This post is overdue....Homemade laundry soap

I have been meaning to complete a Frugal Friday post on this very topic but Crystal over at http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ beat me to it! Check out here article here which includes a video showing how to make it.

I have made laundry soap and it is very simple and very cheap. I would be doing it now if I didn't have a stockpile of detergent.

Some hints I have learned along the way:

• No matter what laundry soap I use, we water it down a little. We have a front loading machine that uses HE detergent. I have never bought the HE detergent. In speaking with the salesman who sold me the machine, the only difference is that the HE soap is less sudsing. By watering down the detergent there will be less suds. I have never had an issue with the clothes not being clean.
• Use less soap! I believe the detergent companies overestimate how much is needed to clean the clothes.
• I also wear my jeans a couple times if they aren't very dirty. With kids that often change clothes, I try to ensure the clothes are indeed dirty.

That is all for now. Have a great week everyone! Please forgive me for the light number of postings. I am easily pulled away from the computer due to warm weather!

Frugal Friday- Dishwasher soap

This is a tip that I have borrowed from elsewhere on the web. It works good and is very inexpensive!

Combine 1 Tablespoon baking soda with 1 Tablespoon of Borax powder.  That's it!

If you like to use a rinse agent- use plain vinegar.

One thing I have learned in my endless hours of web searching is that most of us use too much dishwasher soap and laundry soap.

Keep it simple and easy, works for me. I have used this and had no problems.

Frugal Friday Financial Update

It's a new month (a couple days late I admit) so it's time to take a look at how my month of January went for my family.

If you want to review my goals you can see them here.

A change I recently made was to return to my grocery budget back to $70 a week. I tried to decrease it last month and ended up over budget, not good. I will try to ease back towards that goal, but just not yet.

As you may recall, I also want to pay down my debt. We started January at having paid off 40% of all of our debt. I am happy to say that in January we were able to pay an additional 12% ! We have now paid off 52% of all of our consumer debt excluding our mortgage. Yippee!

We have lots more work to do on our debt, but first I need to get the taxes done so I can plan for replacing the roof in the spring.

How are you doing on your goals this year? Let us know so we can support each other.

Check out more frugal friday tips over at lifeasmom.com.

Frugal Friday- Crockpot Bread

I will admit that I stole/borrowed this recipe from another blogger. You can get to Emily's website by going here. She has a great tutorial on baking this bread with even more pictures and detail versus what I will put up here.

The idea of using the crockpot to bake bread is genius to me. I love the idea of baking our bread, but I lack the knowledge of allowing it to rise properly and I don't want to tie up the oven all day. I like how you let it rise on the warm setting of the crockpot, then switch it over to hot to allow it to cook.

I used Emily's basic recipe. For next time I will likely add a little butter and/or sugar as that may affect the rising time.

These are regular cans from diced tomatoes that I saved when I made chili. Two fit perfectly in my crock pot. Here is my bread rising. It took my crock about 1 hour on warm to have the bread rise sufficiently.

This is the finished product. The cooking time was also longer in my crock versus the recipe.

I love the size and shape of the loaves. They will be great for sandwiches (no crusts for the kids to complain about).

This bread has almost completely disappeared and it finished only an hour ago. My kids gobbled it up! I did manage to save a little.

I am intrigued to the possibilities of making sweet breads this way as well. I will definitely be making this bread again, and hope to feel comfortable enough to start using different flours and combinations. Baking my own bread is after all one of my goals this year!

Do you make your own bread? Do you cook something different in your crockpot? Let us all know by leaving a comment!

Frugal Friday- swiffer

Over the Christmas Holiday we had some friends and family over at the house. I was cleaning up the house at the last minute and realized I had run out of the swiffer wet pads for mopping up the floor. I have wood laminate floors and have always used the wet swiffer and loved it.

But the refills are expensive. I always put off buying more until there is a good sale, but I can never find a really good price on it. I guess I had not remembered to buy more when I used up the last ones.

Desperate to get the floors cleaned I problem solved. Because really, there is no way I'm a "clean it on your hands and knees" kind of girl. Sorry, not my generation.

Look what I came up with....


I found that the bathroom washcloths are just the right width for the swiffer!

So line it up......

And push the cloth into the little tabs! It is PERFECT!

I seriously feel pretty smart about this one.

I found a bottle of "laminate floor cleaner" in the cupboard (must have bought it when I did the floors), so I sprayed and then pushed the swiffer over it.

The floors have never looked better!

When my bottle of cleaner is gone, I plan to make my own. I found a website that recommends using water and a little vinegar to clean the floors. So I will definitely mix my own bottle next time.

