photo by wheany

DEAR SARA: I am about to give up the paper route I have (will probably regret it later, but the 3 a.m. wake up is killing me). And I have a box full of the plastic bags the papers go in. Not the smaller, skinnier daily bags, but the 9-inch-wide Sunday bags, and I am trying to find a use for them so they don’t go to waste. I had to pay almost $30 for the box and only used a few per day so I still have tons eight months later. I already keep a few in my car to throw out trash, etc but was hoping to come up with some more ideas. — S.C., Ohio

DEAR S.C.: You can try to sell or give them to another newspaper carrier. Or a craft person might like them for shows. Use them as trash liners, when cleaning cat litter, as car trash bags or to hold a wet umbrella, dispose of dirty diapers, donate to the humane society, keep a few for wet clothes when you go to the beach, use as keyboard protector, or use when packing your suitcase.

DEAR SARA: My kitchen is very small. It is well planned out, though, so that I have enough storage. It is counter space that I am lacking. I do a lot of things on a card table. The card table has sort of a fake leather-like top. I would really like to convert this top or cover it with something that I could use mainly to roll out cookie, noodle and pie dough. It wouldn’t have to be permanent. I could put something on it when I needed it for dough and use it just for that purpose. Any suggestions what I could cover it with or place on top of it to use for dough preparation? What materials work well for dough that will keep it from sticking? I have a dough cloth; it just isn’t as large as I would like, and they tend to move around. — Surilda, e-mail

DEAR SURILDA: You could cover it with Formica or laminate countertop, wood such as butcher block, pastry cloth or silicone mat. Or you could get a marble pastry board or a wooden pastry or cutting board and situate it over the sink when you’re rolling out dough. I use my wooden cutting board across my sink when I need a little extra workspace.

DEAR SARA: When a store doubles up to 99 cents, I guess they don’t give anything more on the $1 ones right? –Tammy, Virginia

DEAR TAMMY: Yes, you’re right. They double only up to 99 cents, so if you’re coupon is $1, it won’t be doubled. So if you have the choice between $1 off of two products and 50 cents off of one, use your 50 cents off one product coupon. Occasionally, some grocery stores will run a promotion for doubling $1 coupons, so look for these promotions. A grocery store that doubles up to 99 cents is good. Many stores don’t do that. So you can be happy that your store does.

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