Usually, my dental hygienist and I have conversations that sound like a couple of pals getting together in a coffee shop to chat. But yesterday, our conversation sounded more like a poorly scripted television commercial from the 1970s or ’80s.

Usually, we talk about dogs and crafts and fitness, or whatever music’s being piped in to the dental office in the half-hour I’m there, or she tells me about the fall-out when her in-laws gave her 16-year-old a brand new car without consultation, that kind of thing…

Yesterday — wonder of wonders — we actually talked about clean teeth and healthy gums. Dental health, in fact — go figure!

Do you remember those TV ads where the uber-annoying Madge kept sticking her ditzy friend’s hand in a bowl of dishwashing liquid, while disclaiming about its virtues? A fly on the wall (not that there was one, but if there was — and if it could understand English — do flies even have ears?) would have heard something like this:

Me: You probably won’t have much cleaning to do this time.

She [with one dubious eyebrow raised]: Why’s that?

Me: I’ve been trying out an electric toothbrush for the past month, and my teeth seem pretty clean to me…

She: What kind of electric toothbrush are you using? Is it the Oral-B Vitality? We usually keep some of those around here, for sale.

Me: Actually, I’ve been testing two different Oral-B toothbrushes. One’s the Vitality with a ProWhite head. The other one’s that super-dooper Triumph brush that does everything but pour the mouthwash for you…

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: …the one with the wireless unit to monitor your brushing time and tells you when to move on to another quadrant, makes a smiley face when you brush your teeth properly?

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: It’s got two different brush heads with it — ProWhite and Floss Action — they sound like dorky superheroes, don’t they? And different brushing modes for polishing and sensitive teeth and like that, base station, recharger that works in different countries with different power systems for when you travel, and a travel case, too… The flippin’ toothbrush has a bigger instruction manual than the one that came with my blender!

She: You do have a thing for gadgets, don’t you?

Me: Um, yeah…

She: My husband, too. He would probably be more fussy about brushing if he had one of those… but he just went out and bought himself a new phone, so he’s going to have to wait until Father’s Day to get a Triumph.

Me [mumbling because the dental hygienist has her hands in my mouth, poking about the molars with a pointy metal thing]: Mhmmphh.

She: You know, your teeth really are pretty clean — I really don’t have too much work to do here. Actually, I think we can skip your next appointment, if you’re going to keep using a power toothbrush.

Me: Mmm-hm-hmm-huh!

She: What’s that?

Me: I just saved 75 bucks!

She: Yeah, you can’t go wrong with Oral-B. Did you know that they’re the only ones who have that patented thing where the head of the brush oscillates and pulses, both at the same time? It oscillates and pulses! [I swear, those were her exact words -- told you, our conversation sounded a whole lot like a vintage TV ad!] And the small head on the brush makes it easier to get in there and do a good job on your back teeth, like this spot right here… see?

Me: Mhmm-hee!

She: Rechargeable, right?

Me: Mhmm. Yes, both of them.

She: What do you think about the vibration? Some people find it feels weird.

Me: The Vitality’s just got a nice little hum, kind of nice. But the Triumph has, I don’t know, the vibration is stronger or deeper or something…

She: Too much?

Me: No, not bad… but you wouldn’t want to use it with a wicked hangover.

She: Just a guess, but if someone’s that hungover, their dental hygiene may not be right at the top of their list, right at that moment. Coffee, more likely. Lots of coffee!

Me: At least they’d be able to get the coffee stains off their teeth. You know, later, when they felt up to it…

I’m pretty sure we’ll be back to the normal frivolous non-product-oriented chit-chat, next time I’m hanging with the dental hygienist — but here’s the bit that’s vitally important here, in case you glazed over and missed it:

I just saved $75 — being able to skip my next appointment for a professional cleaning, with the dental hygienist’s blessing — because the power toothbrushes do a better job of cleaning teeth than the old-faithful manual units that I grew up with.

Yes — like you — I laughed myself silly at the super-dooper Triumph when I first read about it — and rolled my eyes at the hefty price tag, too! (The suggested retail price is $179.99 — yikes! — but you can do much better if you shop around: Amazon has about the best prices I’ve seen, around US$107.)

