9 Ways to Save on Picnics

by Gina Blitstein · 0 comments

Picnics and summer go hand in hand. Whether it’s a cookout in the backyard with neighbors or sandwiches in the park with the family, a picnic is a chance to enjoy the warmth of the outdoors while feasting upon summer fare. While picnics are generally casual, by the time you add up the cost of food and beverages, disposable serving-ware, ice to keep things cold and charcoal to make things hot, the costs involved in a simple afternoon in the great outdoors can really add up!

Here are some suggestions for keeping the cost of picnicking down and the enjoyment factor up:

Ask guests to contribute some of the essentials. Even if they don’t wish to cook, guests can supply ice, beverages, serving-ware, chips and pretzels, charcoal, buns for hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream, marshmallows or something from a bakery for dessert — any auxiliary items to complete the meal. They could also provide some of the fun by bringing items like bubbles, kites, buckets and shovels, wagons, horseshoes, badminton, volleyball and net, croquet, beanbag toss, baseballs and mitts and board games.
Plan your menu according to sales, not just convention. Choose burgers over chicken if ground beef is a better buy when you’re shopping. Keeping an open mind about your picnic fare will enable you to provide a greater abundance of food while keeping your expenses under control.
Stock up on condiments and non-perishables when they’re on sale. Ketchup, mustard, relish, mayonnaise and barbecue sauce have long shelf lives. These items as well as napkins, paper plates and plastic cups can be stored for use during picnic season.
If you don’t mind some dish washing, consider using non-disposable storage containers, plates and utensils you can wash and reuse. Disposable items, while convenient, are pricey. Also consider enlisting some of your older cloth tablecloths rather than purchasing plastic or paper ones that tend to blow around anyway and can’t be reused.
Develop a repertoire of picnic-friendly recipes that are easily prepared, kept at an appropriate temperature and transported if necessary. Being familiar with a recipe will make it easier to buy the appropriate ingredients in the proper quantities. Also, if you’ve made a dish before, it is more likely that it will turn out as expected, eliminating the need to make a wasteful second batch to replace a flop.
Think outside the grill. An all-salads picnic, for instance, will reduce the costs associated with pricier ingredients like meats. Your family or guests are likely to find a cold meal especially appealing on a hot day. It will also take advantage of ingredients that are abundant and inexpensive in the Summer, like fruits and vegetables.
Instead of purchasing bottled water, fill pitchers from your kitchen faucet and store in the refrigerator or in ice chests. Provide plenty of fresh ice and your guests can pour their own ice water all day long at minimal cost.
Buy soft drinks in 2-liter bottles and store in the refrigerator or ice chests. On a hot day, they’ll be consumed long before they go flat and there will be less waste from those who leave partial cans of soda to go to waste.
Fill a kiddie pool rather than let a sprinkler run for hours. A running sprinkler uses a lot more water than filling up a small pool which keeps the little ones just as cool.

Good food and fun in the sun doesn’t have to cost a lot. A bit of planning, creativity and practical thinking can help you have affordable, enjoyable picnics all Summer long.

Earning Extra Income: What Do You Know?

by Miranda Marquit · 4 comments

A few weeks back, I wrote a post titled, 3 Thing You Can Do From Home for Additional Income. It prompted quite a bit of discussion. Including a number of people scoffing that the three things I highlighted (freelancing, starting a web site, and consulting) were unrealistic. I also received quite a bit of static because, apparently, I didn’t dwell enough on how hard it can be to earn extra money from home. My disclaimer wasn’t strong enough:

You may have to spend some time getting things started, but after a while, you might find that you can create a steady income from the comfort of your home.

Additionally, adding qualifiers to the post, including if you know how to and something you are knowledgeable about and if you know a lot about something, and if you have the credentials, weren’t strong enough to convey the idea that it’s not all just a walk through the park. I suppose I could have focused more on the difficulties associated with earning money from home. However, my list wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, and I even added a couple extra ideas in the closing paragraph. I had hoped to get people thinking about things they could do from home, or about skills that could translate into three very broad opportunities to make more money.

Capitalizing on What You Know

The key to earning extra income from home is capitalizing on what you know. You need to step back, and think about what you are good at, or about the knowledge and expertise that you have. My husband has a knack for statistics. He was recently paid a pretty decent wage as a consultant to perform a data analysis for a local hospital. He did most of the work on his laptop, sitting on the couch. Does he plan to work from home full time? No. But he doesn’t mind offering his services for a little extra income.

