Friday, August 9, 2013
Blogging Changes
Okay folks! Bare with me as I have been getting more into blogging, I have learned some tricks and tidbits that are going to help make things more dynamic. I will be covering some of the previous topics again. Heck, I might ever reuse some of my wandering diatribes, but I will be re-vamping things. I am excited and I am excited to pursue the prospect of adding another blogging mom to the mix to offer a different perspective. Stay tuned for exciting changes!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Break
It has been awhile since I posted and in that time we have had a lot of changes in our family. For starters, we welcomed the final addition to our family, Charlie. I had to have a C-Section with him, so I took some time off of everything for recovery and just to enjoy my family. I have never been so thankful to have an amazing employer that worked with me and all the things that we have changed in our lives saved us enough money that we didn't miss my income when I was out of work.
Another change we made was we started making our own dish detergent. It has worked out really well for us and we have been happy with the savings. It is a simple recipe of 1 cup Borax, 1 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup Kosher salt, and 1/2 cup LemiShine. I make a double batch because it fits in my container and a double batch is just enough that I can dump the entire LemiShine in the mix. It is a little heavy on the LemiShine, but since we have really hard water I think it helps tremendously. It cost me about $6 to make a double batch give or take just a bit.
We also have been on a household purge. We are getting rid of things that we haven't used or are broken. It is amazing just how much stuff kids hoard because they feel it is important for some reason. We are taking 4-5 bags a week out of our house of just hoarded items. I am selling what I can on swaps, but for the most part I am just trying to get the junk out of our house. With all of us living in our small house we can't afford all the "treasures" to remain in our house. We haven't even made it through half of the house yet, but we are getting there. I am dreading the basement which is where everything goes that needs to be either sold, stored, or goes to the playroom.
I have made the decision that we are going to get more organized and I am going to make closet storage systems for our family. That is my next goal to conquer, but I have to get through the purge so I know what I need to store. I am looking forward to the end result. I will have a house to envy at the end. But the getting there is an uphill battle. We will prevail!
We are hoping to sell our home later this year and in order to do that we need to have the best organization to hide the fact that we have 5 kids living in this very small house. We also have some small home improvements to make to get ready to go. I got an amazing deal on some ceramic tile, so we are getting ready to re-do some floors. That has prompted a mini-renovation to the kitchen and I sure there will be more that follows. It seems to be a never ending lists of projects and changes to be made.
The conversion to a more natural life seemed daunting when we started, but once we made the first change the ones following got progressively easier. We have removed most of the chemicals from our house. We have started eating as much fresh and local food as we can. And we have cut back on our general consumption in a month. In doing this we have eliminated excess waste from our home. All of these changes have made us stop and look at our priorities as a family. People get so caught up in the latest, greatest, whatever that they are losing sight of what really matters. The changes we are starting to make now have a completely different motivation behind them and at the end of the day, that makes me happy.
Another change we made was we started making our own dish detergent. It has worked out really well for us and we have been happy with the savings. It is a simple recipe of 1 cup Borax, 1 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup Kosher salt, and 1/2 cup LemiShine. I make a double batch because it fits in my container and a double batch is just enough that I can dump the entire LemiShine in the mix. It is a little heavy on the LemiShine, but since we have really hard water I think it helps tremendously. It cost me about $6 to make a double batch give or take just a bit.
We also have been on a household purge. We are getting rid of things that we haven't used or are broken. It is amazing just how much stuff kids hoard because they feel it is important for some reason. We are taking 4-5 bags a week out of our house of just hoarded items. I am selling what I can on swaps, but for the most part I am just trying to get the junk out of our house. With all of us living in our small house we can't afford all the "treasures" to remain in our house. We haven't even made it through half of the house yet, but we are getting there. I am dreading the basement which is where everything goes that needs to be either sold, stored, or goes to the playroom.
I have made the decision that we are going to get more organized and I am going to make closet storage systems for our family. That is my next goal to conquer, but I have to get through the purge so I know what I need to store. I am looking forward to the end result. I will have a house to envy at the end. But the getting there is an uphill battle. We will prevail!
We are hoping to sell our home later this year and in order to do that we need to have the best organization to hide the fact that we have 5 kids living in this very small house. We also have some small home improvements to make to get ready to go. I got an amazing deal on some ceramic tile, so we are getting ready to re-do some floors. That has prompted a mini-renovation to the kitchen and I sure there will be more that follows. It seems to be a never ending lists of projects and changes to be made.
