was torturous.  BUT, as soon as I felt human again, I hit the fried pickles!  These were at a little dive oyster bar & they were especially heavenly.  (I wasn't brave enough to assault my poor tummy with raw oysters at that juncture, so I was elated to see these guys on the menu!) I don't own a d

Found this on Pinterest .  Love it.