You should see the big wad of lint I just plucked from the trap of my clothes dryer. Ack! Where does all of that come from? I know I emptied all pockets and I’m certain I did not wash a bag of pillow stuffing.
I’ll tell you what it is, and I am not happy about this: It’s visual proof the dryer is wearing out our clothes. Those fibers were neatly woven into these clothes only 30 minutes ago. For all the convenience a clothes dryer offers, it may come at the price of having to replace clothes much too often.
Overdrying clothes causes them to shrink and not only the first time they’re washed. Sleeves and pant legs continually get shorter and shorter when machine dried improperly.
There are tactics to counteract the abuse suffered by a clothes dryer and you don’t have to go back to the days of sheets frozen stiff on the clothesline (does anyone but me remember that?). You don’t have to machine dry your clothes to death to end up with comfy jeans and fluffy soft towels.
Get the soap out
Residual detergent in fabrics causes them to feel rough. Measure carefully erring on the side of too little rather than too much detergent. Add 1/2 cup white vinegar to the last rinse. This will help remove the residual detergent from the fabrics. Even when air-dried, they will be softer.
If you’ve ever had to deal with an invasion of ants, you may know the meaning of exasperation. While the kids think ants are so cute the way they march in formation, stop to help one another, and work hard to prepare for their own life challenges ahead, it’s better to study these amazing creatures than to wake up to find a million or so feasting on that last piece of pie someone left out on the counter last night. While commercial ant sprays work well, most brands are expensive if not toxic.
Of course there are dozens of homemade remedies for dealing with ants—from poisoning them with boric acid, borax, or ammonia, but even those ingredients can create toxic situations for crawling babies, pets, and that salad you’re about to make on the counter where you just dealt with an ant attack.
Other methods, like one that promises to blow up their digestive systems with cornmeal—while perhaps better to use than harsh chemicals—can create a new challenge when the solution turns out to be messier than the problem.
All natural option
Today, I want to tell you about an effective recipe for an all-natural DIY ant spray made from ingredients that are toxic to ants but perfectly safe for pets* and people.
This recipe is safe, quick, natural (did I say that already?) and highly effective. And so handy. Just grab and go whenever you see a problem. You are going to love it.
Amazon Prime Day is an annual special event for Prime members only. This year it’s a two-day event—July 15-16. It’s kind of like Black Friday, but exclusively for Prime Members.
If you are not a Prime Member, there’s a way you can get in on all of the Prime Day deals.
Click HERE to learn more about it and get signed up for your free 30-day trial. Prime Day sales and savings will happen during your trial, and if you don’t like it, you can cancel. Totally ethical, legal.
Already I’ve discovered a few deals that are, well, amazing—rock bottom prices on things we talk about and recommend here at Everyday Cheapskate.
Starting now and through the two-day event, I’ll be posting deals I discover*—here on this page. No images, no long descriptions. I’ll give you the links so you can check ’em out for yourself.
I suggest you bookmark this page and then check back often throughout the two-day event! It’ll be fun.
Mary’s WOW! Prime Day Deals
or
Christmas Shopping in July?
*Latest Update 6:15 am PT Tues.
*Microsoft Surface Pro 6 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) – Newest Version. It’s a Prime Day Deal of the Day!
*Dash Deluxe Rapid Egg Cooker. It’s a fav of lots of people I know. And at 55% off on Prime Day which means right now, it just might be worth a second look!
*QLED TVs. Lots of bargains today on Samsung’s Qled TVs if that’s what you’re looking for. Lucky you!
*Samsung Galaxy S10 Unlocked by Samsung. This is the 128GB model in Prism Black and right now it’s $300 off the regular price. Lightening deals on lots more Samsung phones!
*Apple Watch Series 4. Just found that there are still plenty of deals to get $50 off the regular price.
Samsonite Aspire xLite Expandable Softside Luggage Set with Spinner Wheels. Let just put it this way: 63% off. This is a fabulous 3-pc set; black. Really, really nice. Really.
Bose Soundwear Companion Wireless Wearable Speaker. Comfortable and wearable, so you can enjoy music, take calls and access staff and still stay connected to the world around you. Ready? 50% off but for a very limited time.
Under Armour apparel, shoes, bags & accessories. Amazon is taking up to 40% off Under Armour apparel for men and women with prices starting at as low as, well … single digits. Seriously.