Love gadgets as I do… honestly, I thought it was a case of Oral-B going mad with the microchips and accessories, trying to find a new-and-improved product that no one really needs all that badly. It seems that I may have been a tad hasty in that opinion, however… because it’s really quite something.

On a budget, however, or for those whose very souls revolt at the idea of over-the-top technological wizardry in the bathroom cabinet, the modestly priced and lightweight Oral-B Vitality Pro-White is the winner. It runs about $25 in stores in Canada; I’m not sure if this exact model of Vitality is available in the US yet, but I think you might be able to fake it quite nicely with the Precision Clean model and just sub in the Pro-White replacement heads for that spiffy tooth-polishing effect. For my money, it’s effective, efficient, and not too self-indulgent a personal-care tool for this thrifty gal to face down in the mirror each morning.

In short, Triumph rocks for sheer macho gadgety-goodness, and I’m irresistably attracted to that for some reason; but the low-key Vitality was simply electric love at first brush.

Not everyone likes snakes, I know that — but here’s a little fellow who has a lot of appeal — to the eye, the ankles, and the bank account.

Those of us who live in old houses know all too well that an under-door draft can make you cold and uncomfortable in even a well-heated room. And the air that seeps through the crack where window sash meets window sill? Chilly! Before you know it, you’re reaching out from under your afghan to turn up the heat…

In fact, ECOutlet says as much as 20% of heat loss in a typical home can be due to drafts. They’ve got a line of dandy draft-excluding psychadelic snakes (made with vintage fabrics) that are stuffed with eco-friendly buckwheat husks, natural and biodegradable.

Saltylemon‘s 36-inch-long door snake is made to lie along the bottom of a door or windowsill, stopping cold air from sneaking in and cranking up your heating bills. A practical bit of whimsy? Why, yes! And this one has a nice touch — it’s got a velcro fastener, so you can remove the stuffing for easy cleaning.

Over at Amethistle, tie-dyer Sara went DIY and recycled jeans and old socks into a draftstopper snake. She explains how she did it on her blog, if you’re interested in sewing your own. Sara does make the point (which I have learned, too) that you need to have a lot of stuffing to fill out a snake — more than you’d expect to need.

The trick to stuffing your draftstopper is to add something that will give a bit of weight to the snake, to hold it snug against your drafty door or window sill. Beans and rice are popular choices. You can certainly stuff with fibrefill or scraps of old quilt batting, etc., but the draft stopper will work best if you add in an old length of curtain rod, or last summer’s collection of beach pebbles, or something of the sort.

A door snake draftstopper is a fun, quick, inexpensive sewing project that’s all straight-line sewing, making it easy enough for kids and beginners to do yet offering all sorts of opportunities for exercising your creative vision. Big buttons for snake eyes? Tag ends of shiny ribbon for the forked tongue? Sequins for a rattler tail? Have a look around and see what materials you have that could be repurposed into a one-of-a-kind draftstopper.

Whether your decorating taste runs to the whimsical door snake, or to an elegantly simple tube of fabric, like TheMorae‘s draft dodgers or TuttieLou‘s antique handwoven linen with dainty appliques (both available on Etsy.com) — it is one simple, doable way to be green and frugal, to save money on heating costs, and to keep your home a bit more cosy this winter.

You know how at the start of each year we all seem to resolve to be better? (For some reason — although some of us really don’t like resolutions! — it just happens!) We’re going to be greener, more frugal, more efficient, free of clutter and confusion, and just generally a better human being?

Yeah.
Well.

I’ve got something like a Museum of Home Computing up in the back bedroom, and still haven’t found a solution. What do you do with an old 386 Acer, anyway? And that monitor that’s got a weird green glow. Oh, and the dot-matrix printer… In these parts, there’s no recycling depot for such stuff, and there’s no way I’m dumping them in the local landfill… so I’m still working on that issue.

But I did just come across a solution for all those smaller dead electronics that drift in odd corners of our lives. Sell them!

