Sponges are a cheap and versatile tool that can be used to clean pretty much anything. All you really need is a pair of scissors and a few other typical household items. Watch the video below for a step by step guide.
1. Cut your sponge to more easily clean wire cooling racks.
The sponge can easily reach the spaces between the wires where food gets stuck.
2. Don’t have a fabric softener dispenser? Use a sponge instead.
Soak your sponges in a little bit of water and fabric softener, then add one to the wash.
3. Turn your sponge into a soap dispenser.
Simply cut a hole in the sponge that approximates the shape of your soap.
4. Use with tongs to clean your blinds.
Make an incision in the bottom of the sponge and insert tongs. You’ll have clean blinds in no time.
5. Easily remove nail polish.
Soak a sponge in nail polish remover and avoid wasting all those cotton balls.
There’s nothing easy about being a teenage girl in today’s United States.
Morgan Mikenas knew this all too well. When her leg hair began to grow and darken, the other girls at school made fun of her. She learned from her peers that body hair was shameful, and she spent her teenage years struggling to conform to society’s expectations of her body. In other words, she started shaving.
She shaved her legs. She shaved her armpits. When people told her that body hair was “ugly,” she believed them. None of it made her happy. No amount of shaving could convince her of her own beauty.
Then, when she was around 19, Mikenas made a decision.
She was done shaving her body. She was tired of the nicks and the dry skin. She was tired of taking time out of her day. Most of all, she was tired of doing something that felt wrong just to conform to someone else’s definition of beauty. i_am_morgie/Instagram
“I stopped shaving because it was an inconvenience,” Mikenas told Vice after a year without razors. “It’s pointless. I feel like it’s an act of submission to the male-dominated culture we live in… Shaving my legs makes me feel powerless.”
As a 20-year-old fitness blogger, Mikenas is at home communicating with wide audiences on the internet.
Maybe that’s why she used YouTube as a venue to share her decision not to shave her body with the world. In March 2017, Mikenas posted a 13-minute video explaining why she no longer shaves.
“I haven’t shaved my legs for over a year, and I will never go back,” she wrote in the introduction to that video. “The purpose of this video is not to shame people who do shave, I just want to speak on how its helped me become more comfortable with myself, and maybe inspire others to do something that makes them feel confident.” i_am_morgie/Instagram
Mikenas figured that the video would clear things up for curious friends and family members. Within a few months, though, her video had more than 1.3 million views. She had gone viral.
“That was a surprise to me,” Mikenas said of her video’s popularity. “I wanted to share my views in order to change the way people think, encourage them to think more about their behavior and to experience self-love.”
Those are lessons that Mikenas had to figure out for herself.
Since she made the decision to let her body hair go natural, she’s been a much more confident person. She’s proud of herself for taking a stand against someone else’s definition of beauty. From now on, no one defines Mikenas’ beauty but herself. That’s empowerment she hopes to share with women everywhere. i_am_morgie/Instagram
“For someone who’s thinking of not shaving, but is concerned about being teased, I just want you to know that self-confidence is your superpower,” she said. “You can be immune to criticism by being fearless. Practice acceptance, for others and yourself.”
Watch Mikenas’ touching YouTube video here. No matter what you think about body hair, this young woman has some lessons in self-acceptance that we could all use.
If you think about it for a minute, it makes sense that shaving armpit hair is a practice that’s only about 100 years old. Before that time, garments that revealed a woman’s shoulders—and thus her ‘pits—were generally thought of as being too risqué for wearing among the general public. Glamour Daze
As society lightened up about what parts of the body women could show in public, new norms came to be—essentially saying that if we were going to see a lady’s skin, we shouldn’t see any of her body hair.
So as skirts got shorter, it was expected that legs become less hairy. As shoulders got to see sunlight, more and more armpits were introduced to razors. You win some, you lose some. Styles Matter
In the echoes of history, 100 years is just a blink of an eye. In fashion trends, however, it’s a pretty clear precedence. But it appears that this societal norm is becoming somewhat less normal.
Celebs take the lead.
You may have seen images of Miley Cyrus rocking her dyed armpit hair a few years back—to the concern and confusion of many. mileycyrus/Instagram Actress, comedian, and feminist Sarah Silverman came to Cyrus’ defense when the haters began to lay it on thick.
Guess what, @mileycyrus , I like ur armpit hair & ur boobz & ur you-ness let that freak flag fly lil ma because you are doing JUST FINE
For her part, actress Jemima Kirke of Girls wasn’t even particularly trying to be an activist when she stepped on the red carpet with unshaved armpits for a 2015 awards show, but when she got an earful from overly judgmental people online she asked everyone to take it easy, saying it was just her “personal preference.”
Of course, social media is reshaping societal expectations, too.
