About The Thrifty Almanac
The Thrifty Almanac is a practical guide to two things every household deals with: keeping a home running smoothly and keeping pests out — without overspending. We cover home hacks and do-it-yourself pest control: cheap, safe fixes you can do yourself, explained plainly.
What we believe
Being thrifty is not about being cheap. It is about spending money where it counts and skipping the parts a marketer talked you into. Most home and pest problems have a five-dollar answer long before they need a four-hundred-dollar one — and our job is to show you which is which, and exactly when a job really is worth calling a professional.
How we work
We are not a lab and we do not pretend to be. We research each topic from public, authoritative sources — university cooperative-extension services, the EPA, the CDC, the U.S. Department of Energy, and peer-reviewed studies — and we link to them so you can check our work. When the evidence has limits, we say so. You can read exactly how we research on our Editorial Policy page.
Who we are
The Thrifty Almanac is written by The Almanac Team and is the companion site to our YouTube channel of the same name, where we cover the same frugal, do-it-yourself approach on video. Everything here is written for a general home audience in plain American English.
What we will never do
- Use scare tactics to sell you something.
- Push a pricey product when a pantry staple does the job.
- Tell you to "just call a pro" when you can safely handle it yourself — or tell you to DIY something that is genuinely dangerous.
Have a hack, a question, or a correction? We would genuinely like to hear it — head to our Contact page. And if you want our free printable checklist, grab The Home & Pest Almanac.