Friday Frugal Tip - Clinique Pencil Sharpener

If you think that your cheap eye liner or lip liner pencil is no good, think again. Take a look at your sharpener; a good sharpener will make all the difference.

I found this gem:
The Clinique pencil sharpener. It sharpens the pencil perfectly, even the cheap wet & wild brand. I discovered this about 10 years ago and have had one ever since. Recently I got another sharpener that was included in one of my cheap eye pencil packages. I thought I'd use it for my back-up make-up bag. NO WAY! It ruined all of my pencils, and was hard to use.

Last week I happened to be passing the Clinique counter and picked up a spare Clinique sharpener. Did it break my budget? Nope, it's a whopping $1. Now that's a sharp bargain. Pun intended.

Mending tape - clothing label

Salem's school asked the parents to have all of the children's outdoor clothing labeled. Here's what I used...iron-on mending tape! I got a package at NPS for $.39 and it will last me a long time.

I debated on what to use for a while, my mom had labels professionally made for me and my siblings that said our names on them. She would have to sew them on, but I thought it was cool that I had my own name tag. :) I found websites to order similar name tags for my kids but I was too cheap to spend the few dollars. I even found some that were iron-on so I didn't have to sew. My mom suggested using a heavyweight interfacing and then labeling and ironing it on. I intended to do that but then I found the mending tape.

During general conference a few weeks ago, I collected all of Salem's hats, gloves, jackets, etc and started applying the labels. It was a quick and painless process. I just wrote his name on the mending tape with a fine-point sharpie marker, then cut the tape around the name to save as much tape as possible (I could fit three names in the width of the tape.) Then I ironed on the label and it was done! :)

If you need to label clothing, I suggest that you use mending tape!

P.S. - I realize that I'm probably not the first one to think of this. I'm sure there are many moms out there that have done this for years, but I thought I'd just pass along this info to those who still haven't been enlightened. :)

Zip-it

Have you heard of the Zip-it? I was introduced to this product a couple years ago, and now love it! I got it at WalMart for about $3 and it's a good preventative maintenance tool for clogged drains. You don't use harsh chemicals, it's just a jagged strip of plastic that you stick down in your drain and pull out all the yuck.

I clean our upstairs bathtub drain every few months with this. I like that it's cheap and really easy to use. This is not for those with a light stomach, some of the stuff that comes out is pretty gross, but I'd rather get it out than have it stay in the pipe!

Here's a demo of it:

The end of my KitchenAid era

When Darrell and I were registering for our wedding, he insisted that we register for a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. He said "to be a true Hendriksen, you have to own a KitchenAid." I thought "Whatever, I don't really understand the whole big whoop over them but okay, I'll register for it, I doubt anyone would be able to buy it for us since it's pretty pricey."

Sure enough, when it was Thanksgiving time (we were still engaged) and we had our annual Hendriksen family Thanksgiving dinner, all of Darrell's aunts started bringing in their KitchenAid mixers into the church to use for mixing & mashing the potatoes! I was amazed that they would literally bring their heavy duty mixer just for that, couldn't they use an easy-to-transport hand mixer? I figured there must be something cool about these mixers.

Later in January, while at work, my boss & co-workers asked me to step into my executive boss's office. There on the desk was a huge wrapped wedding gift. I opened it up and it was the KitchenAid mixer that we had registered for. I couldn't believe it! My mouth dropped open since I didn't expect such a large gift from them. (The standard wedding gift at my office was a basket full of various odd & ends & kitchen gadgets.) My executive boss, who was a single lady and could afford such a gift, just looked at me, smiled and said "you deserve this." That was a nice pat on my back.

I've grown to enjoy the KitchenAid. I liked being able to go get another ingredient from the pantry while the mixer is still mixing. The dough hook is, of course, great for making bread. It has served my family well for over six years.

This past year and a half I have tried (desperately) to make bread for my family. I've always wanted to make bread regularly and am now I'm doing it, but I still would like to perfect my technique and get a nice fluffy whole wheat bread. With my KitchenAid I could only put in a maximum of 6 cups of whole wheat flour (8 cups white flour.) That meant I could only make 2 small loaves of bread at a time, and I'd have to be making bread every few days.

I bought a huge stainless steel bowl($1 at DI) and started making bread by hand so that I could make 6 loaves of bread instead of just two. (I'd freeze 4-5 loaves.)

My family had outgrown our 4 1/2 quart KitchenAid mixer and I wanted something bigger. I was introduced to the Bosch Mixers and fell in love. (Sorry KitchenAid.) I watched a video comparing the Bosch to a KitchenAid for making bread and the Bosch won victoriously. I immediately wanted a Bosch mixer but since they were pricey I needed to "save up" to buy the mixer. (I thought that I'd do that just like Darrell did to save up for his guitar.) I made a spreadsheet (who knew?) to figure out how much I needed to save and entered the info whenever I made a few extra dollars (selling things, birthday money, babysitting, substituting a dance class.)

I was holding out for a brand new model, but this weekend I found a refurbished Bosch Mixer with a warranty from a reputable local store so I decided to purchase that one instead of saving a lot more money for a new one.

I put my KitchenAid up for sale on KSL and Craigslist and sold it today. It was a little hard for me to let go as I was giving the mixer to the lady who bought it. It's an end of an era for me. It was my learning mixer, and I've had fun memories with my boys making food using the mixer. I feel old now that I've upgraded to a bigger mixer, I'm in a new stage in my life.

I feel like I'm still a "true Hendriksen" even though I no longer own a KitchenAid, hopefully the family won't disown me. :)

My quest for bread perfection still awaits me, but I feel that I'm getting closer all the time.

Sip a Pop

We just got done having home-made popsicles. I enjoy having the homemade popsicles so I can control what goes in there...less sugar! I found some really cool popsicle molds, they have a straw at the bottom so there is no mess and you get to sip the extra juice! Whoever invented the Sip-A-Pop is a genius! :)