Thursday, January 31, 2008

Butter finger

Use your clean finger to gather up the remains of butter from the dish before you wash it or from the butter wrapper before you throw it away. Put the salvaged butter in a container with a lid in the refrigerator. Try it; you'll be surprised at how fast it accumulates.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Hard water deposits

To remove hard water deposits from faucets, tie an absorbent cloth around it, and saturate with vinegar. Cover with plastic to keep the vinegar from evaporating and leave it on overnight. The deposits will clean off in the morning.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cap your bowls

A shower cap makes a great bowl cover when you want to store something in the refrigerator. It's cheaper than plastic wrap because you can use and reuse and reuse it. Wash it with your dishes (not in a dishwasher) or, if it hasn't touched the food, rinse and air dry between uses.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Leaking Electricity

TVs, microwaves, computers and anything else that has a clock or light that stays on (or an "instant on" feature) still use energy when they're turned off, so unplug them when not in use. If that isn't convenient, put them on a power strip and turn that off when you're not using the appliances.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Scrambled eggs

Do you need to stretch a scrambled egg or two? Add crushed crackers before you cook them. It gives them a slightly different texture/taste that you can say you did on purpose, because it's good!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Fool your neighbors

This might not be officially "frugal," but it addresses a problem frugalites sometimes have: finding ways to bypass the questions and strange looks.

Use a little vinegar or ammonia in water to wash windows - that's commonly known - but if you want to fool your neighbors (spouse, mother-in-law, etc), put a drop of blue food coloring in it. They'll think you're using a commercial window cleaner. If you can come up with an old spray bottle with a brand name label on it, so much the better, but maybe you can fake it somehow. All in fun, of course.

Free bread crumbs

Save cracker crumbs and bread crumbs from their packages as they're emptied. It won't be long until you have enough for a meat loaf or casserole - no added expense.

Buying liquid products

When you buy liquids in see through containers (dish soap, vegetable oil, etc.) check the level of the liquid. They're not always the same, so get the one that's the fullest.

Welcome

Extremely frugal is me. :) In case you hadn't heard.

Several times a week I'm going to post an extremely frugal tip, comment, quote, advice, etc. Stay tuned. Come back. Sign up.

In other words, don't miss it. ;)