Homemade wipes, saving on cheese, and bringing home the bacon (bits)!

I think I am really starting to go over the deep end when it comes to being "homemade" and loving it. My first blog post was about homemade laundry soap and every single time I scoop up 1/8 of a cup of laundry soap and dump it into the washing machine filling with water I am so proud of myself for starting down this road--it all started with a blog sent to me and all I had to do was crunch some numbers and make the soap and it was on. I am loving finding ways to save money and make my family's life better through doing what I can to make what I could normally buy in the store for so much more.

Right now, in the electric skillet, I'm frying bacon bits. The other day, I was at Safeway searching out bacon bits for our salads that night. I got to the condiments aisle and when I saw the price tag, I couldn't decide if I wanted to throw up or cry: $4.49 for a little 8 ounce bag of bacon bits. The package claimed they were real bacon bits--I don't give a crap if they're rolled in GOLD--I am not paying nearly $5 for a teeny bag of bacon bits. Tonight, after thawing out a pound of bacon from a meat shop, for about $1.99/lb., I cooked our very own bacon bits, ending up with this:

After they are drained and dried I'll put them into a zip lock bag ($.07 or $1/15 at the dollar store). For roughly double the amount I'd get at the store for $4.49, I have bacon bits, home made, no preservatives or fillers, for approx. $2.06. It took me a total of about 30 minutes to make it.

Here in Oregon we are sooooo lucky to have Tillamook Cheese and Bandon Cheese. It's fabulous cheese and Tillamook Cheese comes in several flavors. Two pound "baby loafs" average about $5.99-$6.99, but there are always coupons flying around to get them for $3.99-$4.99 if you watch closely for them. I buy them on sale and freeze them. They freeze well, thaw well, although they get a bit crumbly when thawed, but I use them for sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, shredded for salads and tacos, etc. I refuse to pay for bags of shredded cheese. I cut a baby loaf in half and shredded it with a hand-grater and now I have a 1 lb. bag of shredded cheese in the fridge for $2.50. If you're lucky you can get a 1 lb. bag of grated cheese at Safeway (I honestly don't know what preservatives are in them but I have the pure cheese here) for $3.99. The other 1 lb. block sits in the fridge ready to be sliced. The bacon and shredded cheese took less time to prepare than it takes to drive to the store, find it, stand in line with screaming kids, and drive home.

I have been making homemade wipes now for a few months and I LOVE them. You can make disinfectant wipes (I use $1/bottle Spic 'N Span from Dollar Store), window cleaners (vinegar is wonderful for cleaning windows and glass) or baby wipes (baby wash on these saves TONS of money and you have soooo many more on hand than if you buy them!

I use the Sparkle rolls so you can either tear them into full sheets or half sheets. Tear the towels apart and layer on top of each other. I have what some people would call a ridiculously huge container for these, but they peel off easier than if they were rolled up. Lay them in the container, measure one cup of water and 3/4 cup of cleaner. Let set until liquid is soaked up. It costs me about $.80 to make 100 wipes versus $2.99-3.99 for 35. HUGE savings. You can substitute 3/4 cup vinegar for window cleaning wipes, or 3/4 cup of baby wash for homemade baby wipes. So much less expensive than buying them at the store!

Finally, I think Swiffer products are ingenious--want a way to occupy your kids? Give them a dusting wand with a Swiffer Duster refill and send them out to dust what they want. Unless it's breakables, they really can't do damage and you get your house dusted. The Swiffer Sweeper/Mop is one of my absolute favorites but the refills can get to be spendy. I no longer buy the mop/wipe refills. Instead, I take one of my terry cloth washcloths for the kitchen, get it wet with hot water, douse it with cleaning solution, and attach it to the mop, pressing the corners of the washcloth into the same slots that the refill wipes attach to, and mop away. You get the same great clean floors without spending $7.99-9.99 for 24 wipes and you can just toss the washcloth into the laundry. Perfect for someone that's completely anal about clean floors but I save a ton of money!

Please feel free to share YOUR ideas--I'd love to hear some!

Homemade Plug-In refills!

I had such a positive response to the news of this blog and I'm happy to be able to share some really cool ideas in this latest edition of Simply Bountiful Living! I love the idea of making anything that I use on a daily basis. The laundry detergent was a huge beginning and I LOVE it--I mean, isn't the realization that you're spending potentially HUNDREDS of dollars a year on something that literally goes down the drain enough to warm you up to homemade ANYTHING if it means saving money?

I love filling the house with sweet smells, whether it's from candles to scented oils and plug-ins, I do it all. But plug-in refills can dent the budget after time and you are limited to the fragrances that the companies choose to offer. I found this GREAT idea for homemade scented plug-ins refills in a daily e-mail newsletter from The Krazy Koupon Lady. A gal by the name of Jackie from Clifton Park, New York offered this idea:

Step 1: Remove the cap from the plug-in bulb then clean it out with warm water.

Step 2: Put about 20 drops of your favorite essential oil into the plug-in bulb. I used the scent of cloves because it reminds me of the upcoming holiday season, and it was one of the essential oils I had hanging around. You may also like vanilla, lavender, orange, lemon or cinnamon.

Step 3: Pour water into the bulb, but leave some space so the water doesn’t overflow when you place the wick back in.

