Saturday Handy Tip : Get a Space Heater

Many people have central heat in their homes. Often you don't get to decide what vents are open or closed, or where they are located. As an example of this, the vent that we have that works the best in our loft is the one that goes directly into our bathroom. Not the smartest of locations. 

We recently obtained a programmable thermostat for the house which we only have set to turn on in the mornings. What we do for the rest of the day is use an electric space heater to heat the area of the house that we are in. Because it costs so much more to use gas, and because when we turn on our central heat it distributes through the whole apartment, it makes more sense to use something smaller that we have set right by us. 

Space heaters can cost anywhere from $20 to $200. I think a really decent one can be had for $40, depending on what kind of room you are heating. 

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Saturday Handy Tip : Keep Generic Gifts on Hand

Around this time of year especially, it's entirely possible that you will receive a Christmas present from someone who you didn't put on your list. It's a good idea to find some fairly generic gifts to have on hand at all times. Things that can work well are stuff like candles, home made preserves or pancake mix (which is what I did last year). 

Another person I know knits dishcloths year round and keeps a few on hand as gifts throughout the year. 

So be sure to pop a couple of generic things in a drawer for Christmas and maybe for the rest of the year too! It could be your saving grace in an awkward social situation!

Saturday Handy Tip : How to Clean Your Shower Head

Here is another tip from my series of home made cleaning products!

Does your metal shower head have deposits on it that prevent it from flowing well? The easiest way to fix this is to put half a cup of white vinegar in a quart of water. Place it in a large pan, add the shower head, and boil it for 15 minutes to safely and easily remove the deposits. Rinse and put back in your shower!

Check out the other tips in this series:

How to Make Drain Cleaner

How to Make Dryer Sheets

How to Make All Purpose Cleaner

Saturday Handy Tip : How to Make Drain Cleaner

I'm continuing my Saturday Handy Tip homemade household products series today. If you haven't started switching your household products to homemade ones, I highly recommend you start now! I'm switching one over a week and I will happily accept requests in the comments for what product you would like to replace next!

To unclog drains, pour half a cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by half a cup of white vinegar. Let sit for 15 minutes and follow it with boiling water. Do not use on plastic plumbing or after you have already tried a commercial drain cleaner.

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips:

How to Make All Purpose Cleaner

How to Make Dryer Sheets

Freeze Leftover Wine

Saturday Handy Tip : How to Make a Home Made Dryer Sheet

Here is the next tip in my series of getting away from store bought household products and making your own. 

To make your clothes smell nice and fresh in the dryer, take an old rag or an old mismatched sock and put three or four drops of your favorite Essential Oil on it before throwing it in the dryer with your clothes. Essential oil is not very expensive and a little will go a really long way. I find Lavender really soothing, but you could also try lemon or peppermint, or any other fragrance that you personally enjoy. 

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips

Get a Piggy Bank

Getting the Most out of Citrus

Power Strip Your TV

Saturday Handy Tip : How to Make All Purpose Cleaner

Going green is a great thing that is best done item by item. I'll be working on posting saturday tips that help you get away from store bought disposable items and move towards more natural products, products that you can make yourself, or ideas for switching to things that are reusable.

Instead of buying an all purpose surface cleaner, mix 1/2 Liquid Soap (shower gel or shampoo works just as well) with a gallon of water and 1/4 Cup of lemon juice or vinegar. This can be used on all surfaces to clean and then just rinse with water. 

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips:

Skip Laundry Detergent

Get a Notebook

Salad Dressing Hack

Saturday Handy Tip - Skip Laundry Detergent

When you wash your clothes they retain some of the laundry detergent that you use. Every so often, try skipping laundry detergent. Your clothes or linens will still be clean, and they will also be free of built up residue. Doing this on the first load every other week can be a good way to save money on detergent.
If you wash a load of towels regularly, or your sheets, try just putting in detergent every other load.

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips:

Salad Dressing Hack
Freeze Leftover Wine
Get a Notebook

Saturday Handy Tip : Clean Your Air Conditioning Filter

We use our air conditioning a lot during the warmer months. Our loft gets a lot of sun and warms up quite quickly, and we have a cat so the air conditioning filter gets clogged very easily. Cleaning it off regularly helps my air conditioning run better and extends the life of the filter.

How to Clean It

The filter collects dust and hair and other debris so the first thing to do is to take it outside and bang it against something so that most of the dirt falls off. Next, get some regular tape (or a lint roller) and use the sticky side to pull more hair and dust off of the filter. This will unclog a lot of it. You can even run your finger along it if there is a lot of pet dander on there and lift it off.

This should extend the life of your filter by a week if you take a couple of minutes to clean it off weekly or bi-weekly, depending on how often you run your air conditioning.

Check out these other handy tips:

Get a Piggy Bank
Photocopy Your Wallet
Overcome Writers Block

Saturday Handy Tip : Freeze Leftover Wine

Photo by Lord Khan

Often I'll have a glass of wine at home and I won't quite want to finish it, or I'll have a tiny amount left in a bottle that isn't enough for a decent sized glass. 

When this happens, I pour the wine either into an ice cube tray or into a tupperware container and freeze it. 

When I'm making stocks or Ragu, or anything that requires a lot of liquid and could use a little extra flavor I just throw in the saved up wine, or add just a couple of cubes. It works like a charm. 

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips:

Get A Notebook

Get the Most Out of Citrus

Power Strip Your TV

Salad Dressing Hack

Are you making money online with Cash Crate yet?

