My Go To Homemade Laundry Detergent

A while ago when my family was struggling financially, I was using cloth diapers for our little guy.  Since you can't use regular laundry detergent on cloth diapers and buying special detergent wasn't an option, I began looking for a homemade detergent.  I began with one that I just used on the cloth diapers, so I was making a special detergent for the diapers and then buying one to use on the rest of our clothes.  A friend of mine gave me a recipe to use that was safe and good to use on everything.  I used that one for the entire length of time we cloth diapered.  Then when we were done using cloth diapers I began to look for another homemade detergent that I could use because I wasn't thrilled with having to buy detergent again.  After an intensive internet search, and a few that failed, I found one that I have been using for the past 2 and a half years.

The best thing about this detergent is that it makes a huge batch!  I can usually get about 6-8 months out of one batch.  This is a powdered detergent, I originally was hoping for a liquid one but found that this powder really does a great job and is a little bit easier to mix up and store.

I originally found this recipe at One Good Thing By Jillee.  She titles it A Year's Worth of Laundry Detergent for $30, but like I said for my family of 5 we can get about 6-8 months out of it.  On her sight she breaks down the cost of each item, and I'd say that I spend about that much depending on the prices of things at the time.  I also want to mention that all of these items can be found right in the laundry isle!


Here is what you will need for this recipe:

**I forgot to add the Baking Soda when I took this picture**

3 Bars Fels Naptha soap
1 Box 20 Mule Team Borax
1 Box Super Washing Soda
2 Cups Baking Soda
2 Containers Sun Oxygen Cleaner
1-2 Containers Purex fabirc softener chrystals (28 oz) **Optional**
5 Gallon Bucket with Lid to store it in






Cut up the fels naptha soap into cubes and put in food processor, add a little bit of the Sun Oxygen cleaner to help it all come together.  I did this in three batches, each bar separately because my food processor is small, but if you have a large one you could do it all in one batch.

Once they are processed I place it in a big bowl until I am ready for it.

Then mix all other ingredients together in the 5 gallon bucket.

This is before mixing the first half of the batch.

Don't forget to enlist the help of the kiddos!  They love this part!

This is the finished batch in the 5 gallon bucket.

Use 2 TBS per load, I use the scoop that comes with the Sun Oxygen Cleaner and make sure its a heaping scoop if you have a top loader.  For an HE machine just use 1 TBS per load.  This is a low sudsing detergent, so don't worry if you don't see any bubbles while its washing, I promise its doing the job!

I put some in a pretty jar on top of the dryer to use.  

Here is the heaping scoop I use, one heaping scoop per load.

Here are a few tips I have when making this detergent:

If you read her recipe, she suggests putting it all into a garbage bag and mixing it that way.  When I did that I got holes in the bag and it started spilling out onto the floor, even when I double bagged it that still happened.  So my suggestion is to put half the ingredients (a little bit of each item) into the bucket and then mix well.  Then add the remaining ingredients and mix well, making sure to get everything stirred up. ** I just noticed that she put up a video tutorial and when she mixed it in the bag it worked great for her!  So maybe it was just me!  

Don't forget to add the sun oxygen cleaner to the fels naptha soap when processing it!!  It will get gunky and not blend well!  Not that I know this from experience or anything!  *wink*

Make sure you store this in an air tight container to avoid it getting clumpy and hard to use.

There you have it!  Our cheap, amazing and super easy to make homemade laundry detergent!!  Feel free to send me any questions you might have!

Living on a Dental Floss Budget: You know, one that is smaller than a shoe string!

Yesterday I finished up talking about our story of becoming debt free.  Today I'll discuss some of my favorite tips when living on a shoe string dental floss budget!

Here are my top 5 picks for building and sticking to a budget:

1)  Record Every Penny- If you are just beginning to budget and have never had to keep track of anything, this could be really hard.  It's so worth it though!  The insight that it provides is invaluable. You suddenly see, that you spent $15 on coffee this week!  Or that you spend $80 taking the family out to eat this month.  Wow!  What insight!

2)  Determine a Budget- Finding a budget that works for your family is key!  Emphasis on working for your family!  If you look at another family and try to determine what you should be spending you will not stick to it.  It has to work for your lifestyle and paycheck.

3)  Stick to that Budget- Once that budget is in place, you may need to make some tweaks every so often.  I suggest giving yourselves a few months before you really nail it down and put it in stone. Even now for us, we need to adjust it every so often.  Recently we had to up our grocery budget, because apparently these boys of mine like to eat!

4)  Bargain Shop-  I know you have heard this before but I'll say it again!  Shop thrift stores, ask around to friends, clearance sales, off season sales, and garage sales are your best friend!  There are somethings I refuse to buy second hand, like shoes and fabric covered furniture, but that is just me! We have found some great things by just asking our friends if they have it to get rid of.  Sometimes they might not even think they want to sell it, but when you ask they are more than willing to get rid of it!

