Do you have any good ideas on how to make the sometimes difficult day to day living somewhat easier?

I plan the meals weekly and food shop specifically for those meals. It is cost and time effective when one is working full time and running a household.

Anybody else have any good time or money saving ideas or handy household hints?

I sometimes make meals that can be done in a crock pot, i can get everything going in the morning, and then they are done when we are all ready to eat. Or I will get casseroles ready the night before, then I can just pop them in the oven the next day. Afternoons are the busiest time here. Also, for cost savings, I hit one chain grocery store here that has really good sales, like 10 for $10, or buy 2 get 3 free. Otherwise, i'd spend way too much money feeding my bottomless pit kids,lol

I have tons.
This is not going to be a joke post. I mean the stuff here.

1. I have about five really smart money- and time-saving ideas, the flagship of them being the one in which I save water, work, energy and electricity doing the dishes. And the dishes get really sparkling clean. The problem is that everyone I've shown this to has found the process disgusting. It produces beautiful things, but the itnerim is not nice, or not gusting, so women shy away from it.
2. I have designed two types of floor cleaner, one by vacuum, one by sticking rollers. The sticking rollers, later I discovered, are commercially available in stores. The world's first human-powered manual (no electricity or other stuff) vacuum is under development.
3. Food. I know how to cold-brew coffee. It's not the greatest in taste, but has more caffeine than regular coffee. If waking up is what you are into.
4. Food. I have all kinds of recipes that are old fashioned Hungarian food stuff, from the old country, and I realized I can do them in the micro.
5. Food. The newfangled Chinese soup. Comes prepackaged, sometimes in bowls. A bunch of dried flour-noodles, like spaghetti, and one or two taste pouches. This you are instructed to boil. My improvement (and I appreciate many others discovered this) is that you don't need to boil the water for the soup. put hot water from the tap on it, and wait a few minutes.
5.1. If you want to improve this soup, cut one strand of green onion into it
5.2. and/or a smoked-type cold-cut meat product, such as a pre-cooked sausage or even baloney
5.3. if you are in a place where you have a stove or a hot plate, then you can drop an egg into a soup of this Chinese stuff and stir the soup until the egg sort of solidifies; it don't need to stay in one egg-shaped piece, you can make it stringy. If you add the egg, please add a little oil with it.

-------------

I have an idea for a dry water bed, that takes away tired muscles and back aches at night; how to watch movies in bed at night or read a book, while lying flat on your back, not sitting up or propped up; how to bicycle all over town with slightly less effort than other bikes would take out of you; how to take a handful of pills at once with ease and without upchucking; how to sit comfortably on buses and other chairs if your legs (knee down) are short, and how to alter your furniture so that you can sit comfortably on them, even for very long times. I developed clothing applications that allow you to sit on a bicycle for extended periods, even if you are fat and heavy. I have made several winter jackets using existing wind breakers that are incredibly effective against the cold -- I wear those when I bicycle in the incredibly cold Canadian winters, and I never feel the least bit cold. I feel cold in them only when I have to stand in the cold not moving for a long time. And sometimes I feel too warm in them, in the cold of the winter, and then I work up a sweat. I do my shopping by having a closed buggy on wheels that pull with the bicycle. Yeah, bicycling will reduce your body weight, make you save on buses or on gas, and women will admire you when you bicycle down the street in minus twenty below.

These above I have developed and now use them, I can't imagine life without them.

Currently I am working on the manual vacuum cleaner, on a new kind of bicycle, and on improvements to the light, compact winter coat.

For commercially successful production I have only three ideas, none of them has been developed, but if there is a venture capitalist amongst in the midsts of you, please talk to me.

I have also ideas for weapons improvements.

I don't see any household cleaning agents anywhere in your post Wux.

Have you concocted any of your own?

I am also toying with trying out an idea that will help me climb stairs and pedal the bike. I am grossly overweight, grossly over the hill, 58 years of age and 200 lbs at 5'4"; I am having now knee porblems, which get added to all other problems. This new idea may help, if it works.

Since I move about a lot, my residence, I have chucked all my wood furniture and keep everything in those plastic-drawer type things. They are abou three feet tall, and two-by-two in depth and width. I just tape up the drawers when I move, and bang, everything is neatly packed away in boxes, without taking anything out. At the new place I just rip off the tapes that hold in the drawers, and bang, no packing. I can start living right away in the new place. Does not look all that great, but looks organized and indeed it is easy to keep things organized. You need a few boxes that are long in one dimension or taller or something, but those you don't need many. And you or the movers just pick these boxes up and put them somewhere else easily.

I am now also working on a little notebook with sheer, glossy white plastic pages, strong, in which I'd write with erasable markers, and erase them when I no longer need to look at them. These would be great to write shopping lists when home, and ideas to do or to write when not home. Short, succint notes, perhaps phone numbers, etc.