The conversion to a more natural life seemed daunting when we started, but once we made the first change the ones following got progressively easier. We have removed most of the chemicals from our house. We have started eating as much fresh and local food as we can. And we have cut back on our general consumption in a month. In doing this we have eliminated excess waste from our home. All of these changes have made us stop and look at our priorities as a family. People get so caught up in the latest, greatest, whatever that they are losing sight of what really matters. The changes we are starting to make now have a completely different motivation behind them and at the end of the day, that makes me happy.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Sunlight, Coupons, and Facebook....
In effort to lead a more natural lifestyle, I am having to cut costs in certain places in order to spend more in others. I have cut what I can out of our cleaning budget and now am moving forward to the grocery budget. I would like to sit here and say that we will be eating only fresh and organic foods, but that just won't happen in our house. With 5 kids and two adults... We eat A LOT. And with two adults working full-time outside of the house, we just don't have the time to manage going to the store everyday or even every two days to get fresh ingredients. So, we are doing the best we can and trying to eliminate as much processed food as we can and still be budget friendly.
I know gardening is a rewarding and cost-effective way to get produce... and living in rural Iowa this should be cake for me, but it's not. I swear I have the shadiest lawn known to man. My husband and I tried to do a garden a couple years ago. We went out and spent quite a bit on renting a tiller, getting good soil (love me some Miracle Grow!), and getting plants. Well, we didn't kill the plants. In fact, they were HUGE. But they didn't produce anything because they didn't get enough sun. Our tomato plants were easily 5 feet tall, but only had itty-bitty green tomatoes that never ripened. Our pepper plants were the same way. The broccoli and cauliflower didn't even show signs of becoming a vegetable and so the list went on and on. Even the herbs I had planted were bland. I went down to our local extension office and talked to the agronomist there. He basically told me that my plants had all the nutrients they needed, just not enough sun.
I have always grown plants. While I would say gardening is a great love of mine, I truly do enjoy having fresh vegetables that I know exactly where they have come from and what chemicals are and are not on them. It was such a disappointment to not be able to have our own garden. Now, since we are on a house hunt for something to better fit our family, a yard where we could have a garden is something we look for everywhere we go.
In the meantime... while our family is in a state of flux, I am couponing for our needs. I am not going to start stockpiling until after we commit and make the move, but that is on my agenda for the future. I will be the crazy mom that has enough toilet paper to last through the apocalypse. I will have enough toothpaste that I will not have to question whether or not it is something we need that shopping trip. I will do all this because I have set my mind to do this. My husband, believe it or not, is completely on board and willing to coupon for me if I send him up with a list and the coupons. My kids think it is fun for the most part, and since we do a majority of our grocery shopping out of town they don't get quite as embarrassed. (Although with the oldest being only 10, I know that that will change here very soon.)
I sat down last night and started my coupon binder. I spent a few hours clipping coupons and sorting them, only to quickly realize that I need more plastic pocket things. (I guess that is a good thing, right?) I plan on picking up more of those in the next couple days so I can get ready for this weekend's papers. I am feeling very lucky about my insert situation. I will be able to get inserts from work, from my in-laws, my parents, our own papers plus whatever I find online. I have found the Krazy Coupon Lady's site to be extremely helpful and I am seriously considering buying her book.
I am nervous about starting the couponing process. I am hoping that I can figure it all out as I go along and that it becomes a "How did I not do this years ago?" situation. Right now, I feel like it is a "What the heck did I get myself into?" situation. I will do this and I will prevail. I know it will become easier as I actually get into it, but my goal is to be an extreme couponer that gets things for free or extremely cheap.
I have found other ways of saving money on items we need that aren't as daunting. On Facebook, swaps and co-ops have saved my life! Okay, not literally, but they have saved our budget. I have been able to get things used off of swap and saved tons of money! My 10 year old saved up his allowance for a DS. He had enough to buy one new, but I found one on swap with 13 games for $120. The family ended up selling it to him for $100 with all the games. At that point in time, the system was going for around $140 new. He saved a bit of money plus got a ton of games to start out with. He was over the moon. He now buys things he wants off of swap only. I can't tell you how happy that makes me as a mom. He has learned that if he is patient, he will find a deal.
Another example of a great deal I have found using the swaps is my Cricut. Most women love their Cricuts, I have yet to take mine out of the box. But I found this amazing deal on swap and I just couldn't pass it up! I bought a Cricut with 2 cartridges for $50. New the version of the Cricut I have retails for around $160, and it was a Black Friday special for $100. I don't feel bad about not using it because I know it works and I didn't drop a ton of money on it. When I finally have a moment to sit down and do my scrapbooking, I will be so happy to have it but until then it is patiently waiting for me in my craft area.
