Thrifty Tip #3 - Vinegar - Super Cleaner!

   Continuing with the, "Thrifty Theme," I wanted to share with you my very favorite homemade cleaning supply, White Vinegar!
 There are so many reasons that I enjoy using natural cleaners like vinegar... one of them being, of course, it saves money and time by using ingredients that are simple, affordable and easy to find in the grocery store!

Thrifty Tip # 2 - Homade Fabric Softener

   Are you ready to cut back on your expenses a little more today? As I shared in my last post on making homemade laundry soap, I have been learning how to save money through making my own household cleaning products. There are a LOT of really neat ideas out there, some are revolutionary and some.... I  could live without. For example, there was the time I tried washing my hair with only vinegar and baking soda for a week... OUCH! My dry skin was burning and my long hair always faintly smelled of vinegar. I was willing to try something new, but good shampoo is one thing I will be spending a little more money on in the future. However, I've tested many other homemade concoctions on my unsuspecting family and loved most of them! I promise to only share the best with you!
   My favorite thrifty tip for today is: homemade fabric softener. I found this idea at the Frugal Girls web page and really loved it! This fabric softener requires only three ingredients, smells good, costs very little to make, is gentle on your clothes and does a great job eliminating static! Ready to try it out?

Thrifty Tip # 2- Homemade Fabric Softener

What you will need:

• 6 cups of HOT water

• 3 cups of White Vinegar

• 2 cups or one 15 oz. bottle of Suave Conditioner (whatever scent you love)

• An empty container for storage. Mine was an old fabric softener container.

• A funnel to easily poor the fabric softener into a container.

                  First: Heat six cups of water in a pot until boiling

                  Second: Add the conditioner and vinegar to the hot water.

                   Third: Stir until the conditioner is completely dissolved.

                                  Fourth: Funnel into a container with a lid.

Last but not least, use two tablespoons of fabric softener per load of laundry and enjoy!
   As I said before, this project couldn't be any easier and the best part is that it works just as well as any name brand fabric softener but costs so much less!
Blessings!
Joy

Thrifty Tip #1 - Homemade Laundry Soap

Do you want to save money? Are you open to exploring possibilities that are a little out of the ordinary but lead to a simple, thrifty lifestyle? I am! My husband is a full time seminary student and I am a stay at home mom, so it has become necessary for my family to implement a  tight budget and try to find ways to cut costs. I'm finding that saving money doesn't  necessarily mean that I'm putting half of our income into a savings account every month or investing in stocks and bonds, it can be as simple as buying off brand products verses name brand. Cutting back in simple things like cost of groceries, toiletries and cleaning supplies can greatly reduce your monthly expenses. Through Internet research and  valuable friends that also are trying to cut down on their living expenses, I'm finding that I can save quite a bit of money by making products that I would normally buy or finding a way to live without overpriced "household essentials." Discovering a new way of doing things in a simpler, more cost effective way has become an exciting challenge for me. There are countless ways to shave a little off your monthly budget, I'm just beginning to learn all their is to living thrifty! Over the next few months I will take some time to share some of my personal, "Thrifty Tips," with you. Hopefully you will find something that works for your family and helps you to save as well! I will begin by sharing how to make homemade cleaning products such as: laundry soap, fabric softener, soft scrub, 409 cleaner, kitchen cleaner...etc.

Homemade Laundry Soap

    Today I thought I would share how I make the most popular of homemade cleaning products, laundry soap. I love making homemade laundry soap because it's easy to make, smells great, works well,  lasts forever and costs next to nothing to make! Because it is also a gentle soap I was able to use it on my son's clothes when he was a new born and saved money by not buying the expensive laundry soap for babies. A two gallon batch of laundry soap will last my family of three about three months and the ingredients, one box of Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, lasted me TWO YEARS! In case you were wondering... Yes, I do wash my clothes on a regular basis, it just doesn't take much soap to do a load of laundry so it lasts a long time! Ready to learn how to make my favorite laundry soap? Here we go!

What you will need:

1. 1/2 Cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda-(cost is around $2.50 per box)

2. 1/2 Cup of Borax- (cost is around $4.00 a box)

3. 1/2 Cup of Fels-Naptha- (cost is around $.90 per bar)

4. 2 one gallon containers for storage. (I use two large gallon water jugs that  I found at Wal-Mart for $2.00 each.)

5. Two gallons of boiling water. 

6. A funnel

Ingredients needed for laundry soap

 First: Bring two gallons of water to a boil. Be sure to turn the heat down to medium when you add the soap or it will boil over.

 Second: Grate or chop up the bar of Fels-Naptha. I chopped my bar of soap because my grater doesn't do a very good job with this soap.

This is what the soap looked like when I was done, but I would recommend chopping it finer than this so that It doesn't take too long to melt in the hot water.

 

Third: Pour 1/4 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, 1/4 cup of Borax and 1/4 cup of Fels-Naptha into each once gallon pot of water. On medium heat, allow the mixture to melt until it is completely liquefied. 

 Fourth: Funnel your cooled off laundry soap into each one gallon container.

The finished product!

Fifth: Use 1/2 cup of soap per load of laundry.

Note: As the soap sits it may separate a little, as you can see in this picture. This is perfectly fine and happens if a little too much Fels-Naptha is added. All you have to do is shake the jug before you use the soap. It might look a little funny, but it will still work great.