5)  Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make it Last or Do Without- One year that was my motto!  I had to just keep repeating it to myself.  Along with "we are going to live like our grandparent did", meaning we were not going to waste and we were going to get creative about saving money.  This little motto took us a LONG way!  It took us to giving up paper towels, napkins, clorox wipes, and paper plates.  When I realized how much I spent on just paper towels and napkins, I was really shocked!  And we buy generic!  So we switched to cloth napkins and pieces of scrap fabric from my husbands old sock and t-shirts for paper towel use.  That shaved at least $20 a month off of our budget.

There you have it my 5 tips for living on a budget!  I know there are so many other things that could be added but I wanted to give a precise and easy list to get you started!

Do you have any other tips that have worked for you?  I'd love to hear them!

Debt Free Living Part 2

Last time I gave a little background history on our families financial issues.  We began our married life with zero debt but quickly spiraled down hill.

I really think our problems began when we totally lacked a good knowledge as to how much money we were bringing in.  We paid our bills on time, we bought groceries, we bought clothes when we needed them.  The only problem was that we didn't pay any attention to how much we spent on each of those things.  So at the end of the month we had no idea where our money went.  We continued on that path for about 5 years!!

In that 5 year period, my husband was working part time jobs in between looking for a full time job, we had a second child and bought a house.  Once my husband found a good job and had been then about 2 years and shortly after our second child was born, we made the decision for me to stay home full time.  It was where my heart was and my job was drastically draining on me!  Here is where another problem came in, we still spent money like I was working.

We finally hit rock bottom in the summer of 2010, we had recently found out I was expecting our third child.  We knew we had a great deal of debt but had been working to pay that off, and we didn't want to wait until the debt was paid off to "finish" our family.  Well that pregnancy ended with a miscarriage.  A few weeks later we began getting the medical bills for that miscarriage, and we began to realize that we had no money to pay these bills!  We were anticipating insurance to cover a pregnancy but in the end most of the bills for our miscarriage were not covered!

My husband got paid on a Friday and by that Sunday we literally had $27 in our bank account!  That was after paying bills and buying groceries.  That $27 was to last us another 2 weeks until we got paid again, when the same thing would probably happen!  At this point we began talking and realizing that we need to get some help!  Our adult Sunday school teacher at the time was a very good business man and we contacted him to see if he knew anyone that could offer to give us some financial counseling.  He said he knew some people but that he would be willing to meet with us and help us out.

We began meeting with him every few weeks at first, he really helped us dig into our budget and figure out where we were going wrong.  His first step was to find extra money that we could begin to snowball our debt.  We had a 5 year getting out of debt plan.  We met with him for about 6 months and in that six month time we were able to establish a working budget and begin to snow ball that debt!

Now lets talk about our present day situation!  We met our goal!!  It took some creativeness on our part and we were gifted some money along the way.  Now we are debt free except for our home!  It is so freeing to not have to worry about every single penny!  And let me tell you there were many, many times in Wal-Mart that I had tears!!  Our budget was so tight that I literally had to calculate every single item, and at the end of my trip sometimes things had to be put back!  Hard decisions had to be made, do I buy another pound of beef or buy the cheaper bag of pasta instead??!

Next time I will share some of our budgeting tips and how we managed to get that debt down!

Debt Free Living

Lets discuss the pain of debt for a bit!  My family went through some difficult financial years that caused lots of pain for every one involved!  I am going to begin a series here that will focus on debt free living!  But before I begin that I would like to share our story  and what it looks like to be deeply in debt and then to finally get out of that pit!

When my husband and I got married, neither one of us had ever lived on our own.  Although we were both working and earning money, we both still lived with our parents.  Both of us came form totally different financial backgrounds.  I came from a  family that was constantly in debt, but always made it through.  When my parents wanted something they just charged it, when they wanted a new vehicle  they just bought it.  That's is just how things worked.  Both my parents worked, my father made good money and my mom worked in the home running her own beauty salon.  Growing up we were not spoiled children, we knew how to work for things we wanted.   From the time I was 14 I was working.  When I got my drivers license, the deal was that I would work to pay for the insurance on my car, my parents paid for the car.  So I got a job, I really didn't mind it, because when I wanted to go to a movie with fiends or out to eat, I didn't have to ask my parents for money I could just go.  When I wanted new clothes, I could just buy them.  It was a great sense of freedom and independence!  So going into marriage, I didn't have any debt, no student loans or anything.

My husband grew up in a family was very careful with their money.  They paid cash for cars, they drove those cars until they literally fell into the ground!  Both his parents worked, his mom was a surgical nurse making good money and his dad worked in a retail store.  My husband was basically an only child who got pretty much anything he ever wanted.  He wasn't spoiled and rotten but he also didn't have siblings around to share with.  He never had chores to do and was never expected to do much work around the house.  He also came into our marriage with zero debt, no student loans, and a car that was paid for.

