photo by syvwlch Our favorite cleaning products, supplies and tools help us save time and effort. If you don’t have a cleaning service or utility room and have been storing these items lined up in cabinets, try putting together a cleaning-kit caddy, which makes it easy to have everything handy to carry from room to [...]
photo by matthewlevine Article continues below ↓ advertisement | your ad here I love waking up to the familiar smells of bacon and eggs cooking and coffee brewing. The problem is that many families often don’t wake up on leisurely weekends at the same time, so brunch makes more sense. It’s nice to “do” brunch [...]
photo by eamonn Do you know the health hazards lurking in your bathroom? No, not your household cleaners. Think again. Take a look at your beauty products. Have you ever questioned the synthetic materials used to create them? I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, so I’ll spare you the details and simply direct [...]
photo by toofarnorth DEAR SARA: I have started to hang up a couple of loads each week on a clothesline rather than throwing them in the dryer. I was wondering how much money I save by doing this. Do you have any idea how much money it costs per hour to run an electric dryer? [...]
photo by katmere “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.” — Phyllis Diller The kitchen is sparkling clean. You leave the room for a few minutes, and, when you walk back, there’s a mess. It’s frustrating trying to keep your home clean if you [...]
photo by aussiegall We live in a throwaway society. We’re so wasteful that people known as freegans (www.freegan.info), an anticonsumer environmentalist group, can salvage and survive, by choice, on what mainstream consumers discard. While they’re often criticized as being extreme or downright nasty, I couldn’t disagree more. I think it certainly reflects the amount of [...]
photo by audreyjm529 Are you going stir-crazy waiting for spring? Bring on the sunshine, cue the butterflies and give me the sweet scent of hyacinth. I’m done with short days, heating bills, gray skies and cold and flu. I enjoy the four seasons, but sometimes winter is too long. It’s not surprising that some people [...]
photo by orangeacid We’ve all been there. You’ve got too many bananas, mashed potatoes, eggs or zucchini, and the excess is threatening to rot in your kitchen. While some families are used to a week of turkey after Thanksgiving, they might not appreciate a week of scrambled eggs. Often, the food can be frozen and [...]
photo by freakapotimus We’re six weeks into the new year, and you’ve probably replaced your outdated calendar with a new one. If you didn’t throw your old one away, there are plenty of ways to reuse it. I save mine to do crafts with my kids. My 5-year-old hangs her favorite calendar pictures on her [...]
photo by squeakymarmot Sometimes, frugality isn’t enough. There are times when you need a few extra bucks to supplement your income, but an additional full-time job isn’t necessary. It can be a challenge to find ways to make extra money with constraints such as childcare and scheduling. The part-time jobs with mom’s hours are filled [...]
photo by hansengel I’m a list maker. From groceries to reminders, it’s written down. I’m not so obsessed that my lists are well organized. The back of an envelope or a scrap of paper will do. One of my favorite lists is my “My life is too short to” list. I’m a firm believer in [...]
photo by byrdiegyrl Growing up, I never shopped at dollar stores. There weren’t any in my area yet. I was old enough to shop at Woolworth’s five-and-dime before they closed their doors, so I was aware of variety stores that carried discounted merchandise. However, I wasn’t quite old enough to be a savvy shopper who [...]
photo by Robert Brook In my house, my husband is the master jar and bottle opener. Sometimes, I don’t even have a chance to try to open one. If he sees a jar on the counter that I’m about to use, he’ll just open it for me. I like the first tip for those times [...]
photo by claireb707 Once regarded as turning meals into gray mush, slow cookers have made a comeback as a frugal cook’s appliance of choice. And for good reason: They offer hands-off cooking, which can free up time for you to do other things while still serving a nutritious meal. Slow cookers are in such high [...]
photo by donut The mismatch amount of hot dogs to a package of buns often leaves you with leftovers. If you overplan a party, you’ll have extra, too. Don’t waste them. I like to call the following “reucipes” (ri-yoos-uh-pees), which are tips for reusing food and common household items. My readers share their tasty ways [...]
DEAR SARA: Do you have your kids do chores for their allowance, or do they get it regardless? –Michelle, Massachusetts DEAR MICHELLE: I don’t give my children an allowance for chores. Our children have chores and responsibilities that they have to do because they should. We give rewards if they go above and beyond their [...]
Kids often get grass stains on their clothes. You can soak the clothing or saturate the stain in a mixture of 1 part vinegar and two parts water to remove the stain, pretreat with an enzyme laundry detergent (Biz or Wisk), or make a paste with water and a digestive enzyme capsule (opened to get [...]
