1. Natural acne medicine – One way to do this is to reduce intake of dairy and simple carbs (white rice, refined flour and sugar) because these create hormonal and sugar imbalances that contribute to acne. Tea tree oil (OK that’s not free but it is natural) has natural antibacterial agents that help to kill acne causing microbes and speeds up the skin’s healing process.
2. Natural dandruff treatment – This one really works for me: take a large tablespoon of olive oil and mix this with the juice of one lime. Apply on to the hair roots and leave for about half an hour. Then wash your hair like normal: squeaky clean, nice smelling and best of all dandruff free!
3. Natural face scrub – Strawberry pulp mixed with sea salt, grated almonds and olive oil is a terrific facial scrub that helps you exfoliate the old dead cells from the surface of the skin and reveal the fresher layer beneath.
4. Natural skin toner – I find rose water to be a great and refreshing toner for the face. But even this concoction: cucumber juice mixed with honey – is a good natural skin toner. In fact honey has natural antibacterial properties and so may resolve other minor skin problems too.
5. Natural moisturizer – A lot of oils – almond, olive, coconut, mustard – are great for the skin. But they can be a little icky. So I find that an avocado makes an excellent skin moisturizer. Grape seed and jojoba are also thought to work great.
6. Natural face mask – Blueberries are loaded with antioxidants which makes them terrific for the skin. Blend blueberries with honey and olive oil to make a paste and apply this to the face. Allow to dry for 5 minutes before rinsing off.
7. Natural shampoo – A paste of baking soda and water applied directly to the hair and then rinsed off can give you clean and shiny hair. No suds and foam, but nice, clean hair!
8. Natural hair conditioner – Yoghurt and egg make terrific hair conditioners. They may smell disgusting but you will love how soft and shiny your hair is afterwards!

If you think all of this sounds like too much work and you really like the smell of your moisturizer, then look out for my next post in which I shall be looking at deals and discounts for hair and skin care.

Treat yourself to the spa – Getting a pampering at the spa… it doesn’t get better than that! Treat yourself to a massage, a beauty treatment, a body wrap, or anything that your heart desires. Now if a spa treat is a bit out of your budget, think of a DIY spa treatment at home with your fave bath salts, great music, some wine perhaps followed by a great film! And it doesn’t have to be something that you do with anyone else (though you can take along your significant other), in my view however, pampering is best done alone!

Go ice skating – You can hold hands with your special person, have a race with a friend or just go by yourself, perhaps meeting someone interesting in the bargain!

Have a picnic – This can be a fun and inexpensive option that you can enjoy by yourself or with friends or family. Pick some tasty treats and set out. You can drive, you can take your bike or hire one, or you can decide to make a trek out of it. Enjoy the great outdoors and enjoy some quality time with yourself or with others who matter.

Volunteer or make a contribution – You can make any day worthwhile if you decide to do something really selfless. Volunteer time at a shelter or other worthwhile charitable organization, or make a donation of another kind. You can make an online contribution of money or you can try and reduce and de-clutter at home and give away things or clothes that you can spare to those who are less fortunate than you.

Retail therapy – If you are not of a volunteering bent of mind, and you really need a lift of spirits, I say go shop! In my view there are few things as enjoyable as browsing and window shopping and perhaps treating yourself to a little something that you’ve longed for. And you don’t have to become a mall rat to do this…. Just go online, the options are endless!

Bulk buying to save money

Stores can offer you better discounts when you buy larger quantities, because they can afford to reduce their profit margin significantly when you buy in bulk. For instance if you buy a pound of rice, you may end up paying significantly more per pound of rice than if you had bought 25 pounds of the same rice.

Retailers employ less staff and have a no frills warehouse kind of store that helps save money. Manufacturers are able to reduce costs in that there is less packaging used for bulk products and these savings can be passed on to the consumer.

There is so much that you can buy in bulk and store: food items such as grains, frozen cuts of meat, pastas, cereals, dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, flour, chocolate and so on. Then there are toiletries such as large size packages of shampoo, conditioners, bath gel, toilet rolls and so on that can be cheaper. Cleaning material like detergents, cleaning liquids and so on don’t spoil and you can save significant amounts by buying in bulk. Stationery is something else that you can buy in bulk if you use a lot of it.

Bulk buying to save multiple trips to the store

Once you’ve stocked up on food and other items in bulk you can rest assured that you don’t have to keep rushing to the store because you’re good for a longer time. You save yourself a lot of time in terms of trips to the shops and you save yourself money and in terms of fuel as well.

