Noah’s Ark should be showing up sometime soon here in the Northeast, where it’s been raining for almost a month. If anyone dares to mention the word drought in the near future, I think my head will explode. Nonetheless, when the summer does finally heat up, you may wonder whether you should be using window air-conditioning units to cool your home, or if you should splurge for central air. This popular Suddenly Frugal post compares both methods of cooling so you can figure out which is right for your home.

Having spent much of my formative years living in or visiting apartments in New York City, all I ever knew were window air conditioners. In fact, even in the house where I grew up, we had window air conditioners–well, let me rephrase that. My parent’s bedroom had a window a/c unit as did our living room. The rest of the house? Hot and sweaty.

It wasn’t until 1999, when my husband and I bought our first house, a 2,100-square-foot new construction home, that I became familiar with the concept of whole-house air via a central air conditioning unit. Now, I couldn’t imagine living without it. However, not everyone thinks or lives like I do, and this is clearly true based on this recent reader question about window a/c units versus central air. Her question has to do with the most economical and ecological choice you can make when it comes to air conditioning.

Q: How energy efficient is central air vs. window units? I bought a house that can be easily converted to central air, but have been living with window units for the last two summers. Would I save energy by making the switch? I don’t cool the whole house at the same time — in fact, when it’s really hot out (like last week) I move my home office downstairs and stay in the dining room, which is the only downstairs room with a/c.

A: Turns out the answer isn’t as simple as one might think. There are a number of factors that affect whether or not you should use window units versus central air. According to experts what really matters is the climate where you live (hot and humid Houston versus dry Denver), how your home is insulated, and what your personal preferences are. Let’s start with climate.

If you’re looking to cool your home and lower the humidity, a central air system is your best bet, hands down, as far as efficiency goes. “Well-designed central systems win out in terms of being able to filter the air for allergens and pollutants, and for controlling humidity,” says Mike Rogers, a senior vice president with Green Homes America, a company that provides residential home performance contracting solutions that increase in-home comfort, health and safety, and significantly reduce energy usage and utility bills.

Two reasons that window units are all wet when it comes to reducing humidity are that they tend to sweat (especially if they are overworked) and therefore introduce moisture into the room. And, adds Rogers, “it’s harder to seal window units, and thus you do get some of that hot, humid air sucked in from the outside.”

That said, if humidity isn’t your problem but you’d just like to cool your home, you could get away with one window unit on each floor, if your home is well insulated. (Check out this Energy Star website to figure out the right-sized air conditioner based on a room’s size.) Insulation isn’t just in the walls, by the way. We’re also talking about well-insulated windows and, believe it or not, a well-insulated attic. “In the summer, temperatures in the attic often climb to more than 140 degrees,” says Rogers. “This tremendous heat conducts down into your home. Even when the first floor is comfortable, this constant flow of heat from the attic can bake your bedrooms upstairs. Although most people don’t think of insulation as a way to keep cool, increasing levels in your attic can make a huge difference.”

Keep in mind that while window units are cheaper in the short run, if you’re looking to purchase more than a few of them, you’re probably better off going with a central air system. Says Rogers, a central air unit will use less energy overall and cool more efficiently than a series of window units running in tandem. On the other hand, he says, “if you’re just trying to cool one or two rooms—not the whole house—a window unit or two can use less energy than a central system, and a couple of window units are much cheaper than a central unit. And, if you have a very energy-efficient house, or small house, they may be all you need.”

Finally, it’s all about personal preferences. The reader who sent in this question doesn’t seem to mind moving into a single room when it’s really hot out. And if it doesn’t get hot that often that she needs to disrupt her life regularly like this, then she can probably continue to get away with window units. However, if she’s fighting humidity and she seems to be losing the battle, then maybe it’s time to make the leap to central air.

Keep in mind that just like appliances with Energy Star ratings, air conditioning units come with their own efficiency ratings. This Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy website offers a guide to understanding central air efficiency ratings so you can make the best choice for your budget and the environment.

As you’re reading this post, I’m probably out doing some thrift store shopping. Just recently I took advantage of my local Goodwill’s drive-through drop off service so I could donate three large bags of unwanted clothes. I’ll bet lots of parents are going to add thrift store shopping to their back-to-school list this year, especially if the economy stays in the toilet. No wonder this post continues to be popular and why it’s appearing in this best-of series.