Voila! Now it's time for you to try! I hope you have fun discovering thrifty tips to save money for your home!
God bless!
Joy

Shae Butter Salt Scrub

My husband's family was having a Christmas gift exchange and I needed something special to add to the gift basket I was making. Thus, my mind went to a luxurious salt scrub that is cheap and super easy to make. I'm always a promoter of Quick and Easy, "do it yourself," projects and this is definitely one of them. I'm starting to wish that I had made more just to keep around the house. I may just have to whip up another batch soon! 

Items needed:
1. A jar that seals well.
2. Fine Sea Salt or Canning Salt.
3. Olive Oil
4. Moisturizing Dish soap or hand soap. I used Dawn Dish Soap with Olay Hand Renewal (the kind that smells like Shea Butter).
5. A bowl and spoon for mixing.

Mix:

1.5 cups of salt 

1/2 to 2/3 cup of soap 

1/2 cup of olive oil. 

I didn't really measure things when I made the scrub, so I recommend checking the consistency as you mix. When you are satisfied with the results, pour it into a jar that seals well and decorate! Voila! Now, I told you this was fast!

Marshmallow Pops

Every year I love to make a sweet treat that my family can give to our neighbors as a Christmas gift. This year's sugary gift idea came from a brilliant friend who gave me many creative ideas to use for Christmas. I'm going to borrow one of her gems and show you how amazingly easy (and cheap)  it was to make.

What you need: 

1. Dipping Chocolate

2. Large Marshmallows

3. Sticks (I used shish kabob sticks that I already had)

4. Sprinkles 

5. Empty egg carton

First: I had to cut all of my shish kabob sticks in half so that they would be small enough to use.  

Second: Melt the chocolate in the microwave so that it is smooth and thin enough to dip. This takes about two minutes. Stir briskly.

Third: Mount the marshmallow onto the stick and dip.

Fourth: Top with the sprinkle of your choice.

Fifth: Place the stem of the Marshmallow Pop into the hole of the egg carton. Be sure to balance one on each side or the carton will tip. (I learned this the hard way :) After you get several pops made, place the carton in the freezer for two minutes. The Marshmallow Pops will be perfectly hard and you will have a free carton to continue using. 

Isn't it cute!

I was able to find these treat bags at Hobby Lobby on sale for $.99 and thought that they would be perfect for packaging up the goodies.

After they were packaged up I used wrapping labels to label each gift bag.  

I calculated the cost and time that it took to make these sweet gifts and found that it only took me 20 minutes to make a whole bag of marshmallows into pops and only cost me about $2.00!  I hope my neighbors love a good cup of hot chocolate and a Marshmallow Pop to stir, because they may be receiving these every Christmas!
Enjoy making your own batch of Marshmallow Pops!
Many blessings!
Joy

Simple Advent Calendar

   This year my family will begin the tradition of an advent calendar to count down the last 12 days until Christmas. (You can read more about Christmas traditions in my post, Creating Traditions.) The idea for my calendar was inspired by a friend who made something very similar to this. I took her idea and tweaked it a little to be age appropriate for our two and a half year old son. The beauty of this advent calendar is that it can be changed every year to adapt to the ages of your children or just to keep things exciting.  

The main idea: The calendar is made to be opened one section at a time, for the last 12 days before Christmas. Each day a family member breaks open the appropriate hole and reveals a special treasure  and the scripture reference to a specific part of the Christmas story.

The advent calendar is made with: 

1. One new muffin pan (they cost around $4.00 at Walmart)

2. Wrapping paper

3. The card board that comes with the muffin pan (don't throw it away!)

4. Stick glue (because it's washable and won't hurt the pan.)

5. Bible verses

6. Trinkets to symbolize each part of the Christmas story. 

Keep the cardboard that comes with the pan.

1st, I had to decide what would go in each muffin cup. You really can put anything you want in there. Some ideas that my friend had were: candy and a Bible verse for younger children, or instructions for an activity such as, baking cookies for your neighbor, for older kids.  I decided to put the scriptures to a different part of the Christmas story in each muffin cup along with something to symbolize it. This part of the project took me the most time because I was trying to think through the story of Jesus' birth and come up with symbols that wouldn't be too hard to make or find. As you can see, I cheated on one calendar day and just put one of my son's toy sheep in the cup.  It fit, so why not?

Baby Jesus on a straw bed.

A gift from the wise men.

Verses and Symbols complete.

2nd, Place the cardboard that came with the pan on a sheet of wrapping paper and trace the circles.

Trace the cardboard to make circles.

3rd, Cut each circle out. Be sure to cut a little wider than what you actually traced so that the paper will fit over the edges of the muffin cup.

Cut 1/2 inch wider than the actual circle.

4th, Use a glue stick to put glue around the edge of each muffin cup. Place each paper circle over the muffin cup.

Glue around the edge of each cup.

5th, All you need to do now is number each cup from 1-12. I wanted to use cute scrap-booking numbers but couldn't find any before I started this project, so... I used an indelible marker. 

Number each cup.

Completed Advent Calendar 

The calendar is definitely not glamorous but I'm looking forward to using it with my family this year. 

If you have any advent calendar ideas, I would love to hear about them! 

Merry Christmas, Friends!

Joy