Its FINALLY SUMMER!!! And with every new season come new frugal challenges! Heat, frequent clothes changes, grass stains, water usage sky rockets and all the rest. Certainly a challenge for all us frugal types!
To deal with frequent clothes washing, use the light cycle, cold water wash and rinse, less detergent per load, and line dry the clothes. To pre-treat stains use your regular laundry detergent rubbed on the stained area the night before.
For lawn watering try and use your own rain water caught in covered rain barrels. If you are building or refurbishing invest in a gray water re-use system that takes sink and bath water and uses it to water the lawn and trees in the yard.
www.jademountain.com
sells kits as does many local plumbing suppliers. Why use nice fresh expensive tap water for tree watering???
Don't buy bottled water unless your local water is hopelessly contaminated. Many companies just bottle local tap water anyway!! Instead get a home filter kits, To remove just the chlorine, put water into gallon jugs and leave the caps off for a couple days. The chlorine will evaporate.
When you make summer treats use vinegar and oil based dressings. They will not spoil over night and are cheaper than mayo based dressings.
Open the frig and freezer as little as possible.
Make your own freezer pops with fresh juices. Just place in ice trays or old yogurt cups, and put sticks in when the pops are almost frozen.
Line draperies with old white sheets to reflect the heat.
Pop the TOPS of windows open too. Heat rises and it will rise right out of the house through open window tops.
Open the attic and put a fan up there to drw up rising hot air into the attic and out of the house!
Keep the freezer and frig as full as possible to add cold to the space.
Cook outside whenever possible to keep the house cooler.
Use Solar Cooking! Its fun and the kids love it. Cheap plans at:
www.solarcooking.org
For more ideas Check out these Frugal Living Books!
Complete Tightwad Gazzette
The Complete Tightwad Gazzette
Declare Your Finanacial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence
Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate
Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms
You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home WIth your Kids
