Best painless "stretching things" budget tips?

[MELSMICE]

I already do many of these things, thanks to previous threads on this in the past & continue to love some of the ideas everyone has.

 

[Belle5]

We put a (I'm drawing a blank on the name of it!!) -- the same type of rod that might be in your bedroom closet to hang clothes on with a wire shelf above it. Anyway, we put one of those the entire length of our laundry room and use the shelf above for storage and hang clothes to dry on hangers on it. Then when they're dry, they're already on hangers & we just haul them upstairs.

Can you tell me where to buy it?

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Try cutting your brillo pads in half! Sharpens your scissors at the same time- when you do use your half-brillo store it in the freezer, it will never rust! This darn box is lasting me years, I swear.

Shorten your drying time in the dryer by tossing some old dry towels in there with the wet clothes. I keep about 4 on top of the dryer for this purpose (or bathing the dogs).

 

[ImaFunMom]

I usually use less cheese in a recipe than called for - example my chicken enchiladas call for 2 cups of shredded cheese. I use 1 1/2 cups and it's perfect. I also do this with HB meat. I use 1 lb. when the recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs., etc. No one notices the difference.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

Try cutting your brillo pads in half! Sharpens your scissors at the same time- when you do use your half-brillo store it in the freezer, it will never rust! This darn box is lasting me years, I swear.

I always cut my Brillo pads in half, and the last time I opened a box, I happened to count them as I cut them. (yes, I know I am a little OCD) There were only 17 pads in the box, although the box said it contained 18 pads. This really griped me, as I like SOS pads better than Brillo, but buy Brillo to save money. I knows this sounds like a cheapskate, but I emailed the company and told them about it and they sent me a coupon for a free box. I'm going to count the next box too, and if it's short, I'm going back to using SOS pads even if they're a little more expensive than Brillo pads.

Well, just for kicks I just went and cut my new box of Brillo pads in half and counted them too. This box contained 21 pads. They must go by weight when packaging instead of the counting out the actual number of pads, and some pads are larger than others. I'm glad to know now that they weren't intentionally shorting the box.

 

[csk470]

wonderful thread keep them coming!!!


Tracey

 

[CajunDixie]

I only use the bread flour for things like french bread, muffuletta rolls or pizza dough- things that I want a crisper crust for. The difference from AP is very noticable. I use AP for everything else. I did try adding 2 cups of AP to my pizza dough this weekend but it just didn't have the right bounce & stretch. The crusts weren't as tasty & I couldn't get them nicely thin. I guess I've gotten spoiled. So has my family .

If there's a Trader Joe's near you I've heard that the KA flour is a little bit cheaper there. Don't know for how much longer.

Care to share your pizza dough recipe? Please!

This is a great thread!! I love the Brillo pad idea!

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

Can you tell me where to buy it?

Home Depot or Lowes ..... they will cut it there for you too. It's in the section for closet organization ... just a white wire closet rod with shelf on top. My DH also put up one of those TINY little ceiling fans - 24" or less (I think it was called a bullet or an egg). We turn it on to help dry stuff hanging in the laundry room. that cute little fan

 

[AllesonWonderland]

My aunt (as well as my parents) lived through the Great Depression and one of the things my aunt did until the day she died was to serve her "Fridge Supper" on Friday..

She took everything that was in the fridge (NO leftovers were EVER thrown out - even if it was a portion of meatloaf no bigger than a teaspoon) and put it in a great big frying pan..

My dad told stories of his dad doing that. Except one main dish involved peaches that happened to be in the fridge. LOL

I have a box of dry milk in my cupboard. We don't use it in place of our regular 'drinking' milk, but I do use it for cooking, especially gravies, etc.

Ditto on using the library as much as possible. We get all our DVD's there instead of renting them. I just put them on our online 'request' list, and I get emailed when they are in.

I called the cable company with the intention of dropping an extra tier on the cable to save money. The gal said if we did that, we would lose our bundle discount. So I asked if there was anything else she could do and she gave me $20 off our bill for 6 months. That was easy!!

 

[bettyann29]

I thought about this, but aren't you washing alot more?

I honestly dont think that we do.. I do a load of towels about every other day anyways so I just stick them in there with the towels..

 

[RLccweems]

I love this thread...there's some great tips...keep them coming.

 

[lauralana9]

The new concentrated, Ultra dish soaps are a good idea for the environment since they use less plastic. But, DH and DD squirt the same amount of dish soap into the pan regardless of whether or not it is concentrated.

So, I keep and extra, empty soap bottle and when I buy a new bottle I empty about 1/3 of it and store the concentrate in my stash bottle. I replace that concentrate with water. When the one at the sink gets down to about 1/3 of a bottle I refill from my stash and dilute as appropriate.

I can't believe I never thought of this. We now have 2 bottles of dish soap in our kitchen. DH's sits on the sink and is what ever is the largest and cheapest. He goes thru it like crazy pours it on each and every dish instead of a little on the sponge. I keep my little expensive bottle of "Palmolive Dry Skin with Aloe" hidden under the sink. :

 

[stahshee]

I always cut my Brillo pads in half, and the last time I opened a box, I happened to count them as I cut them. (yes, I know I am a little OCD) There were only 17 pads in the box, although the box said it contained 18 pads. This really griped me, as I like SOS pads better than Brillo, but buy Brillo to save money. I knows this sounds like a cheapskate, but I emailed the company and told them about it and they sent me a coupon for a free box. I'm going to count the next box too, and if it's short, I'm going back to using SOS pads even if they're a little more expensive than Brillo pads.

Well, just for kicks I just went and cut my new box of Brillo pads in half and counted them too. This box contained 21 pads. They must go by weight when packaging instead of the counting out the actual number of pads, and some pads are larger than others. I'm glad to know now that they weren't intentionally shorting the box.

thats a good idea!

