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Green Ways to Winterize Your Home – Part 1

One way to go green is to lower your thermostat, but a lot of people don’t want to do that because they don’t like being cold. Sure, you could run around the house all the time in a snuggie, but there are other ways to help winterize your home and still be green. One easy way is to use a draft snake. These are the circular things that you put at the bottom of your door. You can buy cut little draft snakes at various places, but you can also make your own. You can make these from scraps of … Continue reading →

Winterizing Your Home: 10 Ways To Lower Your Gas Bill

Two years ago I nearly had a heart attack when I opened our heating bill. The winter was brutal and so was the payment amount printed on the bills for the months of January, February, and March. But, back then I had just given birth and was more concerned about keeping my precious baby warm than trying to make the most of our energy dollar. I’ve wised up since then. The following are simple guidelines we now follow to ensure that I don’t experience cardiac arrest when the gas bills come in. Hopefully they can help you enjoy lower heating … Continue reading →

Protecting Your Marriage

Most people don’t think twice about insuring their home or car or things that are valuable. They don’t think twice about installing security measures like screens and alarms. But what about protecting your marriage? What can you and I do to protect our marriages? Here are some suggestions. And no, these aren’t all mine. Many came from families.com members. Respect and being careful about the way we talk to our spouse. It was interesting to see how many of you mentioned this as essential. No marriage is great absolutely great all the time. Your spouse isn’t perfect and neither are … Continue reading →

Hiring a Handyman

Lately we have been contemplating hiring a handyman to help us with some of the many projects around and outside our home. These are projects that are tough to prioritize into our project list for a couple of reasons. They are either of a non-emergency nature, they aren’t enjoyable to do and therefore get put off, they were started but not finished, or they just aren’t on my husband’s list to do, even though I would like to have them done. If you are thinking of hiring a handyman or handywoman to get some of your projects done, you should … Continue reading →

Frugal Living Week in Review: January 28th Through February 3rd

Did you keep warm this week? Yesterday was such a nice day that we took advantage of it an went out for a long outdoor outing before the Super Bowl. We got a lot of fresh air and exercise all for free! This past week, we shared some ideas for keeping warm with a low thermostat, temptations, library and laundry tricks and some ideas for Valentines Day. Here are all of the articles, in case you missed any. Thanks for reading. January 28th Frugal Week in Review: January 21st Through January 27th With talk of a recession, many more people … Continue reading →

Turn Out the Lights Automatically

If your family tends to “forget” to turn out the lights when they leave a room, take this tip from hotels and bathroom heat lamps to make sure that the lights aren’t left on when the room isn’t occupied. To reduce your energy use, install mechanical timer switches on lights that tend to get left on. These timer switches can be found in most home improvement stores and are easy to install yourself. The timers come in a wide range of settings and options. You can find timers that time the switch for 15 minutes to those that time it … Continue reading →

Wednesday Widgets: The Weather Channel

I remember when the weather channel first hit the television airways. It was a real novelty to watch. Imagine you could find out the weather anytime of day or night. No more flipping through channels as you wait for the end of the news broadcast to find out the local weather only to realize that you just missed it because you got caught up in a rerun of Happy Days. Don’t you hate it when that happens? And now with the Weather Channel Mac Widget, you don’t even have to turn on the television at all. The weather comes straight … Continue reading →

The Party Favor (a homeschooling brag session)

My son went to a birthday party yesterday of a kid in a nearby city who homeschools. They are good friends, but don’t get to see each other too often, so even though it was a Sunday afternoon, and my dad was visiting, I drove the 20 minutes, dropped him off, met the dad (already knew the mom) and spent the next three hours window shopping and eating dinner with my dad and daughter. Taking him to the party was a huge inconvenience, but you know us homeschoolers must socialize! Anyway, at the end of the three hours, I returned. … Continue reading →

Home Trends—What’s In and What’s Out

I’m used to writing about what’s “in” and “out” in the world of fashion, but I’ve decided to apply the same concept here in the HOME blog. I was inspired to do so after visiting a friend’s home and hearing her ask me if I thought her new granite countertops would ever “go out of style.” (Never mind that she and her husband just forked over more than $40,000 to upgrade their entire kitchen, which included the installation of the shiny granite countertops, new fixtures, and custom made cabinets.) My reply: “If they do, you can send them my way.” … Continue reading →

Home Health Hazards in Pregnancy

When you are pregnant, you may be concerned about some of the common hazardous materials that are used in cleaning the house. Some you may be aware of, and others you may have never thought about. There is a lot you can do to take care of the housework and your baby at the same time. Cleaning products often have strong odors and you may be concerned about using them. None of the commonly used household cleaning products are known to cause birth defects. However, the effects of long term exposure have not been studied. For this reason, limit your … Continue reading →