WFMW: How To Remove Ear Wax

I know this sounds gross, but it's part of our life.  So here goes.

My kid's pediatrician told me my daughter's ears were clogged full of wax.  She tried using an ear wax apparatus to remove some of the dark wax, but my daughter was crying in pain.  After coming home, I remembered the ear candles.  Ear candles are usually made of bee's wax and gauze.  Formed into a cone shape, you can light the larger end with a match and place the smaller end into the ear.  It will draw out some of the wax.  We did this a few months ago.  It worked good, but didn't get all of the wax out.  It was pretty hard and compacted.

Then Sissy was having severe ear pain.  She cried for nearly an hour in constant pain.  I could actually see the wax in the ear, so you know it had to be a lot.  Everyone said to just put water in the ear to clean it, but I'm one of those people who doesn't really like to try new things without being guided by someone who had already done it.  

What's a mommy to do?  

Watch youtube.com

I know.

Youtube?

Yes, youtube!

You definitely need to be selective about what you watch, but it helped me find a video about removing ear wax.  

Here's how:

Have the child lay on a pillow. 

Wrap a towel around their neck and face so the liquid doesn't get into their eyes and drip onto their clothing or pillow.

Fill the ear with peroxide (she recommends at least 3% kind).

Allow the peroxide to sit in the hear for 15 minutes.  

Tip the head to drain the peroxide onto the towel.

Fill a small cup with 1/2 warm water and 1/2 peroxide.  Using a syringe (like the ones CVS gives out to administer liquid medicine to your children), fill the ear with the warm liquid.  

Keep filling the syringe and squirting into the ear.  Repeat this process until some "stuff" starts floating out.

Make sure to keep the towel snug against the child's face (my daughter did not like the liquid dripping down her face and neck so we had to keep it tightly around her).  

After about 5-10 minutes of squirting the liquid into the ear, a glob of dark wax should come out.  

It's gross.

Plain and simple.

But, it's necessary and it works!

Drain the rest of the liquid from the ear by tipping the child's head onto the towel.  

I let Sissy's head lay on the towel to finish draining.  She fell asleep within a minute of having this done.  She hasn't complained of any ear pain since. 

It worked for me!  And it's frugal since most of the time you can get peroxide at Walgreens for $.39-.50 a bottle.

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:
Life as Mom - Frugal Fridays

Party on a Frugal Budget

How do you host a party for your little girl (or boy) on a frugal budget?

Well, for one thing, you do everything yourself instead of paying out of pocket for it. 

1.  Watch videos on how to make a barbie doll cake.  Listen carefully to the instructors so you get the cake just right.  Baking the cake and freezing it ahead of time can save you some time and money later on.  This way the cake is waiting for you.  If it doesn't turn out, you'll have plenty of time to rebake and start over. 

2.  Make appetizers from your stockpiled pantry and freezer.  Frozen spinach boxes I snagged for $.60 and sour cream for $.59 turned into a great Spinach Dip.  If you're not sure what you can make with something in your stockpile, visit the brand's website to see if they have any recipe links.  It's a great way to try new recipes.  Also, keep an eye out for sales and buy when things are cheap.  Plastic forks for $.39 and straws for $.39.  Yep, that's a Walgreens deal from November.

(My friend Jodi took this picture.  Thanks Jodi!)

3.  Make your own invitations.  I found some clip-art and printed out invites.  Then glued on some glitter to make them sparkly.

4.  Make your own cupcake picks from old scrapbook material in the garage.  Well, maybe that's just me, but I have tons of scrapbooking stuff I had to move out of the house to make room for kiddos and homeschooling. (Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to make these.) I totally forgot to put these on the cupcakes!!!  Oh well, maybe next time :)

5.  Keep decorations to a minimum.  I bought some cheap balloons at Walmart and bought some hot pink tulle from Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon.  Tying the balloons in the corners of the walkways with the tulle draped across, makes for inexpensive, yet festive decorations.

6.  Make punch from kool-aid.  We decided to stick with the pink theme and used pink lemonade.  Freeze some kool-aid in a Tupperware ring (or Bundt pan) and store in the freezer for the party.  Think ahead because if you're like me, I only have one ring so I started about a week before the party to get a couple of these frozen.  Buy kool-aid packets when they are on sale $.20 a packet.  Have sugar, kool-aid packets and pitcher on hand to mix up as needed.  It's cheaper than soda and no caffeine to make the kids nuts.

