Posts filed under ‘Uncluttered’
Christmas in August…
and no, I’m not talking about my Baby Shower….but man, that certainly felt like Christmas!! I’m talking about two awesome holiday “plans” featured on organizedchristmas.com (part of organizedhome.com). Anyways, they have to Prep for The Holidays Plan featured on their website right now. Both tackle organizing, decluttering & cleaning your home, gift planning, shopping wrapping, christmas cards, baking and everything…I am def. going to do one of these plans. Just trying to figure out which one would be best.
Which ever one I choose I will more than likely add some baby prep steps in the calendar as well as some freezer meal prep…..and I’d probaly tackle more than scheduled at first so I can have a week or two off at delivery…Anyone game?? Starts August 30th!
Started my bathroom.
Yesterday I stripped the wallpaper off the closet doors and painted the entire room over. I need to paint up the trim now and on Saturday morning my mom and I are going to redo the closet doors agan. I will post final photos once I’m done.
February No-Spend.
Ok, here’s the deal a lot of girlies I know are doing “no-spend’s”. One being Dawn over at www.happilyfrugal.com - She is really deep into a no-spend. Her husband and her made a No Spend Year! They started in October and they are doing really well!
What does no-spend mean you ask? Well you pay your bills and get groceries and gas but other than that $0. You do not buy any other dang thing. Of course there are some rules and things that would make the rules have to bend….but those things don’t usually happen all the time.
So since December I bought a crap load of stuff and January I haven’t been slowing down at all….seriously I buy a lot of stuff online….I’m like “ooo, I like that” and then hours later I do it again. February is going to be our first month trying “no-spend”!!!
February Rules
1. All regularly occuring bills get paid like usual.
2. Gas can be bought for vehicles, since we need this to get to work… $60/week
3. Our normal budget for groceries is $100/week. But that does not include the various trips to and from the store getting all the crap we forgot. So for the month of February. I’m going to increase it to $125/week so we can make sure we get everything we need. Including snacks and lunches so we are not buying those daily.
4. Emergency-Medical, Automotive or Household…we can break the “no-spend”. Obviously.
5. We will go out to dinner on Valentines Day. That will be our one allowed luxury this month.
Now this may not seem like a really crazy “no-spend” plan but for us it will work! I don’t know how much money I have spent alone on fabric this month. Don’t ask. Rob just bought himself a new DVD Burner. I buy random things from the Divas that I don’t need. My paypal account alone constantly looks like: $40, $40, $10, $10, $10, $40….and so on. Our worst money pit is the dang dollar store. Rob goes there I don’t know how many times a week to get soda’s and candy… that will stop in February.
So February 1st we are trying this sucker out. From now till then I have to buy a few birthday presents and get the superbowl goodies ready…
Doing it again….laundry soap that is.
So some of you remember I made my own homemade laundry detergent awhile back….if not here it is: Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe anyways, I was expecting that detergent to last me until next year…well it didn’t. What I didn’t expect to happen was that I would love it so much I’d use it to wash my tub, toilet, pre-treat stains…etc. In addition to all the extra uses, I have been using more than what it calls for in each wash. I don’t neccessarily think it needs it but it makes me feel better that my clothes are getting clean.
Anyways, I made it again with Zote Soap (97¢ at Walmart) with the extra Borax and Washing Soda from last time….it’s congealing now. Ooo…I said congealing. I have not bought standard supermarket cleaning products since June…and guess what my house is still squeaky clean. I promise, you can come over and check. We’ve been using vinegar, borax, washing soda and soap…. ok, I do buy dishwasher detergent. Shoot me. Anywho…just thought I’d write about me being a looney again.
Trying out a dishwasher detergent recipe…
We ran out of dishwasher detergent last night and Rob so kindly filled the dishwasher!! We even went to two stores and totally forgot about buying it. So I am trying out a “Make you own Dishwasher Detergent Recipe”…
It is currently in the dishwasher doing it’s thing. I won’t be able top give you results till Rob empties the dishwasher later this evening…In the mean time this is how I made it:
1/2 cup of borax, 1/2 cup washing soda, 1/4 cup of salt. Mix together, or shake in a rubbermaid. Use 1 Tablespoon of this where you would normally put your detergent. And add vinegar to your rinse aid. (Where the jet dry goes)….
Update. It worked. Not good enough for me though. So I am going to buy powder Cascade this week and mix it 50/50 with the homemade stuff and see what happens.
Make your own laundry detergent…that actually works!
Wanna learn how to make your own fabulous, frugal laundry detergent for pennies? Well, you have come to the right place. Tonight I made some! You will need:
1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap (can also use Zote or Ivory)
1.5 cups of borax
1.5 cups washing soda
a heck of alot of water
and a 5 gallon bucket.
Ready….set….make your own laundry detergent.
Grate your bar of Fels Naptha with your favorite cheese grater. Grate into a large saucepan.
Place grated soap on the stove on a medium heat.
Immediately put 12 cups(3 quarts) of hot water into saucepan and heat until all soap has melted. Stir occasionally.
Measure your Borax and Washing Soda out and have it ready.
Once soap is melted on stove. Pour in the borax and washing soda. Stir until dissolved well.
Remove kitten from your 5 gallon bucket
Pour 8 cups (2 quarts) of hot water into bucket.
