IKEA Hensvik Bookcase [left of picture]: $59.99
diy
Ikea Hacker Is Nifty
By 2.8.07
Everyone likes IKEA, but some people go the extra mile—messing with IKEA stuff to create even better stuff.
Save Big Money On Paint: If You Don't Care About The Color
By 2.6.07
The other great place to look is your local sanitation department. Most cities have specific divisions that deal with paints, since you can’t just toss them in a landfill. In Alameda, CA, it’s a garage full of five-gallon buckets of paint, wall to wall. They’ll just let you take what you want in most cases. They have to dispose of it somehow anyway!
Little whats-his-name will be so happy you saved money, he won’t even notice that his room is tow-zone yellow. —MEGHANN MARCO
February Is Time To Start Thinking About Your Garden
By 1.30.07
Herbs are one of the most forgiving classes of plants to grow — almost as easy as weeds — especially the hardy perennial herbs. Except for excessively moist soil and total shade, almost any conditions will support herbs. They thrive in sunny, dry areas. Herbs are also some of the most frugal crops you can grow because they are outrageously priced at the grocery store and can be used to make even basic ingredients into a stand-out meal. It’s worth the cost to start with herb plants rather than seeds so that you can use them right away.
We’re dreaming of basil! Lots more tips at Get Rich Slowly. —MEGHANN MARCO
Your Old Plumbing Can Help Pay For Your New Plumbing
By 1.24.07
- There are great alternatives to copper when it comes to re-piping your home, so there’s no real need to pay any premiums there. But why not take advantage with the old copper pipe you’re going to replace?
Awesome Paint Preview Tool
By 1.19.07
Thinking about painting a room in your house, but aren’t sure what it will look like? Curbly points the way to Benjamin Moore’s website, where there is a truly nifty tool for previewing paint colors. You can choose sample rooms that are similar to yours, or for 10 bucks, upload pictures of your actual room.
Protect Your RFID Credit Card With A RF Jammer
By 1.18.07
Credit card companies are embedding radio frequency tags (RFID) in credit cards. Since these are transmitters, there’s the possibility of a thief using an RFID sniffer to snag your credit card digits.
Save Money By Exfoliating With Baking Soda
By 1.12.07
Let us know how that works out. —MEGHANN MARCO
Cheap Greenhouse: Grow Plants From Seed
By 1.12.07
Remember when you did crap like this in first grade? Wasn’t that fun? Yes, it was. Recapture your lost youth by growing some plants from seed on a sunny windowsill. With this greenhouse from Instructables, you can:
15-Minute Home Repairs
By 1.12.07
A few cheap and quick tricks for fixing stuff around the house this weekend, courtesy of Real Simple magazine. [More]
How To: Wash A Cat For Cheap
By 1.9.07
Admittedly, this is a very advanced money saving tip. Only the very seriously broke, or very seriously frugal try to wash their own cat. Some of you might say, “You don’t need to wash a cat.” Hey, maybe you don’t, but there are people out there making a living washing cats.
Last Minute DIY Holiday Gifts
By 12.19.06
Are you a lazy shopper? Well, instead of just buying someone another crappy gift card at the last minute, why not make them something.? We know what you’re saying, “F-you, this isn’t Martha Stewart. This is the Consumerist.” Yeah, but people really like it when you make them something! Really! It’s not just something your mom made up. Domino has some suggestions for last minute DIY gifts, and some of them are pretty cool. Like infused olive oil. Brilliant and tasty, just add bread. What last minute DIY gifts do you like to give? We like to make chocolate chip cookies. Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies! Yay!—MEGHANN MARCO
DIY Roomba
By 11.29.06
Consumer Reports thinks the Roomba is a waste of money, so Make Magazine’s Blog brings you this thing. Is it a DIY Roomba? A way to get your children to sweep the floor? A way to get you to sweep the floor? We don’t know, all we know is, we want one, and Make claims that one can be crafted for less than the cost of a floor-sweeping robot. —MEGHANN MARCO
Home Depot Investigated For Scammy Remodelling Services
By 11.29.06
Home Depot claims you won’t have to deal with subcontractors, but they do use subcontractors. When something goes wrong, and consumers complain, Home Depot avoids or ignores their repeated phone calls and letters.
