Oct
3
Eight Easy Ideas for All Natural Air Fresheners
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Jamie Jefferson asked:
I love my home to smell fresh and clean, but I don’t like the idea of breathing in all the chemicals that are often found in commercial air fresheners. Plus, many of these chemically based air fresheners don’t work very well. Here are some easy and inexpensive homemade air fresheners and deoderizers.
1. Soak a cotton ball. Saturate a cotton ball with your favorite essential oil or use real vanilla extract. Place the cotton ball on a plate in a central location (or near the area where the odors tend to emanate from.)
2. Use the stove. Steep cinnamon sticks and cloves in some hot water on the stovetop for a couple of hours. Experiment with other favorite spices, as well. Ginger, basil, and rosemary are also good choices that are probably readily available in your spice rack. Also try real vanilla or almond extract .
3. Deoderize your garbage disposal. Place a small lemon wedge in the garbage disposal. Turn on the disposal for about one minute while running cold water. Another method for freshening your disposal: Make ice cubes from vinegar and grind them in your disposal for a minute or two. Rinse with cold water.
4. Make sure your home is clean. If your home isn’t smelling fresh, give it a good top to bottom cleaning with natural cleansers. Check for damp areas that may be moldy or mildewy. If you have pet odors, tackle them yourself or find a carpet cleaner that offers some natural cleaning alternatives
5. Open the windows. Let fresh air flow through your home as often as possible.
6. Experiment with the variety of all natural air fresheners that are available. By popular demand, an increasing number of these are finding their way to the shelves of your natural foods stores – and even regular grocery stores.
7. Deoderize diaper pails or trash containers by sprinkling in a mixture of baking soda and essential oils. (Add a teaspoon of your favorite essential oil to every cup of baking soda and mix well.) You can also try this as a carpet deodorizer. Sprinkle on the carpet, wait a few minutes, and vacuum. (Make sure to spot test any new carpet treatment before using it throughout your home.)
8. Treat yourself to a fresh bouquet of fragrant flowers. (Oriental lilies are my favorite. They fill my home with a remarkable aroma for days.)
Once you have found your favorite solution for all natural deodorizing, write it down so you can use it again, and share it with others.
Geraldine
I love my home to smell fresh and clean, but I don’t like the idea of breathing in all the chemicals that are often found in commercial air fresheners. Plus, many of these chemically based air fresheners don’t work very well. Here are some easy and inexpensive homemade air fresheners and deoderizers.
1. Soak a cotton ball. Saturate a cotton ball with your favorite essential oil or use real vanilla extract. Place the cotton ball on a plate in a central location (or near the area where the odors tend to emanate from.)
2. Use the stove. Steep cinnamon sticks and cloves in some hot water on the stovetop for a couple of hours. Experiment with other favorite spices, as well. Ginger, basil, and rosemary are also good choices that are probably readily available in your spice rack. Also try real vanilla or almond extract .
3. Deoderize your garbage disposal. Place a small lemon wedge in the garbage disposal. Turn on the disposal for about one minute while running cold water. Another method for freshening your disposal: Make ice cubes from vinegar and grind them in your disposal for a minute or two. Rinse with cold water.
4. Make sure your home is clean. If your home isn’t smelling fresh, give it a good top to bottom cleaning with natural cleansers. Check for damp areas that may be moldy or mildewy. If you have pet odors, tackle them yourself or find a carpet cleaner that offers some natural cleaning alternatives
5. Open the windows. Let fresh air flow through your home as often as possible.
6. Experiment with the variety of all natural air fresheners that are available. By popular demand, an increasing number of these are finding their way to the shelves of your natural foods stores – and even regular grocery stores.
7. Deoderize diaper pails or trash containers by sprinkling in a mixture of baking soda and essential oils. (Add a teaspoon of your favorite essential oil to every cup of baking soda and mix well.) You can also try this as a carpet deodorizer. Sprinkle on the carpet, wait a few minutes, and vacuum. (Make sure to spot test any new carpet treatment before using it throughout your home.)
8. Treat yourself to a fresh bouquet of fragrant flowers. (Oriental lilies are my favorite. They fill my home with a remarkable aroma for days.)
Once you have found your favorite solution for all natural deodorizing, write it down so you can use it again, and share it with others.
Geraldine
Jul
21
Grocery Coupons And Food Secrets
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Steven Gillman asked:
How can grocery coupons cost you more than they save? When is whole wheat not really whole wheat? Why are some frozen foods better for you than fresh foods? Should you buy the small or large bananas? Read on for the answers.
Grocery Coupons
Coupons are designed to get you to buy something you weren’t planning to buy. If the things you buy with them don’t replace more expensive options, you spend even more instead of saving money. To save money with them, then, you should use them for products you regularly buy, or to try new brands that are similar in price to what you already use.
Some stores still offer to double the value of your coupons on given days or for temporary promotions. The key to saving money in these cases is to use as many coupons as you can, and buy the smallest sizes of the product that the coupons allow. This will almost always get you the lowest unit-cost.
For example, if you have a coupon for 50 cents off on dish detergent, and the store is doubling your coupons, you’ll get 1 dollar off. If you buy the 38-ounce size, priced at $2.19, it will cost you $1.19, or 3.1 cents per ounce. However, if you buy the 18-ounce size, priced at $1.19, it will cost you only 19 cents! That’s just a bit over a penny per ounce, or one third the cost. Sometimes you can even get a 99-cent item for free with a doubled 50 cent coupon.
