Homemade Dishwashing Powder

It is still odd to me that we make our own Laundry Detergent (btw loving it- only thing I would change is that I am going to make the powder version next time in 4 months for now).  Here's the link to the laundry soap
Laundry Detergent Click Here. 

My brother-in-law asked me why would you make you own laundry detergent and where did you hear about it.  I simply said because it is cheaper and blogs of course.  I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy but I would have thought I was crazy 5 years ago if I could see into the future and see the now me.

I think it takes getting over the hurdle of whatever that may be into the world of "I like to keep most of my money" theory.  It's a different way of thinking and most certainly not the mainstream way of thinking but then again I know that I am not meant to fit into this world, this is not my home and my purpose is not to comply with what society deems worthy.  My Worthy, my Standard is much higher.  This is not to say that couponing and homemade soap is holy just goes along with my choosing to be purposeful.  So here it goes.

Dishwasher Detergent ingredients:

1. 1 cup -Borax - In the detergent aisle
2. 1-cup -Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda -also in the detergent aisle.  Make sure it not baking soda, not the same thing.
3. 15 packages on unsweetened lemonade drink mix, kool-aid or off brand.  **This may stain your dispenser but hasn't on mine and I've been using it for a month.  A substitute would be citric acid (1/2 cup).  It should be in the canning aisle.
4. 1/2 cup of Epsom Salt or Kosher.  I used Kosher because that's what I had.  Not sure the difference.
5. I used vinegar for the rinsing agent.  You can also use Lemi Shine rinse aid.  If your dishes are coming out with spots on them that means you do need a rinse aid.

• Combine all dry ingredients in a container, pitcher, coffee can etc. 
• Use 1 Tbs of dish powder
• Fill rinse agent compartment with white vinegar

And away you go at $0.05 per load versus $0.14 per load to a comprable brand name detergent.  Again with the I can't believe I used to pay almost 3 times as much as I do now.  Oh how much money did I throw away on soap all these years?  At least I'm making progress even though I may seem crazy to some.

Happy Detergent Making. 

I'd love to hear comments on how it goes and if you get a chance subscribe to my site to get updates!

March Coupon Class is OPEN in DALLAS

I am super pumped to offer a Coupon Class in the Dallas area. 

Location:

The class will be held in Kaufman, TX

First Assembly of God Church

3101 South Houston Street  

Kaufman, TX 75142

Date:

Friday, March 16, 2012 

6:30pm-8:30pm

Cost: is $20.00 per person.

The 2 hour class covers anything and everything you wanted to know about saving money on items you need like food, paper products and toiletries.  

You will learn how to 

• Shop for rock bottom prices at grocery stores, 
• The ins and outs of how to shop at drug stores, 
• Price match at Walmart where they will actually you pay you cash to buy certain items.   
• How to efficiently inventory and cook meals,
• How to build an awesome stockpile.

The cost covers the extensive Coupon Guide, door prizes and more knowledge than you ever thought possible about saving money.

My family consists of a husband, 3 kids (one in diapers) and 2 dogs.  Our monthly budget is $200 for everything (food, paper products, toiletries, dog food, cleaning supplies and diapers).  It takes me less than 2 hours a week to plan my trip and if I'm kidless about an hour to shop.   I have been "couponing" for 4 years, teaching the coupon workshop for 3 years and am quite a fan of keeping most of my money.
There are so many excuses as to why you shouldn't coupon but my favorite one, that was actually mine was this..."I have always thought of coupons were for people that bought stuff they didn't need- Oh how wrong was I."

Please reserve a spot, as seating is limited.

Click the “Buy Now” button below to reserve your spot.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We are finally biting the bullet and making our own laundry detergent.  I have been reluctant because I was worried that it wouldn't work as well.  I have done several loads and am quite satisfied. 

