Most of our grandparents grew up during the depression and/or WWII. Because of that, they have a different ethic about how long things should last and how often things need to be replaced. My mother-in-law, for example, still has a dial phone in her kitchen – she sees no need to get a new phone because her old one works just fine. My husband feels that way about his clothes – which is why I have to shop for him and sneak things into the Goodwill bag when he’s not looking.

These days, making your major purchases last is becoming more important. From an environmental standpoint, the more we make things last, the less we’ll have to put into the landfill. From a monetary standpoint, it just makes sense to make your expensive items last as long as you can. Here’s a list of some of those items and steps you can take to help make them last.

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Many of us haven’t seen all the movies yet, but it’s still fun to watch the stars come out and see who wins. Make it more fun by inviting a group of girlfriends, couples or neighbors that are movie lovers. As always, we have some ideas for keeping the party fun and staying within your frugal living plan.

Refreshments – Ask your guests to bring either a bottle of inexpensive champagne or an appetizer. We found a website called thatsthespirit.com that has fabulous cocktail recipes using champagne. Here’s one that will be great for your party:

RED CARPET FIZZ (from thatsthespirit.com)
1/3 oz. Orange liqueur (Cointreau, Triple Sec, Grand Marnier)
1/2 oz. pomegranate juice
1 750-ml. bottle champagne
fresh raspberries

Mix Pomegranate Juice and Orange Liqueur with plenty of ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail or champagne glass. Top with 4 ounces of Champagne and a raspberry.

Attire – If you’re hosting only women, ask them to wear the most outrageous earrings they can find. I won this contest one time with a pair of $2.00 Goodwill earrings. If you’re hosting couples, ask the men to wear an Oscar-worthy hat or tie. Give small prizes to the best dressed attendees.

Fun – Have everyone put three dollars in a hat and do a “pool” for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Film. Have a little voting sheet that they fill out when they come in the door. Divvy up the money at the end of the night or as you go along.

Hosting doesn’t have to cost a lot, you just need to make a little effort to get your house tidy. Don’t hold yourself to Martha’s standards and you’ll have a relaxing evening with your friends. Have fun at the Oscars!

Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com

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Most of us have, in the past, bought too much stuff: too many clothes, too much bedding and too many knick-knacks and holiday items that all need places to live. My Mom still collects those scary-looking Snow Babies which she “promises” that I’ll get when she dies (I’d rather try to get her Nativity sets past my Jewish husband). If you, like me, have too much stuff and are in need of some frugal home storage solutions, we have some ideas for you.

Under-bed boxes – If you have a bed that has a standard-size bed frame, under-bed storage is a great option for you. You can get boxes with rollers (more expensive) or simply large, flat boxes that slide under your bed. I keep wrapping paper, seasonal clothing and extra bedding under the bed in these handy boxes.

Over the door hangers – I use these in both of my bathrooms. They come in the version that has five hooks so that you can hang up all the stray towels, your robe and the clothes that you need for the next day… all on the door to the bathroom. There is zero installation. Just hang it over the top of the door!

Book Cases – When was the last time you purged your bookcases of the books you’ve read that you don’t need to keep? Send them along to your favorite charity and open up your bookcases for other items. Grab some decorative photo storage boxes (Michael’s always has them on sale) and stash whatever you need to stash.

Double Closet Bars – If you have an older home and have a single bar in your closet, you MUST invest in a hanging double-bar. It immediately doubles the amount of things that you can hang in your closet and installs just by hanging the hook over your existing closet bar. You can get them for as little as $9.99.

Just remember, you don’t have to do an extreme home makeover to get more mileage out of your space!

Happy Storage!

Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com

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Money Saving Tips for Frugal Haircare:

1. Olive oil is a fabulous hair conditioner. Put on 1/4 to 1/3 cup and leave it on for half an hour before you wash your hair. It doesn’t have to be Extra Virgin so you should be able to save money and get a bottle for $5-6.00. Put $10 in your Wish Jar since beauty supply treatments usually cost $15.00.

2. Use a color touch-up pen or kit to extend the life of your hair color between colorings. Oscar Blandi Pronto Colore is highly rated on beauty websites and costs $23.00 but you can get it right now on the ULTA website for $3.50 off. Put $20 in your Wish Jar if it gets you three or four more weeks between salon treatments.

Happy haircare!
Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com

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You know we love free stuff here at Rubbing Nickels so we’ve polled the web for top smartphone and superphone apps as rated by a number of geeky sites including appcraver.com, phandroid.com and androiddTapp.com. Here they are:

iPhone:

• Vocab Lab Lite Edition By Kooapps LLC – Want to ace standardized verbal exams like the SAT and GRE? Want to study on the car, bus, or in class? Want to make the best use of every minute you have? This app is for you!

• mBox Fax & Voice By mBox – mBox is a virtual fax machine and voice answering service. mBox will assign you a unique telephone number in any one of our locations which behaves just like a regular fax machine or message service. This is very handy technology for business travelers.

• Showtimes By Avantar LLC – MACWORLD: “The Best Movie App…When it comes to finding a movie, Showtimes is my favorite app of the bunch”. 4.5 of 5 rating, a full 1.5 higher mouse rating than our competitors. Top Ten Reviews: “5 of 5 Stars”. Worth a try!

• Step Trak Lite, by Award Technologies. If you like hiking or just long walks, you will enjoy StepTrak Lite, a free pedometer app for the iPhone.

• Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List by CondeNet has over 25,000 recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit and other professionals. If you like to cook, you’ll love this app.

Droid Phone:

• Shazam for Android is one of the most useful & coolest apps you can find. It delivers functionality better on mobile than on a desktop. I absolutely fell in love with the app when seeing it on the Apple iPhone TV Commercial; an app powerful enough to listen to music and tell you what song it is … uncanny!

• Pandora – The application incorporates your online account saving your stations and favorite songs. The Android version of this application allows you to do multiple things while the music plays, it truly is great.

• Sportstap – (Free) Sportstap allows you to be up to date with scores, stats and information with fast updates. Select your teams and this app will be dynamite!

• Taskiller – Taskiller is a task manager that allows you to see all of the running apps and processes on your phone. You can kill apps/processes individually or all at once. There is an “ignore” list that will prevent your favorite apps from being killed with the “kill all” button.

• The Weather Channel – It’s great to know what weather is coming your way. You can set it for different locations and also be able to know what the weather looks like for tomorrow.

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Cunard is giving away a marvelous cruise aboard the world-famous Queen Mary 2. This trip is the ultimate in luxury. The Grand Prize includes:

• Premium Balcony Stateroom for two

• Roundtrip coach airfare & ground transportation between departure, arrival & hotel

• One complimentary dinner for two in Todd English®

• Dining in Britannia Restaurant

• Canyon Ranch SpaClub® treatment for two

If you and your significant other are in serious need of a getaway (on someone else’s nickel), hurry up and enter this fabulous sweepstakes that is presented through Travel and Leisure Magazine. Offer ends 3/31/10.

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