We tried this in the PC Kitchen/Laboratory, and it works!  Perishables that come home from the supermarket with you in plastic containers, such as cottage cheese and yogurt, should be stored in the fridge upside down once they are opened, for an amazingly prolonged shelf life.  How does it work?  The stuff plops to the top when placed upside down, creating a seal that keeps bacteria out longer than when you store it right side up.  We couldn’t believe how long we kept a container of yogurt going–far past its throw-me-out date.  (One caution: be careful to give your item a light slam on the table so the stuff plops back to the bottom before you open it.)

OK, it’s too late to save you money with this post THIS holiday season, as we’re about out of it as we write this.  But save this one for the next time you say to yourself, “it’s about time I threw a swell soiree for friends…but a party is gosh-darned expensive.”

Not anymore friends—as long as you have a computer with a web camera (and most come with one now).  We’ve been enjoying SKYPE parties the last few nights, reconnecting with old friends (the best kind!) while noshing on goodies and enjoying libations.  SKYPE—in case you didn’t know—is a free (yes, free) way a software application that allows you to make voice calls over the Internet.   If you are of a certain age, think of Jetsons-style phone/video package.  It’s so much fun—and so much more than a phone call.

Let’s examine the upsides that a SKYPE party has over a conventional one:

• No house clean up necessary—before or after!
• No baby sitter to hire!
• No need to dress up (unless you want to—and we do recommend it just to be sure you’re in the party mood—but it’s optional).
• The only snacks you have to buy are those that YOU (and anyone in the room—spouse, dog, cat, etc.) will be consuming.
• No need to invite neighbors just to be courteous—they won’t even know you’re having a party!
• No chance of anyone driving home inebriated—you’re all home!
• Party winding down?  No guests lingering at the door and taking forever to collect hats, boots, etc.

By the way,no web cam?  They are reasonably inexpensive now at most stores that carry computer equipment—it should not set you back any more than you would spend on snacks for your typical non-cyber get together.

Our recommendation is start out small.  Try it out first with your closest friends or family—you’ll be hooked!  And you can eventually conference in others, until you are partying hearty (and cheaply!)

Enjoy!  Tell us about VIRTUAL PARTIES you’ve thrown (or attended).

Homemade granola!  We started down this road when we saw how much wheat filler, and we’re not talking healthy wheat germ, gets added to the store-bought stuff.  So no matter how healthy it may appear on the box front, you’re paying a lot of money for some good things, plus (at best useless) filler.  And you need to eat it fast, since it’s on the road to Stalesville very quickly.

If you’re now rolling your eyes (we can hear it!) at the thought of the time it takes to make your own granola, consider this: with this recipe you’re getting the heart-healthy benefits of  slow-cooking oatmeal, without doing the slow-cooking every morning that’s necessary to create it.  And the time you’ll need is not much, trust us–toss these ingredients together, throw it into a large baking dish, and then cozy it into the oven with something else that’s already cooking.  Voila–tasty, healthy, cheap.  Enough talk, get crackin’.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heart healthy oil (except pure olive oil)
1/2-3/4 cup honey
1/2 cups of rolled oats (don’t get that instant junk, in fact, avoid it altogether, all the time)
1/2 cup of roasted or raw almonds
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Optional: 1/2-1 cup of dried fruit, some wheat germ, other nuts

Mix together your oats, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds.  Pour your oil (we use a blend of canola and light olive oil) into your mixing cup and swirl it around to coat the sides of the measuring cup before pouring it into the granola.  Place your honey into the same cup to measure it, and the oil will help the honey slide out of the cup.  Add honey to the granola and mix together.  Put all of this into a large baking dish or onto a cookie sheet.  Flatten down with a spatula and slide it into the oven, preheated to 350-400 degrees.  Don’t wander away, you’ll need to turn it with the spatula every 15 minutes.  Brown it, don’t burn it!

When it’s a nice, even brown, pull it out and add your dried fruit, etc.  Serve with milk or soy beverage, plus some yogurt, if it’s at hand.  (Other nice toppings include maple syrup and coconut, but we save these for special-occasion granola, as they can be a pricey addition.)

Store in an airtight container.