In 2015, Chinese activists supported this changing trend with the hashtag. #WomensArmpitHairCompetition, noting that shaving wasn’t common practice in China until the 1990s. This endeavor was organized on the Chinese social media site Weibo.
“The contest was started by 26-year-old feminist activist Xiao Yue in order to bring attention to the idea that women do not need to be hairless to feel beautiful,” explains the Shanghaiist. Shanghaiist
“Prizes [were] given out for the most ‘characteristic, beautiful and confident’ displays of online underarm hair. The first place winner receives 100 condoms, second place gets a vibrator and the lucky third place winner gets 10 female urination devices.”
“Women’s underarm hair can be adorable, interesting, humorous, sexy, serious, connotative and ever-changing,” explained the contest’s creator, Xiao.
Beyond the Chinese competition, other international hashtag activism has included phrases like #hairypits and #pithairdontcare.
Stats Behind the Changing Trend
This isn’t just a one-off fad on social media, it’s really changing the way women behave—and there are numbers to prove it. Shanghaiist Teen Voguepicked up on a study reported on by The Telegraph: “A survey conducted in 2013 reflected that 95% of all women between the ages of 16 and 24 said that they removed hair from their underarms. Meanwhile, that same survey conducted in 2016 revealed that the number had dropped by nearly 20 points—to 77%.”
Beauty is a subjective matter, whereas comfort is a very personal matter. Perhaps the most exciting part about this news is that women are feeling empowered to treat their bodies in ways that make them feel comfortable and beautiful—not in ways that society tells them to look and feel.
As summer vacation season gets underway, the tragic story of a 2-year-old Indiana girl is a stark reminder to parents to keep their eyes peeled for ticks while their families are enjoying the great outdoors.
Ticks are vectors of a number of dangerous diseases, including Lyme disease, Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), a newly discovered disease that makes you allergic to mammal meat, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. iStock
Most of these ailments aren’t fatal in adults, but they can trigger a series of dangerous symptoms. In children whose immune systems are still developing, these and other tick-borne diseases can prove to be fatal.
Kenley Conn was a playful 2-year-old until a fever that topped 103 degrees convinced her parents to rush her to the local emergency room. “She was always outside,” her aunt, Jordan Clapp, toldToday. “Just recently she had gone camping.” Rhonda Conn/gofundme
When the doctors examined the little girl, they assumed she was suffering from a virus or a bacterial infection. They prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin and told her parents to make sure she remained hydrated.
A day later, the little girl’s fever had reached 104 degrees. Back at the ER, doctors told Kenley’s parents that it was strep and encouraged them to give the amoxicillin and hydration therapy time to work.
On day five of her high fever, the family headed to the regional Children’s Hospital. Rhonda Conn/gofundme
It was only when they were there that the family and doctors began to notice a red rash spreading on the little girl’s arms and legs.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Initial signs and symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever often are nonspecific and can mimic those of other illnesses: high fever; chills; severe headache; muscle aches; nausea and vomiting; restlessness and insomnia.”
A “red, nonitchy rash…typically appears a few days after the initial signs and symptoms begin. The rash usually makes its first appearance on your wrists and ankles, and can spread in both directions—down into the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet, and up your arms and legs to your torso.” Rhonda Conn/gofundme
“Along with the rash,” Today explained, “Kenley started showing other symptoms of the tick-borne disease: Her brain began to swell and her organs started to fail. By the time doctors started to treat the little girl with the right antibiotic for Rocky Mountain spotted fever—doxycycline—it was too late for the little girl.”
Eight days after their first visit to the ER, Kenley “became an angel,” as her aunt put it on a GoFundMe page created to help the family cover medical and funeral expenses.
Following the unexpected tragedy, Kenley’s family has tried to spread awareness about the dangers of Rocky Mountain spotted fever to other families. Viral Plexus
The Mayo Clinic says to “see your doctor if you develop a rash or become sick after a tick bite. Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other infectious diseases carried by ticks can progress rapidly and may be life-threatening. If possible, take the tick along with you to your doctor’s office for laboratory testing.”
“If we could save one child’s life then we will have done our job,” Clapp told Today. “Kayla [Kenley’s mom] is so devastated. Spreading awareness is therapeutic.”
“[Kenley] was a blessing on earth,” her aunt says, “and now she’s a blessing in heaven, still touching and impacting so many people.”
If you take oral birth control, you know the drill.
Even though the last week or so of your pill pack only contains placebos, you still take a pill every day. Otherwise, you risk getting out of the habit—and to be fully effective, hormonal birth control pills should be taken regularly at around the same time each day.
So what would happen if, say, a packaging error switched your placebos from the end of the pack to the beginning?
