Homemade Laundry Soap

I am sure by now most of you mom's have heard about the new trend of making your own cleaning products. I have attempted the homemade fabric softener before and loved it. However I still had a stockpile of laundry detergent from 2 years ago. Well I have finally ran out and decided to give it a try. Here is the break down of the start up cost.

1 box of Borax-$4.94- 19 uses per box - cost per use 26 cents
1 box of Washing Soda-$3.22- 7 uses per box- cost per use 46 cents
1 bar of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap-$0.97- 1 bar per use 97 cents

That breaks down to $1.69 per batch. Each batch yields 640 loads, 10 gallons. Yep...you read that right 640 loads of laundry for $1.69. WOW!!!

Now this is how :

Ingredients:

4 Cups of Hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha Soap Bar
1 Cup- Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax


-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

- Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda, & Borax to bucket.
-Stir until well dissolved.
-Fill the bucket with more hot tap water until bucket is full.
-Stir well, cover the bucket with lid, and let it sit overnight to thicken (It will turn to gel, kinda like slime)

-Stir mixture to partially break down the gel.
- Fill a clean container with half mixture and half hot tap water.

-Shake before each use.

The answer to the question I know you are going to ask is YES!!! It was messy to make. But Ashlee had such a ball playing in the slime. HAHA. I only used a small amount of the mixture because I only had a couple of containers to put it in. But from everything I have read it will be just fine to store the unused amount in the sealed 5 gallon bucket for as long as needed.

I am using this soap on my laundry today, check back to see how it turned out.

Goals....to do do list.....whatever you want to call it.

I am so unorganized. There I said it, I feel better. I have so many things that I want to accomplish, but a lot of times I start things and never go back to finish because I move on to something else. So to help with this problem I am going to start making a goals list. Each week I will add 5 things to my goal list and try my best to get it done. No moving on to the next item until I am done with the first. So here is my list for this week. 1. Shuffle clothing for Matthew. ( This meaning taking his smaller clothes out and boxing them up, and moving the next size clothing into his closet.) He has a a large growth spurt and nothing in his closet fits. 2. Finish week two of couch to 5K. ( This is really hard for someone who has never ran/jogged in their life. Haha) 3. Make at least 2 freezer meals to stockpile. Baseball season is here and these will be needed soon. 4. Make homemade play dough for Ashlee & Hayden. 5. Go through the books in the play room and take out the " baby" books that can be given away. That doesn't sound like a lot, but this stuff has been on my to do list for awhile. Do you have a way of keeping track of this you need to do? I would love to know how any of you keep things organized.

Books, Books, & more books

I love to read!! I love to read mystery books, romance books, vampire books (lol), kids books, whatever the kind of book I'll give it a try at least once. I have not always been like this, but it has really brought me peace and quite in my life. David makes a big joke out of how much I read. He told me recently that I should stop reading so much fiction and start reading real life books that would interest me. So I have taken him up on his challenge. I have chosen 3 books to help me in 3 different areas of my life. My goal is to have them done by the end of the month of January. I hope I can make that happen. I would encourage all of my friends to pick at least on book to read this year that will broaden your horizons. You never know what new you can learn, even at our old age. Lol! So here is a list of the books I have chosen to start with an a simple reason why. Calm my Anxious Heart: A Woman's guide to finding Contentment - This is not only a book but a 12 week bible study. Saving for Retirement Without Living Like A Pauper- I know nothing about Retirement other than I have a 401K. Organize For A Fresh Start- If you have been to my home with all my kids, you know I need this book. So wish me luck and I hope you find something that interest you too!

Operation Christmas Child

I am not one to get on my soap box about many issues. But kids (anyone's kids) are very dear to my heart. I have been building shoe boxes for this cause for the last couple of years. I always say I am going to figure out how to more for this cause. But I never have come up with a good way to get organized about it. So one of my goals for the new year is to slowly purchase things for my shoe boxes and if I do it in small batches my pocketbook will never notice it. Because I budget into our plan a certain amount of money for this every year I usually spend way more on stuff to go in the box and am only able to send about 4 boxes each year because we don't have the funds budgeted to ship more than 4 after we purchase the things to go in them.

