Several people have gotten me thinking about all the "nickel knowledge" I've picked up over the years. Everything from quick-and-dirty ways of fixing things around the home to some really great recipes I've collected. This will evolve over time as I add elements. I plan to take my electronic recipe catalog and organize it into several categories, each having its own post.
In addition, I'll have posts on fixing stuff, where and how to get great bargains on stuff, and a suggested home toolkit. I'll keep this post at the top and add links to the sidebar to keep things organized.
02 December 2018
11 June 2009
Leader Of The Laundromat
(Hat Tip and "Vielen Dank" to Karyn "Shabang" Dudley for this recipe.)
(And more power to you if you know the source of the title. :-] )
Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha Laundry Soap, grated
6 cups water
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
Supplies/Equipment needed:
6-qt pan
stirring paddle
grater
½ cup plastic container
Heat 6 cups water and soap in a large pan until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Mix and heat until dissolved. Boil 15 minutes. Remove from heat. (It will have the consistency of honey.*) In a 3- or 5-gallon bucket, add 1 quart of hot water, then add the soap mixture. Mix. Add enough cold water to make a 2-gallon mixture. Mix until well blended. Let sit 24 hours. The soap will gel*. Use 1/2 cup for each load.
Makes 2 gallons. (Approximately $ .40 per gallon)
*If the detergent doesn't gel or reach honey consistency, it will still work.
Notes:
Stir before each use, as this soap does separate. Detergent can be stored in a liquid detergent bottle. Just shake it up each time you use it.
This detergent will not suds up in the washer, but it is still getting your clothes clean.
If you have extra-hard water, the soap might not clean as well. Add 1/2 cup borax or washing soda to the load and that might help.
(And more power to you if you know the source of the title. :-] )
Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha Laundry Soap, grated
6 cups water
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
Supplies/Equipment needed:
6-qt pan
stirring paddle
grater
½ cup plastic container
Heat 6 cups water and soap in a large pan until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Mix and heat until dissolved. Boil 15 minutes. Remove from heat. (It will have the consistency of honey.*) In a 3- or 5-gallon bucket, add 1 quart of hot water, then add the soap mixture. Mix. Add enough cold water to make a 2-gallon mixture. Mix until well blended. Let sit 24 hours. The soap will gel*. Use 1/2 cup for each load.
Makes 2 gallons. (Approximately $ .40 per gallon)
*If the detergent doesn't gel or reach honey consistency, it will still work.
Notes:
Stir before each use, as this soap does separate. Detergent can be stored in a liquid detergent bottle. Just shake it up each time you use it.
This detergent will not suds up in the washer, but it is still getting your clothes clean.
If you have extra-hard water, the soap might not clean as well. Add 1/2 cup borax or washing soda to the load and that might help.
10 June 2009
It's In The Bag
Unlike most people, I take my little cloth shopping bag (courtesy of Habitat For Humanity) when I go shopping. On rare occasions, though, I might hit a store on the spur of the moment and must perforce accept their stupid little plastic bag which takes approximately 3.41 eons to biodegrade. On other occasions, I get something like meat which might leak, and then it actually makes sense to put that into a plastic bag before putting it in my cloth bag.
Now the question is: what to do with that immortal plastic bag? Again, unlike most people, I use them as liners for my three little trashcans (one in the bedroom, one in the 00, and one next to my desk). Storage, however, becomes problematic. For most people. Not for me.
If I have several bags, I put one inside another one, put those two inside a third one, put those three inside a fourth, and so on ad infinitum. When I need a fresh bag, I don't have to try to untangle one from a clump of them inside one bag, all I do is take the outermost one and the rest are left nested together like the layers of an onion.
(Sometimes, it takes years to get all the way down to that innermost one. Sometimes, I start a whole new "onion", just so I can use up the old one.)
Now the question is: what to do with that immortal plastic bag? Again, unlike most people, I use them as liners for my three little trashcans (one in the bedroom, one in the 00, and one next to my desk). Storage, however, becomes problematic. For most people. Not for me.
