rachel_titiriga/flickr

I live in Southern California, the land of the lemon tree. With so many donations from friends, I have found tons of uses for the mighty little lemon.

Here are ten of my favorites:

1. Lemon juice and salt on your copper bottom pans make an instant cleaning miracle. Just sprinkle the salt on the copper bottom, then squirt on some lemon juice and give a gentle scrub. Your copper will shine like the day it was made. This works on any copper surface, not just pot bottoms.

2. Put lemon juice in a spray bottle and go for a little sunbath. Spritz the lemon juice on your hair and let the sun do its job. You will end up with a summer blond look.
3. Turn those lemons into lemonade. The very best lemonade that I ever had was at a yard sale. The little boy who sold it to me was proud to tell me that the lemons came from the tree in his backyard. Lemon juice + filtered water + honey + ice = yummy lemonade
4. After shampoo rinse. When I was little, my mom used to pour lemon juice over my hair as an after shampoo rinse. Some people don’t use shampoo or conditioner at all – only water and some lemon juice.
5. Deodorize your garbage disposal. After you are done squeezing the juice out of the lemon, cut it up into strips and put down your disposal. Not only does it help break up the grease and gunk on the blades, but it leaves a pleasant lemon scent.
6. Keep guacamole from turning brown. Avocado turns brown when exposed to air, so your wonderful homemade guacamole can look yucky while still tasting great. Spritz the top of your guac with lemon juice to keep a bright green.
7. Similar to the avocado, apple slices will also turn brown when left out to the air. Dip the slices in lemon juice to keep them nice looking. The taste of the lemon compliments the apples.
8. Help soften elbows and heels by rubbing a squeezed lemon rind on them. Make sure you don’t have any cuts in your skin or they will sting.
9. Lemon and honey in hot water is good for a sore throat or a cold. If nothing else, the honey tastes good and the heat soothes.
10. Kill weeds in the cracks in your sidewalk. Much like the tip that Bargain Babe gave us with vinegar, it turns out that lemon juice also kills weeds. Soak the area with lemon juice instead of toxic chemicals. You will definitely want a friend with an overloaded lemon tree for this tip.

I know that there are tons more uses for this great little fruit. What are your favorite uses for lemons?

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Soft, soft cashmere - photo by Bobbi Burger Brunoehler

I just scored a cashmere sweater for 99 cents at the 99 cent store. Yep. A cashmere sweater for less than a dollar! This unbelievable discount got me thinking about my Bargain Hall of Fame.

I find bargains every day, but sometimes my finds are special. Here are my personal top 10 best buys:

1. Brand new original Leatherman tool for $1.50. Retailed for $50 (but it is retired and you can’t even buy it anymore except as a collector’s item).
2. Sewing machine (like new) for free on Freecycle.
3. Large box FULL of jewelry (including a gold ring) for $20. My daughter had a field day taking the jewelry apart and redesigning it. I often wonder if the man that sold me this box of jewelry got in trouble with his wife.
4. Three giant garbage bags full of clothes at swap-o-rama-rama. Entrance fee was a bag of my clothes and $5. My favorite way to get new clothes is at a swap.
5. Wooden swing set with slide, fort and two swings for $200. Retail cost $2,200. We got years of fun out of this swing set in two different States. We finally sold it to someone else for $150.
6. The afore mentioned cashmere sweater for 99 cents – retail price $255 at Nordstrom. It’s a super soft sweater as you can see from the picture.
7. Hundreds of dollars worth of fake flowers for $15 at an estate sale. I later used these flowers in a craft tent at a huge children’s festival.
8. A David’s Bridal bridesmaid’s gown for $20. Retail $220. This gown is now part of my daughter’s costume collection.
9. Fixing my car horn, cruise control and air bag for free under factory recall. Savings of at least $500 dollars.
10. Buying my home in a short sale for half of what the previous owner paid for it. BIG savings.

Those are my Bargain Hall of Fame nominees. How about you? What are your best bargains ever?

Jasonwoodhead23/flickr

By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.

