FRUGAL HEALTH TIP #3: TEA TREE OIL

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Tea tree oil is a product that I really love! I use it daily around my house.

Since it is effective against viruses, fungi, and bacteria, the three types of infectious organisms, it is a medicine cabinet in a bottle.

Here are some of the traditional uses of tea tree oil:

For respiratory ailments such as cold, asthma, bronchitis and sinusitis, put a few drops of tea tree oil in your vaporizer. Inhale the steam and you will feel wonderful, blessed relief!

As a first aid remedy, tea tree oil can be used to treat cuts, abrasions and scrapes. The anti-bacterial properties of tea tree oil prevent wounds from becoming infected.

Tea tree oil is also a traditional remedy for athletes foot fungus, blisters, burns, cold sores and acne. Dab a little on a damp cotton ball and treat the affected areas.

At home, I disinfect my toothbrush with it, and add a drop or two to my mouthwash. It is a common ingredient in toothpastes now, because it is wonderful at preventing gum disease.

I also add a few drops to a warm, damp washcloth and clean my face with it. It is refreshing and clarifying, and works as well as any pricey toner you get at a cosmetics counter! My son uses it in soap form to prevent acne breakouts.

One tiny bottle lasts me weeks! I don’t have to buy any expensive facial cleansers, antibiotic creams, cold or sinus remedies, or special mouthwashes.

Pick up a bottle for yourself!

Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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Homemade Lavender Bath Products

Lavender is lovely! It has a beautiful fragrance, and many healing properties. It is known to be a great nerve tonic, easing depression and anxiety and relieving stress. It is calming and can help induce sleep in insomniacs. It even has pain killing properties and can ease the agony of a migraine headache!

It is also widely used in natural skin care products. Lavender is antifungal and antiseptic so it is an effective acne treatment. It helps sooth sunburn, and speed healing of cuts and abrasions.

Below you will find a few recipes for lavender bath products that will baby your skin and help you unwind after a hard day. Why not give them a try?


Homemade Lavender Bath Cookies

2 cups finely ground sea salt
½ cup baking soda
½ cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons light oil
1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
2 eggs
25 drops of lavender oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together all the ingredients.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
For an extra nice touch, decorate the dough with dove pieces or rose buds.
Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes or until they are lightly browned.
Be careful not to over bake them. Cool completely.
To use: Drop 1 or 2 cookies into a warm bath and allow to dissolve.

Relaxation Herbal Bath Tea

1 cup rosemary
2 cups lavender
2 cups rose petals
1 cup mint

Mix these dry ingredients together and keep in a sealed, dry jar. Use about ½ cup for each bath.
To use: Pour 1-2 cups boiling water over the herbs and steep for 15-20 minutes. Add to your bath water.

Lavender Herbal Milk Bath

2 cups cornstarch
2 cups dry milk powder
2 tablespoons of dried lavender, crumbled

Mix these dry ingredients together. Store them for future use in an airtight container.
For your bath, put about ½ cup of the mix into cheesecloth or a muslin bag. Be sure to tie it tightly. Add to your bath. You can tie kitchen string to the bag and float the bag in your bath as the water runs.

Homemade Lavender Bath Salts

1 cup Epsom salts
5 or more drops of lavender essential oil

Mix them together and keep in a covered jar. Allow the salts to sit for a few hours or overnight.
Add about ½ cup to running bath water.
To make it extra soothing to your skin, add 1 cup baking soda.
For a moisturizing effect, add 2-3 tsp. of honey.

Homemade Body Butter

4 TBSP. shea butter (found at any natural foods store)
1 to 2 TBSP. extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp. Vitamin E oil
5 drops lavender essential oil
3 drops geranium essential oil
2 drops rose essential oil

Place the shea butter and olive oil in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave 90 seconds (or until the shea butter is completely dissolved).
Allow the mixture to set for 30 minutes.
After it has cooled, add the Vitamin E and essential oils.
Stir well and let the mixture set for 12 hours.
Stir again after 12 hours and pour into a decorative container.


Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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Make a Cooking Wreath with Herbs from your Garden

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Herbs are wonderful things! They flavor our food, heal our minor ailments, beautify our gardens, and scent our homes. They are a joy to grow and use.

Did you have an exceptionally good yield from your garden this year? Do you have enough spices stored away for cooking?

Why not take your excess herbs and craft beautiful wreaths for yourself, and friends and family? They are easy to do, both useful and beautiful, and a homemade gift that is sure to be appreciated!

Following, you will find easy instructions for drying your herbs and arranging them into a variety of decorative wreaths. Why not give it a try?

To dry the herbs:

Cut fresh herbs and stems at least 6 inches long.
Tie the herbs in bundles with string and hang them upside down to dry for about two weeks.
Or, if you prefer, you can dry them in a single layer in a food dehydrator for 3-4 hours.

