How to save water, tip number 1,452

So you know to turn off the water when you brush your teeth, you flush the toilet with your bath water, water the house plants with leftover water. Do you use dish water to mop the kitchen? If you use a dishwasher, it may be harder to do, but on the occasion when you make up a pan or sink of dish water, don't let it go to waste. If there are suds left, it will clean your kitchen floor. Saves water and soap.

Cheap meat tenderizer

Frugally priced beef and pork is often tough, but you can make it as tender as the most expensive roast or steak by marinating or cooking it with vinegar. That can taste a lot better than it sounds! Barbecue sauce made with vinegar or mustard sauces with vinegar will do the trick, as well as cooking pork with sauerkraut. For a nice roast, though, splash a little plain apple cider vinegar over it before you add spices or salt and pepper. The taste will go away, but the vinegar will nicely tenderize the meat.

Quick floor cloth

Need a quick and cheap way to brighten up a room? Use a floor cloth... or rather, a blanket as a floor cloth. Some blankets are quite pretty and stylize, especially the nonwoven kind. If you don't have any extras handy, thrift stores often have them. Even if you have to buy one new, they're cheaper than buying a floor cloth or area rug.

Christmas!

I don't know if you've found it yet, but in case you haven't, there is a Christmas page up here. Some frugal advice, some nostalgia and a couple of fiction stories, plus things that can't quite be categorized. If you enjoy Christmas, visit the page and let me know what you like or dislike about it.

Christmas! is the name of the page. (Creative, huh?)

Frying bacon without curling

Ok, I'm back... just couldn't stand it when I have only a little to say. :)

You could buy something to hold the bacon flat when you're frying it (it can curl even in the microwave, I've found!), but simpler and cheaper because you don't have to buy anything extra: Lightly dust the bacon strips with flour before frying. The fat will fry out of it, and the flour will lightly crust and make the bacon hold its shape. It tastes great, too!

Look over there...

I have enjoyed writing this blog, but time just gets away from me and I haven't been posting nearly as often as I intended. So... I am going to ignore this one for awhile, and maybe permanently. I will post extremely frugal tips on my original blog when I can. I might change my mind and if so, I'll post that on my other blog.

Thanks to all of you who have followed me here. I'll see you over there!

Treating laundry stains

The cheapest way to get stains from fabric is to use bar soap and scrub. It will remove "ring around the collar," grease stains, ball point ink stains and a lot more. Wet the fabric, rub the bar soap into it, scrunch the fabric and scrub it against itself hard. It may take a little work, but most of the time it will happen.

(Do NOT dry a stained item in a dryer as the heat will set a lot of stains so they'll never come out.)

Tenderize meat

You can make a cheap, tough cut of meat as tender as an expensive one by mixing a tablespoon of baking soda in a cup of water. Make as much as you need to barely cover the meat, pour it over and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, rinse the meat thoroughly and then cook.

Cookie and biscuit cutter

Need a cookie cutter? or a biscuit cutter? Save the next tuna or cat food can. They're the perfect size, wash well and last forever. If you're handy, you can even drill a hole and attach a handle to the center of the bottom (which would be the top when you use it for a dough cutter) with a small screw and nut.

Corn silk tea

In the spirit of using it all up, save the silk from sweet corn that you buy in the husk (or grow yourself). A handful, about equal to the silk from two ears of corn, boiled in a cup and a half of water for about 15 minutes, makes a delightful drink. Try it. If you like it, you can dry the silk in a dehydrator, in the hot sun or on very low in the oven, and save it for cold weather. Use a little less of the dried silk, but it doesn't shrink much.

Don't like that tea?

If you buy tea or coffee and don't care for it, use it to dye fabric. Even herbal teas can tint white cotton - good for scarves, light curtains, etc. Just make it up as if you were going to drink it, then put the material into it while it's still hot. Let it set for 30 minutes or so and rinse in cool water. Set the dye with salt and always wash in cold water.

Drink Mix Sherbet

I came across this somewhere... don't remember where, so if anyone knows, let me know so I can give proper credit.

1 cup sugar
1 package of Kool Aid or generic drink mix
3 cups of milk

Stir all together until sugar is dissolved, then pour into a shallow freezer container. Freeze for about an hour, then beat until smooth and freeze until firm. Let it stand at room temperature a few minutes before serving.

Dehydrating food with free solar energy

If you come up with too much food, whether it's cooked or fresh, fruit or vegetable, the chances are that you can dehydrate it for future use. If you have a vehicle, place food (check to see if it needs pretreatment first) on trays or food safe screens (screens with cloth placed over them are fine) and set them inside a vehicle parked in the sun. Open a couple of windows an inch or so. Or set trays directly in the sun and cover them with loosely woven cloth to keep insects off of them. Sun drying takes a little longer, but it's a lot cheaper (as in free)!

Get the most from farmer's markets

If you have a local farmer's market, go (or stick around until) nearly closing time. When the vendors begin packing up leftover produce to take back home is the time to strike good deals. Don't be shy about asking and don't be put off if they decline. You'll never know until you ask. Most producers would rather sell their stuff than take it home to feed to the chickens.

