Am I complaining?  Maybe a bit.  But I have enough problems with procrastinating during my specified weekly review time, and I don’t need an inefficient filing system holding me back anymore.  I thought to myself, “There must be a better way!”  You’re probably thinking, “Ian, how about a file cabinet or a portable filing system?”  Yes, that would solve my problem, but

a.) I would be spending money that I’d rather spend on things more important to me, and

b.) I wouldn’t get the satisfaction of repurposing something that’s already lying around the house!

So I grabbed an empty manila folder, left my desk, and began looking around the house for some sort of box that would be just the right size to hold the small but growing amount of files I have.  I couldn’t seem to find a cardboard box that would fit, and I was just about to give up when I saw it - the empty Igloo Playmate cooler that has just been sitting around in the house!  I put a single manila folder in there, and it couldn’t have fit any better!

I filed the rest of my papers in a breeze, smiling through the rest of my review because I hadn’t spent a dime and I’d put something to use that had been laying around!

Pack it up to go for a file picnic!

Oh and don’t forget that the cooler is completely portable - if you need to take your files on the go, then just slide the top over the files, grab it and go!

P.S.: Mom and dad, let me know if you need the cooler back anytime soon…

Photo by Ross C.

Yesterday, while I was in the process of making spaghetti sauce and meatballs from scratch, I became frustrated with how my spices are organized in the cupboard (or, more accurately, their lack of organization).  I’ve seen various blog posts about building your own spice rack, but when I tried to find them again I came across a unique and interesting solution for storing spices that saves cupboard space as well as preparation time.

Lance Vaughn had similar frustrations with his spices and decided to go the DIY route for spice storage.  His first attempt at the spice rack involved four metal cases that held the spice containers.  After actually putting the spice rack to serious use, he decided that there must be a better way, one that doesn’t involve opening four different cases and constant reorganization.  Also, the containers he used were not meant for spices, so they didn’t have any convenient openings for shaking or pouring.

Disclaimer: This DIY spice rack was built in order to improve kitchen workflow and organization.  Thrift was not a high priority, so if you’re looking for the cheapest solution, this is probably not for you.

His second attempt is extremely simple, organized, and efficient.  It involves mounting a magnetic whiteboard on a wall (or in his case, the back of his pantry door), magnetic metal containers, and a label maker (he used the same Brother PT-1280 that I have!).  All told, Lance said that he spent $200 on this project.  That sounds rather high, but keep in mind that this includes 56 magnetic containers, a whiteboard, and the label maker (including label refills).

For my frugal friends (not to mention myself), I found some cheaper alternatives to the materials that Lance used:

• Containers
  • Magnetic plastic spice bottles by Lipper International (black) - $2.79 each (or $2.33 if you buy 12 or more)
  • Magnetic Spice Tins - package of 3 for $5.99
• Whiteboard
  • Board Dudes 22″x35″ Magnetic Whiteboard - $29.99
  • Skip the whiteboard completely and stick the containers right on the front or side of the fridge.
• Labels
  • Opt for some White Masking Tape and an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie.

Read the original article for photos and additional insight:

Spice Rack 2.0 [vaughn austin]

Photo by wolfpix

Summer is just ahead of us, and with summer comes beautiful sunshine, days at the beach, and maybe even a game or two of Ladder Golf.  However, the sunny season does have a few drawbacks, including high counts of allergens and the occasional bee sting.  For the latter, Lifehacker and Slate Magazine covered a few simple remedies to soothe the pain that a bee sting can bring.

• Fresh-cut onion: An ingredient in onions breaks down the chemicals released by bee stings that cause pain and inflammation, according to Dr. Eric Block from the State University of New York at Albany.
• Toothpaste: The tingling sensation caused by toothpaste on the sting can be satisfying psychologically and physically.  This is due to the alkaline toothpaste neutralizing the acidic venom from the sting.
• Ice: Simple, effective, and practically free, ice is a known remedy for many skin irritations, especially bee stings.

Apply a Cut Onion to Soothe Bee Stings [Lifehacker]

For more remedies to try, see The Best Bee Sting Remedies [Slate Magazine]

Photo by navets

In late honor of Memorial Day and BBQ’s across the country for the remainder of the summer, Insourcer has decided to enlighten you with a game that has taken the nation by storm.   That game is:

Ladder Golf.

You might know the game under a different name like Hillbilly Golf, or Bolo Toss.  I first discovered this game almost two years ago.  There is a family that lives down the street from me that spends every summer night outside drinking and grilling (I wish I could).  One evening they were playing this odd looking game…

Gameplay

The game involves two targets that are basically like small three-rung ladders.  These ladders are placed at opposite ends of the lawn, or 30 feet apart. Each rung is worth a different number of points, and point values seem to vary based on where you live.  The goal of the game is to throw a bolo, or two golf balls attached by a string, at the opposite ladder, hoping to have one of your three bolos wrap around a rung.  When this happens, you earn points.  The game continues until one side has 21 points, and you must score exactly 21 points.