My co-op deals are just about as good, but instead of buying used products these are brand new. They take a little longer to get to me, but they make it so worth it. I got started in co-ops when I started cloth diapering. It is a fast and easy way to get diapers for cheap. I got hooked and it makes my husband cringe a bit... I love BabyLegs. (Leggings for babies. You put them with a onesie and pants aren't necessary) I wanted to get them for use around our house since our kids seem to crawl out of their pants all the time. Well, at $8-12 a pair or even $5 on Amazon, I just couldn't justify it. My co-op just ran an order where I got them for $2.75 a pair plus shipping. I can handle that.
The savings off of co-ops has made such a difference in our house. I will warn you that you have to be very careful because not all co-ops on Facebook are legitimate. I only use ones that take Paypal for payments. I feel it protects both parties the best. There are other co-ops that use WePay, and I am just not familiar with that company and not comfortable with giving them my financial information. This is not to say that a co-op that uses WePay is bad, but I have stumbled across a few co-ops that had admins that were less than honest. It just isn't worth the risk for me no matter what the savings are....
I encourage people to do a few of the following anytime they buy anything online, new or used....
1. ALWAYS comparison shop before you buy. Don't just assume that someone is being honest about the price or giving a good deal.
2. When you are buying something used, price is negotiable. If you don't feel like haggling, then don't but understand that the seller usually expects people to haggle with them on the price. So as a seller, I price things a bit higher to get what I truly want for the item.
3. If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. Someone selling an iPad for $100, what's wrong with it? Why are they willing to part with it for so little? Just be a cautious buyer and make sure electronics work before buying them.
4. Take batteries and a screwdriver with you for swap pick-ups. That way you can test if it really just needs new batteries or if it doesn't work at all.
5. Always meet in public places. Just basic internet safety.
6. Watch out for stolen items on the swaps. I find that people that are constantly putting up the same kind of items are often putting up stolen items. We have some computer guys that put up machines all the time, this is not what I mean... I am talking about Joe Schmoe that is always selling game consoles and computers and TVs saying things like "didn't like it, got something new" or "never use it." Just ask yourself, how often do I run out and buy something like a TV and then decide I don't like and sell it for half price? If you wouldn't do that, why would someone else?
7. If you aren't comfortable with the transaction, DON'T complete it. Just tell the seller that you changed your mind and move on. They may be a little upset, but they will get over it.
Just remember, it is your job to protect yourself. You can't trust everyone, but not everyone is going to be dishonest!
I know gardening is a rewarding and cost-effective way to get produce... and living in rural Iowa this should be cake for me, but it's not. I swear I have the shadiest lawn known to man. My husband and I tried to do a garden a couple years ago. We went out and spent quite a bit on renting a tiller, getting good soil (love me some Miracle Grow!), and getting plants. Well, we didn't kill the plants. In fact, they were HUGE. But they didn't produce anything because they didn't get enough sun. Our tomato plants were easily 5 feet tall, but only had itty-bitty green tomatoes that never ripened. Our pepper plants were the same way. The broccoli and cauliflower didn't even show signs of becoming a vegetable and so the list went on and on. Even the herbs I had planted were bland. I went down to our local extension office and talked to the agronomist there. He basically told me that my plants had all the nutrients they needed, just not enough sun.
I have always grown plants. While I would say gardening is a great love of mine, I truly do enjoy having fresh vegetables that I know exactly where they have come from and what chemicals are and are not on them. It was such a disappointment to not be able to have our own garden. Now, since we are on a house hunt for something to better fit our family, a yard where we could have a garden is something we look for everywhere we go.
In the meantime... while our family is in a state of flux, I am couponing for our needs. I am not going to start stockpiling until after we commit and make the move, but that is on my agenda for the future. I will be the crazy mom that has enough toilet paper to last through the apocalypse. I will have enough toothpaste that I will not have to question whether or not it is something we need that shopping trip. I will do all this because I have set my mind to do this. My husband, believe it or not, is completely on board and willing to coupon for me if I send him up with a list and the coupons. My kids think it is fun for the most part, and since we do a majority of our grocery shopping out of town they don't get quite as embarrassed. (Although with the oldest being only 10, I know that that will change here very soon.)
I sat down last night and started my coupon binder. I spent a few hours clipping coupons and sorting them, only to quickly realize that I need more plastic pocket things. (I guess that is a good thing, right?) I plan on picking up more of those in the next couple days so I can get ready for this weekend's papers. I am feeling very lucky about my insert situation. I will be able to get inserts from work, from my in-laws, my parents, our own papers plus whatever I find online. I have found the Krazy Coupon Lady's site to be extremely helpful and I am seriously considering buying her book.
