UpDate

I was asked if I could elaborate on just how much laundry soap is made by my recipe.  So, I just spent the last 45 minutes making a triple batch.  It was a week or two earlier than I normally would have made it, but in the interest of science, and because it's been a while since I actually calculated, I decided that today was the day.

Now, here's one tip:  I hardly ever make a single batch.  If you recall it takes about a half hour to make one.  Since I use a 5 gallon bucket, a double batch can be done in the same amount of time.  Since I'm in the middle of day 2 of solid laundry..... I decided on a triple batch.  While I was mixing the detergent and filling bottles I was boiling water and melting the soap for the last batch, saving more time there.  If I had done these all individually, it would have taken me an hour and a half total.  But I digress.  I had 4 of the large 96 load size detergent bottles - they say 1.17 US gallon - (you know the ones with the dispenser nozzle made to sit on it's side and not have to be picked up?).  That is the size detergent we used to buy, so I have several of those and then a couple of the smaller, pourable sizes.  I fill the pourable bottles from the large ones as needed.  That allows me to be able to pick up the bottle to shake before use.  Also, since this is a gel detergent, it does NOT come out of that little dispenser .... found that out the hard way the first time I made soap!  My triple batch filled 4 of those 1 1/4 gallon bottles.  When I fill these bottles, I'm not so neat even though I use a 4 cup measuring cup to pour into my funnel, so I pour on top of a towel (I also do that when I fill the smaller bottles).  I spill enough on that towel that I put it in the next laundry load without adding more soap.  So that made about 5 gallons and I estimate that this will last me through the end of the year.  I only used 1 bar of soap, 1 1/2 Cups of Borax, and 1 1/2 Cups of Washing Soda total for all 3 batches.  Again let me remind you that washing soda and baking soda are NOT the same.

The soap cost me about a dollar for one bar
The Borax was about 3 dollars for a box
The Washing soda was about 3 dollars for a box
And my recipe barely makes a dent in those boxes.  Let's estimate high and say I used a dollar for the soap and a dollar total for the borax and washing soda..... $2.00 for 4 jugs of soap and 45 minutes out of my day.  Some people think it is too much bother to make your own, but for me, it's worth my while.

Another Recipe

I have also started making my own dishwasher detergent.  Some of these items I already had on hand, so the cost is very minimal.  It took me about 2 minutes to make this, and it is immediately ready to use, so my time cost is nothing.  I spend longer making a pitcher of iced tea.  I keep a 1 cup measure in my laundry soap making bucket along with my cleaning supply recipes.  Again, no one removes these things from my spot under penality of death!!!!

1 C Borax
1 C washing soda
1/2 C kosher salt
5 pkts unsweetened lemonade (make sure to use the unsweetened packets of YELLOW lemonade)

The borax and washing soda do clump in the box a little while they are stored in the pantry, so I use the bottom of my measuring cup to crush the large lumps and then mix it all together.

Use 1 level tablespoon per load - Yields about 45 loads.  Put 1/3 of the Tbl in the little detergent compartment and the rest in the large one, if your dishwasher has them.  We run the dishwasher AT LEAST one time per day for a family of 6, sometimes 2-3 times when school is out, so this is a real money saver for my family.  This batch will last my family about 1 month. The smell of the powder is slightly of lemonade, but there is no smell when the dishwasher is done.  Also no staining inside the dishwasher.

Mix all the ingredients and store in a tightly sealed container - I use a Rubbermaid bowl with a lid that snaps on.   You're only storing about 2 1/2 cups of powdered cleaner, so you don't need a real big container.  A mason jar would probably work just as well, but with my clumsy children, I wanted to avoid a glass container,  I also wrote on the lid of the container so everyone knows they only use 1 level Tbl per load, and then I store a Tbl in the container so no one can say they didn't measure because they couldn't find one.  After all, with my teenagers, if it's not easy, they won't do it.  I have caught one boy putting liquid Dawn into the dishwasher because it was on the counter and he did not want to bend over to pull a detergent tablet from right next to him under the sink...... GGRRRRR.  I always wondered how we seem to go through so much Dawn when we run our dishwasher so often...... that may be the next recipe I look for, hmmmmm.