This recipe is meant as a suggested guideline.  Try different ingredients and see what works for you.    You can use apple sauce instead of oil, for instance; or brown sugar might stand in for honey.  Our favorite dried fruits are pineapples and dates, but raisins and cranberries are also tasty.

Anyway you make it, the result is versatile as well: breakfast, snack, ice cream topping–along with the benefits of eating sunflower seeds, oats, and nuts.

Bon appetit!

We at Cheapskate, adopted a grooming tip offered by Meryl Streep (who wouldn’t??).  About a year ago, we started shampooing our hair less often, after we heard an interviewer ask her what hair product made her hair so shiny and healthy looking.  She gave away her secret–reluctantly.  La Streep said it was due to the fact that she didn’t shampoo as often as most other people do.  Hey, healthier hair, AND save on a grooming product?  We were THERE.  After that, we only shampooed every other day–maybe even every three days.  But  we felt a bit oily and stringy by about day two and a half. And ready to go back to a daily shampoo regimen.

The key to beautiful hair...without shampoo!

So back to the Cheapskate Lab, Grooming Division, for us.  Now after experimenting with, get this, not using shampoo at all, for several weeks, we’re ready to proselytize on the virtues of (drumroll please) NO SHAMPOO.  Ever.  As in, never.  We’ve sworn it off.  It’s an expensive rip-off product from which big corporations reap huge profits.  Even worse, the stuff in that (plastic!) bottle that you need to replace month after month is pretty much a toxic stew of poly-syllabic chemicals.  It’s designed to strip out the natural oils produced by your scalp, making you feel temporarily clean. In the meantime, the (possibly carcinogenic) sudsing agents added in get you hooked on the idea that to get your hair really clean, you need lots of bubbles.  (A great article on just what it is that constitutes your average bottle of shampoo, recently published by salon.com, is a must-read for all consumers:  What’s Really In Your Shampoo).

Ready to eschew the scam that is shampoo, but want to be able to leave the house with head held high, and no hat?  Here’s the program that works best for us:

1) Water, lots of it. You can rinse your mop top all you like, every time you shower if you want to, and even massage your scalp while rinsing.  This feels especially nice on days when you’ve been to the outside working and sweating, gone to the beach, etc.

2) Once a week, a tiny amount of dishwashing liquid from the health food store or organics section of the supermarket is all you need to feel super-clean.  Look for detergent that is made from no more than four ingredients, and has no phosphates.  Alternatively, you might try a product like castile soap, or Burt’s Bees’ shampoo bars.  Some non-shampooers also swear by a follow-up apple-cidar vinegar rinse, but we haven’t tried this yet.

3)  Purchase a 100% boar bristle “finishing brush” and use it daily on your (dry) hair.  This is how you will re-distribute the oils evenly throughout your hair, and, trust us, you will have Meryl Streep-worthy hair after your first session (think of all those old movies and tv shows that show women brushing their hair  before bed–this is what they were doing).  By the way, the brush (shown in the accompanying illustration here) won’t set you back any more than around $8 at a drug or big-box store, and should last a very long time.

Happy, healthy hair to all…Please write in with your non-shampoo solutions for a clean (non-toxic) head!

Enjoy your soy...on the cheap

Alert reader Wanda sent in a recipe for making your own soy beverage (often called soy “milk”). Store bought soy beverages are expensive compared to this easy to make home-brewed version, and you can sweeten (or not!) to your own taste. Enjoy!

1. Soak 1 cup of soybeans overnight.
2. Drain beans and put them in a blender topped with a litre and of water.
3. Turn on blender (low setting is good enough) and blend for three minutes.
4. Strain through a cheesecloth or fine seive into a large pot. (The pulp, called okara, can be added to any bread recipe, half a cup per loaf, without any other adjustments. Makes a nice, moist, high protein bread.)
5. Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes.
6. Pour into a pitcher, adding half a litre of water.

Optional: a dash of salt, honey to taste, flavourings, or cornstarch (add one or two tablespoons at the blender stage) as thickener.

Paper Power Puff!

Sometimes, nothing!  Alert friend and fellow Cheapskater Jim B. sent us a link to free, yes, free downloadable paper models and toys.  These are so amazingly cool that as soon as we finish providing you with the link, we’re grabbing our glue and x-acto knife and getting very busy.  Hey, start now and your holiday gifts will be ready by Thanksgiving.  (A special thanks and shout out to Jim and Trish in Florida!)