For one thing, you might end up with a surprise bun in the oven. That’s why so many consumers were freaked out to learn that a pretty commonly used birth control pack was being recalled due to just such a packaging error.
To understand how this could happen, consider the packaging of your pills.
It’s actually a two-piece construction; a plastic blister pack slips inside of a cardboard (or plastic or whatever) container that keeps your consumption organized throughout the month.
iStock
In this case, an error at the packaging plant ended up slipping the blister pack into the cardboard sleeve the wrong way. What a difference 180 degrees makes. Affected packages could cause women to take placebo pills during the first week of their cycle instead of the last. This could wipe out the effectiveness of the birth control.
Fortunately a remarkably detail-oriented customer noticed that the sleeve was on upside-down. This mystery benefactor sent a “market complaint” to the manufacturer, who quickly issued a recall. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reprinted the recall in order to help get the word out.
FDA
So if Mibelas 24 Fe chewable tablets from Lupin Pharmaceuticals are your chosen method of birth control, this could affect you.
Check your packaging to see if it’s part of lot L600518, Exp. 05/18. You might have to remove the blister pack from the sleeve to see this information; the packaging mistake actually covers up the lot number and expiration date.
The recalled product will be a blister pack with 28 tablets. The active tablets are white or whitish, with print reading “LU” on one side and “N81” on the other. The remaining four placebo pills will have LU on one side and “M22” on the reverse.
FDA
If you have an affected package of this medication, Lupin encourages you to tell your doctor and take the package back to your pharmacy.
In fact, if you have one of these products, there’s a pretty good chance the manufacturer has contacted you already.
“Lupin is notifying its distributors and customers by recall letter and is arranging for return of all recalled products,” says the notice posted on the FDA website. The manufacturer is cooperating with and reporting to the FDA during the entire recall process.
iStock
Lupin Pharmaceuticals toldGlamour magazine that “there have been no reported cases of any adverse health consequences due to the mix-up.”
If you have any further questions, you can always contact Lupin at 800-399-2561. They staff the lines 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday.
Sleeping well can be as valuable to an athlete as eating right and finding the right training regimen. The secret to getting good sleep is all about planning, preparation, and practice.
1. Prepare your bedroom.
Get drapes that block out street lights, put your blinking devices out of sight, and hide the glowing numbers on your alarm clock. Your body interprets these lights as a signal to stop producing melatonin, which is a key hormone that helps you sleep.
Set your bedroom temperature somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Your body likes sleeping in a cool, comfortable environment.
2. Avoid caffeine in the evening.
Don’t drink coffee or any other stimulant-enhanced drinks during the four hours before your bedtime (we’ll get to that next).
Some people need even more time without caffeine; if you’re having a hard time falling asleep, set a stop time for caffeine ingestion and see if you notice a difference.
3. Have a regular bedtime.
We are creatures of habit. With time and regular practice, your body will grow accustomed to a routine and will naturally start to prepare itself for sleep. Do your best to stick to a consistent schedule.
4. Develop a routine for getting ready for bed..
“Have a power-down routine each evening before bed,” writes Olivier Poirier-Leroy for YourWorkoutBook. “From an hour or half hour out from when you want to be asleep plot out the things you will do each evening before zonking out. Brush teeth. Read for twenty minutes. Prep clothes for the following day.
“Write in your journal. And so on. Doing this regularly will draw a clear connection in your mind and prime your body for a proper night’s rest. This will come especially handy when you are traveling and sleeping in a new environment. The routine will give you a sense of familiarity in the foreign.”
Make avoiding screens a part of that bedtime routine, too. The blue light that emanates from most electronic devices really throws the body’s melatonin production for a loop.
5. The bedroom is for sleeping.
You bedroom is your sleeping sanctuary. You can also…you know…in there, but keep it to those two things. Your body will come to recognize your sleep space and will quickly get into sleep mode if that’s all the space is being used for.
If you’re also doing work, watching television, eating, or surfing the net while you’re in bed, you’re sending mixed signals to your body. Don’t do that to yourself.
6. Refuse to use the snooze button.
Your body sleeps in cycles that last for more than an hour. When your alarm clock initially wakes you up, it cuts off the previous cycle, whether you got the full benefit of it or not. When you fall back asleep you’re telling your body that you’re starting a new sleep cycle, which can make you feel sluggish for hours.
Besides, having a consistent wake-up time is just as important as having a regular bedtime. By being consistent with your wake-up time, you can do a better job of homing in on the perfect bedtime.
7. Be cautious with naps
When you’re feeling tired and drowsy during the day, it can be very tempting to take a nap to give yourself an energy boost. You have to recognize that naps can affect your regular evening sleep routine.
