Published by Argonautica on 03 Nov 2007 at 06:27 pm
This Week’s Festival of Frugality Tips
The 98th Festival of Frugality is up at Being Frugal. My interview with Carl Weathers is posted there. Carl wasn’t happy with the post placement and threatened to sue if we weren’t moved up the page, but I talked him out of it.
I checked at some of the other posts and saw some I liked and others that were less helpful.
The Frugal City Popcorn is for the win in my book. Short story is you take a paper bag, put some corn kernels in, fold the top, and microwave- presto change-o you gots yourself some popcorns. No need for an air popper, and no need for the waste of wrapping, extra cost, etc. of commercial stuff. You can even reuse the same bag and any unpopped kernels next time. Well done Money Changes Things, you get an official Carl Weathers’ salute.
The shopping at ethnic markets post by Cheap Healthy Good also looked like a winner to me. I further liked the kitchen-sink approach of Lasagna Without Recipes, but maybe all that’s because I haven’t had dinner yet.
Less useful was another debate about whether to make your own laundry detergent. No way in hell I’m making my own laundry detergent. If I want to save twenty eight cents per load I’ll buy a more efficient washer. Just not interested. Neither was Carl Weathers, he just gets everything dry cleaned for the price of a few signed glossy headshots now and then.
Anyway, there’s plenty more in the festival and it’s not all food-related, so go check it out.
MoneyChangesThings on 05 Nov 2007 at 9:16 am #
Hi Argonautica!
Thanks for the hat-tip! One reader emailed that the chemicals used in microwave popcorn preparation are actually quite toxic for the factory workers, so there’s another virtue in paperbag popcorn: decreasing workers’ exposure to that nasty stuff, and your town, too, of course.
charlie on 17 Nov 2007 at 1:52 am #
I have been making my own laundry soap for months and am very happy with it. It takes only minutes to make, cleans my clothes, works in HE washer(low suds) best of all, my skin does not break out or itch I have had no asthma attack whil washer was running. I have also started using baking soda or vinegar in the rinse. Clothes smell nice and fresh and feel soft. I have saved a lot of money by doing this. When I purchased cheaper brands of soap to save money I had to use more of the products. No real saving there. Tide was ok when I was washing for two. Suddenly I was washing for 10 six of those are children who really get messed up. So you can see what a blessing it was when I found the recipe online. I am going to test the soap in the dishwasher since I spend a lot on special soap for that.