DIY Life

Grab your hip, new reusable shopping tote and let's grab some groceries. But, wait! First, check out the Reader's Digest 10 tips for smart food shopping. It's a quick and easy-to-read guide for staying on track once you step inside the store. Stay on track how? Answer: in every way -- in terms of your budget and your health goals.

Here are my three faves -- all ideas that have worked for me lately:
1. Limit your trips. I try to pick up extra bread and milk when I shop so as to avoid extra runs to the store. The less I go to the supermarket, the less I spend each month.
2. Avoid shopping on an empty stomach. An oldie but a goodie. This is probably the best shopping advice out there!
3. Follow the walls. The less processed stuff you buy, the less money you'll spend and the healthier you'll be eating. Try it. This tip really works!

Enjoy these ideas? Check out Francesca's tips on how to be a grocery super shopper!

Ah, Spring: the time of year when flowers bloom, bunnies hop, and the sound of dozens of "For Sale" signs being hammered into the ground echoes throughout every neighborhood. While you can go house-hunting at any time of year, Spring is the season traditionally associated with buying or selling a house.

But home purchasing is full of potential pitfalls: what should you look for? How do you protect yourself and your family from shady sellers and predatory lenders? Who's the best inspector for the job? Do you even like the neighborhood? And what does a Realtor mean when they say "cozy," anyway?

All these questions (except maybe that last one), and many more, are addressed in a fantastic Ask Metafilter thread: Chunks of homebuying wisdom from The Hive Mind. Dozens of people weighed in with what they know -- and what they wish they had known -- about buying a house for the first time. It's invaluable reading for anyone who is in the market for a new residence, or just thinking about it.

[via Not Martha, a little while ago.]

We all find ourselves at the hands of the "experts" a retail stores. We are at worst forced to endure smarmy, overconfident, condescending know it alls whose only joy in life seems to be doling out tid bits of information a little at a time, always withholding that last piece of vital information that would stop you from, say,flooding the house or formatting the hard drive.

At best we find can someone willing to help, provided we don't come off as too aggressive, belligerent, or just plain rude in a futile attempt to get a preemptive strike in in case they happened to be one of the "bad" experts.

Here are a few tips to help make sure that the expert you encounter will be forth coming and helpful to you:

Stumped by a difficult DIY task or a fix-it job gone wrong? Here's a possibility to consider: How to Mend it.com. This Brit site lets readers submit questions for other readers to answer. It's a lot like super-popular Yahoo Answers, but it's devoted entirely to fix-it topics. Car repair, home maintenance, renovations, large and small appliance jobs, computers, plumbing, lawn mowers, film projectors, boats, heating and cooling systems, toys, roofing, car alarms, and even musical instruments. Yep. They're all covered here.

Lots of questions seem to go unanswered. However, many others get one or even several replies. Worth a shot if you're having a problem and don't want to pay big bucks for a repair service. To test the site's mettle, I searched washing machine repair. This brought up over 15,000 questions on the topic. Problem is, (assuming you're searching for answers) you're going to have to hope that plugging in a more specific search term will take you to the questions best-suited to your situation. Obviously, you are not going to want to scroll through all those questions page by page.

Bottom line: if there's one fix-it this site could use, it's a more sophisticated search function. But give it a whirl anyway. It's free advice, people!

For those who get cold sores or fever blisters, this is a dreaded season. Outbreaks are more common and dry uncomfortable skin seems to slow the healing process. Here are 9 ways to speed the healing and control the spread of these painful lesions.

1. Make sure you have a cold sore
   Confirm what you're dealing with so that you can treat it effectively.
   
2. Notice when an outbreak is pending
   The affected area will feel tender and sore. You will likely notice a small bump before an actual outbreak. If you catch the sore before it's completely erupted you'll have an easier time treating it.
   
3. Quarantine your sore
   Yes, that means no smooching. Keep the sore to yourself. Don't share drinks or dishes with people. Wash your hands well and avoid touching the sore.
   
4. Toss the toothbrush
   You could be reinfecting yourself, so get a new toothbrush and start fresh.
   
5. Take an antiviral medication
   Ask your doctor about medication that you can take to suppress outbreaks and stop from passing them on.
   
6. Take care of the fever
   Cold sores and fevers often go hand in hand, particularly in children. Monitor and treat the fever.
   
7. Ease the pain
   Over the counter creams and pain medication can help ease the pain. 10 minutes with an ice-pack or a whole milk compress will also do the trick.
   
8. Have patience
   Outbreaks typically take 2 weeks to subside. Picking at the sore will only agitate it and prolong the healing process.
   
9. Talk to your doctor
   If healing doesn't progress as you'd expect or if you are in particular pain, talk to your doctor. The doctor may recommend a vitamin B complex and amino acids.

That nasty looking cold sore is not going to compliment your new holiday outfit. Look your best and spare your date the awkward moment of rejecting your goodnight kiss by following these useful tips for quick healing and quarantine of the dreaded cold sore.