Per Southern California Gas Company, home heating is 65% of a residential gas bill during the winter months. (That’s what it said in my bill insert this month.) Wow! If that is true in Southern California, what is it in actual cold parts of the country?

With so much of your utility budget going toward keeping your home warm, anything that you can do to retain heat in your home or keep the heat from leaving is a money saver. Here are 5 tips that will help you to lower your heating bill:

1. Open your drapes when the sun is shining into the window. This allows the sun to heat your home. Close your drapes (the heavier the better) when the sun is not shining in the window. This will help to hold the heat in the space and keep it from literally going out the window. Follow the tips in the winterize your home video to keep those windows from being drafty.
2. Clean or replace the filters in your heating system. Ensure you do not have furniture or storage in front of your heating vents, especially if you have floor vents. Remember heat rises and it can’t rise if it is covered by your sofa.
3. Get an annual inspection for your furnace.  Yes, heating systems need to be maintained just like your air conditioner. An annual servicing of your furnace can not only save you money but it can also prevent a fire by cleaning out lint build-up and ensuring that your system is operating properly and efficiently. Per the Chicago Tribune, if your system is only 60% efficient, then that means that you are loosing 40 cents on every dollar!
4. If your health will allow, wear more clothes and lower the temperature a few degrees. Place lap rugs around your house so that you can place one over your legs or over your shoulders to keep you warm. If you are in Southern California… it’s time to take off the flip-flops and put on socks and shoes.
5. Wear a hat.  Remember how Scrooge had on a sleeping cap when he went to bed in every version of Charles Dicken’s Christmas classic? Scrooge was saving money by not heating his house. So, he wore a hat to keep him warm. You don’t have to be Scrooge to wear a comfy sleeping night cap. They really do keep you warm.

Hummm. All this writing about the cold is making me want a nice mug of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows. Another great way to keep warm.

Four years ago, Dove beauty products ran one of the most successful viral video campaigns of the time. It graphical showed that our perception of beauty is twisted by the ability of makeup and graphic artists to make the human body look drastically different than it actually is. In the hands of an expert, Photoshop graphic software can drastically change the way that anybody looks.

These constant visual illusions set the stage for cosmetic companies to sell overpriced and unnecessary products to young and old, male and female, rich and poor. Do we really need toxic chemicals from cosmetics added to our skin and our budgets? No.

The best beauty is natural beauty. It is lasting. Really.

Here are 8 tried and true simple steps you can do to bring out your natural beauty.

1. Drink water. Pure, clean water. Water is what the body uses to flush out the toxins that accumulate and cause unwanted and unbeautiful conditions like pimples, wrinkles and bags under your eyes.
2. Get a good and restful night’s sleep every night. I know that this is very hard for many people to do, but you can help yourself by turning off the computer or tv and going to sleep early enough that you can get a good 8 hours of sleep. For those of you with young kids… sorry, I know that probably isn’t possible.
3. Avoid eating sugar. Wow. Yep. Sugar is not good for your beauty when eaten, but it can be used as a sugar scrub to exfoliate your skin.
4. Eat your dark green veggies. Your mom was right. Green leafy vegetables are really good for you.
5. Avoid and/or release stress. Figure out what that means for you. Perhaps you need to do yoga or take some walks or run the marathon. Perhaps reading a book relaxes you are getting a massage.
6. Get rid of negative people from your life. If you feel worse every time you are with a certain someone, then you probably shouldn’t hang out with them. If it is a family member, that is kind of hard, but if it is a friend, then perhaps it is time to let go of that friendship. A great saying that is floating around facebook goes something like: “Before you decide to take anti-depressants, find out if you are just surrounded by jerks.”
7. Find work in life that you enjoy. Living tends to take up all of your time, so it is best to be doing something that you like.
8. Make your own all natural beauty products or buy them from a company that only uses ingredients that you can pronounce. Return to Beauty is a great book devoted to homemade beauty recipes.