BuyMyTronics (I found it listed recently as one of the perky new business startups in trend-spotting Springwise‘s newsletter) will buy a whole bunch of your broken, used, and otherwise unwanted gadgets.

Anyone in the world can send ‘em in, gadgets in any condition, and get cold hard cash. Doesn’t that sound appealing?

I know, I know what you’re wondering:

What do you do with the broken electronics I send you?
Many wonderful things. We are actually building a utopian society and sanctuary for electronics from around the globe. Actually, if you must know, we take your broken electronics and swap out parts to fix others, then resell your gadgets…

And by gadgets they mean most kinds of cell phones, and every kind of iPods, iPhones, and Game Consoles. And did I mention, they’ll buy electronics in any condition? Drop your cell off a 6th floor balcony and watch your neighbour’s SUV drive over it? Well, it probably won’t be worth a mint, but these guys say they want to buy it anyway.

You get rid of crap. You get a bit of cash — or you can have it donated to the charity of your choice. The landfill gets to live a little longer. And the useful electronic thingummies get recycled and reused to make spiffy refurbished gadgets, bringing pleasure and convenience to others.

Perfect.

Well, maybe not quite perfect.

I have a GPS device, Laptop, digital camera and/or other electronic device. Do you take those too?
Soon, very soon. Keep checking out our site. We plan a steady and continued expansion into everything, then world domination. We will probably be adding a new gadget every month or so. So check back soon, and often.

So a lot of those wired retirees up in my back bedroom may have to wait a while before they’re back in demand — but I’ve got hope!

Heirlooms to treasure, or just plain creative family fun — either way, there’s a special magic to Christmas decorations that you make yourself at home, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Here’s a round-up of patterns and how-to tutorials for frugal holiday decorations that you can make yourself:

Cardboard, glue, tiny pine cones, and scraps of birchbark — topped off with a sprinkle of glitter, the only special craft item you’ll need to do this — create a rustic miniature Christmas village! Kristin Nicholas –”Getting Stitched on the Farm” — gives a clear step-by-step tutorial for making your own.

Snuggle the houses on a landscape of poly fibrefill or quilt batting snow, if you’ve got some on hand, or just drape a white cloth over crumbled balls of newspaper to make a winter landscape to showcase the minature village.

Squawkfox makes soft stuffies in the shape of tiny trees from leftover scraps of fabric. Quick and easy to sew, it’s a great project for anyone just learning to sew — and you can have amazing fun in embellishing the simple stuffed trees with buttons and bows and fabric paints, whatever you have on hand! Download her printable 2-piece pattern and make yourself a whole forest of stuffies!

Popcorn garlands were always a part of Christmas when I was a child, for example. Sometimes we’d have a bag of those big burgundy-red cranberries to string along with the popcorn — beauty! And sometimes the family dog would sneak a snack from the Christmas tree. I still smile at the memories…

Becca spreads the seasonal joy (and festive decorations) outdoors, with molded bird seed treats — pretty wreaths to feed the birds while they decorate the trees in your yard. (These would make a terrific frugal gift for a birdlover, too!)

Tiny pieces of felt, a little stuffing, and a couple of paperclips — that’s all it takes to make these cute ice skates mini-ornaments from a tutorial by Not Quite Vintage (inspired by her grandmother). Add sequins or seed beads for buttons, or whip a bit of colourful embroidery floss up the front edge to look like laces.

Another favourite do-it-yourself Christmas decoration around our place, growing up, was salt dough modelling clay we’d shape like Play-do into stars and trees and angels, bake in the oven until they dried, then add a touch of craft paint and a ribbon for hanging… My salt dough modelling clay recipe is here, if you want to give it a try for yourself.

Maybe paper crafts are more your style?

Design Sponge has the DIY on this clever paper ball ornament — make a whole lot of them from those tag-ends of gift wrapping paper that are too small to use for much else, and dangle from a swagged evergreen garland, or hang them in a window or on your tree.

Want more Christmas paper crafts? You can find instructions for making the best ever 3-d paper snowflake at Cut Out and Keep . (I tell you, forget those paper snowflakes you might have made in kindergarten — this is in a whole other class!)