Putting freebies to work

If you have samples of shampoo that you don't like, don't toss them. Put them in a pump bottle, add half again as much water or even as much water as you have shampoo and use it for hand soap at the sink. Bonus is that some of it smells great! Each sample is usually around 2 tablespoons, so if you add 2 tablespoons of water, you'll have around a quarter of a cup of free liquid soap for each sample.

Save the zucchini!

Got zucchini? Even with the unusual weather this year, many gardeners (and their friends!) have a glut of zucchini. A good way to eat up the bigger ones is to scrape out the seed cavity, stuff it with a cooked ground meat mixture and bake. Don't throw out the seed/pulp, though! Add it back to the stuffing mixture and it will stretch the meat, but nobody but you will even know it's there.

Witch hazel

Witch hazel is very inexpensive and one thing you should have around all the time. It can't be beat for skin irritations, insect bites, sore muscles and poison ivy. It will immediately take the pain out of a bee or hornet sting, and reduce the swelling. And as a bonus, it's a mild astringent so it's great for a quick face cleanser. It's also a very good aftershave, I'm told.

Quick, cheap sachet

Put dry potpourri in the middle of a napkin or handkerchief, bring up all four corners and put a rubber band around it, then tie a ribbon around that. Use for a lingerie sachet, or use it in the car - or even give it as a gift. A small bag of potpourri (if you buy it) will make many sachets.

Stay cool tip #2: Evaporative cooling

Hot enough for you?

If that phrase has you ready to strangle the next person who says it, you might want to try some personal evaporative cooling. Evaporative coolers work best when the humidity is low, but this method helps even when it's high. You have to do it only when you're at home, to be polite.

Wet your clothes, wring them out and put them back on. That's it. You'll feel a lot cooler instantly and if you move around, that helps even more.

Try it. It works.

What not to buy

Paper towels, paper napkins, plastic wrap, dishcloths, potholders, minute rice, plastic wrap, tv dinners, canned soup... you get the idea. There are good substitutes or homemade versions that are cheaper and better.

Out of milk?

Any dairy or dairy like product can be used in baking. Non dairy coffee creamer, mixed with water (try one part creamer and 3 parts water), ice cream (thaw first and cut back on sugar), cream or half and half (add three times as much water as cream). Use potato water in bread instead of milk.

Save water in the shower

I can take a shower and wash my (long) hair in two gallons of water. It's a lot easier than it sounds. Fill two one gallon containers with warm water then stand in the tub or shower. Pour enough water over your head to wet your hair, put down the container, shampoo and pour enough water to rinse. You'll be thoroughly wet by this time, so lather up all over. Pour the remaining gallon or so over yourself to rinse and you're done.

On becoming more frugal

What we don't buy defines us, at least at times. Here's a challenge:

Every month for the rest of the year, decide upon one new thing that you now buy that you can make yourself or substitute for something cheaper.

Ideas: Napkins, paper towels, canned soup, popsicles, pudding, note pads, potholders, dishcloths, rag rugs, iced tea...

What saves the most?

What's your best frugal tip?? I think mine is "do nothing." When I don't go anywhere, don't get involved in a project, don't do much of anything except read what's already in the house, or knit or sew with what I already have... I don't spend any money at all. And that's pretty frugal!

Stay cool tip # 1

Run cool water over your inside wrists or at any pulse point when you get overheated. This drops your temperature and makes you feel cooler fast. Do NOT use really cold or iced water. Too quick of a drop in temperature can make you sick.

Microwave cleaning

I've read "tips" where people microwave lemons or a cup of vinegar to clean the microwave... but why? When you can just wipe it clean every time you use it for something messy, why would you go to the extra expense and trouble of doing it the hard way? It's like a stove. Keep it clean instead of waiting until it's really dirty then you have to resort to buying cleaners for it and/or spending a lot of time scrubbing it.

Disposable coasters for free

Got business cards? I mean the kind that someone gave you that you have no intention of needing or some of your own that aren't useful any more. Put the long edge of one barely on top of the long edge of another one and staple both sides. They're then just the right size for coasters for either glasses or mugs. When they get too wet or worn, toss them and make more. For free.

Soup and salad from throwaways

When you have broccoli and/or cauliflower, don't throw away any of the stems. Peel the larger ones and shred for a salad addition or slice into soup; smaller ones can be used as they are. Slice and freeze them in water until you have enough for a broccoli/cauliflower/cheese/ham soup.

Free green onion sprouts

Put the bottom quarter or so of an onion in a container filled with dirt and keep it watered. It will develop roots and give you green sprouts for salads or sandwiches. Tip: don't cut it all the way down, and you can continue to harvest it for several weeks.

Free bulletin board

Take a piece of cardboard the size of the bulletin board that you want and cover it with cloth. To be extremely frugal, use a piece of an old sheet or other cast off fabric. You can have it as fancy or as plain as you like. Wrap the cloth at the corners and fasten with staples or thumbtacks and there you have it. You can staple or thumbtack a string to hang it or make a small hole in the top center for a nail.