Now that we’ve embraced frugal living, I’ve learned to fall in love with thrift-store shopping. It’s a love that I’m passing along to my own daughters, ages 11 and 13, as I wrote about in this back-to-school shopping post. And when I say thrift store, I’m not just talking about a clothing collection in a church basement (though you can find some rare gems there, too). What I’m thinking are consignment shops, resale chains like Plato’s Closet and well-known stores like Goodwill.

Recently, I was reading a piece over at the Simple Mom blog on thrift store shopping tips. This article provided excellent ways to make the most of your thrift store shopping experience, and then many readers posted comments with additional tips of their own.

Using that article as my jumping off point, here are my 10 tips on how you can get the most bang for your buck when shopping at thrift stores.

1. It’s not just about clothes. One of my favorite items to pick up on the cheap at thrift stores are cookie tins. I use them to decorate my kitchen but I’ve also been known to make a batch of cookies, toss them in a tin, and use it as a last-minute hostess or holiday gift. Also, at places like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore stores, builders donate over-runs on all kinds of construction supplies, like doors, windows and appliances. So if you’re doing a renovation, this could be a cheap place for you get what you would likely find in Home Depot or Lowe’s but for a lot less money. Oh and you’re supporting a good cause, too. Finally, resale stores like Play It Again Sports are great if you’ve got kids who play sports and regularly need new equipment. The last big purchase we made at a Play It Again Sports was actually something for us grown-ups–cross-country skis.

2. But brands do matter. Recently, my husband picked up two brand-new Kohler sinks that we can use when we finish renovating our daughters’ bathroom upstairs. While the sinks were dirt cheap at Restore, we know they’re going to be rock solid because of the brand name. Similarly, when my daughters shop at thrift stores, they look for brands they know. Adults are known to this, too. This way they’re getting clothing brands they’ve likely worn before so they can trust the fit and craftsmanship. And the fact that they’re a lot less expensive than in the name-brand stores doesn’t hurt either.

3. Shopping thrift doesn’t always mean used. Take my aforementioned Kohler sinks. They are brand-new, still in the box. Last summer my daughter found a brand new Aeropostale skort on sale for $5 at Goodwill. The skort still had the tags on them. A few years ago, I picked up a sherbet green wool pea coat from the Gap but at a church thrift store. It, too, still had the tags on and still had that new-clothing smell. Instead of spending $50, which is what it had retailed for a the Gap, I got it for $.50 (I’m not kidding). And, like I said, it was brand new.

4. Even thrift stores have sales. I’ve learned that on each day of the week, Goodwill puts certain items on sale. You’ll know what those items are based on the color of the plastic tag on the garment. So one day it could be everything with an orange plastic tag is 20% off whereas the next day items with a blue plastic tag are 20% off. Saving extra money on already affordable items is a definite in my book.

5. You can find outlet stores for thrift stores. Everyone knows that you can often snag great deals at outlet stores for name-brand retailers, such as I wrote about in this outlet store-shopping post. But what I’ve just discovered is that the Goodwills of the world have thrift store outlets. One commenter on the Simple Mom post mentioned above says that at her local Goodwill outlet store, you can buy items by the pound instead of per article. If you’re a seamstress or knitter looking for fabric or sweaters that you can use in your crafts, this would seem to be the best deal out there!

6. Damaged goods can lead to discounts. If I’m shopping in a regular store and I find something wrong with a garment–and there aren’t any other garments like it left to choose–I have no problem bringing that garment to the register, pointing out the damage and then asking “So what can you do for me?” Usually, I can get 10% or 20% knocked off the price of an item. Turns out that you can use the same techniques at thrift stores, too. True, you’re probably already getting something for a good price. But it doesn’t hurt to point out if a button is missing or there’s lipstick on a shirt–if you know that you can replace the button or clean off the lipstick no problem when you get home–and see if you can’t get a little more money off of your purchase.

7. Thrift store shopping can help you think outside the box for special events. As I wrote in this post on frugal wedding planning tips, a bride on a budget could have a field day shopping for her wedding at a thrift store. On any given day she might find a wedding gown, bridesmaid dresses, items to use as centerpieces, even linens, flatware and dishes (albeit mismatched) that she can use at her reception so she doesn’t have to rent them.

