Vinegar, baking soda, Borax -- and elbow grease

"Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." That's a good rule of thumb for eating only natural (not processed) food. (It's from the book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan.)

I would add another rule: Don't use cleaning products that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize.

That's the Green Tightwad way, because:

• You don't inhale toxic chemicals and send them down the drain to waterways.
• They cost just pennies to use.

Clearing the air

The simplest air freshener is composed of water and a few drops of any essential oil, like orange or lavender oil.

Most surface cleaning

A mixture of half-vinegar, half-water is all that you need for most surface cleaning. It also works for hardwood floors. To disinfect surfaces, just use rubbing alcohol.

Washing windows or glass

Add a teaspoon or so of tea tree oil (or any essential oil) to a gallon of water to wash windows.

Polish wood furniture

Polish furniture with a half-olive oil, half-vinegar mixture (plus a drop or so of an essential oil to mask the smell).

Scrub bathrooms

You'll need baking soda and an old dampened brush. Clean mildewy grout with a vinegar-dipped toothbrush. Mix about 2 ounces of Borax and a cup of white vinegar to make a spray that you can use for mold in the tub or shower. After you spray it, let it sit for an hour or so before you wipe it off.

For cleaning toilets, mix 1/4 cup baking soda, 1/4 cup dishwashing liquid, and 1/4 cup water. Pour it in the toilet bowl. Let it sit couple of hours, swish with a toilet brush, and flush.

Refrigerator

Don't, I repeat, don't use a chemical spray for something that holds your food. Just make a paste of baking soda with water. It's non-toxic and deodorizing as well.

. . . . . . . . . .

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

Fellow tightwad, Dr. Bob Browning

A mantra for frugal times

"Make it last, wear it out, use it up or do without."

Dr. Robert M. Browning, former Coast Guard historian

How to piss away money

I'll say it again: Be clear about whether something is a "need" or a "want."

"I only buy things on sale" is the most bogus excuse of all, particularly if what you are buying are things that you want rather than need. Ask yourself, "Will anything bad happen to me if I don't buy this?" If the answer is "no," don't buy it.

Here, in no particular order, are ways that we piss away money and guarantee that we, as Americans, will never have enough savings to retire:

• Bring a sack lunch to work: It's easy. Just cook too much at dinnertime so you can have leftovers for lunch at work the next day. If lunch at the cafeteria costs $7, but you pack a sack lunch costing $2 in leftovers, you can save $1,250 a year.
• ATM fees: Convenience comes at a steep price. Americans paid almost $4.4 billion in ATM fees in 2007. You can avoid it by using ATMs within your bank's network, and by withdrawing bigger sums on fewer occasions. Or get cash back when you make credit or debit card purchases.
• Bottled water: You can buy a water filter pitcher for less than $10. Filtered tap water is almost free, and there is no guarantee that you get better quality with bottled water. (I always suspect that behind every designer brand of bottled water there is a couple who's figured out an entrepreneurial opportunity with their tap water and is laughing all the way to the bank.) And think of the estimated four billion pounds of plastic bottles that end up in landfills or as roadside litter.
• Magazine subscriptions: Why, oh why, do people subscribe to magazines that offer all their content for free on the Internet? Duh.
• Take public transportation. Reduce gasoline (and damage to the ozone), and you can read a book (or snooze) and arrive at work rested. Or, who knows, you could write the Great American Novel while commuting to work on the subway.
• Don't drive so fast. Doing 55 mph instead of 65 mph can improve your mileage by about 15 percent. (And keep those tires inflated.)

Greening your vacation

You don't have to go broke just because you want to go on a vacation within North America.

• Travel in the off-season if you can, and you'll save a bundle.
• If you want to drive, go to AAA's Fuel Cost Calculator. You can estimate the fuel cost by keying in your vehicle make, year and model, and your starting city and destination.
• Check www.gasbuddy.com to find your cheapest prices for gas along the way.
  
• Better yet, take the bus. Companies like Boltbus charge as low as $1 per seat (if you book way in advance.)
• If you want to fly, here are some options. Sidestep and Farecompare allow you to search airfares across hundreds of airlines.
• Before you book a hotel online with one of the travel sites like hotwire.com, call the hotel directly. Ask for the best rate they got if you've got AAA membership, senior citizen status, etc. Sometimes you'll be surprised.
• Better still, freeload off friends. But be a good guest. Offer to take them out to dinner while you're there. If friends can save you $100+ a night at a hotel, you can afford to take them to dinner.
  
• When you travel, it's cheaper to buy some healthy snacks at a supermarket or grocery store rather than eat every meal at restaurants. That's why before I book hotels I first find out if there are grocery stores nearby. I like to know where my food supply is.
  
• When you eat at a restaurant, order a few things first. It is difficult to guess what the portions will look like, and you can always order more later. But if you've ordered too much, you will have a lot of leftovers. That's a waste of food.
  
• BYOB. Bring your own beer, wine, vodka, etc., if you are traveling by car. (In the trunk, not the front seat.) Anything is cheaper than ordering booze at a restaurant. I like to chill out in my hotel room with my own booze after dinner.
  
• Pack a large cooler with sandwiches, drinks, non-perishable snacks, and so on.

Have a good vacation. Bring back a snowglobe for me.