Mayonnaise: The All-Around Must Have Condiment

Only able to afford one more thing on your grocery list? Not sure what condiment to keep stocked in your living quarters? Mayonnaise is the answer to both of these predicaments. It’s the most versatile, inexpensive ingredient ever. With mayonnaise, you can:

1. Make a sandwich
2. Add ketchup to create thousand island dressing
3. Add garlic and/or any herb to create aioli
4. Make tuna/chicken/egg/seafood/potato salad
5. Make a salad dressing (e.g. ranch or bleu cheese)
6. Make deviled eggs
7. Make honey mustard sauce

Whew! That’s a lot of yum with just one constant ingredient! What else do you use mayonnaise for?

How to Get Bleach to Stain the Right Things

You all know how frustrating it is. You’re cleaning something with bleach or with a product containing bleach and BOOM! You get some on you accidentally. Your pajamas, your pants, your socks…it can get ugly. Solution? When you’re cleaning, make sure to wear white things. For instance, whenever I clean the bathtub, I wear my white ankle socks which, frankly, could use a good whitening. So when bleach accidentally gets on them, it’s actually a good thing!
Remember: don’t buy new, brighten old 😉

Speed Up the Moisturizing Process – Unisex!

Guys and girls, there’s an easy and cheap way to moisturize your skin quickly – Vaseline! You can use it on anything – your hands, elbows, legs, and even your face! Just apply a thin layer of Vaseline to whatever area you choose and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes. Then you can wash it off and voila! Gorgeously moisturized skin in no time! Much cheaper and quicker than many name brand alternatives – it’s only $2-3. So the next time you have an upcoming date and you notice hands are simply too chapped to hold, Vaseline it up!

Girls: Don’t Reheat that Iron!

You know how sometimes you miss a spot when you iron your shirt and when you put it on, that lone wrinkle drives you nuts? Here’s a great trick to solve that problem. None of us like to take off our shirts just to iron that little spot, so when you’re straightening or curling your hair, use that heated appliance to get the wrinkle out. I find it works best with a straighter and I can just pull my shirt away from my body and straighten it like hair. WARNING: don’t burn yourself! Be very careful not to touch your skin with your straightening or curling iron.

I’ve tried just running my straightener closed over the wrinkled spot, but it doesn’t work the same as taking the shirt between the two irons like hair.

So now you can save electricity and time by not reheating that iron all over again! Make sure to look for that 25 cent savings on your bill 😉 Every penny is worth it!

Shop Asian Brands for Asian Products

I really love making Asian food of any kind, especially Japanese food, but one thing I’ve noticed is that there’s a lot of varied pricing among Asian products. Sesame oil, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and all that jazz can vary a huge amount in price from brand to brand. I’ve found pretty consistently that authentic Asian brands are much cheaper than the better known typical brands like Thai Kitchen – they have great stuff, but let’s get real with the prices! I’ve paid up to $3 less and gotten more product by buying Asian brands. Check your local Wegmans and Target for brands like Kadoya, Nakano, and Tiparos, all very well priced brands which offer larger amounts of their great products for much cheaper.

And the Plant Sales Begin!

As you may already know, I really love plants. Especially when they make the office a less lonely/boring/drab place. And so I happened to find some mini Daffodils on sale for only $2! They’re planted in a ceramic pot and everything, so I’d say it’s worth the price just to get the ceramic pot. The mini Daffys are called Tete-a-Tetes and they are really adorable and bloom beautifully. What a great addition to the cactus I bought last summer! (And that cactus is now enormous…update to come.) Check your local supermarkets for plant sales – you can probably find some on small plants that already have their own containers. Yay!

Skip the Gym – Tone Your Thighs in the Car

It sounds impossible, I know. You’re thinking “How can I possibly tone my thighs in the car? And wouldn’t it be dangerous?” Fortunately for you, it is possible and it’s not dangerous. Here’s what I do:

1. Set your car seat back from the steering wheel so that you can easily reach the gas and brake with the ball of your foot.
2. DON’T put your heel on the floor of the car! Hold it up so that you’re only using the ball of your foot on the gas and the brake.