Naturally, I couldn’t offer my services in the area of data analysis; I lack the proper education and credentials. I also couldn’t freelance effectively as a graphic designer or software programmer, like two of my friends do. I don’t have the necessary skills and experience. My sister-in-law crochets beautifully, and sells her creations. She has a talent I cannot duplicate (even though I have crocheted hot pads and scarves) without investing more time than I am willing to. She is also creative enough to make original patterns to sell online. She supplements her husband’s income (he’s a research student) nicely by working from home.

Look at what you enjoy doing, and what you are good at. If you are creative, there are places online where you can sell your wares, photos, and artwork. My wedding cake was made by a woman in my parents’ neighborhood; she produces these wedding cakes as part of her home business to provide high-end confections. If you have knowledge of English, math, science or composition, you can tutor others from home. For a brief period of time, I taught piano lessons to neighborhood kids. I discovered, though, that I don’t have the temper for teaching, even though I had the requisite skill and knowledge.

Yes, earning income from home takes hard work, dedication, and time. But if you start with something you know, and look for ways to turn it into an income stream, you can find success, earning a little more money for your family.

3 Easy Ways to Make the Most of Summer’s Bounty of Fruits and Vegetables

by Gina Blitstein · 0 comments

Summer brings a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Whether you grow some in your own garden, buy from farm stands and farmers’ markets or take advantage of the variety and lower prices at your grocery store, there’s an abundance available. Frugal folks use this yearly opportunity to get fresh produce while the gettin’ is good.

While it’s great to have an abundance, the challenge is to make the most of this bounty of produce, enjoying it as long as possible. The fact is, you can rarely consume all that you have and when you’re facing yet another bushel of tomatoes or you’re up to your eyes in strawberry shortcake, you may find yourself wishing for some alternatives to using it all right now.

Let’s explore some practical things to do with fresh produce so you can make the most of Summer’s bountiful produce:

1. Share it

Before you plant your garden, talk to your neighbors, friends or family who grow produce and coordinate what you plant so you can share your harvests. When the gardens start producing, give away some of your tomatoes in exchange for some of the other gardeners’ zucchini and green beans. Then no one is inundated with more of any one thing than they reasonably can use.

2. Plan for it

Search out recipes and different preparation methods for those fruits and vegetables you anticipate having in abundance. A fresh approach will make eating the same fruits and vegetables more appealing.

Here are two outside-the-box ideas for zucchini I’ve come across:

Using a machine called a spiral slicer which makes long ‘spaghetti’ strands out of zucchini, it could be cooked and served as pasta, rather than grilled or sauteed.
Shredded zucchini can be added to recipes as diverse as cheesy casseroles, quick breads and chocolate cake, adding moisture and nutty flavor.

3, Freeze it

Vegetables

The key to well-frozen vegetables is blanching. Blanching is a process of briefly plunging clean vegetables, cut to the desired size, into boiling, lightly salted water, then removing them to an ice bath until cool. Boil one gallon of water for each pound of vegetables. Blanch vegetables between 1 and 2 minutes, depending on how quickly they normally cook. That is to say, one minute for quick-cooking vegetables like broccoli and two minutes for longer-cooking vegetables, like green beans. This process locks in the nutrients and color. Spread the cooled vegetables on paper towels to dry. When they’re completely dry, place them on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze. Once frozen, place in freezer bags or containers and store in the freezer.

Fruits

Fruits don’t need to be blanched before freezing. As with vegetables, wash, slice as desired, dry on paper towels, freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transfer to a container and store in the freezer. Frozen fruit is best served while still partially frozen.

For fruits that tend to turn brown when sliced, like apples or peaches, treat them first with an ascorbic acid wash. Ascorbic acid is simply Vitamin C and is available in grocery and drug stores. To make an ascorbic acid wash, dissolve 1/2 teaspoon of ascorbic acid in 3 tablespoons water. Sprinkle this mixture over the cut fruit, then proceed as above from drying.

Prepared foods

Anything you make with your fresh produce, from spaghetti sauce to baked goods can be frozen for later use, further extending the life of your produce.

Without the specialized equipment and knowledge necessary to preserve produce by canning or dehydration, these tips will help you to enjoy Summer’s bounty to the fullest extent.

