Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Cheap Ways to Cool Off This Summer

1. Put Your Pillowcase in the Freezer. 

When you wake up in the morning, throw your pillowcase into a plastic grocery bag and toss it in the freezer. When you're ready for bed, pull it out and toss your pillow back inside. Voila! An instant chill-out.

2. Use Free Air Conditioning. 

This is an old trick of my family's. When it gets really hot, while away the hours in an air-conditioned public place. The public library or the mall (especially the food court area in a mall, where you can actually get away with things like reading a book) are free to everybody. Remember, too, that grocery stores have frozen food aisles...When it's really, really hot, who's to stop you from sticking your head in there for just a minute or two?

3. Use Your Freezer for Food, Too. 

There are lots of foods we don't normally freeze that CAN be frozen and that make "cool" summer treats! Granola bars, for instance, can be quite tasty frozen. Bananas can be peeled and thrown into Ziploc bags (optionally dipped in chocolate) and eaten hours later as a nutritious (or not so much) popsicle. I've never tried it myself, but I've also heard rave reviews about frozen grapes.

Gather your gear and you'll
be all set for a swim in
the bathtub! 
4. Go Swimming in the Bathtub.

You don't have a swimming pool? No problem. My pal Wendi introduced me to a solution for this many years ago: going swimming in your own bathtub. Simply put on your swimming clothes - trunks, swimsuit, flippers, whatever you've got - fill up your bathtub, and hop in! Yes, it's not quite like doing laps at the Olympics, but it won't cost you an airplane ticket, either, and can help bring down your core body temperature to something more bearable.


Whatever you do to stay cool as the temperatures rise, friends, remember to play it cool, too -- saving money never goes out of style!

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