Category: Everyday Cheapskate

The High Cost of Sitting Down

Wellness. Health care. Both are on everyone’s mind these days, and for good reason. Between the soaring cost of health insurance premiums, increasing copays and skyrocketing deductibles, plus the outrageous cost of some medications, it’s enough to give you a heart attack. But lest you think there’s nothing you can do to keep your family’s…


How to Make Cheap and Effective Homemade Stainless Steel Cleaner

Fed up with all the greasy smudges and fingerprints on your stainless steel appliances but also tired of spending $10 or more on stainless steel cleaners? Good news! You can skip the expensive store-bought commercial stainless steel cleaners and make your own highly effective cleaner for just pennies. Stainless steel has become a popular choice…


Proven Strategies to Cut the Cost of Christmas

Can you feel the tug? It’s the strong pull of the culture that works hard to get the best of us this time of year, to get us to spend more than we should. The best way to counter that force is to have strategies in mind ahead of time, before we feel we have…


Homemade Stain Remover for Laundry and Carpet

I’m excited to tell you how to make a fabulous, if not magical, homemade stain remover. This stain remover recipe is so easy and cheap to make. And, wow, does it perform! Unlike some other homemade laundry stain and detergent products you’ll find here at Everyday Cheapskate, this one is also a homemade stain remover…


How to Store Bread to Keep It Fresher Longer

Bread has a certain shelf life, beyond which it can go stale, become moldy, and, in a short time, become inedible. It’s possible to extend its delicious lifespan, once you understand the ins and outs of how to store bread. It’s the starch in any baked goods that makes them become stale. Exposure to air…


What Every Kid Needs to Know About Greed and Thankfulness

If there is one thing that will ruin your kids’ lives, it’s greed. Teach them while they’re young how to pull the plug on greed and you will have prepared them in a very important way to not only survive but also thrive in the real world. You may want to start with this lesson:…


Deck the Halls (and Walls) With Fresh Cranberries for a Stunning Result

Fresh cranberries are available in supermarkets and grocery stores from October through December—a very short season! Stock up on fresh cranberries during the fall. Freeze them right in the bags they come in and they’ll be good for up to 12 months. Cranberries are a good source of various vitamins and antioxidants. And as nutritious…


The Ultimate Guide to Flawless Regifting

The act of regifting—passing on as new a gift someone else gave you—is controversial but only because of those who do a noticeably bad job of it. If every act of regifting were carried out flawlessly, no one would have the occasion to find it distasteful. The secret to flawless regifting is to know and…


A Mostly Complete Guide to Tipping During the Holiday Season

It is a social custom in this country to give cash gifts, known as tips or gratuities, during the holiday season. How this custom came to be I have no idea. And while we see editorial suggestions in newspapers and magazines during the holidays, thankfully there are no rules, no tipping police. What makes one…


The Best Reason Not to Buy Pre-Washed Salad in a Bag

Pre-washed, pre-chopped, ready-to-go salad greens in sealed bags can be found in the produce department of just about every grocery store and supermarket. Those bags are certainly a tempting option, because what’s not to like about having someone else do all the work of chopping and then double- or even triple-washing? Even so, I don’t…