My family plays like this:

• top rung= 2 points
• middle rung= 3 points   (we feel this is the hardest rung to get)
• lower rung= 1 point  (we feel this is the easiest rung to get)

Its a fun little game because you can play as teams, or you can even modify the game if you so desire.  My mom isn’t really good at it, so we let her play off of a bounce.  If the bolo happens to bounce and wraps on a rung, then it still counts as scoring.  You can also knock the opposing team’s bolo off of the ladder and prevent them from gaining points during that round.

Make Your Own Ladder Golf

After seeing the neighbors play this game a few times, I quickly decided to ask them where they had purchased it.  To my delight, they told me that they had made it.  They had previously bought a version of it from Walmart, but it broke in just a few short weeks.  The set from Walmart had cost them $29 dollars to purchase.  My neighbor said that he was able to make two sets of ladder golf for that price using common hardware materials.

The materials needed to make this game are pretty straightforward.  A lot of people solely use PVC piping, metal piping, wood or a combination of the three.  You can build very durable sets with that amount of money.  They used old golf balls for the bolos, painting them different colors in order to breathe some new life into the game.

Here’s one list of materials for making this great game:

• 4 - ¾ inch x 10 foot PVC pipes (white plastic pipes found in the plumbing section)
• 12 - ¾ inch 90 degree elbow PVC slip on pipe fittings
• 12 - ¾ inch “T” shaped PVC slip on pipe fittings
• 8 feet of nylon rope (although it’s usually more economical to buy a 25 foot package)

For further construction of the ladder see: How to Build Your Own Ladder Golf like Game [Associated Content]

For official rules and other ideas for assembly check out: Ladder Golf [Dustin DeFoe]

warning: making bolos out of real golf balls can be dangerous.  Golf ball bolos can break windows and will hurt if a player is hit by one.  Foams bolos are considerable safer, but often rip during frequent usage.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

It’s finally grilling season here in western Pennsylvania.  As any griller knows, a marinade can turn a mediocre piece of meat into a memorable meal (did you count the m’s?).  A simple marinade can bring tenderness, moisture, and flavor to a lackluster (and inexpensive!) cut of meat.

While you’re browsing around the grocery store to plan your next grill-out, you may be tempted to pick up a ready-made marinade.  Don’t do it!  Instead, mix your own marinade from scratch using some ingredients that you probably already have in the cupboard.

Trent from personal finance blog “The Simple Dollar” wrote a post that covers 11 cheap marinades that you can put together with essential ingredients such as vinegar, oil, fruit juices, soy sauce, and (mostly) common spices.  (Almost sounds like our homemade furniture polish recipe with some extra zing…)  Mix and match one of his marinade recipes with beef, chicken, lamb, fish, pork, or shrimp to come up with your own signature dish.  Be creative!

If you try any of these recipes or want to share your own secret marinade recipe, leave your experiences in the comments!

The Art of the Marinade: Making Inexpensive Foods Dazzlingly Tasty for Pennies [The Simple Dollar]

However, there is a growing number of young people, like myself, who do not have newspaper subscriptions, and may never will.  For those of you who don’t currently have a subscription, see this as an opportunity to build your own custom newspaper from scratch, picking just the topics and sources that meet your interests and viewpoints.

What is RSS?

First of all, a quick definition of RSS is in order.  RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication.  It is a protocol used to publish information that is frequently updated - perfect for  news articles or blog posts (such as this one!).  An RSS feed is simply one stream of consistently updated information that you can subscribe to.

Why should I care?

To me, the main advantage of RSS can be explained with an example:

• Consider person A, named Alex.  Alex has about a half dozen websites he/she likes to check for updates daily.  Every day, Alex goes to website 1, reads a few articles from the front page, then website 2, 3, etc.  Alex starts to read a couple of articles for the second (or third) time until he realizes they look familiar and he read them yesterday.
• Person B, Bobbie, has subscribed to his/her favorite sites using an RSS reader.  Bobbie only has to open the news reader program, and all of the articles Bobbie cares about are right there, in a clean, consistent layout.  The news reader keeps track of which articles have been read and which are still unread, similar to an email client.

Alex has to constantly check his/her favorite sites for updates, whereas the RSS reader delivers the news directly to Bobbie.

First, get a news reader application

I’m a Google fanatic, so naturally I use and recommend their Google Reader product.  It is a free web application, which means that it runs within the web browser itself, instead of as a standalone application (such as Microsoft Outlook, which also has RSS feed reading capabilities).  If you have a Google account (GMail, etc.) then you should be able to login with your current account to access Google Reader.

What types of RSS feeds are available?

