Smart Stories

• Buy these household items from the flea market: Instead of bucking out for high-priced living essentials, head to your local flea market or garage sales in your community for all the things you need.
• Don't send a work email late at night: Many people often tune out of their work life once they are home. There are a lot of people who either resolve to not check their work emails after work, or not to respond to any work emails until they're back at the office. You're most likely not going to get a response if no one is waiting on you, so hold off on emailing until you're back at your cubicle.
• Organize your mail with style: There's nothing more unsightly than piles of mail in your home, so try to find a better way to organize them that serves a dual purpose — make your home look neater, but more stylish at the same time.
• Watch who you add on LinkedIn: Don't feel bad if you decline someone's request — it's something that happens often, and you're only hurting yourself if you weaken your network. Adding and accepting a LinkedIn request is a gesture of trust, and it should be made with careful consideration.
• Reuse Disposable Items: Don't throw away those so-called disposable items. Find other uses for them, and you'll save a lot of money over time.
• Keep your bachelorette short and sweet: Make it a one-night affair, or if you do choose to stay somewhere for several nights, plan to have just one "all-out" night and a couple more casual, low-key evenings. Try an at-home barbecue, a nostalgic sleepover, or your own DIY version of a wine tasting to keep the festivities budget-friendly.
• Fold a shirt in two seconds: To save time (and pain) when folding clothes, learn this technique that will help you fold one shirt in two seconds.
• Decorate your grad cap: One of the most entertaining parts about a graduation is seeing all the great grad cap ideas people come up with. While "Thanks, mom and dad" is pretty sweet, it's the creative ones that catch our attention time and time again.
• Clean the coffee grinder with stale bread: All you have to do is tear stale bread into chunks and throw them in the coffee grinder. Grind it for a few seconds, open it, and you'll see coffee bits sticking to the bread, which you can then dump out.

Source: Sarah Lipoff

• Indulge in cultural activities: Go to the museum this weekend and get cultured. A study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found men who take part in cultural activities are more happy and satisfied vs. those who don't.
• Add club soda to fluff up food: To fluff up food like pancakes, waffles, tempura batter, and omelets, use club soda instead of water or milk. It makes the end results fluffier and lighter.
• Consider buying your ring from Costco: A diamond ring costs 58 percent more than its actual value at Tiffany, while another from Costco costs 17 percent under its real value.
• Clean your bathroom in less than 15 minutes: Cleaning every day will also help reduce the time spent cleaning, so you may end up spending only 10 minutes a day cleaning your bathroom once you get into a routine.
• Skip the car rental insurance: One of the most common credit card benefits that people often forget about is that most credit card companies will cover part of your car rental insurance if you book a car with their card. Decline the "collision damage waiver" insurance, and your credit card firm will cover any damage to your car or a theft of your vehicle that might occur during your rental.
• Clean your feather bed at home: Wrap two tennis balls in the socks, add delicate detergent, then tumble dry for 30 minutes.
• Include your maiden name change in the wedding announcement: The wedding announcement is a good place to inform people of your maiden name change.
• Sell your TV on Craigslist: Although people sell their TVs on sites such as Amazon and eBay, the best place to unload them is Craigslist. After all, you can arrange for buyers to pick up a TV themselves, so you don't have to mail it off.

• Upcycle old pill bottles: Don't throw away your old pill bottles, upcycle them into quarter and cotton-swab holders.
• Get married in a national park: Most national parks are welcoming to wedding parties as long as they fill out the proper paperwork, which gives you access to the park and the various locations that are perfect for your big day. And some permit fees are as low as $50, making getting married in a national park a seriously budget-friendly option.
• Choose a credit union for better interest rates: A credit union is a nonprofit, which means the profits go back to the members, and this results in higher interest rates and lower fees.
• Follow authors and book blogs for free books: If you follow other reviewers or the authors themselves on their blogs, you'll be able to see when they host giveaways for their latest books. You may even get books ahead of their releases.
• Make your own scent diffuser to save money: Don't toss those lemon and orange peels, ends of fresh herbs, or last bits of whole aromatic seasonings! Instead, use them to make sweetly scented homemade fragrance stick diffusers that will freshen your house.

