Bubble wrap: a cheap way to insulate drafty windows

A few weeks ago my friend Tania messaged me that her husband had gone rogue while she was out of the house and covered the living room windows with bubble wrap. She attached this photo: I snickered and asked her if this was his idea of Christmas decorating. Nope, she said. He’d read on the Internet that bubble wrap is … Read more

How to clean a Keurig K-cup coffee maker

In the past year or so, I’ve found at least half a dozen K-cup coffee makers sitting on the curb or next to Dumpsters on trash day. All of them turned out to be perfectly functional once I cleaned the hard water buildup from the works. My guess is that they were thrown out because the previous owners didn’t know how to remove … Read more

Still being cheap

Two months to the day that I last wrote here. I’m still being cheap, but I haven’t been very motivated to write about it lately. In September, I had an extended viral illness that limited my ability to go couponing and that also motivated me to start writing fiction again as a way to entertain myself. As I often am … Read more

My recent hate-hate relationship with cooking

I am really into home food preservation. I have an annually rotating stock of hundreds of jars of canned applesauce, canned pears, apple chutney, tomatillo salsa, jams, jellies, apple butters, tomatoes, tomato sauce and fruit juices. When I worked on a farm and had access to surplus vegetables, I also pressure canned lots of green beans, beets and soups. Every … Read more