Frugal Five - Homemade Repairs and Returned Ice-Cream

From Katy's wonderful website: http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/

One of my absolute favorite bloggers, Katy of the Non-Consumer Advocate has a series of weekly posts entitled "Five Frugal Things." I LOVE these posts from her because they share little things she does throughout each week that help contribute to her frugal, non-consumer lifestyle. It's the little things we choose to do everyday that help make a big difference in the overall picture. I've learned a lot from those posts.

I've been keeping track of little frugal things I do every week just to keep myself on the right track, to remind myself why I'm trying to save money and use less "stuff": mainly to pay off debt, live more simply, and produce less trash for a happier planet. My hope is to try to start sharing some of those frugal achievements here on the blog, as it's something that's a big focus in our life right now.

Another important lesson lately is that you can be frugal with more things than just money, you can also be frugal of your own resources by using your time wisely and your energies mindfully.


Frugal Five 3-23-2015

1. Cooked 3 meals on Sunday so we would be less tempted to eat out later this week. This not only saves money on future meals, but saves me valuable time later this week. I'm not always able to do this, just depending on our Sunday schedule, but I was thankful I had the time and energy to get it done this week.
2. Spent 2 hours last night repairing the bottom sheet of my favorite set of queen size bed sheets. They are about 11 years old, soft and super comfortable, but had lately developed a few very small tears. I patched the pairs and I'm crossing my fingers this sheet set will last another few years, as they are quite pricey to replace. 
3. Was frugal with my time on Sunday... along with making a few meals ahead of time, I also did all of our laundry from the past two weeks. It was a lot of work at the time, but will give us a lot more time to relax when we get home from work this week. 
4. We rented a redbox movie on Saturday when Michael's parents were visiting. Redbox DVD's cost $1.60 (with tax) for a 24 hour rental. We used to rent most of our movies from Amazon streaming service, but streaming the movies can cost anywhere from $2.99 (cheapest) to $6.99 for a 24 hour rental. It's definitely cheaper to drive (or walk) the 2 miles to the local Dollar General instead (presuming you always return it on time!)
5. We also planned on having a simple dessert of ice-cream after a homemade dinner on Saturday with Michael's parents. I bought a box of ice-cream for $3.99 + tax. When it was time for dessert I opened the ice-cream and found that it was really old and gooey and I was just mad. At first I just tossed the ice-cream in the trash and went about trying to find something super quick instead (we had chilled, sliced bananas & strawberries drizzled with chocolate sauce - that had been intended as a TOPPING for the ice-cream! Oh well! It was healthier anyway! lol) -- After thinking about it later though, I realized just tossing the ice-cream was not in my benefit. I pulled the old ice-cream out of the trash and placed it back in the freezer and returned it the next day. For $3.99 + tax, it was worth the very short drive back to the store for an even exchange. 

Is anybody else super lazy and generally not up to returning bad items back to the grocery store? (Shopping is not my favorite...) Trust me, from now on I will be more willing to do returns... (Especially if the item is heading towards the $5 mark! lol)! 

What frugal things have you accomplished this week? 

Frugal Accomplishments - April 2014

free image courtesy of Pixabay.com

I realized yesterday that I didn't do a Frugal Accomplishments post for April. So here ya go! Here are a few things we did over the month to continue on a money-saving, (gluten-free) frugal-living journey! 

• Cash Only - Continued using cash only for all purchases outside of gas and our monthly Amazon order. This one trick helps us cut extra spending probably more than ANYTHING else we do! If you only have a limited supply of cash, things that you thought you "needed" suddenly don't seem very important anymore. 

• $1000 Emergency Fund - FINALLY established and we didn't touch it all month. That was a major accomplishment. We technically had it the past several months, but always ended up having expenses that we needed to dip into it for. Thankfully in April we were able to keep it intact and didn't use it. 

