Are there just some cuts you aren't willing to make?

OK, before I get off on this topic, let me apologize for the lengthy delay in posts. We have been doing VBS at two different churches, painting, tending the garden and a variety of other summer projects. I was thinking the other day, IF I was perfect, every day I would have a Bible study, workout, fix three meals, clean up, keep the house neat, tend to the vegetable garden and still squeeze in teaching my kids. However, I am FAR from perfect and all those things don't happen. Every day, something falls through the cracks. There truly isn't enough time in a day for one person to do all that. I think the sooner we realize that and learn to let some things go, and not feel guilty about it, the better off we are. All that to say, the blog is one thing that just hasn't made the cut in a while. Now, back to my topic for today....

Are there just some costs you aren't willing to make? I know there are for me. We all draw that line at different places. One cut I am betting you aren't willing to make is deodorant. I know that I'm not! I don't want to go around all natural and earthy (-stinky!). However, (here it comes.....)

Several months ago, someone I know started using rubbing alcohol instead of deodorant. It wasn't a cost cutting measure. It was due to ongoing allergies to deodorant. She started trying this and has had great success. I did a little research. The odor we associate with armpits comes from bacteria. Alcohol kills this odor causing bacteria. It also has a drying effect which can help prevent excessive sweating. Deodorant has been rumored to cause a variety of diseases, from Alzheimer's to breast cancer. I can't attest to the validity of those claims, but I do believe that the less chemicals we introduce to bodies, the better.

Still, I just didn't think I was ready to give up my deodorant. I mean come on! That is where I draw the line! Curiosity finally got the better of me and I had to try it out. I used alcohol Friday morning. I ran a variety of errands that day, in and out of the heat. I carried my deodorant in my purse, just in case. However, I never needed it. I didn't shower Friday night and Saturday morning, we did hours of yard work. Mowing, weed eating, trimming plants. It is HOT where we are and we worked up a good sweat. I had not applied alcohol since Friday morning. However, post work, still no smell. I was surprised. 36 hours after showering and applying alcohol, there was still no odor.

I know most of you will read this and think what I thought, "There is no way I am going there. There are just some things I am not willing to give up. She has gone off the deep end!" I hear you. I felt the same way. It just stuck in the back of my mind until I finally had to give it a try. Of course, a few of you will tease me about this. I even debated writing about it. I decided to go out on a limb since it has duel benefits. Saving money is just a side benefit. The real plus is not having to put the mix of chemicals on my skin each day. I have been just swabbing it on with a cotton ball. One method you can try is putting it in a spray bottle and adding some essential oil to scent it. Then just spray on. This sounds more convenient, but I haven't been to the store to pick up a bottle yet. Post a comment if you decide to try this, or feel free to post a comment if you just want to heckle me. I can take it!

I fell off the bandwagon, but I am getting back on

I began to impliment many of the cost cutting measures discussed here at the beginning of April. When I hit the six week mark, I hit a wall. All the rain kept me from hanging out my clothes for about 3 weeks. I am guessing I won't have a $36 electric bill for May. We also have been on the road A LOT the last 3 weeks. That has resulted in us eating out more than we had been. Not just on the road, but even at home. I just haven't had time to plan and make meals like I had been. These two things combined have cost us financially.

I am getting back in the game. I am starting back where I left off. The sun is out and the clothes are out on the line. We will be home for a long stretch. I will be working on some menus this weekend and will be grocery shopping to get us back on track.

