Save Money and Save the Environment With Lemons

As a teen, I had waist-length hair, as did many of my girlfriends. In the summer, we would cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a spray bottle. As we baskd in the sun, we'd spray our homemade potion onto our locks. Sure enough, brilliant highlights would peek out, just like those rays of radiant sun. I believe they call that lowlights or highlights nowadays, and you'll pay plenty for it at any hair salon.

As an adult, I ended up with more money, but I don't like to spend it on silly things. I still look to simple, natural products to save money AND to give Mother Earth a break.

Back to that lemon. We didn't know exactly why our summer lemon potion worked, but we knew it worked. That was enough. Simple. Just like that lemon. Simple.

Here are ten tips on how to use that simply-wonderful lemon. Ten ways to help you hold onto your hard-earned cash a bit longer or let you splurge on things that can't be solved with a simple lemon.

---Stick with the hair. Lemon, like vinegar, has an incredible ability to make hair shine. Wash your hair as you normally would. If you use a conditioner, do that as well. For that final step, think yellow. The juice of one lemon, diluted a bit if your hair is long, acts as a great final rinse. It gets rid of any soap residue you may have missed, especially if your water is too hard to break down the ingredients of your shampoo. Pour the diluted mixture on, squeeze it through just a bit to make sure you've gotten it mixed all the way through your hair. Then rinse. A cooler water rinse following the lemon rinse is particularly refreshing.

---Lose weight. I'm not going to tell you that eating lemons will help you shed pounds. That's irresponsible though I've read all sorts of articles that throw that concept out there. This thought is much simpler. You can replace a cola or sugar drink with a nice refreshing glass of water, right. You're supposed to drink about 8 full glasses of water daily, minimum. The problem is, for a lot of people, plain water doesn't hit the spot, particularly with a meal. Squeeze a few lemon wedges, add a lime wedge to mix it up, and you have something akin to one of those fancy "flavored" waters you'll pay way too much for. (I won't, mind you, but someone else might.)

---Rock the tea. I have one of those automatic iced tea makers, and I'll confess that I fell into a routine. It's good iced tea. It's a natural diuretic, so there were lots of pluses to that the down and dirty version I'd come to make. But it was missing something, and I knew it. When I went back to cutting a lemon in half and squeezing the juice into the hot tea before the ice cubes cool it down, it became a treat instead of just a beverage. It became really good, not just functional and useful. More than that, I found with that extra zing, I also started to cut down on the sugar I used. I needed something to cut that sharp tang of the tea, so I always turned to sugar, as many others do. After all, it's a fast, easy fix. Lemon has the same effect. It adds that little extra something, and it's just as easy.

---Dress it up. Cut up wedges of lemon and hang them on the lip of your glass for any beverage you serve and you'll impress guests and yourself. I've also planted a small patch of spearment along my front walk, right where the hose jolts out. Spearment LOVES water, so my initial thought was the lavender and spearment I planted would soak up any excess water created by the hose. Then the plant doubled, quadrupled and so on. The extra bonus I got was that my walkway was a delight to those who visited. When my guests come inside, and I pour them my homemade iced tea with fresh lemon, I can also throw in a sprig of spearment. The little things, those added touches, are what turn ordinary things into truly enjoyable experiences. You don't have to have a lot of money, just a little imagination.

Back to the lemon

---Dare I say it? This one should go without saying, but since you're going to give the juiced up iced tea a try, why not also try your hand at making fresh lemonade with this perfect fruit. Seems silly to say it, but too many people think it's not worth the effort. After all, there are um-teen mixes on the market. They must be better than just squeezing the juice out of a tiny piece of fruit. Uh huh, that's what the marketing program is designed to make you think.

Make it yourself and save money, save putting unnecessary additives into your body, and once you get the hang of the right proportion of lemon to ice to sugar, you'll never be satisfied with a mix again. To start, keep that recipe to one cup water to one cup lemon juice to one cup sugar. Fine tune it from there.

---Food. Don't confine your lemon zing to just a pot of tea. Simple foods like chicken or even tuna are given a fresh lease on life with a few splashes of lemon. And if you're going healthy with the grilled or steamed vegetables, a splash of lemon adds a great boost of taste.

But as they say on those late-night infomercials: Wait! We're not done yet! There's more. The reason I love lemons so much is because they're just about perfect in that you can use every part of them. Once you've squeezed the life out of the little buggers, there's the matter of that tangy peel.

---Zest it Up. Have you checked the prices on those fancy spice bottles! After you squeeze the last bit of juice into a fresh pot of tea or onto your healthful dinner, take a basic household grater and get to work. Put your shavings into a small, freezer-safe bag. One lemon certainly won't do much to fill that bag. Keep adding to the bag. And keep taking from the bag. Just as you put a little squirt of fresh lemon meats and veggies, you can throw in a dash of that nice, grated lemon zest to turn breads or baked goods better.

---Regift that lemon. Yeah, yeah, it sounds tacky, but it's not like the aquamarine sweater your Aunt Millie knitted for your birthday and you turned around and wrapped it up for a not-so-close friend. Go to any specialty foods store and you'll see gorgeous bottles of homemade dressings chock full of herbs and fresh ingredients floating in light olive oil. Start making your own special concoctions. (Lemons aren't the only things that can be used many different ways.) The little bits and pieces you haven't used in other cooking can be added to the special gift brew you are putting together.

---It's more than just for eating. That wonderful acidic base makes it a great cleaning product as well. In particular, wage war on grease with a cut lemon. The grease won't stand a chance. And breathe life into your cutting board. Even if you diligently wash and soak your cutting board surfaces, it never seems to have that fresh scent it did when you first bought it.

---Aromatherapy. No, not the kind that involves candles and crystals. I'm talking pure sensory delight. After I've squeezed that lemon into a fresh pot of tea, scraped all of that terrific rind off and tucked it away for the future, I'd be a fool to let the rest of it go to waste. This is the easiest use of all. When all is said and done, a put the remaining pieces of that one simple lemon down my garbage disposal, throw in a few ice cubes and let it soak up all of the nasty odors I've created there during the week. Also consider throwing some in the dishwasher to fight those pent up smells as well.