If you are following the above recommendations and your body still seems to be telling you that you need more sleep, experiment with napping. If you go down this road, though, do your best to make naps either very rare or a regular part of your routine.
After the teenage years have passed, pretty much nobody likes to look older.
Fortunately, there’s makeup to help out with that. Here are a few ways to use your favorite products to quickly knock off a decade (and sometimes more).
1. Blush
It’s better to use blush that’s light and glittery in shades of light pink and peach. This creates a bright, youthful look that can really shed the years.
Even better, blush helps to draw attention away from common sites of wrinkles, including crow’s feet and laugh lines. Beautiful skin is ageless, and blush helps you achieve just that.
2. Eyelashes
The wider your eyes appear, the more youthful you will appear. Use a volumizing mascara and lash curler.
For an even more youthful, wild look, consider false eyelashes. Even a simple addition like small lash clusters at the corners of your eyelids can help you look fun, adventurous, and energetic.
3. Eyeshadow
Your eyes will look tired if you wear a dark shadow. Instead, choose an eyeshadow that’s just a shade lighter than your natural skin tone.
For an extra kick, draw a line of shimmery eyeshadow over the top of your eyeliner. This will give your whole gaze a sparkle that conveys youth and vigor.
4. Skin Tone
Try soft shades of peach, gold, and caramel. Yellow is a good tone as a base because it makes your skin look warmer, which always equates to youth.
To be clear, a yellowish foundation works for all skin types; light, dark, and everywhere in between. Just don’t go too yellow. Jaundice is anything but youthful.
5. Facial Highlights
Use concealer that’s a shade lighter than your natural skin tone and apply it to the corners of your eyes and lips, the chin, and the outer parts of the nostrils. Makeup and Beauty Blog
To bring out the natural beauty in your facial structure, finish the job with your favorite blush along the ridge of your cheekbones. Although skin tends to sag slightly over the years, strong cheekbones create a full, healthy look.
6. Eyeliner
With a brown pencil, your eyes will appear brighter and fuller. Brown eyeliners also disguise the yellowing whites of eyes.
Go with brown even if you’ve been in love with black eyeliner since you bought your first Cure album back in middle school. Dark brown looks just like black from a distance, but it’s softer, more subtle, and—yes—younger looking.
7. Hair Volume and Shine
Use mousse to create volume and then top it off with an oil mask. Apply the oil from only the middle of your hair to its ends. You don’t want your roots to appear oily.
It also pays to take care of your hair, even if you’ve already done the damage. Don’t blow dry unless you absolutely have to, and skip the tough metal comb.
8. Lipstick
A lipstick with a “wet” look contains reflective particles that will diffuse light and soften the wrinkles for you. However, you might want to consider a change in lipstick shade if you really want to erase the years.
Lips tend to thin out with age. Bolder colors just highlight this fact. Instead, pick something that’s halfway between your true lip color and a fruity, natural red. Pro tip: You can add a little wet shimmer to any lip stain with a layer of clear, creamy balm.
9. Hair Color
It’s best to choose a lighter shade and one that is no more than two tones lighter than your natural color. If you’re already blonde, consider adding multi-tonal highlights.
Look for hair dyes that describe themselves as “neutral” or “natural.” They’re more likely to be warm and subtle than dyes marked “bold” or “golden.”
10. Perfume
Some scents are so associated with age that there’s a (rather unfortunate) term for them: old lady perfume.
Typically, these are cloying floral scents. Steer clear.
11. Foundation
It’s better to use a light liquid texture that has light-reflecting particles. Similar to the wet lipstick look, this will diffuse light and soften the wrinkles.
12. Creamy Makeup
Creamier textures in eyeshadows, blushes, and highlighters will go on smooth and give you a youthful look.
Liquid concealers are a must.
13. Eyebrows
The new trend is to keep your eyebrows in a natural, thick shape. That makes sense because younger people tend to wear thicker brows. Make sure that the tone of eyebrow color you use is the same tone or slightly darker than your hair color.
While you’re at it, be sure to use an eyebrow shadow instead of a pencil. It will go on smoother and look more natural.
On a winter night in 1994, one woman entered the hospital for what would be her last visit. Little did she know that the condition plaguing her would end up making 23 staff members ill as well.
The human body can be a strange thing, one that’s capable of so much but can also be taken down by so little. Would you believe that it could even make another person severely ill with just the slightest touch?
This sounds like something straight out of science fiction, but it’s actually a real-life mystery that still doesn’t have a truly definitive answer. It’s the story of Gloria Ramirez, who was dubbed the “Toxic Lady” after she managed to make multiple hospital workers sick just from being in her presence.
Ramirez’s story begins on Feb. 19, 1994, when she was admitted to the Riverside General Hospital in Riverside, California.