To make a wreath, you will need the following:

9 inch white willow wreath
8 small bundles of various dried herbs (try for example, basil, bay leaves, chive flower heads, dill, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and thyme)
30 dried red chili peppers
24-gauge green wire
Fishing line (6 pound test or stronger is best)
4 strands of natural raffia

Cut two 12 inch lengths of wire. String the red chili peppers onto each length. Bunch the wired peppers together, and wrap them onto the willow wreath using additional wire.

Cut a 2 yard length of fishing line and tie the end onto the back of the wreath.

Place one bundle of herbs on the front of the wreath, besides the peppers. Wrap the fishing line around the bundle and the wreath once or twice to hold them in place.

Place the leafy portion of the next bundle over the stems of the previous bundle. Secure with fishing line, and repeat until the ring is complete (try to keep the look of the wreath balanced by alternating bright and bushy herbs as you go around the circle).

Tie the end of the fishing line onto the back of the wreath and trim off the excess.

Tie the strands of natural raffia into a bow and place it at the top of the wreath.

Hang an attractive pair of small scissors from the wreath, so you can easily snip off what you need when you are cooking.

NOTE: To best preserve the look of your wreath and the flavor of the herbs, avoid hanging it in direct sunlight, or in areas of excessive moisture.

You might also want to create a wreath centered around a theme.

Does your family love homemade pizza? Make an Italian wreath with basil, oregano, garlic, and red peppers.

Are you crazy for Mexican food or homemade fresh salsa? Try designing a wreath with a variety of peppers, fresh cilantro, garlic, and onion chives.

For those of you who enjoy sipping herbal teas, try making a wreath with anise, chamomile, cloves, dandelion, lemongrass, mint, raspberry leaves and sassafras.

To make a lovely, fragrant wreath to scent your home, use fennel, lavender, mint, rosemary, and thyme.

Try decorating the wreaths with nice extra touches. For your pizza wreath, adorn it with a red and white checkered bow, reminiscent of the tablecloths you see in Italian restaurants. Add a little sombrero or dangle a pair of castanets from your Mexican wreath. Hang a tea infuser from your herbal tea wreath. Add a nice lace and ribbon sachet pillow to your fragrance wreath. The possibilities are endless — just use your imagination!

To find more beautiful herbal and garden crafts, check out the Garden Crafts Special Issue published by Crafts magazine.

Or visit their website at http://craftsmag.com.



Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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FRUGAL HEALTH TIP #2-SEVEN SUPER USES FOR LEMONS IN HOME REMEDIES

To stop a nosebleed, saturate a cotton ball with a mixture of equal parts of lemon juice and water. Dab the cotton repeatedly onto the nasal mucous membrane. The astringent properties of lemon juice cause the tissues to draw together and the bleeding to stop.

To alleviate sore throat and hoarseness, dilute the juice of one fresh lemon with one cup of hot water. Use it as a gargle three times a day. This is also an effective remedy for canker sores or lesions inside the mouth.

Diluted lemon juice also takes the pain out of sunburn. Merely saturate a cotton ball with a mixture of equal parts lemon juice and water, and dab it gently on the affected skin.

Are you having trouble sleeping? Pour one cup of boiling water over one tablespoon of dried lemon leaves, and steep for ten minutes. Drink one cup of tea an hour before bedtime. You will be seeing the sandman soon afterwards!

To purify the air in a sick room, mix together 8 drops of lemon oil, 1 drop of clove oil, 2 drops of thyme oil, and 1 drop of tea tree oil and heat it in a diffuser.

To fight fatigue, mix 2 drops of lemon oil and 2 drops of peppermint oil in a small bowl. Dip a cold, moist cloth into the mixture. Lie down in a quite place, and drape the cloth like a compress over your forehead and temples. Breath deeply. In a few minutes, you will feel refreshed and renewed.

To ease the ache of the flu, take a nice warm shower or bath. Add 20-30 drops of lemon oil to one cup of sunflower oil and massage it well into your skin. Cover yourself with a good blanket, and go to sleep. By morning your aches and pains will be gone!


Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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Why We Should Teach our Children to be Frugal

Our children today are raised in a very materialistic society. They are marketed to constantly by predatory advertisers. Companies develop shows that revolve around an entire line of toys, games, and videos. The message to kids today is buy, buy, buy!

In school, a child’s popularity is often a direct result of having the most and best toys, or from having the nicest clothes. The message is sent that a person’s self-worth is directly tied to their ability to own things. How sad!

Teaching a frugal lifestyle to kids is the antidote to this sickness, and has many benefits.

For example:

Frugal children are creative. They learn to think outside the box, and see multiple uses for common things. A piece of aluminum foil becomes more than something to wrap vegetables in on the grill. It becomes a way to correct the magnetic field of your TV set, a way to remove rust from your car’s bumper, a scissors sharpener, and a way to remove static cling from clothes.

