I always end up overbuying Halloween candy because I always hated showing up to a house only to find out that they ran out hours ago. Consequently, I have a metric crap ton of candy left, despite a pretty good turn out.

So what to do with all this leftover sugar-laden goodness? Throwing it out would be wasteful, but eating it all would have horrific effects on your waist.

It really all depends on what kind of candy you have and how handy you are in the kitchen.

If you are not much of a master baker, I would suggest freezing enough so you can have one or two candies a day and then attempting to donate the rest. Whether you put a bowl of candy on your desk at work, leave it in the employee breakroom or try to find a shelter or food bank that could use a little fun stuff for incoming kids is up to you.

If you DO like to bake, start sorting your candy into the following categories: Hard Candy, Chocolate Bars, M&Ms, and ‘other’. We’re going to use these supplies in ‘holiday’ baking, so be prepared to store chocolates in the freezer until you start baking.

Hard Candy: Stained Glass Cookies.

You can follow the recipe or use your favorite roll-out cookie dough. Basically you roll out your dough, cut your cookies and then use a smaller cutout on the inside. Fill the cutout with crushed hard candies and the candy will melt to make a pretty stained glass effect. I prefer to use plain sugar cookie dough, but I don’t hang mine as decorations so I don’t care if they’re sturdy or not.

Chocolate Bars: Surprise Candy Bar Cookies or chop up the candies to use as a topping on ice cream or on cakes/brownies.

M&Ms: Use instead of chocolate chips in your favorite cookie recipe, use on ice cream or use as decorations on a gingerbread house (with hard candy stained glass windows, of course.)

Hershey’s Kisses and other ‘plain’ chocolates: Try chocolate dipped pretzels, Kiss/Thumbprint Cookies, microwave S’mores, or chop up and use instead of chocolate chips in any recipe.

Skittles: Skittles Infused Vodka

‘Other’ candy: Colorful candies make good gingerbread house decorations. Red Hots make delicious baked apples (core the apples, then fill the hole with the candy), caramels can be melted into a sauce or caramel dip.

So what will you do with the leftover goodies?

Further Reading (parenthood.com).

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I stumbled upon this site this afternoon. Retail Me Not is a site that lists thousands of coupon codes for popular retail websites. Whether you are looking for a deal on Domino’s Pizza for dinner or a new bra at Victoria’s Secret, Retail Me Not has you covered.

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I’m sure everybody has done this at least once. You come up with this great idea to save money and then realize later that it either didn’t save anything, or worse, was costing you money. Here are some great ideas that can backfire if you’re not paying attention.

• Grocery shopping at multiple stores. If one store has better produce but expensive dry goods, it can make sense to buy some things at one store and others at another. However, with the gas prices so high, you have to consider the cost of getting to and from each store. I have a buddy who insists on shopping for dry groceries at Walmart. Walmart is 30 minutes away. If she’s lucky, she only burns about $8 in gas getting there and back. Worse, once she gets to Walmart, she starts getting distracted by all the other stuff and ends up spending more. If the stores are close by, this can save you a ton of money. But beware of how much time and gas you’re expending to shop at different stores.
• Trial Hopping. Trial hopping is the practice of signing up for multiple free trials and never keeping any of them. You can get a ton of goods and services for free, but you have to be extra diligent when reading the Terms of the trial and following any cancellation procedures to the letter. You also have to watch your credit card statements like a hawk to make sure that everything was actually canceled. If you have the time, trial hopping can be rewarding, but you have to be extremely careful to read all the trial literature and follow all the procedures exactly.
• Transferring Credit Card Debt. Sometimes you get an offer that will allow you to transfer previous balances at 0% on a new card. If you do this once or twice, it can help you out a lot. However, if you continue to do it, you’re going to start affecting your credit score. If you have too many lines of credit open, it lowers your score. Closing old accounts can also affect your credit history. Transferring your debt once is an okay idea. Repeating the process can cause problems.

As for me, my big, bad idea was to save money by not buying a new toaster. I figured I would just use the broiler instead. I don’t think I need to tell you how much gas I wasted by firing up the broiler every time I wanted a little hummus on toast.

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Welcome, Stumblers! Feel free to check out the ‘about’ page to see what this is all about or snag the RSS feed.

I had a big post planned on how we’re paying down our debt, but then I realized I had no clean clothes so here’s a laundry post while I go rectify that. It’s super simple to save money on doing your laundry.