Would You Rather Spend Less or Earn More?

by Miranda Marquit · 1 comment

One of the fundamental rules of personal finance and money management is to spend less than you earn. Living within your means is good financial management, and it is the cornerstone of a frugal lifestyle. Whether you want to retire rich, or whether you are content with your own version of wealth, it is still important to make sure that you live within your income. You can do this by following one of two paths:

Spending Less
Earning More

Of course, you can also do a combination of the two in order to achieve even more impressive results. However, as you decide how to best live within your means, you need to determine what is most likely to suit your notions of financial freedom.

Spending Less

Many people look for ways to pinch pennies and live more frugally. This makes sense when you feel as though you are restricted as to income. Many people decide to do things themselves, or they look for good deals. Many people choose to use coupons — or even get involved in extreme couponing. The main downside to spending less is that it can sometimes lead to feelings of deprivation. After a while, frugal fatigue can set in. Even though there are plenty of ways to have frugal fun, always thinking about how you can pinch pennies can stress some people out. (Although for others it is an exciting challenge.)

Earning More

The other option is to earn more money. In some cases, rather than try to chip away at the spending — especially if you feel as though you can’t reduce your spending any more — it might make sense to look for ways to make a little more money. In some cases, it might make sense to go the more traditional route, getting a part-time job, or, if you have a skill, hiring out for odd jobs. My neighbors provide yard care services on the weekends to earn a little extra money, and I know others who clean homes.

On top of that, if you have the time and patience to build up your online reputation, or provide interesting content, you can start a web site. My husband just finished working his first job as a consultant, providing his stats expertise to a local health care system. He is also working as a adjunct at two different universities — sort of like a freelance professor. If you know what your skill set is, and you are willing to put in some initial work, you can find ways to get paid for what you can do by starting a home business.

Combining the Two

You can, of course, achieve your desired financial results with a combination of spending less and earning more. You can look through your spending to see where it makes sense to cut back, and make efforts to get a good deal on your purchases. That way, you get more for your money. While you are doing this, you can think of ways that make sense for you when it comes to earning more. That way, you will be able to more quickly build up your emergency fund, pay down debt, and save for retirement.

Inexpensive Summer Fun for Kids

by Tracy · 0 comments

Kids look forward to summer all year long, but once it’s here those days can drag! A bit of structure can help with that along with some of these free or low cost summer activities.

Summer Camp Coop

Even if you can’t afford to spend a lot of money on day camp, your child could still have lots of fun with friends while you get a break.

Summer camp coops are run by small groups of parents who agree to rotate taking care of an amusing all of the children. Each host parent provides games, activities and snacks for the kids while the rest of the parents enjoy their day of peace and quiet.

These work best with relatively small groups of close friends. Be sure to spell out how to handle discipline issues, food and sick kids before the coop starts.

Freebies at Local Museums and Attractions

Many museums, gardens, nature centers and other centers run frequent free days during the summer, particularly those that are run with public funds. A few even give free summer memberships! Check availability by visiting their website, Facebook fan page or Twitter account.

Some public libraries also have free passes to these sorts of attractions. Call to check if this is available in your area.

Bowling and Movies

Bowling and movies are not only awesome indoor fun, it’s also common for local alleys and movie theaters to offer summer specials like “Kids bowl free” and discount weekday kid matinees. Again, do a bit of online searching to see what’s available in your area.

Don’t Forget to Read

Let your kids experience the joy of losing themselves in a great book this summer. A visit to the library is a great way to pass the time and get free books to read.

As a bonus, encourage your children to write and illustrate their own stories and plays. It’s a good way to build literacy skills while having a great time.

Have Regular Arts and Crafts

Yes, it can be mess and you might feel a bit intimidated if you’re not particularly artsy yourself but it’s a wonderful way to encourage your child’s creativity and keep them busy and happy. You don’t have to invest in expensive art supplies; often found materials work just as well and you can incorporate finding them into your day.

Do have your children help with cleaning up after themselves and putting art supplies away. This helps thing stay organized and fun as well as teaches them responsibility.

How do you keep your children busy all summer?

28 Ways to Turn Your Yard into a Summer Staycation Destination

by Gina Blitstein · 0 comments

The cost of everything from gas to groceries has gone up this summer. As a result of higher prices on the necessities, you may be looking for ways to keep to your budget and still have a little something to spend on a vacation. Instead of heading out to far-away places, consider getting away from it all in your own backyard. A staycation — a vacation spent at home — may be just what you need to have an affordable getaway from the everyday.