• Frugal Exercise - I finally started exercising again (I've been "fighting" this exercise thing for the past 2 years! lol) But I FINALLY gave in to start walking again, I just wanted too to be honest. I think it was finally the right time. And we had to do this on a budget. I'm wearing the same tennis shoes I've warn for two years, I'm walking outside on days it's not too hot, and I'm using old leslie sansone walking dvd's in the living room on other days. I listen to books on tape when I'm walking outside (I do think my audible subscription is completely worth the money!), and I'm getting lots more fresh air and sunshine. Some days I even do my walk at work around the Duck Pond! :-) 

• Frugal Exercise Seminar - My work offered free attendance to an online webinar during work hours that was about fitness, why it's important, and the benefits of starting an exercise program. While I didn't really get anything new out of the program, I appreciated that my work offered it to people for free and we could attend it during work hours. It was a nice break and a good reminder why I need to start exercising on a regular basis. 

• Frugal traveling: SW VIRGINIA GLUTEN-FREE EXPO - This was the 2nd time I've attended this Expo in my hometown of Roanoke, VA and I really enjoyed it. We made the trip frugal by staying with friends for the weekend (instead of a hotel) and we ate lots of frugal meals we packed ourselves and stuck to our cash supply for anything we needed to purchase during the trip. I was given some great gift-cards for speaking at the conference, so we treated ourselves to some gluten-free groceries from Kroger's along with some fun stuff from Amazon. 

• Re-purposing leftovers - I turned leftover chili into meat for tacos. We added leftover rice and corn to scrambled eggs for breakfast. I saved all leftover pieces of bread or cornbread to make sausage stuffing for a meal later. 

• Make-Ahead Breakfasts for Work- Several weeks in a row I made 2 loaves of Luce's GF Artisan Bread on Sunday nights. I sliced up the loaves and froze them and we had bread with boiled eggs or mini quiches for breakfast at work. I want to do this again this month! There's something wonderful about simple bread & eggs for breakfast during the week! 

photo from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/mini_mushroom_sausage_quiches.html

Quick Mini Quiches (No Crust!)

Created by Carrie Forbes of gingerlemongirl.com

• 10 eggs
• 1/2-3/4 cup chopped pepperoni
• 1/2 cup chopped green peppers
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1-2 teaspoons dried sundried tomatoes
• 1-2 teaspoon dried shallots
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• 1 teaspoon italian seasoning

Mixed it all together and then spooned into very well greased muffin pans. (it made 18 mini quiches) baked them for about 18 minutes at 350 degrees until they were puffy and golden brown on top. We have each had two each morning for breakfast with gluten-free bread. Super easy, super tasty! (Photo from eating well.com, but they looked alot like that!!)

• Pantry/Freezer "Shopping" - For most of our meals over the month of April I FIRST "shopped" in our pantry and freezer before shopping the sales at Food Lion. This really revamped how I made meals for the month and I plan on doing pantry/freezer cooking a lot more often. It definitely kept our grocery bills down. 

• Essential Oils for Holistic Health - I've been using essential oils for several years, but in the past few months I really "upped' our usage of them to help with headaches, seasonal allergies, and in our aroma diffusers in place of candles in our house. I use several different brands of oils. My favorite "brand" is Doterra, but they are very pricey. I know quality is important in purchasing therapeutic oils, but budget also has to be considered, so I found another brand called Eden's Garden to use especially when I'm diffusing oils and adding them to homemade cleaners, etc... Either way, essential oils are a great tool to use. I've been reading a kindle version of this book to learn more about the best ways to use essential oils: The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy. 

How have you been frugal this month? 

Store Sales + Store Coupons = Getting the Most Bang for your Buck at Food Lion

I do most of my shopping these days at Food Lion in Greenville, NC. It isn't fancy. It isn't organic (most of it anyway), but it's healthy, real, and affordable food and I'm usually able to stay within my weekly $50 food budget for the two of us. 

This budget generally ONLY includes food and sometimes things like dish soap or toothpaste. I buy MOST of our other household items in bulk for super cheap from Amazon once every few months. The last time we bought toilet paper and paper towels was in December.  I also buy all of our cat food online through Amazon, again because I can get it in bulk, get it deeply discounted or at least for a comparative price, AND it's delivered. 