Saturday Handy Tip : Get a Notebook

This is a great tip for writers and personal finance people alike. You should always keep a notebook on you. 

You never know when you might have a brilliant idea, or meet someone you've not seen for years and need to write down their email address. You could see a great price on something when you're out and about and want to check the price online later. 

I mostly use my notebook for writing down article ideas and keeping track of my to-do list. 

My personal favorite is my Moleskine Small Ruled Notebook. It fits neatly into my purse or my pocket and I get so much great use out of it. It also has a handy little pocket inside where I tuck business cards that people have handed me so I can get them safely home to file them away. 

Amazon has the best price on these, but you can also find them in most bookstores.

Check out these other Saturday Handy Tips:

Overcoming Writers Block

Getting the Most Out of Citrus

Photocopy Your Wallet

Saturday Handy Tip : Get a Piggy Bank

When I was a teenager I would always save my change. I had a piggy bank and all coins automatically went into it. When I was about fifteen I finally went to put a coin in it and it wouldn't go. I emptied it out and took that money to buy my first cell phone (pay-as-you-go of course). 

As an adult, I still practice this. There are two piggy banks in my house. One is downstairs and one is upstairs. I put all my change in the one downstairs and my husband sometimes contributes to the one upstairs. When it's full or when I've fallen on harder times, I cash them out and take them to the bank. These coins usually go into my down payment fund. 

This might only add up to a few dollars, but it's hassle free saving that really adds up over time. 

However, be sure that if you do this you count out your change yourself. Banks will happily give you little paper coin rollers. Coinstar machines and other services skim a fee off the top of your money. 

Check out some other Saturday Handy Tips

Power Strip Your TV

Getting the Most out of Citrus

Salad Dressing Hack

Saturday Handy Tip - Getting the Most out of Citrus

I cook often and hate juicing lemons and limes with a passion. I tend to have to press down really hard and rarely get enough juice. Luckily I have a handy trick that makes juicing easier and more productive. 

When you are getting ready to juice the fruit, microwave it for 30 seconds and then roll it on a counter with the heel of your hand, pressing firmly. The fruit will feel much softer. Be sure to cut it in half over a bowl because the juice will likely start coming out as soon as a knife is inserted. 

I find this usually gives me about 25% more juice when I use this method. 

Previous Handy Tips

Photocopy Your Wallet

Power Strip Your TV

Overcome Writers Block

Frugal Salad Dressing

Saturday Handy Tip - Photocopy Your Wallet

Once I thought I had lost my wallet on top of a mountain at two in the morning. I panicked. Everything was in there... my license, my social security card, my credit cards, my immigration ID. Losing it was unthinkable. Thankfully, my friend found it in the morning under his couch.
Everyone goes through this at some point. They either lose their wallet or have it stolen. To make it more bearable and easier to handle, photocopy or scan the front and back of everything in your wallet. All of your credit cards and bank cards will have a number on the back which you can call to report your card lost of stolen. Having all of this information will greatly speed up freezing your accounts and replacing your missing items.
You might also wish to tape something inside your wallet that says "If found, please call ..." with your telephone number. This way if an honest person finds it in, say, the parking lot of a car dealership after your car broke down in the rain and it fell out of your purse, they have an easy way to reach you.


Previous Handy Tips

June 28th - Power Strip Your TV
June 21st - Overcome Writers Block
June 14th - Salad Dressing Hack

Saturday Handy Tip - Power Strips for Your TV

Right now we are running our air conditioning a lot. We live in the South and have very big windows, so our power bill is likely to be very high. I'm trying to cut corners where ever I can, so I've hooked up the TV, DVD Player and Wii to a power strip. Because these are all machines that are on standby, they drain off a little power all day every day. So now they are on a strip I just hit the off switch for all of them when I am not using them, and turn them back on when I am. It probably saves me a few pennies a day, but as you can tell from my Twelve Cents article, that can really make a difference!

Previous Handy Tips

June 21st - Writers Block
June 14th - Salad Dressing

Saturday Handy Tip - Overcoming Writers Block

Stuck for Writing ideas?
If you're writer like me, every so often you'll wake up in the morning with no idea what you are going to write about for that day. Because I have several topics that I write about, there are usually a few different things going on in any given topic that I can be inspired by. I have certain steps, though, that I will regularly take.

My Family and Friends
I will often message my friends and family and ask them what they would like to read about today. This is completely hit or miss, and sometimes that answers are peculiar (e.g. Zach and the "Just write about Canadians" comment). Sometimes, though, they wil think of great stuff that I either write about that day or save for the future.

CNN.com

The news is often inspiring. I can usually find something to either rile me up or make me think. I find it better to read the website than to watch the channel, though.  

My Google Reader

I subscribe to many other blogs in my google reader. A few of them have people who will often read someone another blog and then write a response on their own site. Those can often be inspiring and sometimes I will feel like commenting to. It's like having a giant blogging conversation. 

Forums

I am a member of a few forums and often what they are discussing is something that I would like to be discussing. It's completely worth checking General Discussion areas for hot topics. 

More Saturday Handy Tips

Saturday June 14th

Saturday Handy Tip - Salad Dressing Hack

Saturday is handy hint day!

Salad dressings are generally high in calories and preservatives. They aren't overly cheap, and they tend to go bad after a few months. Avoid buying salad dressing and instead invest in some good quality extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Pour a little of each over your salad right before you eat it. It gives the salad extra flavor, is much healthier, and is inexpensive. These two ingredients can also be used in other cooking and they both have long shelf lives. 

Enjoy!