I hope these above tips help you. You can also check out these frugal beauty tips from Yazmin. Have you ever made your own beauty products?

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Soda bottle lantern/Things Deb Loves

I LOVE holiday crafts! They are so sparkly and fun to make with kids of all ages.

Here is a list of 8 of my favorite holiday crafts.

1. Soda bottle lanterns. Cut the top off a 2-liter soda bottle. Take off label. Decorate with tissue paper put on with watered down Elmer’s glue. Punch two holes on top and string wire or string for a handle. Put a battery operated tea light or glo-stick inside. This is more beautiful than you can image.
   
   
2. Tongue depressor/Popsicle stick snowflakes. Buy the sticks from a Dollar Store or craft supply store. Paint them white. Let dry. Glue together in a star shape. Decorate. Can be used as a unique party invitation or decoration.
3. Recycled wreaths. You can make a wreath out of just about anything from an old bicycle tire wrapped in garland and lights to red buttons glued onto a round piece of cardboard.
4. Hang tags. Repurpose last year’s holiday cards into this year’s name tags for your presents. Just cut off the side with the message and put a hole into the picture side. Tape to present to use ribbon through a hole to hang.
5. Heart house ornament. Another use for last year’s cards. Make a beautiful house shaped tree ornament. Clever idea.
6. Victorian Christmas crackers.  These aren’t the crackers that you eat. These are the crackers that make a popping noise with a toy inside. Make these delightful small gifts out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper.
7. Paper bag Santa. This is a super easy and cheap craft that kids love. Just takes a paper bag, crayons, scissors, glue and a cotton ball.
8. Paper chains. Cut some red and green construction paper into strips and start connecting those circles. Kids love making paper chains and it is a cheap project. I found a nice paper cutter at a yard sale several years ago and I love it and use it all the time.

These craft ideas along with my earlier Frugal and homemade holiday gifts should keep you all busy making all sorts of holiday creations. Have I forgotten something that you love to make during the holidays?

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Romantic Crafts/flickr

I love homemade holiday gifts the best. Anyone can go to the store and buy something, but it takes time and thought to give someone a gift that you made.

Here are 7 unusual frugal and homemade holiday gifts. For more gift ideas, check out the Bargain Babe Hot Holiday Gift Guide.

1. Firewood. With all the recent storms, it is possible that you are now in possession of lots more wood than you need. Bundle it up and give it as gifts to those you know with fireplaces. Include a couple of mugs, hot chocolate mix and marshmallows.
2. Truffles. I received a small box of two gold paper-wrapped homemade truffles once. They were given and received like the best gift ever. Delicious. Here is a truffle recipe.
3. Lessons. If you are an expert at something, offer a set of lessons to someone as a gift. Perhaps you are a good cook, photographer, artist, or handy man.
4. Personalized stationary. Create a hand drawn or digital graphic that represents the recipient. Find wonderful paper at a yard sale. Transfer the graphic onto the paper. You can even make handmade envelopes for a real personalized touch.
5. Fabric covered boxes. My sister-in-law gave me one of these the first time I met her and I still have it.
6. Make a secret family recipe book. Get each family member to write up the recipe of the dish they make that is loved the most. It can be as simple as getting recipe cards and taping them into a note book or you can get carried away in photoshop with pictures. Make a copy for each family member. Believe me, years from now this will be a cherished book.
7. Chunky yarn bracelets. This is a super easy craft that can be done with any kind of yarn, but looks best with the new Martha Stewart Mambo Yarn. You can make this craft out of any old cheap bangle covered by any kind of fabric.

Do you have favorite handmade gifts?

Check out these related posts:

How to make homemade gift tags

Homemade gift envelopes

Recipe for homemade sugar scrub gifts

Homemade gift ideas (picture frame earring holder, memory jar, candles)

Gifts that keep on giving

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Keng Susumpow/Flickr

I love presents! I love waking up on Christmas morning to a tree drowning in presents. My family spends the day opening presents, watching movies, eating good food and talking to friends and relatives on the phone. Heavenly.

