Great sample offering for pet lovers!

Get a free 3 ounce can of Purina Fancy Feast or Beggin’ Strips dog treats by clicking this link.

Click the bar at the top where it says “Give your pet a taste of Purina” to load the easy-to-complete form.

When I cleaned houses, I bought a great book called, “Speed Cleaning,” and from it I learned the fastest way to clean a toilet.

Sure, not a glamorous job, but it can be done quick and easy — and there is a method! It works, too — honestly, I just timed myself in the powder room, and it took 2 minutes flat.

This post underscores that there are ways to make cleaning faster and simpler. I always thought I was good until I read the “Speed Cleaning” book — and that’s when I learned you can make all the tasks more efficient.

So let’s start with the toilet:

Step 1: Gather necessary materials — toilet bowl cleaner or cleanser, toilet brush, two paper towels (still attached), and a spray cleaner.

Step 2: Remove items from the top of the toilet (if any).

Step 3: Lift lid and seat. Pour toilet bowl cleaner or cleanser into bowl. Scrub with toilet brush. Flush toilet and rinse brush in the swirling water.

Step 4: Working backward, spray rim, then underside of seat, then top of seat, then underside of lid, then lid, then flat area behind lid and then top of toilet with cleaner. You should end up with the toilet totally closed once done spraying. (Now, remember, you don’t need to douse with cleaner — you’re just making more work for yourself — just a light spray will do.)

Step. 5: Working forward, clean top of toilet, then handle, touch up back from overspray, and then clean top of lid. Clean flat area behind lid. Flip cloth. Clean inside of lid, seat, underside of seat, and then rim. Flush paper towels or toss.

If you have particularly messy bathroom users, you may need to use one more towel to clean base of toilet and outer bowl, but we don’t have to so often. (Thank the Lord.)

And that’s it! You just learned how to speed clean a toilet. Tell your friends!

One more tip: Want to know how to unclog a toilet without a plunger, etc.? Check out this post from the past.

Happy flushing!

OK, just had to share … I was scouting new free sample offers I could post, and came across this very ironic combination — one offer was for a free sample of Trojan condoms; the next offering was a free sample of a new magazine … it’s name?

Wood.

Pardon the sentimental post, but I just caught up on all my friends’ blogs tonight, and I was feeling all warm and fuzzy.

When I started ProHomemaker.com more than a year ago, I wanted to help people with tips and ideas that I’ve learned over the years. What I didn’t expect was how I have come to find many friends all over the country.

I couldn’t write this post without mentioning my biggest fan — and the woman whose Blogroll I follow — and that’s Farmer’s Wife in Texas. When she found my blog, she sent me the nicest email to say how she was loving everything she read. Since then, we’ve developed a strong friendship via email, and that just amazes me. Here I am in Southern California, and there is Farmer’s Wife in South Texas, and we share at least a couple times a week. The Internet is amazing!

Through her blog, I’ve met so many sweet people, including FW’s best friend Dez, KC in Texas (trying to feed four growing boys) and artist Gary in New York, and his delightful personality. I truly look forward to seeing what’s up with them every day — usually as my “lunch break” while I finally eat during the course of my workday, or late at night as I try to relax to go to bed. I love it!

I started ProHomemaker.com to help people, and have been happy with my very modest success (about 50 hits a day), but I have to admit I wish I had more readers (my ego). But the Lord sometimes blesses you with a sign, and I just got this blog comment 10 minutes ago, and it made it me smile like no tomorrow:

Your buffet diagram will come in handy for my son’s baptism brunch. We will set up on our 8ft kitchen island. I am so happy I found your blog!
Thank you for the great ideas!

That was from a post I wrote back during the holidays! And here I am helping someone surfing the Internet on a late night in May on how to set up a buffet! And, that’s when I felt success — I am helping people!

But, in the process, I have found many wonderful people across the country whom I consider friends. Honestly, that’s the gift I wasn’t expecting.

When I did a newspaper interview two weeks ago, a poster on the paper’s web site tried to find any reason possible why not to coupon shop. I would like her to see this haul from today! $158.51 in groceries for $50.05! (I had to use the wide angle lens to photograph it!)
This is what I consider a pantry- and fridge-stocking shop. Not a lot in the way of meats (but I stocked up when they hit thier lowest price), but everything else that keeps a household running. (By the way, there are four 12-packs of Sprite in the photo hidden toward the back, too!)

How did I rack up such savings? Matching grocery club specials, with coupons — both paper, Internet and ones loaded directly to my club cards — with rain checks and hitting the loss leaders at two stores. But keep in mind, a lot of these were just hitting the specials — the coupons just made them incredible deals!

I got numerous items for free — wieners, a toothbrush, floss — as well as a host of other items at killer prices (Kraft salad dressing for 34 cents! Campbells Mushroom Soup for 50 cents a can! Wheat Thins for 69 cents!)

We are stocked for at least two to three months easy.

This deserves to be emphasized: We have more food in the house now that I coupon shop than we ever did — and we spend at least 60 percent less!

To learn more, check out my numerous posts on Grocery Store Tactics and Coupon Shopping.

But for the person who thought smart shopping doesn’t pay — I nearly paid for one side of our three-night cruise last week this afternoon just by being a smart shopper.

It works!