Pour hot soap, borax, washing soda mixture into bucket. Stir. Stir. Stir.
Add 2 gallons + 1 quart (or 9 quarts) to mixture and stir. Allow to congeal for 24 hours.
Mixture will resemble an “egg drop soup” consistency. Sort of gel like. Use 1/2 cup of you laundry detergent in your wash. This is a low sudsing laundry detergent. You will not see many suds in your washing machine…don’t worry it is working. The borax and washing soda are the main cleansing agents and they don’t produce suds.
Here is the cost break down. Fels Naptha Soap .99¢, 12oz of Borax .46¢, 12oz of Washing Soda .57¢. 5 gallons equals 80 cups, using a 1/2 cup measure for each laundry load this bucket will yield you 160 washes for $2.02 or .012625¢ per wash….we will round up to .2¢ just for fun.
How’s that sound?? With Rob and I doing approx 3 loads of laundry a week we will not need detergent till December 2009….all for $2.02
I want to thank some of the Divas for this information and this blog for the recipe and instructions.
The Lawson’s are starting The Simple Life…
Well latley I have been intrigued by “living simply” and “living frugally”. I have been reading many articles online, blogs and books at the library about getting back to basics and tonight I took the first step.
I cleaned the house today with “un-paper towels” which is just a fancy word for home sew rags you wash and reuse…..and a 50% vinegar / 50% water solution. It worked fine! I was actually really happy how clean my bathroom mirror ended up looking like. The house smelled like vinegar for about 15 minutes but when it all dried up it smelled nice. Neutral. Clean. Not flowery or toxic. Just Clean.
So the “un-paper towels” will help with paper consumption and the fact that I made them myself reduces the amount of natural resources being used, industrialization needed, toxic chemicals entering our air from the bleaching and packaging process and ultimately landfill. They are also a frugal choice and can be used many times. The vinegar was $1 at the Dollar Store (go Dollar Store, Go!) for 32oz. I poured half the bottle into a reuseable spray bottle and topped it off with water. So for 50 cents I probaly have enough cleanser, antibacterial and windex for 2 months.
Why use vinegar as a cleaning solution?
White distilled vinegar is a popular household cleanser, effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs, due to its level of acidity. Cleaning with white distilled vinegar is a smart way to avoid using harsh chemicals. You’ll also be glad to know that it is environmentally friendly and very economical. (www.vinegartips.com)
Also, years ago that is what everyone did. I obviously don’t remember this but I’m sure if I asked my parents and grandparents they would probaly remember living with mostly natural cleansers like soap, vinegar, borax, and baking soda. It worked back then and it is not as toxic, so I should give it a whirl in my attempt to slowly cross over to the simple living world.
I’m not going crazy believe me. Yes, I will still continue to shave my legs and blow dry my hair. I’ll still continue driving a car and doing most of my normal activities but things I can change easily with out becoming “strange” I will. Like baking bread when I can. Re-purposing things. Making things from scratch whether it be food, clothes or crafts. Trying to stop consuming unnecessary things like paper towels. Switch to gentler cleansers. If I wasn’t living in a condo I’d go as far as planting vegetables and canning, maybe even collecting rain water for my garden but…I’m in a condo and all of that is unattainable at this time.
Call me crazy if you will. But while you are calling me crazy I will take pride in the things I can change in my life, in my family’s life and for other people around me. I’ll be proud of my skills and find bliss in the fact that if all hell breaks loose…I’d clearly be one of the few who make it through. ;o)
Step two on Simply living is de-cluttering. You can’t live simply with piles on uneeded junk. About a month ago I started the de-cluttering. I had a yard sale and an online yard sale. We made close to $500 just by getting rid of things that were in storage! Things we didn’t use. Thing we had 6 of. Things that were no good to us anymore but could find a new life in a new home. De-cluttering is indeed a process. I can already see my hard work from a month ago fading away…..I hope to start room my room again this weekend. It will have to continue and continue until I’m happy.
Reuseable Shopping Bags.
Ok, I’m going to talk about reusable shopping bags for a minute. Today was my first day (grocery shopping) using them. And I vote two thumbs up! Anyways, I’ve been wanting to switch over but hadn’t. Yesterday at Joann’s I saw they had them for sale too and they were bigger than the ones in the supermarket/target/walmart. Oooohh, bigger bags = less bags to schlep into my condo. I bought two. Did my Grocery Shopping today and everything I bought (except my milk) fit inside those two bags and a stashed the potatoes in my purse. LOL. So instead of carrying 20 plastic bags into my house today. I had a very nice cloth tote on each hand. So much better. I will but two more bags from Joanns. But I should only need 3 for groceries. I’ll save one just in case.
If you hate going back and forth to your car to bring in groceries or if you live in a condo that you have to walk a bit, down some stairs, walk a bit, up some stairs, open a door, walk a bit, open another door and it is really challenging to do this because you can’t prop the doors open because your crazy ass cat will run away and your neighbors may bitch so you end up taking every single bag on one arm and then it cuts of your blood flow and your shoulder pops out of the socket……I definitely think you should give them a try.
P.S. My groceries were about $70 so that will give you an idea of what fit in the bags and the bags themselves are $1 at Joanns….and much bigger.
