40 Dollar Store Solutions For Life’s Little Dilemmas

Learn how to save a fortune, the old-fashioned nickel-and-dime way.

$1 solutions - Carpenter with hammer hitting nails
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Hold a nail

Stop hitting your fingers every time you hammer a nail in place. Use an ordinary spring-activated clothespin to hold the nail while you hammer.

$1 solutions - Fresh homemade applesauce with apples on a wooden table
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Replace the oil in baking

Oil makes baked goods moist and tender. It’s also incredibly calorie-dense, and if you’re watching your waistline, eliminating oil from your baking is a natural place to start. But that doesn’t mean you have to develop a taste for baked treats that are dry and tough: Replace up to two-thirds of the oil called for in a cake or muffin recipe with applesauce, and you’ll add moisture and flavour while ditching the fat.

Don’t miss our ultimate guide to healthy grocery shopping.

$1 solutions - top view of various dried legumes in jars
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Soften beans

Afraid those dry beans have been on the shelf too long? Help soften them by adding a pinch of baking soda to the soaking water. Add a fresh pinch to the cooking water, too, and you can significantly reduce the after-effects of bean consumption. (Find out more sneaky reasons you’re bloated all the time.)

Woman with sore mouth
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Neutralize canker sores

Place an antacid tablet directly on the canker sore, giving it time to dissolve, or simply chew one. The medicine will stop the acids and enzymes in your mouth from attacking the tissue in the sore, and more importantly, it will stop the pain. (Be sure to check the product’s label for correct dosage instructions.)

Here are more canker sore home remedies worth trying.

$1 solutions - Skilled child treating her wound at home
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Rip it off the right way

Pulling an adhesive bandage off your child’s skin can be tough on both of you. Make it easier by rubbing the bandage with a cotton ball soaked in baby oil. Rub until you can easily pull the bandage off. This trick works well for adults with sensitive skin, too.

Here are the first aid kit essentials you should always have on hand.

$1 solutions - Carpenter Pulling a Nail on wood
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Pull nails out gently

If you’re planning to pull a nail out of wood but worry that the hammerhead will hurt the grain, protect the wood before using the hammer. How? Slip a plastic spatula under the head of the hammer before you start the job.

$1 solutions - Cup of coffee spilled on carpet
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Clean your carpet overnight

Whether your carpet smells dank and musty because of a pet, a smoker, or a season of rain, take the odour out with baby powder. Using a flour sifter, spread the powder generously over the carpet. Let it sit overnight—a few hours will suffice, but overnight is better—and vacuum up the powder and the smells in the morning.

Discover more homemade carpet cleaners.

$1 solutions - Midsection of man washing hands at sink by window
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Get rid of fishy odours

Been chopping something pungent? The smell of garlic or fish can linger on your fingers long after the food is gone. Avoid that by scrubbing your wet hands with baking soda, just as if it were soap, then rinse in warm water. Your hands will smell sweet—and feel softer, too.

Find out more easy household hacks to get rid of odours.

Woman with pain in hand
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Stop splinters

Make a paste of Epsom salt and water and apply it to the area harbouring a splinter. The paste will help pull the splinter to the surface of the skin in about 10 minutes. (It can even help pull insect stingers out of your skin, too.)

Check out more old-time home remedies that really work.

$1 solutions - Woman plucking eyebrows
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Numb your eyebrows

Make plucking your eyebrows much less painful by putting an ice pack on them until they’re uncomfortably cold. At that point your skin will be numb enough to begin plucking. You won’t even feel the tug!

Find out more clever uses for ice cubes.

$1 solutions - Close up of female hands taking moisturizing cream from bottle in bathroom. Woman taking care of her dry complexion.
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Stop hanging out with hangnails

Get rid of annoying hangnails by rubbing hand or body lotion into your cuticles daily. The lotion will keep those troublesome areas soft and help prevent future hangnails.

Here’s how to avoid dry skin in winter.

Dollar store solutions - spraying shaving cream into hand
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Remove crayon from walls

If you find crayon markings on your wall, don’t get mad—get shaving cream. Spray the shaving cream directly onto the offending artwork, and scrub it off with a toothbrush or scrub brush.

Discover 25 cleaning hacks for stubborn messes.

$1 solutions - Senior Man Suffering With Neck Pain Sitting On Side Of Bed At Home
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Make a close-fitting hot pad

Soothe aching muscles with a custom-made hot pad. Fill a long sock, such as a tube or athletic sock, with dried beans, and tie the top tightly closed with ribbon or string. Heat in a microwave on high for 30 seconds. Place it right on your painful spot. You can drape it around a stiff neck or wrap it around a sore wrist, and it will mold to you, providing faster relief.

