What do you do to cut expenses down?

[baymule]

I use no deodorant, no shampoo, absolutely NO perfumes. I hold my breath when I run down the soap aisle at the store, grab what I want and run out. Room air fresheners, all cleaning products are bad. At least I can use baking soda though.

 

[Hinotori]

Chemical scents get me. Rare is the perfume that doesn't actually make me sick. I got to watch with unholy glee one day at medical when the MPs forced a woman to leave. You could smell her coming from over 30 feet and they have No Perfume or Body Scent notices on the doors and posted at each desk. She started kicking up a fuss because she had an appointment and didn't they know her husband was an officer.

I don't have any issues with actual incense. The light smoke doesn't bother me. I only bother with the charcoal and resin when hubby isn't home as it's too much for him sometimes. Natural incense sticks are used in the bathroom here every day. Not the gaggy, noxious crap sold at most stores like Walmart. Those smell like cheaply made punks and chemicals when burned. I usually order online.

I have a few electric diffusers. Old style where you fill the bowl with water and add a few drops of essential oil. Eucalyptus is the favorite here.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I also can't tolerate most fake fragrances, though flowers do not bother me at all. I've had to get up and move at public functions when someone with fragrance sits in front of me. Especially in the car, it's an issue if someone is traveling with us who is not aware or respectful of my need to breathe. I can do dryer sheets, ok with some cleaning products if they are not heavily scented. Can not tolerate the cleaning product aisles at stores. Give me that good ol' farm air (including the horse/cow barn and manure piles) any day over the foolish crap that folks buy to "make things smell good".

 

[wyoDreamer]

I hate those "plug-in" air fresheners. I bought one once - it was supposed to be adjustable, but even at lowest scent setting it was way to strong for us to live with. I use pot-pourie once in a while at christmas.

A friend of my sisters bought a really nice house and moved in. She removed all the "plug-in" air fresheners - there were 2 in each room downstairs. 2 days later, the whole house smelled like cat pee every time she started the oven. Turns out the previous owner had the cat litter in the mud room and would lock the cats in there while they were gone for the day. The male cat sprayed one of the walls near the door and totally saturated the drywall and wood framing of the wall. Yes, the stove was on the other side of that wall. When she started the oven, it would heat up the wall and "re-fresh" the cat pee odor. They had to rip down that wall and replace 3 studs and re-drywall that area of both rooms.

 

[Marianne]

When she started the oven, it would heat up the wall and "re-fresh" the cat pee odor. They had to rip down that wall and replace 3 studs and re-drywall that area of both rooms.

I know that smell. Blech. We had an old cat that started peeing on the carpet right against the drywall in the basement of our old house. In an effort to get rid of the smell, I would saturate the carpet w/ whatever cleaner and use the machine to suck it as dry as I could get it, repeat and repeat. I was pretty surprised when I later found that the drywall had wicked it up!! So, besides pulling up and replacing carpet before we sold the house, I got to cut out the bottom 12" - 14" of drywall of two rooms, replace, mud, paint.. the whole schmear. But the basement smelled really good when we were done.

I can't go down the laundry aisle in big stores anymore. I even pull my shirt up over my nose and mouth when I have to go down the aisle in our smallish mart in town. The last time I did that, a lady asked if I was okay. LOL
Febreze and Odoban are the absolute worst for me. It just feels like it's sucking the O2 out of my lungs, which of course, it isn't.

Because of COPD, I can't burn my fav incense any more or use diffusers.

 

[wyoDreamer]

If our furniture starts smelling stale or animal stink, I vacumn it real goosd, tehn spray it lightly with white vinegar and let it dry. Once the vinegar small fades ( it fades fast) the room smells so much fresher.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I just did this this morning - I made 3-2-1 Cake Mix so I can make individual sized cakes for desert. I usually end up throwing away cake if I make a full-sized cake, the 2 of us just don't eat a whole 9x13 cake before we are tired of it or it dries out - and freezing it just ends up with a bag of crumbled dry cake crumbs.

My new discovery is that using a yellow cake mix with the angelfood cake mix (I always did chocolate before) allows me to add fruit to the cake and it is really delicious. I made cherry cake this morning. Add enough fruit and you end up with a cobbler.

 

[baymule]

Cat pee is awful! For future reference, if you buy a house that had a cat in it, the pee spots show up under black light.

 

[Marianne]

I just did this this morning - I made 3-2-1 Cake Mix so I can make individual sized cakes for desert. I usually end up throwing away cake if I make a full-sized cake, the 2 of us just don't eat a whole 9x13 cake before we are tired of it or it dries out - and freezing it just ends up with a bag of crumbled dry cake crumbs.

My new discovery is that using a yellow cake mix with the angelfood cake mix (I always did chocolate before) allows me to add fruit to the cake and it is really delicious. I made cherry cake this morning. Add enough fruit and you end up with a cobbler.

This is the first I've heard of it. Can you post the recipe in a new link in the kitchen/food part of the forum? It sounds like something that would go over pretty good here.

 

[Marianne]

This sounds so silly.... don't over load your washing machine, it will last longer.

We've been married 47 years, 3 kids, a brother in law a couple times, so plenty of dirty laundry. In all of those years, I've had a total of 3 washing machines, all of them used. And the first two were used/used when we bought them. The joys of being strapped for money and everything starts falling apart, right?

When we lived in town, a neighbor that told me she got a new washer every 3 to 5 years. Egads.