Paper Penguins!

The Pantry Recession is discussed and your Editors are cited as having something to do with it in the current on-line issue of Canada’s Globe and Mail Newspaper. And don’t be too cheap, add your own two-cents in the form of a comment.

Yes, you read the title correctly. Lots of folks out there have written great how-to guides on selling stuff through on-line auctions. But no one seems to have ideas on BUYING on-line. And we at Planet Cheapskate, who sometimes dip in and take advantage of the selection and prices that the internet offers up, cannot help noticing that some of you out there aren’t buying smart. Auction fever? We’ve got the cure.

1) As with any purchase, ask yourself first if this is a WANT or a NEED. If it’s a need, you better get crackin’ because it takes a while to find your bargain, then you need to add on the delivery time. If it’s a WANT, can you afford it? Will it ultimately be worth the time you must spend working to pay for it?

2) So you answered your dark-night-of-the-soul pre-purchase questions and it’s a go. What next? Assuming you are already signed up with ebay (a few simple steps), now it’s time to comb through the online array of goodies vying for your attention, and ultimately, your dollar. When you begin your search, don’t narrow things down too much. Sometimes a seller will, for whatever reason, list their item in a category that you and your competitive bidders would not think to look under. Cast your net as wide as you can by always starting with the “All Categories” search. And try not to be in a hurry, if possible. You can get educated on the item you are looking for rather quickly, just by perusing ebay, and, unless it’s a specific or very arcane object you’re after, you may be surprised at the wide selection you will see paraded before you, day after day.

3) Auction Fever must be avoided, or you are wasting your time in trying to save via the bidding process. Our personal experience has often been one of dismay in seeing a well-used item sell for the same amount or even more than its brand new, in-the-box counterpart as bidding fever takes hold and runs rampant roughshod right before our eyes. How to inoculate yourself? First, become acquainted with the price that the item would sell for as brand new. Try to find the rock-bottom store price by checking legitimate, online sources and get a good idea of new as well as refurbished prices. (This can also work for vintage items—just takes a little more searching.)

After educating yourself on what you want (or should) pay for the item, now set a firm limit that you will not exceed. Write it on a large post-it note and stick it to your computer where you cannot miss seeing it.

Back on ebay, you might try limiting your trolling to the “Buy It Now” offerings—they sometimes offer the right price without the bidding hassle. If not, and you’re ready to bid, you need one more inoculation against the dreaded Auction Fever; specifically the Swooper’s Swoon strain. In the last few heady closing seconds of an auction (sometimes late at night—not a good time to get hit with the fever), a hotly contested item’s price will surge, and bidders, endorphins flooding their brains as they try to swoop in from nowhere and snatch the prize, bid the item up, up and over what it really should be selling for. All in at effort to “win.” Avoid the Swoon (or what some call the Snipe). Remind yourself, you’re not “winning” anything—this isn’t Vegas—you’re buying something. If you can’t trust yourself, sign up with a swooping service that will do this for you electronically, at the pre-set limit that you have decided upon. A freebie version is available at gixen.com. We’ve used it to make bids on items with bid times that are past our bedtimes—works well for that, too.

4) Check-Out: Some Cautionary Tales. Once your item has been purchased, there are just a couple more Cheapskatey considerations to make. First of all, don’t be in a hurry—having your item shipped as slowly as possible will usually save you quite a bit at check-out. And read the bill carefully—before paying! Sellers will sometimes tack on insurance that was not mentioned in the original description. And why pay $6 of insurance on a $12 item? (Yes, someone tried that on us.) Politely write to them before you hit the “pay” button and tell them you’ll take a pass on the insurance, thanks.

A special note to our Cheapskate Friends in Canada: Do not, under any circumstances whatsoever, agree to buy from a seller who will ship to you via UPS. UPS has figured out how to use a loophole in Canadian Customs law to their advantage, and will levy a bogus “brokerage” fee to bring you your stuff. It is absolutely outrageous, and can be upwards of 30-90% (we’ve read many horror stories, and were victimized ourselves) of the item cost tacked on. And all they’re doing is rubberstamping some paperwork. If you see something you want, and the seller says that they ship with UPS, send the seller an email asking if they’ll use USPS or FedEx instead. (USPS and Canada Post, by the way, are always your best Cheapskate bet—we have yet to have the postal system add any additional fees at all.) And tell the seller why!