One way I'm able to stay within my $50 budget is buy ONLY shopping the store sales and store brands. There are a few items that are rarely on sale (like butter, eggs, and/or organic milk), but generally at least half of what I buy is on sale. Each week I check out the online sales paper for our local store. 

• Money-Saving Shopping Tip: GET to KNOW your favorite store's websites! They often have special coupons available (often customized JUST for you and your shopping habits), they ALWAYS have their current sales flyer available. They also often have great custimization tools to create your own shopping lists that can be emailed to you or your smart phone or just printed for your convenience. You can check out all of the store's coupon policies along with all the details of any current store promotions. I have become a HUGE fan of Food Lion's customer website, it has helped me tremendously each week to create my shopping list and stay within my budget. (And NO, they have NOT paid me to say that or review their store, I've just been shopping there for years, and I'm a loyal customer!) 

I create a shopping list just from the items in the flyer and then I create a weekly menu from those store sale items. Sometimes the menu isn't very exciting... but it's nearly ALWAYS healthy, real, unprocessed foods. 

Here is a breakdown of the items I bought this week (highlighted items were not on sale, just store-brand regular priced items): 

• 2 boxes Honey Nut Cheerios (on sale with MVP card = 2 for $3.98)
• 1 box Corn Chex cereal (had a .50 off coupon ON my store MVP card, that I found on the food lion website = $2.99)
• 2 small cans of tomato sauce (.64)
• 1 bag dried lentils (1.39)
• 2 cans green beans, 1 can corn, 1 can sweet peas (on sale with MVP = $1.68)
• 1 pound ground beef (on MVP sale for $3.35)
• 2 turkey drumsticks ($3.07)
• 2 whole chickens (on sale for .99/ lb. = $10.79)
• 1 head cauliflower ($2.99)
• 3 pounds sweet potatoes ($2.52)
• 1 bunch celery (on MVP sale, $1.29)
• 3 pounds yellow onions (on MVP sale, $1.79)
• 1 pound asparagus (on MVP sale, $3.77)
• 1 green pepper (.89)
• 1 pound carrots (.79)
• 1 package sliced mushrooms (on MVP sale, $1.69)
• 1 package (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese ($2.49)
• 1/2 gallon organic milk ($3.59)
• 2 dozen medium eggs ($2.09 per package = $4.18)
• 1 pound butter ($2.97)
• 1 package paper plates (on MVP sale, $1.99)

TOTAL with store coupons & store sales = $54.10

So it turns out with this trip, it was about half MVP store sale items and half store-brand lower priced items. My goal every week is to try to make sure to buy as many REAL food items as possible and very few processed items for the best prices I can find. Right now, I don't focus on organic foods. When we have the money for them, I definitely go for organic, but I think overall if you have a tight budget and can simply focus on whole foods, you're still doing pretty darn well! 

Cheryl's lentil dal, roast cauliflower, and baked sweet potatoes

We will use the food from this trip combined with the food in our pantry and freezer to make some of the following meals: 

• Roast chicken with lemon and artichokes or asparagus (see recipe below!)
• Cheryl's lentil dal (I used the regular lentils I found instead of red lentils, it worked fine!), with roasted cauliflower and baked sweet potatoes
• Breakfast for dinner = eggs, bacon (from freezer stash), and gluten-free pancakes
• Homemade gluten-free pizza (pg. 104, The Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook) with toppings of browned ground beef, green peppers, onions, homemade tomato sauce, and mozzarella. 
• Hamburger gravy made with remaining browned ground beef, celery, and onions and served over gluten-free, low glycemic biscuits or GF almond bread toast
• Homemade pulled turkey barbecue and homemade coleslaw (with cabbage from last week's shopping trip)
• Mushroom & Asparagus Omelettes with sliced oranges from last week's shopping trip

Slow cooked roast chicken with artichokes and lemon - see recipe from my slow cooker cookbook below!

