The Complete Tightwad Gazette is along-awaited complete compendium of tightwad tips for fabulous frugal living!
In a newsletter published from May 1990 to December 1996 as well as in three enormously successful books, Amy Dacyczyn established herself as the expert of economy.
Now The Complete Tightwad Gazette brings together all of her best ideas and thriftiest thinking into one volume, along with new articles never published before in book format.
Dacyczyn describes this collection as “the book I wish I’d had when I began my adult life.” Packed with humor, creativity, and insight, The Complete Tightwad Gazette includes hundreds of tips and topics, such as:
Travel for tightwads
How to transform old blue jeans into potholders and quilts
Ten painless ways to save $100 this year
Picture-framing for pennies
A comparison of painting versus re-siding your house
Halloween costumes from scrounged materials
Thrifty window treatments
Ways to dry up dry-cleaning costs
Inexpensive gifts
Creative fundraisers for kids
Slashing your electric bill
Frugal fix-its
Cutting the cost of college
Moving for less
Saving on groceries
Gift-wrapping for tightwads
Furniture-fusion fundamentals
Cheap breakfast cereals
Avoiding credit card debt
Using items you were about to throw away (milk jugs, plastic meat trays, and more!)
The Complete Tightwad Gazette also contains recipes galore, from penny-pinching pizza to toaster pastries¸ And much much more . . .
A few weeks ago we showed how to make a small rocket stove using a recycled #10 can and a few old soup cans.
It was a cool project, but I quickly got a couple emails from people wanting to see how to actually use the darn thing.
It is pretty simple and I am going to show you how to light and set about using a rocket stove.
Its called a rocket stove because the design causes a draft much like a rocket, so it WANTS to burn.
Simple wad up some newspaper or other tinder and stick inside the top chimney,
Then insert a couple of small sticks of kindling – larger than a stalk of wheat, but smaller than a pencil – into the top of the chimney.
Light it, and when the kindling catches on fire, insert more kindling in the upper half of the fire hole.
Air will be pulled in through the bottom half of the fire hole and will totally consume the ends of the sticks.
If properly fueled and fully lit, there will be little or no smoke.
As you can see in the video below, only a few twigs heated up my cast iron skillet hot enough to burn my hotdogs.
The beauty of this type of stove is how much heat you get from a small amount of wood that otherwise would be too small to be useful – this allows you to practice your technique often.
Have fun, and try not to burn your house down as the stove gets very hot.
I first heard of eMeals several years ago from Dave Ramsey, and I subscribed for about a year. I found the service to be very easy, and only let it lapse because I changed banks and was too lazy to change the account.
Now that we have a baby, and I am busier with classes and night shift I wanted to find an easier way to eat better without having to put a lot of thought into it.
I was very surprised when I went back to the eMeals site and saw how many new plans they have now – my wife and I spent some time “talking” about what would be better. I wanted slow-cooker for simplicity, or the Aldi plan for frugality – but the clean eating plan won. I couldn’t even get a compromise on the slow cooker clean eating plan.
Oh well, if that’s what Genny wants, I can accommodate – after all, how many wives will let their crazy husbands grow fish in the basement or run a steam engine on the stove…
I recommend you looking at their site, even if you don’t subscribe to their service, they have a very good concept, and I think you will be well served by checking it out.
They also have a referral program, that I learned about as I went back to reactivate my service – if you have a website you can make a little from passing the word around. If you click on the link from my site, I make a small percentage of your purchase – but its okay – its going into the I want some land fund, I promise I won’t use it to pay tuition at Diamond Dave’s Ninji School.
If you buy some egg rolls from the freezer section of the grocery you can spend some time with your kids letting them make single serving crisp eggroll pizza.
I don’t normally eat egg rolls. I hate the ones with cabbage in them. However, these egg rolls taste pretty good. Its also something I can let the kid do.
It really isn’t hard to make.
Ingredients:
Egg Roll Wrappers
Pepperoni Slices
String Cheese
Pizza Sauce
Olive Oil
Procedure:
Lay out the wrappers
Layer the sauce, pepperoni, and cheese on the wrapper taking care not to go overboard. Less is more.
Wrap the egg roll up
Lightly coat with oil
Bake our little pizza sticks at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.
Egg roll pizza could not be any easier. They are even easier than my fridge bread pizza.
My son liked the eggroll pizza, but since he loves all pizza of any type – it wasn’t a stretch. Pizza is a good meal to do with your kids.
My boy has more fun making the different types of pizza than he does eating them. We recently did a really cool one using canned biscuit dough to make a whomp biscuit pizza.
