Lint roller tip

You know those lint rollers that you use on your clothes?  I bought mine from Canadian Tire for $1.99 the other day.  I would assume the dollar store sells them as well?

Well use it on your lamp shades to get rid of the dust on them.  It's a lot more gentle than brushing them down with the vacuum cleaner.  It works as you can see by the dust I picked up off my lamp in the living room.

Do you have any other good ideas on what to use a lint roller on?

Bathroom cleaning tips..

I clean our bathroom on a Monday and a Friday.  Monday is a deeper clean than a Friday and if needed I will wipe round the other days.

Now rather than do a deep clean once a month or whatever, I try and do one big thing per week.  For instance this week I cleaned the drains/plug holes, in the bath, shower and sink.  I use a mixture of baking soda/bicarb soda, white vinegar and boiling water:

Pour on some baking soda........

Top it with white vinegar.

Pour boiling water on top of that.  It all bubbles up and cleans out the drains.

A neat tip I stumbled upon, is after you clean your toilet.  Place the brush between the the toilet and seat, like in the photo to dry off before putting it back in the holder.  That way your holder is not full of toilet water.

Do you have any neat tips for cleaning your bathroom?

Maybe you can help?

My bathroom towels are a couple of years old.  Still in fine shape but they smell, even after I have washed them.  So a week or two ago I washed them twice in hot water, once with white vinegar only and once with baking soda only.  They seemed fine, nice and soft and no smell.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and they are back to smelling.  Any suggestions?  By the way those are not my towels, just loved the colour combination.

(photo credit)

I had half a bottle of club soda left over.  So I let it go flat and have been watering my indoor plants with it.  Said it was good for them on the internet?  Thought it was better than throwing it away?  Did make a Jello/jelly with a cup of it too, but didn't like the bubbly taste of it.

Bit of a short post today, eh!

Frugality or lack there of.......

One of the things I wanted to do when I started this blog was help everyone save money by telling them what I do to save money. However for one reason or another that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Not sure why could be lack of time, or even lack of interest on my part? I was just reading a post over at Notes from the Frugal Trenches and a lot of what she said hit home.

I have all these ideas about wanting to live simply, but actually getting around to doing it is another thing. We have got used to our comfort zone. We live in a new house with our attached double garage, our walk in closets and large ensuite. All new windows and doors all the modern comforts but honestly we use only half the house. So what is stopping us from down sizing and living more simply? If I knew the answer I suppose we would have done it by now.

I have become accustomed also to handing over my credit card at every opportunity, that too has to stop. We're lucky we can afford to pay the balance off every month. But when I think back to what we bought, were they all needs or just plain wants. I think 75% of them are the wants. Its got to stop, I just have been lax in my way of thinking. All that money would be better put into our savings account......

I have to start living the frugal life style. I know I can do it, people are always making fun of me about my use of coupons. I do try and scope good deals out on things I buy, but I know I can do better.

There are still things I do automatically without thinking, like hanging my laundry out to dry. I very rarely put it in the dryer. We still have the heating turned off, mind you a lot of that has to do with the weather being a lot warmer than normal and me being permanently hot (remember I am a woman of a certain age!!) I use the toaster oven rather than the main oven when ever possible. I reuse my grocery bags as garbage bags (we're allowed to do that). I have a veggie garden albeit not that big, but every bit helps.

I always check the flyers for the sale items and stock up on them. I bought 8 tubs of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter last week. The woman in front of me remarked at how many I was buying. As I said to her, they go on sale every couple of months or so. We use one tub a week, so these eight tubs should in theory last me until the next time they come on sale. And I would rather pay 99 cents a tub than $1.99, she agreed with my way of thinking.

I always wash out my ziploc baggies and reuse my aluminum foil. I even add water to what I think is my empty shower gel, to get a few more washes out of it, but am I doing enough? I don't think so.

I know there is so much more I could do, and I know you all probably do a lot more than me, so any tips on what you do to save a dollar or two would be greatly appreciated. Now to go and read my Tightwad Tips books again to get me motivated.