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• Print out online coupons before you hit the supermarket: Be sure to check out online coupon sites like Coupons.com, RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, and CouponNetwork.com, which are apparently the best sites to print from. Further, "like" your favorite brands on Facebook to get access to some of the coupons they give out over the social media network.
• Skip the bleach and make your own natural mold killer: Known for its antiseptic properties, clove oil inhibits mold by attacking and killing the mold spores. Safe for use in small or large spaces, this recipe is great for keeping pesky mold away while naturally scenting and cleaning your home.
• Pick a unique wedding venue: A zoo, a carnival, a boat — "wedding" probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of these places, but trust us when we say they're great budget-friendly venue options for your big event.
• Take part in industry Twitter chats: One of the best things about Twitter is interacting with people you wouldn't necessarily meet in person. And one of the best ways to do that is by joining chats related to your field of interest. Not only will you have a reason to reach out to new contacts ("what did you mean when you said that in the chat?"), but you'll stay up to speed on what's going on in the industry.

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• Book your wedding venue on Airbnb: You might know Airbnb as the site for affordable places to stay when traveling, but what about using it as a resource to score your wedding venue? That's right — we've searched the site for beautiful but budget-friendly homes that all ring in under $3,000 (some costing as little as $110!).
• Rework a free résumé template: It's hard to start a résumé from scratch, which is why the best way to go about creating one is to work off a template. There are also a few places online that let you download them for free, but it's advisable to tweak them to suit your own situation.
• Throw out one item a day: Cleaning out clutter can be a tough task, especially if you've been letting it build up for a while. Instead of setting aside a huge block of time to take care of months' or years' worth of clutter, take baby steps by throwing away only one type of item a day.
• Grow your own greens: It's always a waste when you can't finish the fresh produce you bought at the grocery store and end up throwing away the wilting remains. Here's a solution that will save you money and avoid unnecessary waste: grow your own greens.
• Turn newspaper into bouquets: Instead of tossing your beautiful bouquet on your wedding day or paying extra for a second arrangement, make your own toss bouquet from newspapers.
• Consider blackout curtains. Covering your windows with blackout curtains is a good way of saving energy, because they can trap in heat during the Winter and keep it out during the Summer. These curtains are also really affordable and can be conveniently bought at many locations, such as Target or your local department store.

• Use catnip to repel bugs: Make your own all-natural bug spray and use catnip as the main ingredient.
• Store the sheet set in a pillowcase: When you finish washing one sheet set, store the sheets and the pillowcase in the other pillowcase. You won't have to look for the matching sheets and pillowcase again.
• Use FURminator to reduce shedding in your home: There is a really great deshedding tool called the FURminator ($20, originally $63), which claims to reduce shedding up to 90 percent for a month to six weeks. The sharp stainless steel edges work to remove the loose undercoat without damaging the top coat. I've actually started using it with my cat, and it seems to be working. It's quite possibly the best method, in my opinion, to reduce shedding.
• Save money by planning a city hall wedding: If you're looking for a no-fuss, budget-friendly wedding, city hall might be a great place to get married. You won't have to deal with the stress of handling a wedding guest list running past 100 and the costs of entertaining and feeding all the guests.
• Make wedding favor bags from dollar-store items: You can find just about everything you need at your local dollar store, making this wedding DIY perfect for any budget. A cute stamp personalizes the bags, and enlisting your bridal party in helping with this fun project gets these favor bags finished in no time.
• Get a compact and cute office plant: Viewing greenery is a good way to relieve work stress, but not all of us work within a stone's throw of a park. Bring nature to you instead by setting a mini office plant on your desk.

