What?

I gave up using coupons to buy groceries several months ago.  The coupons have become so useless to me that it's hardly worth looking at them anymore.  Very few coupons are on items I find practical in my quest to go back to basic frugal living.  In the past coupons were much more useful.  Anyway, every once in awhile, I look at the coupons to see if there have been any changes.  Some coupon ads have me laughing out loud.  Like this one.  Isn't he cute with his false teeth?   Who can resist a giggle at that face?

Other ads have me wondering.... What are they thinking?  The person who owns the towel in this picture seriously needs to either get their washer repaired or else have everyone in the house go back to hand washing 101.  If washing their hands is leaving this much dirt on a towel, their technique is all wrong. 

 Hmm.... maybe they need to change the soap they are using because it apparently isn't working?  Well, something is wrong because washing hands should not leave that much dirt on a towel.  If you really want a clean towel for every hand washing.... for goodness sake, get a batch of cheap wash cloths and stack them up next to the sink.  Wash those when you need a fresh supply.  At least you won't be throwing money in the trash with every hand wash.

Speaking of soap..... how about this ad?  It tells you that you will never have to touch a germy soap dispenser again.  Huh?  Why would you walk up to just touch a dispenser?  Isn't the point of using soap supposed to be to wash away the germs?  You touch the dispenser before you wash, not after.  If there are germs on the dispenser you will wash them away with the soap.  No need to touch the dispenser until you are ready to wash your hands the next time. 

Hmm....  I wonder how this gadget would work if I filled it with homemade liquid soap?  I might find one of these at the thrift store in a few weeks.

Ok, moving on.  How about this ad?  Kind of scary isn't it?  No, not scary.  They look sad. I went to my sink to see what my little disposer monsters looked like.  I wanted to know.... do mine look sad too?  Oops!  I forgot, I don't have a disposer.  Just a plain ol' sink drain.  But are these advertisers serious?  They want people to buy a maintenance system to clean the disposer every month.  To deliberately put money into a disposer so it can be sent down the drain?

What's wrong with cleaning it the way people did when disposers were first invented?  Does anyone besides me remember the Arm & Hammer guy?  So cute and he had muscles like Hercules from swinging that hammer so much.  He said keep an open box of Arm & Hammer baking soda in the refrigerator for a month to eliminate odors.  Next month replace the box in the refrigerator with a new one and use the old box to get your disposer smelling fresh too.   A bunch of ice cubes put in there helped the baking soda do the scrubbing.

For more serious odors we were told to put bleach in it.  Or organically you could put a lemon in and run it through.  Personally I can't see the logic of owning a disposer IF you have a place where you could have a compost bin or a worm farm in the kitchen.  Hmm... now that's an idea.  A worm farm in the kitchen.  Gotta file that one in my to do list of ideas.  Moving on now. 

Awww... come on.... they want us to buy a product for dishwasher and washing machine cleaning too?  To be used once a month for the life of the washer or dishwasher.  Do they know how much money that would cost over the life of a washer?  I'd rather save the money in an interest paying account and use it to buy a brand new washer in a few years.

Here's another ad saying the same thing.  It's true, sometimes a washer will have an odor.  I don't know about dishwashers because I don't own one.  Never have.  Usually, the musty odor in my washer is eliminated by simply leaving the door open so it can get fresh air.  It gets an odor when I haven't used the washer for a few days. 

Several years ago, I had to have a repairman fix my washer because it had been leaving greasy spots on my clothes.  Nothing I did would stop the spots from showing up.  He told me that no washer gets out grease.  Only the soap does that.  DUH!

He told me when he repairs used washers for resale he pours a whole bottle of liquid toilet cleaner in it and runs it for one cycle on high load.  Then runs it a second cycle with clear water to be sure all the toilet cleaner is rinsed out.  He said doing this once a year could make my washer last much longer.  Twice a year if I washed tons of clothes.  

The repairman also told me using vinegar once a month kept washers smelling clean.   Well, I had that covered already.  I use vinegar in the rinse water as a substitute for fabric softener.

Ok, I guess I've done enough type-talking about the absurd ads I found in the coupon section of the paper.  Don't let the ads fool you.  There are cheaper alternatives.  Geeze, everyone is out to get our money.  Don't listen to them.