And if you’re short on time and/or patience, but you still want the snowflake bling, you can always go for this pretty blue snowflake, from the collection of free printables at Canon.

At the price of printer ink, though, I’d be inclined to print out one copy of the pattern and use it as a template for making snowflakes from plain white paper. I’ve done something similar with lightweight cardstock (empty cereal boxes, actually), then used a little thinned-down white glue and glitter to make them into stars…

This year, the holidays are going to be especially tough for a lot of families — so what better time to rediscover the true meaning of the season, sitting down with the kids to create new traditions that have more to do with sharing the moment than with spending hard-earned money at the mall?

Photo: eyeliam

True, it can cost a lot to give candy to all the neighbourhood kids on Halloween night. But if money’s tight, and you simply haven’t got the budget to buy off the pranksters (some of whom really will splatter your home with rotten eggs — or worse — if you don’t “shell out” ), there are a couple of things you can do to save money.

First, here’s what not to do:

1. You could be really careful with the candy hand-out — giving each child one single lollipop, say. Stretch the budget by being kind of, well, stingy.

But don’t you recall what it’s like to be a little kid on Halloween? — the excitement (even before the sugar high kicks in) of staying up and going out after dark, running around the neighbourhood with your friends, actually taking candy from strangers!! Don’t go raining on that parade. It’s not easy being a little kid, you know. Give ‘em the candy.

2. You could turn off all the lights and pretend you’re not home.

This is totally NOT recommended, however, especially in some of the tougher neighbourhoods — and believe me, this is the voice of experience you hear! In fact, if you live in a really really really tough part of town (as I did for quite some time), you want to make sure you’ve got really really really good treats. And lots of them. You’ll also be wise to turn a blind eye if some of the kids turn their jackets inside out and come back a second time, pretending to be someone else, so they can get a second helping. These kids don’t get much sweetness in their lives… Shelling out on candy is much cheaper for you, in the long run, than shelling out to buy new glass for your windows.

3. You could stock up on off-brand mystery candy.

In fact, as I was ranting in the first part of this series, there’s a lot of wacky advice out there that tells you to “Save money on treats to hand out at the door by picking up cheap gum and chips at the dollar store.” Again, this is not such a good plan.

Think about this:

How come that Bargain Candy is so cheap?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued consumer advisory, earlier this month, warning the public “not to consume, distribute, or sell the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins described below. This product is being recalled due to positive test results for melamine conducted by the CFIA.”

The affected product, Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins, is sold in 840g containers containing 240 pieces per container bearing UPC 0 36077 11240 7 and lot code 1928S1… sold nationally through Costco stores and may also have been sold in bulk packages or as individual pieces at various dollar and bulk stores across Canada.

Just one example. (And those gold-foil-covered chocolate coins were my favourite thing, too!) Fact is, if the candy is cheap, the manufacturers have been cutting costs somewhere along the line, and that generally means moving production to countries with less strict health and labour codes, or buying their ingredients there at least.

So, is it worth saving a bit of money, to give children the kind of candy that you wouldn’t feel good about giving to your own child? Of course not.

Stay away from the discount candy and look for brand-name products made in a country whose environmental and health standards are a known quantity, I’d suggest. You may end up paying a bit more — but there are reasonable ways to cut your costs.

• Chewing gum, Chiclets, lollipops and suckers, or those tiny bags of potato chips are often the least-expensive treats on offer — but take along a calculator to the store (if you’re as bad at basic math as I am) and do the figuring-out, to be sure: Divide the price of a bag of treats by the number of kids you can serve with it, to get the cost per kid — see what treat choices will give the best bang for your buck.
• Check the flyers for specials, and buy larger-sized packages if it gets you a better deal — you can always tuck any leftovers into lunch bags, in the weeks after Halloween.
• Buy candy in bulk, if that’s the best bargain — but do buy from a reputable store and do choose only those candies that come already individually wrapped, preferably in sealed wrappers. No, it’s not great for the environment, all that extra waste packaging, but no sensible parent wants their child to be given a fistful of unwrapped candy from an unknown source.

