5 "make your life easier'" Tips

I've noticed recently that there are a lot of little tips I know and do that I would love to pass on to you because I think they could help you too! As much as I would love to say "I'm going to do this posts every week...or month" or whatever...I know darn well it will get away from me and I will end up just giving up and forgetting about it. (see my chicken blog for examples lol) So, I am giving you the first installment of 5 Make Your Life Easier tips. This issue covers: 

1) Keeping your hands dry when doing outdoor chores in the snow/rain  
2) Pouring icing for smoother looking cupcakes 
3) Cute and cheap way to organize cupcake papers
4) Why that clearance item might no be expired
5) Changing in your pocket change the free and easy way

1) When doing winter chores outside, put rubber gloves on TOP of regular gloves. This works well when cleaning up after a rain or wet snow. You can grab ice chunks right out of the dogs water bowl while keeping your hands dry. 

I use this idea when doing homestead chores or even just emptying out items that have collected rainwater like flower pots or bird feeders. This also works good if you have to hand toss rock salt or anything else that you don't want residue on your gloves. Stay warm, quit doing things bare handed!

2) Pour icing for smoother looking cupcakes. Face it, when we're busy things don't always turn out the way we planned. This is my go-to tip when I have to make a bunch of cupcakes the night before a school even the kids forgot to tell me about. *sigh* 

Using canned icing, simply microwave it at 20 second intervals stirring in between. Spoon icing onto cupcakes then set on a cooling rack with wax paper underneath. You can sprinkle decorations on top when still warm and they stick much better then if you'd iced the regular way!

3) If you make a lot of cupcakes, organize the liners using a dollar tree vase. It looks cute, doesn't take up much space and they don't get all folded up from being shoved in a  drawer.

4) Buy holiday cake and cookie mixes on clearance! The mix pictured was $.50 because Halloween was over. As you can see by the expiration date....it was no where near expired! Bonus if it's a mix like this one and you can simply not add in the holiday themed sprinkles. I kept the bats and pumpkins for next Halloween and added 'fall' sprinkles instead. You can add different color sprinkles or leave without. Only you will know!

5) Easy and free way to change your coins in. I just found out that Coinstar will now change your coins into credit on your gift card for free! (I didn't use the logo because I don't know if I'm allowed...this is not a sponsored post, I'm just passing on a money saving tip) 

I just loaded $6.23 on my Starbucks card, my daughter cleaned out all her change into an Itunes card and you can even set up your PayPal account to accept Coinstar deposits. These are all fee free. They still charge a fee to give you cash back, but they have several companies to chose from if you load to a gift card.

I hope these ideas help you! I'll post again when I collect 5 more. Have a great holiday!

~L

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