So where did we go wrong??  That is an excellent question!  We began our married life with me working at a day care center, and my husband was an office manager at a local christian camp.  We were required to raise support for that job.  We were doing really well, living in a little cheap apartment.  I think our problems came when after a year my husband stopped working at the camp and took up any kind of work he could find.  So we went from a two income family, to basically a minimum wage income.  We also had zero knowledge of budgeting or anything like that.  We paid our bills and spent the rest!  Not a good idea!!

Next time I will talk about where having no budget took us from bad to worse!

For the rest of this series check out these posts:
1)  Debt Free Living Part 2
2)  Living on a Dental Floss Budget:  You know the One that is Smaller than a Shoe string!

Living Frugally

Lets talk frugal living.  My family has not always been a frugal family, in fact my husband and I went through a phase of not really monitoring what we were spending.  Over the past few years we have slowly been redirecting our view of money.  It started as a way to get out of debt, and now has become our way of life.  So today I am going to share what we have been doing to save money and be better stewards of what God has blessed us with.

First of all I already shared how we live on a tight budget.  How do we make that work?  We use what is referred to as the Envelope System.  We use cash for most things in our monthly spending.  Bills are paid online as much as possible and we still use the debit card for gas (mostly for convince sake).  Groceries, clothing, gifts, and eating out are all cash based.  That way if we run out of cash then we don't spend it.  Period. End of story!  This has helped us greatly in getting our budget under control.

I also try to buy used when ever possible.  I shop garage sales, second hand stores, and ask around before buying new.  I have found some great deals just by asking friends on Facebook.  I have gotten coats for my kids, a dresser for my bedroom, and even curriculum!  You just never know who might be holding onto something they really don't want and that you could use.  So never underestimate the power of asking!  I am also very fortunate that I have 3 boys, and I can hand clothes down.  I also have a very generous mother in law that loves to buy clothes for them.  So its not too often that I have to worry about clothing my children.

I don't drive needlessly around places.  I try to run errands on one day of the week, and plan play dates or field trips along with running errands.  With the price of gas I just can't afford to be wasteful.

We don't buy paper products like napkins or paper towels.  Those are too expensive especially when we have towels that work just as well.  I buy generic about 98% of the time, there are a few things that I just really like the name brand, so we "splurge" and get that.

My husband and I also talk over purchases before spending.  If I want to get a pair of shoes for the boys, we talk about it first, that cuts down on the impulse buying.  There have been countless times I have called my hubby from the store to ask about something, and he has talked me out of it.  Thankfully too, because it would have put us over budget!

We have cut out our cable and shopped around for a cheaper internet.  We have a monthly subscription to Netflix and that keeps the kids happy.  Our cell phones are piggy backed onto my parents, so we spend less on those.  I am the only one who has a smart phone, my poor hubby is still carrying his trusty old flip phone.

My final bit of advice if you are trying to live a frugal life... If you can't afford it, don't have cash to pay for it, then don't buy it!!  That montra has saved us countless times!

How I Feed My Family of 5 on a Tight Budget

Today I am going to share a little about how we save money on our grocery bill every month.

Our budget it super tight, we spend around $350 a month for the five of us.  That includes toiletries and such.  First thing that I did over a year ago was to stop buying paper products.  I no long spend half my budget on paper towels or napkins!  We use kitchen towels to clean up spills and we use cloth napkins at the dinner table.

 I also make my own laundry detergent, I use this recipe here.  It says it will last a family of four a year, I made my first batch in June and I am going to need to make another one in December.  So even though it didn't last quite as long as I had hoped it really is still a cost savings for us to spend about $30 to last us 6 months.

Another way I spend less at the grocery store is making a monthly menu.  We get paid every two weeks, so that is when I do my grocery shopping.  I only buy enough to last the two weeks, so menu planning is a MUST for me.  Our menu also does not consist of fancy food.  We eat meatloaf, sloppy joes, tacos, spaghetti, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and right now LOTS of homemade soup!  Yes I know not the healthiest menu, but our budget is tight and I try to fix foods my kids will eat so we don't waste!

When making my soups I fill the crock pot full and make it stretch!  Meaning I might add a little extra water to it.  One crockpot full of soup will give us at least 3-4 meals.  So we eat it once then I freeze the rest into 2-3 containers.  So at no extra cost I have extra meals ready to go in my freezer!  I plan those into the menu for that month or the next as well.

My favorite "secret" weapon right now... ALDI!  That place is awesome for saving money.  I was a total skeptic for a long time, because I couldn't do everything in one place.  Until recently I would have had to drive an extra 20 minutes to another town to go to Aldi.  Last year though one opened up right next door to our Wal-Mart!  Do you think I went right away, nope!  It wasn't until this summer after begin convinced by friends to at least try it.  And you know what, its awesome!  I can get a full cart with about 2 weeks worth of food for $80!  Where at Wal-Mart I was spending at least $100 or more just on food!  If you have yet to try Aldi, I urge you to at least try a few things.  There has only been a handful of items that we have not cared for, but everything else there has been great.

I don't coupon, I don't look at add because quite frankly... Aint nobody got time for that!!!

What does your family do to save money?  I am always looking for new ways to improve my grocery savings, and I would love to hear from you.