The Magic of Vinegar: 1000+ Uses

I've mentioned the amazing versatility of vinegar before. Today I'm going to share some of the vinegar tips that seemed interesting and give you some links to even more tips on this surprisingly useful household item.

Here are just a few of the tips:

• Kill weeds and grass growing in unwanted places by pouring full-strength white distilled vinegar on them. This works especially well in crevices and cracks of walkways and driveways.
• Prevent lint from clinging to clothes by adding 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to the wash cycle.
• Lighten body freckles (not facial freckles) by rubbing on full-strength white distilled vinegar.
• Create an all-purpose window cleaner with a few ounces of white distilled vinegar in a quart of water.
• Kill fleas by adding a little white distilled vinegar to your dog or cat’s drinking water.
• Clean under arm stains - Soak stained shirts in vinegar for a few minutes and wash. (Thanks Cece!)
  

Here are some good sites where I found these tips. There are plenty more where these came from.

• http://www.vinegartips.com/
• http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/homemaking/vinegar.html
• http://odyb.net/food-cooking/62-little-known-uses-of-vinegar/
• http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html
• http://heloise.com/hints_vinegar.html
  

Now I need to go out and buy a big jug of vinegar! :)

Paying More for Milk than Gas?

When it comes to milk, lately I've chosen dry milk over regular milk. There are a couple of reasons for this.

• Dry milk is just as healthy, if not healthier than regular skim milk. There is no fat and it is fortified with vitamins and minerals.
  
• Dry milk can be stored indefinitely in its dry state and I only have to mix up small amounts at a time to use. It will go bad eventually after it is liquid, but it lasts a good amount of time and the small servings mean it will be used up faster.
• Dry milk is cheaper than liquid milk. Last week I paid $2.89 per gallon (based on the liquid amount it would make). This compares favorably to the approximately $3.50-$4.00 / gal. for liquid milk.

Recently there have also been some concerns about illegal price gouging with respect to milk. NY seems to be feeling it the most with milk as high as $4.39 / gal. I never knew this, but it looks like NY actually regulates the price of milk. (See Regulators reportedly probing milk price scheme and Milk jumps over the moon.) You can avoid all this price gouging by just going for the powdered milk.

Some people do not like the taste of dry milk, but I don't mind it at all. There are some things you must do, however, to ensure your milk will taste alright. Putting warm tap water and dry milk in a cup is a guaranteed way to ensure whoever drinks that will never go near dry milk again. You have to mix it up really well and put it in a sealed glass pitcher. Then you should let it chill overnight. The colder it is (without freezing, obviously) the better it will be. I originally used a curved open top glass pitcher and covered it with cellophane. Getting the glass pitcher with the lid works much better (see the pictures). I paid $4.92 for the pitcher. I have also heard of people mixing normal and powdered milk. Also, if you don't want to drink it, you may still be ok with using it for cooking or cereal. For cooking and other ideas about dry milk, check out this hillbilly housewife's article, Saving Money with Powdered Milk.


Please let me know about your experience if you choose to try it out.