I am nervous about starting the couponing process. I am hoping that I can figure it all out as I go along and that it becomes a "How did I not do this years ago?" situation. Right now, I feel like it is a "What the heck did I get myself into?" situation. I will do this and I will prevail. I know it will become easier as I actually get into it, but my goal is to be an extreme couponer that gets things for free or extremely cheap.
I have found other ways of saving money on items we need that aren't as daunting. On Facebook, swaps and co-ops have saved my life! Okay, not literally, but they have saved our budget. I have been able to get things used off of swap and saved tons of money! My 10 year old saved up his allowance for a DS. He had enough to buy one new, but I found one on swap with 13 games for $120. The family ended up selling it to him for $100 with all the games. At that point in time, the system was going for around $140 new. He saved a bit of money plus got a ton of games to start out with. He was over the moon. He now buys things he wants off of swap only. I can't tell you how happy that makes me as a mom. He has learned that if he is patient, he will find a deal.
Another example of a great deal I have found using the swaps is my Cricut. Most women love their Cricuts, I have yet to take mine out of the box. But I found this amazing deal on swap and I just couldn't pass it up! I bought a Cricut with 2 cartridges for $50. New the version of the Cricut I have retails for around $160, and it was a Black Friday special for $100. I don't feel bad about not using it because I know it works and I didn't drop a ton of money on it. When I finally have a moment to sit down and do my scrapbooking, I will be so happy to have it but until then it is patiently waiting for me in my craft area.
My co-op deals are just about as good, but instead of buying used products these are brand new. They take a little longer to get to me, but they make it so worth it. I got started in co-ops when I started cloth diapering. It is a fast and easy way to get diapers for cheap. I got hooked and it makes my husband cringe a bit... I love BabyLegs. (Leggings for babies. You put them with a onesie and pants aren't necessary) I wanted to get them for use around our house since our kids seem to crawl out of their pants all the time. Well, at $8-12 a pair or even $5 on Amazon, I just couldn't justify it. My co-op just ran an order where I got them for $2.75 a pair plus shipping. I can handle that.
The savings off of co-ops has made such a difference in our house. I will warn you that you have to be very careful because not all co-ops on Facebook are legitimate. I only use ones that take Paypal for payments. I feel it protects both parties the best. There are other co-ops that use WePay, and I am just not familiar with that company and not comfortable with giving them my financial information. This is not to say that a co-op that uses WePay is bad, but I have stumbled across a few co-ops that had admins that were less than honest. It just isn't worth the risk for me no matter what the savings are....
I encourage people to do a few of the following anytime they buy anything online, new or used....
1. ALWAYS comparison shop before you buy. Don't just assume that someone is being honest about the price or giving a good deal.
2. When you are buying something used, price is negotiable. If you don't feel like haggling, then don't but understand that the seller usually expects people to haggle with them on the price. So as a seller, I price things a bit higher to get what I truly want for the item.
3. If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. Someone selling an iPad for $100, what's wrong with it? Why are they willing to part with it for so little? Just be a cautious buyer and make sure electronics work before buying them.
4. Take batteries and a screwdriver with you for swap pick-ups. That way you can test if it really just needs new batteries or if it doesn't work at all.
5. Always meet in public places. Just basic internet safety.
6. Watch out for stolen items on the swaps. I find that people that are constantly putting up the same kind of items are often putting up stolen items. We have some computer guys that put up machines all the time, this is not what I mean... I am talking about Joe Schmoe that is always selling game consoles and computers and TVs saying things like "didn't like it, got something new" or "never use it." Just ask yourself, how often do I run out and buy something like a TV and then decide I don't like and sell it for half price? If you wouldn't do that, why would someone else?
7. If you aren't comfortable with the transaction, DON'T complete it. Just tell the seller that you changed your mind and move on. They may be a little upset, but they will get over it.
Just remember, it is your job to protect yourself. You can't trust everyone, but not everyone is going to be dishonest!
Monday, June 10, 2013
TTO and baby wipes
TTO.... The new bane on my existence! For those of you that may not be familiar with the abbreviation of TTO it stands for Tea Tree Oil. It is a natural anitfungal and it supposed to be great for cloth diapers. In fact, a lot of cloth wipe solution recipes call for it. So I thought what the heck, I must do this since it is natural and therefor must be better for us... Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.