 

[shortbun]

Give up paper towels and paper napkins. Buy a bunch of good quality (on sale of course!) white dish towels. They will last forever, can be bleached of stains and can be used for drying hands and are great for covering laps really well while eating...so they're perfect with kids...less stains on clothing!

Yeah, we use cloth almost exclusively. Paper products are for short road trips only. I feel guilty even then. Also, we hang dry lots of things rather than use the electricity to dry them.

OP, I'd be worried about the high fructose corn syrup in that fake syrup. Why not find a Trader Joes and get your syrup cheaper to begin with? Their prices are marvelous!

 

[crisi]

OP, I'd be worried about the high fructose corn syrup in that fake syrup. Why not find a Trader Joes and get your syrup cheaper to begin with? Their prices are marvelous!

You could also stretch real maple syrup with simple syrup (one part sugar, one part water, microwave) and maple flavoring.

Around our house, we use real maple syrup, but we put it in little tiny pitchers for the kids. I got sick of watching them dump half a bottle of syrup over their pancakes. The think the pitchers are cute, I find I use less syrup.

 

[crisi]

On the topic of making your own and avoiding HFCS - a two liter bottle, water, a cup of sugar, a little yeast and some flavoring turns into homemake soda in about two days. It isn't your Coke, if you are a Coke drinker. But we've done ginger ale and pineapple and apple and lemon-lime. An internet search will turn up recipes.

 

[StillPinballFamily]

You could also stretch real maple syrup with simple syrup (one part sugar, one part water, microwave) and maple flavoring.

Around our house, we use real maple syrup, but we put it in little tiny pitchers for the kids. I got sick of watching them dump half a bottle of syrup over their pancakes. The think the pitchers are cute, I find I use less syrup.

Good points about the HFCS. Part of the reason(s) we make our own bread and jelly is to get away from that - it seems to be in everything! I do already use simple syrup to sweeten my pitchers of iced tea. I'll try also using it to stretch out the maple syrup...do you *need* to add the maple flavoring or do you think I could just use some simple syrup to cut the maple? We do use a little serving pitcher for our maple syrup - a microwave safe one, since we need to zap the maple syrup to warm it since it is kept in the fridge. I'll check TJs - I usually get my 100% maple syrup at the Christmas Tree Shop - but even there it is $12 a quart, and that's LOTS less than at the regular grocery stores.

Also - a tip on finding the drying racks for damp laundry. We got ours online from the Vermont Country Store. They have wooden racks (a few different sizes, too - about $40.) We love the wood ones as they don't flake and rust like the plastic-coated wire ones eventually do. And the largest of the wood racks holds a entire load of laundry. I hated the smaller racks that held "almost" the whole load - that was a pain. Sometimes we set it up inside and sometimes outside, depending upon the weather, but we do have two retractable clotheslines too that we can stretch across the backyard when needed. The budget board posters keep me motivated to use line drying more — and the dryer less — in nice weather.

 

[crisi]

Good points about the HFCS. Part of the reason(s) we make our own bread and jelly is to get away from that - it seems to be in everything! I do already use simple syrup to sweeten my pitchers of iced tea. I'll try also using it to stretch out the maple syrup...do you *need* to add the maple flavoring or do you think I could just use some simple syrup to cut the maple? We do use a little serving pitcher for our maple syrup - a microwave safe one, since we need to zap the maple syrup to warm it since it is kept in the fridge. I'll check TJs - I usually get my 100% maple syrup at the Christmas Tree Shop - but even there it is $12 a quart, and that's LOTS less than at the regular grocery stores.

I don't know - I've never tried it - if I were going to try it, I'd probably start with just some simple syrup - or even corn syrup (the normal grocery store corn syrup isn't as bad as the high fructose stuff) - and see if the maple was enough to come through since extracts are pretty expensive by themselves. If everyone thought it was too watered down, I'd try the extract.

I get mine in bulk at the coop and have no idea what the price is - other than its cheaper at the coop than the grocery store but still makes me feel like I might want to mortgage the house.

 

[Kycha]

Another along the same lines...don't use fabric softener, use vinegar instead (it really does work, I promise!!). Vinegar also works well instead of JetDry in the dishwasher.

My Mom just told me about this little tip. Just in time too, because I just ran out of fabric softener. I can't wait to try it.

It is significantly better (and cheaper!) for you and your clothes to use vinegar to soften your clothes. And no the vinegar smell does not stay on your clothes. Fabric softeners contain all kinds of really nasty chemicals. ..that is why they use strong fragrances - to cover up the smell of them. Check out the info here:

Also, using liquid fabric softeners increases the flammability of clothing and should never, ever be used on children's clothing. Fabric softener can also negate the flame retardant properties on children's sleepwear.

I think I am going to give this a try.

Also, I am thinking about buying a clothes drying rack like my mom had when we were kids. I will probably need a couple of them. I am thinking of using the tip someone gave about drying the clothes in the dryer long enough to get the wrinkles out and then put them on the drying rack. Problem is, I grew up with a basement (northeast) and Mom did the laundry down there. We don't have basements here so I am perplexed as to where I would put the drying racks. Oh well...where there is a will, there is a way! I will find a place.

When the weather is bad, I use a drying rack and I set it up in the bathroom.

We have this one from Ikea. Paid $17, and it is made with plastic coated steel, so no chance of rust. As you can see, this thing can hold a lot of laundry, but it is versatile and fits perfectly in my small bathroom. But, as soon as the temp gets above 60 degrees, my clothes go on the outside line, even during a winter "warm spell".

 

[Gisele]

crisi,


I like the idea of homemade soda,make mine lemon-lime, maybe I can figure out how to make Pepsi, too!