7.  Visit the Dollar Tree for some great "thank-you-for-coming" grab bags.  I snagged a couple of bags of candy along with these cute puzzle necklaces, all for less than $10.  I divided everything among some "princess" lunch baggies for all the girls to take home.

8.  Print coloring pages off the internet.  I chose some Barbie and the Three Musketeers coloring pages, since that's the movie we planned to watch.  I also grabbed two boxes of 64-count crayons from the Dollar Tree and dumped them into a box for the girls to color at the table.

9.  Barbie Makeover Table.  This could have been expensive, but I picked up on some clearanced hair glitter after Halloween.  So that was a huge savings.  We also used some store rewards to pick up some pretty sparkly fingernail polish at Walgreens.  My biggest surprise find was at Goodwill.  They had received boxes of eyeshadow and lip gloss from a drugstore and marked it 4 for $1.  So I got a couple of shades of each. This was a HUGE hit!  The girls had more fun applying make-up to each other than anything else!  So cute!

10.  Keep it simple.  I got this idea from my cousin.  She said let the girls decide what they wanted to do.  So from the beginning I let Sissy decide what we were going to do for the afternoon of the party.  She said she wanted to watch a movie and play Barbies.  She also wanted a Barbie cake.  We talked about the other fun things we could do and she decided on coloring and sparkles in her hair.  All in all, I think she did a great job for a 4-year-old.  Everyone had a great time.  Can't wait until next time!

How do you party on a budget?  

This post has been linked to:

• Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda!
• Wordful Wednesday at parenting BY dummies
• Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
• Wordless Wednesday at A Lot of Loves
• Wordless Wednesday at Newlyweds Blog 
• Wordless Wednesday at A Daily Dose of Toni
• Wordless Wednesday at A Beautiful Mess

Pantry Meal: Super Easy Turkey Pie

We love Shepherd's Pie.  It's one of my husband's favorite meals.  Last year, we made a Turkey Shepherd's Pie with leftover turkey.  It was really good.  Since we're trying to challenge ourselves to eat from the pantry and I had all this stuff on hand along with about 12 cups of leftover roasted turkey in the freezer, I thought it was time to revisit the turkey pie, but made super easy.  

If you don't have any of these same items, be creative.  Do you have any McCormick Turkey Gravy packets in the pantry?  Use that instead of the jarred gravy.  Or do you prefer to cook from scratch and like making your own gravy?  Do that instead, it will still be so yummy.  Do you have real potatoes that need to be used?  Mash them and use them instead of the instant potatoes.  Does your family love sweet peas and corn?  Stir them in too!  

It's all about being creative with what you have on hand.  So this is what I came up with.  This makes a 9x5 casserole dish, so double it if you have a larger family. 

Super Easy Turkey Pie

2 cups chopped roasted turkey

1 carrot, chopped

1 cup jarred turkey gravy

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 can green beans

1 pouch instant potatoes (I used the Idahoan variety with Butter and Herbs)

In a large mixing bowl, add roasted turkey and carrots.

Stir in turkey gravy, poultry seasoning and Worcestershire sauce.

Pour and spread into a 9x5 casserole dish.

Layer green beans over the turkey.

Prepare the instant potatoes according to the pouch directions.  (I used the microwave method since it was faster.)  Spoon the mashed potatoes over the green beans and then spread around to cover the top completely.  Use the back of a fork to add swirls to the mashed potatoes.  

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Broil for for a few minutes to brown the top.

Enjoy with a fresh salad.

So good!

I calculated the calories for this version and it's right at 273 calories for 1/4 of the pie. 

Are you challenging yourself to use up your pantry items?  What creative concoctions have you come up with?

Enjoy!

Goodwill Shopping Tips & Tricks (Guest Post)

This is a guest post from my bargain shopping friend Starri.  She's a busy wife and mother to two young boys.  She's got a lot to say about shopping at one of our favorite stores, Goodwill.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

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Several of you have commented to me that you never find anything at GOOD at GOODwill.  Ironic, don't you think?  I thought about what made my trips there fun and successful and made a few notes to share with you.  I have to give partial credit for this information to my mom.  I learned from the best and she's still my thrift store shopping buddy.  I'd love the hear your tips and tricks.  Hope it helps and happy hunting! 

