Ah, Friday morning! The week is pretty much over and it’s going to be a good day. You get out to your car and there it is… a flat tire! Or in my case, I’m awoken by, “Hurry! What do I do? I’ve got a flat tire… help me! I’m going to be late for work!!!”
After spending 45 minutes trying to get the tire off and the spare on (since most auto repair places aren’t open this early), D is on his way to the only place in town that’s open.
We’ve lived in this town for over three years and I’ve suffered three flat tires – spending over $90 each time for a new tire. While discussing the issue with my dad, he suggested getting the tire patched; that it would cost under $20. I never thought of this and feel taken advantage of for the tire and lube shop who didn’t suggest the cheaper option.
I suggested D have this done and it ended up costing only $10 including taking off the spare and putting on the patched tire! He was told by the place that if the hole is big enough (nail or screw), they’ll do a rubber plug-patch. If it’s smaller than that, they’ll do “just a regular patch.” Although it was very inexpensive, it takes a while to do – or what seems like a long time if you’re trying to get to work. D was there for about 45 minutes. The auto guys told him that it is as safe as a normal tire.
If you’re handy, you can do this at home. You can purchase a kit from an auto store and follow the instructions and this tutorial at About.com.
Due to the recession, we’re unsure how long we’re staying in our current home. We continue to make improvements to our home so it’s ready to be sold when the market starts looking up. While talking about this with my mom, she informed me of a way to cut years off of our mortgage. She’s currently taking advantage of this “deal”.
Instead of paying your mortgage once per month, pay 1/2 the amount every two weeks! Simple as that. This cuts your mortgage down because instead of making only 12 payments, you’re making 26 half-payments (52/payments every 2 weeks) equal to 13 full payments. So you end up making one extrafullpayment spread over the course of the year. This will not work if you make payments twice per month, which would be the same as 24 half-payments or 12 regular payments.
One trick to this is that you need to be aware of is that your bank will charge you a fee to set up automatically deducted bi-weekly payments. You can avoid this fee by dropping the payment off in the mail or at the bank.
Now I know this doesn’t sound like it will work. Another trick is that when you make those two extra half-payments, tell the bank to apply those amounts to the principal, not the interest. This will really take a chunk out of your mortgage!
It’s important to take good care of your skin because the skin helps your body keep infectious viruses and bacteria from entering your body. For centuries, people have used natural methods to clean their faces. Yes, cleaning your face can be done without a trip to the synthetic chemical-ridden beauty department.
Facial masks are an excellent way to clean your pores. When you slather on the mask (clay, gel, fruit), the material gets smooshed into your crevices and pores, attaching to the dirt particles. As the mask dries, it pulls away from the skin and pulls all of the bad particles (dirt and dead skin cells) with it. When you wash the mask off, you also wash away all those bad particles, leaving you with fresh and clean skin.
Masks usually have a high water content in them, so as they dry, your skin is hydrated. Now that your pores are clean and hydrated, they can close up, giving your skin a smoother appearance. With a warm mask, your blood vessels open up, allowing for better absorption of nutrients into your skin.
1 – Before masking your face, wash it and pat it dry.
2 – Put some of the mask into your hand. Apply it with soft circular motions to help it get smooshed into all crevices of the face. You want it to be thick enough that it gets into all the crevices and pores, but thin enough that it will dry and lift away the grime in your pores and on your skin. A good rule of thumb is that you want to put on just enough so that you can’t see the skin.
3 – Let the mask dry. Each mask is different and will take from 10 to 30 minutes to dry. When the mask is dry, use warm water and a washcloth to wash away the mask. This keeps the pores open so that any remaining mask material is cleaned out of them, and the washcloth helps to get the mask off your face.
4 – When you’re done, you can follow up with a rinse of cold water (or an ice cube). The cold water will close the pores back up again, helping them keep future grime from entering!
So what materials are good as masks?
Apples – For acne prone skin. Mix 1 grated apple with 5 tbsp warm honey.
Aspirin and Honey – Aspirin has astringent properties and is good for oily skin. It can do bad things if you use it too frequently, so please use it no more than 2 times per week. Mix a little water with aspirin tablets (not gel caps) until the tablets dissolve, then add in a little honey. Use like any other mask. This is a very cost effective mask – a bottle of 100 aspirin tabs at my local grocer is only 99 cents!
Avocado – For softer skin. It is very nourishing and works great on mature, wrinkled, and dry skin.
Bananas – Help slough off dead skin, energize the face, and is a good anti-wrinkle treatment. Can also be mixed with avocado, oatmeal, yogurt, honey, and/or vitamin E.
Clay with aloe – Clay is rich in minerals, deep cleans, and tightens pores. Aloe soothes your skin. A cheap and readily available way to get clay is by the chunky clay kitty litter. Don’t get the powdery stuff, the stuff with blue crystals, or scented. And please don’t put used kitty litter on your face! As always, Michelle does an excellent job of explaining this!
Cucumber – Revives skin. Can be mixed with yogurt. Also great sliced over the eyes – helps reduce bagginess and dark circles.
Eggs – Egg whites leave normal to oily skin feeling tight and refined. Mix egg whites with lemon juice to help get rid of blackheads. Egg yolks contain vitamin A and are great for dry skin. Egg yolks also help heal blemishes.
Honey and Almond – Moisturizes. Best for mature, sensitive, or dry skin. Honey has antibacterial properties. Mix 1tsp warm honey, 1tbsp ground almonds, and enough water to make a nice paste. Apply to face; in 10-15 minutes rinse off.