Although Ramirez was no stranger to the hospital at this point in her life—she had unfortunately been diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer previously—this visit proved to be much stranger than any she’d had before.
She was taken to the emergency room after complaining of alarming symptoms such as breathing difficulties, nausea, and a rapid pulse. Not only that, but nurses say she was incredibly confused when she was wheeled into the room.
It was then that her treatment began.
The nurses started going about their routine—they injected her with a few different sedatives in the hopes of calming her breathing and heart rate, but the medications did nothing.
When it was clear to all of them that Ramirez wasn’t responding to the medications, their next course of action was to defibrillate her heart.
However, just as the nurses were about to begin the procedure, they noticed what appeared to be oil pooling on Ramirez’s skin, and her body also seemed to be giving off an odor that smelled like an odd combination of fruit and garlic.
At this point, Susan Kane, one of her nurses, decided that they’d need to draw blood from Ramirez, but when she did, she noticed an incredibly powerful smell coming from the tube.
It reminded her of ammonia.
Kane then handed off the tube of blood to another nurse in the room, Julie Gorchynski, who noticed that there were very small, off-white particles floating around in the blood. Suddenly Kane fainted and was taken out of the room.
It wasn’t just her, either.
As if that weren’t already strange enough, Gorchynski began to feel nauseated shortly after Kane was taken out of the room. She left the room and went to sit at the nurses station, saying she was lightheaded. A coworker came over to her to ask if she was all right, but she fainted before she could get an answer out.
The respiratory therapist who had been in the room, Maureen Welch, would be the third person to faint after having contact with Ramirez.
It was then that the hospital staff realized how strange the whole thing was, and they ordered a mandatory evacuation for all patients in the emergency room so they could be moved to the hospital parking lot temporarily.
A total of 23 people who were in the emergency room that day became ill, and an additional five people had to be hospitalized after the strange events. Unfortunately, even with numerous attempts at CPR and defibrillation, after just 35 minutes at the hospital, Ramirez passed away due to kidney failure caused by her cervical cancer.
The investigation into her death began.
The investigation into what caused these strange occurrences had two scientists at the lead—Kirsten Waller and Maria Osorio. They interviewed all 34 of the crew members who had been working in the emergency room on Feb. 19 and used a simple questionnaire to ask them about the events of that day.
They paid special attention to those who had the most extreme reaction to being in Ramirez’s presence, like muscle spasms, breathing troubles, and fainting.
What they found surprised them, as it revealed that many of the people who were affected seemed to have some things in common.
Those who came within two feet of Ramirez all had the most extreme symptoms, and it was only women who had severe symptoms, even though some men were affected. Everyone who fell ill after the event also had normal blood tests afterward—no pale specks in their blood, no sign of contamination whatsoever.
So what happened?
After their investigation, Waller and Osorio came to the conclusion that all of the affected emergency room workers were simply suffering from mass hysteria. None of them were having that, though.
Gorchynski was adamant that something more was going on and tried to point to her own medical record to prove that she had never had a similar incident before.
Gorchynski actually developed hepatitis and avascular necrosis—what is essentially the death of bone tissue—in her knees and spent two weeks in the intensive care unit after Ramirez’s hospital stay.
The case was eventually passed on to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to see if scientists there could come up with a scenario that would explain what happened. Although the strange events surrounding Ramirez’s hospital stay and death were never officially declared, they thought they knew the answer.
After examining Ramirez’s body, the laboratory determined that she may have been using a substance known as dimethyl sulfoxide as an at-home treatment for her pain—why she thought this would work, we have no idea. It’s actually something you can find pretty easily at any hardware store. It’s an incredibly powerful degreaser that has a garlicky odor.
Because it’s often found as a gel, investigators think this might explain why Ramirez’s skin took on a greasy appearance. Because of her kidney issues, it is thought that the dimethyl sulfoxide she was taking began to back up in her system, and this is what investigators think may have caused the kidney failure that ultimately brought her to the hospital on the day she died. To add even more credibility to this theory, dimethyl sulfoxide converts to dimethyl sulfone when exposed to oxygen, and that substance actually crystallizes at room temperature—these crystals were later found in Ramirez’s blood, possibly formed as a result of shifting from body temperate while inside her body to room temperature in its container. It gets even weirder from there, too. The lab determined that the shocks coming from the defibrillator may have converted the substance into dimethyl sulfate, an incredibly potent poisonous gas—potent enough, evidently, to make the majority of an emergency room staff sick in some way or another.
Makes sense, right?
The Riverside Coroner’s Office ultimately ruled that it was the most likely cause of what happened to both Ramirez and the affected hospital workers based on the evidence they had to support the theory.
