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This week we came up with a wonderful list of frugal living tips using Honey. Honey is one of those things, like all of the other items in the WWII Series, that I’ve purchased for one specific reason, in this case, sweetening my tea or biscuits. So when we decided to add honey to our list I was a little skeptical that we would be able to come up with enough uses that it would warrant doing a whole post about it. To my surprise, my frugal and oh, so creative family came up with 21 uses.
Image from: All-Free-Download
I’ve always been amazed with honey and how it is harvested. I think it started when I was a little girl. My grandfather used to have beehives and I was always intrigued when he would put on his white beekeepers suit and grab his smoker. All of us grand kids would sit at a safe distance and watch him pull out the beautiful honeycombs. When he was done harvesting, my grandmother would have a batch of warm biscuits ready to serve with the fresh honey. It’s such a great memory.
Besides being a tasty treat, honey has a number of medicinal uses. For centuries it has been used for it’s anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties so the uses that my family came up with make a lot of sense. However, when using honey as a remedy or as a beauty treatment be sure to use fresh local honey. Studies say that local honey is best because the honey contains the environmental properties that you are in contact with everyday, so it has a better likelihood of curing what ails you.
Healthcare
Always consult a doctor before using honey as a treatment.
- Bacterial infection – to treat, soak raw garlic cloves in honey and take 1 teaspoon 3-4 times a day.
- Burns – to soothe, apply honey to the burn.
- Constipation – to naturally cure, drink an 8 ounce glass of water mixed with 2 tablespoons honey. Repeat as needed.
- Cough – to control, heat 1/4 cup Honey with 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Take one teaspoon of the warm syrup as needed.
- Cuts – to clean, apply honey to the cut before bandaging.
- Energy – to boost, eat a tablespoon of honey.
- Hangover – to speed up recovery, add some honey to a cup of warm tea as soon as you wake.
- Indigestion – to relieve, take a spoonful of honey.
- Sore Throat – to soothe, add a teaspoon or two of honey to an 8 ounce cup of warm tea.
Beauty
- Acne – to control, wash your face with a little honey and warm water.
- Dandruff – to control, after shampooing, apply a little honey to your scalp. Let it remain on scalp for a few minutes before rinsing.
- Elbows – to moisturize, apply honey to clean elbows. Allow honey to remain on your elbows for 30 minutes before rinsing.
- Face – to clean, mix a little honey with warm water and massage onto your face.
- Face – to moisturize, give yourself a honey facial. To make: Peel and remove seeds from one small cucumber. Puree the cucumber and extract 2 tablespoons of juice. Stir 2 tablespoons honey into the cucumber juice and add 1 tablespoon Milk. Apply the mixture to your face and neck and allow it to remain for 20 minutes before rinsing.
- Hair – to condition, after washing, add a little honey to hair and rinse after a few minutes.
- Hair – to control frizziness, after washing apply honey to the ends and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing.
- Hair – to shine, add a teaspoon of honey to one quart of warm water. Pour the mixture over clean hair.
- Skin – to exfoliate and soften, make a mixture using 1 teaspoon of honey and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
- Skin – to moisturize, make your own moisturizer by heating 8 ounces of honey until it’s thin. Pour honey over your 1 tablespoon of your favorite herbs and cover. Let the mixture sit for one week and pour 1 teaspoon of the honey mixture into your favorite lotion.
- Skin – to soften, add a few tablespoons of honey to your bathwater.
- Weight – to speed up metabolism, use honey instead of sugar.
What household tips do you have for using honey?
* If, by some small miracle, you worked at Amway in Ada, MI in the 1980’s and were the person my mother loaned the notebook to, please Contact Me. The notebook is a small (aprox. 6″x9″) black leather, 3-ring binder, and contains hand drawn patterns (teddy bear), recipes and household tips and tricks. It would mean so much to my family to have it back.
Thanks for these great tips! A lot of these I didn't know. Pinning! Hav a great week!
I LOVE HONEY! I am so fascinated with bees and envy your time watching your grandfather. I could only dream about such an experience. Thanks for sharing!
We refer to honey as Liquid Gold around here. We purchase in bulk from a local farmer and the joy and excitement when the delivery is made is something to see for sure. Great post!
Thank you for all the great info about what honey can do. I use honey when my algeries act up. I make some warm tea with a few spoon fills of local honey, and it seems that the next day I don't fell so bad.
I love honey! I wash my face with honey, use it as a sweetener instead of white sugar, and I've heard it helps allergies as well. Loved this post!
What a great list! I love local honey and eat it all the time, but will now look to use it for much more!
These are such great tips! Who would have thought honey was so versatile. And it keeps the children's sweet teeth at bay too! 🙂
Honey truly has so many benefits and uses. Thank you for this list.
Great post. I am chemist and I can definitely agree that honey is one of those natural resources that has various uses. I love using it on my skin mixed with a small amount of my lotion!
Well who knew honey could help with a hangover? I wish I had known that in my 20s! I give my kids honey when they have a cold. I always feel a little sorry for their teachers sending them to school with a big shot of sugar just before they walk out the door.
I love honey and I love this post!!! I learned something new–I did not know you could use honey to fight indigestion!
Wow, I had NO idea! I'm curious that you mentioned it can be used an anti-inflammatory. Can you give a little more information about how? Great post.
xo ~kim
Hi Robin. Thank you for linking up this informative & very interesting post on Honey Uses, I appreciate you!
