12-30-11

Homemade Ketchup & Mustard recipe.

Homemade Mayonnaise recipe.


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Homemade liquid laundry soap


I've been using this recipe from the Duggar's family
for more than a year now. It has helped very much
to cut the cost of buying laundry soap from
the store which can be expensive.
It seems a little expensive at first purchasing
the Arm & Hammer washing soda and the Borax
but let me tell ya those two items will make
many batches of laundry soap. They have lasted
me more than a year. Sometimes I add a 1/2 cup
of Oxi Clean to the batch. A similar kind of
Oxi Clean can be found at Dollar Tree.
I add this as a little booster to getting clothes
clean. Or, sometimes I'll purchase a small bottle
of liquid Tide (when on sale and bought
with a coupon of course) and add it in to the
soap mix as an extra booster. It also helps to
keep it from gelling as much and it gives it
a nice smell.

I have found the Arm & Hammer washing soda
at Meijers. The Zote soap, another kind of
laundry bar soap, can also be found there as well.
The Fels-Naptha bar laundry soap can be found at Kroger.
They run around $1.00 or a little more a bar.
I usually cut the bar in half or thirds
to use in each batch.

I think I have figured that to make this soap
with just the regular ingredients and
the Oxy Clean costs about $1.00 a bucket!
I make about 4 buckets a year.
And I usually add about a 1/2 cup per load.


As for fabric softener I buy the Suavitel brand.
I can usually find it at Walgreens on sale
for buy 1 get 1 free, about $3 for 2 bottles.
I realize these are smaller bottles but I still
stretch them out to make them last.
I find that Suavitel has a nice scent that
usually lasts on my clothes and blankets.
The directions on them say to fill the bottle
lid a couple times for a large or super capacity
load. My washer is super capacity. I only fill
the bottle lid once, then fill the rest
of the fabric softener dispenser on my washing
machine with water. It works just fine
and I have no static on my clothes.

Some people dump their liquid fabric softener
into a bucket then fill it with another bottle
or two of water. Then they cut up sponges
and throw them into the bucket. When drying
clothes, take out one sponge, wring it out,
then toss it in your dryer like a dryer sheet.
Or you could use a wash cloth instead of sponges
in a certain color
so that you know which one is your homemade
dryer sheet.

When looking at how many loads
a bottle of fabric softener or a box or
bottle of laundry detergent does I have found
it usually refers to if you are doing
small loads. I do full capacity loads
to save time and money. Don't run your
machines only half full. Wait til you get
a full load to run them. It will save you money
in the long run!

If you do large loads of laundry and don't make
your own detergent, then experiment a little.
Try a large load with a small cup of detergent.
I'll bet you'll find it works almost as good
as a full size cup.


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10:15am

Breakfast/Brunch

Breakfast Quesadillas


I made this one up. I got the idea since
so many fast food joints are now offering
breakfast burritos. So to save money I am
making my own at home only I think it's
easier to make quesadillas than trying to
get the filling to stay in a wrapped burrito.
Same thing to me, burritos are rolled and quesadillas
are folded over in half.

For starters I peeled and diced up 4 small
potatoes. I added about 1/4 cup Italian dressing
to a skillet and fried them up. I sprinkled
a little onion powder on them. Kids don't like
onions on some things so I found a way to still
get some onion flavor.
(.50 cents- potatoes are Extra Value and
come in a 10 pound bag for $2.88)


In another skillet I fried up a roll of sausage in a
with a little water. The water
helps to pull the fat off the sausage and
helps to get it crumbly instead of staying
in big chunks. When draining I still run
more hot water over the sausage to remove
even more grease. Add to the potatoes.
($1.00 from Save-A-Lot)

Next add 4 eggs to the potato sausage mix.
Stir til cooked.
(.32 cents- Walgreens eggs are .99 cents a dozen)


Now in the skillet you used to fry sausage,
place a tortilla.
(extra value tortillas from Kroger $1.19)
On half of the tortilla
add a little sprinkle of
cheese, top with your breakfast filling,
then another sprinkling of cheese.
While the cheese adds flavor it also
acts as the "glue" to hold the tortilla
together.
Fold tortilla over top of filling and fry
each side in skillet til golden brown.
(1/2 cup Kroger shredded cheese .50 cents,
comes in a 2 cup bag for $2.00 on sale)

Serve with salsa,
or in my case because I don't
have any, I'll serve with ranch dressing
and some hot sauce :0) or
Ketchup for the kids,

Total cost to make 10 breakfast quesadillas-
$3.51
or .35 cents a serving

Put remaining leftover quesadillas in freezer.
Warm in microwave when you need a quick breakfast.


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11:35am


I keep hearing about everyone's new year's resolutions.
So sitting here thinking about what mine would be.
Probably nothing really out of the ordinary,
to save money, try not to impulse buy unless there
is a very good reason to having that item,
to get these bleep de bleep doctor bills
paid off and try to get better to not have as
much in the next year. I still rant and rave that
our insurance is outrageous each month and even
with insurance it's putting us broke to pay
off the doctor, hospital and prescriptions.
I hear people say all the time it's a good thing
we have insurance so it doesn't cost as much.
What the heck is good about having insurance?
It still costs a fortune with having it
and is putting us broke. This is the brokest
we have been in about 7 years all because
of the doctor bills!! Our insurance went up
an additional $100 to $200 a month,
our copays went up $5, a trip to the er copay
went up $100 and our deductible went up $100.



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11:45am


Ok all depressing crap aside. I'm sitting here working
on my blog at the dining room table. My child, sitting
on the couch in the living room decides to bombard me
with a full round of nerf darts, which was getting
annoying. The last round of darts was flying by my
head and over my computer and you are not going
to believe this but one hit me in the nose and STUCK.
I swear I did not deliberately put it there.
I raised up from my computer screen to look at
Jonathan and said, uh, do you mind. He lost it.
I was shot from across the room and this is where
the nerf dart stuck. The kids thought it was hilarious
and wanted to take a picture.
Can you see other darts sitting on my hoodie
behind me from where he shot about 20 of them at me?!
Is it time for them to go back to school yet????



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1:00pm

Took a very small load of scrap metal over
to the Recycling Exchange.
We had 5 pounds of aluminum (.50 cents/lb),
12 pounds brass ($1.40/lb.),
3 pounds of copper ($2.45/lb).

We made $26.66 on what little scrap metal
you see in the pictures below.


It wasn't much, probably the least amount
we've ever taken at one time.
But that little bit put some cash in the
bank account. Money that can be put towards
a free tank of gas for the week.
Every little bit helps and this scrap
metal would have otherwise been thrown
away at my hubby's work. Now he's got
all the other maintenance guys saving
their scrap plumbing and such in a bucket
in the shop for him.



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