Voila! Drive like this and you’ll feel the burn in no time! It works the top of your thigh, especially near the knee. Eventually your leg will develop those muscles better and it won’t burn anymore, which means you’ve accomplished your goal. But don’t stop there! Keep doing it to keep that muscle strong! You’ll soon find that climbing multiple flights of stairs isn’t as hard on your thighs anymore.

I know what you’re thinking next. “But now one leg will be toned and the other will be flopsy.” All you have to do is put your other leg in a straight up and down position and lift it up a little. WARNING: make sure your concentration is only on the road and NOT on your workout! Extra fab thighs are not worth a car accident! Just do these two things, force yourself to concentrate on the road, maybe throw on some music, and soon you’ll forget you’re working those muscles! So I guess in effect you could say…Set it and forget it!

Holiday Stocking Stuffers That Won’t Break The Bank

Stocking stuffers are fun to buy and exciting to open, but a lot of people spend more than they should. Extravagance is not necessary for these little surprises and neither is lots of money. Here are some grade A ideas for this holiday season:

1. Mini packages of Kleenex – buy a design that fits your special someone’s personality!
2. Post-it Notes – pick something fun or comical. Or something that matches the mini Kleenex 😉
3. A USB drive – there are cute little ones at Best Buy that cost $5-$9 and look like candy bars!
4. Chocolate – get a bar of Hershey’s special dark or pay a visit to Lindt and take advantage of their individual truffles and mini chocolates. I recommend the sorbettos!
5. Something for the long winter months ahead. Everyone can use an extra pair of gloves or a scarf. You can find a lot of this stuff on sale even during the season, and Walmart and Target actually have some good stuff.
6. Ornaments – anyone can appreciate a pretty or cute ornament that they can put right onto their tree. The best discounts I’ve found are at Kohl’s and Cracker Barrel – I’ve gotten really nice ornaments for as little as 50 cents.
7. Bath & Body Works minis – you can get body lotion, perfume, or antibacterial gel in mini sizes for under $5. If you want to be snazzy, you can buy a mini preview of their upcoming scent in a $1 body lotion.
8. Tea – a special tea or coffee that someone wouldn’t buy for themselves is always a nice surprise!

Now go forth and finish that last minute shopping – and don’t forget this list!

Bath and Body Works 6 for 3!

I just got an email from Bath and Body Works saying they are having a MAJOR holiday sale on Saturday the 16th: buy any 3 signature collection items and get 3 free! Now’s the time to finish your shopping for any body lotion, body wash, perfumes, etc!! Don’t wait! GO NOW!! 😉

Pamper Yourself For Less

Everyone likes some nice pampering once in a while. But many times pampering tends to cost more and add up quickly. How can we avoid the costs and still have those special moments? They always say it’s the simple things that count, and they’re right!

In college, you have to learn to be happy and find joy with little to no money. That means turning a semi-bleak situation into something happy. When I have to do a lot of running in the cold winter months, I combine the minimal money I have with a rough evening to create the perfect end to the night.

I do all my running, freezing cold – scarf on, gloves on, jacket on, earmuffs on. Destination reached. Scarf off gloves off, jacket off, earmuffs off. Eventually I get to the point of earmuffs off and everything else stays on. By the time I get to that point I just want to go back to the dorm. Instead, I take a run out to Walmart. Why? For some very inexpensive pampering. At the end of all this running, I just want to relax, but just going to the dorm and sitting in front of the TV doesn’t always cut it. So I stroll into Walmart – of course leaving everything but my earmuffs on – take a trip over to HABA, and pick a luxurious, nice smelling, inexpensive body wash. Then I pick a body poof in a color I like. After that I check out the tea section and pick something new that’s on sale (something always is). My total at the register is usually about $4-5. I go back out into the cold, drive to the dorm, and walk back from the parking lot. By the time I get back, I’m FREEZING. As soon as I get to the dorm, I take out my new stuff and and race to the shower with my new bath items. The hot water feels unbeatabley amazing when you’re freezing cold and then you have new, nice smelling, moisturizing body wash to use. Nothing beats it! Back in my dorm, I heat up my new tea and turn the TV to something good or pop in a cozy movie. Putting on fleece pants and a sweatshirt is essential at this point. I get under the covers with my tea and watch TV. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world 🙂 Of course there are many variations on this, including one where you don’t spend any money at all and just use what you have. But if you’re in the mood to spend, why not spend smart?