And don’t put it off a moment longer, if you haven’t bought your Halloween treats yet! Last minute shopping, when the shelves are getting empty in the stores, is the surest way to end up spending more than you want to spend or you have in your budget.

Oh, and don’t eat all the candies yourself before the kids show up at the door. But that part goes without saying, right?

Photo: Photos o’ Randomness

As for decorating your place for Halloween on the cheap –

Decorate your home and yard with everyday items and almost-trash, like leftover candle stubs and toilet-paper ghosts, the glossy magazines tell you. Right. Not.

What genius was the first to suggest that lighted candles and paper products could be a safe mix? Now throw in gangs of rambling trick-or-treating kids wearing capes and robes and all manner of flammable costumes? Uh-uh.

Not only that, it has been known to rain on October 31st… So what happens to your elegant glowing lights and drifting ghosts, if it rains? Soggy toilet paper draped over trees. In the dark. Not so chic and clever after all, is it? And you’ll just have to clean it all up the next day…

You can do better, even on a tight budget.

Tips for Frugal Halloween Decorations

Get yourself a pumpkin and make a traditional Jack-o-lantern. If you draw the face on your pumpkin with magic marker, instead of carving into it, you can cook it up later and make a pumpkin pie. How frugal is that?

If the kids want to know why you’re not investing in the latest inflatable three-witches yard art, or strings of flashing ghost lights, just tell them you’re doing your part for the environment. Ninety-nine percent of school-aged kids know more about saving energy than David Susuki does, and they dig it. Get them involved in thinking of other ways to decorate –

• Homemade orange-and-black paper chains looped across the porch railing?
• Watercolour paints to make scarey scenes on the windows?
• Construction paper cut-outs of spooky cats and haunted houses?
• An old white bedsheet pinned up in a shadowy corner of the yard, to spook all your little trick-or-treating visitors when it moves in the slightest breeze?
• …you get the idea.

And if you’re fixed on decorating with Halloween string lights around your home and garden, why not re-purpose the ones you use for Christmas and patio parties? This works especially well if you tend to go with plain white lights (very elegant) — and they’re low-energy, low-heat LED mini-lights, right? Add a few fake spiderwebs (and dangle a few pipe-cleaner spiders, if you’re feeling artsy-crafty)… you’re good to go.

Not quite enough festive Halloween decorating, yet, for your taste?

Decorate your front steps with an over-sized bouquet of dead branches (pick ‘em up when you rake the lawn) in a wide-mouthed container — I like an old stew kettle for this, but use what you’ve got — and tuck in a couple of mini gourds.

Or more of those pipe-cleaner spiders and artifical webs.
Or bits of orange and black ribbon, tied in bows.
Or a photo of your mother-in-law.

Whatever scares you.

Photo: Sylvanfeather

And here’s a bonus idea — you can save time and money, both, if you simply go with more general “seasonal” decorations, and simply add a touch of spooky Halloween goodness for the night itself.

Think of a wreath of colourful autumn leaves, or a harvest-themed display of gourds and pumpkins, or a decorative scarecrow.

Instead of having a box of special Halloween decorations that will be used for a week or so at most, you’ll decorate once — and the decorations will do you for Thanksgiving too!

Women’s magazines, radio phone-in shows, all over the Web… I’ve been catching a whole lot of variations on the same thrifty theme. And if your family has decided to try to save money on the whole Halloween trip, you may have been noticing this too.

Photo: Mozo Man

We won’t embarrass any major media outlets by naming names, and I haven’t quoted the words exactly, but the substance of these “top 3″ frugal Halloween tips is spooned out by more than one source this season — and I’ve got serious doubts.

Here’s the kind of thing they want you to do:

1. Costume the kids as homeless people — it doesn’t get cheaper than that, when you can send them out around the neighbourhood in last year’s jacket and their oldest patched jeans;
2. Decorate your home and yard with everyday items and almost-trash, like leftover candle stubs and toilet-paper ghosts;
3. Save money on treats to hand out at the door by picking up cheap gum and chips at the dollar store.

Huh! Well, those tips just don’t work for me — and I’ll tell you why:

Poverty ain’t no Halloween costume.