If I have several bags, I put one inside another one, put those two inside a third one, put those three inside a fourth, and so on ad infinitum. When I need a fresh bag, I don't have to try to untangle one from a clump of them inside one bag, all I do is take the outermost one and the rest are left nested together like the layers of an onion.
(Sometimes, it takes years to get all the way down to that innermost one. Sometimes, I start a whole new "onion", just so I can use up the old one.)
09 June 2009
Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite
A few suggestions to at least control -- if not wipe out -- a bed bug infestation:
a) Try spraying lavender, thyme, tea tree, or eucalyptus on bed linens, clothes and in other locations where people sleep in the house.
b) Diatomaceous Earth:
Using food-grade diatomaceous earth as a repellent for bed bugs -- while possibly not eradicating the whole bed bug population -- has been known to decrease the number of insects.
c) Boric Acid:
Spread boric acid powder about the places where bed bugs choose to frequent, feed, and hide. This natural cure should never come in direct contact with a mattress or box spring. This remedy is often used to control the migration of bed bugs in a home.
d) Steam Treatment:
To eliminate bed bugs from mattresses and additional upholstered items, some pest control professionals will use steam to naturally treat a sleeping area. Although of limited effectiveness, this method has shown promise when involving less than an inch of penetration. Some people have purchased small steam cleaners to treat their bedding.
e) Clothes Dryer:
Placing infested linens within a clothes dryer and heating the items for more than 20 minutes is said to kill bed bugs.
f) Natural Heat:
In cities where the climate reaches extremely high temperatures, hanging linens in the sun will kill attached bed bugs.
g) Botanical Insecticides:
Insecticides that contain natural pyrethrins are known to serve as a temporary natural cure, as the insects are repelled by this remedy and become ineffective for a short period of time. Unfortunately, natural pyrethrins break down quickly and are unable to provide the necessary bed-bug fighting power that lasts long enough to wipe out the entire population.
a) Try spraying lavender, thyme, tea tree, or eucalyptus on bed linens, clothes and in other locations where people sleep in the house.
b) Diatomaceous Earth:
Using food-grade diatomaceous earth as a repellent for bed bugs -- while possibly not eradicating the whole bed bug population -- has been known to decrease the number of insects.
c) Boric Acid:
Spread boric acid powder about the places where bed bugs choose to frequent, feed, and hide. This natural cure should never come in direct contact with a mattress or box spring. This remedy is often used to control the migration of bed bugs in a home.
d) Steam Treatment:
To eliminate bed bugs from mattresses and additional upholstered items, some pest control professionals will use steam to naturally treat a sleeping area. Although of limited effectiveness, this method has shown promise when involving less than an inch of penetration. Some people have purchased small steam cleaners to treat their bedding.
e) Clothes Dryer:
Placing infested linens within a clothes dryer and heating the items for more than 20 minutes is said to kill bed bugs.
f) Natural Heat:
In cities where the climate reaches extremely high temperatures, hanging linens in the sun will kill attached bed bugs.
g) Botanical Insecticides:
Insecticides that contain natural pyrethrins are known to serve as a temporary natural cure, as the insects are repelled by this remedy and become ineffective for a short period of time. Unfortunately, natural pyrethrins break down quickly and are unable to provide the necessary bed-bug fighting power that lasts long enough to wipe out the entire population.
08 June 2009
Cashing In Your (Soap) Chips
What to do with those little pieces of soap when you've used up almost the whole bar? Most people just toss 'em. Me? I'm too cheap frugal for that. No, sir. Not me.
What do I do? Simple. After I had collected a small pile, I just ambled on down to my favoritecheap-o bargain store and bought a cheap inexpensive pair of nylons. I cut the foot off of one side -- putting the rest of the thing in storage -- and put all the chips inside and tied the end off. When I get another chip of soap, I simply until my little bag, slip the chip inside, and re-tie it.