Other Grocery Store Secrets
Read the labels and you’ll see that sugar is showing up in almost everything. Most recently, it has been added to most brands of kidney beans, which used to be packed in just water and salt. Why? For the same reason it is added to peanut butter and many other products that don’t need it for taste – it is cheap. Cheaper than the other ingredients, in fact. Due to government subsidies, there is so much cheap sugar that growers need to dump it into as many products as they can.
You will also notice that almost all packaged products have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in them. This is the stuff that is used to give mice heart disease when scientists want to study that disease! Fortunately, due to consumer demand, some brands, like Doritos, have stopped using it in some of their products. It is still in well over half of all packaged products, though.
Whole wheat is only whole wheat if it says exactly that. “Wheat flour,” “unbleached wheat flour,” and “wheat,” all just mean some variety of processed white flour. “Wheat” bread is nothing more than white bread with enough whole grain thrown in to color it. “Wheat blend” pasta is yet another trick to make you think you’re buying whole wheat.
Frozen fruits and vegetables, when tested against “fresh” fruits and vegetables, usually have more vitamin content. It makes sense. They are flash-frozen shortly after being picked, while the “fresh” foods are in trucks for days, exposed to heat and air. Then they sit at the grocery store for days, then in your refrigerator for days. Buying frozen fruits and veggies, then, can be healthier, and they are even cheaper at times, like when the particular fruit or vegetable isn’t in season.
Grocery coupons aren’t the only way to save money buying food. Store brands are often substantially cheaper, and guess what? Often they are really the name brands in disguise. Read the label and you may see something like, “Packed for ABC Grocery Stores by Kraft Foods, Inc.” In any case, you can try the store brands, and if you can’t tell the difference, why pay more?
Finally, what size bananas, eggplant and other fruits or vegetables should you buy? If they are sold by the piece, buy the biggest, to get the most for your money. If they are sold by the pound, buy the smallest. You’ll still eat one banana at a time for a snack, right? The small ones might be half the price of the large, saving you money with every snack. When it comes to saving money shopping, there is more to it than grocery coupons.
Ronald
How can grocery coupons cost you more than they save? When is whole wheat not really whole wheat? Why are some frozen foods better for you than fresh foods? Should you buy the small or large bananas? Read on for the answers.
Grocery Coupons
Coupons are designed to get you to buy something you weren’t planning to buy. If the things you buy with them don’t replace more expensive options, you spend even more instead of saving money. To save money with them, then, you should use them for products you regularly buy, or to try new brands that are similar in price to what you already use.
Some stores still offer to double the value of your coupons on given days or for temporary promotions. The key to saving money in these cases is to use as many coupons as you can, and buy the smallest sizes of the product that the coupons allow. This will almost always get you the lowest unit-cost.
For example, if you have a coupon for 50 cents off on dish detergent, and the store is doubling your coupons, you’ll get 1 dollar off. If you buy the 38-ounce size, priced at $2.19, it will cost you $1.19, or 3.1 cents per ounce. However, if you buy the 18-ounce size, priced at $1.19, it will cost you only 19 cents! That’s just a bit over a penny per ounce, or one third the cost. Sometimes you can even get a 99-cent item for free with a doubled 50 cent coupon.
Other Grocery Store Secrets
Read the labels and you’ll see that sugar is showing up in almost everything. Most recently, it has been added to most brands of kidney beans, which used to be packed in just water and salt. Why? For the same reason it is added to peanut butter and many other products that don’t need it for taste – it is cheap. Cheaper than the other ingredients, in fact. Due to government subsidies, there is so much cheap sugar that growers need to dump it into as many products as they can.
You will also notice that almost all packaged products have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in them. This is the stuff that is used to give mice heart disease when scientists want to study that disease! Fortunately, due to consumer demand, some brands, like Doritos, have stopped using it in some of their products. It is still in well over half of all packaged products, though.
Whole wheat is only whole wheat if it says exactly that. “Wheat flour,” “unbleached wheat flour,” and “wheat,” all just mean some variety of processed white flour. “Wheat” bread is nothing more than white bread with enough whole grain thrown in to color it. “Wheat blend” pasta is yet another trick to make you think you’re buying whole wheat.
Frozen fruits and vegetables, when tested against “fresh” fruits and vegetables, usually have more vitamin content. It makes sense. They are flash-frozen shortly after being picked, while the “fresh” foods are in trucks for days, exposed to heat and air. Then they sit at the grocery store for days, then in your refrigerator for days. Buying frozen fruits and veggies, then, can be healthier, and they are even cheaper at times, like when the particular fruit or vegetable isn’t in season.
Grocery coupons aren’t the only way to save money buying food. Store brands are often substantially cheaper, and guess what? Often they are really the name brands in disguise. Read the label and you may see something like, “Packed for ABC Grocery Stores by Kraft Foods, Inc.” In any case, you can try the store brands, and if you can’t tell the difference, why pay more?
Finally, what size bananas, eggplant and other fruits or vegetables should you buy? If they are sold by the piece, buy the biggest, to get the most for your money. If they are sold by the pound, buy the smallest. You’ll still eat one banana at a time for a snack, right? The small ones might be half the price of the large, saving you money with every snack. When it comes to saving money shopping, there is more to it than grocery coupons.
Ronald