Everyday Cheapskate

Not long ago in this column, you read a tip from a reader who uses popped popcorn for packaging material. It's lightweight and cheap, and when the package arrives, the recipient can just toss it in the trash. Whoops. Hundreds of readers were not fond of that tip -- the throwing away part. You let us know that there are other uses for the popcorn. None was quite as creative as our first tipster today, who receives the coveted Tip of the Month award:

TIP OF THE MONTH. I use popcorn to protect items that I'm shipping, just as a previous "Everyday Cheapskate" tipster suggested. In the box, I include a recipe for "Birdie Popcorn Balls." Cut an apple into quarters. Spread peanut butter on the apple quarters, and roll them in popcorn. Wrap a string around the apple quarters, and hang them from a tree. -- Marsha, Iowa

MAINTENANCE MATTERS. I had been putting off pulling out the dryer for the big job of cleaning the hose from the dryer to the vent. It had been years since I last cleaned the hose. When I finally moved the dryer, not only was there a lot of lint on the walls of the silver coil tube but also there were earrings, plastic BBs, buttons and safety pins! I did a thorough cleaning, which I'm sure will improve the dryer's efficiency and our electric bill, not to mention the safety factor. -- Leslie, e-mail

LINEN SWITCH. I had a beautiful set of bedsheets that were too worn to use as such, so I turned them into dinner napkins. I cut the strongest parts of the sheets into squares and used a zigzag stitch around the edges to sew two squares together. I have a large pile of napkins from those sheets that I still am using two years later. That was one of my most pleasant sewing projects ever! -- Michelle, e-mail

CREATIVE PRESERVATION. To preserve my children's artwork, I take digital photographs of it and create notecards with their art as the photographs.

I list their names and ages at the bottom of the cards. This can be done simply on Web sites such as www.walmart.com and www.shutterfly.com. They make great gifts for grandparents and thank you cards or notes to my children's teachers. -- Andrea, Minnesota

SMART SAVING. I allow myself to eat out for lunch at work once a week, and I budget $10 a week for that purpose. Whenever my lunch bill comes to less than $10, I slip the change into my "lunch money" envelope, which I keep in my desk. After six or seven weeks, I usually have enough saved up to treat myself to lunch without dipping into the $10 I'd budgeted that week. It's like getting a free lunch! -- Elizabeth J., Michigan

JAR NUT. I use glass jars from things such as spaghetti sauce, relish and mayo as containers for my nuts, seeds and dried fruit. The jars look fashionable displayed on a serving tray on my kitchen counter, and they encourage people to eat these nutritious snacks. -- Terri W., Ohio

PROMO-PRONE. I do most of my shopping online. I have found that if I go to the "live chat" section of most retailers, I can ask for an online coupon and they will be happy to oblige. Most give me a promotion code for free shipping or a percentage off my order. I have saved a lot of money this way! -- Christina B., e-mail

Do you have a unique or surprising money-saving tip? Send it in, and yours just might be selected as the next Tip of the Month. The winner gets a free one-year subscription to my hugely popular Web site www.DebtProofLiving.com. Send your great tips to mary@everydaycheapskate.com, and you could be the next winner!

You can e-mail Mary Hunt at mary@everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, P.O. Box 2135, Paramount, CA 90723. Mary Hunt is the founder of DebtProofLiving.com and author of 17 books, including "Debt-Proof Living" and "Tiptionary 2." To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.