Shop with a buddy.  Someone who knows your size style well is a plus because they can help keep an eye for things you might like.  Be sure to go through a rack even if your friend just did- it’s easy to miss things.   Often a fresh set of eyes will catch a spot or tear you missed.  Besides, being with someone just makes it less tedious!

Each week a different color is 50% off; at the Newnan Goodwill this changes each Sunday.   It will become harder and harder to find those color items as the days go by.

Shop your favorite magazines and websites for trends that you like then use these as inspiration while you’re shopping in the store.  I like People Stylewatch magazine, anthropologie.com, and shopruche.com.  Sometimes out-of-date can be on-trend with just a few tweaks and some clever accessorizing. One caveat:  It can be easy to loose your fashion-sense-of-self when your surrounded by all those colors and trends of days-gone-by.  Keep your wits about you! 

Do some research in your own closet.  Take a look at your favorite pieces and think about why you like them so much.  Is it because of the cut, because it’s so low maintenance, or because it just feels good on your skin.  Which cuts and colors get compliments?  Read the labels and find out what your most loved items are made of.  Do you notice that a lot of your items are particular brand?  What about the things you never wear-  why?  Are they wrinkly or scratchy or do they pull, bunch, or ride up?  How are these cut and what are they made of?  What brand?  Use the information you glean from the study of your closet to guide you at the thrift store.

Know you’re brands- it will help you to see the value in what you find.  Replacing missing buttons and mending small tears in the seam are worth the trouble if the item is of high quality but may not be if the fabric is cheap and the cut is bad.

Be realistic.  If it needs mending, are you going to take the time to fix it?  Do you know how?  When you add in your time, the cost of the buttons, or other sewing notions is it still a bargain?  Sometimes the answer is still "yes" but take the time to have this thought process.

Feel the fabrics.  You’d be surprised at your hands' ability to scout out wool, silk, cashmere, linen, and fine cottons. Quality just feels good.  Keep some hand sanitizer in your pocket!

Look items over carefully for stains or moth holes.  You may discover why it was donated.  That being said, you may find it worth repairing when the original owner didn’t.

Check by after big yard sale weekends and after Christmas.  People often donate their unsold yard sale items.  Since clothes don’t sell well at yard sales... SCORE for you!  After Christmas people often clean out their homes to make room for their new stuff and they’re also too broke to shop anymore.  Again, SCORE for you!!

Goodwill has even better hours than a lot of regular retail stores.  For example, they open at 9 am Monday-Saturday.  That’s an hour before most anyone else! They stay open until 9 pm.  On Sunday, they’re open to 1 to 6.  During the week check by during the day, even if you only have a few minutes, because it’s so much quieter and less picked over.

Relax, be patient, and dig in.   If you’re looking for something specific, you may not find just what you’re looking for on a particular trip but you may find a treasure.  It may take a little more time to find, but when you get a cashmere sweater for $2 and a new-with-tags Banana Republic skirt for $4, it’s well worth it.

Give the racks a cursory scan first.  The colors and patterns that appeal to you will jump out.  After that you can go through more thoroughly for things that may not have immediate appeal or may be tucked away.  Goodwill organizes by type of article (i.e. pants, skirts, blouses, etc.) and then by color.  Unfortunately, never by size.  Oh, well... what do you want for cheap.  This way is convenient, however, when you need to find something in a specific color.  

When your eyes get blurry from searching the clothes racks take a break and check out housewares, shoes, bags, or books.  It will give you a mental break to browse different items.  You can go back to the racks when you’re ready.

Try things on!  Even if it’s cheap you don’t want to waste your money.  It also makes it easier to see any flaws. 

You can make returns if you have your receipt. 

If you’re on the fence about something, let ride around in your cart for a while.  Think about it, you can always put it back if you find something better.  You may also stumble upon the perfect thing to go with it.

Have the vision to see what something can be with a good washing and pressing, a lint brush, a sweater shaver, a polish and buff and some cool accessories!

Newnan Goodwill takes credit card (even AMEX!!) but I don’t believe they take personal checks anymore.

