Daily Thrifty Tips
Volume Three, Number 201, December 3, 2004
http://www.ThriftyFun.com
Hello,
Welcome to all the new subscribers. For the new folks, ThriftyFun functions as a newsletter and a message board. We send out tips and requests by email and then people in the community discuss the tips and help answer requests. You can follow the discussion online on the Active Topics Board:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/board.html
Do you know any tricks to help remember do to things (turn off the lights, feed the cats, pay bills, etc.)? Tomorrow's TF News will be about Memory Tricks, feel free to submit your ideas on the Contest Form.
Thanks for reading,
Susan
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Holiday Travel Tips Ebook
Today's newsletter contains:
Today's Tips:
- Gift Cards From The Pharmacy
- Soup Tips - Making Good Soup
- Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour
- Cooking Pasta Without Water Boiling Over
- Difference in Oils for Frying
- Use a Knife Rack
- Cheesy Potato Soup
- Using the Crockpot
- Saving Money on Magazines
- Keeping Wedding Costs Down
- Saving on Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash With Pump Containers
- Christmas Decorating Idea For Throw Pillows
- Making a Shaker
- Recipe Organizer- Baseball Card Sheet Protectors
New Requests:
- Looking For Low Carb, High Protein Foods
- Making Your Own Vinegar
- Food and Fun Recipe Cookbook For Kids
- Birds Aren't Interested in Suet
More Reading:
- Superior Acne Treatments
- Frugal Christmas Gift Ideas
- How To Gift Wrap With A Unique Style
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Today's Tips
Gift Cards From The Pharmacy
Make sure to take advantage of pharmacy offers to give gift cards if you'll transfer prescriptions. I recently transferred a medicine and received a $20 gift card, the medicine co-pay was $10 to me so I made ten bucks. This also usually can be done per person in the family.
By Melanie
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Soup Tips - Making Good Soup
Tips for making good soup. Post your ideas.
Making Soups Taste Better
Most soups taste better with the addition of a variety of vegetables and grains, a good way to use up small quantities. One exception is cabbage, which gives most soups too strong a flavor for us, but might suit others.
Soups often taste more filling if they are slightly thickened. Instant or leftover potatoes can be used to thicken soup, or mash a few beans and add back in.
By Lynn
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Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour
For every cup of cake flour called for in your recipes, you can substitute 1 cup minus 2 T. all purpose flour.
By Robin
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Cooking Pasta Without Water Boiling Over
Rub the top couple of inches of the inside of a pot with vegetable oil before cooking pasta, and the water won't boil over!
By Robin
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Difference in Oils for Frying
Peanut, safflower and canola oils won't smoke the way olive oil or butter can when you use them for frying.
By Robin
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Use a Knife Rack
Store your knives in a knife rack instead of a drawer to keep the edges from becoming dull.
By Robin
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Cheesy Potato Soup
Ingredients:
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 onion, chopped, 1 cup
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 t. pepper
- 2 cans low sodium chicken or vegetable broth, 3 1/2 cups
- 2 c. milk
- 2 c. instant mashed potato mix
- 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese, such as cheddar
- 1/3 c. sour cream
- Additional cooked bacon and cheese, optional
Directions:
In pot cook bacon over medium high heat until crisp, 6-8 minutes; drain on paper towels. Crumble; reserve. To fat in pot add onion, salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Add broth. Increase heat to high; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom. Reduce heat to medium; stir in milk, dry potato mix and bacon. Simmer 5 minutes; remove from heat. Stir in cheese and sour cream. Garnish with bacon and cheese, if desired.
By Robin
View Article: Click Here
Using the Crockpot
Make sure when entertaining to use your crockpot to heat up side dishes such as canned veggies, or use it to keep mashed potatoes or a soup warm.
By Melanie
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Saving Money on Magazines
Tips for finding cheap magazines. Post your ideas.
Check to see if your library has a magazine box, ours weeds out their old issue magazines and charges a dime each. Also people drop off their recently read magazines in the box for the library to sell as well. I just bought this years Nov. issue Good Housekeeping and Woman's Day for twenty cents! If your library doesn't do this maybe they could start. Sure beats checkout lane prices.
By Melanie
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Keeping Wedding Costs Down
Our daughter is getting married in June of '05 and we need to be careful about the amount we spend on the wedding.
The Guest List
One of the most effective ways to save is to trim the guest list. That's because one of the biggest expenses - food - is figured on a per person basis and will obviously increase as the number of people you're inviting rises.
Hold Your Reception and Wedding at the Same Place
Hold your wedding ceremony and reception at the same place. One less site fee and no need for transportation to take you from one place to the other. Our daughter's wedding will be held in our church with the reception in the basement. No charge.
Keeping Down the Paper
Have your wedding reception time and place printed at the bottom of your invitation instead of on a separate reception card. You'll save the cost of the paper and the additional postage.
Order All Your Printing
Order your wedding "thank you" cards when you order your wedding invitations as some companies will give discounts for bulk orders. If they don't volunteer a price break, just ask.