Bulk buying is also eco friendly

Much of the household waste that we produce comes from packaging of the various items we use each day. If you buy one large packet of nuts instead of 10 smaller packets of nuts you obviously produce a lot less waste in terms of packaging. And fewer trips to the store means that much more saving in terms of fuel, so this is how bulk buying is earth friendly as well.

Bulk buying tips

Consider going bulk shopping with friends who can share out the items you buy in bulk.

Consider buying those things that you know you’re going to make a lot of use of. Don’t buy in bulk anything that is perishable or will spoil before it gets used.

Consider how much storage space you have in your home. There is really no point a couple of gallons of shampoo or 25 pounds of rice if you don’t have storage space at home.

I have always maintained that an eBook reader makes a lot of economical and ecological sense. Reading books in their electronic form means that you are buying and creating that much less demand for paper and ink books, saving trees and other resources used in the manufacturing process.

Then there is the fact that an eBook can be cheaper to buy and always easier to carry than the hundreds of books it can contain! Also the benefit of being able to not just read books but, magazines, broadsheets and tabloids on there; and being able to refer to the dictionary and encyclopedia while you’re at it!

The top recommended eBook readers are the Amazon Kindle Touch, the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple, the Kobo and the Sony eBook readers.

Features to look for I am looking for something that has a lot of content available from the dedicated service that the reader is available from. Then I have to figure out whether I want the e-ink technology (lets you read easily in the sunlight) or the LCD screen. Then I have to figure out whether it is a touch screen that I want or not. Battery life is another crucial factor to look at. Another thing to look at is the additional features that the reader has: does it have audio? Does it support 3G? Browsing? Can I listen to music as well?

The Amazon Kindle has three versions: The Basic Kindle (or Kindle Keyboard for $79), Kindle Touch ($99) and Kindle Fire ($199). The basic Kindle doesn’t have the touch screen, but when you look at the price you are able to forgive quite a lot. The Kindle Touch has text to speech, audio books and mp3 support. You can also look up historical references, difficult words and phrases, and a whole lot besides.

Kindle fire has web browsing, a lot of apps including games access to movies and a lot else such as graphic novels and magazines in full color.

If you don’t want ads you have to pay extra with Kindle.

The Barnes and Noble eBook Reader and Kobo are also competitively priced at $99, but they do not have 3G or audio support. They do have an expandable memory slot however.

The Sony costs $129 and has audio support. All the eBook readers have battery life of more than one month (except fire, which is actually a fully fledged tablet and not just a reader).

So clearly there are plusses and minuses in each case. As of now I am genuinely confused. Thoughts?

Here are some eco friendly gadgets that recently caught my eye:

I liked this solar power flashlight cum radio that has a list price of $40 but is down to $22 99 after a 43% discount. A flash light is always a useful thing to have around. If you charge the device using solar light for about 3 hours, you get about 3 hours of light from the LED light bulbs or about 2 hours of radio play, if you want to use both at once, you can use it for about an hour. And just in case there’s no sun, you can still recharge it from a wall outlet.

The Bedol Water Power Clock is, as the name suggests, actually powered by water! Sounds rather unbelievable, but this amazing little gadget claims to use no batteries or electricity. You simply open the cap, fill in water and you’re ready to go! The water ions are converted into clean energy for powering the clock. No wires needed and it’s recyclable as well!

The premium solar charger is a device that all gadget geeks should have: a solar powered backup battery and charger for cell phones, iPhones, iPods, and most USB powered devices which includes built-in led reading light and window / windshield suction cups so that you never have to run out of juice again, even when you’re on the move. The sale price is $27.99 down from 60 dollars, netting you a discount of over 50%.

The Robomower is an electric cordless, automatic lawnmower that does its job without you in attendance. It uses no gas or oil and so there are no fumes, emissions or smell, making this a great non-polluting gadget. Now this item is not cheap at over 1600 dollars but this is down from the list price of 2000 at a 19% discount and does save you a lot of time, effort and since the cuttings are evenly distributed onto the land, it is that much more environment friendly.