One more thing- Goodwill prices all items of certain type the same price even if one is brand new and and one is stained.  That can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.  However, one kind of stinky thing they occasionally do is that they will decide a certain item is somehow special and it will be tagged with a different (higher) price.  They are usually on different racks.  I have found no method to this madness.  It is what it is, but just be aware of it.  I haven't found them willing to negotiate, but it's often still a find.

See you at the GW Boutique!

~Starri

P.S. I'm not too consignment store savvy but I have noticed that most of them will put you on an email list to let you know when they have sales and specials.  I love the paper bag sale that Wellspring in PTC has twice a year.  All you can stuff in a paper grocery bag for $25!

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Thank you Starri!  

Please share any other tips you might have for shopping at the thrift stores or consignment stores in the comments.  We'd love to hear from you!

Enjoy!

Thrifty Thursday: Mosquito Repellent

 photo credit

We have a terrible mosquito problem.  What's worse is I have what my Granny calls "sweet blood".  I'm like a walking mosquito magnet.  Once, I was being eaten alive while I was hosting a yard sale.  I didn't realize the extent of the damage until I was brushing my hair in the mirror and saw the back of my arms.  It looked like I had measles!  I had red spots all over the back of my arms.  I guess they figured since I couldn't see them, they would chow on me back there.  

Unfortunately for us, the mosquitoes like to keep us held prisoner in the house during the summer months, and we hate it.  The kids and I love to be outside.  We have a little swimming pool for the kids and they love to play in it during the hot summer months.  And of course, we have our vegetable garden that I love to be piddling in, weeding and spraying bugs and what-not.  So the mosquitoes are a real nuisance.  

Last year, we purchase two of the OFF Clip On fans.  These worked wonderfully!  This year, I can't seem to find the refills at the stores.  They must have been pretty successful and now everyone wants them.  I did find them on Amazon.com, so I might be able to get some using my Swagbucks. There are some really great products on the market containing DEET.  I'm not really fond of spraying myself DEET.  Although this ingredient is very effective in repelling the mosquitoes and other biting bugs, I'm a little concerned by the harmful effects.  I have used it in the past, and each time I did, the sprayed skin turned bright red.  I'm probably allergic to it. 

I wanted to share some mosquito repellent ideas I've found and even heard about through friends and family.  Some of these things you might have on hand in the bathroom and laundry room.

1.  Fabric Softener Sheet.  I've been using this for the last couple of weeks and it works good, but not great.  I actually rubbed my arms and neck with the sheet the first time and it worked good.  I wouldn't recommend doing that if you have sensitive skin or skin allergies since the sheets are pretty smelly.  After that first time though, I decided to pin it to our clothes and it's been working pretty good.  They still buzz around us, but I don't see as many bites.  I even pinned the fabric sheet to the back of my daughter's swim suit and she was able to play in the pool without being bitten all over. (By the way, you might have some of these from the past FREE Snuggle deals.)

2.  Listerine.  My cousin told me about this.  I haven't actually used this yet, although I have a ton of Listerine I got for free doing the drug store deals, so I might use this soon.  She said you can spray it on you but it might leave you feeling a little sticky.  I'd rather be sticky than the feasting ground for mosquitoes.  She also said you can pour a little Listerine into bowls and place them around the deck and yard to keep them at bay.  I'm going to be trying this soon, I'll let you know if it works for me.

3.  Skin-So-Soft by Avon.  My husband can't stand the way this stuff smells.  In fact, he gets an immediate migraine from it.  So I try to use other things when he's around.  If it's just me and the kids during the day and my hubby isn't home, I'll use it.  I'm not fond of the oiliness of it, but again, I'd rather be oily than be bit.

I'm hoping to experiment with a homemade natural mosquito repellent in the next few weeks.  Once I figure it out, I'll share the ratio and ingredients.  

In the meantime, what kind of home remedy do you use to repel mosquitoes and other biting nuisances?

This post has been linked to:

• Thrifty Thursday at My Coupon Teacher
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Amazon.com links have been embedded in the above post.  If you choose to purchase through the links, I may receive a small compensation from Amazon.com.  Thank you!

Going Green - Paper Towels

Over the past year, we have tried very hard to use less and less paper towels.  First of all, they can be expensive!  I think the last time I bought paper towels, they were on sale for $4.96 and I used store rewards to get them cheaper (of course!).  At the time, we had already reduced the amount of paper towels we were using in the kitchen and at breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.  I've since reduced the use of paper towels in our cleaning.