Her family publicly disagreed with the conclusion and even hired their own pathologist the tell them why she had died. They believed that the hospital was trying to cover up the actual cause of her death and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Riverside County.
There’s some strange evidence that lends them some credibility, too—there had apparently been multiple gas-related incidents at the hospital before, and the lead investigator in Ramirez’s case, Stephanie Albright, committed suicide shortly into the investigation.
A colleague later admitted she was under a great deal of stress because of the case. Oh, and the blood that was taken from Ramirez? It managed to disappear at some point during the investigation. Interment.Net
Unfortunately, Ramirez’s family was unable to come to any conclusions because her heart was missing from her body, her other organs had suffered from cross-contamination, and her body was just too badly decomposed at the time to find out much. She was later buried in Olivewood Memorial Park in Riverside, and the mystery of her death remains without a definitive answer.
Whether it’s paying to get their own money in their hands or choosing between fixing the car or having food for the week, the poor in America face endless struggles when it comes to making ends meet. Have you ever wondered how they truly make it through each day?
To put it simply, it’s not easy to be poor in America. As of 2015, it’s estimated that approximately 43.1 million Americans live in poverty, and living their lives day to day only continues to get harder as time goes on.
Not only do the poor pay more for things that we all use on a daily basis, but they often don’t have the money to take the deals that’ll cost them less in the long run. In fact, it makes it incredibly easy to feel like the world is working against them, only setting them up to become poorer and poorer.
If you have enough money to buy not only what you need but also what you want, consider yourself lucky. A group of Reddit users shared the tips and tricks they had to use to make it while poor, and these will give you a glimpse of what it’s really like to be poor in America.
On Everyday Life
Have you ever wondered how the poor get by when it comes to their day-to-day lives? It often comes down to making sacrifices and spending more than you can afford when it’s absolutely necessary.
“I know a really poor family that buys loads of candles to light their home at night so that they don’t have to pay for electricity. It makes me sad.”—whysodoubtful
“A buddy of mine went through a tough time a few years back, and I didn’t know about it until he told me about a year ago. One thing that stuck with me was that he made just enough money to survive. By survive, he meant literally enough money to pay rent, utilities and the cheapest, worst food he could buy. He couldn’t afford transportation. Not even the bus.”—FFalldayerryday
“Extended stay housing or motels/hotels. When you can’t qualify to get an apartment because you don’t have proof of income, you end up wasting more money to stay for a week at extended day housing or a cheap motel.”—notmaurypovich
On Shopping
People who don’t have a lot of money are just like anyone else in the sense that they have to go shopping, whether it’s for food, clothing, or other necessities. The difference is that for them, it takes far more planning and a lot of hard decision making.
“When you are broke, you can’t plan ahead or shop sales or buy in bulk. Poor people wait to buy something until they absolutely need it, so they have to pay whatever the going price is at that moment. If ten-packs of paper towels are on sale for half price, that’s great, but you can only afford one roll anyway. In this way, poor people actually pay more than others for common staple goods.”—Meepshesaid
“My mom used to take me to the shopping mall to look for new school clothes. I’d point out 5 outfits I like (one for each school day), and then we’d leave to go to the fabric store where she’d buy remnants in similar colors/styles and then sew outfits that looked just like the things I pointed out in the store.”—aCause4Concern
“I’m making $150-$200 a week and I need new shoes. So I can buy $60 shoes that will last or $15 Walmart shoes. So I buy the Walmart shoes and some groceries instead of just the $60 shoes and no groceries. Three months later I’ll need new shoes again. But I’ll also have to pay rent and my light bill is due. So I’ll pay the light bill and buy some ‘shoe glue’ for $4 to fix my shoes for another few weeks until I can buy the $15 ones again.”—DrStephenFalken
On Food
It’s an absolute necessity to keep food on the table, and it’s something we often hear about the poor struggling with the most. They commonly have to choose between food quality and food quantity, and it’s the latter that usually wins.
“When I was child, Burger King ran a special kids meal where it was two mini Burgers that were attached to each other like a weird conjoined burger experiment. Sometimes we would go. My dinner was 1.5 of the mini burgers, my mom’s dinner was the half I didn’t eat and she would fill up on the free refills of soda.”—Honzo427
@longjohnslvrs/Twitter
“I was so poor once that I would go to Long John Silvers and order a water and crunchies (which used to be free) then sit there and watch the people that would dine in. It was amazing how little they ate. And then they would leave without dumping their tray off in the trash. Fries, hushpuppies, chicken, fish… all untouched. No I didn’t eat a piece that was bitten off of. I once saw a woman order a 2 piece fish and more for her kid, that ate 1 hushpuppy and a few fries, and then left the rest of it there. It was the best I had eaten in weeks.”—ToddTheOdd
“After selling plasma i would walk to wendys and eat the crackers and ketchup for dinner.”—onehunglow58
On Transportation
We all have to get around somehow, and when our primary mode of transportation fails, most of us can quickly figure out a way around it. But for someone without any money to spare, loss of transportation could mean intense stress and reducing their already low budget to get where they need to be.