Hugs,
Heather
I looooooove honey! I use it for sore throats, mask, body scrubs, and also in sugaring! Thank you for more tips!
So many good remedies! It is hard to remember them all! Need to pin this so I have it to reference!
Never heard of using honey on the skin. Sounds really sticky but I see a chemists said to mix with lotion. Who knew? I need to pin it as well.
We love honey, but our local honey is so expensive here. Would love to try some of the other uses though!
I didn't realize there were so many different uses for honey. I suffered from really bad acne for many years and wonder if using the honey on it would have helped it. Thanks for sharing!
WOW!! I didn't know half the uses you mentioned here!! Awesome list. Thank you!! 🙂
I have known for awhile that honey is amazing, even though I can't stand the taste of it, but I had no idea it was this AMAZING. I just posted an experience I had with using honey to heal an infection on my blog. Rachelle S.
I started using honey for my sore throat when I was nursing my son and found that mixing it, lemon juice, and boiling water made a nice "tea" that I could drink to soothe my throat. Thanks for the other suggestions!
I'd always heard there were many ways to use honey but other than a few basics, like in tea when I have a cold, I never used it much. I'm really interested in your ideas for using it on your skin as I love homemade beauty products, so I will have to try those out! My most favorite of all ways to use honey is to mix it with some peanut butter and a splash of milk and spread it on crackers. Yum!
Lots of good things here. I have use honey for a few of these things but some are new to me. I will have to try it in place of sugar and see if I can lose some weight. 😉
I have a bottle of honey in my cupboard, but only use it sparingly. Hearing these tips from you, it might get used more! For instance, I want to try it on my frizzy hair.
Thanks so much for sharing these great tips at this week's Project Inspire{d} ~ pinning!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mary Beth
Besides using honey in tea for a sore throat I had no clue you could use it for so many things. Interesting tip that it can be used on dandruff.
This is a very informative list with many ideas for honey that I did not know about. I am also going to go check out your other Household Tips. I'll bet that I will learn a thing or two there also. Glad that I found you through Blogelina. I will be subscribing.
We had a hive of bees move underneath my house and we allowed them to live there for three years until we could find someone to relocate them. When they were extracted, the bee man gave us some honey in the comb to enjoy as a reward for allowing the bees to live with us as we had. Honey in the comb is amazing!
Thank you for sharing 21 ways to use honey. I am inspired to give some of them a try.
What a cool post. I swear my honey in warm milk for my kiddos whenever they feel under the weather! They also eat a teaspoon whenever they have a cough. I swap it for sugar for lots of recipes too. But now you have me thinking about rubbing some all over my elbows!! 🙂
Raw honey is terrific. Thanks for the tips. I didn't know all of them. I've bookmarked this post for later reference.
I use honey in my shower gel to help soften my skin! I love all these great tips! I didn't know you could use honey for constipation. I usually drink coffee as a laxative but I'll try this too!
Not sure I would want to put it in my hair as I hate sticky hair LOL.
I have substituted honey for sugar when cooking because it is healthier, with great results! However on Saturday I did that for homemade Ice Cream and it ended up having a strong honey flavor so next time I will have to experiment a little differently!
Love all your tips. I'm going to try several of them. I didn't know honey helps the hair and oh boy do I have frizzy hair. I'm going to be trying to replace sugar in my coffee with honey.
Your post made me hungry though- I loved how you would watch your grandfather work his magic and your grandmother having fresh biscuits- wow! Awesome memories.
I love honey! I haven't gotten brave enough to try it in my hair yet, but I really want to! Does it rinse out really well?
Thanks for all these great tips!
I really learned a lot of this post. I have never used honey except to replace sugar. Boy do I have a lot to learn. Thanks.
I've also heard that if you eat one spoonful of local honey a day, then it can cure your allergies! Because the allergens are also in the honey from your area and you will start to build a resistance to them!
Wow! These are great tips. I did know about the one for weight loss-adding cinnamon to it for raising metabolism.
I love honey too. Now, I am more excited on how I can use it every day!
You had me at the warm biscuits with honey! Thanks for all this good info-I had no idea honey had all these uses.
Fantastic! I love honey and knew it was good for a great many things – this list is fantastic~ I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
Kathy
What a great list! I had no idea you could use honey for all of these things!!
Wow! I never knew there were so many uses for honey. I have only used it as a sweetener and I really don't use it too often. Thanks for sharing all the tips!
Jae Mac @ I'm Just Sayin'…(Damn!)
I'm totally using the one as a conditioner, I hate using that stuff and it seems like such a waste of money. But I have honey! I buy it in bulk because I use it all the time. Fun uses you came up with 🙂 Krista @ A Handful of Everything
My hubby is a lover of honey on his biscuits. Certainly is a sweet treat. This is a great list. Some I knew, but others never heard of. Our oldest daughter is a diabetic. We were always told that if she went into Diabetic shock to put honey under her tongue. Thankfully, I never had to see if it worked. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
You can use Honey in place of an Anti-Bacterial cream on wounds, it’s remarkably effective. Another use is for colds, not just coughs. It helps you recover much faster. Then there’s seasonal allergies, local honey helps you resist the local allergens. Like all the health benefits of honey, it should be locally produced, unfiltered and not pasteurized in any way.