For just about every type of newspaper section, there are myriads of legitamitely interesting RSS feeds to subscribe to.  Below is a list of traditional newspaper sections and some corresponding sites with RSS feeds:

Local news - (your local newspaper’s website)

National/international news

• http://www.cnn.com/
• http://news.google.com/

Classifieds - http://www.craigslist.org/

Sports

• http://espn.go.com/
• http://sports.yahoo.com/

Comics

• http://xkcd.com/
• http://www.qwantz.com/
• http://pbfcomics.com/

Movie Reviews - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Health - http://www.webmd.com/

If you don’t see your favorite website listed, then don’t fret.  Chances are good that any frequently updated site has an RSS feed.  The beautiful part here is that you don’t have to subscribe to feeds you’ll never read.  No more flipping through unnecessary pages while looking for “the good stuff!”  There’s no need to subscribe to feeds in all of the categories listed above.  In fact, my subscription categories are very specific and non-traditional (Android, Audio, Deals, Finance, Funny, Musicians, Programming, etc.).

How do I subscribe to feeds?

Google Reader offers a convenient way to find and subscribe to feeds.  As you may have guessed, being a Google product, it includes an easy search box to find feeds:

Create your “newspaper sections” with folders

When you subscribe to a feed in Google Reader, you can choose to add it to a folder.  This is how you can create your “newspaper sections”!  You may want to read some of your feeds daily, while other feeds may be more of a occasional read.  To separate these, you can create a folder called “Daily” that you can click on when you’re having your morning coffee, for example.

Have fun creating your own free newspaper!  Oh and don’t forget to subscribe to your favorite DIY blog by clicking here!

Photo by Gaetan Lee

My apartment is filthy.  Thus, I thought it would be useful to find a natural, easy-to-make furniture polish recipe.  My main goal was to save money, but I discovered that there are some other great reasons to ditch the aerosol dusting spray and head the DIY route.

While searching, I came across a great website called Care2 that promotes living a healthy, green lifestyle.  An article entitled “Alternative Furniture Polish” was posted back in 1999.  Sure, 10 years is a lot of time in internet world, but the article seems like an oldie but a goodie!

According to article author Annie B. Bond, normal furniture polish spray can be “neurotoxic”, meaning the residue that it leaves on furniture causes a low level of air pollution that can leave people feeling cranky and depressed.  Solving this neurotoxin problem is a nice side effect of using an all-natural furniture polish!

The Recipe

Mrs. Bond (the name’s Bond, Annie Bond) recommends a solution of 1/4 cup vinegar plus a few drops of oil as a wood cleaner and polish, as opposed to the traditional solution of 1/4 cup oil plus a small amount of vinegar.  This new formula leaves furniture less oily, plus it eliminates the chance of the oil becoming rancid in hot weather.  I was happy to read that lemon juice can be substituted for the vinegar.  In case it’s not obvious, we have a soft spot for lemons here at Insourcer.

Before using the DIY polish on expensive furniture, be sure to try a small dab of it on a (preferably) out-of-sight part of the furniture.

Repurpose a Shirt

To be extra green (and resourceful!), she also recommends repurposing an old shirt to use as a dusting cloth (flannel works very well).  Most of use have a cotton shirt that we either don’t use or is starting to get rather “holy.”

Alternative Furniture Polish [Care2]

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

Making your own lemonade is really the perfect example of insourcing.  The process is simple, and the outcome is deliciously refreshing.  As you can see, this example fits our philosophy so closely that we decided to use a lemon in our logo.

I have fond memories of enjoying homemade lemonade at least one day a year, July 4th, at the annual Anderson family reunion (during which my home town’s population nearly doubles).  My grandfather makes multiple 5-gallon jugs of lemonade every year, and the family reunion wouldn’t be the same without this simple yet refreshing concoction.

The list of ingredients for homemade lemonade is rather obvious: lemon juice (preferably from fresh squeezed lemons), sugar, ice, and water.  The magic lies in determining the perfect proportions of the ingredients to produce a cold yet undiluted, sweet yet sour summer elixir.

Squeezing the Lemons

There are a few options here depending on how much lemonade you’re making, as well as how often.  I have a cheap, simple juicer like this one that serves me well for occasional use.  I prefer it over a simple lemon squeezer because it keeps the seeds out of your lemon juice.  If you’re really fancy you can opt for an automatic juicer like this one.

The Ingredients

• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup sugar
• (almost) 2 quarts cold water

The Recipe

• Combine the sugar and lemon juice into a paste.
• Fill a 2-quart pitcher 1/3 full of ice cubes.
• Add the paste to the pitcher and fill it up with water.
• For extra flavor, add some lemon rinds into the mix as well.  However, be aware that the rinds may cause bitterness if the lemonade isn’t used right away.
• Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
• For a little extra flair, add thinly sliced lemons to the glasses.

Serve for a refreshing summer beverage!  Feel free to multiply out the recipe if you’d like to make more than a couple of quarts.

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Be sure to stop back on Monday, May 18th for the first insourcing tip.  (Check out the logo for a hint!)