Frugal Mom Blog

Archive for the ‘Around the House’ Category

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Hi again from Lou Manfredini, Ace’s “Helpful Hardware Man.” Rain barrels are a great way to conserve water and help you save some money as well and the installation is pretty easy.

There are several different types of rain barrels to choose from. My favorites are the ones made from recycled materials, such as ones that are repurposed olive barrels from Greece and Italy. But if you are looking for a more polished look, you can choose decorative ones that work just as well. Once you decide on a barrel you’ll need to cut one of your downspouts with a hacksaw and metal blade so the water from the roof will begin draining into the barrel. Many of these barrels have connections on them for your garden hose to allow you to water your garden. There is not enough pressure sadly to run a sprinkler effectively but a watering wand will work if the barrel is full.

Be sure to choose a rain barrel that has a screen on the top which serves to keep mosquito’s from laying eggs in the water and make sure you do not remove that screen for very long.

About the Author

Lou Manfredini is a nationally recognized DIY expert, sought after both for his expertise and his energetic, entertaining style. In an extension of his ongoing effort to help people maximize the value and enjoyment of their homes, he is also Ace Hardware’s “Helpful Hardware Man” and editorial media spokesperson. Along with his wife and four children, Manfredini lives in Chicago, where they also own and operate a neighborhood Ace Hardware store.

We have a great stickied thread on our message board titled, “So How Are You Saving $ Today?” The thread is filled with ways the ladies have saved money each day by choosing to live frugally.  Here are some ways they have saved money… I hope you can glean from these great ideas!

1. Wash laundry in cold water
2. Use homemade detergent for washing clothes
3. Eat all of your meals at home
4. On warm days, hang laundry on the line outside to dry
5. Knit a blanket with leftover yarn instead of buying one
6. Cut dryer sheets in half
7. Eat leftovers for lunch
8. Borrow movies from the library instead of going to the movie theater
9. Turn in books to the used book store for store credit, & use the credit to get new-to-you books.
10. Shop at Dollar Tree
11. Save vegetable seeds to plant
12. Stay home & don’t go to Wal-mart!
13. Make homemade snacks
14. Use rags instead of paper towels
15. Cloth diapers instead of disposable
16. Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins
17. Clip coupons
18. Turn day old bread into breadcrumbs
19. Keep lights & tv off during the day
20. Don’t buy frivolous stuff – ask yourself if you really need it
21. Bring lunch to work instead of eating out
22. Use up leftovers – don’t let them go to waste
23. Make birthday cards
24. Watch the cash register and check receipts to keep from getting overcharged on items
25. Use a calculator as you shop to help you from going over your budget
26. Save gas by doing all of your errands in one day instead of little trips throughout the week
27. Make a grocery list before going to store, and stick to the list when shopping
28. Buy plastic washable bottles and fill with water instead of buying bottled  water
29. Make homemade pizza instead of ordering out
30. Use craft materials you have on hand to make gifts
31. In the summer, use ceiling fans instead of the AC
32. Buy paint from the “oops paint” section at Home Depot
33. Shop at Goodwill
34. Shop at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore for home improvement
35. Do once a month cooking
36. Used powdered milk for cooking
37. Make meal menus
38. Check paper for grocery specials in your area
39. Cook from your freezer using up odds and ends
40. Only run dishwasher when you have a full load
41. Reuse Ziploc storage baggies
42. Don’t pay full price for anything – buy on clearance
43. Unplug appliances when not in use
44. Bake your own bread
45. Make homemade soup instead of buying canned soup
46. Do your own oil change
47. Check Freecycle in your area for things you need
48. Shop around for prescriptions.  Walmart has deeply discounted prices on many medications.
49. Walk instead of drive, if possible
50. Take advantage of CVS’s ECBs (extra care bucks)
51. Shop at garage sales
52. Cook frugal meals
53. Use cell phones only
54. Can fruits & veggies from your garden
55. Barter
56. Put together a price book so you know the best places to buy items
57. Rent carpet cleaning machine and do it yourself
58. Use the crock pot on busy days so you won’t be tempted to pick up fast food
59. Research free things to do in your town
60. Cook fewer meat meals each week
61. Make sun tea
62. Eat before you go to the grocery store
63. Wear jeans more than once before washing
64. Use rechargeable batteries (there’s a higher upfront cost, but you only buy them once)
65. Use fluorescent light bulbs – they last longer, and use less energy

Let us know what ways you’ve found to save today!

