Home-Ec Guest - Home-Ec 101

Weekly Project: Books, books, books!

Ivy says: I knew last week was going to be so busy I wouldn’t be able to get any projects done, so I didn’t do one . This week looks to be better, though, so here’s what I’m working on: culling my books. Now, I know my fellow book lovers are saying, “Wait, there is …

Saving Money On Bottled Water

Ivy says: Recently, I saw a discussion about bottled water in a frugality community. Some people were saying it is not frugal at all to buy bottled water, since tap water is (essentially) free. Others explained that the water where they lived was just bad and they needed bottled water. I’m in the “my water …

Reminder

Ivy says: This is only marginally on topic, and for that, I apologize. But I think this is really important, so here goes. The internet was boring, so I went a-stumbling. I ran into this post, a tribute to Mr. Rogers. I nearly broke down into tears, because lately I’ve been feeling pretty hateful toward …

Cheap Vacation Strategies: Tourist In Your Own Town

Ivy says: My cousin is coming to town sometime in the next 2 months and wanted to know what she should see and do in Nashville. She especially wantd to know if the Country Music Hall of Fame was worth the $18 admission fee. When I told her I had never been to the Country …

Taking out the trash

Dear Home Ec 101, Where I live we have to pay for trash disposal. The trash disposal company we use gives us great big trash cans that most of us around here call dumpsters. Today, I was so embarassed when I got this note from the trash disposal guys: “Could you please clean out your …

We Save So We Can Splurge

Ivy says: My mom bought a new couch for her office recently. The day her couch came, her house was hit by lightning, frying most of her electronic equipment. I joked that the gods of finance sent that lightning bolt for buying something so expensive. She was not amused. I was. But she said something …

How to Rid a Pantry of Moths and Weevils

Dear Home Ec 101, My food pantry is completely full of weevils, I tried fog bombs, insecticide, you name it, I took out the flour and pasta packages and put them in the fridge, I also put the rice and beans in air tight containers, but still the little buggers are there. What else needs …

Weekly Project #2: The great laundry debacle

Ivy says: This week’s project is going to be loads of fun. Well, loads of something, anyway. Yes, Home Eccers, it’s time to actually catch up on the laundry once and for all, and get rid of all non-fitting, ugly, stained, or otherwise not-fabulous clothing. Let’s look at the schedule, shall we? Monday: The gathering …

Grandma’s Home Remedies: The Good, The Benign, And The Dangerous

Ivy says:

When I was a kid, my grandma had one remedy for nearly every malady that befell us kids. If my brother and cousins read Home Ec 101, they’d be laughing right about now. See, no matter what was wrong with us, she had the same advice. Sick to your stomach? You’d better try to poop. Headache? Have you pooped lately? “Grandma! I have a broken arm!” “Your arm is fine, you just need to poop.” And if you told her you didn’t need to poop, she’d come running after you with castor oil, so you were pooping whether you wanted to or not.

Now, I don’t exactly get that excited about pooping, but I have noticed 9 times out of 10 when my kids come to me with a stomachache, they do just need to poop. Ah, well, grandma was right.

Now, pooping wasn’t my grandma’s only home remedy although it was the most frequent. There are a lot of home remedies that are actually good, some that are benign and may work by the “placebo effect”, and some that are downright dangerous. Let’s explore a few, shall we? (after the jump)