However, creating that pile of presents without breaking the budget and without gathering ANY credit card debt is a trick. A trick that I have pulled off for many years, by the way.

Here are my top 8 No Debt Santa Claus secrets:

1. Shop all year long. Yep, you start shopping the day after Christmas. Grab up those very last 90% off clearance wrapping paper and store it for next year. Christmas DOES come once a year whether you plan for it or not.
2. Determine a “secret hiding place” for gifts that you collect throughout the year. When my kids were little, I kept boxes in the attic. Now, everyone knows where the secret place is and agrees not to look.
3. Buy gifts for yourself and give them to someone else to hold onto until the holidays. I don’t know about you, but I really am the best person to buy gifts for myself. I know what I want and I am out shopping for everyone else. When I see something that I like that is a great buy, I snatch it up and give it to my daughter to store for me. Then, I “forget” about it until I open my gift. One of the advantages of this tip is that I don’t have to return my gift because it is already the perfect present.
4. Buy gifts at yard sales. I have gotten some of the very best gifts at yard sales. I bought a $200 beaded lamp for $20. My daughter and I were both there and so we both “forgot” about it.
5. Redeem credit card points for gift cards. I do not have credit card debt, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t use my credit cards. I pay off my cards in full when I get the bill every month and I use the points for gift cards. My family particularly likes the movie passes and book store gift cards.
6. Make homemade goodies to give as gifts. It is well known that I make chocolate covered pretzels during the holidays. My hubby’s co-workers have been asking for them all year. These are a great way to give a little something to many people without breaking the bank. I purchase the necessary ingredients throughout the year when I see them on sale.
7. Learn how to create unique gift wrapping. The fact is that you can get gift wrap and tags super cheap at the 99 cent store. I use gift bags with tissue paper quite a lot. However, along with keeping to one’s budget, you also want to have the holidays be a time of creating beauty and memories with your family. Making handmade gift tags is a wonderful activity to do with your kids. Teaching them how to wrap a beautiful present is a lifelong skill.
8. Find out what your friends REALLY want as a gift. Perhaps what you mom really wants from you is a mother-daughter day of baking, shopping or just taking a long walk. Maybe your best friend would love to have you coming and help her reorganize her closet. Perhaps you co-worker would like to have a lunch together to talk about something other than work. Many times the very best gift is just your time and attention. Don’t under estimate the value of YOU as the best gift.

What do you think? Did I miss something important?

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ekkmanz/flickr

Some of the most expensive items that anyone buys in their lifetime besides a house or a car are kitchen appliances. Repairing that new washer, dryer or refrigerator is a hidden cost that you can drastically reduce by making the fixes yourself.

The best refrigerator I ever had was at least 20 years old when I paid $25 for it. Nothing ever broke on that beast. I had to leave it on one of my moves and I replaced it with a younger, more breakable, model, which quickly taught me about repairs.

The first thing that broke was

the ice maker. I LOVED my ice maker. When I contacted the manufacturer about the cost, it was more than I paid for the fridge in the first place. I then went on eBay and found the exact replacement – brand new – for 50% of what the manufacture was charging.

Next, the little plastic piece broke off the water dispenser in the door. Getting cold filtered water out of my fridge is soooo great! A liquid luxury. Again, I checked with the manufacturer and they wouldn’t even quote me a price. Just said to contact a repair person. Even with a home warranty, it is going to cost $55 to have a repair person come to the house.

That is when I discovered my new favorite money saving website: Part Select.

This site is FABULOUS! I mean it. If one of your major appliances breaks, you put in the make and model number and all the possible parts come up with pictures and diagrams. They have installation instructions and online help.  You can even find the part based on the size and shape of it. The Bargain Babe herself found Fixya and ReliableParts helpful, too.

Instead of just getting rid of your appliance because it doesn’t work and buying an overpriced new one, you can just fix the old one. Most repairs only require a screw driver and some common sense.