Kids that are creative can go on to invent new things and find solutions to problems that plague society. They embrace multiple possibilities and solutions for things. What a great mindset to cultivate in a child!

Teaching frugal living also helps kids learn to manage their time and resources and not be wasteful. Are you out of wrapping paper for a present for a birthday party? Don’t hop in the car and spend your gasoline and time getting an item or two.

Encourage your child to make some wrapping paper. Surely there are comics, colored paper, aluminum foil, stickers, glitter, markers, pieces of cloth, felt, crayons etc. in your home they can use?

Making do with what you have is a good thing to teach a child. As adults, they won’t always have the financial wherewithal to indulge every purchasing whim, nor the time to drive, shop and wait in line for small items. Being resourceful with what lies at hand is a way to instill some sense of basic restraint and discipline.

Frugal living also improves the quality of your family’s life. You don’t spend money impulsively and waste your time and resources running around shopping. The money you save can be used for the enrichment of your own family.

What you save on buying second hand school clothes, packing homemade lunches, and setting reasonable limits on Christmas shopping, can be put towards a great family vacation, for example.

Enlist your kids in the selection of what to cut back on and what to save for. They will become willing partners in your plans to conserve, and learn lots in the process.


Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

FRUGAL HEALTH TIP #1

THE BENEFITS OF BANANAS

Tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance. They simply can't afford it!
The cost of prescription drugs is outrageous, and he loss of wages from missing work due to illness can be a real budget killer for many.

It is best to try and stay as healthy as possible, by eating plenty of nutritious foods. Bananas are a great choice to add to your diet. They are low cost, easily available, and have numerous health benefits.

Here are just a few:
Bananas are high in potassium, the mineral the body utilizes to normalize your heartbeat, send oxygen to the brain and regulate the balance of water.

Doctors routinely prescribe potassium for patients with high blood pressure. According to new research in the New england Journal of Medicine, potassium can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke by about 40%!

Bananas are the only raw fruit that people afflicted with ulcers can eat. That is because they neutralize acidity in the body, and coat the lining of the stomach so it feels less irritated.

When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises and levels of potassium are depleted. We can then feel edgy and irritable. Eating bananas restores the balance of potassium and that stressed out feeling subsides.

Bananas are also a good source of vitamin B6, a mood stabilizer. Women with PMS can benefit from eating bananas to help with mood swings during their menstrual cycles.
They also contain other B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Constipation can be a thing of the past for you, if you consume bananas. They ae high in fiber, making laxatives unnecessary.

Are you anemic? Bananas are high in iron, which is needed for the production of healthy blood.

A school in England gave students a banana at lunch and for a daytime snack, and found pupils were more alert and able to concentrate on their lessons.

Finally, bananas are a great cure for hangovers! Make a banana milkshake sweetened with honey. The milk re-hydrates you, the bananas coat your jumpy stomach, and the honey replenishes your depleted blood sugar that is giving you that pounding headache.


Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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Crazy Uses for Cola Drinks!

Everybody has cola in their house, new and bubbly, and even old and flat. Believe it or not, it is not just for drinking!

Here are a few surprising uses for this common soft drink:

For your car:

Use it to debug or deice your windshield. Get rust off your bumper by dipping a crumpled piece of aluminum foil in cola and rubbing on the affected area. It is also great for removing oil stains from concrete. Simply pour the soda on the greasy area, let it sit for a while and then hose it off.

In your yard and garden:

Spray your lawn with it once a month for greener grass. Also use it as an effective bug repellent. Mix a 12 oz. can of cola with 1 cup of ammonia and 1/4 cup of liquid dish soap, and spray it on your lawn or plants.

Around the house as a cleaning product:

Use it to clean your grout. Simply pour it on the tile and scrub it with a toothbrush. Do you have a burnt pan? Pour cola in it and bring it to a boil. The baked on crust will come right off! De-scale your tea kettle with it as well. Let the soda sit in the kettle for a day and then rinse it thoroughly and wipe it dry. You can even use cola to get permanent marker out of carpet! Pour coke oon the stained area and let it sit a few minutes. Scrub it gently with a brush. Follow up with soapy water and blot the area dry. In the laundry room, you can remove the fish smell from clothes by washing your laundry in it.

Is your swimming pool rusty? Add two 2 liter bottles of cola to the water and the rust will be gone!

If you go to the beach and get stung by a jelly fish, pour cola on it right away. It will relieve the pain.

As a hair product:

Do you want perfect curls? Pour it on your long hair and let it soak in a few minutes, then shampoo it as normal. If your dye job came out too dark, you can use diet cola to fade or remove the dye. (Note: You must use diet cola for this to work.) Did you get gum in your hair? Soak it in a bowl of cola for a few minutes and then wipe. The gum will come right out!


Irene Helen Zundel is a freelance writer, educator and mother, and an expert in child development, home schooling and creative parenting and home making.
Visit her online at http://www.irenehelenzundel.com

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