Milk – Moisturizes. Mix with other ingredients before using.
Papaya – Contains an enzyme, papain, which dissolves oil and dead skin cells.
Strawberries – The seeds exfoliate the skin and the fruit is an astringent. Mix with a little yogurt to sooth.
Tomato – For oily skin. Scoop/compost seeds, puree tomato meat with 1 tsp each lemon juice and oatmeal.
Yogurt – Cleanses and nourishes, has been used for centuries due to its healthy properties. Mix 1 tsp with juice from 1/4 orange for a refreshing mask. For a great all-purpose deep cleaning mask for all skin types, mix 1tbsp finely ground oatmeal, 1tsp warm honey, and 1tbsp yogurt together. Apply to face; in 10-15 minutes rinse off.
A couple notes:
Many fruits and vegetables can also be used effectively. Anything acidic (lemon, strawberries, grapefruit, etc.) will tend to whiten and refresh your skin, but you need to be careful if your skin is dry.
For OILY skin – bananas, strawberries, lemon, clay
For DRY skin – avocados, honey, olive oil
In general, don’t apply masks more often than about twice a week, and try to vary the ingredients.
Due to the rising costs of food and entertainment, many Americans are cutting back. With Restaurant.com, you don’t have to! Restaurant owners are always looking for new customers and they use Restaurant.com to attract them with the discounted certificates. Therefore, the restaurants listed in the directory are local or regional – you won’t find Applebee’s or Red Lobster on there!
Restaurant.com offers discounted dining certificates in the amounts of $10 (cost $3), $25 (cost $10), $50 (cost $20), $75 (cost $30), and $100 (cost $40). You print the certificates off at home, making it a convenient way to save money – no wasting money on shipping or waiting for a gift card to arrive. No wasting time at the restaurant either… they offer many menus online, so you can check out the selection before you get there!
If you’re needing ideas for a birthday or anniversary, you can purchase the dining certificates for someone else. The code to print off the certificates is sent to directly to their email box.
There are stipulations to the certificates. You can’t use more than one certificate at a time, you can only use one certificate per month per restaurant, and it’s up to the individual restaurant whether or not alcohol can be purchased with the certificate. The restaurants can also choose whether or not they want to honor the certificate at certain times. Please call ahead and let them know that you will be using one.
The certificates do frequently go on sale and a Google search will render many different discount codes available, so make sure you check that out.
*** Enter discount code: SPECIAL at checkout and hit apply to save an additional 80%! Offer valid from 5/26/09 at 5:00AM PST to 5/31/09 at 11:59PM PST. (That means… $25 certificate for only $2 !!!)
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or anything remotely close to a doctor. I took a chance to try an alternative method to curing an infection and this is my opinion of what worked for me. You are responsible for anything you try.
I get frequent urinary tract infections. I got my first one when I was in middle school and starting in college, I got them more frequently. They’re terrible and nobody understands the whole situation unless they’ve experienced it themselves.
Here’s how it usually goes:
Wake up on Saturday morning – “Oh crap, I think I have a UTI.”
Only choice now is to go to the emergency room where I’ll be chilling with sick kids for an hour before I’m seen. There’s also a higher deductible/cost for using the ER. Decide to wait until Monday – UTI starts getting worse.
Pop a couple Azo to dull the pain. Drink lots of water and feel like a bloated cow.
Wake up on Monday morning. Call to make an appointment with the doctor. “Oh, well she can maybe squeeze you in on Thursday afternoon. Would you like me to try to double book you?” Oh, I don’t get bumped up because I know for sure that I have an infection?
At this point I’m fed up with this crap. It’s embarrassing to go into the doctor because they want to see if you’re pregnant, then they want you to pee in a cup under pressure, then they give you a nice embarrassing lecture. Hm, I’ve been getting them two to three times per year for the past decade. Do you think I purposely bring them on so I can come waste two hours of my time listening to you lecture me every few months?!
So, here’s what worked the first time:
Loads of cranberry juice. The real stuff – not the “cocktail” because it has other stuff in it. If you hate drinking cranberry juice like I do, get some cranberry pills.
Azo definitly helps with the discomfort, but the disadvantage is that it turns urine a dark orangy color.
Cystex has some antibacterial properties. You’re not supposed to take it longer than three days and is only meant to “help inhibit the progression of infection until you see a doctor. It is not intended to replace a doctor’s care.” I did take it longer than the three days and nothing bad happened – in fact, the infection went away in about one week.
Doing some research, I found some alternative method of treating the UTI. Arctostophyllos uva-ursi is a bush that has been used for centuries as a urinary antiseptic. “Its leaves were officially a drug for urinary antiseptic in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary from 1820 until 1950.” You can purchase “uva ursi” at your local health food store in caplets or a tea. I tried the caplets from Nature’s Way. A couple things about uva ursi: acids can hinder its effectiveness, meaning you shouldn’t be taking acidifying cranberry products and you shouldn’t take it longer than two weeks. In addition to the uva ursi, I also took effervescents which help make your urinary tract basic due to the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in it. It also has a pain killer in it. If you don’t want to go out and purchase the effervescent, you can try one teaspoon baking soda per glass of water.
This is what worked for me. I was impressed by the effectiveness of the uva ursi and have been suggesting it to friends and family. And although it’s really hard to do, you need to keep pushing fluids until the infection is cured. Feel free to let me know what has or has not worked for you.
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