Earth Day Prize

Email 3 people you know this blog website and then let me know. You will be entered to win a fabulous Earth Day prize worth up to dollars. Post a comment or email me by May 1st.

Happy Earth Day! RECYCLE PLEASE!

I love that Salt Lake County provides curbside bimonthly collection of paper, plastics, cardboard, aluminum, and steel. If you live in an area that provides this type of service, make sure to use it!

Ever since I started recycling I always feel bad about throwing away glass containers. It just seems like they shouldn't go in a landfill somewhere. I have a box in my garage for clear glass bottles and containers. When I finish using a bottle of Prego sauce I rinse it and put it in my garage. When the box is full I take it to a local glass drop-off location. I found the addresses for glass drop-off locations by using a search engine and typing in my city and "glass recycling". My county website had lots of helpful information for recycling and disposal of waste materials. Your county or city should also have a drop-off location for the following hazardous materials (or items that shouldn't be put in the regular trash): electronics, paint, oil, antifreeze, batteries, propane, fluorescents, chemicals. When you clean out your garage this spring, collect all of these items and drop them off where they can be disposed of properly.

When cleaning out your medicine cabinet, don't flush your old medications down the toilet! Our water is already polluted with tons of medications; let's keep our water clean and safe! Search on the Internet for "Prescription Medication Disposal Locations" (in Salt Lake you can drop them off at certain police stations or pharmacies)

Use the following website to find locations to dispose of old batteries that contain lithium, mercury, nickel, lead or other potentially harmful materials: http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/index.php

Another plug for Fels Naptha soap

Back on 2/22 I wrote a snipet about Fel Naptha soap for getting out stains. My sister told me about this soap. Since that time I bought a bar for less than $2.00 at the grocery store (look on the very top shelf of the detergent aisle). I have used it on so many stains and it has so far always worked great. I never am good about pretreating a stain. All of our stained clothes just go right in the laundry basket until laundry day. Before putting the stained clothes in the washer I just wet the dirty spot and rub on the fels naptha. It gets everything out including red punch stains, baby stains, and chocolate stains.

Redbox free code

Thanks to the Eccles family for this nice Redbox tidbit.
Every Monday they have a free code...you get charged the dollar, but then get it back if you return it the next day!!!!!!!!Every Monday this blog informs you of the code http://www.beingfrugalisfabulous.com/

Fix your sink stopper

Okay, this has probably happened before in your house, the sink stopper in your bathroom sink stops working. This is a repair you definitely can do yourself without any tools. Sometimes the sink stopper is broken at the bottom. If so, you will need a new one. They aren't expensive and you can get it at your home improvement store.

First, look under your sink. You will see something similar to the second photo. To get your new stopper in place you have to unscrew the cap where the stopper hardware attaches to the main drain pipe. Once it is unscrewed then put the new stopper in the sink. Then start screwing the cap back on making sure the metal rod going through the cap goes through the hole in the stopper. Voila! You're finished. Now the stopper should go up and down like it is supposed to. I just fixed mine today in less than 5 minutes.

I Heart Redbox and the Public Library

I just went to the library and picked up some great books to read for FREE. You can't beat that for cheap entertainment. I like to check out books and dvds for my kids too. We go to storytime each week which is really fun and Daniel gets to make a cute craft each time. Like I said, I love the library! Our library even has an online download option for audiobooks. I'm really excited because I found some fun books for future blog posts including: simple home repairs, car maintenance, and gardening/composting (I really want to learn about this and do it).

I also really like using Redbox for renting DVDs. I like that it only costs $1 especially for shows you aren't sure will be good or not. For example, I rented Seven Pounds and I just couldn't get into it at all so I just returned it without finishing it. I didn't feel obligated to finish watching it because it was only $1. (Sorry to anyone who liked that movie)

Sage words of advice

Here are a few paragraphs from a wonderful talk by Robert D. Hales on living within our means (I just hope I could always follow this advice!):

What is a provident provider?
All of us are responsible to provide for ourselves and our families in both temporal and spiritual ways. To provide providently, we must practice the principles of provident living: joyfully living within our means, being content with what we have, avoiding excessive debt, and diligently saving and preparing for rainy-day emergencies. When we live providently, we can provide for ourselves and our families and also follow the Savior’s example to serve and bless others.
Being provident providers, we must keep that most basic commandment, “Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17). Our world is fraught with feelings of entitlement. Some of us feel embarrassed, ashamed, less worthwhile if our family does not have everything the neighbors have. As a result, we go into debt to buy things we can’t afford—and things we do not really need. Whenever we do this, we become poor temporally and spiritually. We give away some of our precious, priceless agency and put ourselves in self-imposed servitude. Money we could have used to care for ourselves and others must now be used to pay our debts. What remains is often only enough to meet our most basic physical needs. Living at the subsistence level, we become depressed, our self-worth is affected, and our relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and the Lord are weakened. We do not have the time, energy, or interest to seek spiritual things....

When faced with the choice to buy, consume, or engage in worldly things and activities, we all need to learn to say to one another, “We can’t afford it, even though we want it!” or “We can afford it, but we don’t need it—and we really don’t even want it!”....

When our boys were young, we had a family council and set a goal to take a “dream vacation” down the Colorado River. When any of us wanted to buy something during the next year, we would ask each other, “Do we really want to buy that thing now, or do we want to take our dream trip later?” This was a wonderful teaching experience in choosing provident living. By not satisfying our every immediate want, we obtained the more desirable reward of family togetherness and fond memories for years to come....

Refinishing furniture for a great change

I worked on this project about a year ago. This dresser was a piece of furniture Ken had as a child. It was still in very good condition and was solid wood. I just didn't like how it looked in our home. First I removed the wood handles from each drawer and wardrobe portion. The screw holes had to be filled with some wood putty. Second I had to sand the dresser to remove the finish. This is the step that takes the longest. Luckily I have a small electric sander. Then I cleaned and dusted everything off so I could paint the piece. I applied three coats of white paint. Lastly, I attached new hardware to each drawer and the wardrobe.

Refinishing furniture is a fun project. I would recommend starting with something small like an end table or nightstand. Find something at a thrift store or something you have been storing away. This is a good project to do in the garage or outside if it is warm enough.

Laundry Room Organizer

Sorry for the two week absence. I have a couple or relatively good excuses 1. 2 kids taking up all my time and 2. I lost my list of blog ideas (how's that for being organized).

Nicole (one of my sisters) suggested this item for laundry room organization. It is a $5 octopus with lots of clothes pin clips on it from Ikea. It is good for hanging up items to dry like pantyhose and bras. I always like to dry my dirty towels and dishrags before throwing them in the laundry hamper. That way they don't get stinky and grow mildew.