A staycation uses your home as your base of operations, eliminating the costs of travel and accommodations elsewhere. Perhaps most appealing thing about staycations is that you can customize them to be absolutely what you want them to be — your ideal getaway — whatever you deem that to be. It’s simply a combination of changing your attitude while incorporating some special elements to create a vacation ‘mood.’ The possibilities are limited only by your creativity and preferences. The trick is making the ordinary extraordinary, creating the illusion that you’re not just staying home but enjoying a luxurious getaway. Just like a traditional vacation, you want to see, hear, and experience different things on your staycation.

Consider these ideas for turning your yard into a Summer Staycation Destination:

Decide on a theme: resort, camping, B&B…
Find a secluded area, away from traffic or neighbors to host your staycation.
Use plants to create privacy and ambiance — think fragrant and exotic.
Consider lighting: solar lights, Chinese lanterns, candles, tiki torches…
Complete the mood with appropriate music or sounds.
Incorporate nature elements, such as water (fountain) and fire (chiminea or fire pit)
Provide comfortable furniture like chairs, ottomans, chaise lounges, hammocks, swing seats…
Set a luxurious table outdoors with real plates, glassware and silverware.
Indulge your love of nature: feed the squirrels/chipmunks, fill bird feeders with seeds to attract your winged friends…
Set up a convenient outdoor beverage center.
Enjoy fun and games like horseshoes, badminton, croquet, board games…
Prepare ‘splurge’ foods to make you feel pampered — fancy chocolates, champagne, lobster tails…
Invite others and share any chores pertaining to cooking or cleanup.
Gather books and magazines and take the opportunity to read.
Pitch a tent and sleep under the stars.
Plan and prepare ‘theme’ food to reinforce the flavor of your experience.
Wear fun clothes and new shades.
Create an at-home spa, complete with massages and mani-pedis.
Rent movies and TV shows and take time to indulge in entertainment.
Ride your bikes on a scenic ‘tour’ of the neighborhood or local park.
Make an ice cream bar.
Remember to take photos!
Hire someone to come and mow your lawn and take out your trash so you won’t have to.
Vary your daily schedule so you can lose track of time.
Tell friends and family about your staycation so they won’t drop by.
Hide your work.
Silence your phone.
Stop your mail and newspaper delivery.

The key to a successful staycation is two-fold: One, change up your routine and two, indulge yourself in special treats.

Staycations represent a different allocation of your vacation dollars. Consider major expenses such as outdoor lighting, landscaping, embellishments to your deck or a fountain long-term investments in your home’s amenities which you’ll enjoy for years to come, not just during your staycation. Invest the time and money you’d spend researching, booking and traveling to a far-flung destination to orgainze and stock up for a staycation. Costs associated with making your staycation relaxing and revitalizing are far less than the expenses associated with traveling and staying away from home.

What have you done to create a staycation?

Do You Need a Huge Stockpile to Save Money?

by Miranda Marquit · 0 comments

The TV show Extreme Couponing has brought a lot of attention to the practice of saving money with coupons. Extreme couponers are known for having huge stockpiles and for getting hundreds of dollars in groceries for less than $10, due to strategies that help them save. But, do you need a huge stockpile to save money and live frugally?

Extreme Stockpiles

I agree that home food storage is important, and that having a little extra on hand is a good idea. I also agree that if you can buy a few things when they are on sale, you can save more money down the road. However, an extreme stockpile may not be the way to go — especially if you don’t have the room for a huge stockpile.

Some of the problems with these huge stockpiles include:

Lack of space: If you have a room you can devote to your stockpile, it might not be so bad. However, there are some extreme couponers with stockpiles spread throughout the house. If you don’t have the space for a stockpile, it doesn’t make sense to get too into extreme couponing.
Expiring products: In some cases, you might find that items in your stockpile expire before you can use them. This is especially true of food and medications. If you stockpile, you need to be able to rotate items effectively so that you can use them in a timely manner.
Costs money up front: Building a stockpile can result in spending a little bit more up front. While spending a little extra at first to save more over time can be beneficial, it isn’t always practical in your particular circumstances. Stockpiling doesn’t work as well if you have to put money on your credit card to build your stores.
Takes a lot of time: There are extreme couponing proponents that spend 15 – 20 hours a week — or more — to organize their coupons, look for deals and shop. The amount of time spent driving in traffic, visiting multiple stores, and looking for deals can really start to add up. Plus, you have to organize your stockpile when you bring the items home. The time-cost might be more than it is worth.

