Provident Mom

There are several advantages to making homemade peanut butter. First, it’s better for you than your average peanut butter because it isn’t hydrogenated. Second, it’s fun, and your kids will love making it—especially if you buy peanuts in the shell and they get to shell them. Third, it’s tasty and fresh. Fourth, it can be very inexpensive if you buy bulk peanuts at just the right time of year (summer to autumn).

You need:

1 cup of hulled, roasted peanuts
1 ½ Tbs. Peanut oil
1/8 tsp. Salt

What to do:

Put the ingredients in the blender and start the blender on low speed (let your child push the button). Holding the lid down, switch to high speed, stopping it once or twice to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Stop when it’s as smooth or as crunchy as you like it. Don’t make more than two cups at a time or your blender might revolt. Keep it refrigerated.

Beauty Tips from 1967

The following beauty tips were published in Around the House Like Magic by Jean E. Laird. Jean Laird had a successful newspaper column called “Around the House with Jean,” in which she shared tips for making a woman’s life easier. They may seem a bit dated today, which makes me wonder how my daughters will view my life in a few years. What will they laugh at and call archaic? Time will tell:

*Here is a great exercise for sagging chin muscles. Press your tongue very hard agains the back of the roof of your mouth. This is one you can do even in a crowded room, as nobody knows you are doing it.

*If you wear bifocals you know how hard it is to see what you are doing when tweezing your eyebrows. Next time try turning your glasses upside down!

*For a quick-drying hairset, try this. Put your curlers in a bowl of hot water. Drain the water, leaving the curlers in the bowl. Shake each curler as it is used, then roll the dry hair. After the hair is up cover head with a damp hairnet. This procedure gives you just enough moisture for curls to set in a jiffy, but leaves your hair dry.

*Take along a silk scarf when you go shopping for dresses. Tie the scarf on your head and pull the dresses over your head without the fear of messing your hair-do. This is also a lifesaver for dressing to go out.

*If you have to cook dinner for your family before going out for the evening, and have just come home from the beauty shop, you can protect your new hair-do by wearing a large bouffant-type shower cap. It will prevent your hair-do from drooping, and you will not carry with you those telltale cooking odors. Your coiffure will remain as sweet-smelling as when you left the beauty salon.

*If you use stale beer for setting your hair in a hurry, be sure and use it only in the winter months when you are inside. If you go outdoors in the summer months, the beer attracts some insects and a certain bee will just love you. It won’t be worth the sting!

Try these tips for cutting your laundry costs:

1. Make your own fabric refresher (like Febreze). Use this recipe:

1 part fabric softener
1 part baking soda
2 parts water

Add the baking soda to boiling water. When baking soda is dissolved, mix in the fabric softener. When the liquid is cool, put it in a spray bottle. If you want to change the scent, add a few drops of essential oil.

2. Use coupons for detergent. You can often find coupons for laundry detergent in the Sunday paper. Couple these coupons with store sales and you should never have to pay more than $2 for a good-sized bottle or box of laundry detergent. When you find these good deals, stock up.

3. Dry cleaning. Dry cleaning bills can easily make your laundry bill skyrocket. When purchasing clothes, make a point of staying away from items that require dry cleaning. If you must buy “dry clean only” items like suits or silks, shop around for a reasonable dry cleaner. Many dry cleaning operations don’t post their prices, and you could be shocked by the price when you pick the item up, so ask ahead of time.

4. Fabric softener. Cheryl Mendelson, author of Home Comforts, says that fabric softeners achieve their effect by leaving a waxy coating on fabrics. She recommends using fabric softener sparingly and to never use it on towels, underwear, t-shirts, sheets and pillowcases because the waxy residue can irritate your skin. Many people use fabric softeners because they love the smell of it, but you can get the smell by using it only so often or by using a very small amount. This saves you money in the long run.

5. Stain removal. Stain removing products can be quite expensive, but you have some things around your house right now that will work at least as well.

Ammonia is useful in removing fresh perspiration stains and stains from deodorant and antiperspirants. It’s also useful for removing fresh urine stains.

Vinegar is effective for treating old urine and perspiration stains.

Bleach can be used to remove stains caused by coffee, tea, soft drinks, Popsicles, children’s medications, grass, mustard, fruits or fruit juices, ink, or blud.

Lemon juice is effective with rust stains.