I probably didn't invent this idea, but I feel pretty good about it.

What are your frugal inventions? Please share!

Frugal Friday

It's been a little while since I looked around at what I've been doing to be frugal around the house. Let me make a little list for you.

1. I'm running the dishwasher only 4-5 times a week. Sometimes we just don't have a lot of dishes except for cups. For example, on pizza night we use paper plates so I rarely have enough to run the washer.

2.When I use paper plates, we tend to reuse them if it's just crumbs on them. Of course if it is soiled at all I toss them. Rest assured I only buy paper plates that are almost free.

3. I continue to use cloth bags when shopping. I *mostly* remember to keep them in the van which helps. It burns me when I forget them. I really don't like using the plastic bags at all, what a nuisance. Although I do recycle the bags to sort my recyclables for pick up on garbage day.

4.I am currently wearing two pairs of socks and a sweatshirt on my day off. Yep, the days are getting colder, but I just don't want to turn up the heat. I think our bills will be better this Christmas as no one is home 3 days during the week. Last year we had a sitter that came to the house so I kept it programmed warmer. I also keep blankets on the couch for snuggling up which we have all been using the last couple days.

5. I have also been focused on eating out of the freezer for the next two weeks. We're buying a 1/2 grass fed beef which will be awesome. Of course the problem is my freezer is packed from deal shopping! As hard as it has been, I have forgone several deals and can finally see part of a shelf in the freezer, but I have a long way to go. Another side benefit from this is that I went shopping today and I have $48 left in my grocery budget for the month! Pretty impressive considering it is only $280 for the month. Now I can take that money and use it to buy some goodies for my family Christmas next weekend, and I won't have to take it from the budget for the next 4 weeks. I'm excited! That's a significant amount to me!

Now let me list a couple frugal goals that I have.

1. I need to post an update on my financial progress for October and November.

2. I need to finalize my December monthly meal plan. Regular readers have heard me talk about doing this and I finally started it. It honestly felt very overwhelming, but I find it is kinds fun to plan, especially as I am doing most of it from the freezer and pantry. I will finish it this weekend and post in time for Monday's edition.

I think that is enough for now. What are your frugal ideas? What are your frugal goals? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me. I'd like to compile them and share with everyone.

Happy weekend!

Reader Success Story

Today for my Frugal Friday submission, I'd like to feature one of my readers (and friend) Gina. Gina heard my talk at the MOPS meeting in September and decided to try out this couponing thing. Here's what her email said....

I am attaching a picture of my first real attempt at "couponing" (is that even a word?).

In case you can't tell from the picture, here is what I got:

6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal
2 boxes of Townhouse crackers
2 Glade room sprays
3 Glade Scented Oil candle holders
7 Glade Scented Oil candle refills
4 boxes whole wheat pasta
4 boxes whole wheat spaghetti
6 bottles of Oceanspray cranberry juice (assorted flavors)
2 cans Betty Crocker frosting
1 glucose monitor with a free A1C self-check test attached
7 flushable toddler wipes
3 baby wipes
2 bags of marshmallows
2 tubes of Cover Girl lipstick
5 baked goods (scones, brownies, garlic bread)

All of this came to a whopping total of $18.66!!!!!!!!!!

It was a little bit of work, but it was totally worth it! Thanks, Kendra for introducing me to this :)

Gina

She did such an amazing job. Yes, it does take a little time in the beginning in order to get started. But once you get everything up and running, it doesn't take much time at all to save lots of money.

My point is always this: It's your money. It's up to you how you spend it. You can save money on groceries with coupons and spend your money on other things that are important to you. Or you can spend more of your money each month on food. Your choice...but I choose to save. It works for me!

Do you have questions? Want to do what I do? Leave a comment on the blog or email me at kendralacrosse@verizon.net!

Frugal Friday...Piggly Wiggly edition

Hello and happy Friday everyone!

I was going to show you some Target deals today, but I got an email from a friend and decided to focus on a local deal.

You have got to get yourself to Piggly Wiggly this week to clean up big time! Check out the email below from my friend:

Piggly Wiggly

Ritz crackers are on sale 2/$5. (all varieties)- They will let you use two coupons . The "buy one ritz, get one ritz sandwich crackersfull free), plus $1.00 off coupon for one ritz.( I don't remember exactly what flyer the coupons were in, hopefully, I can be more informative in the future. Anyway, purchase one Ritz cracker at $2.50, get one free crackerfulls (priced at $3.49), use your 2nd coupon (1.00 off)
total - a $5.95 purchase for $1.50.

