Natural Household Bug Repellents:
• Essential Oils: Using essential oils such as lemon, orange, clove, peppermint, and mint around the home will deter most bugs as they are turned off by strong odors.

• Garlic and Pepper Powder: Most bugs avoid both garlic and pepper; therefore, sprinkling the powder around the key areas in the home helps keep the bugs at bay.

• Cucumber Slices and Ants: As summer approaches, ants flock to kitchens on the hunt for food crumbs. Ants are appalled by cucumbers; therefore, the cucumber slices work best when placed near cracks or other areas where ants may enter the home.

•Crushed Mint and Flies: Small packets of crushed mint helps to repel flies.

•Lemon Peels and Moths: We love the fresh, citrus smell of lemons and prefer it to using cedar blocks in the closet to keep moths from destroying our clothes.

So much of your personal data is swirling around the world that you cannot fully protect yourself. But here are some steps you can take to lower your risk:

1. Get out of marketing data bases.

2. Opt out, or unsubscribe, from every commercial email list you’re on.

3. Stop most direct mail.

4. Stop your bank from sharing your name.

5. Stop sharing personal information on your Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace pages with the general public.

6. Stop phone calls from telemarketers, by signing up with the National Do Not Call registry.

7. Opt out of credit card offers.

8. Don’t be fooled. Never open an email telling you that you’ve won something, or that you have an unclaimed package, or that there’s a problem with your tax return or bank account. Just by opening it, you might introduce malware into your machine, which searches for passwords to financial accounts. If your bank or credit card company apparently sends you an email, asking you to make corrections in your account, delete. It’s a cheat. Or call the institution to see if it’s legit, before entering any information.

SNEAKY WAYS TO SAVE CASH:

• Mascara: It can last for 5 months if you swirl the brush as you pull it out instead of pumping it up & down. Dipping the tube in boiling water for about 15 seconds will make it gooey again.

• Nail Polish: Since heat and sunlight destroy it by separating the ingredients, keep your bottles in the fridge and you will more than double their lifespan.

• Perfume: Direct light makes perfume lose its scent and start to smell funky, but keeping the bottles in the original box or in a medicine cabinet can get you 3 extra years out of it.

• Razors: Keep your blade sharper for longer by dipping it in rubbing alcohol after each use. Don’t leave your razor where it will get sprayed with water and is more likely to rust.

• Running Shoes: You can quadruple their lifespan by keeping them at room temperature when they’re off your feet. Cold air breaks down the soles and messes up the air pockets.

– Condensed from Cosmopolitan.com

WHITES:

Do your white T-shirts tend to go grey? White socks look dirty no matter how many times they’re washed? Try one of these tried and trusted methods for making whites stay white.??

1. Baking soda

Soak in a solution of 4 liters water and 1 cup baking soda.

2. Aspirin

Soak in hot water in which you’ve dissolved 5 aspirin tablets (325mg each).

3. Vinegar

Add 1 cup white vinegar to the washing machine’s rinse cycle.

NOW LET’S MAKE YOUR DARKS LOOK NEWER!!!

Blacker blacks and darker darks

Here are some tips for keeping black and dark-colored clothes looking like new.

4. Coffee or tea

For black clothes, add 2 cups brewed coffee or tea to the rinse cycle.

5. Salt

For dark colors like navy blue or plum, add 1 cup table salt to the rinse cycle.

6. Vinegar and salt

To keep denim from fading quickly, soak jeans in salt water or a 50:50 solution of water and white vinegar before the first wash. Turn the jeans inside out before putting them in the machine and turn the temperature setting to cold.

Eliminate unpopped popcorn
Don’t you just hate the kernels of popcorn that are left at the bottom of the bowl? Eliminate the popcorn duds by keeping your unpopped supply in the freezer.

Remove wax from candlesticks
Grandma’s heirloom silver candlesticks will get a new life if you place them in the freezer and then pick off the accumulated wax drippings. But don’t do this if your candlesticks are made from more than one type of metal. The metals can expand and contract at different rates and damage the candlesticks.

Extend candle life
Place candles in the freezer for at least two hours before burning. They will last longer.

Unstick photos
Picture this: Water spills on a batch of photographs, causing them to stick together. If you pull them apart, your pictures will be ruined. Don’t be so hasty. Stick them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then use a butter knife to gingerly separate the photos. If they don’t come free, place them back in the freezer. This works for envelopes and stamps too.

Clean a pot
Your favorite pot has been left on the stove too long, and now you’ve got a burned-on mess to clean up. Place the pot in the freezer for a couple of hours. When the burned food becomes frozen, it will be easier to remove.

Remove odors
Got a musty-smelling book or a plastic container with a fish odor? Place them in the freezer overnight. By morning they’ll be fresh again. This works with almost any other small item that has a bad smell you want to get rid of.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/6-alternate-uses-for-your-freezer-2412274/

http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-111092-7153-1-how-they-paid-off-big-debt-in-a-few-short-years?ywaad=ad0035&nc

 Cuts & Scrapes – In a pinch, dab on a little honey and then cover with a bandage. Honey has antibacterial properties, and studies have shown that it can speed wound healing.

• Heat Rash – Apply baking soda or cornstarch directly to the rash site to absorb moisture and sweat. This is an age-old approach, recommended by many country grandmothers.

• Insect Bites – Apply a drop or two of peppermint oil. It has a cooling effect and also increases circulation to the bite, speeding the healing process. Alternatively, try peppermint toothpaste.

 • Sunburn – Soak a few sheets of paper towels in white vinegar, and apply them to the burned areas. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which helps ease sunburn pain, itching, and inflammation.

• Swimmer’s Ear – Grate 3 cloves of garlic, cover them with olive oil and let the mixture stand overnight. Strain out the garlic and apply 3 drops in the affected ear.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS:           

A few clever kitchen repurposing tricks you may not have considered …

• Make perfect pancakes by dispensing the batter from a ketchup bottle or any other empty squeezable container. It can also serve as easy storage for leftover batter.

• Steam scrambled eggs with your espresso machine. Simply beat together eggs, butter, and salt in a jar, then hold it under the steamer wand and whisk. Makes unbelievably fluffy eggs!

• Clean a dishwasher with lemonade mix. The citric acid in one packet of Kool-Aid or similar product is enough to clean the lime stains and calcium deposits that build up over time.

• Your old-school waffle iron is nothing less than a Panini sandwich maker and/or George Foreman-type grill. It works on the same principle … a fold-down, 2-sided heat source.