| EMERGENCY SAVINGS TIPS |
Coke Can Oil Lamp (~$ unknown savings /mo) |
 Oil & Cola Emergency Lamp.
What
will you do thins winter when the lights go out? Hopefully you've got your emergency
flashlight, radio, food and water supplies. If the power will be out for some time,
however, you may want to know about this easy oil lamp. Great for camping too.
The parts needed for this lamp can be found in virtually every household. An
empty aluminum cola can, an old cotton sock, and about a tablespoon of cooking oil are all
you need. First stab an empty cola can in the middle and cut around the
circumference until you cut the can completely in half.  Use a pair of gloves
to hold the can halves, because the metal is very sharp. Use the bottom half of the
cola can, and cut half inch deep slits spaced each half inch along the circumference of
the can. Fold over to make a safe rim along the edge. Now take the top half of
the can and work the pull tab off the top by pulling up and side to side. Work the
tab back and forth with upward pressure, until it pulls off. Dispose of the top half
can into the recycle trash. Next cut a one inch by 3/8" slip of material from
the old sock. Roll the material into a  thick rope and feed it into the pull tab
attachment hole. Pull through about half an inch so it sticks up while the pull tab
rests upside down. Now pour a cap full of cooking oil into the bottom of the can.
Place the upside down pull tab with the wick in the middle of the can and drape the
cotton wick so it pulls the oil from the edge of the can. The length of the wick
pulled through the tab hole will determine the height of the flame. A good quarter
inch of wick will give a good flame with virtually no smoke. Now you can light the
wick and it should last about three to four hours with each tablespoon or so of corn oil.
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| GARDEN SAVINGS TIPS |
Tool Savings - premature tool replacement (~$0.20/mo) |
 Bucket 'O Tools: Rust Eraser
Garden
tools take alot of abuse. You can lose years of useful life from the effects of
environmental enemies like corrosion, rust, tree sap, water and dirt. Here's a
simple way to keep tools healthy, lubricated, and rust free with almost no effort.
Next time you change the oil in your car, pour it into a bucket of sand and add your
garden tools. It's just that simple. The grit from the sand holds the oil and
polishes the metal surfaces. Tools hold fast in the sand and are ready for use.
Just don't forget to clean tools before and after use with an old cotton rag.
|
| GARDEN SAVINGS TIPS |
Garden Alignment Strips (~$0.55/mo) |
 Wheel of Fortune: Bicycle Tire Savings
Bicycling
is an environmentally friendly and inexpensive way to travel around town. When you
add up the aerobic health benefits and cost savings on gym fees, you'll find that biking
is the perfect way to go. With biking, however, there is one minor expense that
seems to deflate the joy of serene cycling; the flat tire follies. Many of my
worries were solved after I purchased a thorn puller attachment for my tires, but I have
had my wealth of flat tires. Once a tire or an inner tube becomes too old, I retire these
treasures into the garden. An inner tube with a dozen patches is still excellent for
use in aligning and training trees. Simply wrap a cut tube around the young tree
trunk in a figure eight with the other end around a stake to guide the wayward tree. Apply
pressure and tie off. For small jobs, cut the inner tube in lengthy strips and use
as garden ties. The rubber inner tube strips are plant friendly, stretch with the
wind, and won't carve into the plant. For tough jobs I use cut bike tires. They're
reinforced with metal and material and will last a long time. I even saw one
gardener using strips of cut bicycle tires as a garden gate hinge. With this rubber
material, the possibilities are endless, so go ahead and tire yourself thinking of ways to
re-use and recycle. |
| HOUSEHOLD SAVINGS TIPS |
Rejuvenated Tape & Food Items (~.50/mo) |
 Microwave Savings Unmasked
It's
amazing what a microwave oven can do to rejuvenate foods and various items. A short
zap will rejuvenate a roll of old masking tape and make it stick again. A short zap
will make a lemon give more juice when squeezed. A little zap will refreshen
stale muffens and bread items. Microwave ovens work by heating items from inside out.
Many times items that appear to have no moisture at all can be made to live again
by just using from 10 to 30 seconds in most 600 to 1000 watt microwave ovens. |
| HOUSEHOLD SAVINGS TIPS |
Smoke detector coverup (unknown ~$.00/mo) |
 Smoke Detector Cover-up
Smoke
detectors are required in new buildings for a good reason. The primary cause of
human injury and death at fire scenes is from the deadly smoke, not the flames. But
smoke detectors are absolutely useless if they don't have batteries or if they've been
unplugged. Fire authorities indicate that the most common household problem with
smoke detectors stem from people removing the smoke detector batteries because of bathroom
steam, burnt toast or smoky "cajon" meals. Here's one way to solve the
problem and still keep your place safe. Attach a hair cap that can be obtained FREE
from most hotels and motels, over the smoke detector. Be sure to staple a long strip
of colorful and annoying material to the cap so the material drapes downward in everyone's
way. While showering, this will defeat the system and give you time to dry up
without an alarm. After you're done, remove the shower cap from over the detector so
your smoke detector sentinal can continue it's fire watch unhampered. This does
temporarily defeat the system, which is dangerous, but if you're tempted to remove the
smoke detector batteries, then this temporary solution is the better way to go.
Final note: If you have the ability, change your smoke detector to a modern model
that has a temporary mute button. Detectors don't last forever so a replacement may
be an inexpensive investment in safety. |
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