Step 4: Put the wick back in the bulb. Be sure it snaps back into to place.

Step 5: Plug that baby in, and enjoy your fragrant home!

A 1 oz bottle should last you about a year, considering you will only have to refill the plug-in bulb about once every month. Depending on where you purchase your essential oils, and which fragrance you choose, you can refill your plug-in for anywhere from $.33-$.65 each time. Definitely beats the regular average purchase price of $3+/- for a single bottle, depending on where you buy them. Awesome way to keep your home smelling sweet and fresh and using different available essential oils to tailor your plug-in to the various holidays.

One word of warning, however. I recently received an e-mail from a friend advising that residential fires are, at times, caused by plug-ins overheating, melting, and catching fire. Keep an eye on your plug-ins and the plastic carrier that plugs into the wall. Be sure you watch closely for what feels too warm and replace if necessary. Diligence will keep your home safe.

Enjoy!

Homemade Laundry Soap

A couple of months ago a friend posted a blog that had a recipe for homemade laundry soap. I I thought that was fascinating since I'm a) all about saving money; b) love the Proverbs 31 Woman aspect of anything that will serve my family and refer to (a); and c) teach me to lessen dependence on most expensive commercial products. Our economy is changing every aspect of our lives and no longer can we just toss money down the drain. I am NOT anti-capitalist. I'm anti-stupidity. We have long washed our clothes with Purex Laundry Detergent, but at nearly $4 a box, at two boxes a month, there had to be a better alternative. The REALLY interesting part to me was that the author of this blog uses only 1/8 of a cup per wash. In theory, you are supposed to get by an entire year of laundry for the average family on just the mixture below.

Based on what I was spending on laundry detergent alone per year, the total came to $96 and that was two boxes of Purex Laundry Detergent a month, not including a bottle of Downey at $10 for ABOUT a month. That's another $120 a year. I know many that use MUCH more expensive laundry detergent--large bottles of Tide can run up to $16 a bottle. That can come out to $32 a month, depending on use, or $384 a year. So today Ali and I made the trip to Fred Meyer for the supplies. They are:

16 Cups of Baking Soda

12 Cups of Borax

8 Cups of castile soap

3 tbsp. of lavender essential oil

I decided to forego the essential oil since I don't know much about them or using them and frankly, I like the Purex Crystals for fabric softening and scent. My one nod to anything commercial in this.

The breakdown is:

4 lb. box baking soda, $2.99

1.5 boxes Borax, $3.99/box

3 bar pack of castile soap @$3.99 (makes 4 cups of flakes when grated)

1 bottle of Purex Crystals, $4.99

Total: $15.96

As I was just trying out the recipe, I cut it in half. That way if I'm not happy with it, I'm not out a ton of money.

8 Cups of Baking Soda

6 Cups of Borax

4 Cups of castile soap, grated

2 Cups of Purex crystals

Mix well in a large bowl.

I put it in an air-tight container next to the washing machine. I noticed it's HEAVIER that a full box of Purex Laundry Soap. Baking soda is heavy. It's dense. That is the deoderizer in this recipe. Borax is HEAVY. It's an all-around good cleaner for anything in the house, but it's a solid laundry cleaner. The castile soap is a great, nice smelling addition to the recipe and softens the cleaning process so your clothes aren't getting battered by the baking soda and Borax combination. The Purex Crystals just make everything smell good and since I only used 2 cups of it, I still have about 3/4 of a bottle left over for the next batch. I like Downey as much as the next person, but at $10 a bottle (even at Walmart), I'm not spending the money on it.

Years ago I learned to make bars of soap. One of the things you learn is that you don't get lots and lots of bubbles and lathers with it. If you buy a bar of Dial and lather up, that's what you get, a ton of lather and bubbles. That's the detergent in the product. Legally, Dial can't call itself soap. It's a body bar. True soap doesn't lather up like that. Aside from the Purex Crystals I'm removing a lot of the detergents in cleaning our clothes. When I dumped in the 1/8 cup mixture into the water, there weren't bubbles. I won't get bubbles because the detergents aren't there. I pulled the first load out of the washing machine and put them into the dryer. They smelled CLEAN, and the laundry room smelled CLEAN. Not heavy, and the clothes don't feel like they have a film on them. Out of the dryer, the clothes feel like fabric, not like there's a film on them. They smell clean, not covered up.

This has passed by far the most difficult nose of all--my husband's. He LOVES how clean his clothes smell and gave me a big thumbs up. Winner!

Living Bountiful.......on a shoestring

I wish I could say that many in our country do live bountifully on a shoestring, but the truth is, many, many people aren't doing quite that well! I love writing and I LOVE finding a bargain or way to save money. The past 3-4 years we have been buying clothes at Goodwill, cutting down and cutting back here and there and shaving fat from the household budget, doing everything we can to save a buck and funny thing--we haven't suffered one bit from any of it. If anything, we are thriving. Hopefully, this blog will convey some really good ideas to you and I welcome ideas from others. My first "official" blog will be about homemade laundry detergent and it's AMAZING! Saving this household a couple hundred dollars a year and satisfies even the most finicky nose in the world--my husband's.

So, let's start shaving fat, saving some money, living well--here we go!