I just want to encourage you to stick with cost cutting measures. If you do backslide for a time period, just get back to it when you can. Life happens and you have to make adjustments when necessary. I read a really encouraging article on Yahoo! Finance the other day (see link below). It was about how to spend like a frugal millionaire. While my spending is not even close to theirs, the ideas are the same, and that is encouraging. They practice delayed gratification & time consumer purchases. For me this translates to not buying things until I can pay in cash. I do not want to incur debt. It also means waiting for what I want to go on sale. They don't like wasting anything. Here, it means not wasting electricity or water in order to lower my bill. Their sense of self-entitlement is highly minimized. This means telling myself no, lots of times. I don't have keep up with, or measure up to, anyone else. Self-entitlement gets a lot of people into a lot of financial trouble. There are some other tips and it is a short read is you are interested. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-to-Spend-Like-a-Frugal-usnews-15357371.html)

I don't think of a frugal lifestyle as being cheap or denying myself. I think of it as building habits that will move me towards being free of the bonds that finances place on us. I think of it as building habits & attitudes that millionaires have. So if you haven't started yet, or got to a slow start or started great, but haven't stuck with it, thats ok. You can always start again. Persevere towards your goals and don't let the little bumps in the road stop you.

Livin' Life Freegan style

I love that term, "Freegan." I have to credit a friend for turning me onto that. I haven't gone true freegan, nor do I plan to. If you aren't familiar with what that is, Google it for some entertaining reading. However, I will take what I can get discounted or free. Here are a few examples:

A friend recently told me about The Freecycle Network. You join your local group and give away things you don't need and receive things you do. You just put a posting on-line of anything you are willing to give to someone else (no money changes hands) or you post if there is something you are looking for that someone else may have collecting dust in their garage. The friend who told me about this got a free set of clothes line poles and installed them in her yard to hang her laundry. I guess the only way to beat free is if someone pays you to take it away. I know I have had a thing or two like that in my garage before!

Keep you eyes open for free or deeply discounted offers and take advantage of them. A great way to do this is to sign up on the e-mail lists of businesses you frequent. A toy store recently e-mailed customers asking them to complete an on-line survey of their business. In return for completeing the survey (which took me less than 3 minutes), they gave me a $10 gift card to their store. That is a great trade off! I am going today to use it on a Christmas or birthday gift I can put up for later. I also sign up on e-mail lists for restaurants. We have cut back on eating out, a lot, but still go occasionally. I often get e-mails for free appitizers or deserts. Sometimes even a buy one get one free meal. If I am going to eat out, I certainly welcome any discount I can get. Find the web sites for places you go and sign up. Obviously, this is an advertising tool directly to your inbox, but to me, it is worth it. If a company e-mails you to much or isn't sending you things of value, you can always unsubscribe. There is usually a link at the bottom of the e-mail that will help you do this.

My last freegan idea of the day is to utilize what is scrap to others. This is kind of like Freecycle, but you have to go directly to people to get what you need. Example? I have been wanting to build a new compost bin. I needed hay bales or some supporting structure to contain it. I had priced several products to build it, but didn't really want to spend a lot of $$. In my neighborhood, there is a house currently under construction. In the front yard, they had about 50 cinderblocks stacked up. I caught the builder at the site today and asked if they were scrap. He said they were and let me have them. Now I can build my compost bin for free (and it will be much sturdier than what I would have purchased). Love that!! Here is another example. A couple of years back, I was doing another building project and needed some smaller pieces of scrap lumber. I mentioned it in the company of a friend who builds cabinets and he said he had a giant pile of scrap outside his workshop that I was welcome to. This was just stuff that he burns periodically. While it didn't have everything I needed, it had a lot. It saved me a significant amount of money.

Just think creatively before making purchases. Many people are happy to give you things they don't need any longer. They are happy its gone and you have what you need for free. Don't hesitate to ask. If you have ideas on ways you have gone freegan, let me know!

Foaming hand soap

I don't know what it is about kids and foaming hand soap. I guess anything that involves bubbles is exciting - blowing bubbles, bubble gum, bubblebath. If I have foaming hand soap available, they will wash up enough to perform surgical procedures. This is a good thing. Kids hands get so dirty! Here is my tip on how to stretch & save on hand soap.

Purchase a foaming hand soap dispenser (emphasis on foaming) for each location you keep soap. Select a container that you will be happy with for a long time, because you will use it over and over as you refill it. Once you have used up the soap that came in it, the savings will begin.