Tea Tree Oil is something that can be a skin irritant in higher dosages. That being said, I figured a few drops wouldn't cause an issue. So I set out on Friday night to make my cloth wipes using a shampoo with TTO in it. Well, let me back up... I live in a very rural area. So unless I find stuff online, I have one apothecary shop that does wonders to help me on my journey to eliminating chemicals. They don't carry natural oils (yet) but they happened to have this baby shampoo that was an organic lice treatment that had TTO in it. Since my recipe called for TTO and baby shampoo of my choice, I figured it was killing two birds with one stone. (And I still think it would!) Moving on....
I followed the recipe and quickly realized that whoever made up the recipe must have been making hundreds of wipes at a time. It made a ridiculous amount of solution. I went to make my first wipe and it came out very, very, very sudsy. So I diluted the solution, rinsed the wipe all the way out and tried again. Still too many suds... So I add even MORE water and rinse the wipe and try again. Finally, I got the solution to something manageable and I get my wipes in line to dunk and wring... I didn't think too much about it but the third time I put my hands in the water, all I felt was fire. I look down at my hand and they are bright pink and my right hand was starting to swell a bit. I immediately recognize an allergic reaction (hey, at least it was me and not the kids, right??). So I got to find out that I am one of the lucky few that TTO is a major irritant for. I guess I should have figured since I am allergic to the pollen and sap from most trees, but I didn't think things through. I dumped the TTO solution and moved on....
I ended up making a solution that is very basic. 1/4 of baby soap, 1/4 of baby oil, and the recipe called for 2 cups of water. I ended up adding another 6 cups of water to get the solution diluted enough that it worked for wipes. It has worked great so far and no skin irritation. My husband likes being able to wrap the wipes up in the diapers like we did with disposables and toss it in our pail. Cloth diapering is something that I can't believe we didn't start sooner... and now I am wondering why I ever thought continuing to buy wipes was a great idea.
I am using the super cheapy washcloths from Dollar General. There were 12 in a pack and I believe each pack was about $3-4. I bought the place out of what they had (3 packs) and then I also used my Gerber baby wash clothes that never seemed to get used and floated around our linen closet. I have a baby wipe container that I had planned on using for the wipes, but I have found that a ziplock back seems to work just slightly better and it is less interesting to my son.
All in all, our cloth conversion has been a great decision for our family. I never thought I would have time to do it or the means, but now that I have there is no turning back. Modern cloth diapering is not at all what you would expect. It is just as simple as you want to make it on yourself and the reduced cost makes it an easy decision for large families.
Tea Tree Oil is something that can be a skin irritant in higher dosages. That being said, I figured a few drops wouldn't cause an issue. So I set out on Friday night to make my cloth wipes using a shampoo with TTO in it. Well, let me back up... I live in a very rural area. So unless I find stuff online, I have one apothecary shop that does wonders to help me on my journey to eliminating chemicals. They don't carry natural oils (yet) but they happened to have this baby shampoo that was an organic lice treatment that had TTO in it. Since my recipe called for TTO and baby shampoo of my choice, I figured it was killing two birds with one stone. (And I still think it would!) Moving on....
I followed the recipe and quickly realized that whoever made up the recipe must have been making hundreds of wipes at a time. It made a ridiculous amount of solution. I went to make my first wipe and it came out very, very, very sudsy. So I diluted the solution, rinsed the wipe all the way out and tried again. Still too many suds... So I add even MORE water and rinse the wipe and try again. Finally, I got the solution to something manageable and I get my wipes in line to dunk and wring... I didn't think too much about it but the third time I put my hands in the water, all I felt was fire. I look down at my hand and they are bright pink and my right hand was starting to swell a bit. I immediately recognize an allergic reaction (hey, at least it was me and not the kids, right??). So I got to find out that I am one of the lucky few that TTO is a major irritant for. I guess I should have figured since I am allergic to the pollen and sap from most trees, but I didn't think things through. I dumped the TTO solution and moved on....
I ended up making a solution that is very basic. 1/4 of baby soap, 1/4 of baby oil, and the recipe called for 2 cups of water. I ended up adding another 6 cups of water to get the solution diluted enough that it worked for wipes. It has worked great so far and no skin irritation. My husband likes being able to wrap the wipes up in the diapers like we did with disposables and toss it in our pail. Cloth diapering is something that I can't believe we didn't start sooner... and now I am wondering why I ever thought continuing to buy wipes was a great idea.
I am using the super cheapy washcloths from Dollar General. There were 12 in a pack and I believe each pack was about $3-4. I bought the place out of what they had (3 packs) and then I also used my Gerber baby wash clothes that never seemed to get used and floated around our linen closet. I have a baby wipe container that I had planned on using for the wipes, but I have found that a ziplock back seems to work just slightly better and it is less interesting to my son.