“Growing up my family had its moments of struggle. Our public transport system at the time had tickets which were simply hole-punched with the date and month, not the year. So we’d save them and store them neatly in envelopes marked by month and concession or full fare. After a few years of saving tickets we pretty much had free train and bus travel for the next 10 years…until they changed the ticketing system to electronically stamped tickets with bar codes.”—SardonicNihilist
“You can get new car parts from the junk yard for virtually nothing, with added discounts if you remove them from the junkers yourself. I had a 12-yr-old car in college and when it blew a tire, I went to the junk yard and found a decent set of tires. Bought all 4 for $70, which reduced my food budget to $16 for the next two weeks.”—IAlbatross
On Personal Care
The average person can stop by the store to pick up something when they need it—tampons, toilet paper, a bar of soap. Even though they’re necessities, the poor have to take shortcuts wherever they can, and that includes personal care items.
“My office only has a unisex bathroom so it has the facilities for men and women. Naturally there’s a tampon machine, and tampons are only 5 cents. Once a month I’ll work late, get a roll of nickels and fill up a grocery sack with tampons for my wife.”—permitbyrule
“Not buying but…stealing rolls of toilet paper from public restrooms. And stocking up on paper towels from the same place. This was all in undergrad. My roommate and I would also shower at the gym (university gym, so free memberships) to keep our water bill down.”—TourmalineTart
On Health Care
Health care is obviously a heavily debated topic these days, and the poor bear the brunt of almost every single decision that is made regarding our health care system. When they’re unable to pay for the care they need, they often end up taking matters into their own hands.
“I knew a guy that would go to a livestock feed store and buy antibiotics and some other meds there that were meant for farm animals when he got sick. There was another med he’d get at pet stores too. He’d just cut the pills into smaller pieces to try to guess what the proper [milligram] amount was. It’s apparently crazy cheap for certain meds and doesn’t require a prescription or govt. oversight like it would at a normal pharmacy.”—[deleted]
“At home surgery. Used a pair of needle nose pliers, a razor blade and some anti septic super glue to remove a cyst on my forehead. The secret is to cut it in a ‘cat’s eye’ shape, quickly push the skin back after you pull the cyst out (don’t let it pop) and get the glue on fast.”—[deleted]
“Going without meds, living in constant pain because you can’t afford a prescription. I remember laying in my bed at night, and my mom would be sobbing in her bed from pain, because she couldn’t afford the meds that would treat her rheumatoid arthritis or anything but generic tylenol for her pain.”—squeakygreenmom
We all have our go-to remedies that we reach for when we need them, but did you know that certain home treatments could be hurting more than helping?
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Obviously we can’t run to the doctor’s office for each and every little thing that happens to us, and it’s usually these small afflictions that have us searching for a quick and effective home remedy. But don’t assume that natural always means best—or that it works, either. We may not be doctors (and you should consult yours for personal medical advice) but there’s good reason to believe that these home remedies might be making your ailments worse.
Breast Milk
Let’s make one thing clear—we’re in no way saying that breast milk isn’t the magical, milky powerhouse for your kids that everyone says it is. What we are saying, however, is that it’s not a great idea to use it for everything else that could be going on, such as putting breast milk on your child’s pinkeye, skin rash, or open cut.
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According to Dr. Sarah Yamaguchi, an OB/GYN at Los Angeles’ Good Samaritan Hospital, breast milk could take things from bad to worse in the right situations. “Breast milk can transmit infectious diseases such as HIV, and pumped breast milk, if not stored properly, can be contaminated and can actually introduce bacteria into an already infected area,” Yamaguchi says. Instead, make sure you keep any infected areas clean and dry, and just save the breast milk for babies’ stomachs.
Activated Charcoal
Most health enthusiasts have probably heard about the benefits of using activated charcoal as part of a health routine, and maybe some of you have even tried it yourself. People are taking it in pill form as part of detox regimens, adding it to mud masks, and even using it in its powder form to naturally whiten their teeth.
Although any of these things may not be harmful every now and then, too much charcoal isn’t good for you. Some of its most common side effects after ingestion include constipation, nausea or vomiting, and black discoloration of the stool—that last one may not be dangerous in its own right, but it would definitely be alarming, to say the least.
It is plain dangerous because it can cause life-threatening intestinal obstructions and severe dehydration,” says Svetlana Kogan, MD, a physician and author. For a similar detoxing effect, just drink plain ol’ water and try to eat a more nutritious diet.
