How We Save Money Part Two...Including Recipes

In my last post, I detailed many of the ways our family saves money. Since then, I've thought of a few other things we do.

• We take advantage of our GREAT library system...not just for books, but also movies & CDs. We rarely pay for movie rentals at Blockbuster or other video stores & we rarely buy books, movies, or CDs. Any that we do purchase generally come from our birthday or Christmas gift money, so we're not tapping into our family accounts. This has been tough for me as I LOVE my books!
  
• I don't color my hair & at this point I really don't need to. Gray hairs didn't start to appear until after I turned 30. Only w/in the past few months have the grays started to become more visible, but still not enough to justify coloring my hair. If I follow the tradition on my mom's side of the family, I will have a nice head of white hair when I'm older...which looked great on my grandmother & her sisters. My mom's is starting to "head" (yes, pun intended!) that way also & looks great on her.
• When we use our printer, I print on the lowest setting unless it's an important document. This saves a lot of ink.
• We have not paid for haircuts for the six of us in almost three years! You can see my post from 2009 HERE about this. That post also explained why I rarely use shampoo anymore (which is another great savings for us).
  

Now for the recipes. I can't take credit for these recipes as I've collected them through various blogs, magazines, websites, etc. over the past few years.

LAUNDRY DETERGENT

1/2 bar Fels Naptha soap (grated)

8 c. water

Bring to a light boil for 5 minutes.

Add:

24 c. cold water

1/2 c. Borax

1/2 c. washing soda
Favorite essential oil - use your judgment on strength of scent
(I use sweet orange.)

Use 1/2 - 3/4 c. for full load of laundry. It becomes a thick gel as it sits, so I shake the bottle before each use. Store in air-tight container(s). It only takes about 20 minutes to make up a batch. The longest is grating the Fels Naptha.

Notes:
1) Most of the ingredients can be found in the laundry section of a grocery store, although ours has the Fels Naptha in the body soap aisle (not sure why!)

2) Arm & Hammer Washing Soda is different than baking soda.

3) I store mine in old (washed out) laundry detergent bottles & make 1/2 the recipe at a time. It fills about 3-50 oz. bottles & last about 2 months for our family of 6. Family usage will vary depending on the size of the family, amount of clothes that get dirtied, & any other factors.

4) The Fel Naptha has a very pleasant scent, but you can add any favorite essentials oils if desired. I started adding a sweet orange essential oil to ours.

5) I've been making detergent for about a year & have yet to buy more boxes of the washing soda & Borax. I still have over 1/2 left in each box. One box was $2.99 & the other was $3.99. (I can't remember which was which.) The Fels Naptha is about $1.50 & I've only had to buy three bars so far.

I don't have exact figures, but I have saved our family quite a lot in the last year. The cheapest I bought detergent was $2.99 for a 50 oz. bottle at Aldi & think they are now around $3.50.

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BABY WIPES
2 c. boiling water
2 T. baby bath
2 T. baby lotion
1/2 roll paper towels
(I've tried MANY brands over the years & my current favorite is Aldi's Boulder Ultra. They are the generic for Bounty, but in my opinion they're better.)

Boil water. Add baby bath & lotion, stirring until dissolved. This is where I separate the paper towels into individual sheets then cut them in half. (Choose a size paper towels can be used also to save this step.) Pour water over paper towels & store in airtight container.

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ALL PURPOSE DISINFECTING CLEANER
1/2 t. liquid dish soap
1 t. lemon juice
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. bleach or Borax
2 c. water

Combine ingredients in spray bottle. I add about 20 drops of Lemongrass essential oil. Use in kitchen, bathroom, etc. (A University of AZ study claims that this recipe will kill 99.9% of germs & bacteria.)

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WINDOW CLEANER
(I LOVE this cleaner! This recipe is actually for auto windshield washer fluid, but I think it works GREAT on our house windows & dries w/ NO streaks.)
9 c. water
1 c. isopropyl alcohol
1 T. liquid dish soap

Mix & store in plastic jug or spray bottle. Again, you can add an essential oil...I used Sweet Orange.

NOTE: Most people love white vinegar for windows, but in my opinion, this recipe works much better.

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DEODORANT SPRAY
All you need is isopropyl alcohol. Put it in a small spray bottle & use about 5-6 sprays under each arm in place of regular deodorant. If you want to soften the alcohol smell a bit, you can add essential oils. I use a combination of Lavender & Tea Tree oil (less of the Tea Tree oil because it is very strong & woodsy smelling).

NOTE: This is not a perfect deodorant & I found that sometimes I do need to reapply later in the day. I think this is better for cooler months, so in the summer I used regular deodorant.

There are many other homemade recipes I have that I haven't tried yet, but hope to in the near future. The one cleaning agent I absolutely WILL NOT use is ammonia. The fumes from it are so toxic & I can't stand to be near it for even a few seconds. I know bleach is not the safest to be around either, but I'm very careful w/ it, especially around the munchkins.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Also, if you have any great homemade recipes or money saving tips, please leave me a comment.