All in all, our cloth conversion has been a great decision for our family. I never thought I would have time to do it or the means, but now that I have there is no turning back. Modern cloth diapering is not at all what you would expect. It is just as simple as you want to make it on yourself and the reduced cost makes it an easy decision for large families.
Laundry, laundry everywhere.....
Most of the time, I feel like I live in a never ending fight with the laundry pile. Currently with 4 kids (3 of them boys...) and my husband I can do about 8-10 loads of laundry in a week and STILL have a load or two left. I understand that I brought some of it on myself by choosing to cloth diaper, but even without those loads I am left with a mountain of laundry that makes me want to cry.
Now, I know parents out there that just let their kids do whatever when it comes to clothes. By that, I mean, the kids can change their clothes at their hearts content. This does not happen at my house. You wear one outfit a day unless you are either A) Told to change your clothes for a reason by a parent, or B) Super filthy and must change your clothes as to not spread your joy around the house. My kids think it is a silly rule, but that rule keeps clothes in their closets just a bit longer.
I do have a super high capacity laundry machine. It holds plenty of clothes. In fact, I can wash our queen sized comforters in it without a problem. So load size is not my issue. My issue has been laundry detergent. I have 2 boys with sensitive skin so things like Tide are out of the question for us. So, I have been using All Free & Clear. It works... It is more than I truly want to spend on laundry soap, and because of our hard water I am constantly having to clean out the dispenser area. So I decided to try Rockin Green. Rockin Green left our clothes super smelly and I was very upset. I am happy to say I only spent money on the trial sized packets, but unless I used twice the maximum recommended dose my clothes were even coming close to getting clean... Let alone my diapers! So I went to a different product called Ecosprout. Ecosprout was about as bad as Rockin Green. Ecosprouts only saving grace was that the clothes came out slightly less smelly. I was frustrated. I just wanted a more natural solution to laundry soap and I am just hitting brick walls.
So I broke down and decided to try making my own. I got a recipe from a friend that swears this stuff works. I went out and bought all the supplies for around $15 and mixed it up in preparation for my laundry this weekend. I was skeptical and figured that this wasn't going to work any better than my last two failed attempts, but I had to try. I had to try something to ease our laundry woes...
And it worked.
I couldn't believe it. This stuff actually cleaned our clothes leaving them smelling fresh and clean. The boys dirty clothes were clean after the first wash and I didn't even use a stain fighter pre-treatment. So, here is the recipe that I am now using:
I used Fels-Naptha instead of Zote because that is what we had in our local store, but I had to remove my foot from my mouth after using this detergent. I was shocked that it worked as well as it did and it is a fraction of the cost of what I have been spending on laundry. I grated the soap by hand and dumped everything in a tin left over from popcorn last Christmas. There was just barely enough space for everything in the tin, but it fit. I put the lid on and handed the tin off to my husband to shake the heck out of to mix it up. This batch should last my family around 6 months given the amount of laundry we do.
Just to give you an idea... I have been spending about $15 on my ALL every 6 weeks. (We do A LOT of laundry and have to use slightly more soap because of the hard water.) I spend about $7 every 3-4 weeks on fabric softener, mostly just to give the clothes a decidedly clean smell. (The clean smell makes it easier to determine what is clean and what is not when braving my boys rooms...) All in all, I have been spending about $135 a year on detergent and another $90ish on fabric softener per year. $225 a year on laundry supplies.... Scary! Now with the new recipe, assuming it continues to work and I don't come across any issues in the future, I will be spending around $30-45 per year on detergent with a laundry treatment in it. Saving close to $200 a year won't seem like much out of our monthly budget, but it is just that little bit more money that can go towards something else.
I will make sure to post if I find any flaws in this recipe, but so far so good! We have washed clothes and sheets and diapers in it with great results each time!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Pregnancy
This is totally off topic from what I have focused this blog about, but here it goes anyway. I hate being pregnant. And more than that, I hate being pregnant when I have a child that is still not mobile on their own. We have 4 kids currently in our family. The oldest two are my step-kiddos, but they are just as much my kids as my own are... I am raising them. I care for them. They are forever mine. My two kiddos were supposed to be it, but SURPRISE! We are having another one in just a few weeks time.