$1 solutions - Homemade chocolate cookies on baking tray top view
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Keep cookies fresh

Homemade chocolate chip cookies can go from tasting deliciously soft and cakey to feeling hard and crunchy in a matter of days. To keep your freshly baked cookies tasting freshly baked, put a couple of slices of bread into the tin or jar where you store the cookies, laying the bread right on top of the cookies. The bread will keep that just-out-of-the-oven flavour and texture intact for up to a week.

Check out more of our all-time best kitchen hacks.

Dollar store solutions - taper candles
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Wax your windows

Do your double-hung windows have a bumpy ride every time you open or close them? If your windows don’t slide up and down with ease, let a candle help them. Clean the insides of the window frame where the sashes travel, then rub the same area with a candle. The windows will have a much smoother journey.

Here are 50 household items you should be repurposing.

$1 solutions - Residential house garage interior
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Make your garage floor sparkle

If you find a puddle of oil on your concrete garage floor, pour paint thinner over it, and then cover the area with kitty litter. (Make sure that the garage is well ventilated by keeping the garage door open, and don’t let anyone smoke or strike matches anywhere near the affected area—and keep the cats away.) The kitty litter will absorb the oil. Just sweep up the mess and you’re done.

This is the best polish for your car’s dashboard—and it’s in your pantry!

$1 solutions - Seedlings of lettuce with gardening tools outside the potting shed
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Kill off ants

If you find an entire colony of ants in or near your garden, you’ll want to get rid of it. How? Cover the anthill with an upside-down flowerpot. Pour boiling water through the hole in the bottom of the pot. You’ll get rid of all the ants at once.

golf ball in hand
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Give yourself a hand massage

Place a golf ball in one palm, then place your other palm over it and interlock your fingers loosely. Now roll the golf ball around your hands, pressing your palms together at the same time. The tension in your hands will ease. Roll your bare feet over a golf ball for a few minutes for a soothing foot massage, too.

Find out more tricks to relieve sore feet.

Full of bucket container ice creams flavors and ice cubes in freezer get ready for summer.
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Remove ice inside

An ice scraper can work as well on a freezer as it can on a car window. If you don’t feel like defrosting your freezer but want to get rid of some of the ice and frost, gently chip away at it with an ice scraper until you’re happy with the space you’ve created.

Luxury,soft,white,washable double size fiber quilt rolled on the white background.Close up taken.
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Keep down-filled items from clumping

Throw one or two tennis balls into the dryer the next time you dry down-filled items like pillows, comforters and jackets. They’ll ditch the flat look they get from the washing machine and puff up again with pride.

Here are 20 simple home hacks to save money.

Lavender and Chamomile loose tea herbs on white wash wooden background
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Repel mosquitoes

You may love the mild apple-like flavour of chamomile tea but mosquitoes absolutely hate it. Brew a very strong batch of chamomile tea and keep it in a spray bottle in the fridge. Before you relax in the back yard or run through the tall grass, spray exposed skin liberally. It’s fragrant, potent and totally safe for children.

These are the best mosquito repellent plants to add to your yard.

Wood Screw being screwed into a wood , Carpenter woodwork, screwing concept.
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Fill a stripped screw-hole

If the screw keeps turning and turning in a piece of wood, push a bit of foil loosely in the hole and try again. It will grab tight.

Check out these quick home repair jobs you can do in 10 minutes or less.

coffee beans, ground coffee and instant coffee in three bowls
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Freshen a fridge

If something soured in your fridge or the freezer failed, clean it out, then fill a wide, shallow bowl with fresh coffee grounds and leave it in the fridge or freezer overnight. The strong scent of coffee will permeate the space, eradicating any hint of what went wrong.

Don’t miss these clever coffee can hacks.

Grass Stone Floor texture pavement design. greenery color
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Kill that moss

Moss and algae can make patios and walkways slippery and can create dangerous conditions for you and your guests. Make your home safe again by getting rid of the moss and algae on brick, stone and concrete with bleach. Mix 3/4 cup bleach with 1 gallon of water and scrub hard (keeping the solution away from grass and flowers). Rinse well.

Find out more brilliant household uses for bleach.

Dirty dishes, utensils in the metal sink background
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Banish burned-on food

Liquid fabric softener is your best friend when it comes time to scrub pots and pans soiled by your worst enemy, baked-on grime. Soak the offending vessel in water and a squirt of fabric softener. Let it sit for an hour. Wash and rinse it all away.