Recipe shared courtesy of Carrie S. Forbes (myself), author of "The Everything GF Slow Cooker Cookbook"

Do you have a favorite store that you shop at consistently? 

What's your favorite thing about the store? 

Frugal Accomplishments during March 2014

free image courtesy of Pixabay.com

March is always a good month for frugal accomplishments! It's a long month and money has to stretch as much as possible to make it through to the end. That means we have to get creative in how we spend our money and how we budget. March is a great month to find free activities, the weather starts getting nice and you can spend more time outside with a good walk or time with pets or your yard. We actually have a lot of yard work I should get started on to prepare spring beds! 

Here's a pictorial review of some of things we accomplished this month in our frugal and savings goals: 

• 52 Week Savings Challenge: First we've continued a special savings plan we started at the beginning of January called the 52 week Savings Challenge. If you haven't heard of this, there are tons of different websites explaining the process, for example check out this great board on pinterest with different ideas of implementation: 52 Week Challenge. Basically the way it works is for each week of the year you put the corresponding number of dollars into your savings jar or savings account. There are good reasons to follow this challenge at home or by using a savings account. Using a savings account will (of course) allow you to gain interest on this money, but sometimes people need the visual reminder of a jar at home. We are saving this money to use for Christmas next year, along with a few other items we'd like to have to improve our home. What has worked best for US in this challenge is to simply save the weekly average of the total amount of $1378.00, which we rounded to about $30 a week. Since the amount grows each week that you save, you would end up having to put a LOT in the jar/savings account by the end of the year, so it's been beneficial for us financially to simply use the $30 weekly average as opposed to the assigned weekly amount. Still, if we can keep this up for a year, this will make Christmas next year SO much easier than it's been in year's past! We won't have a credit card balance! 

• As a Non-Consumer Advocate/ Less Stuff: One of the things I'm working on this year is buying less stuff, especially "stuff" we don't need (and it's amazing how your needs vs. your wants change as you really think about how much things cost and how you can stretch of the use of items you already have! One way we practiced this this month was by repairing several items at home. Last month I patched my favorite pair of jeans. This month I spent 2 hours mending and repairing the edges of this old comforter I've had for the past 10 years. I bought the comforter for my first apartment out of college as a brand-new (but slightly damaged) set at Goodwill for $30.00. The sheets and matching pillowcases are long gone, but we still use the comforter! I rotate comforters since we have cats who like to throw up and drag tushes... but this one has been able to outlast all of that even with constant washings! I'm hoping to get another 10 years out of it with the repairs! 

• Leftovers for breakfast! We have always eaten leftovers for lunch, but I've expanded the practice to include leftovers for breakfast too. My favorite leftover breakfast is a baked sweet potato topped with butter, cinnamon, a little sugar, and pecans! 

• Less Products/Less Plastics: One way we're cutting back on buying products and packaging has been to cut out store-bought shampoo & conditioner. I've gone the "no (sham)poo" route and I use a variety of different ingredients to wash my hair. You can learn more about this method from a variety of blogs and facebook groups. My favorite facebook group is called: Toxin Free Hair Care: No "Poo"/ Low "Poo" Forum. Not only are you removing toxins from your home and body by using hygiene methods like this, but you're also helping to use less unnecessary containers and plastic packaging, so less "stuff" for the landfills. A great blog to help you get started on "no poo" or if you're simply curious about the process is: becoming peculiar (I love this title! lol). Also... you start to realize that "crunchy/hippie/granola" is not nearly as weird as you once thought... lol! The picture above shows a before/after on one of my mid-week hair days. I generally "wash" my hair about once every 4-5 days and by the 4th day or so it can look "greasy" so I use a "dry shampoo" that consists of a little cornstarch and a little cocoa powder. I sprinkle the mixture on my roots, rub it well into my scalp and then brush it out with a boar bristle brush. I fluff my hair with my hands and on the right you see the results after the dry shampoo. Again, for more details on HOW the process works and why you would even bother with such a crazy thing, please check out this blog post or MANY others (google it.. you'll be amazed at how many people do this!)

