The Tightwad Gazette

I have always considered myself "frugal", but ever since the prices of food and gas have increased dramatically over the past couple of years, I have found myself searching for ways to save money even more. A couple of months ago, I asked my Relief Society President to show me how to make bread. I have made bread before, but I never had really felt like I could make it every week so my family could live off of homemade bread instead of buying it from the store. She is amazing, and taught me so many things about bread baking that I didn't know. I now feel like I can make it on a weekly basis, and it's not such a big deal anymore.

While I was at her house, she told me about a book called "The Tightwad Gazette". She let me borrow it, and I loved it. I was really reluctant to take the book because I'm always nervous about borrowing things from other people, but she stuffed it in my diaper bag, and I'm so glad she did. There are so many amazing tips on saving money. I loved the book so much that I found the book on eBay and paid only $8.45 shipping included. There are a couple of great tips in there I wanted to share. The first one is about dryer sheets. Did you know that you can get by using just 1/4 of a dryer sheet in your dryer? It's just enough to keep the clothes from getting static cling (of course all dryers, and people are different, so you have to go with what works best for you).

The second tip is about boiling pasta. When you boil pasta noodles, bring the water to a boil, add the noodles, put a lid on the pot, and turn off the stove. The noodles will continue to cook as long as they are sitting in hot water. I really didn't think this would work, but it really does. It saves on energy costs, a little at a time. The same concept works for boiled eggs, corn, and I even tried it with white rice.

These are things I just thought I would share, because they have been so helpful to me.