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Yesss! OxiClean Is A Miracle Stain Remover

October 11, 2011/6 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Cleaning & Maintenance, Fashion & Beauty, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

We’re kind of obsessed with clothing stains around here, and guess what? We’ve finally found the perfect—and easiest—way to remove them.

PROBLEM SOLVED | At Frugalbits we’re suckers for expert advice so last spring, when we wanted to know how to remove perspiration stains from white tee shirts, we contacted Madame Paulette in New York City, an international expert in fabric care. The company president graciously shared Madame Paulette’s DIY stain removal formula with our readers (CLICK HERE for the story), and although it is good and useful, we’ve recently been introduced to an even simpler solution that’s equally effective and no work at all. Read more

It’s Time You Got A Real Man’s Watch

September 19, 2011/4 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Classics & Trends, Fashion & Beauty, Styling Tips, View All Fashion Stories /by Editor

Real {stylish} women wear authentic men’s watches never wussy boyfriend equivalents.

DARE TO REPAIR | Borrowing stuff from the guys— boyfriend shirts, boyfriend jeans and boyfriend blazers—is a fashion trend that’s been popular for some time now. It’s a girlish affection for all things androgynous and oversized that also extends to accessories. Made for a woman, the boyfriend watch is a masculine looking timepiece that has a big, bold face and the kind of chunky ruggedness that makes a woman’s wrist look particularly delicate. But our question is this: why would you ever send a boy do man’s job? Wouldn’t an actual man’s watch be the more authentic choice? Read more

Frugalbits For The Win!!

September 17, 2011/2 Comments/in Culture & Leisure /by Editor

With national nominations for both best online-only magazine and best web design at the 2011 Canadian Online Publishing Awards, everyone in our trenches feels like we’ve already received a prize.

GRATEFUL | This may sound cornball, but being a finalist in two categories at the upcoming 2011 Canadian Online Publishing Awards—best online-only magazine and best web design (consumer division)—already feels like a win to me. Positive national recognition at whatever level is a super confidence booster, not to mention a bonus for business. Read more

Get A Free Phone Line With A Dedicated ###

June 22, 2011/2 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

With this free service, you can use a dedicated number to make and receive long-distance calls from your computer—and have incoming calls rerouted to your landline or cell. Sweeet!

WASTE NOT | Living Rich by Spending Smart author Gregory Karp says telecom- munications, along with food and insurance, are three of the biggest recurring expenses in every adult’s life, so to achieve “financial fitness” you should avoid waste in these areas first.

In an effort to staunch the telecommunications hemorrhaging that goes on in our house, I signed up for Google Voice (CLICK HERE for our story), a software program that allows those with a Gmail account to make free long-distance calls (through 2011, anyway) all over North America via computer. I’ve used “GV” to make free calls to the U.S. but found the sound quality so hit and miss (I’m told it’s Beta software) that it prompted me to try another free software for calls in Canada. This one has provided me with consistently clear reception—plus some bells and whistles. Read more

No Sweat (Marks)! How To Remove Them

April 5, 2011/5 Comments/in Cleaning & Maintenance, FASHION, Fashion & Beauty, Goods & Services, Styling Tips, View All Fashion Stories, View All Home Stories /by Editor

It’s the bane of white tee shirt lovers everywhere—fabric discolouration due to perspiration. Frugalbits asked an international expert how to remove this pesky stain—and he told us what to do.

DO IT YOURSELF | Many general stain removal charts do not even include underarm perspiration as a category. Google “how to remove perspiration/ deodorant stains from clothing” and you’ll find a confusing number of disparate solutions. If there’s a rule of thumb for dealing with this universal problem, who could rightfully claim to know what it is: Martha Stewart; Linda Cobb, the self-proclaimed Queen of Clean; Heloise? Learned as these ladies are, they are home-keeping generalists, not laundry stain specialists. For the definitive answer, Frugalbits asked a leading light in the stain removal industry. Read more

It Could Happen To Us: Make A Disaster Kit

March 10, 2011/1 Comment/in Goods & Services /by Editor

Mother Nature’s on a tear, and seismologists say it’s only a matter of time before we feel her vengeance here. Take the edge off any worry with an easy-make General Disaster Kit.