I used to use paper towels to clean the windows, mirrors and shower doors in the bathroom.  Now I use newspaper.  I know it sounds crazy, but it works -- and no streaks!  You need to be careful if you have white trim and walls, because sometimes the soy-based ink might smear on those surfaces while you are cleaning the mirrors and windows.  In the kitchen, we are also using newspaper to absorb oil from fried foods such as bacon, sausage, fried taters and homemade tortilla chips.  

When it comes to eating, we are using cloth napkins.  I haven't actually purchased any cloth napkins.  We're using "recycled" cloth napkins.  I've cut squares from older bath towels that are too thin to do any good after a shower, but are perfectly acceptable to clean up your face and hands.  We also have some thin cloth diapers that were never used for their intended purpose, but rather were used as burp cloths.  We've migrated these from Hunter's drawers to the kitchen drawers.  They are easy to bleach and keep pretty clean (still trying to figure out how to get rid of the spaghetti stains).  I'm hoping to accumulate enough cloth napkins to use during get-togethers and gatherings.

I'm hoping to completely alleviate the purchase of paper towels and what a huge savings that will be!

This works for us.  

Are you thinking about going green in an area of your life?

Frugal Gardening: Coffee Grounds and Worms

photo source: lizziecow

I've been reading about the love affair between used coffee grounds and worms.  Seems that adding them to your vegetable gardens and flower garden beds results in happy worms and a slow release of nitrogen into the soil.  

Did you know Starbucks gives away their used coffee grounds?  I called my local Starbucks and they held some for me.  We picked up about 50 pounds the other day!  For FREE!  You know I love FREE!  When we got back home, I sprinkled them into the raised beds and we'll see if the love affair will continue in my garden too!

Enjoy!

How to Fix Untucked Dress Shirts

If you have a little boy in your home and you attend religious services of some sort, then you might run into this same problem:

Untucked dress shirts!  It drives me crazy!

We'll have Hunter dressed for the meeting and the next thing you know, he's running through the house screaming and carrying on like almost 2 year old little boys do, and his shirt tails are hanging out of his pants.  When he was a little baby, I used to use this method all the time, but as he got older, it was easier to keep them tucked in.  Now he's like a madman and there's nothing that holds him still.  So we're back to the method.  

Now there are a couple of stores that sell dress shirts with a "onesie" type fastener, but they can be rather expensive. 

So I wanted to share how we keep our little boy's shirt tucked in nice and neatly:

Sheet Straps, or some of you might call them Sheet Suspenders.  

You know what I'm talking about right?  The little contraptions you use in your bedroom to keep your sheets from flipping off the mattress.  You can buy them at Walmart for less than $5 and you can even order them on Amazon.com (so if you have Swagbucks and redeem them for Amazon gift cards, well, they'd be free for you!)

This is what we do:

On the bottom front of the shirt, fasten the sheet straps on each side of the button.

Have the baby lay on his tummy and fasten the sheet straps about a hand's width apart on the backside of the shirt.

And that's it!  Honestly, it's the easiest way I've learned to keep his shirts tucked in.  

He looks so handsome!

It works for us and I hope it helps you too!

This has been linked to:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family
• Thrifty Thursday at My Coupon Teacher
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Haircuts at Home

 

Before my husband and I got married over 11 years ago, he had a regular appointment every other week to get his hair cut.  This usually cost about $12-15 each cut.  Then I decided if I watched carefully how the barber cut it, I could probably duplicate it and cheaper to boot! 

You can view some videos on youtube about how to cut hair.

For the last 10 years or so, I've been cutting his hair.  And for the last 6 years, I've been cutting my own hair.  I know that sounds crazy but I've had really short hair that was pretty easy to cut.  Over the last year, however,  I've been letting it grow out.  So there isn't much to maintain now.  I also cut all of our children's hair.  This is a huge cost saver and I'm glad I'm able to do it. 

I purchase hair clippers at Walmart about every other year since it's cheaper to buy new clippers rather than to have the blades sharpened.  A nice set of clippers will cost about $20. 