So I got started early this year. I started with the clearance section at CVS when they marked down their  Halloween stuff to 90%. True I only got a couple of things. But a stuffed animal for 10 cents is a good deal. I grabbed the only two that didn't really look like Halloween things, they were just black kitty cats. I have a couple of cute happy meal toys that the kids didn't want, a couple of shampoo samples that came in the mail, toothbrushes & toothpaste from Davids cleaning, and some stuff from Walmart/Target Christmas clearance yesterday. So far I have only spent a couple of dollars and I already have a good start to my boxes.

I have gotten a good size box and have stashed it in the back corner of my closet. My goal for the year is to find things for cheap or free and just toss them in the box. When it comes time next year to build the boxes I hope to be able to send more than 4 boxes. I would ask that you too think about doing this. It is as simple as looking in the clearance section at the stores you go to. Just think of the things you have seen there before and thought well my kids can't use that, but some kid might. I know everyone is not able to do this. But if you do it slowly you would be amazed at what you can accomplish through out the year for just a small amount of money. My husband David put it to me like this once. He normally stops by the Go Gas on the way to work most mornings to get a DDP. At the Go Gas they are $1 much cheaper that the store. If he fixes a drink before he leaves home he could save that $1 and add that to the purchase of something to go in the box. Old Navy has flip flop for like $2 every year. So in a month you can purchase 2 pair of shoes for the box. See adding up already.

So to end my "Soap Box" topic for the month, please pray about this cause and really listen to what God tells you to do about it. I know he spoke to me by me randomly finding a great website to help me with this cause. It is called www.clipwithpurpose.com . They are also on facebook. So head on over there and look at some of the cool ideas she has.

You don't need coupons to make frugal meals!

I don't know how many times in the past years that I have heard...."I don't have time to shop with coupons!". Well you know what, I don't always have time either. As a matter of fact I have not bought a paper for coupons in over 2 months. I have pulled some out of blinkies, and some off of packages, but really organizing and clipping coupons.....nope! Between taking 4 different kids to 4 different schools, 2 children playing football, Ashlee taking gymnastics, and just everyday life I have been very busy.

However just because I haven't been clipping coupons doesn't mean I have not been shopping good sales. I get emails with weekly deals from Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Lowe's Food. I also get in the mail sales ads from Piggly Wiggly & Bo's Food. I spend about 10 minutes once a week to scan all the ads and see if anything is worth going to that store. I normally only make it to 1 or maybe 2 stores a week. I DO NOT shop at 5 stores a week to get deals. I would waste all my time & gas trying to do this. I go within 1 mile every week of all 5 stores and I just pick and choose where I am going.

So I thought I would show you a good idea of what a simple meal for my family can be and what it would cost. I stopped by Lowe's Food last night on the way home from gymnastics with Ashlee. This has started becoming a habit because I have found if I stop by right around 5:45 they are marking down bakery items for the day. My boys have been super happy about this because I can get 6 doughnuts for $1.50. Yep and they are pretty good if I say so myself.

Last night I scanned the sales ad real quick and noticed the pre-made chicken cordon bleu was BOGO. So I picked up a couple of boxes to give it a try. I thought it would be a good quick meal for those crazy days I have no time to fix a real meal. I normally have rice a roni & pasta roni in the pantry because you can normally get this on sale for $1 a box at most stores. I have also been blessed with a dad that grows way to much in his garden and likes to shares. So here is our meal tonight and the cost break down.

2 boxes of Chicken Cordon Blue-$8.49

2 boxes of Alfredo Noodles-$2

1 jar of Green Beans-Free (but truly how much can a can of beans be ...$1?)

