Frugalous

One of the best parts about being one of Wal-Mart’s ElevenMoms is the opportunity to give great prizes away to my readers and subscribers.

Nickelodeon has teamed up with the Elevenmoms and Wal-Mart to offer you a chance to win a $500 Wal-Mart gift card just in time for the holidays. I’m sure you can think of lots of ways to use that card and entering is simple. Just follow the steps below for your chance to win and then head on over to the ElevenMoms website for more chances to win.

How to enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter.
2. Sign up for the Frugalous Monthly Newsletter (sign up is on this page).
3. Post a comment below with ONE money saving tip for the Holidays, your twitter user name, and the email address you used to sign up for the newsletter.

This contest ends at 11:59pm EST on December 14, 2008.
Please note that you must complete all 3 steps to win! Good luck!
Winner will be notified by email on December 15, 2008 and will have 24 hours to reply.

EDIT: a reminder folks – you need to comment with 1. your money saving holiday tip AND 2. your twitter user name used to follow me AND 3. the email you used to sign up for the monthly newsletter. If you do not have all THREE of these in your comment you will not be eligible to win!

Clogged toilets. Ugh. You flush. The water rises to the top of the bowl (and possibly over). You get out the plunger. Plunge. Plunge. Still clogged. You’re grossed out and frustrated. You reach for the Drain-o or other chemical solution. Plunge. Plunge. Plunge. You consider buying an auger, a toilet snake. Still very much grossed out.

I have the joy of living with a teenaged son who clogs my toilet on a regular (every 2-4 weeks) basis. I’ve been there wayyyy more times than I’d care to count. Nothing worse than a clogged toilet.

Finally I discovered a quick, easy and frugal way to fix the toilet.

Liquid dish soap.

Seriously.

Pour about a tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the clogged toilet and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. Come back and plunge and usually within 2 or 3 plunges everything goes down the drain easily again.

I’ve used this tip 5 times in the past 2 months and it’s worked like a charm each and every time.

My family ran a fast food (as in just about everything deep fried) restaurant when I was a kid. Every weekend my job was to wash the big windows all around the restaurant. This is an inexpensive, easy and best of all, environmentally friendly recipe for shining windows:

Add 1/2 cup ammonia or white vinegar to one gallon of water. Wash windows with a sponge or white cotton cloth then wipe dry with crumpled newspaper (the daily newspaper, not newsprint) and your windows will be sparkling clean and streak free.