It will help if you have a 5 gallon bucket- we got one at Lowe's for $3 I think.  You will also find it helpful to save 10 gallons worth of used, clean laundry soap dispensers.  I hadn't collected enough when the first batch was made so I headed out on trash day and every other house had an empty laundry detergent container in their recycle bin.   I washed them well and have about 6 containers-we'll be headed out again on Thursday to hopefully top off our stash.  Have to get some essential oils to add to it...

Here's the recipe:
4 cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap ($0.97 @ our local Walmart)
      You can also use a Zote Bar
1/2 cup Borax ($2.98 @ Walmart)

Fels Naptha Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap, 5.5oz ($0.97 @ Walmart) ONLY one bar! OOPs

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda ($2.34 @ Walmart)***

     ***This is not Arm & Hammer baking soda.  Our Walmart has all 3 ingredients right next to each other.***

Do not turn your back on this- it will bubble over!

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with hot water.  Stir continually over medium heat until soap dissolves and is melted.  Took me about 10 minutes.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of tap water.  Add melted soap, washing soda and borax.  Stir well until all the powder is dissolved.  Fill the bucket to top with more hot water.  Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

Richard is such a trooper!

Stir the contents of the bucket.  Fill used, clean laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of the way with water.  Shake before each use because it gels.

You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons.  Add once soap has cooled. 

Makes 10 gallons.

Top load machines - 5/8 cup per load = about 180 loads - For us this is about 6 months worth of laundry detergent!

Front load machines - 1/4 cup per load = 640 loads

Next up Dish washing Liquid!

Shepherd's Pie

I'm throwing a quick meal together for tonight since it will be rather hectic around here.


1 lb hamburger
1 can tomato soup
1 can of green beans (somehow I don't have any canned gb but I did have corn so we're going w/that)
1/2 onion chopped
1 T Worcestershire sauce
3 c. prepared mashed potatoes
1/2 c. cheese

Brown hamburger and onion, drain fat.  Add tomato soup, 2/3 of the juice from the beans and worcestershire sauce.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Put beef mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish, top with beans (draining the rest of the juice out), top with potatoes and cheese.
Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sour Cream Enchiladas- It's what's for dinner tonight!

.

   Ingredients:

   Boil chicken breasts - then cube or shread.  I actually threw them in the crock
   pot

   1 dozen tortillas

   1 cup grated cheese- your choice- I'm doing a colby-cheddar mixture

   Ingredients for the Sauce:

   2 cans of cream of chicken soup -undiluted

   1 pint of sour cream

   1 small can of diced green chiles

   Mix together sauce ingredients.  Put some sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 dish

   Take flour torts put meat and sauce in the center, roll and place in dish.

   Fill pan with enchiladas, put sauce on top, add grated cheese on top. 

   Bake 30 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Reason #2 NOT to coupon

It will take too much time.  It's just not worth MY time!

Oh this was my song for years.  That was until my husband got a job that was 100% commission.  I was forced to figure out someway to not spend $700 a month on food, paper and soap (and I was buying all off brand).  There is a learning curve but I had to suck it up and learn if we wanted to be able to eat and not smell funny.

Once I did I started to share it will anyone who would listen because it would've meant so much to our family to be able to save as much as we do now.  In the beginning I spent close to 3 hours planning and a couple of hours shopping to get our budget down to $250/mo.  At that time I was shopping Walmart, CVS and Kroger to get all the good deals.  Now I am primarily Walmart with a little Walgreens thrown in.  I spend ONE hour a week planning my trip and about one hour shopping.  Let's do some math.  Our current budget is $200/month on all our need expenses including dog food and diapers and a pretty decent stockpile.  I spend 2 hours a week total.  We are saving at least $500/month.  That comes out to $62.50/hr that I am "making."  If only I could figure out some way to earn that hourly rate for being a Mommy??

Reason #1 Not to coupon

I will just end up buying things I don't need!