The application's strength is that it is reusable, don't have to worry about slips of paper, pens, etc.

If any of you have a need for an idea on how to bridge a problem, or straighten a snag, at home or at work, I can help. Not for money, but for fun, and therefore I don't promise any results, but you'd be surprised at how easily I might develop one for you.

Most people are afraid of change, and many more people than that are afraid to experiment. Almost everyone has an idea, but is not used to the idea of developing their own innovation. Our world wants us to go to work, do our stuff day in and day out, and go home and mainly BUY things that they make for you to use. My shtick is to make things for myself that I want, not what the stores sell to me. There are always things that I go in into the stores for, and ask the clerks, and they say this is not available.

Some of these things: pumps for bicycles and other tires that don't work with car lighters but with household plug-in electricity.

Wind-up shavers, not electrical, not battery.

Recording devices, small, that record off-the-air and have a line out to headphones where you can hear the stuff right away that the thing records.

Cameras, digital cameras, that are made with human ergonomics in mind. The ones that they make now ALL resemble old film cameras. Therefore they are limited in where the buttons are on it, both the shutter and the other control buttons. This is sooooo stupid that I can't even begin to tell you how stupid it is. It is digital!! They can make the camera any shape, and put the lens and the buttons pracitcally anywhere they want to. That way they could reduce the mistakes caused by shaking, and I personally would stop dropping the camera when I try to take a pic at a funny angle. Yes, they do put in stuff to reduce the effects of shaking and moving, but that component is electric, and adds $30 to the price of a new camera. If they made the cameras in shapes that are easier to hold and handle, then that price increment would not be needed. Look at guns: are they shaped like film cameras? That's what I am talking about. Because guns don't yet correct for shaking by electronic means. At least not most guns. Such as my pecker down there.

When having a cup of tea I boil one cup of water and save the tea bag for a second cup later.

Got those tips from a wealthy Australian

Actually, yes. Thanks for asking.

1. 9 parts dishwasher detergent, 1 part or two parts chlorine bleach. Wash floors, surfaces with it. Much better than ordinary, even expensive, agents.

2. 4 or 5 parts dishwasher detergent, 1 part cologne or perfume; aftershave lotion, for instance; something with alcohol. I use it to wash my hair, and to shave with. At this ratio the concoction will bubble, and make shaving easy and less painful even with those cheap dollar store blades.

3. To clean off old residues of glue or tape, on a sheer surface, use plain motor oil or bicycle / sewing machine lubricant oils. Put it on, or spray it on, rub it off, wash it off with soap and water, repeat if not totally happy with the results.

4. Use spray oil to wash such sheer surfaces as laminated boards or washroom/kitchen tiles. Then rinse it off with soapy water, or with concoction described in point 1.

I used it regularly to clean another invention of mine: white laminated boards for floors. Since I am poor, I usually rent basement rooms, which have small windows, which let in little light. So I try to keep my room bright, with light colors. One thing I do is I buy completely white laminated boards, eight foot by four foot, and put it on the floor. Beautiful. If the gaps bother you, buy some shiney white tape and tape the gaps between the boards up.

And yet another invention for basement dwellers: window covering. You dont' want the passers-bye to see what's for dinner for you, what shows you watch, and when you jerk off; but you don't want to shut out the sunshine, either, with curtains or with blinds.

So you go to buy or pick from the garbage these two-by-four square foot flat lamp covers, you know, the ones that are in the ceilings of mainly offices, which cover the long tubes of incandescent lights. You put these on the windows; they disperse the incoming light, so it's even and nice everywehre in the room, and you don't get spots where there is bright and spots where there is darkness. Also, nobody can see in, impossible. If you want to see out, make it so you can push it to the side a bit or make a hole in the middle which you can cover at will. If you like to vent your room through the window, then offset the shield (light disburser sheet) from the wall about two to five inches, and you can let the air in or out, along with the light through the shield, and yet nobody can see in or out.



4. 999 part water, 1/2 parts chlorine bleach. That is, about a litre of water, or a quart, and half a teaspoonful of chlorine bleach, such as Javex. Slush it around inside the mouth, with a frequency of twice a day up to twice a week (not more often than once a day. Repeat twice during the one application per day. You can get away with doing this only twice a week, but please repeat the slushes, each time. You can rinse with regular water between slushes) and 1. you will never again develop a cavity and 2. your teeth will become whiter. I have used it for two years now. You do need to brush your teeth, but not often; once a week of brushing will do the job.

Wux, you are a bounty of good, practical ideas :-)

Don't shop for groceries when you're hungry.

Erm... can you imagine what I could do in bed? And yet there are no takers, haven't been for a long time. (I am blushing, ye faire ladies.)

I am always hungry. What do I do?

