Everyday Cheapskate: A Clever Use for Useless Candle Stubs

Mary Hunt on Nov 28, 2024

One of the unfortunate side effects of embracing a frugal lifestyle is that gnawing tendency to never throw anything away. Fight the feeling, folks. Turning into a hoarder will only create a new problem in your life. Now, about all those useless candle stubs you're hanging onto -- get them out and keep them by your fireplace or wood burning stove:

Cheap Fire Starter: Save your candle stubs in a container by the fireplace. The next time you need to start a fire, light a couple of the stubs and throw them in along with paper or kindling. The wax will burn for a long time and give the larger pieces of wood more time to catch fire. -- Mary Anne P.

Ultimate Sales Insert: If you often spend Sunday afternoon paging through the week's sales inserts for your favorite stores, I have good news. We stopped paying for the Sunday newspaper just for the sale ads because SundaySaver is free and saves our family both time and money. SundaySaver.com has handy links to all weekly sales and specials for hundreds of stores like Kohl's, Walmart, Old Navy, Walgreens, Home Depot, Amazon and more. -- Kim P.

Fresh Veggies: My grandmother taught me a long time ago to always put a piece of paper towel or a napkin in my zip-type bags of vegetables. This absorbs the condensation from the vegetables and keeps the environment dry, which preserves the vegetables' refrigerator life. I change the paper when I notice it getting too damp. -- Patti Z.

Pot of Noodles: I was looking for some foam one day to fill in the bottom of my large flower pot and discovered I could cut up one of the large pool noodle (swim toy) with my electric knife and place the pieces in the bottom of the pot. Now the pot is not completely filled with dirt and does not weigh as much. -- Lou M.

Instant Easter Grass: I take used or wrinkled gift tissue of all sizes and colors and put it through the paper shredder. I use this for filler in gift bags and "grass" in Easter candy baskets. -- Heidi N., email

Burnt-On Food Removal: When you burn anything in your pan while cooking, just put about a cup of water in it, return it to the burner and let it boil about five minutes. The burnt food will come out with just a little scrubbing. -- Gladys B.

Sock-a-Ladder: We needed to bring in the outside ladder for a little job inside the house. The ladder is dirty on the bottom, so I took some old socks and slipped them onto the ladder's "legs," securing them with a rubber band. This kept the floor clean. -- Davena Z.

Banana Storage: Use a large cup hook under a cabinet to hang your bananas. It sure is cheaper than a "banana hanger" and it does the job quite well! -- Yvonne, email

Helpful Ticket: Before Thanksgiving, give all family members who'll attend, a ticket to write down their current interests, hobbies and Christmas gift requests. The rule is: no ticket, no dinner. (Make sure they know this is all in fun.) -- Paul D.

Holiday Mantelpiece: To make a gorgeous yet inexpensive holiday display for your fireplace mantel, lay sprays of evergreens across the top, thread a string of white lights on green wire through them, and nestle some of your collectibles, ornaments or pinecones amid the greens. -- Polly E.

Cut Flower Care: Cut flower stems on a slant with a knife. Angled cuts permit absorption even when the stem rests on the bottom of the container. To aid water intake, scrape stem ends for about an inch; split woody stems with a knife or mash with a hammer. Plunge stems into water immediately after cutting. Remove excess and damaged foliage as well as foliage below water level. Fill the container with clean water; refresh as often as possible by holding the vase under the faucet and flushing with tepid water until the old water is forced out. -- Jenn H.

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Mary invites you to visit her at EverydayCheapskate.com, where this column is archived complete with links and resources for all recommended products and services. Mary invites questions and comments at https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/contact/, "Ask Mary." This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of EverydayCheapskate.com, a frugal living blog, and the author of the book "Debt-Proof Living."