Purchase a large (64oz) bottle of hand soap refill. Fill your empty dispenser halfway with soap and top it off with water. In my master bathroom, I had purchased a bottle that had light blue soap. When I prepared my refill, I added a drop of blue food coloring to create the same look. Shake the mixture well. It will separate some at first, but shake it a few times over a 24 hour period (just whenever you use it) and it will soon be mixed enough to stay in solution. It needs to be thin in consistency to work in the foaming dispenser.

We get a lot of life out of that large bottle of soap. It will last me at least a year. Because it is diluted, the kids can use as much as they want and I am still saving money. You have to make the upfront purchase of the foaming dispensers ($2-$5) if you don't already have them, but in the long run you save.

Always be thinking of ways to stretch what your are currently using to get a little more life out of it. These little things add up!

Dishwasher soap a bust?

On a previous post, I gave you the recipe for the dishwasher soap, giving it my seal of approval. I am going to rescind that statement. The first couple of loads I washed came out clean, but did seem to have a cloudy appearance to them. I thought maybe it was just me. However, the DH has commented on it as well. I have tried it a few more times and decided that I won't be using this in the future.

I have done some research on the dishwasher soap topic and there are opinions all over the map. There are people who swear by powder, some profess loyalty to liquids and there are the tablet users (your most expensive option per load). There is also a lot of brand loyalty. There are outside factors that influence the ability of your detergent to do it's job. Things such as the quality of your dishwasher, the type of water you have (soft/hard) and how much you pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in. Of course, this blog isn't about recommending a brand, it is about cutting cost, so here is your tip: Stick with what is working for you, but try to cut back on how much you use.

I use a name brand liquid that comes in a 45oz bottle. Two bottles will last me year and with my crew, we average 5 loads a week. I never fill the cup all the way. I typically use about a 2 tablespoons per load. I don't measure, I just estimate. Based on how much I am using a year, this is not a big expenditure for us as it is. For now, I am going to stick with what is working.

You can now comment on my posts!

I have spent a lot of time learning more about HTML coding than I ever thought I would. However, I have fixed the problem and you can now comment on my posts. If you have any great money saving ideas that are working for you, be sure and share!

Dishwasher soap & $36 electric bill

I couple of people have asked me about comments on this blog. I am trying to figure out how to get this on here. I have comments enabled, but it is not showing up at the bottom. I am sure some minor thing is off. Hopefully I will have this fixed soon.

I have tried out the homemade dishwasher soap. It works just as well as the laundry soap and will be a money saver. This will be a definite switch for me. It is easy to make and easy to use. If you are already making your own laundry soap, you should have all these ingredients on hand. Here is the recipe:

Mix equal parts Borax & baking powder (not washing soda, as used in the laundry soap). I started with 1/2 cup of each. If you like it, you can mix larger batches. Add enough vinegar to create a mixture slightly thinner than toothpaste. Store in a container with a lid. If the lid is not tight fitting, it will dry out. You can add more vinegar if this happens. Use 2 tablespoons in the dispenser of your dishwasher.

On a different note, I opened my electric bill for April and it was $36. I nearly fell over. What great returns for my efforts! Now, to explain how I did that, I will recap a few things. I think my big saver was hanging clothes out to dry. With all the rain, I haven't done that much the last two weeks, so I expect May's bill to be higher. We also didn't use the heat or air conditioner, with the exception of two days. We just didn't need it. We have opened windows a lot. I continue on my mission to keep things unplugged and lights turned off. I only turn the computer on twice a day, as opposed to leaving it running all day.

I have some new information coming soon about saving on your grocery bill. We have made some good cuts here and I will pass on what is working for us.

I am getting to a point where when I pay the bills, I have more left over. It brings me such great satisfaction to see a pay off for my efforts. I encourage you to hang in there and continue to make changes, little by little. It takes time and a cumulation of efforts to see a difference, but you will get there!