Tip jar

Second time around

If there's one thing we've learned from looking at our reader mail, it's that one man's trash is a "Budget Living" reader's treasure. Just listen to this handful of insightful readers:

Use old wine corks as place-card holders. Slit the top of each cork about 1/4 inch deep. Write your guests' names on small sheets of card stock; place the cards into the corks' slits.

Claire Obias, Edgewater, N.J.

Don't throw away your empty tissue boxes. Use them in the car as mini-trash cans for gum wrappers and scraps of paper.

Beth Finn, Hurst, Ill.

Recycle the mesh bags that fruit and veggies come in: Roll them into a ball and use them as pot scrubbers when you're doing dishes.

Lisette Taylor, Baltimore, Md.