Cutting your own hair can save you as much as $400 a year!  That's a lot of moo-la!

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:

• Thrifty Thursday at My Coupon Teacher
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Shopping at Natural Organic Food Markets

photo source: qmnonic

You might be thinking to yourself, "Natural Organic Food Markets are EXPENSIVE!"  That can be true.  Or you might be thinking, "Those stores rarely have coupons I can use on product."  That may be true too.  But let me put your mind at ease on some of these issues.

Shopping at organic food markets can be thrifty and frugal.  You need to have a plan, a budget and a little know-how.  

1.  The Plan.  If you are new to the organic scene, as I am, ask your friends if there are any good quality stores in the area.  My friend Carrie tries to stick to an all natural way of life and she suggested Sevananda.  The first time we went there, I was a little surprised at the size of the store.  It's not a huge supermarket, like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.  It's a small store with a wide variety of products.  The prices were very reasonable on many pantry items, though I chose not to purchase any.  My plan was to scope out the bulk bins and see what kind of price I could get on bulk whole wheat pastry flour, bulk whole wheat flour, bulk dried beans, bulk honey, bulk spices and herbs.

2.  The Budget.  I know, don't groan!  Budgets are set in place for our own good.  Sort of like training our children, they need boundaries and we need boundaries to avoid over-spending.  Currently our budget is $50 a week on grocery and food purchases.  Since it was the first of the month and I hadn't been shopping for nearly two weeks, my envelope was full.  I know I need to buy milk, eggs and butter and a few other sale items at Publix, so I decided to only take $20 cash with me to Sevananda.  

3.  The Know-How.  Here are a few tips and tricks to help you save money on natural foods for your family.  

• Buy from the Bulk Bins.  The bulk bins are a great way to stock up on organic products at reasonable prices.  Beans in bulk usually cost about $1.50 per pound whereas a bag of beans on the shelf in the same store are about $3.00 per pound.  Sometimes they offer sales and you can pick up the dried bean in the bulk bin for as little at $.99 per pound.

• Buy from the Bulk Spice Jars.  The bulk spice jars are truly heaven-sent!  A regular size jar of dried spices can cost anywhere from $3.00 up to $5.00.  In the bulk spice jars, the price is per pound and since you are only buying barely an ounce or so of the spice or herb, you are paying less than a dollar for them.  For example, I purchased about 30 bay leaves at $23.49 per pound and spent only $.47!  Normally a jar of bay leaves at Walmart can cost around $3.28 and there might be 10 bay leaves in the jar. 

• Buy the Sale Items.  Walk around the store and check out the sale tags.  Once while shopping at Sevananda, the Organic Soy Milk was on sale for $2.99 and there was a tearpad coupon on the shelf for $1.00.  I was so excited I bought two!  Check out the produce and see what's in season.  Seasonal produce will be less expensive.

You can watch the video blog of our shopping trip, but the first half of the video was recorded on the wrong setting and is a little fuzzy. 

Do you have any other saving tips for shopping at a natural organic food market?

This post has been linked to:

• Shopping Superstars at The Thrifty Mama

Frugal Gardening: Weed Control

First of all, I am really excited to be hosting my first meme and I hope it's successful - thanks to you!  Each Thursday we'll come back here and share our gardening triumphs and successes (and hopefully not too many failures, but life happens and that's how we learn, right?).  I'm going to try to have themes each week in case you'd like some writing inspiration.  However, it's completely optional.  The point of this gardening meme is to share advice with newbie gardeners like myself (and others who might be popping by).  So if you've written a post last week or last year, link and share what you know.  Grab the button in the sidebar (also completely optional) and link back here from your blog post.  If you don't have a blog, no worries!  I still want to hear from you, please leave a comment and share what you know.  I thrive on comments!  

Now without further ado, this week we're learning about Weed Control...

Lord knows we have enough weeds in and around the house, we definitely don't want them in the garden!  But inevitably they creep or crawl their way in.

My husband always says, "What's the difference between a flower and a weed?"  He replies, "the gardener".

He's right.  If you are a vegetable gardener, likely you'd be pretty unhappy with a giant rose bush growing up among your corn and green beans.  But if you are a rose gardener, you'd love to see the roses climbing among the trellis' in your garden. 