So here are my financial New Year resolutions for the year 2012:

1. Getting out of debt. I am lucky that I do not have a lot of debt but I want to clear what debt I have and be very careful about the bills that I run up. What I plan to do is give up all except one credit card. This way there are fewer bills to keep track of and simpler and easier to make payments. There is less chance of an oversight that increases the debt.
2. I am going to pay more attention to savings and am going to try and diversify my savings portfolio in a way that offers better returns. I am thinking in terms of buying gold (can’t go wrong with this; global gold prices are going through the roof) which is something that I have learnt from certain traditional societies who invest all their wealth in jewelry. I am also thinking in terms of getting some mutual funds.
3. I am also considering taking some courses to learn some new skills to add to my skill set. This will help me have better and more marketable qualifications, which in the end should translate into a better income. This is a long term plan however which I still need to give a lot of thought to.
4. I resolve to eat out less. This is good for me in so many different ways. Not only do I save a packet by not eating out and cooking at home, I am less likely to overeat at home which is good for my health. When I cook at home I know exactly what goes into the meal so I know not to put too much sugar, salt and fat into what I eat.
5. I resolve to be a savvy shopper. You may well say that I am already a savvy shopper, which I am, but I shall be more circumspect in the amount that I buy and shall be more vigilant about trawling the net to find the best deals for all of that which I plan to buy.

Hopefully my financial new year resolutions may inspire some more out there: any more ideas?

Now that we’ve established that there are enough excuses for guilt-free re gifting, here are some re-gifting dos and don’ts:

1. Check the manufacturing date. Food items have an expiration date, and so, in a sense do electronics and gadgets which get outdated so very quickly. You certainly don’t want the recipient to know that your re-gift was lying around your closet or pantry for a while before nestling into the folds of wrapping paper. 
2. Be thoughtful. Just because you don’t want that particular bottle of wine you got, doesn’t mean you gift it to you teetotal uncle. And just because you are a rocker rather than a country ballad sort, it doesn’t mean that you give that Kenny Rogers CD to someone who only listens to classical music!
3. Check the gift over thoroughly before rewrapping. You don’t want to give a book that is already dedicated to you, or a coffee machine that has its previous Best Compliments card still attached to it. Honesty is all very well but it is best not to let the recipient know that you’re giving them this purple vase because you got it from someone but you really have no use for it yourself.
4. Check the package or box. If it looks worn or dog-eared, it is not gift worthy.
5. Never re-gift anything that is even slightly used. That is just bad manners. This applies even if you don’t have a gift at the last moment. Even grabbing a bottle of wine or a box of generic chocolates from the closest store is better.
6. Don’t ever re-gift to the giver. Here’s a tip: if you get a gift that you know is destined only for re-gifting, keep the best compliments tag with the gift to help you remember you gave you the gift. That way you don’t ever end up giving the gift back to the one who gave it to you in the first place.
7. Don’t reuse wrapping paper. Seriously now that is just cheap. Besides everyone can tell. Right away.

A survey found that 78% of those asked, thought re-gifting is fine, so if you are a re-gifter, you are in good company… just so long as you follow the above rules of re-gifting.

Here are some unusual gifting ideas for the quirky or the difficult to please individuals in your life:

1. A Piggy Bank that doubles as a décor piece. This can actually be a practical gift for a kid to teach them the rudiments of savings and can also be something that they will happily display on their desk.
2. The adult version of this gift above would be a savings account that you open for someone near and dear to you. You can make the initial deposit into that account and help your friend or relative develop a habit that is pocket friendly. Makes a lot of sense in these lean times. 
3. For those of us who are musically inclined (particularly if a major Beatles fan such as myself), this limited edition print featuring Sir Paul McCartney is a great idea. It is an image made up of 90 of the best songs by the Fab Four.
4. The complete BBC series of Planet Earth is a fascinating collection that anyone would enjoy receiving. This is a classic that is narrated by David Attenborough, a 5 DVD collection that has a running time of 440 minutes.
5. GPS or the Global Positioning System is the ideal gift for someone who likes gadgets. This pin points your position in real time and the maps that are fed into the system tell you the shortest route to get from point A to B.
6. I have probably spoken of this item before, but I think it bears repeating: a flexible, folding illuminated keyboard that connects to the USB port of your laptop or computer. This virtually indestructible item not only rolls up for easy portability, its sealed design also makes sure that it is easy to clean and keeps off the germs.
7. For the germophobe in your life, here is a gift that will really be appreciated: a toothbrush sanitizer.  It may seem a pointless gift to many, but it will be uniquely appreciated by the right person.