• Shopping store sales/ less grocery costs: I generally shop once a week for groceries. In the past month our grocery budget has been between $50 and $60 a week for two people. This is for mostly food only. I get our toiletries in bulk on amazon for much less about once every 5-6 months. The picture above shows my groceries from last week. This was a $49.38 purchase from Food Lion. I buy ONLY items that are on sale and I create my menu around the store sale items or items that I have a store coupon for. This way I save nearly 15%- 20% on all my groceries. This means the menu is not always exciting! However, we've saved a lot of money this way and  we certainly haven't gone hungry! I also focus on making sure MOST of what we eat is naturally healthy. Hubs (who is NOT gluten-free) is the cereal fiend and I'm hoping one day I can convince him to try the store brand cereals... we'll see... lol

• Homemade homemade homemade!! Gluten-free food products are ridiculously expensive, especially if you want something baked. Contrary to popular belief I actually don't bake that much. I did when I was writing cookbooks and creating tons of recipes for the blog here, but since I don't bake all that much anymore, you don't see nearly as many recipes (my apologies! lol! I need an ingredients allowance!)  I was craving pizza last week so I made the recipe out of my "Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook" (this is NOT an affiliate link, I do not make money by you clicking the link to amazon) and honestly we had forgotten how good that recipe is. We'll definitely be making that homemade pizza more often! 

• PANCAKES! In the same homemade savings arena... we've been making these homemade pancakes a LOT! This is by far my favorite pancake recipe and I discovered it and tweaked it a few months ago. I will share it on the blog soon. Seriously, I've made a TON of different types of gluten-free pancakes and these are by far my favorite! I can't wait to share it with you... I do not like admitting I finally started using a kitchen scale to make them... (and yes, I still prefer baking with cups & spoons, HOWEVER... I can admit that I see why serious bakers enjoy using a scale for recipes....man I hate admitting that... LOL)

• Choosing Joy, every single day! Being frugal not only means you spend less, it means you can choose to find great joy with less. And that has become a huge priority in my life. By choosing joy every day, I have been able to find joy in the most mundane of activities such as washing dishes or putting up clean clothes. I used to HATE these everyday tasks... and somedays are better than others... but by having less and enjoying what I do have, I have found SO much joy. I've written about this topic before, and I will write about it again soon. I hope you can find joy in being frugal! If you have... will you share in the comments below? 

Frugal accomplishments for February 2014

Red Velvet Cupcakes from my baking book:
The Everything Gluten-Free Baking Cookbook

February's been a pretty good month so far. We've had our challenges, but overall I've enjoyed a lot of things that happened this month. My Dad is back in the hospital and that has been tough, because he was very sick when he went and his recovery has been very slow, but hopefully he is now on the mend.

We've been able to stick with our budget this month, going "cash only" for gas, groceries, and everyday necessities has been the best way to curb my overspending habits. It's definitely an inconvenience at times, but it's also brought about joys that I did not anticipate!

I've always been a quiet person by nature. Extremely introverted and I prefer doing things by myself or with my husband. But being cash only I've had to come out of my shell a bit. When you're looking for a bargain you often have to talk to people! You have to get out of the car. You have to shop in person, not online. Sometimes this is frustrating, but I've also met a lot of really awesome folks and I've learned to smile more. I've learned there is a HUGE difference between needs & wants.

A few frugal accomplishments this month have included: 

• A frugal Valentine's Day: Because the day was going to be low key financially, Michael and I found really creative ways to have fun and show our love. We made homemade cards, send small emails all day, I made Cheryl's homemade chocolates (for Michael, but I think I ended up eating them! LOL), I also made homemade gluten-free  red velvet cupcakes for a friend and we had a few leftover to celebrate the day. We spent dinner with no screens and just talked and really enjoyed our day. It was a wonderful Valentine's Day!

