Here are the winners in the latest tip contest. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone that took time to submit a tip.
Best Gardening Tip
Watering Strawberry Planters
For those of you with strawberry planters, here's a tip on how to water them without having it run out the sides. Drill several holes into a PVC pipe that's a little longer than the height of your planter, then insert it down the middle of the planter. When you water, pour it directly into the pipe opening and the plants will be watered from the inside out.
By Patricia
Post Feedback: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf842153.tip.html
Best Recipe
Titanic Cake
These are pictures and instructions for the cake I made for my son's 11th birthday.
I made three rectangle cakes (13x9). Tip: Don't make moist cakes. My mistake. Very difficult to frost. Also being moist the stern dropped constantly and I had to keep plugging in pieces. Lesson learned.
Materials Used:
I used a card table with a balloon plastic table cloth. Wipes clean for any messy drops while decorating. I placed the cake on a ply-board used for art. You could simply use cardboard box. I covered it with blue construction paper. Used scotch tape to secure paper to the board. Then took foil and placed it center length wise on the blue paper. The cake sits on the foil.
The cake assembly:
1st cake: Place cake in a door position. Cut it a little more than half in width. Make your cut straight down. Take a spatula to lift the large piece out and place on foil front.
This is placed front for the Bow. Set the remaining cake aside.
2nd cake: Do the same for the second half for the Stern. Place as close together as possible. Of course it won't be perfect. Set remaining cake aside.
3rd cake: Do the same and place on top starting at Bow. Cut front Bow shape now that you have two layers. Set remaining pieces aside with the others. Now comes your creative skills. with the remaining pieces you will then finish extending for the stern.. Remember, frosting covers it. Don't be alarmed at what it look like at this point. Once you have layered to the end of the stern you will need to cut into bottom layer to create rudder where the propellers will go. Take remaining pieces of cake to create a rectangle top for placements of funnels. I made a large square at the stern to balance the look. Take the shortcake rolls and eye ball where they will to go. Cut into the cake to position them (cut smaller circle you can always cut more out)
Place the rolls into the cut-outs.
Frosting the cake: Take Black frosting and spray onto a plate for spreading. Use a butter knife or frosting knife and begin applying black first. Then apply black tops to the funnels.
Take white frosting and apply to the rest of the cake. Take yellow gel and outline separating black and white colors. As you will see mine ran a little.
Portholes: I started at the bottom with orange, then green, blue and finished the top with yellow for first class.
Add Titanic labels, propellers, and masts with flags.
Take remaining cake pieces and lump together for icebergs.
I added the #11 to the scene to mark the birthday number.
This cake took 2 hrs to bake cakes. 2 1/2 hrs for labels, flags, propellers. To assemble, frost cake and decorations 2 1/2 hrs. This was my first layered creation. I prepared decorations ahead.
Happy celebrating!
Jennifer, CA
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Best Food Tip
Cartoon Characters on Products for Less
Do your children beg for products emblazoned with their favorite characters? I know my children do, and it makes me crazy! The same yogurt can cost up to two dollars more because it has some kind of cartoon character on it. What I have taken to doing is going to my local Dollar store and buying several large package of stickers bearing my children's favorite characters. One dollar will usually garner me four sheets bearing about 15 stickers each.
I then will buy the lowest price brand of cereal, yogurt, body wash, shampoo, what have you, and place character stickers on the products. Voila, my sons are suddenly thrilled to be eating/ using the lower priced product! This probably wouldn't work for older kids, but it works usually for the preschool through early elementary set that whines/ begs for the "Scooby" yogurt, the "Shrek" yogurt, etc., anyway. Hope this helps!
By Karen
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http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf914242.tip.html/a>
Best Home Improvement Tip
Make a CASTLE Bed for your Child!
I drew the plans for this bed and my husband made it from 2x4's and cheap plywood. It only cost about $50 total for the wood and paint. There is PLENTY of storage underneath for our son's toys. I used masking tape to markoff the bricks/stones and sponged on black and white paint to make the stones look more real. The paint on the wall is done to give the appearance of the castle being more closed in. We also put velcro around the top bed frame and our son can attach some cheap fabric I found for $1.00 a yard, to close in the castle for tent-like privacy.
He absolutely loves this bed.
BTW...my husband is no carpenter and says the bed is "rough" but our son loves it!
By Marianne Ashton
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http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf156857.tip.html
Best Organization Tip
Dressing Kids in Matching Outfits
Because of our work schedules, my husband usually gets our 2 year old son dressed in the morning. He's a wonderful father, but heaven help him, he cannot put matching outfits together very well! To make things easier, I made up a set of hangers with the days of the week on them. On Sundays, I go through my son's closet and put outfits together, then hang one on each "day of the week" hanger. On weeknights, I take out the outfit for the next day and hang it on a hook that's next to our son's changing table. That way, my husband has an outfit all set to go in the morning, and I can rest assured that my son won't be going out in public looking like he chose his outfit himself!
By Lisa
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http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf458461.tip.html
Best Craft Recipe or Tip
Silverware Cabinet Handles
The knobs and handles for kitchen cabinets are so expensive unless you want to settle for plain old wooden knobs. Here is how my husband and I were able to have something a little fancier with lots less money.
By Harlean from Arkansas Post Feedback:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf243922.tip.html
Best Money Saving Tip
Annualize Everything
When you're looking at spending and budget issues, annualize everything. For instance, are you spending $10 a day on lunch? If you bring something from home, it will cost perhaps $3. That $7 a day that you save is $35 a week, over $1500 a year.
It's a lot easier to get motivated to make small spending changes when you see the annual cost.
Don't even let me get started on the annual cost of smoking!
By Louise, the Frugal Yankee
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Random Drawing 1: IMAQT1962
Random Drawing 2: Terri