“Costume the kids as homeless people”?

Well, leaving aside the fact that Junior might be scarred for life by wearing his own clothes as a Halloween costume… doesn’t it just seem wrong somehow to dress up as a homeless person in order to get free candy? Anyway, a big part of the whole point of dressing up and going door-to-door for treats is to amuse the neighbours. And they’ve seen your kids in grubbies already: so where’s the old folks’ treat in that?

Do it cheap, sure, but do it right.

One of the best things about Halloween is that it’s a night to let fantasy run free… So instead of money, why not spend a bit of creativity? Sometimes those quick homemade Halloween costumes can be the best costumes, if the ideas are good ones.

If you’re not the sewing-crafter type (or simply don’t have time), make a trip to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift store, or whatever the equivalent is where you live. We’ve got a fabulous chain of super-cheap secondhand shops called Frenchy’s that are always good for a great cheap costume for kids or for adults. Jodi tells me she’s even seen secondhand wedding dresses in there for a ridiculously low price — so there you go, a Bride of Frankenstein costume! Just add a bouquet of dead flowers and the right make-up.

The school that @wadlington‘s kids go to just held a Halloween used-costume sale. “After the sale,” she says, “the leftovers were donated to Goodwill. How great is that? It’s too late now to organize a costume sale for this Halloween, but I’ll bet you’d find a lot of parents keen on the plan for next year, if you brought it up at the next PTA meeting, while the pain and stress of finding (and paying for) Halloween costumes are still fresh in everyone’s minds!

Photo: juhansonin

You can always swap Halloween costumes with friends who have kids the same age, too. This year, your kid goes as an adorable mouse; next year, he moves up to the boy-next-door’s pirate costume?

We used to pass costumes along from older sister to younger, when we were growing up. The trick is to pack them away safely until next year. But you know what? If it’s one of those trendy character costumes straight from the Disney marketing machine, I wouldn’t bother trying to save it for next year — just throw it into the toy box and let the kids wear it to play make-believe to their hearts’ delight, because you might as well put it to use. What are the odds your daughter will have any interest in dressing up as Hannah Montana, by the time next year’s Halloween rolls around? Of course, my parents probably said that exact thing about that Princess Leia costume, way back when… So, who knows? You’ll have to make your own call on that one.

My point is, why dress up your kids as homeless people and make light of something so serious as other people’s misfortune? Especially when there are so many creative ways that you can save money on Halloween costumes.

‘Nuff said.

Now, what about that bad advice on decorating your home for Halloween? We’ll be tackling that tasteful and thrifty issue in the next part of this series, so stay tuned to learn more about toilet-paper ghosts.

Do you know about Alltop.com? It’s sort of a “digital magazine rack” serving up the “best of the best” news stories from across the Internet. Sounds impressive, no? All the cool kids hang out there — and now, it seems, you and I do too!

Through some lucky oversight (or perhaps a computer melt-down somewhere?), Domestik Goddess has been tucked cosily into the Alltop Frugality page along with all your favourite penny-pinchers — like About.com Frugal Living and Uncommon Cents and Frugal Simplicity… well, you get the idea!

Fun With Frugality

This might be a good time for a quick word about what frugality is, as I see it:

Frugality is not about living mean and small. No, I love beautiful and foolish things as much as the next person (as regular readers will very well know!) and never could get my brain in gear for clipping coupons…

Frugality is about knowing the difference between want and need — and setting priorities for your life. It’s about “old-fashioned values” — if you’ll forgive a hackneyed phrase that only a politician can say with a straight face these days — and making the most of our own strengths and talents, lending a hand to neighbours, nesting at home, enjoying the moment, and recognizing that there’s more to a creative and fulfilling life than the figures on a paycheque.

We’re looking at some tough economic times ahead, folks, and really tough times for the environment, too. We can’t be out there frittering away our money and our resources like a sailor on shore leave. But that doesn’t mean your life has to be a grim and narrow round of drudgery — quite the opposite!

