Saving money is always a good thing. Some save by using coupons, others by cutting back on purchases, but on some necessary items cutting back is not an option. Unless a national brand product is on sale…at a great price…I almost always purchase store brands of products. In our home, purchasing generic laundry soap is a necessity. I cringe everytime I see that $15-20 price tag on the large bottles of Tide, Cheer, etc.

I have shared my laundry soap recipe here before, but today I am sharing someone else’s recipe. Many of you are familiar with the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar Family with 18 beautiful children and their television series. While looking for a tator tot casserole recipe for My Hero, I came across Michelle Duggar’s recipe for laundry soap. Though it called for the same ingredients as the recipe I have been using, the amounts and directions were different. After giving her recipe a try this time, I believe that I prefer her method rather than mine. Check out her LAUNDRY SOAP RECIPE.

The Duggars also have a new book The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America’s Largest Families–How they Do It that answers questions that many of us have about their amazing family.

Michele’s original recipe calls for a Fels-Naptha Bar, but I used a bit over one bar of pink Zote Soap in my version, which gives it a nice pinkish shimmer. There is a  white Zote Laundry Soap  that I have found online, but not in my local store yet. You will notice in the photo that I have reused older detergent bottles, but some of the mixture is stored in a recycled juice jug. I just could not throw any of it out…so I stole My Hero’s water jug.

Guestimating the current cost of each of the containers, I figure we saved around $54 with making my own soap. Those boxes of borax and washing soda were purchased well over a year ago..so it almost feels as if this was all free. Not knowing how to figure the energy usage cost, we did not take that out of the total..but I do know that the supply cost is around $2. Not bad!

Money has never flowed freely for us, so I am always looking for ways to cut back on costs.  With my DIY projects, DH often tells me “your time is worth more than that”, but my thought is that if what you are doing is not keeping you from making money, then your time is NOT worth “more than that”.  My theory is that if you have to have something done…AND…you don’t have the $$ to pay for it, then DIY is your only choice.

If you are making something yourself (that has to be purchased)…say…like…ummmm….graduation announcements? If  the end result is half the cost of the Josten’s school announcements….that is a good thing right? (disclaimer: don’t tell anyone…but…. sometimes my ideas end up costing more money than what would have originally been spent. Shhhhh! ) For instance... those aforementioned Josten’s announcements run approximately $1.50 each. I think having the “official” announcement chosen by certain members of the senior class is important, but not necessarily important enough to send to everyone on our grad list. Last year, some family members had photo memory announcements designed that ended up costing about $1 each.

After looking at a few of those announcements, I thought…goodness! I can design these…AND I have a reasonably priced printing source that could make my announcements half of even that cost. Well Prom was the past weekend, which means it is time to begin working on those announcements. So far, I have spent four solid days of designing and I STILL don’t have an end product with which I am satisfied. After looking at several designs online, my designs are not quite up to par. My ideas are good I think, but my software is failing me.

So this is where I whisper to you, again, that my ideas sometimes cost me more than if I had just gone ahead and purchased someone else’s work. I have been looking at an upgrade to my software for quite some time now, but just could not rationalize spending the money.  In this lifetime, I will never be able to afford Adobe, Dreamweaver, Expressions II, etc. Print Shop is more inline with my budget. I wanted to upgrade to the Print Shop Pro Publisher 23, which would be the third version I have purchased over the years, but I still was having a bit of a time letting go of the cash. Yesterday, after 5 hours of non-stop mistakes and redoes of one announcment, what did I find in my email inbox but a nice 33% discount on thePSPP! In my exhaustion, my willpower was weak and out came the plastic and just like that my new version is on its way.

The way I calculate it, that makes those announcements closer to that $1 each mark now… depending on how many we actually purchase. So there you go….save pennies…spend dollars.

With all the uncertainty of today’s economy complete with rising costs of EVERYTHING, it is nice to find a giveaway that is sure to save money. Suzanne at eBay Selling Coach is giving away 500 coupons! You may remember that she is also offering her eBook, SAHM’s Guide to Selling on eBay, as a free download as well. If you decide to drop by and add your name to the drawing, would you please mention that I sent you? Thanks!

 OH! And GOOD LUCK!!!!

Remember the Dining on a Dime Giveaway we sponsored with
Living on a Dime a couple of weeks ago? Mrs. M. at Freaky Frugalite won the copy from our blog and I believe some of you purchased your own copy. Well, I am so excited. I received mine a couple of days ago and I could not be happier. I regret that I did not have an actual photo of the book when I posted about it because I think the graphics used before did it no justice. This is a really nice cookbook!

There are so many great recipes offered in this book that it was difficult to decide with which to start. The next morning after it arrived, I tried “Mike’s Baking Powder Biscuits” and the “Basic Muffins” recipe where I added some very ripe bananas. My family is so accustomed to eating canned biscuits that they were not certain how to act. Luckily the recipe was simple and the family loved them.I am in the process of making my very first sourdough starter with the Potato Flake Starter Bread Recipe from the section on breads and baking. Day 2 and counting. I will keep you posted.

Not only are there food recipes, but you will find recipes for beauty products, cleaning supplies and much more. There is a section on basic frugal cooking and even an herb guide. Menu ideas flow, along with helpful hints for picky eaters, and a pantry/shopping list keeps you organized.I am telling you, if you missed purchasing this book the first time around, take a look at it. You will not be disappointed. Drop by Living on a Dime to get your copy or to check out the other great eBooks on thrifty living and digging out of debt.

I wish I could take credit for the title of this post, because it so fits the season. I found this article about the appliances sucking our energy dollars out of our pockets at Yahoo! Green and wanted to share.  After reading the article to DH this morning, he had to poke fun at me because I used to give him a difficult time when he would go around the house unplugging things before we would go out of town (and prior to approaching storms).

What’s wasting energy in your home right now

By Lori Bongiorno Posted Thu Oct 9, 2008 9:34am PDT

“Virtually all of your electronics are sucking up energy even if they’re turned off or not being used. Some of the biggest culprits include your TV, computer, and printer. Even your electric toothbrush is drawing energy when it’s plugged in and sitting idle.

On its own, the “vampire power” used by one device might seem miniscule, but collectively it amounts to more than $4 billion a year of wasted energy here in the United States. What’s more, the Department of Energy says that about 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.

The easiest (and most obvious) thing you can do is get up right now and unplug whatever you’re not using. Candidates include:

• Your hand-held vacuum in its charging station
• Power drills
• Automatic coffee makers
• The VCR you haven’t used in nearly a decade
• The TV that’s collecting dust in the guest room
• The empty refrigerator in the garage


{snip}

Check out the remainder of this article HERE and the related How to Reduce Vampire Power article at Huddler’s Green Home Blog…where you will find a great Dracula graphic displaying a phantom load chart.

These next couple of days our family will be going through our household to unplug and to add appliances to surge protectors to reduce our overall phantom load usage.The surge protectors will not only reduce wear and tear on the cords, but make it easier to “unplug” by just  flipping a switch.

 

So, are you up for the challenge?  What lengths do you go go to, or would you go, to reduce the vampire sucking going on at your house?

Stay tuned for the soon to be released America Unplugged Challenge!