You can also try this viral trick to make your pots and pans look brand new.

Stylish green plants and black watering can on wooden shelves. Modern hipster room decor. Cactus, dieffenbachia, epipremnum, calathea,dracaena,ivy, palm in pots on shelf
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Feed your plants

Used coffee grounds are full of nitrogen, so it’s a shame to throw them away each day. Coffee is especially good for acid-loving plants, like camellias, evergreens, rhododendrons, azaleas and rose bushes, so be sure they don’t miss out on the occasional cup of coffee—grounds, that is.

Discover more gardening tips that’ll save you time, money and effort.

door hinges Aluminum on white door
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Oil squeaky hinges

Spray a little oil-based furniture polish on a squeaky door hinge, then open and shut the door several times to work the lubricant into the hinge. The furniture polish is a lot cleaner than the oil you’d usually use for a noisy hinge, and it works just as well to silence the squeak.

Three pairs of sports shoes hang on a nail on a wooden fence background
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Untangle a shoelace

Junior got a knot in his sneaker and pulled and pulled until it became an impenetrable mass. Sprinkle the knot generously with cornstarch, and then work the knot again. The laces will start to slip and slide, and you’ll be able to get the kinks out.

Check out more smart uses for cornstarch.

brown paper bag on wooden background
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Breathe better with a paper bag

Got a case of the hiccups? Stop them before you start to hurt. Breathe in and out of a paper bag for a few minutes. You’ll create a build-up of carbon dioxide in your lungs, which helps relax your diaphragm—whose involuntary tightening causes the hiccups in the first place. This trick works if you’re hyperventilating, too.

Find out more home remedies for hiccups.

Female hand taking vegetables from a crisper drawer of a refrigerator
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Line your crisper drawer

If you want the vegetables in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer to truly be crispy, line it with paper towels. They will absorb the moisture in the fridge that can turn carrots, broccoli, and beans soggy. Replace the towels when they’re damp.

Collection of cereals in storage jars in pantry.
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Give the jar a hand

No more banging a jar on the floor to loosen a tight lid. No more running it under hot water. And no more fancy tools designed to do the trick—that somehow don’t work. Just put on a pair of rubber gloves, and open the jar with ease. (Psst—sandpaper also works wonders!)

hand ironing in store or fabric
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Remove a scorch mark

Left a scorch mark on a dress shirt with the iron? It can happen in the blink of an eye. This dollar store solution won’t be quite that fast, but it will be effective. Douse the scorch with water (presumably not on your ironing board!) then rub a generous amount of cornstarch into the stain. When the cornstarch dries, the stain will rinse out with the powder. This same technique works on bloodstains, though a second treatment may be needed before washing.

Find out how to whiten your laundry without bleach.

Step by step. Baking vanilla cupcakes in metal cupcake pan.
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Save money greasing your pans

Stay away from expensive non-stick cooking sprays and use olive oil in a clean spray bottle instead. You’ll probably save calories as well as dollars!

Discover more brilliant cooking shortcuts.

The golden retriever taking a bath
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Prevent a pet hair clog

Stuff some steel wool in your bathtub drain the next time you wash Fido. It will prevent your dog’s hair from clogging the drain. Just make sure that you don’t press the steel wool too far down—you’ll want to remove it when you’re done.

Here are more smart uses for steel wool you’ll wish you’d known sooner.

Human Hand Putting Sliced Lemon In Bowl Near Open Microwave
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Clean a crusty microwave

Been a while since you washed down the inside of the microwave? Don’t spend ages scrubbing. Mix 2 cups of water with ¼ cup lemon juice in a microwave-safe glass dish and cook on high for 8 minutes. The steam will loosen food particles on the walls and glass, making it easy to wipe clean with a few swipes.

Check out more microwave tricks all cooks should know.

Shower turned on, overhead ceiling shower faucet head closeup.
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Clean a showerhead

When you’re looking forward to a nice, warm shower, nothing is more frustrating than facing a weak trickle of water. If a buildup of lime and mineral scale have reduced your shower to a fading stream and you to tears, fix the problem with vinegar, a plastic sandwich bag, and duct tape. Fill the bag with white vinegar and cover the showerhead, making sure that the head is completely submerged in in the vinegar. Tape the bag to the showerhead arm with the duct tape, and let it soak overnight. When you take it off in the morning, you’ll finally get the shower you’ve wanted. (Test the vinegar on your fixture first; it can discolour some brass and other finishes.) The same strategy applies to clogged faucets, too.

Next, find out 40 aluminum foil hacks that’ll make your life so much easier.

Originally Published in 99-Cent Solutions