• Frugal traveling: With my Dad sick in the hospital we wanted to find frugal ways to visit him over the past few weeks. Thankfully I have some really great friends and we were able to stay with friends on our first visit. A week or so after our first visit Dad was transferred to UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA so  I spent some time researching affordable places we could stay in Charlottesville. We found a truly wonderful resource called Alexander House Inn & Hostel. The facility has both a dorm-type facility (the hostel) where you share the large room for sleeping + a small kitchen area  + a shared bathroom, along with an inn that has several private rooms that you can rent for very reasonable prices. We rented a private room, hubs wasn't quite ready for the more frugal "dorm" option! lol (Not that I can really blame him...) You do share a bathroom with the rest of the inn visitors + all open spaces such as the kitchen area, dining area, and living room area. I LOVED how eco-friendly the inn was and how they encouraged recyclying, composting, and even harvesting rainwater for growing plants. It was an extremely relaxing place to be and was a welcome retreat after visiting with my Dad at the hospital. We met some other people visiting at Alexander House as well, but I never felt uncomfortable, and really enjoyed our private room. And surprisingly enough, it didn't seem strange to share a bathroom with people we didn't know. We never ran into a time when we needed it and it was occupied, so it worked out fine. (Oh admit it, you really wondered about that! lol! Especially if you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, bathroom readiness is important! lol) Cute neighborhood as well and very close to the hospital. We also enjoyed the kitchen area and being able to make our own gluten-free meals in the inn. We took all of our food with us. This was incredibly helpful in saving money over the course of our trip.

• Frugal shopping: Bought 3 books at a used bookstore, will probably sell them on eBay after I'm through reading them. Bought bulk toiletry items from amazon. We won't have to restock on toilet paper or paper towels for months. (Hoping to also cut down on the amount of paper towels we use, would love to stop buying them completely one day.) 

• Frugal clothing: Patched my favorite pair of jeans in the hopes of getting another year's use out of them! The patches aren't even that noticeable! 

• Frugal reading: Downloaded an app from my local library to read ebooks. I read one book, but started having issues with the app even after removing it from my phone and reloading it. Will have to let the library know I had issues with it because I would love to use this resource on a regular basis! 

• Frugal Beauty & Hygiene Products: This month I started something I've wanted to do for a long time. As much as I enjoy using coupons to buy shampoo/conditioner/toothpaste/deodorant, etc... I've always wanted to learn how to make my own and go the "no (sham)poo" route with my hair. So I've made different homemade "lotions & potions" for shampoo, conditioner, and deoderant. I've been doing this about 3 weeks with fairly good results. It definitely takes some experimenting to find the right recipes that will work for your own personal body and hair, so I've learned a lot along the way. I'll share more of these homemade beauty product recipes once I feel confident they have been successful for me. 

• Frugal gluten-free bread: I found this recipe for gluten-free sourdough bread online and have been experimenting with it for several weeks. I've made 3 batches of bread with really good results. However this week something happened with my starter. It began to smell rather vinegary and not very sourdough-y, so I tossed it just in case it came in contact with some sort of bad bacteria or something. I am starting a new batch this weekend and I hope by next week I'll be able to make gluten-free sourdough again. The best thing about this bread is that if you can make it successfully, you don't need store-bought yeast (the wild yeast rises the bread), eggs, or milk. The bread is naturally vegan, frugal to make, and really delicious! 