Alternative to Extreme Couponing

While extreme couponing can come with huge results, it takes a lot of time and effort to make it work. Instead of engaging in extreme couponing, you can use coupons to save a significant amount of money. You can also buy in bulk during sales. However, you don’t need to create a huge stockpile. If you pay attention, you will discover that sales come in cycles. My husband and I know that if we buy one big package of toilet paper, it will last us until the next sale — no reason to fill up the whole house with items.

Certain food items go on sale predictably at our grocery store. We buy bread, meat and other items when they are on sale, and freeze what we won’t use. By the time of the next sale, it’s about time to buy. We save 50% to 70% this way. It may not be the 90% that extreme couponing can provide you if you are willing to take the time and fill up your house, but it’s plenty of savings for us.

In some cases, balance makes a little more sense. After a certain amount of time, there are diminishing returns for the time and effort spent extreme couponing, since it takes away from time with your family.

6 Tasty Homemade Drinks to Stay Refreshed This Summer

by Tracy · 1 comment

Summer’s heat makes it hard to resist an icy cold beverage. The problem is, spending $2-5 a pop on refreshing treats adds up to several hundred dollars over the course of a summer, not to mention all of the extra calories and sugar that most of us don’t need.

The answer is to be proactive and have your own tasty drinks ready to go at home. Not only will you save money, you’ll be able to custom make the drinks to suit your own preferences for sugar, caffeine and fat.

Here are six suggestions for making your own summer drinks at home.

1. Don’t forget the water! If your tap water isn’t the best-tasting, a home filter and keeping it icy cold can take care of that. If that doesn’t work, many grocery stores sell filtered water by the gallon for super cheap and you can reuse the same jug week after week.

Many people re-use plastic water bottles, however many experts recommend against this because of the danger of chemicals leeching from the plastic and because they can be difficult to clean thoroughly. Instead, opt for re-usable plastic or metal bottles, preferably ones that are labeled BPA free. Get at least one per family member and after each use, wash and refill and put in the fridge so that you have a bottle ready to go!

2. Iced tea is refreshing, light and delicious. Look beyond the traditional black teas and try iced green, herbal and fruit teas, too. Follow the directions on the package for brewing, making it extra strong so that the flavor remains once it is diluted with ice and water.

If you want to sweeten your tea with sugar or honey, it’s best to add it to the hot, brewed tea so that it dissolves thoroughly.

3. If you have extra coffee in the pot in the morning, don’t throw it out, chill it to make iced coffee for an afternoon treat! Another frugal option is to make cold brewed coffee (one recipe) to use in chilled coffee beverages. Even if you splurge on gourmet beans, it will still be much cheaper than buying it from the coffee shop.

4. Not a fan of plain water? Tickle your tastebuds with homemade infused waters. Play around with adding different fruits to pitchers of water to come up with the combination that is right for you. Some to try:

Thinly sliced cucumbers
Citrus fruits
Berries
Pineapple chunks
Watermelon
Mango
Mint

You can sweeten it lightly to taste before serving, although many people enjoy it as is. You can find some recipes here.

5. If you like fruit juice, try mixing them half and half with sparkling water to make a refreshing fruit juice spritzer. This is a great way to stretch some of the more expensive juices and halve the sugar and calories.

6. If you must have soda, try using a soda stream to make your own. There is an upfront cost, however you can custom make your own sodas and gradually wean yourself down to drinking only lightly flavored fizzy water, to save cash and calories.

What are some of your favorite summer drinks? How do you avoid the temptation to buy fancy iced drinks?

3 Inexpensive Ways to Watch Television and Movies Beyond Cable TV

by Gina Blitstein · 50 comments

Once upon a time, if you wanted to watch a show on television, you had to be in front of the TV at the time it aired. Maybe you could catch the rerun if you saw it listed in the TV Guide — otherwise, it was gone for good. If you wanted to watch a recent movie, you went to the theater. Then, if you waited a decade or so, that movie might show up on TV on the Late, Late Show. Those were the only means by which you could watch television and movies when the technology to create them was young.

In the 1970’s an amazing thing called Cable Television came about, delivering the ability to view not only ABC, NBC, CBS and a handful of local stations around the country but independent national networks that sprang up with original programming. It was a big adjustment for people to pay for the privilege of watching TV but the benefits of having all those choices proved worth the cost. Not long after that, HBO (Home Box Office), arrived on the scene bringing movies into our homes less than a year after they appeared in theaters! Since then it’s been a continuous stream through the years of more channels, more programming and more ways to watch entertainment.