5) Leave feedback: The feedback system is important to the vast majority of the sellers on ebay, and they want to keep customers happy to get that high rating (which helps generate business at their site), so reward efficient sellers that give you a good deal with positive feedback. Do not leave feedback, though, until you have the item in your hands, and you have ascertained that everything is as it should be with your purchase. The feedback feature can be the buyer’s best leveraging tool, so don’t yield it up too soon.

BOTTOM LINE:
Cast your ebay net wide every time you search. Instead of searching for “vintage Buescher alto saxophone” in the Musical Instruments category, just start with “saxophone”, in “All Categories.” Then winnow down from there.

The two key pieces of info to have at hand: what should the item end up selling for, and what is your spending limit. Do not exceed these!

Avoid down-to-the-wire auction fever and use a “swooping” or “sniping” software to do your bidding if you don’t trust yourself to stay within your limit. Sniping software is also good for making a bid for you on items that are due to expire past your bedtime.

Read your bill carefully before hitting the “spend” button—look for hidden charges (such as insurance) not mentioned in the description.

Give good feedback to sellers who deserve it—after the item has arrived in good condition.

We wish you happy hunting, and remember…sober bidding avoids buyer’s remorse!

Please share with us—what is your best on-line auction buy to date? What’s your worst?

Love or hate it, consumer credit is a daily part of life, and the best Cheapskates know not just how to avoid the system, but how to beat it. By now you’re probably aware that you are by law entitled to an annual free copy of your credit report. AnnualCreditReport.com is a centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports. It was created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

But now, you can immediately access your all-important FICO score at Credit Karma for free, and whenever you want. The particular value of this service is that you can check your score now as a “baseline,” then take effective measures to improve your credit rating (as might be indicated by close examination of your full credit report), then run another free FICO to check your progress. Included in the site are numerous tools that allow you to compare your score to your neighbors, and run “what-if” scenarios.

And in the best spirit of Cheapskaterie, it’s all free!

A

fter all these decades living on Planet Cheapskate, we rarely find a “Big, new tip” — one that can save hundreds of dollars, huge hassles, improve quality of life, and help the planet. But just last year, when your Editors started to notice some pretty rusty water coming out of the hot water taps (even after draining and flushing the heater) a whole new world opened up in the form of the “Sacrificial Rod.” If you’re already in the know, congratulations: you’re among the very few — but not for long. Everyone else, read on!

A "Sac Rod" before, and after 4 to 6 years in a typical water heater. Image courtesy www.waterheater rescue.com

How often do homeowners replace their water heaters?  The answer should be “Almost never,” but a quick check of the web finds most sites mistakenly suggesting that an average heater will last from 8 to 12 years. Some heaters we are told “mysteriously” last 30 to 50 years or more! (Happily, ours looks like it was designed to appeal to Ward Cleaver). The ones that last weren’t made on a good day at the factory, but instead, every four or five years, some smart homeowners got themselves to the local hardware store, and asked someone in  “plumbing” for a sacrificial rod.  You should do the same. Your new best friend in the plumbing department will show you a simple magnesium and aluminum pole about 1 inch in diameter and 3 feet long. It will have a threaded nut on one end.  There’s the remnants of one just like it hanging inside your water heater now and what it did (until it dissolved away leaving only that big nut and a scraggly wire in place of the shiny rod) is keep your tank from rusting out from the inside.

The rod should cost less than $35 USD.

If you are handy, take your new rod home, drain the tank, unscrew the top and pull out the used-up sac rod that is there.  If you replace the rod periodically, not only will you prolong the life of your water tank to, basically, forever; but you will also eliminate rust that is coming out of the tank and staining up your sinks, toilet and laundry water. No more replacement water heaters to buy! (No wonder some folks would like this to remain a mystery). For a much more in-depth explanation and good pictures, visit Sacrificial Anodes: What Keeps Water Heaters From Rusting Out.

Oh, and if you’re NOT handy, you still need to do this!  Hire a plumber, or enlist a handy friend and make some sort of equitable trade.  It will be worth saving the cost of buying and installing a whole new hot water tank.