I had the Borax and washing soda, from making laundry soap, so I bought the salt for about $2 for a container.  The salt is an abrasive to clean the food particles off the dishes (kosher because they are bigger crystals), and the lemonade is for the citric acid, also helping with the cleaning.  I have enough salt to make several batches.  The lemonade I also bought.  I used the generic Wal-Mart brand instead of Kool-Aid, for 12 cents per packet, and it works just as well.  I will now start watching for the Kool-Aid sales again where they sell 10 for a dollar instead of the regular 5 for a dollar.  And if I can find a coupon too, well bonus!! And honestly, the borax and washing soda have lasted me so long that I don't have a clue what I paid for them, but for as little as is used, it's a great value.

The Borax and Washing Soda are in the laundry aisle.  Usually on a bottom shelf at my store.  Kosher salt in the baking aisle, and lemonade in the drink mix aisle.

I have seen this recipe also using straight citric acid or Lemi-shine, but in the side by side comparisons I found on several sites, the lemonade seems to clean the best.  Plus at only 12 cents per envelope for the generic, its cheaper than the acid or Lemi-shine.  The lady who's recipe I used estimates the cost at 2 cents per load, which is probably pretty close, so for 45 loads, it is less than a dollar.  This seems to clean just as well as the Finish tablets or gel packets that I was using.

Here is what the packaging looks like if you are looking for them in the store.  Be sure to use WASHING soda, not baking soda..... they are NOT the same thing.

Frugality

When I bought my first house I made $6.25 an hour.  In fact, I remember going to the owner of the franchise and explaining to him that even though I was an hourly manager, I was trying to buy a house and my income didn't quite qualify, could I have a quarter raise?  I got it, bringing me to the $6.25 and  bought the house.  A year later I was also a new bride.  We didn't have kids then, but money was tight with the house and I  became an extreme couponer, before it was in vogue.  My husband enjoyed the challenge of getting groceries for as little as possible and he took over the grocery shopping.  After we divorced, I had a hard time getting myself back into that same level of couponing.... by then I was the restaurant manager and my time with my kids was precious, I did not want to spend it at the grocery store.  Now that we are a family of 6, living mainly on Mike's salary, I still am not able to get back into the big coupon routine, although I am trying, but I am huge on other ways to save money in the family budget.  My big way right now is to make my own laundry soap.  It only takes about a half hour to make it and my laundry costs only about 3 cents per load for the soap.  WAY cheaper than the other soaps, works well in my "he" washer, cleans well, and smells good.  Quite a feat when I am doing laundry for teenage boys too.  I have my own 5 gallon bucket (penality of death to ANYONE, even hubby who touches my bucket) in which I keep laminated copies of my recipes.  Here is my laundry soap:

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or any other type bar soap
1/2 C washing soda
1/2 C Borax powder

Grate the soap (I use the food processor.  A hard bar like the Fels Naptha works best)
and put in a sauce pan.  Add 6 C water and heat until all the soap melts.  Add washing soda and Borax, stir until dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 4 C hot water into your bucket.  Now add your soap mixture to it and stir.  Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir again. 

Now, some people leave it in the bucket, I saved some laundry soap bottles and at this point I use a funnel and pour it into these bottles.  Much more convienient for me to store these that way.  The soap needs to sit for about 24 hours before you use it.  It will now be a watery gel.  Be sure to shake it or stir it before each use.  Use 1/2 cup per load.  This is low sudsing soap and if you do not see suds, that is OK.  The ingredients clean, not the suds.

We have been using this for about a year and it works great!

This Week's Accomplishments

Molly has learned lots of new things lately.  She can climb up on Zach's step stool to pull things off the kitchen counters, she can climb up on a dining room chair to pull things off the table, she can pull said chairs away from the table to be able to climb on them, she can unzip the boys' backpacks and pull things out of them, she's learned to unroll the toilet paper, and she can make her toothbrush wet - by dunking it in the toilet - when it's time to brush teeth.... ICK.  Nothing is safe in the house anymore, she is figuring out how to get into everything!!  She even knocked out our phone service for a couple of days because she apparently stuck something in a phone jack, bent some prongs, and shorted the whole thing out.  Good thing we had our cells.  We already had put the child proof things on the outlets, but I am not sure they make them for phone jacks... amazon, here I come to find out.

