Tightwad Wednesday - Fog Free Mirrors & Laundry Pretreatment

Posted on November 22, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Tightwad Wednesdays

Each week, I will test out two tips from the The Complete Tightwad Gazette, and on the following Wednesday I’ll review how they went and evaluate if it is worth my time/effort/money to continue with it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to apologize to everyone for getting this tightwad Wednesday up a day late. Yesterday blew by and between the blinds shopping, meeting with the foreman, and cooking for Thanksgiving, time got away from me. Better late than never, right?

Fog-Free Mirrors

Even though I’ve heard of tricks to keep mirrors fog free I’ve never actually tried them.

On p. 402 of the Tightwad:

To make any mirror fog-free, you need not purchase the expensive anti-fog products. Simply use liquid soap; spread it on glass with a cloth to cover completely, then polish dry with another cloth. This lasts for a long time.

It worked! I was reluctant to spread soap on my clean mirror but to my surprise the soap buffed off nicely and left a shiny mirror. There was no haze like I was expecting. I used cheap hand soap thinned with a little water for my experiment. I then instructed my husband to take a long shower so the mirror got nice and foggy.

Afterwards, I checked on the spot and sure enough, it was fog-free! It worked! And it is still working several showers later! I would definitely recommend this trick if you are battling with foggy mirrors as you get ready for the day.

Laundry Pretreatment

I have to admit that I’m terrible at laundry. It seems about 1/3 of Eric’s shirts have little spots on them and so far no pretreatments have worked to remove them completely. Thank goodness Eric gets a free shirt from work pretty often so we can replenish his “nice” shirt supply.

Anyways, whenever I find a recipe to fight stains I’m likely going to try it since I haven’t had much luck so far. When I saw this one in the Tightwad I added it my list.

On p. 402 of the Tightwad:

1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup ammonia (sudsy or plain)
1/2 cup Wisk
1/2 cup water

Spray on grease or food spots, or dirty collars and cuffs. Wash garment as usual.

Pretreatment - Before I followed the directions except I had to substitute Tide for Wisk because the store was out of it. The mix smells repellant with the ammonia but that doesn’t matter if it works, right? I’ve never used ammonia before this experiment so now I’ll have to find uses for it. Luckily, it was only a dollar.

I found a ratty shirt with a stain on it and instead of spraying it I poured it on. I didn’t want to search for a spray bottle and I was hoping more might work better. I let it sit for a while, then put it in a load of laundry.

Pretreatment - After Well, it didn’t work. In fact, the stain recipe I tried a while back worked better on getting rid of the stain but it made the colors bleed (that shirt is now lighter in places).

I don’t think this pretreatment formula really did anything to remove the stain. It seems hard to believe the trick is using Wisk specifically but I suppose it could be brand specific. Unfortunately, this one appears to be a loser.

Stay tuned for next week’s Tightwad Wednesday challenge when I will be testing out:

After Thanksgiving Soup p. 72
Low-Pay Non-Stick Spray p. 639

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Comments

6 Responses to “Tightwad Wednesday - Fog Free Mirrors & Laundry Pretreatment”

Jennifer on November 22nd, 2007 7:37 pm

I love the Tightwad Gazette! What a great idea to test out her tips and share them. thanks!
Jennifer
Sue Lester on November 27th, 2007 7:07 am

I’ve found that the best thing to remove grease stains (at least from food sources) is Dawn dish soap. I squeeze a few drops on the stain and just wash as usual. Most stains- even ones that were missed before I threw the clothes in the dryer- come out.
Melissa on November 27th, 2007 10:28 am

@Jennifer - I’m glad you like it! I review two articles from the Tightwad Gazette every Wednesday.

@Sue - Thanks for the tip on Dawn. Someone else mentioned that to me as well. I’m going to have try that one out!
laurie on November 28th, 2007 12:13 pm

Ammonia does work on some stains. My dad was visiting and his ear bled on his pillowcase and I soaked it in ammonia and water and it came clean. I also keep ammonia on hand for bug bites. Put it on a fresh moscuito bite and the itch is not there the next day. It also helps fire ant bites.
Melissa on November 28th, 2007 10:45 pm

@Laurie - That’s good to know! I won’t give up on it yet then. I’ve got such a big bottle I’ll be looking for excuses to use it for a while. It really works on mosquito bites? Too bad it smells so bad! Thanks for commenting!
Sue Farias(new comment) on December 6th, 2008 9:05 am

If it’s an oil based stain (cooking oil, makeup stain, etc), rub a little Murphy’s oil soap on the stain, then wash as usual in the warmest setting allowed for the fabric. You can find Murphy’s oil soap on the cleaning aisle, depending on where you buy it - costs around $3 for a good sized bottle and it usually lasts me for a couple years, however my family is not large. Hope this helps! :)