Category: Frugal Living Tips

TMR Frugal Living Tip #57

January 20, 2009 cleaning, Frugal Living Tips, Green Living, saving money

Today’s thrifty living tip is use a pumice stone to clean hard water stains. This works really well with porcelain sinks, toilets, and even tubs. You can buy them at Lowes or any hardware store. We have an older toilet plus hard water. So deposits will build up over time, and it’s the original toilet to our 50 year old house. You do have to apply some elbow grease and it took out all the old stains. The inside looks brand new again. They are relatively cheap and I think I paid under $4 with tax. It’s a lot cheaper than most chemicals and it’s not toxic. I would recommend putting on a pair of latex gloves first.

TMR Frugal Living Tip #56

January 14, 2009 Cooking, Family Life, Frugal Living Tips, saving money

Today’s thrifty living tip is use powered milk for cooking. It’s cheaper than fresh milk, and can be stored much longer. You can even use it in your own dry mixes like pancakes or biscuits. You can even further your savings by stretching fresh 2% with half powered milk. You won’t notice the difference in taste.

TMR Frugal Living Tip #55

January 5, 2009 Beauty and Fashion Tips, Frugal Living Tips, saving money

Today’s thrifty tip is use clear mascara to keep your eyebrows in place. I learned this neat beauty tip when I was a teenager in high school.

Another alternative is to use a little hairspray on either a toothbrush or those little brushes. I actually have that little eyebrow brush that cost me a couple of bucks. Sometimes I can just brush my eyebrows right before spraying my hair, and I purposely make sure that a fine mist will hit my eyebrows.

I find any of these work very well, but I like the last one the best so they don’t feel so stiff.

What do you use to keep your eyebrows in place?

Invest in Quality Tools

January 3, 2009 Frugal Living Tips, House and Home, saving money

This may not be very frugal unless you buy the tools on sale like I do. Some people are lucky enough to find people selling their tools at yard sales or in the paper. Buying used out the paper isn’t always cheaper than buying new ones on sale. We purchased a nice set of air tools for $200 that came with a hard case to keep everything inside neatly. We received a brad nailer, framing nail gun, angle nailer, and a staple gun. We used the staple gun to put up our screens on the porch. We were quoted $350 for the same job that we did ourselves. That was just for labor and didn’t include materials. We saved $150, and now have a great set of tools that will last us for many years. We have several projects planned for this year using our new tools.

TMR Frugal Living Tip #54

January 2, 2009 Cooking, Frugal Living Tips, saving money

Today’s thrifty living tip is use use recipes from old cookbooks. I prefer to use the ones from the 70’s and before. My favorite one to use is Better Homes and Garden that is dated from the 1960’s. I like it since there are great tips that many people don’t use anymore and I’m not bombarded with name brands. Of course we no longer have to sift our flour, but I find many of the recipes are easy to make and are timeless. Another reason I like them better is they are usually obtained either free from a relative or very cheaply at a yard sale or thrift store. I bought the one I use often for a buck, and it’s still in wonderful condition. I also like that it was made in a binder style so the book stays open and it’s easy for me to read it while cooking. I have also found some really great recipes on the internet. I recently made pizza dough from scratch that was very delicious. My husband and son loved it. My next projects is to experiment with making bread from scratch.

Frugal Wedding Tips

December 27, 2008 Frugal Living Tips, saving money

No matter how bad the economy gets, people will still have babies and get married. You don’t have to spend thousands to have that wedding of your dreams. The first step is to figure out a realistic budget. You don’t want to start out your new life still paying on your wedding years later. We saved a lot of money by doing many things ourselves. We had a buffet style lunch, which is actually very common in this area, and we were able to buy the items at a good discount through a food distributor. You can save money on alcohol by getting kegs of beer and boxed wine or skip it completely. I know some people have saved money by having a cash bar.

There are many great sites that have quality wedding invitations at a fraction of the cost. Many of these sites also have wedding favors like napkins and such. You can buy your dress on clearance or it might be cheaper to have it made. Of course this would be cheaper if you know someone that might offer a discount, and if you want a simpler design. We also saved money by skipping the limo since the hall was so close to the church. You can also save money by doing the bouquets yourself or someone you know. You might be surprised at how many people have a talent that can help you. Many people will offer a nice discount or do it for free as a wedding present. I got our wedding cake this way. My mom had a cousin that owned a small bakery, and we asked her to do my cake. She offered to do it for free as a present to us. All we had to pay for was the topper which cost us $25 at her cost. I also saved money by using a tuxedo shop that offered us a great special. If we rented 10 tuxes, then my husband got his free. That wasn’t a problem since we had 8 groomsmen, and both the dads also wanted to rent a tuxedo. We did pick simpler tux but it still saved us $80. There are many great ways to save money and still have a wedding you will never forget.

TMR Frugal Living Tip #53

December 27, 2008 Christmas, Frugal Living Tips, Gifts, Holidays, saving money

Today’s thrifty tip is buy your wrapping paper and gift bags now for next year. It’s not always easy to find solid colored items, but I do find a few which is great to use for birthdays and other occasions. I really like the gold and silver for wedding presents. I also buy my greeting cards for next year. Many stores are offering 50% and, if you wait until next week, then you can get 75-80% off. Of course they are picked over more and less good items to choose.