Apple iPad Pro 10.5 in wifi and cellular 513GB. Amazon is having a massive sale on Apple devices TODAY ONLY—up to 38% off this iPad. But hurry looks like things are selling out fast!
Nintendo Switch with $35 eShop Card. Woo-hoo. This Switch Prime Day deal gets you a Switch at a new low, at least for me, together with a FREE eShop card for snagging a handful of indie games. Make sure you are logged into your Prime account or you won’t see that low $$. Super deal.
Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speaker. This is my speaker! I love it and use it every day—with my laptop, my iPad, my iPhone. I’m hooked and here’s why. The built-in speakers on my devices are pretty awful compared to this Anker. It has loud, beautiful stereo sound, rich bass, 24-hours playtime on a single charge, 66 ft. Bluetooth range, and a built-in mic. And it is effortless to connect to any device through Bluetooth. Perfect portable wireless speaker. I’ve never seen it this cheap. Perhaps I will do a little Christmas shopping myself. Just noticed: As I update, this deal is 65% claimed. Uh, excuse me, please … be right back.
KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. If you’re in the market for a good stand mixer, you can’t go wrong here. 20 color choices.
Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away TruePet Upright Vacuum. If you deal with pet hair or long human hair, you really need to take a look at this Shark. It has the Lift-Away feature we love, but also a mini-motorized brush that deals well with pet and human hair. Today is it 58% off the reg. price. Woof!
Dash Rapid Egg Cooker: 6 Egg Capacity for Hard Boiled, Poached Eggs, Scrambled, or Omelets. This is a sweet deal on a very well-reviewed egg cooker. Choice of colors, too. Aqua would be my first choice.
Breville Smart Oven Pro 1800 W Convection Toaster Oven. Faithful readers know how much I love and used to depend on this amazing countertop appliance. While it does have a “toast” setting this is so much more than a toaster oven. For years it was my only oven. I baked the absolutely best bread in it—one loaf at a time. With my new kitchen appliances, I no longer need my beloved Breville Smart Oven, so it has joined my son and his family. They love as much as I do. And at this price? Oh my. This just blows my mind.
Brita Water Pitcher with 1 Longlast Filter. The large 10-cup version comes with a longlasting filter. Great price at 10% off during Prime Days.
Ring Wi-Fi Enabled Video Doorbell, Works with Alexa. We have this doorbell at our home, and have come to rely on it heavily. So many great features! Today, 30% off! That’s the cheapest I have seen it anywhere including discount warehouses like Costco. Great deal.
Costa Farms Money Tree. A money tree…! Wow, just what we’ve all been wanting to plant in a great big pot where we can sit and watch it grow. This is just so funny, I HAD to share. Finally, our dreams have come true. And for 26% off the regular price. Woo-hoo! (Actually, it really is kinda’ pretty!)
Latest Lightning Deals. I hate to bore you with all kinds of random “deals,” so I’ll just let you take a look yourself at the latest Lightning Deals. You may have to pick through the piles to find a super “gem,” but there are some in there.
Hamilton Beach Keep Warm 2-Slice Toaster. This is our Best Inexpensive Toaster. It’s already so inexpensively awesome but today and tomorrow or while supplies last, another 19% off that low price! Get ’em while they’re still … warm! Ha.
Prepdeck Meal Prep Station – Ultimate Kitchen Organizer. I am so excited. I have been watching this in development and on Kickstarter. It’s exactly what I need (OK, I want it too … but this is a serious need for me the unorganized and very messy cook) but couldn’t pay the price. Today Prepdeck is being launched at Amazon, and look at that price! Happy I waited so diligently. My choice is white.
Handheld Spiralizer. What a great deal on a good idea. Manual labor to save a lot of money. Been waiting like forever for this baby. It’s small so it’ll fit easily in a drawer, and so easy to use!
Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11s. Remember this? It’s our pick for Best Inexpensive Robot Vac and I’ve never seen it this low. This is going to sell out for sure because our friends at Eufy specify a set quantity for their Prime Day Deal.
Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe NV360 Upright Vacuum, Blue. This is the latest model of our Best Inexpensive vacuum, and it’s a honey!