Also - Chex cereal - advertised as .99 apiece/ for three (with a card, you must purchase three). With the coupon - $1.00 off on two, your total is $1.97 - .66 cents a box.
Keep in mind, when I went to the store, they had a huge display of Chex as an endcap, It was all stacked with original Chex, Wheat Chex, Rice Chex. When I checked out the cereal isle, there was, Chocolate, Strawberry, Cinnamon, and Honey Nut. The prices were listed at $2.49 each. The flyer states "assorted" flavors. I asked if these were also .99 a piece, "yes , if you buy three.". Cool......

So after two short trips, 6 boxes for $3.96!! Not bad, eh?
I was worried about the "limit 3 boxes", thinking because I used my card, it would only let me do it once, but it was per transaction.

We all know, Chex cereal not only can be eaten as cereal, but it makes a good kid mix, party mix, etc. And there is recipes on the back of the boxes.
Have a great weekend!!

It's me again. These sound great! The Ritz is part of a store deal featuring many Kraft products that will give you $5 off instantly when you buy $20 worth of products. Keep in mind this is BEFORE your coupons. There are lots of coupons out there for these too!

The Chex must be an unadvertised deal because I can't find it in the flyer. But I know Thairn did this deal last night so it is definately taking place this week. Be sure to check it out!

We don't do leftovers for dinner.....gasp!

Did you get your attention? Doesn't sound very frugal does it?

Well, that title isn't entirely true. I don't have any special powers to cook only exactly what we will eat at every meal. However, we do have a system to deal with the leftovers.

Immediately following our meals, we pack up the leftovers in small to medium sized plastic dishes. Then we throw them into the freezer on the bottom shelf.

Hubby always takes a packed lunch to work (I do most of the time as well). The night before, I simply take a dish out of the freezer and pack it in his lunch bag. By the time he has lunch the next day, it is almost thawed and easily reheated in the microwave.

We use all the leftover food, hubby has a good lunch and we save money by not paying for lunch. Winner all the way around.

Plus, we never have to plan a leftover night!!!

For more frugal tips, visit lifeasmom.com

Save on Groceries without coupons

In today's frugal friday post, I want to review how you can save money on your groceries even if you don't use coupons. If you were at my talk at Divine Savior the other day, this will be a good review for you.

Coupons aren't for everyone, or at least not everyone is interested in taking the time to clip, sort and use coupons. I'm here to tell you that you can still save a lot of money at the grocery store. Just follow these tips below and you WILL see the results on your receipt and budget.

1. Use cash. I didn't believe it until I tried it, but you will stick to your allotted budget much better if you have the cash. I once heard that people spend approximately 20% more at the store when they put it on credit. You are more likely to toss in those impulsive items when you don't have to consider the money involved. Get cash from the bank and put it in an envelope. Do not let yourself spend more than that.

2. Meal Planning. You simply can not save a lot of money on groceries unless you meal plan. It also has the added benefit of decreasing your stress related to "what is for dinner tonight"? I used to stress about that every day until I made something in a hurry and just called for takeout. Meal planning before shopping will also give you time to ensure you have all the ingredients in the house therefore preventing the dreaded last minute run to the store for 'only one item'.

3. Shop the sales flyer. The front page of the weekly sales flyer (and sometimes the back too) is typically the "loss leaders" featured by the store. These are the cheap items that get you into the store and therefore spending your money there on the other items that aren't on sale. The stores often take a loss on these items, but figure they will make it up on other sales. Use this flyer and sale items to make your meal plan and grocery list. If you can be flexible on your meals you can save a lot of money this way.

4. Shop weekly. This will ensure that you will have a varried menu and be able to take advantage of the various sales. It will also help with #5.

5. Stockpile. Stockpiling is the process of buying extra of an item when it is on sale so you do not have to pay full price of this item next time you need it. Grocery store items tend to cycle on sale every 10-12 weeks. If your family eats a lot of chicken and it is on sale this week, try to buy 12 weeks worth of chicken if you have the room to store it. This is how my family shops.

Stockpiling has given me a great deal of relief from the burden of buying groceries. There are no more last minute runs to the store. I go once a week, that is all. I buy when food is at its lowest price and plan my meals at least a week ahead of time. I do allow for flexibility in my menu, which I use as a guide. Life happens and plans do change, but at least I do have a plan.

How do you save money at the store? Leave a comment and let us know.

For more tips on saving money, check out lifeasmom.com

Frugal Friday- Importance of meal planning

For today, I want to tackle the importance of meal planning.

I can't stress enough the importance of making a meal plan for the
week. This is a great way to save money, and you don't even have to use coupons if you don't want to!