I am not one that can see the joys of pregnancy through the storm. I swell. I get sick. I have horrible back and hip pains. And after my deliver in May of 2012, I have a stretched pelvic bone that has decided to add oh so many fun complications and pains. This pregnancy I have also had a form of sciatica. Sciatica is where the nerve bundle that hangs below your tailbone becomes pinched or irritated in someway. What this means for me is very painful contractions that don't do anything but drop me to my knees... Oh, and while they are at it my legs go to sleep. Super fun stuff.
Now I have reached the end of this pregnancy and pretty much anytime from here on out I will be able to have this baby. Good news on that front, but the bad news is I know I still have a couple weeks left of this. I can't wait to be done.
I just needed to vent about that... I know there are a lot of people that would gladly trade places with me. I know there are people that try and struggle to even have one child. My heart truly breaks for them. However, it doesn't change how much pregnancy truly can suck. Especially when you get to have pretty much every complication except hypertension (which would end the pregnancy much much sooner).
Like I said earlier, my husband and I were done having kids after the birth of my second son in May 2012. We were happy with 3 boys and a girl. We had enough space in our 3 bedroom house to accommodate everyone and we were happy. We did everything in our power to prevent pregnancy. But God had other plans for us... We are part of the .1% that everything failed for. People find it humorous, and from the outside, I know I would be chuckling along with them. But in my shoes, all I wanted to do was scream and throw a fit. This was not my plan. Because of my personal beliefs and morals, I knew I would be having another child. People tried to encourage me telling me that I must finally be having my girl that I have wanted so badly... Big fail there! Another boy is joining our family.
I will love him and cherish him as I already do. He is one very stubborn little guy and I am excited to meet him. At the same time, my husband and I are now having to take on the daunting task of finding a new home that will fit our growing family's needs. With a total of 5 kids ranging from baby to 10 years old... we need much more space than we have... That being said, we live in a rural area and don't have very many options. We have worked very hard over the last 5 years to get our current home as green as possible. Replacing windows, insulation, the HVAC system and water heater... Bought new Energy Star appliances and have our house running like a champ. That being said, because of where we live... we aren't going to get to walk into our new house having those things done. We will be starting over again.
Searching for houses is frustrating. Raising our family in a house that is too small for our needs is frustrating. The financial decisions we have to make are daunting. And at the end of the day, I am more afraid than not that we are going to end up in a worse spot than we are in now.
So my focus has had to shift from switching to a natural lifestyle and exterminating chemicals to finding better housing options for our family. Doing all this while very, very pregnant is just about to drive me over the wall. I already have an eye twitch, might be checking into the funny farm later this week....
I am not one that can see the joys of pregnancy through the storm. I swell. I get sick. I have horrible back and hip pains. And after my deliver in May of 2012, I have a stretched pelvic bone that has decided to add oh so many fun complications and pains. This pregnancy I have also had a form of sciatica. Sciatica is where the nerve bundle that hangs below your tailbone becomes pinched or irritated in someway. What this means for me is very painful contractions that don't do anything but drop me to my knees... Oh, and while they are at it my legs go to sleep. Super fun stuff.
Now I have reached the end of this pregnancy and pretty much anytime from here on out I will be able to have this baby. Good news on that front, but the bad news is I know I still have a couple weeks left of this. I can't wait to be done.
I just needed to vent about that... I know there are a lot of people that would gladly trade places with me. I know there are people that try and struggle to even have one child. My heart truly breaks for them. However, it doesn't change how much pregnancy truly can suck. Especially when you get to have pretty much every complication except hypertension (which would end the pregnancy much much sooner).
Like I said earlier, my husband and I were done having kids after the birth of my second son in May 2012. We were happy with 3 boys and a girl. We had enough space in our 3 bedroom house to accommodate everyone and we were happy. We did everything in our power to prevent pregnancy. But God had other plans for us... We are part of the .1% that everything failed for. People find it humorous, and from the outside, I know I would be chuckling along with them. But in my shoes, all I wanted to do was scream and throw a fit. This was not my plan. Because of my personal beliefs and morals, I knew I would be having another child. People tried to encourage me telling me that I must finally be having my girl that I have wanted so badly... Big fail there! Another boy is joining our family.
I will love him and cherish him as I already do. He is one very stubborn little guy and I am excited to meet him. At the same time, my husband and I are now having to take on the daunting task of finding a new home that will fit our growing family's needs. With a total of 5 kids ranging from baby to 10 years old... we need much more space than we have... That being said, we live in a rural area and don't have very many options. We have worked very hard over the last 5 years to get our current home as green as possible. Replacing windows, insulation, the HVAC system and water heater... Bought new Energy Star appliances and have our house running like a champ. That being said, because of where we live... we aren't going to get to walk into our new house having those things done. We will be starting over again.