The last couple weeks I’ve been advising a couple other people on how they can save at the grocery store — as well as doing a newspaper interview. And I found there are two grocery store secrets of which most people are unaware. Now you will know them, too.

Here’s the situation, your store has a killer deal (a loss leader, most likely, as I wrote about in this post). You gleefully head down the aisle anticipating the savings, but the shelf is wiped clean of the product. Here’s the scoop: Unless the ad states “quantities are limited,” the store must offer you a raincheck for the item at the sale price. Do they offer it to you? No! You have to ask! Normally the cashier will do this for you, but sometimes you need to go to the Courtesy Desk. The best part is you get to go back a week later and scoop up the deal and sometimes a new coupon appeared that makes it even a better deal a week later! This is happening this week for me — my store was out of Oscar Mayer wieners for 99 cents last week, but this past Sunday a great coupon came out for $1 off, so now I am going to get them for free! A tip: I put my rainchecks in a an envelope marked with the store’s name, so I remember to use ‘em.

This is how you can net a mega-deal on a sale item. If the chain’s ad (located at the front of the store) includes a store coupon for an item (usually a loss leader), you may combine it with a manufacturer coupon to net a mega-deal. For instance, Pine Sol is on special at one of my local stores for $1.99 (very good price) with an in-ad coupon. But I also have a coupon for 50 cents from the manufacturer, which will be doubled, and will end with a mega-good price of 99 cents for a big bottle of Pine Sol! This is when the coupon database at www.Couponmom comes in handy — just make a mental note to check for a manufacturer coupon to match with a store coupon, and you will walk out of the store smiling.

Hope these tips give you even better strategies at saving at the store. Yes, it’s a game, but it’s a fun one to win.

Pop quiz: Which is more germ and bacteria laden — the many disgusting surfaces of a public bathroom or the seemingly innocent grocery store cart?

If you picked the toilet seat in a bathroom you’re wrong.
Still don’t believe me? According to a four-year study by the University of Arizona, your average grocery cart with the one wheel that goes a direction all its own harbors human saliva, mucus, urine, blood and juices from raw meat, and — did we mention? — fecal matter.

OK, take a breath, and let me tell you the grocery cart (or “trolley” in Britain) was introduced in the 1930s as a marketing tactic by grocery stores. It allowed shoppers to buy more than they could easily handle, leading people to purchase more products. And, did you know the first supermarket opened in New York in 1930.

Now that I talked you down, let’s get back to that petri dish. The problem with shopping carts is that they are not cleaned often (a public bathroom is scoured many more times), and people come into contact with the market trolley for longer periods of time.

Want to know the dirtiest part of a cart? If you guessed the handle, you’re close, but it’s that little “baby seat” in the front. Why? ‘Cause babies — in their leaking diapers — sit there, drool there, and generally spread any bodily fluid they can there. (I can see you ripping your purse out of there as we speak.)

How to protect yourself? If your store supplies those sanitary wipes at the entrance, wipe down the handle, all along the rim, and the seat of the cart. Grab an extra one to re-wipe your hands. Then, once you come home from the store, wash your hands before you do anything else. (My Mom, who has a low immune system, keeps a can of sanitary wipes in her car so she can do it before she even touches the steering wheel.)

I am a nut for cleaning my grocery cart before I begin my weekly shop, and it has kept me healthy for many years. Too bad I didn’t do the same on the cruise I was just on — came home with a cold. But I hope this sticks in your mind, so you take those extra moments when you walk into the Piggly Wiggly and wipe down that cart.

Let’s go back in time — way back — to May 13, 1955. You come home from grocery shopping. After unloading the bags from your yellow 1953 Ford Fairlane, and putting them away in the icebox, you finally grab a moment of your own, and sit down to read your favorite magazine, Housekeeping Monthly. As you flip through it, you come across this most interesting article, “The Good Wife’s Guide.”

“Hmmm,” you think, “I wonder if I am a good spouse?”

Well, let’s see, do you follow these rules when hubby comes home from a day at the office:

and — most importantly:

I think about this time you would decide that 4 o’clock is the perfect time to whip up a Manhattan (and here is the recipe).

Let’s move forward to present time. Yep, these tips are incredibly sexist - and I mean with a capital S! But when you cut through the crap, there are some others I consider good advice for any homemaker — and I consider that definition to mean anyone who has the primary responsibility of keeping the house running. That could be a stay-at-home dad, a working mom, one-half of a domestic partnership, or even the single person.

I agree that the homemaker in charge should:

I would like to revise the end of the article to read: Being a homemaker is an important job that sometimes requires sacrifice. But the rewards of a calm, well-run household benefit not only your partner, your children, but also you.

Let’s have a Manhattan and revel in our success of a job well-done.

Hi everyone, I was interviewed this week by the North San Diego County newspaper in connection with an article about coupon shopping and using the Internet. Thought I would share (and feel free to comment on the article).

By the way, I found it funny that one person had to find any reason why it didn’t make sense to coupon shop. I’m always surprised at folks like that. I mean, you don’t have to coupon shop, but why slam people who do? Hmmm.

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

We’re off today for a three-night cruise. Yea! So back on Monday (and at least a pound heavier).

Reader Marta clued me in today that Kraft just released a slew of coupons. Great savings! To give you an example, I got salad dressing yesterday for just 17 cents!

Here is the link (got mine in the email today, too):

Great Kraft product coupons