• Frugal probiotics: A few years ago I tried making kombucha on a regular basis. Yeah, I'm kinda hippy dippy like that, and I do believe in the power of probiotics and their role in gut health. However, I just couldn't keep up with kombucha. It's kind of an involved process where you have to brew tea, let it cool to the right temperature, use the right types of sugar and tea and allow the tea to ferment for a week or so and then store it properly... and it's kind of like taking care of a baby... and this is probably a good reason I don't have kids! lol (Cats thankfully are pretty self-sufficient and are more than happy to tell me when they are hungry!) So enter water kefir. I liked the idea of water kefir and was willing to try it. I liked that it wasn't milk/dairy based and it sounded relatively easy to care for. You simply "feed" 1/4 cup of kefir grains about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Add enough water to fill your jar (I use a quart jar) and allow the kefir grains to ferment for 24-48 hours. (The longer you ferment, the less sweet the finished product will be.) Strain out the kefir grains and voila, you have water kefir. It's kind of like a slighly deflated soda and you can add different flavors such as lemon juice or lime juice or even fresh fruits and allow it to ferment longer to infuse the flavor of the fruits. A personal favorite combination for me is lime juice and ginger. This link will give you easy-to-follow, yet very detailed instructions on how to make water kefir. I bought my grains from amazon (since you really can seemingly buy EVERYTHING on amazon these days.) I've been fermenting the grains for about 3 weeks now and my grains have multiplied beautifully and are producing a very nice tasting water kefir. It sounds kind of strange, but it's a great way to get probiotics at a fraction of the cost of pills. Have you ever tried water kefir? I'll write a more detailed post about it later. 

What have your frugal accomplishments been this month? 

**These posts are inspired by my friend Carrie's monthly frugal accomplishments on her blog, "With all that I've been given" Please check out her wonderful blog and leave her some comment love! **

Frugal Tips: Homemade Dish Soap

So why in the world would you need to make homemade dish soap when you get a bottle at just about any grocery store for less than a dollar (especially if you're buying the really cheap stuff!) Well, I guess if you were stocked up you wouldn't really need too, but this is really fun to make, SUPER easy, and still probably costs less than the cheapest dish soap you can buy. I don't make it often, but we're in the "counting pennies" stage of January and it's a snow day and I'm not willing to go out to the Dollar General just to buy dish soap because I'm out. That's a wasted trip of gas in my opinion!

AND... hubs was so interested in what I was doing he stopped to come over to see how it worked. I told him it was science and he was in. Don't ask me about the actual science. I have no idea, I just know it cleans dishes when I'm out of Mrs. Meyers or Dawn and that's good enough to me. And I actually have all the ingredients on hand (because I've been known to make lots of other homemade household cleaning items) so it's a win win in our house.

Washing soda is SLOWLY becoming easier to find (I get mine from a local ACE hardware store, but you can also buy it from amazon (because what CAN'T you get from amazon these days?), and it's really key in this recipe. It's what gives the dish soap thickness over a day or so to make it act and feel like the dish soap you're used to buying from the grocery store. Make sure not to confuse washing soda with regular baking soda, while I've used baking soda in homemade clothing detergent in it's place, it's not the same product and it does NOT work in this recipe!

Finished and cooled dish soap with a drop or two of blue food coloring (optional!)

It took less than five minutes to "cook up" this bottle of dish soap. And it's enough for at least two weeks. We made the soap different colors just by adding a drop or two of food coloring, but you can simply leave it natural and it's a light lemon yellow color. Somehow my husband seems convinced it works better if it looks like Dawn! lol... So buy some castile bar soap, some washing powder (the stuff will not go bad, it's good forever!) and next time you run out of dish soap try making your own!

I use Dr. Bronner's castile soaps. I generally keep several bar soaps on hand along with a large container or two of the peppermint liquid castile soap and the lavendar liquid castile soap. Those scents are just personal preferences and you could use any scent for dish soap. Castile soaps are crazy useful and super inexpensive (considering they are very concentrated) and will clean just about anything. I've used them for washing everything from clothes, to floors, to bathrooms, to windows, to using them in the shower when I was out of our regular shower scrub! It's a very versatile and frugal item to have on hand.  

I would say this soap works just as well as any type of  non-concentrated Mrs. Meyers or Dawn or Joy dish soap. You can play with this recipe and add additional washing soda and grated castile bar soap to the small amount of water for a more concentrated soap. Beware though, that the more soap is added, the thicker the soap will become as it sits or ages. To thin it down, simply add a bit of warm water and close the lid and shake to thin it down.

