Tips catchup!!

I said I'd post tips and I've been a'slackin'!! Keeping up with work, blog and kids has been a bit of a challenge so far. But I'm getting back to it. Next step is to post to AY more... But here's my tips catchup post...

10. Estee Lauder Freebie day! Visit your local Estee Lauder counter tomorrow (Thursday July 23, 2009) for a free 10 day supply of their new Advanced Night Repair! I can't see any restrictions but I assume supplies will be limited.

11. Free Hefty One Zip Bags at Walmart! They have the small boxes for $1 and there were $1/1 coupons in the 5/17 Red Plum insert.

12. Make your own "Happy Meal" Got this one back in the day from miserlymoms.com (I think). A reader suggested making your own meal, wrapping it up, getting little ketchup packets and a toy and having your own happy meal at home. My kids think this is just as much fun and then they can go out back and play on our play set. And it's healthier for them!!

13. Split and Save. Meat that is. Meat has gotten to be one of the most expensive grocery items out there. And the way it's produced and sold is wholly unsustainable in our current food economy. It's also one of the largest contributors to saturated fat in American's diets. For all those reasons and more. Split your meat. I used to toss in the whole pound of ground meat into my meatloaf. But I found that by adding a little more bread or another egg or a vegetable puree, half was plenty and our fat and calorie totals for the day decreased. Add veggies, bread, rice, potatoes or other grains for bulk. You won't miss it. My meaty family and I promise :)

14. Huggies Wipes. I never realized how wonderful these are. I know many people recommend cutting them in half, but that's not worked for me and my poopers ;-) However, use a huggies wipe next time you're out and your kid spills on themself. I got a slushie food coloring stain nearly out of my daughter's white shirt when we were at the zoo. And cleaning! If you have a flat top range, they clean the water burns etc. amazingly. Shower? Soap scum came right off!! Who knew!! They're fairly inexpensive and strong so one wipe will do a whole job too ;-)

15. Coupon organization. Ahhh, this could be a long one. There's so many ways. I dumpster dive (my husband will be mortified I told you that). So I have a lot of inserts. I keep them organized by date of insert. Then I cut out the high dollar q's and the ones for products we prefer. I keep those organized alphabetically because organizing by genre (meat, condiment, shampoo, etc.) was too hard for me to keep up with. It works for some people to organize that way though. I keep my coupons in a box and I have a shoulder bag to take it with me. That way if I'm in the store and I see something on sale I can just find the q and snap it up. I also use websites like taylortownpreview, pinchingyourpennies and hotcouponworld if I need to look up when a coupon came out. Sometimes I keep a printed list with me so I can find them as well, but lately I haven't. When I only had 1-2 inserts from a week I used to cut them all out and go off the list, but now that I have more to cut and I get older inserts from the dives, it just wasn't feasible to cut everything.

16. Keep your veggies fresh. Many of us have used a papertowel in the sack to keep lettuce and other veggies dry. Next time try a coffee filter! Lillyun (whom I met through PYP) told me about this and it works surprisingly better than a papertowel. No idea why, but it does. And you can get 100 basket filters for $1 on sale, so it's more economical than a towel too!!

17. Grow and keep your own spices. Ours were all just destroyed by hail on Monday night but usually this is a great saver. Plant from seed or get a small plant to start. Never let them go bad on the plant, just pick and save. Spices can be frozen in an ice cube tray with water or olive oil or dehydrated. Garlic too. Don't let heads go to sprout, they'll taste bitter. Chop and freeze in oil or water and just drop one in next time you're ready to cook!!

18. Set up a swap! We're all bored with our wardrobes, books we've already read and wrapping paper we used last year. Have your friends bring what they are looking to swap and just trade. It's amazing how some "new to me" clothes, books or household items will make you feel. For Free!!

19. My Soap Saver. You can use soap bits to make foamy soap if you use those dispensers. Boil in 1 cup of water and allow to cool. Or we prefer to pull out a new bar when the old one is down to the bendy-stick level. Use both bars in the shower and then stick them together. They won't come apart and you'll get each and every drop out of each and every bar, it just rolls onto the next bar.

20. Christmas saver. This one isn't as good as it used to be since more and more people send out the photo cards. But save your cards from the year and then next year when it's time to go through the cards, sit down for some family fun and look at all the ones from last year. Then cut out the card part or the decoration and use them as tags on this year's gifts. Good walk down memory lane and about how everyone has changed over the year and then free gift tags to boot.

I think that gets me caught up for tips! I'll keep posting the "equivalent" of one a day, even if I don't get to it every day ;-)