Just in case my enthusiasm for my new HUGE savings strategy isn’t enough to turn you into your own handyman, then check out these average repair charges for fixing a washing machine as listed by the Major Appliance Service National Price Guide. $121 to replace a fabric softener dispenser cap??!!

Disclosure: my husband is very handy. He helps me with these repairs – ok, he does the repairs. But, I find the parts at deep discount. Even if I didn’t have a handy hubby, I could probably learn to do these repairs by watching YouTube videos or setting up some sort of barter with someone else’s handy hubby.

I hope I have inspired you to save money on fixing your own appliances. Of course, if the problem involves electrical, make sure you follow all the safety cautions. I’m expecting you to be frugal AND smart.

Have you fixed your own appliances? What happened?

Cuca de lllum/flickr

When I was little, the only color nail polish that a “nice” girl wore was clear. And we knew how to use that clear goo in many ways. Here are my top 10 favorite uses for clear nail polish:

1. Stop nylons from running. Remember we wore hose ALL the time. Even in the snowy winters of New England during the mini-skirt fashion craze. You just COULDN’T bear to have a run in your stocking. A little dab of clear polish would stop the run. Of course, it would also stick to your leg, so you have to kind of pull the nylon away from your skin until it dried.
2. Polish the inside of the yarn you have wrapped around your “steady boyfriend’s” class ring.The fuzzier the yarn the better. But if you put a coat of clear nail polish on the inside, it kept the yarn from unraveling. This entire procedure – wrapping yarn around your boyfriend’s ring- was repeated every night while you talked to your girlfriends on the phone.
3. Coat the end of a piece of thread so that it will go through the eye of a needle easier. We sewed a lot more than people sew today. I sewed on my girl scout patches, my cheerleader letter on my sweater, and the hems on my skirts every time the fashionable length changed.
4. Keep the ends of shoe laces from unraveling if that little plastic thing came off. Plain white tennis shoes with white laces. That was what we wore for gym class and they HAD to be clean. Washing the shoes in the washing machine not only ruined many washers but also caused the lace ends to disappear into the great washing machine void (along with one sock that always gets lost.)
5. Keep the metal shaving cream cans from rusting. The bottoms of the cans rust when left in the shower. Coating the bottom edge with clear polish keeps the rust from forming.
6. Use instead of glue on paper. A dab on the edge of a note keeps the paper sealed but can easily be torn away.
7. Coating a picture to give it a glossy look. This works well on color pictures from magazines, but not with pictures from ink jet printers.
8. Use to coat pictures inside bottle cap art.
9. Coat the inside of a cheap ring or earrings to keep the metal from reacting badly or irritating your skin.
10. Put an additional coat of clear polish on your new manicure and/or pedicure when you get home from the nail salon. This will add another layer of protection and keep the polish from chipping. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for this to dry before you go to bed or you will end up with lines in your lovely polish.

Are there uses that I am forgetting?

We all make good and bad financial decisions. Overall, I am pretty happy with mine. They have allowed me to live the kind of life that is important to me. I get to be an at-home mom and have been there to raise my kids. The trade off? Used cars and no fancy address.

Looking back at my choices, my worst financial decisions have been:

1. Not buying a house 30 years ago. I knew that I would be moving a lot, so I didn’t want to buy a house. But in fact, I always stayed longer in each place than I meant to and with the rising housing market all those years, I would have made a lot of money on each turn over and I’d own my house now.
2. Not putting money into

   a weekly investment account. There just never seemed to be any left over, but even if I had just put “something” aside each week it would have grown.

3. Not learning more about how to effectively grow money. I wish I had learned this very early on.
4. Not marrying a millionaire. Well, that would have been a good financial decision, but I love my non-millionaire hubby.
5. Not asking my dad more questions about finance and his experience and learning in the subject before he passed. My dad knew a lot about business and money, but he never got around to teaching it to me and I never tried hard enough to get the information. Sad.