Choose Black Ink
Choose basic black ink for your wedding invitations and other stationery. The price will go up if you opt for colored ink or a deluxe foil stamp process.
Wedding Cake
This is an old recipe, just for fun.
- 50 eggs
- 5 lbs. sugar
- 5 lbs. flour
- 5 lbs. butter
- 15 lbs. raisins
- 3 lbs. citron
- 1/4 c. cloves
- 1/4 c. cinnamon
- 4 oz. mace
- 4 oz. nutmeg
- 1 pint brandy
- 10 lbs. carrots
No baking instructions given. Just supposed to be cooked in a wood stove. Makes 43 1/2 lbs. and keeps for 20 years. (This recipe is from an early settler)
By Robin
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Saving on Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash With Pump Containers
Here's a simple method to use less shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Transfer the shower products into pump containers (empty hand soap dispensers work great). Each push is a measured amount that prevents waste. This is especially great for kids that tend to use large blobs of products when bathing.
Here's how to determine how much is needed. The first time use 3 pushes for shampoo. Too much? Not enough? Adjust the number of pushes accordingly. It's that easy to be frugal.
By Cheryl from Missouri
View Article: Click Here
Christmas Decorating Idea For Throw Pillows
To give your couch a cute decorative look for Christmas wrap your throw pillows in red, green, or plaid dish towels or fabrics and secure at back with safety pin, this will make them look like Christmas presents. You can even add gingham ribbons or wire ribbons that will hold a bow etc.
By Melanie
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Making a Shaker
To make a shaker for cinnamon/sugar or powdered sugar use an old jar and punch holes in the lid with a nail.
By Melanie
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Recipe Organizer - Baseball Card Sheet Protectors
To organize recipes buy baseball card sheet protectors, and retype shorter recipes to fit in slots (18 front and back total for one sheet). For larger recipes put in regular full size sheet protectors. Then organize according to appetizers, meat, veggies, etc.
By Melanie
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Other Active Topics
Be sure to check out our active topics page to follow the discussion.
http://www.thriftyfun.com/board.html
Tip Contest
Submit a tip and you could win:
New Contest! $30.00 Gift Card
In our newest contest we are giving away a $30.00 Gift Card at one of the following stores: Home Depot, Jo-Ann's Crafts or Amazon.com. If you are the winner, you get to choose which gift card! We figured it would be more valuable if you pick out your own prize, that's why we have decided to go the gift card route. This contest will end on December 15th.
Enter the contest!
Syndication Spotlight:
Here are some publishers that have chosen to publish our tips this week!
Dear Webby's Humor Letter
Webby publishes our tips daily! A very funny newsletter.
http://webby.com/humor
Do you publish a newsletter? Sign up for our Tip Syndication:
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New Requests:
Looking For Low Carb, High Protein Foods
I am looking for high protein food item that can be eaten on the run. The protein items must be low in carbs. I recently had a gastric by-pass and I am kind of tired of cool protein drinks. Dairy products cause a problem because I have asthma (creates a build-up of mucous).
Delanese from Illinois
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Making Your Own Vinegar
I am looking for a recipe for making your own vinegar at home - any kind of vinegar will do.
Thanks,
Anita from Arizona
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Food and Fun Recipe Cookbook For Kids
I am doing a prodject in language arts, I'm supposed to make a mini cookbook with recipes for children. If anyone has any links or ideas please respond.
juniorbaker
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Birds Aren't Interested in Suet
I've hung an onion bag of suet next to my regular platform feeder for several weeks now, and haven't noticed a single bird partaking of it. We get lots of sparrows, finches, and junkoes at the feeder, but none seem interested in the suet bag. Any ideas how to get them to try the suet? The past week the temperatures have been in the teens to 30's, so it's certainly cold enough for them to want some extra energy. Thanks! Lynne
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Looking for a frugal solution to an everyday problem? Submit
your request here: Click Here
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ChildSafe Network
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More Reading:
Superior Acne Treatments
By Greg Podsakoff
Millions of people suffer from acne in the United States alone, and many of these acne suffers use Benzoyl Peroxide as the acne treatment medication of choice.
View Article: Click Here
Frugal Christmas Gift Ideas
By Crystal Miller
With Christmas just around the corner it is time to start thinking about gift giving, it you have not done so already! As a single income family we are on a budget and I am always on the look out for frugal fun Christmas gift ideas. The ideas I am sharing with you here are a few of the different things I have done over the years as well as some ideas that I may be doing this year. Perhaps it will spark some new ideas for you this Christmas season!
View Article: Click Here
How To Gift Wrap With A Unique Style
By Abigail Beal
Everybody is different and we all have our own style. Even if you don't think you have a style; you do. The way you dress and the colors you choose for your clothing. The way you speak and the words that you use and the sense of humor that you have indicates a part of your style. Your style is shown in your music preferences, the images that you are drawn to, what scents you prefer or do not like and what you admire.
View Article: Click Here
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