Weird & Thrifty Sunburn Remedies from Around the Internet

Filed under: All, Home

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope everyone (no matter what country you’re from) takes a moment today to think of the soldiers who have died fighting for your rights and freedoms.

This is just a quick, fun post for today, since I hope most people are out and about enjoying their 3-day weekend (plus I have a ton of things to do today). The weekly vegetable gardening post will be posted tomorrow. The video is already up on our youtube channel if you can’t wait.

To celebrate the warm weather and the official beginning of Beach season, we had a beach day yesterday. Since we live so close to the beach, we walk down there a lot, no matter the season, but this was the first weekend we could swim. We stripped down to our swimwear and thanks to my fair skinned ancestors (and despite my fastidious sunscreen applications), I got a little burned.

It wasn’t that bad: my cheeks and forehead were a little pink last night. My neck (in this certain spot where I always seemed to get burned) was quite red, and my shoulders and upper back were a little pink and red. I turned to my two tried and true home remedies.

This is one I learned from my dad: for slight burns on my face, I either wash with or rub in with Noxema Original Face Wash (the kind in the blue tub). The other one, is the typical one, using aloe.

Just for my own info (and because I’ve recently found out that some people believe increasing the intake of Omegas and other good fatty acids helps prevent and heal sunburns and I want to learn more), I searched for some sunburn remedies and treatments. This time around I found some really bizarre suggestions I’ve never heard before.

Now, I’ve never tried any of these. I am not a doctor and cannot give medical advise. I cannot speak for their effectiveness. If anyone has used these techniques, I’d love to hear about it. These are often things you may already have around the house, so it could save you from running out and buying some aloe to treat your burns. Some of these seem a little weird.

Dr. Pepper
Windex
Colgate Toothpaste
Tide Laundry Detergent (take a bath for blisters)
Mustard
Potato Slices
Yellow Peach Juice
Saving Cream
Raw Honey
Milk of Magnesia
Corn Starch
Vinegar
Evaporated Milk
Baking Powder Paste
Pepto Bismol
Vagisil
Preperation H
Neosporin (immediately after sun exposure)
Noxema
Cold Tea Bags
Oatmeal
Aloe Vera
Vitamin E (oil or pills)

Source

Leave a Comment

Posted at 9:53 AM, May 31, 2010 by Tiffany

Friday Freebies, Samples, & MP3 Downloads 5-28-10

Filed under: All, Free, Samples

Leave a Comment

The weekend is almost here, and it’s one of those awesome 3-day ones. I have a ton of fun things planned, and I hope all of my readers enjoy this great weekend as well. To kick it off right, let’s enjoy some freebies, shall we?

Now before I get into the list, I just want to note that this site had server problems the last 2 days, so periodically (and it seemed for the majority of the day) it just would not load. I was endlessly frustrated by this and I apologize to anyone who had trouble access the site. We hope to move to a better server on Monday to end these issues permanently. I’ll keep everyone updated.

Now, on to the freebies!

Freebies & Samples

I’m loving Amazon today. I got free music from The Apples in Stereo, Shout Out Louds, John Butler Trio, and Sister Hazel.

Know of any other freebies out there? Let me know.

Leave a Comment

Posted at 10:02 AM, May 28, 2010 by Tiffany

Money Saving Tip: Buy Online to Avoid Sales Tax

Filed under: All, Money Saving Tips, Shopping

Leave a Comment

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in Chicago, which currently has the honor of having the highest sales tax rate in the United States, at 10.25%.

Let me tell you what a pain that is. While the rate is only 2% for things like food, drugs, and medicine, buying other items like toothpaste, clothing, or even pet food gets us that fabulous 10.25% tax rate.

Most of the time, you just have to eat it and move on, but when it comes to big ticket items, like expensive electronics, the tax can be significant. Luckily, there is a loophole to get around that.

Many online purchases are not subject to sales tax. The only time an online seller has to collect sales tax is when they have a physical location in the same state as the customer. Essentially, as long as I am buying from sellers not physically located in Illinois, I don’t have to pay a sales tax.

This is why I love shopping at Amazon.com. They don’t have a physical presence here in Illinois, so I never pay a sales tax with them. (Read about the specifics in Amazon’s FAQ).

Exactly how much of a difference will this make? Let me give you a recent example. The boyfriend decided to purchase a new video camera and pertinent accessories. After shopping around for the best price and any coupons or rebates (I’ve taught him well), he selected two different sites to order from. As he was checking out he noticed there was no sales tax and was curious how much he was saving. The total he spent was $4620. 10.25% of that equals $473.55. That’s nearly $500 in savings. Isn’t that amazing?

This is a totally legal way to save some serious dough, so in the future when you’re buying big ticket items (or even something smaller) consider doing it online. You may even end up with free shipping anyway.

Leave a Comment

Posted at 12:05 PM, May 26, 2010 by Tiffany

Patio Gardening 2010: Week 6 - Little Bean Pods!

Filed under: All, Food, Home, Money Saving Tips, Patio Gardening

Leave a Comment

Summer hit yesterday with full force (it was 89F out when I took these pictures) and the plants are officially living outdoors full time. Last week I was pretty excited about that possibility since I was sick of lugging the pots in and out each day.

Hopefully they’ll survive the heat (it’s about 20 degrees warmer than it has been for the past few weeks). I make sure to check the plants regularly and water them when the soil is dry. I also plan to start fertilizing them this week.

Week 6 of our container gardening adventure has been exciting. Our beans started flowering on Tuesday, and then yesterday when I went out to take pictures, I noticed that we now have little baby bean pods growing. This is very exciting, especially since all the other plants are teeny tiny and have awhile until they start producing.

Last week we transplanted our wilting cucumbers. They seem to be doing much better in the milk jugs and I think they will make it.

We have a few unidentified plants cropping up in our window box (which is just supposed to be green onions and basil). I think some of it is oregano, but there’s one that doesn’t quite seem to be an herb:

(Sorry for the blurry picture) The boyfriend thinks it’s a tomato plant, and it very well may be, but it doesn’t look like our other cherry tomato seedlings, so I’m not sure what it is. Any thoughts?

We have 3 pots and two window boxes left to plant, and then I think we’ll finally be done. It’s so hot now that I don’t want to do the transplanting during the day, so hopefully we’ll find some time one of the evenings this week to get that done.

And here is the video for the week:

For those who are new, this year the boyfriend and I are doing a little container gardening experiment where we are trying to grow various herbs and vegetables on our patio. We live in the city of Chicago, so traditional gardening is out of the question. You can subscribe to the RSS feed to instantly receive the posts each week and also check out our previous posts. Feel free to subscribe to our Youtube channel as well.

Leave a Comment

Posted at 1:14 PM, May 24, 2010 by Tiffany

Midweek Freebies & Samples 05-19-10

Filed under: All, Free, Samples

Leave a Comment

Am I the only one who feels like this week is dragging? At least the weather is getting warmer out, maybe we’ll head to the beach this weekend.

Also, we have flowers blooming on some of our bean plants! There will be more on that in my weekly patio gardening update next Monday. Hopefully we’ll have beans soon!

But until then, let’s celebrate the middle of week with some freebies and samples. Check them out.

The shampoo and conditioner samples are perfect to travel with if you have a hot summer vacation planned in the next few months.