Heloise

Today’s Sound On is about hidden money:

Dear Heloise: My mother-in-law recently went into a nursing home after breaking her leg in a fall. It now looks as though this will be her permanent home, so she has decided to sell her three-bedroom house. My husband and I went over to pack up her things, put the house in order and get it ready to sell. Much to our surprise, we discovered my mother-in-law liked to hide money all around the house. Our attorney said this is not uncommon for many elderly people, especially those who lived through the Depression. I thought it might be helpful to pass along some of the things we found while we were cleaning the house:

1. There was $600 hidden in a plastic bag and taped to the back of a dresser.

2. There was $400 under a throw rug in the bedroom.

3. We found $200 in a secret drawer in her old wooden hope chest.

4. She hid money in books, between the pages. We had to shake out every book/magazine in the house and found a total of $1,600 in those spots.

5. There was $100 in an old gravy boat in the china hutch.

6. There was $600 in her bedroom closet — some of it stashed in shoes, some in shoe boxes. There was $200 in her coat pocket and $200 in an evening bag. We also found a loaded gun in the closet! She has a permit for it, but we never knew she had a gun.

7. We found a valuable ruby ring and a diamond brooch frozen in water, in an ice-cube tray in the freezer.

We’ve put all the money in her savings account, and she asked me to hang onto her ring and brooch for her. If anyone is clearing out the home of someone else, they really need to go through everything before selling the home or belongings. You never know if you’ll find hidden money there. — Sophia and Greg K., Mesa, Arizona

SEND A GREAT HINT TO:

Heloise

P.O. Box 795001

San Antonio, TX 78279-5001

Fax: 1-210-HELOISE

Email: Heloise@Heloise.com

FAST FACTS

Need some new uses for old belts? Try these:

— Hang from a nail and use it to clip on your hair ornaments.

— Use as a purse or camera strap.

— Use to display commemorative pins.

SNAILS

Dear Heloise: It won’t be long before we start planting our gardens here in the southern half of the country. Sadly, it also means we have a battle with snails. Last year, snails ate all of my marigolds in one night! Do you recommend anything to get rid of these little invaders? — Shelly W., Metairie, Louisiana

Shelly, there are a lot of commercial poisons that can be found in any hardware store that are designed to kill snails, but there are also homemade remedies. Some people wrap a copper band around a tree at the base and claim it deters snails. One of my favorite methods is to take a pie tin and bury it in the soil up to the rim of the pie tin. Then pour beer in the pie tin. The next morning there should be some dead snails in the beer. — Heloise