As far as other nuisance weeds, we have quite a few in our yard that I need to tackle every year.  The University of Georgia has done extensive research on the subject of weed management.  You can view some of the pictures and descriptions to identify what's in your garden.

I've heard of many ways to prevent weeds, and it usually has to do with weed killers.  I'm pretty new to gardening myself.  We're trying to go the organic route.  One, it's cheaper; and two, it's better for the environment and us.  One way we kept weeds down last year was by placing newspaper in the rows and in and around the plants themselves.  The newspaper will smother the ground, killing everything beneath.  It's one of the techniques in Lasagna Gardening.  In the book, she suggests using thick sections of newspaper to smother grass or weeds to begin a new garden spot.  When I was younger, we visited an older man (and I mean older, he was probably 85 years old) who had a beautiful flower garden filled with hollyhocks and poppies.  While we were walking through the rows, I noticed he had newspaper underfoot.  I asked him about it and he said it kept the weeds down.  Old people know tried-and-true methods to just about anything and everything.  I figured if it worked for him for all his years, then it would work for us.

We have two major weeds in our yard and gardens...wild blackberry runners and large crabgrass.  I've tried "taming" the wild blackberries into bushes but they are oh so painful and I worry so much about the kids falling around them.  They are truly ridiculous how they send runners everywhere.  Do you know I pulled one up last year that was over 20' long!!!  And no, I am not exaggerating.  And the worst part was it broke off so I didn't even get to the end! 

When I see a little weed trying to grow, I pluck it out.  The easiest thing I've found to pluck out weeds is using an old dinner fork.  Dig down under the weed and pull up, everything comes out in one swoop, weed and root system.  You might be able to find a fancy weed puller, but I'm trying to do our garden as frugally and thrifty as possible.  And I don't need to start another habit of buying tools, I already have a kitchen tool habit.  

What do YOU consider to be a weed?  What method of weed control do you use?

Next week's topic:  Fertilizer - what do you use and what do you recommend?

Frugal Skin Care

I still remember when my Momma and Dad took me to Lenox Mall in Atlanta for my first bag of Clinique cosmetics.  I was really excited because at sixteen years old, every other girl in my High School had been wearing make-up since Middle School.  But my Dad really wanted me to wait until I was 16 to wear any real makeup.  I mean Momma let me wear lip gloss and she even let me buy some of that clear mascara (Don't tell me you don't remember that stuff! Boy am I telling my age or what!), but real mascara and real blush and real lipstick, I couldn't wait!

But before wearing any makeup, Momma taught me a very important lesson in caring for my skin, especially my face.  She always encouraged me to wash my face in the morning and at night.  Removing any dirt or oil accumulated over time.  We only purchased Clinique facial bars since they were fragrance free and non-comedogenic (didn't clog your pores).  She also purchased the Clinique Skin Toner to help remove leftover make-up or oil not removed by the soap.

I'm not going to say Clinique cosmetics are thrifty by any means.  In fact, I've given up my beloved Clinique after almost 20 years of using it.  I quit my secular job to be a stay-at-home mother to my children almost 4 years ago, and well, frankly, we just couldn't afford it anymore.  After I learned the coupon game and how I can still purchase great cosmetics at a fraction of the cost (like Almay and Neutrogena), I still needed to find a good and affordable skin toner.  And that's when I remembered something Momma told me once.  She had been checking out at the grocery store and noticed the complexion of the cashier.  She commented on how pretty her skin was and the girl told Momma she only used Witch Hazel to maintain her skin.

A bottle of Witch Hazel can cost anywhere from $.50 - $3.00.  Sometimes you can get it for free if you are using a coupon and combining that with store rewards.  Witch Hazel acts as a natural astringent and promotes good skin health.  If you choose to use Witch Hazel, make sure it's 100% natural and does not include alcohol which can dry out your skin. 

I've been using Witch Hazel for the last 2 years and love it.  What I love even more is not paying $20 for a bottle of toner at the Department Store!  Witch Hazel is very thrifty on your wallet and a bottle will last a very long time!

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:

• Thrifty Thursday at My Coupon Teacher
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

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I was not compensated by any one company to state the above.  This is purely from my experience using witch hazel.  However, there are a few links embedded which will direct you to amazon.com.  If you choose to purchase products through the links, I will receive a small compensation from amazon.com.