Recent Hints
Sock it to draughts with cheap 'door snakes'
With every winter, it's important to make our heating systems as efficient as possible. Draughts under doors (both to outside and to rooms not currently being used) let heat escape, driving heating costs up. Door snakes are often advertised at around $10 each. This means for a whole house you may be looking close to $100. Instead, you can use a pair of men's long, knee-high socks! These can be filled with rice (or sand if you have easy access to it). Either tie a knot or see the top to seal. You can purchase ind the socks at cheap shops or ok shops, use the cheapest rice you can buy and you can make a house-full for less than the price of one commercially produced door snake.
By: QLD Girl 5 responses in the members' forumMake your own nut butters for a fraction of shop prices
I save a fortune on buying nut butters by making my own. Almond butter, cashew butter and good quality peanut butter can be fairly expensive to buy so instead I buy roasted almonds for about $4 at a bulk supplier (Bin Inn if you're in NZ) and blend it in my Nutribullet with the addition of a smidgeon of olive oil. This gives me twice the quantity of a shop-bought jar which would cost at least $12! You can also add a little honey or chia seeds to add variety. I use the same method to make cashew butter. I simply buy 200g of cashews for $4.80 from an Indian grocer, roast them in the oven and blend them with the addition of a little olive oil to start the process. At around $15 a jar to buy at health food stores, this is a terrific saving!
By: Asoka Basnayake 1 response in the members' forumHottest Hints
Handy pillowcases make for a tidy linen cupboard!
I have saved myself the frustration of constantly losing items from my sheet sets (and the expense of having to buy replacements) by keeping them all together in a simple but ingenious way! I used to be constantly searching for a full set of sheets and pillowcases in my linen cupboard no matter how many times I tidied it up. It's crazy but, in my frustration, I actually found myself buying new sets! Knowing this wasn't a real solution I finally pulled everything out, put all the sets together and placed all the sheets and extra pillowcases inside one matching pillowcase. Since then I haven't lost a single item! I can easily see my sheets and duvet sets and the kids can now find their sets and make their beds on their own.
By: K.L 30 responses in the members' forumOven cleaning made easy
I wanted to share this excellent method for cleaning your oven.
Heat your oven to 250C and place two casserole dishes filled with water on each oven rung. Leave for one hour, ensuring the casserole dishes do not boil dry. Turn oven off, remove dishes and let the oven cool for a few minutes. Remove rungs, then wipe oven clean with a soft cloth. The rungs may need a light rub with a Scotchbrite cloth.
The new cloth I used was black in no time but my oven was sparkling clean without the use of chemicals, and only for the cost of heating the oven! An impending visit from the oven repair man motivated me to clean the oven. He commented on how sparkling clean it was – he even wrote down the cleaning instructions!
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