1. Make your own glass cleaner – Much has been written about the unsafe health and environmental effects of toxic household cleaning products, yet people still pile this stuff into grocery carts. One item you can easily replace with a safer alternative is Windex. Giant manufacturer and animal tester SC Johnson formulates this electric blue concoction. Make your own glass cleaner for pennies by filling an empty spray bottle (preferably a recycled Windex bottle) with equal parts water and distilled white vinegar. Use on glass and a number of household surfaces. The vinegar smell dissipates quickly, leaving surfaces clean, safer for pets, kids and the earth.
2. The answer my friend is blowing in the wind – Bring home a little of the Old Country and a lot of their wisdom by doing what folks have been doing for centuries; hang wet clothes out on a clothesline. Sierra sunshine makes this extra feasible. For about 10 bucks you can buy a cord and clothespins or an indoor drying rack at Longs Drug or Mountain Hardware stores. Spend a little more and get a retractable line or a T-Post at Mountain Hardware. Either way, you’ll see those energy bills go down. Be sure to bring your clothes in at night so no ‘unmentionables’ are stolen. You never know around here.
3. Make Bartertown your Town – Can you cut hair, change oil, build a website, do yard work, wash windows, calculate taxes, or own a truck to move something? Do you have a mountain bike but need a dryer? Do you have a case of Two Buck Chuck but want a bottle of Stoli? Then you can barter. What do you have to offer, and what do you need? Look on Craigslist under the ‘For Sale’ column, then click on ‘barter’ for some cool deals. Don’t be afraid to barter with friends, neighbors and business owners as well.
4. Marion the Librarian – If you’re a bookworm that has found your monthly book buying binges to be at odds with your shrinking dollars, use the library. Once you obtain a library card, you can go online and search the titles you want and have them sent from any branch in your county right to your neighborhood branch. The library also has movies and educational DVDs to help keep the kids entertained.
5. Suck it up Once a Week – I know three people in Incline who work for the same company but drive up and down Mount Rose every day by themselves. The problem with car-pooling is having to spend an hour or so in the car with someone who talks incessantly, drives you nuts, or whom you wouldn’t choose to socialize with. Taking turns car-pooling is such a huge money and stress saver. Suck it up just once a week and try to carpool. Employ this simple rule to make it work well: The driver drives; the passengers read or sleep. Better yet, if your work isn’t too far from home and you don’t mind a little disheveled helmet hair one day a week (Fridays?), suck it up and hop on your bike.
