In the quest to find easy ways to save money in our daily life, let's trade household tips.

We'll give you some ideas in this week's column, and then you can offer some back. Some are common sense, some are pretty creative, others you may think are obvious.

Here's one that doesn't cost you anything but might save you a little stress.

You know how sometimes you try to pull a piece of foil out of the box with one hand on the box, while trying to cover something with the other hand and the roll pulls out? It turns out foil manufacturers figured this out and quietly installed a little tab at the end of the box.

You press that tab and it locks the roll in.

Even generic store brands have it, and some actually tell you what to do with it: "Press Here to Lock End." If you look at your plastic wrap, often you'll find the same handy tab. Who knew? (I admit I found out about it from a group e-mail from a reader.)

Today, we've also got some ideas for vinegar, lemons, empty egg cartons, baking soda and some other things you likely have in your house already.

We want to hear what you've got, so please send the tips to the e-mail below or call. We'll share some of the tips in future columns. They can relate to any way to save money, make things last longer, and do things a better way.

Lots of today's ideas are from the using-things-you-have-around-the-house-for-other-purposes file.

With Easter having just passed, you may have more egg cartons in your house than usual this week. So, you can start your money-saving vegetable garden indoors by planting seeds in a little soil in the egg cartons, then transfer them to the garden when they get bigger.

Rather get organized indoors? Use the egg cartons to store the plastic eggs you will put away for next year's egg hunt. If you have preschool-aged children in your life, the egg cartons make for great sorting games, creating imitation caterpillars and no-cost toys to go with the plastic bowls and wooden spoons you can offer your kids to play with in the kitchen while you cook.

To get the odor out of a garbage disposal, fill the disposal with ice cubes and layer on baking soda. Repeat if necessary. A man who runs his own household declares this method "quick, easy and painless."

Baking soda also works great to freshen drains in all your sinks. If you use the baking soda in your freezer and refrigerator to help keep it fresh, you can use the old soda for cleaning.

You can sprinkle it into the bottom of a garbage can or onto a rug to rid it of pet smells. If you have mugs stained with coffee or tea, mix one part baking soda to two parts water and soak overnight.

If you use fabric softener that comes in a sheet, you can cut or tear them in half and make them last twice as long. After they've served time in the dryer, you can also use them on those Swiffer-style dust mops. And yes, you can use both sides and make them last longer (but it does make the bottom of the mop kind of dirty looking after a while.)

If your shower head flow is looking a little weak and some jets are shooting off in different directions, you might just have some calcium deposits clogging it up. Try filling a plastic bag with about a cup of white vinegar — enough to cover the showerhead — then fasten it with a rubber band to the pipe to keep it there overnight. Take it off and run the water.

Cleaning windows? Mix vinegar and water and squirt on windows, then wipe off with a sheet of newspaper.

You can use lemon to rub on your faucets and remove that scaly deposit that builds up, leave it overnight, then wipe with a damp cloth. You can rub the lemon juice on your hands to get rid of the smell of seafood or other strong odors. After the juice is gone, take a piece of the rind and toss into your garbage disposal with running water. It cleans the blade and smells good, too.

Liquid castile soap is mild and relatively cheap and can be mixed with water and used to clean floors, wash your car, clean countertops and lots of other cleaning purposes. But my personal favorite comes from a co-worker who took the buyout. She mixed one part of the peppermint soap to five parts water, then put it in a sprayer to spray gardenia bushes. This gets rid of whitefly and that black sooty mold.

You can use hydrogen peroxide to clean your toothbrushes. Or dab a cotton swab into it, then disinfect your computer keyboard, even in those small places.

The www.betterbudgeting.com site even has ideas for recycling mesh bags that onions and garlic come in: Add leftover pieces of soap and make a scrubber; use to hold small items in the dishwasher; cut bag open and scrunch together to make a homemade dish scrubber.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.