Let's reflect for a moment on her accomplishments over the last year.  After all, this time last year we were still in China, and Molly had been with us for 15 days ( Then:17 months old, 12 1/2 pounds, Now: 29 months old, 22 1/2 pounds).
We had to buy her size 1 diapers since the size 2 we took were too big- today she goes to size 5!
She wore size 3 month clothes- now I am switching her clothes to 24 month /2T
She barely crawled- now she won't stop running
She never smiled - now she always has a smile on her face
Only ate 5 bottles a day and a snack of bread - now eats lots of different things
She still has a little of her "Budda Belly" - that malnourished distended abdomen, but it continues to improve along with her nutrician.  Her doctor assures me she will grow out of it and be fine.  Silly me, I thought that just went away once her diet was fixed.

Wow, what a year!

Sleep, I need sleep!

Have I told you all that school has started again?  As always, the week before school was filled with phone calls from all the bus drivers.  Yes all of them, since most of the time the one that picks them up for school is NOT the one who brings them home.  And the little kids go to school an hour earlier than the big kids.  And there are a gazillion new bus routes for saving gas money.   Blah, blah, Zach comes home at 3 again, blah, blah big boys go at 8 am again, home a bit later at 4:30, blah, blah WHAT???  Zach now goes to school at 10 minutes 'til 7???  That's 20 minutes earlier than last year.  Lets back track this....... bus comes at 6:50, must be out the door by 6:40, up by 5:30..... Holy Crap that's early!!!  So now Zach and I are getting up 45 minutes earlier than Mike and over an hour earlier than the big boys.  Oh, yes, did I forget to mention that also means Molly gets up earlier too, since when she hears us moving around she feels she must be up too so she does not miss anything?  And on weekends she is getting up earlier since that is when she is getting used to waking up.  I miss the summer when I could sleep  until 6:15 or 6:30 even - whenever Molly would hear Mike getting around for work and I had to get up with her.  AHHHH, the good old days !!!

Update:  I had to order it from Amazon, but I found the matching coat hook for under Molly's Command Center board (yeah, I was bummed when Lowes no longer carried them).  The Command Centers are working great... Zach comes home every day and puts his homework in his box- he has to stand on a stool to reach it, but he is so proud to put it in the correct place.  HHMMM, makes me wonder why he would never stand on his stool to hang up his coat before.......

I have also added a shoe shelf in the hall (one of those plain white ones with the cubby holes) to try to keep the shoes under control - try having 3 or so pair of size 12 shoes laying around the hall taking up tons of valuable space?  But then only being about to find one of them while getting ready to walk out the door because Molly is carrying it around the house.  Yeah, I know, like they could ever find their shoes before Molly came to live here either!!  Funny, both my tennis shoes will fit in the same slot, the boys can only get one shoe in each slot...... 

Bathroom Remodel

 

So, here is the bathroom "Before" .  I "re-did" this bathroom first thing when we got married 4 years ago, I painted the blue walls tan, added a very "country quilt panel" curtain, and have bare walls and basic storage for the "BE" kids' supplies.  We did change to a larger vanity, because the other one was too small for the space and didn't have any storage.  I have been SO very unhappy with this room... plain, utilitarian, but I had no idea what to do in such a tiny bathroom.

Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with some ideas.  Much nicer than those over the toilet stands you see everywhere. I found these towels at Wal-Mart, the crates at Jo-Ann's (which first I stained dark and then put an "orange" wash over that.  Add the fancy brackets and two cute baskets and so much storage added I'm not even sure right now what to put in the bottom crate - other than Molly's "Potty" book.  The curtain was replaced with a roman shade, blue with a small flower that matches the towels.  I even bought a new toilet paper holder and towel ring in the bronze finish to match.

Oh, and that ugly Sterlite storage box - gone.  I used the left over fabric from the curtains to cover 2 card board boxes to hold the BE (bladder exstrophy) supplies, found this cute basket to mount on the wall and got the supplies out of the way.  I just need to find a couple of pictures to hang and it will be complete.  Unfortunately, the bathroom is too small to take pictures of those. (I'm standing in the hall to take these!)