1. Declutter one room at a time, and start with your most difficult room first.  You will have a huge sense of accomplishment when you finish, and all other rooms will seem easy in comparison.

2. Start with a visible area of the room (rather than a closet or a drawer) to give yourself instant gratification.

3. As you go through your rooms, make a decision about each item.  Either give it away, keep it, sell it, or throw it away.  The more things you can immediately get rid of, the better.

4. Put together a plan for dealing with items you plan on selling.  You can plan a yard sale, sell items with eBay auctions, or list them on Craigslist.  But make a plan and stick to it.  It will also help if you set a date for a yard sale, or start listing auctions as soon as you have items to sell.

5. Use large trashbags to store items you plan to giveaway.  Once a giveaway bag is full, mark it ‘giveaway’ and immediately put it in your car.  The next time you are running errands, you can drop it off at a donation center and it won’t continue to clutter your home.

6. When you decide to keep an item, you must decide where it will be kept.  Do not allow yourself to keep anything that does not have a home.  You may need to buy bins or baskets to store items, but everything must have a place where it belongs (in an uncluttered manner).

7. If you have a magazine collection, go through each magazine, tear out the pages you want to keep, and store the pages in a 3-ringed binder.  Page protectors are a bit pricey, but are handy for quickly sliding in pages.

8. Mail  is great contributor to clutter, so make a 1 touch rule for every piece of mail that comes into your home.  Either file it, put it in your bill basket, or throw it away.  Don’t set it down on the counter or table.  Buy a shredder to shred credit card offers, and other sensitive mail pieces you don’t want to keep.

9. Are you a book hoarder?  Go through your books and bring the ones you won’t read again to a used bookstore.  They will either give you store credit, or cash for your used books.

10. Closets are wonderful places for storage, but you won’t have much room if your closets are packed with shoes and clothes you no longer wear.  A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t worn it in a year, chances are you aren’t going to.  Donate it, sell it, or throw it away.

11. Invest in a label maker.  I purchased one at Wal-mart for about $20.00 and it has been instrumental in helping me stay organized.  You can label your pantry, your file folders, your linen closet, your book shelves, your children’s toy shelves, your clothes shelves…you are only limited by your imagination.  The key is to help you and your family know what belongs where.

12. Get your kids involved.  Help them clean out and organize their rooms, and give them a system to keep it that way.  Use plastic bins to sort toys and small parts.  For younger children label bins with a picture, and older kids can label their own bins with words.

13. Purchase a file cabinet to store paperwork.  You can also use the file cabinet to store user manuals for your appliances, your bills, and office supplies.

14. Don’t expect your home to be decluttered in a day.  After all it has taken years for the clutter to accumulate. Set a goal for youself and declutter a little bit everyday.  For example,  set a timer for 1 hour and work diligently the entire hour.  Remember, the best way to eat an elephant is one bit at a time.

What are your best decluttering tips?

Catching Up...

• Tomorrow is February 2nd,  a.k.a. Groundhog Day!  What a fun day – will he see his shadow, or not? Will Bill Murry wake up to “I’ve Got You Babe” again, or will it be a new day?  Good stuff I tell you!
• It has been over a month since I’ve posted.  How in the world did my life become so incredibly busy (please note my sarcasm!) that I didn’t post one time in January.  I am speechless. And embarrassed. And sorry.
• But I have been a wee bit busy, and have had you all in mind.  I have been doing some really FUN projects around the house that are frugal, easy, and give you some new ideas for decorating!  YaY!

So as I’ve been cleaning paint brushes in the laundry room’s utility sink, I took a peak around my neglected laundry room.  Now you’d think I’d notice the untouched piles of laundry that I am good at collecting, but what really struck my eye was the number of times I’ve missed the trash can when throwing away dryer sheets. Clearly, keeping my laundry tidy hasn’t been high on my priority list.   

Stick with me…there’s truly a purpose to the rambling.   

As I was laughing at the number of dryer sheets that had been unsuccessfully lofted towards the trash can, I was reminded of a discussion we had at one time on the FrugalMom message board regarding the use of dryer sheets.  And I must say, you ladies are creative!  Here’s a list of some great ways to reuse dryer sheets. And don’t forget to add your ideas to the comments.  We may never throw a dryer sheet away again!