Vitamins
Most people take some sort of daily vitamin, and doing so isn’t inherently harmful. But vitamin supplments are definitely not an ideal solution for giving your body everything it needs. You should be doing that with your diet.
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Assuming that you eat a pretty balanced diet with plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains, you’re already getting in everything that you should. Taking a daily multivitamin can become dangerous when you’re giving your body too much of any one particular supplement because you’ve already gotten enough of it naturally.
Yes, too many vitamins really can be a bad thing—for example, consume too much vitamin D and you could be causing issues with your heart and liver, whereas an excess of vitamin B6 can cause nerve toxicity. Believe it or not, too much vitamin A could actually cause an overdose that could kill you.
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If you think you might be lacking in any particular vitamin or mineral, consult your doctor before you supplement on your own.
Licking Wounds
It’s just a natural reaction—you get a quick paper cut, and your finger goes straight in your mouth as if it were pulled by a magnet. Mothers might even use their own spit to wipe something off their child’s face or clean off a scrape, because what’s the problem? You gave birth to them!
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Well, the problem comes down to bacteria, which can be introduced in an open wound through saliva, and it can take a simple cut and turn it into something much worse. “Our breath and saliva have tons of bacteria which can contaminate the wound and lead to an infection,” says Dr. Kogan.
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So, what are you supposed to do in a pinch? The best option for anyone who doesn’t have access to a medical kit is to just find some fresh water. Whether you’re in an office building or in the park, there’s bound to be a water fountain or bathroom nearby that you can use to rinse out a cut in a hurry.
Burn Remedies
Whether you’ve burned yourself on a hot pot or accidentally touched your ear with a flat iron, getting burned is never fun, and the healing is usually painful. We’ve all been there—the burn seems like it’s only going to hurt initially, and then the searing pain starts to sink in.
There’s not much you can do to treat it other than putting the area under running water, so many people turn to things they have on hand, particularly what’s in their kitchen. This goes for a lot of other small ailments, too.
Sure, avocados can be good for softening hair and, yes, manuka honey can be used for a variety of different things, but food items shouldn’t be used to treat bodily injuries.
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One common burn treatment that Dr. Kogan often has to dismiss is using raw egg whites to treat burns—even when organic, raw eggs contain tons of bacteria that should never be introduced to damaged skin. Instead, stick to water and over-the-counter pain relievers.
Mouthwash Gargling
Although it’s come to light that mouthwash might not be as great as many of us believe it to be, plenty of people still use it in their daily oral hygiene routine. Some people even step up their usage when they’re sick and gargle with it in the hopes that it’ll help speed their recovery along.
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We get the logic: Mouthwash often contains alcohol, and alcohol kills bacteria and viruses, so it’ll kill your cold, right? Wrong. If your throat is already inflamed from a cold or flu virus, adding mouthwash to the mix is the last thing you should do.
“Gargling inflamed tonsils with mouthwash is actually very irritating to the area and does not have any effect on potential strep throat,” says Dr. Kogan.
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The simplest and most effective solution is to drink plenty of warm liquids to soothe inflammation in the throat and try to get as much rest as possible.
Kava
Kava is a root that’s usually found on various South Pacific islands. Often the root is powdered and taken as a tea, but it can also be found as an extract that can be added to other things. It has been recommended that kava can be taken to soothe anxiety, and some even compare the effects of the herb to those of popular prescription anxiety medications.
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One study even showed that taking the herb could, in fact, moderately decrease anxiety levels. Still, though, the study advised that taking kava should be a short-term solution, as it’s one that could cause side effects that aren’t worth only moderate anxiety improvement.
One of the biggest risks of long-term kava use is liver damage, although it’s not known whether kava itself causes liver damage or if it’s the use of kava in conjunction with other medications.
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Still, it’s worth noting that 30 cases of kava-related liver damage have been reported in Europe, and consumer advisory for the supplement was issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002 because of its risk for potential liver failure.
Castor Oil
Castor oil has many uses; it’s most commonly used as a natural laxative. Not only that, but many pregnant women use it as a way to speed up the birthing process when they’re desperate to bring their babies into the world.
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While doctors are fine with using castor oil for constipation, just say no when it comes to delivering a baby. “Castor oil may help if you are
constipated and need to pass a bowel movement, but it’s not going to help you go into labor and tastes awful,” says Dr. Yamaguchi.
So, are there any safe ways to start the labor at home? Sure, there are plenty of things people swear have worked for them—being intimate, eating fast food, walking around a lot—but the truth is that there isn’t one thing that’s guaranteed to work for everyone.
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Oh, and for constipation? Castor oil is fine, but you can also try drinking prune juice or just increasing your overall fiber intake.