8. Dress the part for thrift shopping. The one downside of thrift stores is that they don’t always have generous dressing rooms–if any dressing rooms at all. That’s why whenever I decide to go shopping for clothes at a thrift store, I make sure I wear fitted clothing that will allow me to try other things on over it. Granted, in the winter this isn’t always easy on the bottom half–like shorts in summer are–but even just stripping down to a long-sleeved crew neck shirt should make it easy for you to try things on while still standing in the aisles. (I learned this trick when I used to shop at New York City sample sales.)

9. Know the real price of things before buying. It’s easy to get tricked into thinking that you’re always getting a great deal at a thrift store. It’s like stores that are going out of business and start having liquidation sales. You think that you’re going to find great prices on every item in the store. But as frustrated shoppers at Circuit City are discovering, liquidation doesn’t always equal super cheap. The same can happen at thrift stores as I found out after Christmas when I went shopping for cookie tins. I found a bunch that were a buck or two apiece, which seemed like a total score. Then I headed over to Target to see their after-Christmas sales and found tins for about $.50 each. I would have spent more in gas returning the items to the thrift store, if that was even an option, so I just lived with my mistake.

10. Speaking of returns don’t expect great return policies at thrift stores. One of the ways that thrift stores keep prices low and make money for the good causes they support is keeping their overhead low. And they do that by not having elaborate return policies. Most sales are final sales, which means you really need to think hard about buying something if you know you can’t return it. It’s kind of like going to a garage sale. You have to ask yourself will you have buyer’s remorse the minute you get in the car? If so, then don’t get whatever it is you’re holding. Also, don’t take too long actually holding on to an item and agonizing over its purchase: a recent study showed that consumers were more likely to pay more for a worthless item they didn’t actually want or need when they held it in their hands longer.

Here is the second most popular post in the history of Suddenly Frugal–7 ways to reuse toilet paper rolls. Enjoy!

While I could always just recycle the toilet paper rolls with my cardboard, I really like the notion of reusing them instead. I mean, when it comes to the 3 Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle, reuse is the one that you should really be shooting for. Yes, recycling items is great, but if you can reuse what you’ve already got in new and creative ways, you keep items out of the waste stream and you might just save yourself some dough.

With that in mind I started to brainstorm additional ways you might reuse cardboard rolls from toilet paper and paper towels. It’s a topic I’d covered before but, like with Freecycle etiquette, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit it. So here are my 7 ways to reuse cardboard tubes like you’d find inside toilet paper and paper towel rolls.

1. Cord control. You can buy these fancy cord contraptions in the store that funnel all of your electrical cords in a single line so that you don’t have tangles under your desk. Well, a cardboard tube can do the same and for free. True, the cardboard version isn’t as pretty but at least it’s free and functional.

2. Art projects. I’m sure someone with a young and creative mind can figure out a way to turn cardboard tubes into a robot or guitar or another kind of musical instrument. I would recommend maybe stockpiling these rolls for awhile, then giving them away to a teacher your know or via an “offer” listing on Freecyle.

3. Seed starters. With spring right around the corner, you can use old cardboard tubes as seed starters. This article on eHow explains how to transform these tubes into little pots for your future garden.

4. Holiday decorations and storage. I’ve heard of people making Christmas wreaths from toilet paper rolls, creating Christmas crackers out of them and, as I wrote about previously, using them as a frugal storage idea for holiday lights.

5. Plastic bag storage. Yeah, I know, we’re all supposed to be bringing our reusable bags to the supermarket, but sometimes you forget (slap on the wrist) and you end up with a plastic bag or two. So why not take an old cardboard tube, stuff some plastic bags in it, then place it in the trunk of your car? Now you’ll never be without a go-to garbage bag when you need to clean out the car or take the dog for an impromptu walk.

6. Eyeglasses case. OK, so I don’t expect that a cardboard roll is really going to protect my eyeglasses from getting destroyed (though this craft project on Green Daily is quite pretty). But you know what? If I had a toilet paper tube on my nightstand–and I slipped my eyeglasses in it each night before turning out the lights–I would probably have an easier time finding my glasses in the morning. You see, my glasses are frameless and when I’m not wearing them and am looking for them, they blend into my nightstand. But a cardboard tube? That would probably stand out. Speaking of stand I would recommend standing the tube on its end to hold your glasses. Otherwise, they might roll off and onto the floor and then it will be CRUNCH in the morning.

7. Rodent playground. I don’t own any rodents, but I understand from people who have them that toilet paper and paper towel rolls make great makeshift Habitrails for gerbils, hamsters and mice. Then, I guess, when they tire of their playland, they can chew them to bits.

Have I missed any reuses?