The best financial decisions I made are:

1. Paying off my credit cards in full each month. I might not know how to grow money, but I’ve accomplished something perhaps as difficult. Not growing debt.
2. Balancing my checking account statement each month. This one process forces me to look at my finances with a fine tooth comb at least once a month. Doing so gives me great control of my finances and I highly recommend it to everyone. I don’t care if you think that “the bank knows what they are doing.” That is not the point. The point is – do you know what YOU are doing!
3. Keeping good track of our expenses and setting-aside money for various expenses that always come up. Doing No. 2 above allows me to do this step. Having money set aside means that I don’t have to worry about how I will pay the bill when an unexpected expense arises.
4. Only buying cars we can pay for in full. New cars are expensive, long story short. I have never had a car payment and I never want one.
5. To always live within the means of my husband’s paycheck. Even when I was still working and before we had kids. This meant that we did not have financial obligations that would make it impossible for me to stay home and raise our kids.

What are your best and worst financial decisions?

UPDATE: There IS going to be a free food swap at Frugal Festival Food! Get your food swap ticket here.

PREVIOUSLY: I went to my first food swap this weekend and I immediately asked myself – Should we have a food swap at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25? I am hopelessly hooked on this new trend, and you will be too. Almost everyone there was a newbie. Even the hostess of the event, Faith Landsman, had only been to two previous food swaps. I don’t want to sound redundant, but REALLY, everyone was going around the room saying the same thing. “This is so much fun!”

What is a food swap?

A food swap is an activity where people bring homemade foods that they have prepared and packaged in such a way that

people can take them home. So instead of bringing a bowl of cookies to share, you bring several bags with several cookies in each that someone can swap for a jar of jam or bottle of marinade or a loaf of homemade bread. There is no money involved. In fact, one of the rules is that you can not sell anything. You can however, put money in a donation jar to cover some expenses for the hostess.

This fast-growing frugal trend was started in the Los Angeles area by Emily Ho of LA Food Swap after being inspired by food swaps in other areas. She wondered if anyone in LA would be interested in food swaps. They are!

So let me tell you what was so exciting about the food swap that I went to. First of all, there was the great sign you see in the picture above. Simple and homemade. The minute I walked into the house, I was “in” the swap. Tables were set up. There was a sign-in sheet, name tags, mailing list form, and tags for our food items. Most people listed ingredients on their labels.

When I arrived, people had already started to display their items. Some people had samples set up so you could taste their food. I had a chance to check out all the different offerings. If I wanted to swap with someone, I just put my name and swapping item on the “request to swap” sheet.

Everyone was soooo nice. We had social and chatting time before the actual swap began. Then the hostess announced it was time to swap. We got our lists and sought out the people who wanted to trade. A bit hectic, but fun. The actual swap goes pretty fast.

I brought chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels and chocolate covered cookie dough balls. I took home:

• chocolate chip cookies
• marinade
• maraschino cherries
• whole wheat bread
• muffins
• loquat jelly
• chocolate covered cake balls
• chimichurri sauce
• granola
• zucchini bread

I also had acquired:

• new friends
• links to fabulous websites about urban farming, bees and good news
• a new love of food swapping

So, what do you think? Should we have a food swap at the Frugal Festival?

zoetnet/Flickr

Got vacation time coming your way? Trying to decide what to do? I’ve got 10 steps for a great staycation (a vacation at home, so no hotel and travel costs), plus specific things to do in 80 towns across the country below.

I’m always amazed by people who haven’t been to some of the interesting places in their hometown. Don’t wait for visitors to be a tourist in your own town!