Frugality (actually, I prefer to think of it as being “thrifty,” it sounds so much softer) can be a lifestyle full of colour and creativity, if you put your imagination to work.

And that’s what Domestik Goddess is all about.

If you’re new here, stick around and you’ll see what we mean… And if you’re a regular and you can’t help feeling you’ve heard quite enough from me for one day, well, you know that’s cool, too. :)

Take a moment and check out frugality.alltop.com, if you like — and take a scope around there to see what else Alltop has to tempt your tastes. Major subjects are Work, Living, Culture, Interests, Tech, People, Good, News, Geos and Sports: and each one has lots of sub-topics to help you find the stuff you like.

Especially, don’t miss the Moms — they’re the ones who secretly rule Alltop, I suspect, along with the rest of the world!

Check it out: this is my new black-and-white houndstooth check hobo bag, no label — $6.99 only! My frugal heart leapt for joy when I spotted this.

The bag has one big exterior pocket with a snap, and inside is a silky black lining with a good-sized zipper pocket and another smaller open pocket that’s the perfect size for keys or an mp3 player or such. The main part of the bag zippers up, too, so nothing falls out when I drop it oh-so-casually onto the nearest flat surface, which I am sadly prone to do — but then, aren’t we all?

So yes, I went purse-shopping in the hospital gift shop while my mother was having a pre-op poking and prodding… how bad is that?

But after all, it’s not like I abandoned her in her hour of need, and it’s not like I didn’t urgently need a new bag (because I did), and it’s not like I spent a whole lot of money either… did I mention, $6.99?!

I didn’t cook a big Easter ham this year, because our dinner guests were all vegetarians, but normally at this time of year I’d be scraping for quick-and-easy recipes to use up those ham leftovers. Ham sandwiches are dandy, of course, but one can only eat ham sandwiches for a couple days in a row before the thrill begins to wear off.

Here are 15 of my favourite ways to change up the dinner routine and make good use of those ham leftovers. And we’d love to hear your family’s favourite ham-using-up suggestions, too!

1. Fake Antipasto — very thin slices of ham (instead of prosciutto, which is why this is called “fake” antipasto), artfully arranged on a platter with tomatoes, olives, melon, bell peppers, maybe some nice marinated mushrooms, with some fluffy bits of exotic salad greens to fill in the corners.
2. Quiche — this self-crust quiche recipe is especially easy because you toss in a bit of biscuit mix and the quiche makes its own crust.
3. Omelet — beat a few eggs, grate some cheese, and you’re good to go!
4. Frittata — somewhere between an omelet and a quiche: basically, a frittata what you get if you mix all your omelet ingredients together, add a splash of milk and a few extra veggies, and bake it in a pie plate.
5. Ham Wraps — stuff a pita or roll a tortilla with pieces of ham, lettuce, shredded cheese, bell peppers, mild sweet onion, and a drizzle of honey-mustard salad dressing
6. Stromboli (skip the other kinds of meat and dial up the amount of cheese, if you’d like a nice variation).
7. Scalloped Potatoes — add a generous amount of leftover ham, and you’ve turned a side dish into an casserole
8. Ham and Corn Chowder — there are all sorts of fancy variations but, basically, all you need is onions, potatoes, ham, corn, a bit of butter, and some milk — and a big soup pot to cook it all in.
9. or another kind of Soup — in fact, if you’ve cooked a real ham with a bone in it, save the bone to make old-fashioned pea soup (or a broth for minestrone, if you don’t happen to like pea soup).
10. Croque Monsieur — put sliced ham and cheese between two slices of French toast and heat it until the cheese melts, for a quick version of my all-time favourite handheld food.
11. Curried Ham on Toast
12. Ham Salad — try cubes of ham, cold cooked pasta, broccoli florets, cherry tomaties and strips of red bell peppers, with a light mayo dressing to which you can add a bit of mustard and honey.
13. Paupiettes de jambon (quick version) — simmer some bits of ham, thin-sliced shallots, and fresh mushrooms in a bit of white sauce or Mornay sauce, roll up spoonfuls in thin slices of ham, arrange in a baking dish topped with lots of Gruyère and more sauce, then heat it through.
14. Stuffed Veg — stuff the hollowed-out vegetable of your choice (zucchini, tomatoes, green pepper) with a mixture of ham, cheese, rice and mayonnaise, and bake or broil it.
15. Ham Casserole — frankly, you can throw ham into almost any one-dish recipe that’s based on a white sauce or cream-of-mushroom soup: try my aunt Dorothy’s ham casserole recipe if you like a rice-based casserole for a change from pasta and potatoes.

