Home Depot and Lowe’s are starting to realize that the surging housing market — which had fueled their own sales for the last few years — is really and truly over and it may not be coming back for a good long while. What does this mean for their customers? An emphasis on lower prices every day — and fewer promotions.
diy
Expect Fewer Deals At Home Depot, Lowe's
By 8.25.08
By 8.25.08
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Used coffee grounds can absorb fridge odors, make your hair shiny, and exfoliate your skin. Here’s a list of 11 ways you can put old coffee grounds to use. [Life Hackery]
By 8.12.08
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Here’s a “fun” summer project: make your own homemade Oreo cookies! Will you save money? Who can say! Will they be healthier? Probably not! Will your friends think you have too much time on your hands? Yes, but they’ll appreciate the free baked goods. [Post Tribune]
Confusing: Paint Mask Should Not Be Used With Paint?
By 7.8.08
Reader Mike is confused by this 3M Latex Paint and Odor Respirator with Valve. The front of the package lists “disposable aerosol spray paint cans” as something the mask “helps provide relief” from. However, the instructions seem to say that you shouldn’t use it with paint spray. What should he do?
Save Money By Being Your Own Butcher
By 6.5.08
CheapStingyBargains says that rather than relying on a butcher, it can be cheaper just to buy a whole piece of meat and cut it up yourself:
Consumer Reports Says It Doesn't Pay To Buy Cheap Paint
By 6.3.08
Our friends at Consumer Reports tell us that even though the price of exterior paints and stains has gone up a few dollars per gallon on average from last year (due to price hikes for many of the petrochemicals that go into paint), big box stores are keeping consumers isolated from manufacturers who would love to be passing on those added costs. It may be tempting to cut costs by buying a lower quality product, but CR warns against using crappy paint. Specifically, CR suggested Behr (sold at Home Depot), Valspar (Lowe’s), and Kilz (Wal-Mart) as competitively priced paints that “ranked among the top performers.”
Kitchen Distributors Of America Closes All Chicagoland Stores Right After You Tear Out Your Cabinets
By 4.11.08
Representatives with KDA and its owner, Design Ventures, were not available for comment Thursday. A regional manager for KDA said he couldn’t comment on the store closings or the status of customer orders.
13 Ways To Make Your Own Swiffer Pads
By 2.1.08
Swiffers are awesome but it sucks to keep buying those pads for $1 a piece. Here are 13 ways to make your own Swiffer pads. Save money or save the planet. Your choice.
10 Things You Can Do With Baking Soda
By 1.29.08
Baking soda is a magical substance with all kinds of crazy uses. Here’s 10 things you can do it with it that you might not know about:
Make Your Own Passport Photos
By 1.24.08
If you have a computer and a digital camera, there’s no reason to ever pay a drugstore $8 for a couple of crummy passport photos and lousy customer service. This blogger discovered that he couldn’t even get an in-focus photo from a local CVS: “When we pointed that out, he was like ‘Oh really? don’t worry all photos printed here look like that and no one ever came back because a photo was not accepted.'” If you’re not Photoshop-savvy, just use the free epassportphoto.com website.
Remove Pen Marks From Dolls With Acne Medications
By 12.20.07
Dirty dolls? Acne medication + sunlight = awesomely removing pen marks from dolls, blogs Baby Toolkit. Acne meds are diluted benzoyl peroxide. This reacts with the UVs in sunlight to release oxidizing agents that dissolve the pen marks, without bleaching the doll or removing paint. Instead of tossing out that dirty doll, you can clean it up.
By 12.13.07
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Apparently, people are having success washing their old dirty keyboards in the dishwasher, thereby extending their useful life Do not in any way do this and then, when it goes horribly wrong, blame me for telling you about it. Also, not recommended for laptops. [43 folders]
A Bunch Of Ideas For Turkey Leftovers
By 11.23.07
If you are like us, you like turkey leftovers more than you like Thanksgiving dinner, but don’t have a ton of creative ideas for turkey and stuffing.
How To Fix A Broken Eyeshadow
By 11.17.07
If you are like me the first thing you do after you buy expensive eyeshadow is drop it on your bathroom floor, shattering it completely. I can not tell you how many times I have done this, so when I found the above tutorial on YouTube I was overwhelmed with joy.
By 11.13.07
../../../..//2007/11/13/who-needs-a-fancy-vacuum/
Who needs a fancy vacuum sealer when you can do the same thing with a Ziplock and a straw? [Frugal For Life]
Where To Get Help When Your Gadget Breaks Down
By 11.9.07
When your iPod, Zune, CueCat, HP printer, DVD player, or game console goes on the fritz, you no longer have to put it in that closet where you store all the stuff that doesn’t work but that you don’t think you should throw away. There’s now a whole world of self-help forums and repair advice websites online where you can trade tips with other owners of consumer electronics—weird things companies would never tell you, like using a piece of folded paper as a shim to get a failed hard drive working again in your iPod.
Make Your Own Toy Kitchen
By 11.9.07
It’s your kid—you should get to decide what kinds of choking and lead poisoning hazards make up its playthings. One woman clearly didn’t need any Fisher-Price plastic toy kitchen ruining her white-on-white aesthetic, so she made her own entirely out of found corrugated cardboard, contact paper, and a few household items. And if you don’t feel you have the skills to replicate it by looking at the photographs, then she’ll sell you a copy of the plans for $7.