Sure, but all the pulleys and chains and racks,
do they serve a practical purpose?

I don't think many would be interested of an old standby of mine;
If ones, or neighbour's for that matter dog/cat gets worms selling bait, or using them yourself is an option. ~heck, the meds are expensive, and a time/gas saver ifn one wants to just run to with pole in hand.
As well as being their cute little faces are popular as bludi sea monkeys. Tax free income can be had with very little overhead.

The doggie stuff digging/prodding thing can be a bit odorific, so I recommend using a power washer not unlike strip mining.
Of kitties? That's paydirt by golly! Like a little indoor near self maintaining worm farm.

oh yes, one thing I just read yesterday is that frozen grapes can be used to cool drinks of any type and not dilute as ice will. Even gourmet ice.
Grapes being healthful, and they won't transfer taste...lest one nibbles on them.

Thanks for the tip Opto~ You sound like an ol' tea bagger from way back. (just kidding hopes you know)
~So one wouldn't want to squeeze their tea bag pulling it off?

Now that is so very true...if I were to shop after eating I would never put on weight.

Okay, this may be a bit more racey than the PG 13 plus two, which dominates this forum, but:

1. I use only my body parts. No cold iron bits get inserted or used to pry things open. No special gyroscopes or Chinese balls. (Only when a Chinaman takes after my practices.)

2. To my credit, well, I used to date a beautiful German woman who was completely addicted to vibrators. I had had a handful of lovers in the past who had impressive orgasms, but this lady took the palm. or the cake. She was 55, and she had to specially line her bedroom to keep the neighbourhood from waking up during her special times, she was screaming in joy and pleasure so much. She was okay in bed anyway, and I had thought I was all right with her and for her. But I kept bugging her to do it in front of me, the vibrator thing. We went into this sound- and earthquake-proof bedroom of hers in the basement, and man, I went through a religious experience. She peformed a miracle, and I bought it though I am a scientific atheist. She worked herself up, you know, screaming a gyrating and what not, and then, when she was at the crescendo, SHE LEVITATED ABOVE THE BED'S SURFACE FOR A TEN OR TWENTY SECONDS. I could not believe my eyes, and being old-fashioned Europeans both of us, I was assured neither of us were on drugs. I was only an observer there, anyway. She then fell down back onto her bed and it took her another five minutes to gear down and come down and calm down.

I still don't believe she levitated, but boy, my impression then sure was that, and my memory still is that I saw her six inches above the bed, horizontally, just riding herself as if she was a buckling colt or something. The sight must have been equal in experiential value to what to a young man in the nineteen-sixties (such as to Sting of the group Police) seeing Jimi Hendrix in concert must have got.

Again, I was not part of ther performance, other than at one point she made me force my finger up, but it was so tightly closed up by the muscles there, that it was impossible. She then asked me between screams, in a gurgling, grogged voice, to push, and that even sounded like superhuman effort by her, to come back to reality and to the normal world long enough to tell me that much in language.

This was in the summer of 1992, so twenty years ago; perhaps to the day. I was 38 years of age then.

Great post! I am terrible with money management and the World's Worst Saver. My goal right now is to change this and I am working on a budget for myself. I am partly being forced into it by health insurance cuts at work, but overall this is a good thing and I'm ready or the change.

Brown underwear for men and boys....seriously.

They got em for women and chicks NEVER leave skid marks.

Why the hell don't they make brown underwear for men?

Because male underwear used to be sewn by women. And they wanted an audit trail, an experiential evidence that they are right. (About the skid marks.)

Women also made socks from wool, which stinks fifty eight to eighty-three percent more than cloth (cotton, hemp, etc.) material.

Talk about passive aggression. Women suffer from borderline personality disorder at a rate of 4:1 over men.

We, men, retaliated, of course. Women wear high heels, before that they wore corsettes, and before that, chastity belts. All for fashion's labour. Except the chastity one.

Now it's women's turn again to lessen men's pleasures. We, men, have to watch the "low rise" hip, which is completely oppositionary to any idea of what female beauty is. You see, females are supposed to have a 32:36 ratio between waist and hip. But the low rise pushes the curves of the woman in at the hip, and she becomes 32:33. If she gets pushed in to xx:36, then you can bet that the xx is somewhere around 40 in the first place.

This means that shapely women lose their shape, and abundant women lose their humanity when they wear low-rise anything.

Result: men suffer.

Xmas shopping:

I start a tin at the beginning of each year, and throw any loose change plus a fiddy in each week. By the time Xmas comes around, there's enough in there to cover the presents plus.

we have a cry room, its one of our bedrooms actually, when we feel frustrated, tired, or just emotional, we go to that room and shut the door to have some private time to cry, meditate, or whatever


its silly, but its really caught on and it actually helps quite a bit