Shop Local – This is a good idea for several reasons: it gives a boost to the local economy and helps and encourages local craftsmen. Secondly, if you purchase stuff that is grown or made locally there is less resource expenditure on transportation, preservation, packaging and so on. And local handicrafts and artifacts may be greatly appreciated by the receiver as well.

Shop Seasonal – If its flowers or fruit that you want to gift, pick seasonal produce rather than exotic stuff that is either flown in from distant locales or is artificially grown and artificially ripened.

Buy Organic – Look for genuinely organic stuff that is grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides, herbicides and similar poisons. This not only prevents the earth from being further polluted, it also prevents toxins and possible carcinogens from entering our own systems. So whether it is edible produce or clothing that you’re thinking of buying, even soaps, shampoos and other items of personal hygiene; organic is the way to go!

Minimize packaging – Packaging may be colorful and attractive and may add substance to a gift, but think about the fact that all packaging is a waste. The more layers of packaging there are, the more items are added to the land fill. So pick items that have fewer layers of packaging and look for the type of packaging that can actually be recycled. For gift wrapping don’t use those decorative plastic sheets, even though they are resistant to splitting and tearing.

Pick sustainable products and manufacturers – Consider gifts such as potted plants. Consider gifting your services or your time – for instance some babysitting for a harried new mom may be highly appreciated.

Also reward manufacturers and businesses who have sound and sustainable business practices and are known to be ethical, by buying their products. Picking their products over competitors is a simple way of rewarding and encouraging such manufacturers.

When you shop sustainable, you not only do something that is good for the environment, you also have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve done your bit. And who knows – it may lessen some of the guilt that splurging often brings with it!

The Shop Savvy app allows you to easily compare the price of an item at every store it is available. To get the prices of an item, you must use the app to take a picture of the bar code. Shop Savvy uses the picture of the bar code to determine what item you are scanning. After the bar code picture is taken, Shop Savvy will display the price of that item all of the major stores in the area. Using Shop Savvy will allow you to never overpay for anything ever again.

Coupon Sherpa

Coupon Sherpa allows you to find if there are any coupons available for an item that you are about to buy. Coupon Sherpa lets you search for coupons at just about every major store. Once you find the appropriate store on Coupon Sherpa, the app will display all of the stores current coupons. The apps pulls coupons from several different sources and even has several coupons that are exclusive to Coupon Sherpa. All of the coupons on the app can be scanned at the cash register of every store. Using Coupon Sherpa allows you to take advantage of the deals at every store, without having to spend hours cutting coupons.

If you use the GasBuddy app, then you will never over pay for gas again. GasBuddy uses the GPS in your smart phone to determine your location. Once your location is determined, GasBuddy will display the price of gas at every gas station near you. This allows you to be able to find the cheapest gas in the area before you leave the house. If you are not sure where the gas station is located, GasBuddy will even give you directions to the gas station from your location. With the rising prices of gas, the ability to save a few cents is very important.

Groupon

While the previous apps allowed you to save money on gas and retail items, Groupon allows you to save on just about everything else. Groupon displays all of the great deals on all of the various restaurants, hotels, spas and other services in your area. None of the deals featured on Groupon can be used as coupons, but they allow you to buy the services at a discounted price. Gift certificates to restaurants and hotel rooms can be purchased for over 50% the normal price. Groupon constantly updates with new deals, and the good deals can go quickly. Having Groupon on your smart phone allows you to constantly search for great deals to make sure that you never miss out on something special.

Kayak

Kayak is one of the most popular travel reservation websites, and you can now get all of the deals from your phone. Kayak finds you the cheapest price on flights, hotels and car rentals for any destination. Kayak searches every travel site to find you the best deal possible, and everything can be booked on the phone through the app. If you plan on traveling, then Kayak will save you a lot of money. You can even track the status of your flight using the Kayak application.

Sim only contracts are great way to reduce the cost of using a smart phone. Why pay the high costs of a regular contract if you do not have to? Combining the contract with these apps allows for your smart phone to pay for itself, and allow you to have more money for your other expenses.

This is a guest article by Ruben Corbo, a freelance writer for technology, travel, and music production topics. When he’s not writing or making music, he’s enjoying a good post-apocalyptic novel or playing RTS Strategy online game. Ruben’s writing resume includes websites like SIM Only where you can get the best Sim Only contracts as well as other websites that help you save on your tech purchases.

Images courtesy of Todd Barnard, sarahintampa, smgoller, Sean MacEntee and Rob Enslin