A Small Batch of Homemade Dish Soap
Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup grated castile bar soap (I don't pack it - this also helps save money and keeps the soap from getting too thick)
• 1-2 tablespoons washing soda
• 1/4 cup liquid castile soap
• 10-20 drops essential oil (if desired)

 Directions: 

• Add grated castile soap to the boiling water. I do this right in my small stainless steel pot that I heated the water in. 
• Add the washing soda and liquid castile soap and stir to combine into a slowly thickening liquid. 
• If you are using plain castile soaps without any scent, once the soap has completely COOLED,  feel free to add 10-20 drops of your favorite essential oils such as lemon, orange, cinnamon, or mint to create your own favorite scented dish soap (you can also use this as a hand soap.)
• Pour cooled soap into a recycled plastic bottle or even a glass jar dispenser.  We've been using a ketchup bottle we washed out and re-used.

Frugal Accomplishments - December 2013

My friend Carrie, author of the blog "with all that I've been given", has been writing posts over the past few years highlighting all the different ways she's been able to save a penny or two with the practice of frugality. 

I've also practiced frugality much of my life, but most often in seasons.  I hate to admit we often have a "feast or famine" attitude. When we have abundance we live in abundance, and when we've had little we've lived with little....Except over thr past few years when we were used to abundance and started living that way with very little.  Not a smart financial move.

So over the past few months I've been trying to get a true handle on all of our finances and get back into major savings mode.

I wanted to start keeping track of all the ways we've been frugal. Not to show off, but to share tips and hints. Carrie's posts have been so helpful to me,  I'm hoping my posts will also be insightful to others who are trying to live more frugally. So here's my list for December 2013:

Frugal Accomplishments 12/2013

• Christmas cards: used cards I bought last year in an after-Christmas sale at Big Lots. Also used postage stamps I had bought through 2013, so we had no immediate costs for buying or shipping the cards.

• Groceries: saved over $90 (about 30 percent of our total) on all groceries over the month of December by combining coupons with store sales. 

• Pet supplies: we received two free bags of cat litter (with five cats we go through a lot of cat litter!) after writing to the company with questions. This was a savings of $40.00.

• Holiday parties: limited the amount of items we took to holiday parties/get-togethers (usually I go overboard with lots of extra cooking) - we took one or two items only (per event) and used the same recipes for multiple events to save on groceries.  This was helpful not only in grocery savings, but also in time and energy.

• Travel expenses: while we were home over the holidays we combined trips and only went to town if absolutely necessary outside of the combined errands. We saved a lot of money in gas this way. When I went to visit my dad in the hospital over Christmas (several hundred miles away) I stayed in the hospital overnight with him to save on hotel costs. (Thankfully the hospital was gracious enough to allow this!)

• Cash only: after the recent Target debit-card fiasco, hubs and I were left without debit cards for 3 weeks starting on Christmas day (our bank cancelled all cards that were used at Target during that period). This was incredibly frustrating at first, but we went cash-only for 3 weeks (okay, it was only 2 weeks, but it sure felt like 3 weeks!) and then realized how much less money we spent overall when we only had cash. A silver lining in my book. Now we are committed to living cash only for groceries, home supplies, and gas, etc... we're only using our debit cards for emergency purchases in the future.

• Frugal entertainment: ONLY watched movies and TV shows that are included in our Netflix and Amazon Prime memberships (thanks to not having debit cards!) - We had not realized how much extra money we had been spending on movie and cable show rentals. Those little expenses were really adding up! ALSO: bird feeders are really fun and inexpensive entertainment, both for us and the kitties! Birds are great fun to watch!

• Cold weather savings: started wearing lots of layers instead of buying new clothing when the weather became much cooler a few weeks ago. (Double t-shirts are going to make me quite the fashion icon this year! )

• Kindle savings: Again, thanks to no debit card,  I stopped buying books for my Kindle and have only been reading books that are available for free via the Kindle store.  I've found some really great reads this way as well!

What are some ways you were frugal during December 2013?