There was an article in my local paper written by the Associated Press. Basically it points out that with the recession and many out of work, people are spending less and saving more. Personal savings for July was at 5.9% of their after tax income which is three times what it was before the recession started. One woman said that she and her husband never thought about saving every scrap of food or...

In the prior article, “Value for Your Money”, I mentioned comparing the taste of water under the same conditions. Now I would like to expand on that by saying that Bottled Water may not be as safe as you think, and the quality of your Tap Water may be way better than you think. I’m not a chemist and I may not have the following 100% correct, but it is very close and may give you a different prospe...

Yahoo had an article written by Amy Bele on how people spend their money wastefully.  I’m going to comment on three of these items. Ink for Printers: is so expensive. Over the life of the printer you may shell out 500% for ink compared to the price of the printer. My experience seems to bare this out. I recently bought both a black and a color cartridge at Staples for my Dell printer; the onl...

A lady’s clothes dryer wasn’t drying the clothes.  The repair man came and diagnosed that the heating unit died. After putting in a new one he asked the lady to come and watch what he was about to do. He took the lint filter out that had been cleaned of lint and brought it over to the sink. There he ran hot water over it and the water never went through. It lay on top of the mesh filter. He s...

Peppers with3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating while peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cookingIf you are frying ground beef, add a teaspoon of water to help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.  To make a rich omelet add a spoon full of sour cream, heavy cream or cream cheese before beating eggs. For a brownie treat, melt mints in d...

If you encountered an emergency while on a trip outside where you live and need an emergency number to call for assistance, dial #112 to get a local emergency number for immediate help. Say you pulled your keys out of the ignition and the remote was on the same key ring, put them on the seat, got distracted, exited the car and locked it. Call someone you know that has a cell phone and a remote ent...

When traveling with over night or weekly stays, all motels, hotels resorts, etc. give you a key card to your room. It is so much more convenient than carrying a key like you did years ago. However it could wind up causing you a great deal of money and heartache. I didn’t know that the card not only has the room number hidden on it, but also your name, at least part of your address, check-in and ou...

If you have ceiling fans in your home, use them to your advantage. Turn your air conditioner (AC) thermostat up from 2 to 4 degrees. Since warm air rises and cold air sinks you should turn on the ceiling fan with the blades circulating in a counter clockwise direction. This will create a wind chill factor as the cooler air is drawn up to the ceiling. You know how much colder it feels in the winter...

At the recent G20 summit (20 world leaders meeting on economics) in Toronto Canada discovered that the host country has avoided the banking crisis where most others have floundered. Canada’s economy grew at 6.1% annual rate in the first four month in 2010. They have a hot housing market and three fourths of the jobs lost during the recession have been recovered. The reason for this stability is th...

If you are a buyer, ask what properties are being shown to you. Sometimes the properties posted by discount brokers aren’t listed as prominently on the Multiple Listing Service as with full service agents, nor do many of them keep track of for sale by owner. They would rather steer you to a home where they would get a full commission. (See the last paragraph)Who do they represent? Ask for a disclo...

Many home sellers are off the market, simply because there are fewer buyers and those that are looking want rock bottom prices that the seller feels is too low. The seller is waiting for better times if not under the gun to sell. At the same time buyers and sellers have plenty of agents to choose from. The are 2.6 million licensed real estate agents, many got into this business during the housing ...

How to clean an electric blanket is an old suggestion from Heloise that I had lost sight of. Recently I changed my bedding for the summer months and naturally removed my electric blanket. I was going to have it dry cleaned but am going to try the following suggestion:I’m sure you already know the first step. Disconnect the electrical controls.Shake the blanket out or brush the dust off of it. My b...

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