Tips For Homemakers

I heard on Good Morning America that you can search for lost money thru the Treasury Department of each state. So I typed in “lost money, NC” and sure enough I found some. It had to do with life insurance (Metropolitan).

On Saturday, I received a check for $612.35. Wow

It was kind of a hassle but it was worth it.

I printed out a form and followed the instructions. I sent it to NC with a copy of my drivers license, proof that I lived at the address listed and it had to be notarized. It took 2 months to get it back.

So, check every state you lived in and see if you have any money anywhere. Maybe you forgot to close out a checking account or something like that.

It is so aggravating to make a cake for just my husband and myself and half way thru the cake, it is so dried out.

The solution: Make cupcakes instead. Once you ice the top of them, the freshness seems to be sealed in better. You can also freeze the cupcakes before you add frosting. I put them in a freezer bag.

Another thing, you don’t have dirty dishes everytime you serve a piece of cake.

And….it is great to pack some in your husband’s lunch and maybe a couple extra for his friend(s).

I stopped making cupcakes once my kids got out of elementary school, I think. But, if you are an older couple like us, the cupcakes are quite a treat.

Do your dogs dig? Pain in the butt, huh? Well, I went online and checked out different solutions and this is the one that worked for me.

We have two acres of land of which an acre of land is fenced-in for the dogs. We have fenced the border with field fencing and then cross-fenced the land so I have an area for the dogs, chickens and across the front and side is our yard for my plants.

Our dogs would dig in the same spots over and over along the fenceline and I kept filling the holes. They were getting out of their yard and sometimes would even get into my chicken yard.

The internet site I found said to take dog poop and bury it in the hole that the dog has dug. So refill the hole with dirt but put the poop about two inches from the top of the ground before you finish filling the hole. IT WORKS!!!

I wandered around the yard with a grocery bag on my left arm and a grocery bag on my right hand picking up the crap. Not a job I really enjoyed but would gladly do again now that I know it works. Funny thing is, they have almost totally stopped digging.

It was great to fill the holes that were about 20 feet away from my back door. I feared I would either twist my ankle or fall over. It doesn’t stink either because it is buried. My grass has started growing back and you can barely tell where they dug.

Another method I tried and it works, too but it was going to be very costly for the whole acre. I bought a 50 ft long fence that was 4 ft high and cut it in half so it was l00 feet long and two feet high. I bought the smaller hole fencing…maybe it is called pig fencing…not sure. It has rectangular holes that are about 2 inches by 4 inches maybe. Anyway, I put the fencing on the ground and attached it to the field fencing at the bottom. I used some kite string and also some wire (clothes hangers cut in three pieces) to attach it.

My chicken yard borders the dog yard. The chickens peck at the grass into the dog’s yard for about 6 inches (they have long since pecked all the grass out of their yard). Because the dogs saw bare dirt, they decided to dig there. So, I put the fencing on the ground (on the dog’s side) where the chicken yard and dog yard meet. That solved that problem. So anywhere there was a big area that they dug, I used the fencing on the ground. You can use tent stakes to make it lie down so the grass will grow thru it. Just make sure you knock the tent stake way into the ground so it is not sticking up. You also need to be really careful when you mow the lawn. I use the weed eater where the fencing is on the ground.

I have recently heard this in a number of places but I wanted to share it anyway….in case you didn’t hear it.

Take a small amount of shaving cream and rub onto your bathroom mirror and keep rubbing until it is clean and shiny.

Then when you shower, no foggy mirrors. I really appreciate this because I use to dry my mirror with my hair dryer so I could see.

When your mirror starts to fog again, which I think took a month or so, just re-apply a small amount of shaving cream again.

I showed my husband my quick way to clean shoes and he loves it. Much faster than shoe polish and cheaper.

First, wipe any loose dirt or debris from your shoes. Then dip a paper towel into petroleum jelly and get a “small” dab. Rub it onto your shoes. After shining your shoes with the petroleum jelly, use a clean paper towel to give it a quick wipe down to remove any excess petroleum jelly. Use the Vaseline sparingly because you don’t want sticky shoes.

My husband keeps a small jar of Vaseline in his desk. If he forgets to clean his shoes or there is an important meeting that day, he gives his shoes a quick wipe. He can do it at his desk without even removing his shoes.

As a young military wife, moving was just something you did. It could get expensive to buy new curtains for every room in the house for the numerous moves. All of the young mothers were staying home back in those days and we just had to make ends meet with the one income. I was more concerned about getting food on the table and clothes on the kids.

First, I put venetian blinds up. Then, I would buy a colored twin-size “flat” sheet for the window in the bedroom. There are so many cute sheets out now that you can really be creative. You can tie them back on the side with some cute decorative rope or just leave it hanging on the side. You can coordinate with the sheets and bedspread, too. The twin sheets even have a seam you can use to run the rod through. How simple is that? No, it isn’t fancy but you can really dress up a window with some color.

For instance, my son was really into Star Wars stuff when he was young. I bought an extra top twin sheet that had the same Star Wars pattern on it and put it up for a curtain.

This can work well for your child that has just gone off to college or that little girl who wants Dora in her bedroom one day and Barbie the next. Just buy a bedspread and one twin sheet for the curtain in the pattern she likes. You could even rotate the patterns if you have enough energy….lol.
Remember to buy twin ” flat ” sheets.

My husband recently ate at an outside restaurant and noticed a bag of water on each table. The bag was half full of water and tied up on a stand so it wouldn’t touch the table…so it could vibrate and wiggly. He was told it would keep the flies away. So to test the idea, we took a ziplock Baggie and filled it half full of water, made a small hole in the top and ran a kite string thru it. We attached it to the metal “knocker” on our back door. Our dog food on the back porch attracts flies. Guess what? After two weeks, I have only found one fly that slipped thru the doorway when I had it wide open. Kewl, huh?

I go to Goodwill a couple times a month. The Goodwill closest to my home puts out new stuff every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I love antiques so I am hoping to find an overlooked antique at dirt cheap pricing. I did find a silver candlelabra for $l.99 and I researched it’s value and found one just like it selling on Ebay for $l25.00.

Well, the point I really wanted to share is buying cheap plate settings. I have a set of dishes that I normally serve meals on every day. I decided to buy two plates,two bowls (for small salad) and two flat saucers ( for roll or biscuit) all of one pattern. They sell dishes by the piece there. I believe it was less than $3.00. I just wanted to add some variety to the dinner table. Since then I have bought an additional three sets of different patterns. One set is antique. Another has a very deep plate which is great for serving spaghetti or roast and potatoes that has a lot of juice. Some are expensive looking and some are just fun.

Goodwill is a great place for young couples or college kids who don’t have much money. It is also fun for us older folks who just love other people’s junk. Did you know you can buy jeans there for $5? Since it is seems to be popular for the jeans to look worn, it is perfect.