Okay, so that’s my list…

What are your favourite ways to use up those post-holiday ham leftovers?

This beautifully retro Prisma Stripe in Moss Green is the signature design for Bemz’s new Metropolis collection of slipcovers designed to breathe a whole new life into your old IKEA furniture — or to give your personal touch to out-of-the-box new IKEA.

Warm, luminous gold tones and cool, winter hues of blue and green are paired with earth neutral colours to evoke memories of classic Scandinavian design during the 1950/60´s.

“Metropolis lets you add warm, stimulating colors that sooth emotions and satisfy our craving for warmth and security,” says Bemz founder Lesley Pennington. “Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of curling up and hibernating the winter away, so you can inject some cool colors in those rooms where you want to project a tranquil tone to focus your thoughts. Meanwhile, our beautiful Zinc Grey, fabulous Sybary-Espresso and textured Sprezzatura in Old Gold/Brown are just the ticket for a cozy look.”

I’ve written about Bemz before, I know, but it bears repeating — how iconic can frugal home fashion get? Start with IKEA and update it with stylish (and washable) custom slipcovers. These guys even do slipcovers to fit most models of IKEA chairs and sofas, and even some of IKEA’s more popular discontinued styles.

Technorati Tags: IKEA, furniture, slipcovers

4 Frugal Ways to Furnish a New Home

Buying your first house is a wonderful experience. Most of us immediately begin personalizing with paint and new furnishings. These personal touches are important, but they can bring stress when bought with credit.

When my wife and I bought our house, we had little money left over and a lot of space to fill. We agreed that it didn’t make sense to borrow money for furniture, paint, or decorations.

So we dedicated cash each month for furniture and my wife agreed that we could delay painting for a year.

How we stretched small amounts of cash for nice furniture

First, we kept a lot of our old stuff. We decided it made more sense to keep old dressers, shelves, and storage bins so we could focus our purchases on the places where we spend the most time: the dining room, living room, and office.

Second, we kept our eyes open for yardsales. We didn’t go out of our way to visit yardsales, but when we passed one we drove by slowly, looking for promising furniture. We scored a solid maple hutch, dining table, and matching wood chairs for $250. The hutch alone might have cost upwards of $2,500 if we had bought it new.

Third, we bought new stuff that was “good enough” for now. For a couple of months, we used a folding table and folding chairs for our dining room. I used a matching folding table in the office even longer.

We bought the tables and chairs (on sale) to buy us time—the time to find quality bargains that would serve us well for years. The temporary tables and chairs were not a waste. They will also be useful when we host parties for friends and family.

Fourth, we set up automated Craigslist searches. Craigslist is a powerful, free site for buying and selling almost anything locally. Quality furniture, even real antiques, are often sold for pennies on the dollar. You can even find expensive, almost new stuff if you live near an affluent neighborhood.

Craigslist turned up two local bargins. The first lady lived in a beautiful, beach-side log cabin she had built years ago with her husband. She sold us three solid maple pieces manufactured in America half a century ago.

We got a writing desk, large coffee table, and a night stand for $75! The second seller had an attractive computer desk with a solid maple top for $60. The desk fit perfectly into our office layout.

Four tips for Craigslist

1. Setup an automated search with your rss reader (bottom right corner of the search results page)
2. Search locally, you don’t want to be tempted by items you cannot reach (the top of the search results page)
3. Line up transportation before you find a bargain because most sellers won’t be willing to deliver
4. Don’t worry if someone beats you to an item, there will be more bargains

Aaron shares reliable, easily followed steps to build wealth at On Financial Success. Subscribe to his feed to follow along.

Technorati Tags: frugal, home decor, guest post