Top 10 Additional Uses for Dryer Sheets

1.  I use a dryer sheet for all my clothes and save them after the first use.  Then when I wash my towels I take the once used sheets and throw 2 or 3 (depending on the load) in with the towels.  My towels still smell great and feel soft.  

2.  I use twice used sheets in a bag to use with my “Swiffer Duster.”  I take 2 sheets and wrap around the duster pad overlapping in the middle.  They pick up all the dust and dirt that the regular brand name Swiffer pads do with no extra cost!

3.  I use twice used sheets as a dust rag on my furniture.  Dust sticks immediately to them and then you just toss them in the trash.  I love dryer sheets!

4.  I sometimes use a dryer sheet to dust the TV screen. Works like a charm!

5.  I reuse my dryer sheets on my dry erase board.  

6.  I put them in the bottom of the waste basket before I put the plastic liner (courtesy of wal-mart) in.  That helps with the trash odor.  

7.  I keep dryer sheets with my pantyhose.  They keep the static down.

8.  I keep used ones in the bathroom in the winter and rub it on my hair when static is its worst in the winter.

9.  I cut mine in half – it is like getting 2 for the price of 1!

10.To help loosen dried on/burnt on food from dishes/pots/pans fill the item with hot water and toss in a used dryer sheet – it also softens burnt/caked on food to make clean up easy.

So here are your great ideas…straight from our message board.  Keep ‘em coming in the comments!!

“Ready or not, here I come,” says winter. So the question is…are you ready? There are things you can do to save money this winter, and unless you want to pay more for your heating than you did last year, you need to get ready.

Why you need to prepare for winter:

• Half of the energy used in your home this winter will go towards heating, according to the EPA.
• The average home will spend $1137.00 this winter on heating. That’s a 15% increase from last year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
• Heating costs will increase partly due to rising cost of fuel, but also because of projected colder weather.

5 Ways to save on heating this winter:

1. Home Energy Audit

An audit is often the first step towards saving money because it helps you figure out how much energy your home uses, and evaluate what you can do to improve efficiency.

To audit your home yourself, you can use Energy Star’s Home Energy Yardstick to compare your home’s energy efficiency to other homes in your area and get recommendations for energy-saving home improvements You’ll need your last 12 months of energy bills for this. Many energy companies have your information available online if you don’t have your statements.

You can also use a professional home auditor. First contact your utility company to see if they offer free or discounted energy audits. According to Energy Star,a professional auditor can use a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of your home. Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

2. System Check-up

A yearly check-up to your heating system can improve efficiency, and can also prevent future problems. Because contractors get busy in the winter with problems, it is best to schedule your check-up in the fall. Energy Star offers 10 Tips for Hiring a Heating and Cooling Contractor.

3. Add Insulation.

According to the Department of Energy, unless your home was constructed with special attention to energy efficiency, adding insulation will probably decrease your utility bill. You may have spaces in your home that have never been insulated, and by adding insulation to these areas will help you to save. See this diagram from the DOE for ideas on where to insulate in your home. For more information, view the DOE Insulation Fact Sheet.

4. Install a Programmable Thermostat.

According to the DOE, You can save around 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for eight hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing an automatic setback or programmable thermostat. They recommend setting the thermostat to 68°F while you’re awake and setting it lower while you’re asleep or away from home. By turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%–15% a year on your heating bill—a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long.

The DOE also shares that a common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. This misconception has been dispelled by years of research and numerous studies. The fuel required to reheat a building to a comfortable temperature is roughly equal to the fuel saved as the building drops to the lower temperature. You save fuel between the time that the temperature stabilizes at the lower level and the next time heat is needed. So, the longer your house remains at the lower temperature, the more energy you save.

5. Change Filters Regularly

Check your air filters every month, and if they looks dirty change them. This is especially true during the colder months when your system is working harder. A dirty filter clogs the air flow and makes your system work even harder to warm up your home. Keeping the filter cleans also prevents the build-up of dirt and dust in your system. The dirt and dust in your system can lead to costly repairs and shortening the life span of your system.

6. Seal Your Heating Ducts

According to Energy Star, ducts that move air to-and-from a forced air furnace, central air conditioner, or heat pump are often big energy wasters. Sealing and insulating ducts can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20 percent — and sometimes much more. Visit Energy Star for more information on sealing and insulating ducts.

What ways have you found to save money on your heating bill? I’d love to hear your ideas and stories!

Photo Credit: oliworx

Additional Resource:

1. Download the EPA’s Guide to Energy Efficient Heating & Cooling