I do not buy things I don't need.  I DO "buy" things that I don't need but only if they pay me to do so.  At Walmart if the coupon exceeds the price of the item Walmart will pay you cash!  So yes I have denture cream (that I donate to the nursing home) and yes I have Tide in which I'm allergic to (that I give away as door prizes or to the Montgomery County fire victims) as long as they pay me to do it.
Recently there was a $2 any Tide no size restrictions coupon.  In the travel section there are 1 load Tide packages.  Walmart paid me $1.03 for every one I bought.

Why not count that as a discount to your organic milk or off a load of bread? 

The Journey to Couponing

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Matthew 6:24

This is the verse that resonated in my head for months and years as I figured if I said enough that I would actually begin to believe it.  Within one year I was married, pregnant, my dad died, became a first time mother, my husband changed careers and we moved into our first home (2004-2005).  Wow what a whirlwind of events and I had no idea what was to come.  Moving towns and becoming a mother I found myself with little to no network of friends outside of my husband and one very special friend.  We started attending a local church and dove in an adult community (Sunday school).  It took about a year to finally feel at home there and begin to grow the huge network of family that we have today.

When Rich changed careers he moved to the financial industry which takes forever, or what seems like forever to get on your feet.  I have always had dreams of making lots of money and have lots of things.  It was a desire of mine, something I yearned for - it was MY idol!  Me have an idol?  I don't have any statues or worship false gods or did I?  Enduring the tough times was good, I thought, because we would end up in this place that would be bliss WHEN the money came in.  Month after month there was no money and I hit a breaking point, literally in tears asking my husband "Why hasn't God answered my prayers?  Why isn't he taking care of us?"  I believe this was a turning point for me, not an over night realization but gradually God changed me.  He changed what I felt was important.  I could not hear Him because I was too busy talking and not busy enough just spending time with Him.

Month after month I would go to the store and spend hours, literally trying to find which can of green beans I could save 1 cent per ounce and would continue to come home a failure spending close to $700/month on consumables.  God then put someone special into my life who shared a glimpse of what "couponing" could do.  I have always thought of coupons were for people that bought stuff they didn't need- Oh how wrong was I.  Since there was no money, not even enough to have a budget, it was just how low can  you go, I dove in and absorbed as much as possible.

Almost immediately we went from $700/mo to $200/mo and I was stockpiling.  This is an early on photo of our one rack in the garage.  It is chuck full now and with the exception of a very small shelf built off to the side (to house cleaning supplies apart from food and away from little hands) the only thing that I allow to seep into the house is diapers.  When those bad boys go on super sale we stock up.  Hopefully many more babes to come.

In order to achieve this in the beginning, with learning curve and all, I would spend about 3 hours a week (including the actual shopping).  For me that was over $34 an hour I was making or saving.  Now I spend about an hour and a half and our bottom line is under $300 (groceries, soap, cleaning supplies, razors, all paper products, diapers, all toiletries, dog food etc).

Since I had learned this I immediately started telling anyone I could find to listen to me. Well one friend told another and pretty soon it imposed on family time all this sharing and helping so I put it into a class form.  Within a few months our church hosted me as a guest speaker.  This class still remains scheduled, 4 times a year for free free.  I call things free free when they are actually free, no gimmicks.  I now offer group and private classes at other locations for a fee. 


This journey was so difficult but I would not change it for anything - I would not be the person I am today if I had not  had to endure each day of my changing process.  There was no other way for me to learn than to be stripped of everything, feeling hopeless and falling to my knees to slowly but surely listen to God and know that my security is in Him and not money.  Today I see things differently as if I put on another set of glasses.  I don't yearn for things anymore, in fact I strive to purge as much as I can especially when I can't control it.

Fast forward to 2011 I am a stay a  home mom of 3, married to possibly the most wonderful, supportive man in the world!  We are attempting to homeschool again this year this time 1st and preK and one very distracting 18 month old.  I am continually in awe of what God does in our lives day in and day out and can't wait to spend every day dependent on Him!