Instant Pot DUO Plus 60, 6 Qt 9-in-1. This is the top of the line, the newest version of our Best Inexpensive Pressure Cooker! And as I write, it is half the price I paid for mine, two years ago.
Keurig K-Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker Bundle. Bundle includes Keurig K-Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker in black, One 12-count box of AmazonFresh Colombia Medium Roast Coffee K-Cup pods. What a great gift for a college-bound student or young professional. Or a well-appointed guest room! Super deal.
Echo Dot (3rd Generation) Smart Speaker with Alexa. Honestly, they’re almost giving this away!
23andMe DNA Test, Health and Ancestry Personal Genetic Service. If you’re interested in this, getting it for 1/2 price makes a lot of $ense.
ASUS Chromebook Flip 2-in-1 Laptop and Notebook. Intel Core M3-8100Y Processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC Storage, Chrome OS. Top of the ASUS line, super price.
Ross-Simons Sterling Silver and Italian 14kt Yellow Gold Byzantine Styles. So beautiful, wow. All 30% off.
Waterpik and Sonicare oral care appliances. You need to floss and doing that with a Waterpik Water Flosser is the no-brainer way to go, in my opinion! Get one while it’s less than half price, that’s my advice. This is amazing.
Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker. It’s the most amazing way to cook. Perfect if you’re new to sous vide or looking for an additional cooker to add to your arsenal. This Anova is an excellent brand; a super bargain but for only Prime Day.
Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote, streaming media player. You can cancel your cable TV subscription and start streaming live TV with this handy bit of technology! Brilliant picture, powerful performance. Check it out, then look at that price! It’s not a typo.
Check back often … I’ll be adding new deals at this top of this list as I find them.
*As an Amazon Associate, we must adhere to guidelines set by Amazon, one of which is that we are not allowed to quote prices. And I get that because prices can change without notice, especially on Prime Day!
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases by linking to Amazon affiliated sites.
Perhaps you’ve seen the list of uses for dryer sheets floating around the Internet. Who knows where that list came from. What we do know is not all of the alternative uses can be verified as true.
For example, we have no confidence at all that Bounce or any other brand of dryer sheet will repel mosquitoes. We’ve tried and nope, those suckers seem to enjoy dry sheets! But spiders and flies? Or how about stinky shoes? Read on.
Pests
Many of our readers have confirmed that dryer sheets will repel both spiders and flies. Keep a few extra sheets in clothes hampers and around the laundry area and you can kiss all those spiders goodbye.
Luggage
Slip a dryer sheet into your suitcases while they are in storage and they won’t smell musty when you take them out to use.
Blinds
Wipe down your blinds with a dryer sheet to prevent static electricity and to keep dust from collecting. Grab that dryer sheet with a pair of kitchen tongs and use that to quickly run over each slat. It’s quick, easy and will even pick up the dust.
I have this thing for clean windows. I love them, which means I have an equal but opposite disdain for dirty windows. And when I say clean, I mean the kind of clean that makes windows sparkle like diamonds in the morning sun. Some days I wish that by some miracle, a professional window-washing service would come to my home every week to clean windows—every single one both inside and out.
But I have a two-story house with a lot of windows—to say nothing of the time and money that would require to move everything away from every window to get ready every week!—so right there you know why I can’t and I don’t.
Instead, I depend on these great DIY window cleaning tips I’ve learned over the years—many of them from you, my awesome readers.
Dry, cloudy day
If you’ve ever tried to clean outdoor windows on a bright sunny day, you already know the problem. Your cleaning solution dries on the glass faster than you can turn around to grab your cleaning cloth. You’ll end up with a horrible streaky, muddy-like mess. Instead, wait for a dry, cloudy day.
Microfiber cloths
Paper towels and newspapers have long been touted as best for scrubbing and drying the glass (my mother-in-law Gwen swore by the New York Times as the only newspaper worthy of window-washing)—but what a dirty, icky mess they create! Paper options break down and leave lint behind. Besides, newspapers are not as available for recycling as they once were. If you’re interested in efficiency and clean, streak-free windows, forget the paper.
Instead, use microfiber cloths (like these from Amazon) to clean windows. Microfiber grabs dirt and dust. Microfiber cleaning cloths are soft and non-abrasive. They won’t scratch glass or painted surfaces and you will enjoy the lint- and streak-free results you get with microfiber. And the best part? These cloths can be washed, rinsed and reused hundreds of times.