Fast forward to today where we not only get TV and movies on our phones but there’s virtually no such thing as ‘appointment TV’ — we can watch what we want, when we want, wherever we want. While the choices are overwhelming, there’s a bright upside — the cost of entertainment is actually more affordable than ever. We’re a long way from bloated cable and satellite packages offering us more channels and choices than we can possibly watch at more than we need to pay.

While still present in most homes, cable and satellite companies aren’t the only game in town anymore for providing electronic entertainment. More and more customers are opting for basic service and filling out their options with the ‘a la carte’ options that abound, such as:

Pay-per-view / On demand: If you don’t want to go to the expense of paying for premium channels 24/7, you can choose a pay-per view or on-demand selection through either your cable or satellite provider, computer, mobile device or gaming console, to watch specifically when you want. Pay-per-view usually costs less than $5 each; special events, such as boxing matches, are sometimes offered at a higher price. Subscription services, like Netflix, offer unlimited on-demand movies and television streaming over the Internet for under $10 per month.
Internet: Miss an episode of your favorite show? Go to the network’s website and chances are you can watch the full episode online. Another way to access entertainment via the Internet is through a Roku box which enables you to watch Internet-based content on your TV. And Hulu.com provides access to TV shows and movies with free and paid plans.
DVD Rental: They look more like vending machines than storefronts now but you can rent DVDs of movies or television shows for as little as $1 each per day from Redbox. Netflix will also deliver DVDs to your house instead of over the Internet if you prefer.

Compared to the price of expensive premium channel cable or satellite packages or going to a movie theater, these at-home or on-the-go solutions allow you to have top-quality entertainment delivered to you anytime, anywhere for very little outlay. Today’s technology has created the means for more entertainment to be more affordable.

How does technology cut your entertainment expenses?

And if you really can’t let go of your TV service, at least look at all the currently available broadband promotions to see if you can save some money every single month.

3 Simple Recipes for DIY Household Cleaners

by Miranda Marquit · 1 comment

It seems as though there are a lot of cleaners out there, promising to keep your home clean. However, in many cases you can keep your home clean fairly inexpensively — with the help of do-it-yourself household cleaners. For the most part, if you have three household products — baking soda, vinegar and bleach — you can mix almost any recipe. However, there are some DIY household cleaners that require a little more. Here are a few simple recipes that can help you create your own household cleaners with little fuss:

All Purpose Cleaner

You can create an all-purpose cleaner with enough 15 oz of hot water. You will also need 4 Tablespoons of vinegar and two teaspoons of baking soda. If you want, you can add an essential oil to your mix to add an appealing smell. If you choose to use an essential oil, you will need about 10 drops (or 15 if you want it stronger).

Mix the vinegar with the baking soda, and add the essential oil (if you want). Next, add the hot water and mix everything thoroughly. This solution can be used to clean a number of surfaces, and is relatively safe.

You can also combine two Tablespoons of borax with 1/4 cup lemon juice and two cups of water. Borax can be bought relatively inexpensively, and can be used in a number of household cleaning recipes.

Mildew Remover

There are some different ways to make a mildew remover on your own. This can be a great way to clean your bathroom and other areas where mildew is inclined to grow. One recipe involves mixing 1/2 cup vinegar with 1/2 cup of borax in warm water. You can also mix 1/4 teaspoon tea tree oil and 1/4 teaspoon lavender oil in two cups of water (recipe on Elizabeth’s Kind Cafe).

If you want to get rid of buildup in your bathtub, you can use vinegar on a sponge to wipe down the area. Then, use baking soda as a scouring agent. You will need to thoroughly rinse the tub when you are done.

You can remove toilet bowl stains (that pink ring) with the help of borax and lemon juice made into a paste. First, flush the toilet so that the bowl is wet. Next, you can apply the paste. You will have to let it sit for two hours if you want it to be most effective. Then, after that, scrub and flush.

Oven Cleaner

It can be tough to clean the oven, and no matter what cleaner you use, you might have more luck when you use an abrasive pad. But you can mix up a DIY oven cleaner using two Tablespoons of Murphy’s Oil and two Tablespoons of borax mixed in six ounces of warm water. You will need to let the mixture sit for 20 minutes on the surface before you begin scrubbing.

Window Cleaner

You can use vinegar and water in equal parts as a window cleaner. You can also mix 1/2 cup of cornstarch in two quarts of warm water. However, this mixture — though effective — can be a bit streaky. Choose a day when it’s not very sunny to clean the window with the cornstarch recipe.

What’s your favorite DIY household cleaning recipe?

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