This is the first guest post I have added since opening up the blog to other writers. I have been interested in Dogs for Personal Protection for a long time, and at one time did a little work helping train some protection dogs, but I realized I don’t have the attention to detail that it takes to be successful. This is one area where you need some help and guidance from someone with lots of experience.
Dogs for Personal Protection
Any of us are susceptible to an invasion of our home or personal space. Having another soul to rely on can make a situation a lot less frightening and a lot more safe. A dog, for example, can be not only an extremely loyal companion, but an excellent source of security.
General Positives and Negatives of Owning a Dog for Protection
Positives
Safety – if you live in a big city, bad neighborhood, etc. having a dog can be a constant reassurance of safety, and in general the image of a dog being with you makes you less susceptible for attack
Confidence/fulfillment – achieving goals with your dog is motivating and helps you feel accomplished
Companionship/emotional support – having a dog can be highly stress relieving
Socializing – you meet a host of people when involving yourself in training dogs
Negatives
Responsibility comes with owning a dog – and that means time on the owner’s part. You gain respect and loyalty through your efforts, however, which is well worth it.
Expenses, such as training and maintenance costs
There’s a chance of aggression in a high-drive dog if mis-trained or improperly bred
Frustration and difficulty – dogs can be very hard to understand for the uninformed, and it can be difficult to help them learn something when you are unaware of how they learn. At times, dogs also can be stubborn, which is why consistency is extremely important. Getting all others who may live with the dog on the same page can also be cause of further hindrance.
Remorse if your dog is hurt or killed from protecting you
Choosing a Breed
If you don’t already have a dog, or are considering obtaining one for safety, than there are some more capable of protection than others. It’s also important that you find a reputable breeder, preferably one specializing in high drive dogs (dogs that are not docile, but love to work), with a healthy and impressive pedigree.
Great breeds to work with for personal protection:
German Shepherd
Malinois
Dutch Shepherd
Rottweiler
Mastiff (variety)
Pit Bull (variety)
Doberman Pinscher
Dogo Argentino
Cane Corso
BoerBoel
Ridgeback (variety)
Akita Inu
These such dogs could be effectively trained to not only watch, but act. There are certain breeds designated to alert (many small breeds), and others to react quickly – the protection dog. The German sport Schutzhund (literally “protection dog”) has rules and a scoring system which are effective standards of everything a protection dog should be able to do – obedience, tracking, and protection. Tracking is often the least interesting when dealing with personal protection, and more appealing to police and investigative work.
Expenses
There are drawbacks with this method of safety assurance, such as the costs of the dog itself (a good German Shepherd on average is $1300.00), maintenance, as well as having the patience, time, and money to train. You’ll need the proper equipment, such as body suites or hidden arm sleeves, which are rather expensive, and not easy to make from scratch.
Preparation
Giving the dog the ultimate amount of exposure possible is also necessary, such as preparing him/her for as many situations as you can. Mondeo and French Ring Sport are great sports which challenge the dog’s courage and reaction traits.
Situations to be prepared for:
Yelling/threatening
Gun Shots
Attacking from a car window
Assault on owner or dog itself
Masks (on the offender)
Attacking in narrow spaces
Purse snatching
etc.
The more varied the environment and situation the dog is trained in, the better suitable he/she will be as an attack dog.
Considering a Dog for Protection?
The first place to start is to find a reputable breeder, with proper papers to prove a satisfactory bloodline in the dog. In America, AKC certified dogs do not mean a dog is of good quality, so keep this in mind. Germany, on the other hand, has very strict breeding practices in their country as far as qualifications go. It’s best to do your research beforehand. Note that if you already have a dog, it is very possible to train him/her in protection – it just may take more time and effort. It will not always happen, as some dogs are simply just too docile/submissive.
Secondly, you should supply yourself with proper equipment and a trainer if you don’t wish to self-educate. Good trainers usually have titled dogs in protection sports, or have a list of references of the work they’ve accomplished. If you get a puppy, train early!
Dogs have shown to be courageous hero’s in wars, police work, and for personal guarding. Most dogs have an intuition in and of themselves, and are aware of their surroundings when need be, making dogs an excellent form of defense.
A few weeks ago we showed how to 
This is the first guest post I have added since opening up the blog to other writers. I have been interested in Dogs for Personal Protection for a long time, and at one time did a little work helping train some protection dogs, but I realized I don’t have the attention to detail that it takes to be successful. This is one area where you need some help and guidance from someone with lots of experience.