1. Decide on your dates. If you have flexibility in your dates, try to arrange the time around an event you are already interested in attending like a fair or show. This will put a big highlight in your itinerary.
2. Start reading the calendar section of your local paper or the AAA magazine. Look for events occurring during your staycation.
3. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce to see if there are special events and discounts.
4. Do the same research on the internet that you would do if you were traveling to a foreign country. Read local blogs and search out special attractions.
5. Take out a travel book or two from your local library about your area. I got the most fabulous book from my local AAA. It’s called, “Los Angeles Attractions” published by Museon Publishing. This 500 page book has thousands of local attractions. Many of them are free. Most of them are things that I never heard of before such as Hollywood’s Rock Walk, the address of Ozzie and Harriet’s House and the history of the Venice, California canals.
6. Read the history of your area from a book such as Images of America. Take a day or two finding the places in the old photographs. Take modern pictures of the same sites.
7. Set aside money to do something extravagant that you wouldn’t normally do. This will really make it feel like a vacation.
8. If possible, try to keep all work and regular day to day activities out of your life. Tell your office you can’t be reached. Don’t answer your work email. Enjoy yourself!
9. Use every discount and coupon you can find. Buy a local discount coupon book, like the Entertainment Book. Or by Groupons. Search “name of your town”+”discounts” to be really thorough.
10. A great way to document your trip is with an ultramodern scrapbook or by making a video.

The main thing is to plan your time so that it doesn’t just slip by with the “same old, same old.” You want to feel like you have really been on vacation. Even if your itinerary is just “sleep in and lay in the hammock” you want to knowingly do that. You might even make a nice big “Do Not Disturb” sign and put it on your doorknob.

Staycations across the country: The Happy Housewife got together 80 bloggers to write about the best places to visit all across the country. Who knew there was so much to do in Oshkosh, Wisconsin!

Have you taken a staycation? Any advice for the rest of us?

mary_thompson/flickr

I love veggie chips and I pay WAY too much for these crispy treats. I convinced myself that they are healthy and therefore it is OK to pay at least twice as much as I would pay for a bag of regular chips. Boy, have I been taken in by packaging.

The fact is that packaged veggie chips are healthier than potato chips but still contain carbs, fats, and sodium.

How about controlling the fat and salt by making them yourself?

My favorite veggie chips are the ones made from beets. They are so colorful and impossibly swirled with white and color. Turns out you can make your own by

roasting them for just 30 minutes. No frying.

1. Just grab a fresh beet from your local farmer’s market.
2. Scrub well, but don’t peel.
3. Slice thinly using whatever means you have available. I’ll be using my Cuisinart with slicer attachment.
4. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Don’t let them overlap.
5. Spray with a non-stick spray. (I’d like to come up with an alternative to this step.)
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Roast for at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
8. Turn chips over and roast for another 15 minutes or until crisp.
9. Eat. Yum.

You can make chips out of lots of different veggies. I also like carrot chips.

Another great snack that is way more nutritious if you make it yourself is fruit leather. When you make your own fruit leather, you can leave out most, if not all, of the sugar and additives. If you are lucky enough to have fruit trees on your property, this is a great way to use all that fruit. Remember to share with your friends and neighbors.

Do you know of other snack foods you can make yourself?

Browse the rest of our frugal recipes.

frankh/Flickr

By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of Bobbisbargains.

Oh, the joys of yard sailing. You never know what you might find. Each yard is an adventure. A possibility. Untold riches might be sitting on that table in the driveway, just waiting for you to say, “How much do you want for this?”

There are several yard sale items one would not readily consider to be worth digging for, but indeed, they are the golden jewels beneath old paperbacks and broken toys. Here are eight examples of treasures found:

1. Electric toothbrush replacement brushes. These little gems sell for $10 a piece. They are individually wrapped, but sold in packages of four. I have twice found packages with 3 still sealed brushes. Both times, I purchased all three for a dollar, saving myself $58.
2. Bookshelves. It seems that no matter how much people originally paid for their bookshelves they always sell them for $20. Just an interesting tidbit that has saved me a lot.
3. High end beauty cream. I had the good fortune to stumble upon a yard sale being held by someone who coordinated conventions at a ritzy hotel. She had oodles of unopened beauty supplies that had come in swag bags. I paid a $1 each for $100 beauty supplies.
4. Shelving hardware. People decide that they are going to put up shelving and then realize that it is harder than they think, so they buy a bookshelf. I purchased $20 worth of hardware for fifty cents.
5. All sorts of odds and ends hardware from the garage. When you go to Home Depot, you can no longer buy 4 screws and 3 nails. You have to buy packages of these items. But you only needed 4 screws and 3 nails. So, the rest of the package sits around until you have a yard sale. It’s not just screws and nails. It’s all sorts of weird and wonderful manly items that come from the mysterious world of Lowes and other building supply stores. Ohhhh. I just love looking through that stuff. No matter how much it originally cost, you can usually get the package for 50 cents.
6. Linens. Always check out the linen closet at an estate sale. You will find towels and sheets that were too good to use. Buy them for a buck and give them a life.
7. China. Similar to linens, these easily breakable items have spent a lifetime tucked away in cabinets so that they won’t be chipped and broken. I recently saw a set of china dishes that easily cost over a thousand dollars when they were new. The tag said $90 but I am certain that if I had offered $50 they would have gladly taken it.
8. Office supplies. With paper getting more expensive and supplies being made cheaper and cheaper, finding office supplies at a yard sale is a great find. I especially look for manila folders. I can pick up a large box of thick folders for fifty cents. That same box in the store now costs almost $20. Another favorite of mine is business card paper. These perforated yet printable sheets also cost around $20 and can be purchased for under a buck.

Find the wealthiest neighborhood you can find. Print out your yard sale treasure map. Grab a good friend and a tall cup of coffee. Follow the signs and have a frugal scavenger hunt. WAY better than the mall!

mzffr/flickr

When I purchased my house as a short sale, I inherited a home warranty. I would not have purchased this myself, but I received it as a gift. What the heck! I figured I would check it out. The original policy cost $365 and I paid $105 to upgrade it to include my refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Therefore, the one year cost of the warranty was $470. (Not all warranties are worth buying).

When I got my warranty paperwork, it came as a one page document that was covered on both sides with the smallest print permissible on a legal document with more exceptions than inclusions. Bad sign. I discovered one of the rules of this warranty is that I will pay $55 for each type of service call (plumber, electrician, appliance repair, etc.) So, what happened when I called the service after discovering an inch of water under my kitchen sink?

The GOOD news:

1. I was able to reach a REAL person at the warranty company at 1:00 am. They gave me a claim number and a contractor to call. But, I couldn’t call to make an appointment until later in the morning.
   
2. Besides the leaking kitchen sink, I had several small items that needed plumbing attention. I put them all on the claim so that the contractor could look at every one. Each problem must be listed in order for the repairman to take care of it. You can not say to the repairman, “Oh, by the way, this also needs to be looked at.”It has to be  on the list.
3. I was able to get two leaky toilets and a stubborn faucet attended to, small jobs that my husband could have done (love that Handy Hubby), but it was nice to have someone else do it and pay for the parts.

The BAD news:

1. Any kind of filter system was NOT covered. The plumber could not TOUCH anything having to do with the filter system. I mean, really, he was not allowed to touch it.
2. The plumber said he could not fix my faucet. He tightened it up, but said it would not hold. He said it was installed wrong, but because the filter system was part of the installation, there was nothing he could do about it.
3. My warranty covered replacement with a “Chrome Builders Standard” faucet. What is that? It’s a junky plastic faucet that was not long enough to fit my kitchen sink.
4. Since I didn’t want their faucet, I could buy my own faucet and they would replace it for $165. WHAT??? Yep, you heard right. If I didn’t want their faucet (which was unworkable) I had to buy my own and then pay $165 to have them install it.
5. The warranty company said that they would give me a $100 cash-out if I wanted to buy my own faucet and pay to have it installed. I pointed out that it was going to cost me $165 just to install the faucet.
6. When I inquired if using cash-out would void my warranty, a rep told me it would not AS LONG AS I used a licensed contractor and sent them proof of installation. Otherwise, my faucet would become an exclusion on my contract. This means that if my Handy Hubby changes the faucet (cost = $0), then my faucet is no longer covered. I have to pay $165 to a contractor to install my faucet for it to be covered.

So, dear readers, what do I do? What have you done with warranties gone wrong? Help me figure this one out.