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One lucky TDS "tipster" will win a $100 check each month just for sending us their favorite time or money saving idea. It could be you! Click here to submit your suggestion.
Last month's winning tipster: Rita from MN!
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Money problems? Struggling with credit card debt? What you need to know about bankruptcy? Trouble repaying student loans?
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I can empathize with Heather as I needed one for all my tile floors. With five children, my floors get too dirty too fast and the only satisfactory method I had found was down on my hands and knees. I searched and read reviews and am pleased to recommend the Eureka® EnviroSteamer
Anna
editor's note: For more on Comparing Steam Mops, please click here or check out the discussion in The Dollar Stretcher Community.
My tip is in regards to the article "Eating Better for Less: Must Healthy Food Cost More?" by Jennifer Beam. If you start buying whole grain foods, you will discover you eat less. So, even though the cost initially might seem like more, it really isn't.
When my family only consisted of 6 people, we used to use one pound of noodles for meals, usually had no leftovers, and still felt hungry. We now use whole grain pasta, and even though we are a family of 9, we still only consume one pound of pasta and usually have leftovers. We also went from eating almost 16 cups of rice down to 8 when we switched from white rice to brown rice.
Darcy in MI
This is not so much a time- or money-saver, but it may save your life. Now that people keep their emergency contact number in their cell phones listed as ICE (in case of emergency), you should also include your list of medications and/or medical conditions. Then you or an ER hospital staff can easily find necessary information.
Nancy C. in Southgate, MI
When we make homemade pizza, we make an extra pizza for school lunches. I use wheat flour in place of some of the white. I cut it up in lunch-size portions and freeze individually. I don't have to worry about it staying cold with just a freezer pack. By lunchtime, it is defrosted. Makes it even easier to just go in the freezer and take out a piece in the morning.
NY
I was buying expensive cleaners for my countertops, but then I discovered that using a lemon cut in half works great on countertops. It really removes stains also. Just wipe with lemon and dry with cloth. Clean your sink with a lemon sprinkled with salt and rinse.
Kelly
One of my biggest tips for saving on groceries is to eat the big meal of the day at noon. Everyone is more willing to eat leftovers a few hours later rather than the next day. I no longer hear, "Oh, man, that again!" Instead, I hear, "Hey, is there any more of that..."
Candy F.
Rather than buy new decorative pictures for my son's bedroom, I photocopy (using my home printer/copier) artwork from picture books that I check out from the local library, framing them at home. Besides saving money, it's a way that my son can continue to enjoy the stories we've read.
Kelly J.
When we got our new carpeting, we had many leftover pieces. For a fee of $20, the carpet company bound the extra pieces into the sizes we wanted. Now I have a rug at the front door, back door, and deck door, and I also several for our dog to lay on in her favorite spots. This makes it easy to keep the main carpeting clean and also easier to clean/shampoo just the small rugs, not the whole room, when necessary.
Alice in NJ
Paperwork is my biggest issue when it comes to clutter and time zappers! My counter tops get consumed by school papers, birthday invitations and other "important" documents with which I can't seem to part. But I have a new plan that is working wonders for me. I finally started using a great portable calendar that I can carry with me even away from home. I enter every commitment (from my kids' school project due dates to my husband's travel dates) in it and pitch the paperwork. It is very liberating! I am seeing more of my home's surfaces and I am spending much less time looking for miscellaneous papers.
Anne
I use photo albums that have the sticky sheets to store all my favorite recipes. I wait until they go on sale. They are perfect for storing recipes you find in magazines, etc. I just use tab dividers to sort out main dishes, side dishes, desserts, etc. It's perfect and right at your fingertips. My cupboard is so organized now that I store my recipes in photo albums.
June C.
Many of our neighbors have returned to growing vegetable gardens. Unfortunately, we live in an area with a heavy deer population. To discourage the deer from his garden, one neighbor has begun hanging used CDs on fishing line along the perimeter of the garden. As the CDs turn in the breeze, the sunlight reflects off the surface in bright flashes, frightening away the deer.
Angela S.
When my college-aged kids come home for a weekend or holiday, I like to send home-cooked meals and favorite snacks with them when they drive back to their dorm or apartment (a three hour drive away). The only trouble is that I load the food in small ice-chest type coolers and containers and those containers never quite seem to make it back to our house.
I was running out of coolers to send the food with them, but I am too frugal to buy new ones just for this purpose. Then it dawned on me at a garage sale I was at that I always passed up the $1-$2 coolers that are for sale there. Now I frequently buy the small coolers I see at flea markets and garage sales. I don't mind spending $1 or $2 for these coolers, as I know this will be the container that sends a favorite home-cooked meal with one of my kids.
Vickie in Kansas
Every time I see the ads on TV for the foam insulation for windows and doors, I laugh. They want $19.95 each! I fill knee high nylons with sand from the building supply store and tie the end tightly. They stretch as they are filled and are easy to fit into any size window. I make one for the outside to fit between the storm window and the window and one for the inside to push tightly against the window. There are no drafts, and it costs pennies for each.
Fran M.
editor's note: For other ways to reduce heating bills, please click here
Springtime is the time to spruce up your house. Instead of buying new paint, check to see what you have on hand. I mixed little dabs of my white, off white and tan paints and then added texture. We had over three gallons of free paint to paint our ceiling. It worked, but if it hadn't, I was only out my time, not money. Plus, I used up something that would otherwise be wasted.
Connie
eBay isn't just for getting stuff on the cheap. There are plenty of people offering useful services at a great price. I've used it to get my resume rewritten ($7 total) by an HR professional and a logo designed for my business ($5 total) by a graphic artist. There are also sellers offering things from web design to life coaching. Do shop around to compare prices, feedback, qualifications and turnaround time.
Heidi
Water in my area tastes bad and is costly. After trying numerous at-the-sink water filters, we found that they clogged with sediment, etc. after only a week or two, and they are expensive! So we bought a water cooler and the five-gallon jugs of water at Lowes. Those jugs are expensive too, but we have discovered that we can refill them from the water dispenser at Walmart for 35 cents a gallon compared to the Lowes refill price of about $1.20 per gallon. We drink a lot of water, so it really adds up.
Susan W. in Trinity, TX
Here are some recipes for inexpensive things to make with bored kids:
editor's note: For other fun ways to keep the kids active, please click here.
You know how frustrating clear wrap and aluminum rolls can be. It can be challenging to unroll the product out of the box without pulling the whole tube out. If you look at each end of those boxes, you will find push in tabs to prevent the roll from flying out each time. I had never noticed those before in all these years and received this tip in an email. Go and check your boxes and push in your tabs!
Janine in VA
What would you do with an extra $100? One lucky Dollar Stretcher "tipster" will win a $100 check each month just for sending in their favorite time or money saving idea. It could be you. Just send your suggestion to Tips@ stretcher.com. If we use your tip in any of our publications, we'll send you the next three issues of our print newsletter as a "thank you" and you'll automatically be entered into our monthly $100 drawing!
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Also In This Week's Issue
2 steps to finding credit after bankruptcy
Upcoming state sales tax holidays
7 reasons why you should refinance
No government bailout on credit card debt
Shop and save on auto insurance
Checking account do's and don'ts
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