The FullCircles Blog

I was making dinner last night when I discovered that the peas in the pot sitting on the back burner of my old electric stove were already hot!  How did this happen?  Old stove with the oven vent on the back.

So it occurred to me that I just heated a can of peas using the heat from the oven while it cooked the chicken…that has to save at least a buck!

I don’t know how much I saved but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there like me who have an old stove that vents at the back.  I believe new stoves are the same but this is a personal experience post that I’m hoping I can pass on to others as a trick until they have a new stove;-)

The chicken had to bake in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes and it was in the last 10 minutes I thought to turn on the peas to discover they were hot!

It was a fluke that I had opened them and sat them on that burner but if the heat vented from an oven can reheat a can of peas without turning on the burner how much money will I save on hydro over time?  Its hard to calculate.

Its a cheap trick from a cheap chick…

Shelby Cooper is the Cheap Chick…wink!

Image via Wikipedia

We have received confirmation Jordan has found the dress!  It didn’t come from a freecycler but I feel we did our part and so does our friend Jordan.

We are still continuing to help Jordan by providing green buttons.  FullCircles members have been generous and are replying to her wanted ads and coming through with tons of buttons.

You can check her wish list on the Project Priceless blog if you want to help with other aspects of the wedding.

And, don’t forget, you can meet Brian and Jordan at Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market on June 4th, 2011.

With one less worry, Jordan can continue her search for the other items that aren’t as critical as “the dress”.  Congratulations Jordan, I can’t wait to see the wedding pics and “the dress”.

Kelly Wilson
Full Circles Ottawa Facilitator
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Image via Wikipedia

I have to wonder why I never knew how great a box of baking soda and a container of white vinegar could be.

This one is so simple that this post will be one of the shorter ones;-)

To free a drain and make it flow better, this is a Cheap Chick trick you can use every 6 months or so.

Pour baking soda into the drain. Pour small amounts of vinegar and let the scrubbing bubbles do just that until they stop and add a few more drops of vinegar.

Continue until the scrubbing bubbles stop and, voila – free flowing drain!

Brought to you by Shelby Cooper, the Cheap Chick!

About:
Project: Priceless is an experiment in community giving and social networking. The goal: to get Brian and Jordan married as free-of-charge as possible, through donations and loan of items and services, and even trades. Read more on our blog.

via Project: Priceless – Our Free Wedding Experiment (25).

Does it bother anyone that you paid extra for that green product only to find out that it didn’t work the way you thought it would? Sure bothers me. I just bought “green” dryer sheets;-(

I have been experimenting for a while now on laundry products to find out what works. Guess you know what I’m going to say next…a lot of it doesn’t work well at all.

So, here’s a Cheap Chick tip for people who want to get away from chemically laden dryer sheets or the need to run to the rinse cycle to add softener.

To soften your clothes while washing add about a 1/4 – 1/2 cup of vinegar to the load. No your clothes won’t smell like vinegar, you may even find them fresher. You don’t have to add it in the rinse, just at the beginning. To boost your detergents efficiency you can also add a 1/4 cup of baking soda which will also soften and freshen your wash.

But, the cheapest, cleanest, anti static dryer sheet that I have used so far is a piece of aluminum foil! That’s right, aluminum foil… No your dryer won’t blow up and no it won’t start receiving radio signals but, you will be able to use that piece of aluminum several times and your clothes won’t be static when they come out of the dryer!

I have been using aluminum foil for months now and the one time I deviate to try a new green product I went back to my home made green clean…so much for that $4.69! I can buy 4 rolls of aluminum foil and a pack of gum at the dollar store for that price…shame those sheets ended up in the garbage…at least they are biodegradable;-)

Shelby Cooper is The Cheap Chick!