• Buy generic meds at Costco: A recent Consumer Reports survey revealed people can pay up to 447 percent or $749 more on generic medicine at the highest-priced pharmacy, compared to the lowest. Costco had the cheapest prices, while CVS, Rite Aid, and Target had the most expensive prices for generic drugs.
• Clean your carpet: Make your home look like new by deep cleaning your carpet.
• Use a power strip: Get a power strip and try to plug as many electronics as you can into it. That way, it won't be as arduous to individually shut off or unplug each appliance. You can turn them all off with one flick of the switch or unplug the power strip from its outlet to completely stonewall the "vampire" electronics.
• Set up a LinkedIn: By now, you should already have a LinkedIn account and have already been working on juicing it up. Ask former and current co-workers, professors, and students you've worked with in a professional capacity to write a recommendation for you on the professional networking site.
• Use a credit card when buying an engagement ring: Pay with a credit card for better protection. The Fair Credit Billing Act protects credit card transactions. If you run into any problems, make sure you deal with it as soon as possible to qualify for the law's consumer protections.
• Don't use Blu Tack in your rental: Don't use Blu Tack on your walls, because it's actually really hard to get it off if you've been using it for a while.

• Turn your Instagram into art: Print out your Instagram pictures and stick them on canvases to hang on your walls.
• Use action verbs in your résumé: You want to look confident and assertive in your résumé, so be careful about the language you use in your CV.
• Make cheap and natural cleaning products: You can make your own cleaning products by using ingredients you probably already have in your own home.
• Sunlight brightens whites: Whiten your laundry in natural ways, such as hanging them out to dry in the sunlight.
• Start on your taxes by filling out simple details: If you're procrastinating on your taxes, just start by filling out simple details such as your name and address. Once you get started, it won't seem so overwhelming.
• Sell your items on Facebook: If you don't feel comfortable selling to a stranger, you might want to first list your item for sale on Facebook.
• Freeze your phone plan to save: Freeze your phone plan for a month to save money and try to rely on services like Skype.
• Ask for the backstory on a used wedding dress: If you're superstitious and don't want a wedding dress from a canceled wedding or someone who just got divorced, ask the person selling her wedding dress what the backstory of the dress is.

• When to wash your clothes: If you know when to wash your clothes so you're not overwashing them, your clothes will last longer.
• Vinegar wash: Use vinegar as a natural fabric softener and static cling remover.
• Get a rewards card: Use a good credit rewards card to make the most of your spending.
• Bridesmaid budget: Save money on your bridesmaid budget by negotiating with the bride and requesting nonmatching bridesmaid dresses.
• What food you should buy organic: Organic coffee costs $3 more but may be worth buying to stay free of pesticides and chemicals.
• Avoid damaging your couch when cleaning: To avoid damaging your sofa when cleaning it, check the tag. A "W," for instance, indicates that it's OK to clean with water-based solutions. An "S" means that you should only use water-free detergent.
• Two-year rule: Get rid of clothing that you haven't worn in two years to clear clutter from your home.
• Walk to work: Park farther than usual to get some walking time in before work or skip driving and take public transportation instead.

• Skip prewedding events to save: Weddings can get pretty pricey, so if you're attending a bunch of them this year, skip the prewedding activities to save.
• Leftovers as Easter egg dye: Use kitchen leftovers like used tea bags and onion skin to dye your Easter eggs.
• Write to gain patience: Keep a journal documenting when you feel impatient. Write all about it, including as many details as you can, and how and when you calmed down. Once finished, read what you wrote. This will help you learn how to stay composed the next time you're feeling overwhelmed.
• Use hydrogen peroxide to clean: Hydrogen peroxide is a cleaning powerhouse. Use it to clean your cutting boards, clear fungus off plants, remove blood stains, bust mold, and more.
• Practical and stylish pieces for the kitchen: Pick pieces that are stylish yet practical for your kitchen to conserve space and make it look good at the same time.
• Backpack to work: Wearing a stylish, work-appropriate backpack can be good for your back.