And the neat thing is, you can use it until it wears out -- trust me, we're talking years here -- and then use the part you put in storage. I keep mine on a soap holder on the bathroom sink. And if it gets big enough -- which does happen! -- I can use it in the shower.
And I go on living in the lap of poverty.
What do I do? Simple. After I had collected a small pile, I just ambled on down to my favorite
And the neat thing is, you can use it until it wears out -- trust me, we're talking years here -- and then use the part you put in storage. I keep mine on a soap holder on the bathroom sink. And if it gets big enough -- which does happen! -- I can use it in the shower.
And I go on living in the lap of poverty.
07 June 2009
Helpful Tips
Go this from my friend Terry. I hope the formatting works OK.
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that!
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. (Or let it set for a wonderful minty frosting.)
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover Snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works. (This probably works also for store-bought microwave pizza; I’ll have to do some research.)
Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a Ziplc bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, re-seal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done -- easy clean-up!
Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Re-heating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it re-heat faster.
Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping with mulch as you go; cover and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening, plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.
Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
No More Mosquitos
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. (Wonder if this works with rabbits? Sure gonna give it a try!)
Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... Ta Da! ... Static is gone.
Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
as butter or peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
Re-opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.
Hair Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it halfway with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it, home, can't digest it and it kills them. It might take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have to worry about pets or small children being harmed!
Info about clothes dryers
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman who fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material. (I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.) Well, the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over the mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static-free... that nice fragrance, too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box? Well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!? Learn something new every day! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it… the water ran right thru the screen! There weren't any puddles at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that!
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. (Or let it set for a wonderful minty frosting.)
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover Snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works. (This probably works also for store-bought microwave pizza; I’ll have to do some research.)
Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a Ziplc bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, re-seal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done -- easy clean-up!
Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Re-heating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it re-heat faster.
Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping with mulch as you go; cover and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening, plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.
Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
No More Mosquitos
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. (Wonder if this works with rabbits? Sure gonna give it a try!)
Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... Ta Da! ... Static is gone.
Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
as butter or peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
Re-opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.
Hair Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it halfway with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it, home, can't digest it and it kills them. It might take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have to worry about pets or small children being harmed!
Info about clothes dryers
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman who fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material. (I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.) Well, the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over the mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static-free... that nice fragrance, too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box? Well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!? Learn something new every day! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it… the water ran right thru the screen! There weren't any puddles at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!
06 June 2009
Securing Your Stuff
As you might guess, 29½ years in the military will teach a person a bit about security. Regarding your possessions, some things are pretty obvious; e.g. making a photographic record of your stuff.
OK, so you got your digital (possibly video) camera out and took pictures of all the stuff you really don't want to lose. Now, what about your camera? If you've already taken a lot of pictures, you'll have to archive them off the chip before you do this, but if you've just gotten one, here's what to do:
Bring up your favorite word processor on your computer and start a new document (in landscape format) with the following information:
Name
Address* (optional)
Phone number
e-mail (optional)
Then take a picture of the screen with your camera. If you do this correctly, this will be the very first picture you see when you look at the pictures on your camera. YMMV. Now, if you ever lose your camera and some honest person finds it and looks at the pictures, there's your contact info and you at least have a chance at recovering your camera.
(*I'm lucky enough to have a P. O. Box, so I use that as my address.)
OK, so you got your digital (possibly video) camera out and took pictures of all the stuff you really don't want to lose. Now, what about your camera? If you've already taken a lot of pictures, you'll have to archive them off the chip before you do this, but if you've just gotten one, here's what to do:
Bring up your favorite word processor on your computer and start a new document (in landscape format) with the following information:
Address* (optional)
Phone number
e-mail (optional)
Then take a picture of the screen with your camera. If you do this correctly, this will be the very first picture you see when you look at the pictures on your camera. YMMV. Now, if you ever lose your camera and some honest person finds it and looks at the pictures, there's your contact info and you at least have a chance at recovering your camera.
(*I'm lucky enough to have a P. O. Box, so I use that as my address.)
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