In my former "before coupon clipping life", I used to be one that said "I don't feel like _____ tonight", and end up ordering takeout. Imagine my shock after I started clipping coupons. I went back through my checkbook and couldn't quite believe that we had spent almost $300 in one month on restaurant bills! What a waste of money.

I now know that meal planning makes a big difference. And when I plan meals that center around what my family likes, it is very easy to do.

When I make a meal plan, it is always subject to change. Let's face it, life is full of change. Stuff happens- like a doctor appointment or unplanned company and you need to roll with the punches. If you don't' "feel" like eating the planned food on a certain day, mix it up. I would much rather have it on the calendar and know that I have all the ingredients in the house than be wondering what I should make.

For my family, I keep the meals easy. I know we always end up with chicken at least
once, pork, pizza, and some sort of red meat dish. Beyond that is just
figuring what to add to it. I also write it out on the calendar too. Then even hubby could start dinner and help out. I also keep the basics stocked. For us the basics are sides like rice, potatoes, etc, and veggies (canned, fresh and frozen).

Lastly, I shop the grocery store each week in order to take advantage of the sale cycles. I check what is on sale, compare it to what I have and make the meal plan. Then I write out my shopping list from there. When I'm in the store, I keep my eyes open for non-advertised sales and clearance items. I always leave a little room in my budget for that!

I hope that I was able to show you some options for saving money on your groceries. Please feel free to leave comments and/or your ideas on this post!

Fun Fun Fun...not so frugal

My twins had their birthday on August 31st. While I did buy their gifts rather cheaply due to the Kmart toy coupon, I wanted to treat them as well.

These two boys know the value of a coupon. They have helped me clip and sort and will sometimes go shopping with me. They will ask "Mom, do you have a coupon so we can have ____"? It's really priceless to me.

Well, on their own time they have been clipping the coupons for Chuck E. Cheese that are often on the back of the inserts on Sunday. They let me know they were saving them so we could afford to go sometime. I decided to surprise them for their birthday with a dinner and games.

Before I left, I registered on the website for Chuck E. Cheese and they emailed me some coupons that were even better than the ones in the newspaper. We were set!

I had hubby meet us there after work along with grandma. I did not tell them anything about it. We had a bunch of other errands to do first. Finally when it was about 1/2 hour before we needed to be there, I told them we were going to have one final birthday surprise. You should have seen their faces. They begged to know what it was but I wouldn't budge.

Needless to say, when I pulled into the parking lot they went nuts. Then grandma and dad showed up. We all had such a great time playing games and eating pizza. Then we got to cash in the tickets for the "prizes" (junk) which thrilled them to no end.

The place is not very "frugal friendly", but I think we did ok. There were 6 of us eating and drinking and playing games. We spent about $50 there in a short amount of time.

My kids told me it was the best birthday ever, and that made it good enough for me.

Frugal Friday...not

Ok, seriously I did do some frugal shopping today. I will try to post it later. Today I am preoccupied with the fact that I am part of a relay triathlon team for tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm not up to posting my usual today. I have to swim the first leg of the race tomorrow. I will try to post tomorrow afternoon after it is all over and done.

Have a great day!

Frugal success vs. failure

Something I haven't yet addressed on this blog is "buying" coupons from ebay. Did you know you could do that?

Ebay does allow sellers to 'sell' coupons. Actually, you are paying for their time to clip, sort and list their coupons because it is technically illegal to buy coupons.

Why would you buy coupons? I have done it a few times for either items we use regularly but has few coupons, and for items I can get free or nearly free because of a sale. For example, my husband uses Splenda in his coffee. There aren't many coupons for this out there, so last year I 'bought' coupons from ebay to get $1 off any size. I was able to pick up about a years worth at a very good price as a result.

Recently I read online that the Huggies pull-ups flushable wipes were changing their packaging and stores were trying to clean them off the shelves. The company also put out a high value coupon $3/2 to help stores make room for the new products. I went online and found I was able to 'buy' 10 of these coupons for $2.99. Take a look at what that money got me:

For all 20 packages of wipes, I paid $4.36 total out of pocket. Add in the price of the coupons from ebay (+ 2.99) and the total paid is $7.35. That makes each package of wipes to be $0.36!! These wipes are nearly identical to the Cottonelle wipes and are made by the same company. I never would have found as great a deal on these with my own coupons, plus I am set now for a whole year at least.

A word of caution, this method can also turn into a frugal failure. When I initially went online looking for this coupon, I saw what I thought was a correct listing and purchased it right away. Come to find out it was for diaper wipes, not the flushable kind. I was stuck with the purchase, but was able to give them to my sister to use. Be sure to check out the full listing before you commit to buy! Once you press the button, you are obligated to pay.

