Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993 TAG: 9303040045
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Beth Macy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
READERS AREN'T LEAST BIT STINGY WITH TIGHT TIPS
Frugality aside, I learned a lot from our recent reader participation project on how to save money.For instance, all but one of the 17 people who called or wrote with Tight Tips were women, which either means: A) few men read my column, B) women are the primary household penny-pinchers, or C) men are tighter than bark on a tree but won't admit it.
I have to say, I could relate to several of the women who called (some anonymously) to report their husbands' miserly methods, particularly where nasal mucous was concerned.
Blacksburg's\ Sabrina Kirby said her husband got so aggravated at her extravagant use of Kleenex that he suggested replacing all the tissue boxes in their house with baskets full of handkerchiefs - and believe it or not, she took him up on it.
"At age 34 I've discovered that it is possible to live without Kleenexes," she said. "This is a revelation to me."
Pulaski's\ Susan Setzler suggested the same thing - using cloth rather than paper products for runny noses during cold season as well as runny mouths during dinner - adding that hankies "make less mess than tissues in the wash" when your husband forgets to remove them from his pants pockets.
An anonymous caller who said, "I won't call my husband the stingiest man; I just call him frugal," described her spouse's meal ritual this way: He tears his paper dinner napkin in two, using one half and giving her the other half to use. Then at the next meal he uses it again, and sometimes even a third time.
One of my favorite tips concerned my least favorite subject - pantyhose. Two women suggested this comic scenario: When a pair of pantyhose runs, cut off the leg with the runner and save the remaining good leg. When a second pair runs, do the same thing - then wear both remaining halves at the same time.
I laughed out loud at this one, especially at the note from the Salem woman who asked me please not to divulge her name, on account of "a VERY WEALTHY LADY GAVE ME THIS HINT."
Luckily, Cloverdale's\ Priscilla Richardson, who also proposed the two-half-hose-at-once tip, is an unabashed partial-pantyhose stockpiler. She wrote: "This seems like a lot of trouble but isn't, because putting on pantyhose with one leg is far easier than slipping into an intact pair."
Finally, a way to stomach (and thigh) the hell of hosiery - and double your control-top efforts at the same time!
Richardson had a slew of other hints, including:
For lipstick - buy the cheap brands (they all come from "one big vat in Ohio" anyway, she says); swab out the last hard-to-reach half-inch in the tube and apply with a Q-tip; rub in lipstick for cheap cheek blush.
For chicken legs - buy them in 10-pound bags, then roast six legs in the oven with a spicy barbecue sauce. Cook the rest in a pressure cooker as if making stock, then alternate meals between barbecue and boiled-chicken dishes like chicken and dumplings or pot pie. Richardson says it saves her cooking time and money; she can get seven days' worth of chicken for 21 cents per serving, not counting the soup.
For your savings account - Richardson says her family saves and invests over half its income by taking thrift seriously. Her biggest tip of all is inaction: Don't eat out (learn to be a good cook instead); resist the urge to buy a new car every two or three years; wear the clothes you have; borrow books and videos from the public library . . . you get the idea.
Along those same lines,\ Margaret Reinhardt urged me to throw out the Bounce sheets my husband continues to tear in half - and instead use an old, reusable sock. Simply wet it, then apply a dab of fabric softener and throw in with the wash.
Lots of people suggested using Sunday newspaper funny pages for wrapping paper, but\ Su Clauson-Wicker took it a step further. Clauson-Wicker makes her gift wrap reusable by wrapping the tops of boxes so you can avoid ripping the present open by just lifting off the lid - just like they do to save time on TV! Then she asks for the box back, so the gift wrap keeps on giving.
Radford's\ Denise Turner had a tip for spendthrift college students: Instead of buying books each semester, check them out of the student library, or read them on reserve.
Another woman came up with a workable solution for those pesky slivers of soap you can't seem to do anything with: Store them in an old, empty mayonnaise jar and add a covering of hot water with each addition. "In a few months you'll have liquid soap," she said.
Another woman caller had a creative solution for what to do when your washing machine breaks down: Spread your clothes out in the bottom of your shower stall or tub, and add a little soap. Then while you shower, pretend you're stomping grapes - a la "I Love Lucy."
She added: "Cats love to get their hair brushed with an old hairbrush."
Fincastle's\ C.J. Hodges - the lone man who wrote - had an especially unusual tip, only half tongue-in-cheek: "I buy a good brand of toilet paper (Charmin with baby lotion), and I roll off three squares and then one square. I place the one square in the middle of the three squares and fold twice. "That way you get thicker tissue without sacrificing too many square inches of paper." For the second wipe he recommends: three squares folded twice, for a grand total of just seven sheets.
Roanoke's\ Sharon Baxter, single mother of three, relishes the thrill of the find. "I do great going to yard sales and flea markets for kids toys and clothes," she said. "It's fun hunting, and plus it's a great thing when you can buy an outfit for your kid for 50 cents."
And finally,\ Virginia Shear not only sent in her tips, she practiced what she preached by writing them on the back of a newspaper advertisement insert, printed on one side. She also sent the September 1991 issue of Yankee magazine (subtitled: "In Praise of New England Frugality"), in which a Maryland man offered an especially karmic tip.
He suggested sticking the remnant of each soap bar onto the next bar, adding: "Theoretically, some of the atoms will remain in my bar until my very last shower. When I'm gone, my son can continue to use the bar as I have, and thus shall my zealous frugality be passed down from generation to generation as long as my descendants shall lather up."
Beth Macy, a features department staff writer, wants to thank whoever sent her the reusable, inflatable Valentine - the ink smeared on the folded-up plastic, and she couldn't read the person's name. Her column runs Thursdays.