My Dear Readers, Friends, and Fans:
I’m so excited to let you in on a secret. Finally, after many months of planning, developing, and investing hundreds of hours and a significant amount of cash, a super cool idea is almost ready to launch!
The most important thing you can do to make your personal economy strong is to have an umbrella—an emergency fund with enough money in it to pay all of your bills for six months. And it needs to be safe and secure in a bank account. You read that right—half a year’s income! Wait. You can’t even imagine being able to save that much? No worries. The secret to getting there is to start small. Let’s say you make $1,000 your emergency fund goal.
Save 10%
Weekly, or as you get paid, save 10% of your paycheck. Too much? OK, start with 5% or even 1% and build up from there. Just start!
Make it automatic
This is going to be hard, but I know you can do it: Make feeding your emergency fund—whatever the amount—the very first bill you pay, before anything else.
Once you have accumulated $50, go to your bank or credit union and open a savings account. Or open a free savings account at an online bank like Ally.com or Marcus.com (Goldman Sachs).
While you are opening that account, set up an automatic deposit authorization. This will give your bank authorization to automatically transfer the amount you designate from your checking account straight to your emergency fund. Here’s a secret: You won’t miss what you don’t see in the first place. Okay, you’ll miss it for the first few paychecks, but soon you really will not miss it.
Get rid of non-essentials
Give up the little things such as cable TV, eating out, and gym membership and that landline phone you have but never use. That’s a start, you’ll know instinctively how to add to this list.
It’s not the most elegant question I get, but certainly one of the most common. “I’ve tried everything I can think of, but that stubborn, ugly toilet bowl ring won’t go away!” Or ” … It goes away, but just keeps coming back!”
Toilet bowls develop discolorations for many reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the housekeeping. Basically, the dreaded toilet bowel ring is the result of hard water conditions together with water standing in a toilet that sees a lot of use.
While there are lots of commercial products out there that promise to remove hard water stains in the toilet, ordinary household pantry items you have already can be just as effective to rid your toilet of the dreaded toilet bowl ring without harsh chemicals.
What are those stains, anyway?
Toilet bowl stains that look like rust are likely due to mineral deposits and hard water. Green, orange or black streaks or rings may be mold. A bacteria called Serratia marcescens shows up as pink. Knowing what is causing the ring makes it easier for you to choose the best method for getting rid of it.
Under most conditions, regular weekly cleaning prevents heavy stain buildup and reduces the appearance of any existing stains so the bowl can look pristine and white again.
And when none of that works? Don’t worry, I have the mother of all solutions for that too, in a bit. But let’s start with the easiest.
My vacuum sealer is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. I vacuum seal fresh fruit to extend the useful by at least two weeks, often much longer. I vacuum seal meat before I freeze it to stave off freezer burn, which keeps it perfect for six months to a year. I could go on and on about how my FoodSaver saves our food bill, but today I want to tell you the useful ways I use a FoodSaver that have nothing to do with food!
But first, two general vacuum-sealing tips:
Convenience
I’ve learned through trial and error that for my vacuum sealer to work at maximum efficiency it must be handy. It cannot be stuck in a cupboard or on a pantry shelf. If I have to make the smallest effort to get it out and plug it in, I stop using it because I forget, or it’s such a hassle I skip using it “just this one time.”
My FoodSaver has to sit on the counter with nothing obstructing it—always plugged in and ready to go. And the bags have to be equally handy. I keep them in the drawer immediately below the counter where FoodSaver resides.
Getting our outdoor grill cleaned, polished, and ready for summer got me thinking about how much fun it would be to celebrate. After all, the first day of summer comes but once a year, so why not do things up right with an amazing menu and a few good friends to kick off the season even if that means grilling on a budget.
What happened next I can only attribute to a momentary lapse of good judgment.
I visited the website of Lobel’s of New York, “the best source for the finest and freshest USDA prime dry-aged steaks, roasts, specialty meats, and gourmet products that money can buy.”
Unveiling the mother of all outdoor grills seemed like an event worthy of a few high-quality American Wagyu steaks delivered overnight on a bed of dry ice. I checked the price. Gulp! One 20-oz Porterhouse steak: $159.95—plus overnight shipping.
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