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.

The Ultimate Cheap 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.