It is easiest to find coupons on ebay by searching for a specific item in the search box at the top. Manufacture coupon value can vary by the region of the country you live in, so often you can find different amounts than we get in the paper. I don't buy coupons often, but when I do I know I am maximizing my money!

Be sure to check out even more ideas at Lifeasmom.com

Frugal Friday, saving on the cable bill

It's been nearly 8 weeks now since we cancelled the cable and decided to go television free. Yes, I said it. We have had NO tv since June 2nd.

This decision came about after my hubby and I sat down to review our budget again. We are in the habit of doing so every few month to see what is working and what isn't.

We were spending around $45 every month on just the expanded basic program. And that was on a special! We decided that even if we suspended it for just the summer we could save about $150 that could pay for other things, like that pesky van payment.

We did not even have a converter box at that time. Our government coupons we requested had been given to another family member that had multiple televisions and needed the extra boxes. Yet we were not daunted by that. About a week after the cable was pulled, my mom decided to move and no longer needed her converter box and gave it to us. Ironically 7 weeks later, it is still sitting in its box next to the tv, we haven't hooked it up yet!

The kids were sad initially; the first few days they would ask for cartoons repeatedly and were upset when I reminded them there was no tv. There were the typical "I'm bored" remarks, but I reminded them of all of the toys and options they had to keep them busy. They haven't asked about the tv in weeks.

We do let them watch their movies a couple times a week. And we go to the library regularly to pick up a "new" movie they haven't seen before. Hubby and I do the same, and have enjoyed seeing many movies we hadn't heard of before that were great.

One great side effect I have seen in the kids with this experiment is their empathy and patience has really improved. They are playing together better and aren't so quick to get upset with each other. They still wrestle and fight, but it seems better. Plus they are playing with their Leapster games more. The Leapster is an age appropriate 'video game' that they love to play, and the lack of television has re-sparked their interest in it. They are all learning games where they have to often solve math problems or find letters to play. Just the other day one of the twins said "Mom, did you know the ring tail Lemur has 10 rings in his tail"; all from the Animal Genius game they have. I love that game!

On the adult side, I have become addicted to the silence in the house after the kids are in bed. I love to read and have also found this time to be so peaceful to get lost in a book. I still wonder how things got done around the house as we still can't keep a handle on the cleaning etc. How did I have time to do that when I watched tv at night?

All in all, this has been the perfect time of year for this experiment. We spend so much time outside during the summer that we haven't missed the tv much. I have one child who would prefer to live outside all the time, so we have to force him in at night anyways.

This has been a wonderful challenge for our family, and I am proud of ourselves for doing it and saving our money in the process. The big question is: Will this still work when football season starts? The hubby may break down them!

This article is linked to Frugal Fridays at lifeasmom, check it out!

Frugal Friday

I haven't had an extra time today, so I have decided to link you to a few other frugal Friday posts to get some great ideas on being frugal.

Check out FishMom here, She has some great ideas with 10 things you can make yourself to save money.

Another of my favorites is Gettingahead blog by Jennifer. She has some great uses for school supplies, and I agree! We go through tons of the stuff. What a great idea for a gift!

You can check out all the other ideas as well at www.lifeasmom.com.

Frugal Friday

Another new feature for the week.....

Frugal Fridays

I'll admit that I am 'borrowing' this idea from another blog, but it is such a great idea. I think it is a good system to keep me in check and let others know what I am doing each week to be frugal and save money for the family. So here's what I've done in the last week to be frugal.

• Gave haircuts to husband and 3 kids. Saved at least $40 doing it myself.


• Used reusable grocery bags for shopping.


• I'm only running my dishwasher about every other day in order for it to be a full load.


• Shopped double coupon deals at Kmart


• Thanks to Mother Nature, did not run the air conditioner this week. We made it work with fans to bring in cool air at night.


• Been trying to combine errands to do after work to save on gas/trips around town.


• Recycled some old toys to other people that could use them.


• Checked out movies at the library for free.

That is all I could think of for this week. The point of this post is not to brag about what I am doing but to give you all ideas of things you could do to save around your home. They may not all work for you. One idea I read on a blog was to save electricity by hanging laundry on a clothesline to dry. What a great idea. Except I don't have a clothesline, nor do I feel it is worth my time with the amount of laundry my family generates. In addition, my hubby helps with laundry and I know he would not do it. It is a sacrifice I am willing to make in order to get him to help with the wash. So, while it is a great idea, it doesn't work for my family.

Please leave a post and let me know ways you are frugal around your house. I will share the ideas with everyone and we can all learn!