http://theshoppingnazi.com Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/#comments Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/ We have just come out of an really mild winter. Some of the projections for summer suggest this summer is going to be a real hot one. That means our utility bills will be headed upward from air conditioning. A lot of it is attributed to global warming. It was our daughter who just this last week reminded me that today is Earth Day. Earth Day is all about each one of us being responsible citizens of planet earth. We should do everything possible to protect our environment. The most impacting place we can start is our kitchen. It is the kitchen where the most energy is used and has the most waste is produced. A few weeks ago, I received an email from The Saving Lady from MySavingPlace.com. In her email she outlined ten things we could do to make our kitchens greener. She felt these ten things were so important enough to share them. After reading through them and talking to my wife and daughter, we decided they were important enough to pass them on to you. So below is the ten things we all can do to make our kitchens greener, on the Earth Day 2012. 1. Use Healthy Eco-Friendly Cleaners Many [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/green-kitchen/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-home/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-home/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-home/ Every home should have some basic tools. It does not matter if you live in an apartment or live in a two story house. There is always certain maintenance things that need to be done. An Apartment dweller need less tools than a home owner. Those who live on a ranch or farm need far more tools than a home owner. For this week we will be taking a some of the basic tools that allow us to be self sufficient, and keep better care of where we live. When I say self sufficient, I mean things you can do on your own. Now if you are not mechanically inclined and cannot tie you shoes, you are going to need professional help. Basic Tool Kit - There is some tools everyone should have in their home. I am talking about a hammers, slot and phillips screw drivers, measuring tape, and etc. You can get a complete set with bag for about $40 at Sears. Drain Cleaner - We all have experienced the water slowly going down the drain or not at all. There are times a plumber is needed. Most of the time the root cause of bathroom sink or bath tub clogs is hair.  The clog is usually [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-the-home/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/do-i-need-fancy-cleaners/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/do-i-need-fancy-cleaners/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:00:36 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7123 It is SuperBowl Sunday! There are going to be a lot of living rooms filled with football fans enjoying the big game. There is going to be some emotional highs and lows through out the game. Drinks and food is going to get spilled. Afterwards there will be some cleaning that need to be done. Depending on wild the party gets will depend on how much cleaning will need to be done. In preparation for the after party clean up, I did a quick survey as to what we have in the way of cleaning supplies. I found four bottles of different cleaners under the bathroom sink. Two bottles of two different other cleaners placed under the kitchen sink. A jug of liquid laundry detergent along with gallon bottle of bleach, and a box of fabric softener next to the washing machine. At this point my brain started calculating the cost of all these fancy cleaners. Each bottle of cleaner costs between $3 to $5. The laundry detergent costs seven something. I don’t remember what the bleach, and fabric softener cost. That means we have over $50 worth of cleaner sitting around waiting to be used for a specific clean job. Under the [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/do-i-need-fancy-cleaners/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-vacuum-cleaner/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-vacuum-cleaner/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:00:27 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=4961 There are many different types of vacuum cleaners. A simple Google search for vacuum cleaner will range from built in centralized, to heavy industrial, to light weight small. Depending upon the type of material you want to pick up there is more than likely a vacuum cleaner for that. In this post I want to just cover the common household vacuum cleaner. Well, if you were to look at all the different kinds of household vacuum cleaners, you might not say there is one common type. This is because over the last 20 years (like most everything else) vacuum cleaners have been go through an evolution. Vacuum cleaners over the past 100 years all have the same goal. That is pick up dirt. The vacuum cleaner can be considered the most expensive piece of cleaning equipment in the home today. The make and model you choose can make you life so much easier or it will be a regret every time you go to use it. While doing some research as to what makes a good vacuum cleaner, I came across some information from the good folks at GoodHouseKeeping.com. The tagline to the post was simple and accurate about how to keep your carpets [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-vacuum-cleaner/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/laundry-soap-the-same/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/laundry-soap-the-same/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:00:13 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=4145 Did you know that the more you wash clothes the faster they wear out? Did you know by using the wrong cycle on the washing machine for a particular type of clothes you’re are throwing away money? The same goes for putting to much laundry detergent in the washing machine. Years ago, I worked for an appliance store. Most of my days were spent going from home to home fixing washing machines and other appliances. One of my first training classes was on how to wash clothes. Those two short hours of class has stuck with me until this day. The basics like not washing color fabrics with whites is something everybody knows. Washing similar fabric with appropriate cycle of the washing machine is not practiced very often. I have noticed most people choose their laundry detergent according price or smell that is left on the clothes. The Science The science behind cleaning is that there are three important requirement in cleaning anything. It does not matter if you are cleaning dad’s jeans or dinner dishes or the bathroom you need water, chemical, and a means to move the water and chemical across the dirty surface. Laundry detergent breaks down dirt [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/laundry-soap-the-same/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/scrubsponge-pads-can-clean-your-wallet/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/scrubsponge-pads-can-clean-your-wallet/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:00:23 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=232 One of the given expectations from life, beside death and taxes is cleaning. When I was growing up I fought it tooth and nail, but it didn’t stop me from having to cleaning the bathroom. You know those sponge scrub pads. They are great for cleaning. It does not matter if it is wiping finger prints off the light switch or scrubbing a dirty pan from cooking French Toast. A scrub pad with sponge on the back works great. A walk down the cleaning section of my local grocery store, found pretty scrub pads for $1.78 ea. There was packages of 3 from a brand name for only 1.98. So if I bought the 3 pack it would be only 66 per sponge/scrub pad. That is a $1.12 difference per pad. {+} Winco Foods offered me about 6 different options for cleaning sponges with scrub pads attached to them. Most all of them were sold as individuals. I found only one offering where Icould buy more than one sponge, that was from  Scotch-Brite. It cost 1.98 for a pack of 3. Albertson on the other hand, had on their shelves the same Scotch-Brite 3 pack for $2.99. Yes, they had [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/scrubsponge-pads-can-clean-your-wallet/feed/ 0