So dinner for 6 (however the 2 teenage boys should be counted as 2 adults each)

Total cost.....$10.49. That's about $1.75 each. You can't even get a happy meal for that.

So when I say you don't HAVE to have coupons. I really mean it. It just takes around 10 minutes a week to plan your meals around the deals of the week. Good luck and Happy Savings!!

They say bad things come in three's....

As most of you saw on my facebook account we have been having a bad run with repair problems lately. It started with a couple of days before vacation. My brakes starting with a grinding sound, not a squeal, a grind. Well we called and made an appointment to get new brakes. Well if only that was the problem. Once they got the brakes off they found my callipers had seized. I had no idea what that meant, but I knew it was not good. So we went from replacing brakes to replacing brakes, rotors, and callipers. As you can imagine it tripled the cost.

Then we leave for vacation an on the way David's a/c stops working. Once we got home and he had out trusty repairman look at it, we found out it was not the a/c. It actually has something to do with the turbo on his truck and now we are looking at a couple of grand to fix it.

Then coming home from vacation we found my dishwasher not working well. By Monday it had quit washing all together. GREAT!! The third problem in a week. I made David take me Monday night to look at dishwashers. I even stopped by the ATM to get the cash out to buy one. (Because we all know Dave Ramsey says you get more with cash!!) So off we went. By 8:30 we had look at multiple appliances and I only had one more store I wanted to go too. But EVERYWHERE closes at 9PM. So off we went in a rush. We got there and I found the one I wanted. With 10 minutes till closing we went into working out the details. I had cash, I wanted that one, and I wanted to take it with me then. Notice all the "I's" in that sentence. Well that is what happens when the only thing we are thinking about is ourselves. The sales rep went to check and sure enough, there were none in stock and would not be any until FRIDAY!!! Now it is after 9 and we had to go home....empty handed.

So on the way home my husband, who had kept his opinion to himself and was just trying to make me happy, quietly said call your dad tomorrow and see what he thinks it can be. After all he is the ultimate handyman. You know that had not even crossed my mind. I was so in the "ME MODE" that my brain was not working. When I got up Tuesday I called him. He told me a couple of things to check and if that didn't work just hang on until he could get a few days to come down and look at it. I thought okay well I can wash dishes for a while if it will save me $400-$500.

He called me yesterday to say he was going to be here this morning. How is that for quick service?? He gets here this morning spends about 20 minutes cleaning it out and it started working again perfectly. Yep MY DAD ROCKS!!!

So what did I learn from this? Patience. I have none. I need to stop and really think about if going out and buying a new .....whatever.....is really worth it. In this case it was not. And last but not least ....NEVER forget how lucky I am to have a Dad like mine. He loves me no matter what I have done in my life, he is always there for me when I need him, and he ALWAYS buys ice cream when he visits. Sometimes it the little things in life. LOL

P.S. Does the description of my dad remind you of anyone??? (Minus the ice cream)

Ashlee's Bathroom

Let me start out this post by saying "I AM NOT GOOD AT DECORATING!!". I am not ashamed to admit this. It has never been a high priority to me. However after saying that.... I want my daughter to have all the things that I dreamed of when I was little. I wanted the green room with chair rail cottage trim. I wanted the white bedroom suit with a trundle bed. I wanted a purple bathroom. So if these things are within reach for me to do I don't see the harm in giving them to her. We have not broke the bank paying for them (we actually have taken 4 years to accomplish it all), we have not given her things that the other kids don't have, and we love to see her little face light up because she is the only GIRL after all!! So after posting on facebook that I now have a purple bathroom I got a lot of funny comments sent to me about "The Barney Bathroom". So I thought I better go ahead and post pics. So here they are. It's not finished, I still need to find good rugs and a couple of other things. But you know me, I will NOT pay full price for anything, so we are waiting for a good sale at Kohl's and a 30% off coupon to come in the mail. Until then we can use the old green rug ( not in the picture). So what do you think......Love it or Hate it???