1. Do your laundry correctly. It may seem like you’re saving money by cramming everything into one load and doing it all on hot, but if you’re damaging or shrinking your clothes you’ll have to buy more.
2. Invest in proper extras. Put your delicates in mesh bags and your bras in a bra saver to protect them. Spending $10 now will save a ton of money down the road.
3. Pre-treat with regular detergent mixed with water. Treat stains immediately and you won’t need fancy pants cleaners later.
4. Wash clothes on cold. If you’re worried about cleanliness, they do make detergents specially formulated for cold water (regular detergent works fine, anyway.) I do everything except my whites on cold and have yet to run around looking dirty.
5. Don’t ever do a half load. Often I wait until the last minute to do laundry and end up with an orphan half-load that wastes the cost of a full load. Do a load as the basket fills rather than waiting until you have nothing but a bathrobe and mismatched pajamas left.
6. Don’t use so much detergent. Most people want to use a whole cap full, but if you look at the markings, you’ll see that the first line is usually about halfway down.
7. Don’t use ‘fabric softener’. If you feel like you need it, try 1/4 cup white vinegar instead. If you must use a sheet, use half at a time and then re-use the old ones to dust furniture.
8. Try making your own detergent. This is only for those who have the time to make it and the space to store it, but you can save by making your own powder or liquid detergent.
9. Dry clean only, isn’t. Most ‘dry clean only’ clothes can be cleaned by hand in cold water or even in a washer on cold/delicate. If you have a stain, it’s probably best to take it to the dry cleaners, but otherwise test the detergent on an inconspicuous spot and try for home cleaning.
10. Hang clothes to dry. In an apartment you can still set up a drying rack or string a temporary line across the room. If you can open the windows, all the better. If you don’t pay by the load, throw clothes in the dryer for 5 minutes to soften them up.
11. Wear clothes more than once. I’m not advocating reusing dirty underpants, but you can wear things like PJs, sweatshirts, jeans, dress skirts and jackets more than once. Same thing goes for towels. Don’t be like Mr. Frugal Urbanite and reuse a towel for a month (ew) but you can use that towel for a few days with no ill effects.
12. Put your clothes away properly. If you plan to wear something again, hang it up immediately. This way it looks fresh and new rather than like it’s been sitting on your floor in a crumpled heap (not to mention you won’t have to iron it again.)

Well, those are my tips. Anyone got any others for me?

Images from http://www.sxc.hu/

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Just two quickies, I’m a busy, busy bee today!

1. To make your disposable razors last longer, keep them dry. When you are done shaving, dry the razor off with your towel. If you can, store the razor outside the shower.
2. Hair conditioner makes a great shaving cream. No, I didn’t believe it either at first. The next time you discover that your new conditioner makes your hair limp and icky, try using it on your legs instead. I got a $.99 bottle of Suave and it worked better than the expensive bikini shave gel on my *ahem* sensitive body parts.

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Mindless eating will not help your waistline or your wallet. So what is ‘Mindless Eating?’

Have you ever sat down with a bag of chips to watch TV or started munching cookies while talking on the phone? I’ve even been known to sit down with a good book and a bowl of pretzels. An hour later, you realize that you’ve eaten half that bag of chips and you didn’t even know it.

Mindless eating is not eating for enjoyment or for nutrition, but because the food is there. You end up wasting food and money on empty calories.

Should you stop eating any and all snacks while you entertain yourself? While you could, you don’t need to deny yourself the occasional treat. The solution to stopping mindless eating is quite simple.

1. Don’t store food any place but the kitchen or pantry. This includes things like candy bowls.
2. Educate yourself on proper serving sizes. Read the labels on your treats and make sure you’re clear on how many calories are going down the hatch.
3. When you want a snack, serve yourself a single serving and then put the container back. It’s much harder to mindlessly overindulge if you have to get up to get more.
4. If measuring out 2/3 of a cup of Chex Mix every time seems like too much work, pre-measure your snacks into snack-sized sandwich baggies. Don’t forget you can reuse the bags! (Don’t buy ‘single serving’ sized of anything at the market. You are just paying for extra packaging.)

• Consider waiting until the show/phonecall/whatever is over to have your snack. You will enjoy your food more if you can give your full attention to what’s going into your mouth.
• If you are out in public and can’t bring your own snacks (or just want to indulge,) split the snack between a few people. You really shouldn’t eat that entire bucket of popcorn yourself anyway!

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A lot of urbanites are concerned about ‘going green.’ While preserving our environment is a worthy goal, organic goods and green services are often higher priced, forcing those of use with frugal intentions to choose between frugality and our sense of morality. This is never a good thing.

Luckily, there are many ‘green’ things you can do that either won’t cost you any money or will save you money, like conserving water. Even if you’re not paying for utilities or pay a flat fee, these are all good habits to get into.

• If you drink tap water, keep a pitcher full in the fridge. That way you’re not tempted to run the faucet to get the water cool.
• You can reuse the water used to boil pasta or vegetables. In fact, the vegetable water will contain vitamins leeched from the vegetables themselves.
• Turn the water off when you’re not directly using it. Turn it off while you brush your teeth, soap up your hands, or scrub that pan.
• Shorten your shower time. If you have a product that needs to soak in, do it first and let it sit while you finish the rest of your shower. Try turning off your shower while you shave various body parts.
• If you have a leaky faucet or runny toilet, get it fixed immediately. You’d be surprised how much water that little drip can waste.
• If you are replacing appliances, look for low water volume washers, toilets and high pressure showerheads.
• Don’t run a half-empty dishwasher or washing machine. If you have to run a small load in the washer, make sure you change the water settings to the appropriate level.
• Before you water any outdoor plants, check the weather. No sense watering a lawn if it’s going to rain for the next two days.
• Check your garden hose for holes and spigots and connections for leaks. Make sure you turn the faucet all the way off when you are done with your outdoor work.

These are just a few of the ways you can save water. With a little forethought, you can put a big dent in your water bill and save the environment and your finances at the same time.

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