Molly has given the bathroom her seal of approval - now maybe she will learn to go in the potty!! 

Or maybe not

Almost Ready

Well, I spent yesterday in the City getting ready for my weekend project.... the main floor bathroom!  We used to use navy blue towels in there, but then we got a bunch of navy towels to use in our other bathrooms when we added 2 kids to the house, so now they always end up where the showers are and there are never towels in the main floor.  So my day began at Wal-Mart, to pick a cute towel color to build our new décor from.  Then off to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to find curtain fabric, paint for a cute "white washed" project - only not white, a cute color which you will see when I reveal the finished product.  Today I made the curtain and valance.  Tomorrow begins the real work, hopefully getting done before bed time.  This is a very quick, remodel.... no change in wall paint, no new floor tile, and no new vanity, sink, or potty.  But keep watching for what I do.... I'm pretty excited and hoping it turns out as well as it looks in my mind!!

The Command Center Has Arrived

School begins tomorrow, so I have been trying to get our "Command Center" set up.  The goal here is for no one to be running around in the mornings looking for anything before they can be out the door to wait for the bus.  Also so I know where to find that permission slip that HAS to be in today!!!  Where is it?  Oh, yeah, it's in my box.

I started with 4 old black picture frames we weren't using anymore.  They were just a very plain, basic frame. 

So I hot glued some beaded garland around the frame and then spray painted them chocolate brown (yes with my new favorite spray paint for plastics)

I then added a bulletin board to the inside and took out the glass.  I covered the bulletin boards with scrapbook paper, and made each child a large first initial out of cardstock and laminated that to identify who's board was whose.

This morning I was cutting cereal boxes then gluing scrapbook paper to them, and stapled that onto the bulletin board.  (The boxes are for papers I need to do something with, right now Steven has the order form for band parent shirts in his box and Zach has his sign up sheet for what I want to volunteer to donate for school parties in his.)   

I took down the board with the row of  coat hooks that was hanging in the entrance hallway and each kid has their assigned hook, under their command center board. (Still need to buy a last coat hook for Molly, I bought these hooks a year ago just planning to add another row of hooks, lower so the little kids could reach them to hang up their own coats.  I like this idea much better than that one!) 

 

I asked the boys if they like their new area, Zach loves it, Pete likes it but wishes I had used darker blue paper, even though he knows I didn't have anything darker in the house, Steve appreciates all the work I put into it.  I think that is teenager for he doesn't want to hurt my feelings, but.......

Molly thinks hers is pretty.

 

My fall house organization/purge is getting under way.  I couldn't do too much while the boys were out of school, since it just gets messed up again so quickly or they don't want anything thrown away.  This is my year for getting back to basics.  Our house is not big enough for the 6 of us and all the extra stuff that we don't need.  By Thanksgiving I want there to be a place to keep everything so nothing has to sit out and I don't feel like we are all crammed in here.

 

SO FAR:

Command Center- done (except for that last hook I need to get at Lowes next time I hit the city)

 

Pantry- done (that was a spring project)

  Craft Center- done- see, instead of the doors I made fabric panels to cover the openings and I absolutely love it.

We're In Trouble Now!!

Last night when Mike to Molly back to bed, I had put the baby gate up in a different spot than normal.  Usually it is behind her doorway, to block the basement stairs.  But Zach and Molly have a new game that involves Zach pushing a stuffed animal around in the umbrella stroller and Molly pushing one in her toy babydoll stroller.  But Molly kept hitting walls in the little hall by her room so I gated it to keep her out of the hall with the stroller.  ANYWAY...... Molly was walking back to bed ahead of Mike and she walked up to the gate, and released the tension bar......  We always knew she was smart and watches everything, but Zach calls for help taking down the gate because he doesn't like to do it!!!!  From now on we need to be sure the locking bar is behind so she can't reach it.  29 months tomorrow and we are in trouble!!!

And while I am on here, Happy 2nd Gotcha Day, Zach!!!  For those that don't know, in the life of an adopted family, Gotcha Day is the day when the child comes live with the family. It the day we Got You.  It's just as important as a birthday.  Molly's Gotcha Day is coming soon... Aug 6 will be her first.  We love you guys, and are SO glad we Gotcha!!!!