BE PREPARED | Though it looks almost identical to an image we saw on the Internet of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that rocked and tumbled Christchurch in New Zealand recently, the picture shown here was taken just 200 miles south of Vancouver in Nisqually, Washington. It shows the destruction caused in 2001 when a quake with a magnitude of 6.8 ripped through this tiny community south of Seattle, sending tremors hundreds of miles in every direction. Read more

How To Always Get The Event Tickets You Want

March 8, 2011/2 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

How to ensure you won’t lose out on tickets to the concerts and events you most want to see.

WORK THE SYSTEM | Has this ever happened to you? Your favourite performer or sporting event is coming to town and you want to make sure you get great seats the second they’re up for grabs. You know that buying tickets in person at a Ticketmaster location or over the telephone will not be faster than purchasing them online, so on the day they become available, you access your Ticketmaster account and begin refreshing your computer screen repeatedly in the minutes leading up to their release, pouncing like a tiger on its prey when the Find Tickets button goes live. Even with your lightening quick reflexes, every ticket is gone in a matter of minutes, and not one of them sold to you.

What can you do to ensure this will never happen again? One thing would be to try to buy tickets before they go on sale to the general public. For that you will most likely need a presale password or code. Read more

How To Crowd Fund Your Creative Project

February 15, 2011/4 Comments/in Goods & Services /by Editor

If you want to raise money for your own charitable endeavour or creative project, crowdfunding is the white hot way to do it.

AFFECT YOUR CAUSE | Last month, when popstar Adam Lambert asked his then 860,000 Twitter followers to help him raise $290,000 in under two weeks for his current favourite cause Charity: Water, even his own father expressed skepticism. But fans, in a testament to Lambert’s power to mobilize the troops, crashed the charity’s website on the last day to donate, and Lambert wound up just $10,000 shy of his goal.

Last week Lambert tweeted fans to visit kickstarter.com and check out his pal guitarist Monte Pittman’s campaign to raise funds for a self-published album. That shoutout helped Pittman surpass his financial goal in less than a day.

Both Lambert and Pittman were tapping into the power of crowdfunding—Lambert for charity, Pittman for working capital—and you can tap into it too, to support a personal cause or a creative project of your own. Read more

How To Buy A Pre- Owned Car In The U.S.

February 3, 2011/2 Comments/in Goods & Services /by Editor

Ever thought about importing a pre-owned car from the U.S.? This could be a good time to do it.

MONEY SPENT WISELY | Buying a pre-owned car in the U.S. is not the sizzling topic it was in 2007 when the price of relatively new used cars was much higher this side of the border (I’m told Canadian dealers have made an effort in the past few years to mitigate the disparity). Still, the Canadian dollar is at par right now and could go higher, while the U.S. economy remains in a slump. One can only imagine that a larger than average number of U.S. car owners are defaulting on payments, and that lots of auto dealerships are staring at overstock—circumstances that could work to the advantage of Canadians car shopping down south. Read more

How To Receive Parcels At The U.S. Border

January 20, 2011/13 Comments/in Goods & Services /by Editor

It’s dead simple to have U.S. companies that don’t ship to Canada ship to the border instead.

SHOPPING AROUND | Last week we ran a story on down sweaters and discovered that some of the best-value models come from the cheap-chic Japanese fashion house Uniqlo, which does not ship to Canada. Uniqlo will, however, take orders for anything in its online catalogue over the telephone from the store in Manhattan and send it to any address in the U.S for a flat rate.

This got us thinking about how we might use the services of any of the parcel-receiving companies that operate just over the border in Blaine, Washington. We contacted four of them—Automated Mailing Services, Mail Boxes International, Pacific Mail and Parcel, and Security Mail Services—and found out the process is simple. Read more

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