Searching for houses is frustrating. Raising our family in a house that is too small for our needs is frustrating. The financial decisions we have to make are daunting. And at the end of the day, I am more afraid than not that we are going to end up in a worse spot than we are in now.
So my focus has had to shift from switching to a natural lifestyle and exterminating chemicals to finding better housing options for our family. Doing all this while very, very pregnant is just about to drive me over the wall. I already have an eye twitch, might be checking into the funny farm later this week....
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Uggg! But making progress...
Since I last posted, I have been in and out of false labor. Frustrating and annoying as it is, it is good to know that baby is happy and healthy. I ended up having to take part of today off to get some more tests done and deal with this false labor issue. So while I am waiting for the all clear from the doctor, I decided to try to be productive. Maybe I should have decided to be a slob in retrospect, but the damage is done and productive it is.
In our efforts to go green, I have decided to switch detergents. Something that is probably a little more exciting to me than it should be... So before I started using it, I decided to "strip" my machine of residue from the old detergent. Since I have an HE front load machine, I pulled the little drawer for liquid soap out and much to my dismay I found detergent that had solidified under the drawer and just nasty gunk everywhere inside the compartment. It was nasty and horrid and I didn't know what to do except start cleaning. Luckily, I still had some left over paper towels and I spent the better part of an hour cleaning out the little drawer compartment. I have no idea what caused the build up in the first place, but my best guess is that it has everything to do with hard water. Frustrated and grossed out doesn't begin to cover it but I cleaned it up took the drawer to my kitchen sink to soak and started the cleaning cycle. About the time that I pressed start, my husband said, "Doesn't the water spray through the drawer into the machine?" Almost on the cue of the word "spray" water goes everywhere. Husband dives toward the machine and holds his hand there until he can get the machine stopped. At this point in time....all I can do is laugh. So we grab the drawer, run the cleaning cycle and now the drawer is soaking again.
I typically consider my self to be an intelligent person, but in my sleep deprived very pregnant state... I evidently am not thinking things very far through. At least I didn't make a bigger mess and I think it answers the question of why detergent has been leaking down the front of my machine for awhile. At one point it stopped, but it started up again. Lucky for me.... all the new detergent is powder so I will just throw it in the drum and continue with my day. Now I will only be using the drawer for bleach and vinegar, so the issue shouldn't ever happen again. But just in case you have a HE front load machine.... now you know to pull the drawer out every once in awhile and make sure you don't have gunk everywhere. You live, you learn!!!
In our efforts to go green, I have decided to switch detergents. Something that is probably a little more exciting to me than it should be... So before I started using it, I decided to "strip" my machine of residue from the old detergent. Since I have an HE front load machine, I pulled the little drawer for liquid soap out and much to my dismay I found detergent that had solidified under the drawer and just nasty gunk everywhere inside the compartment. It was nasty and horrid and I didn't know what to do except start cleaning. Luckily, I still had some left over paper towels and I spent the better part of an hour cleaning out the little drawer compartment. I have no idea what caused the build up in the first place, but my best guess is that it has everything to do with hard water. Frustrated and grossed out doesn't begin to cover it but I cleaned it up took the drawer to my kitchen sink to soak and started the cleaning cycle. About the time that I pressed start, my husband said, "Doesn't the water spray through the drawer into the machine?" Almost on the cue of the word "spray" water goes everywhere. Husband dives toward the machine and holds his hand there until he can get the machine stopped. At this point in time....all I can do is laugh. So we grab the drawer, run the cleaning cycle and now the drawer is soaking again.
I typically consider my self to be an intelligent person, but in my sleep deprived very pregnant state... I evidently am not thinking things very far through. At least I didn't make a bigger mess and I think it answers the question of why detergent has been leaking down the front of my machine for awhile. At one point it stopped, but it started up again. Lucky for me.... all the new detergent is powder so I will just throw it in the drum and continue with my day. Now I will only be using the drawer for bleach and vinegar, so the issue shouldn't ever happen again. But just in case you have a HE front load machine.... now you know to pull the drawer out every once in awhile and make sure you don't have gunk everywhere. You live, you learn!!!
Friday, May 3, 2013
You are doing WHAT?!?!? Modern Cloth Diapering...
When I say cloth diapers... I bet you think about a mom from the 1950s with diaper pins and plastic covers. And if that is what cloth diapering was all about, I would NOT have jumped on the band wagon. With soon to be 5 kids in our house I need fast easy and simple. Any kind of diaper pin is just not going to cut it... I have to be quick. My youngest two will only be 13 months apart. I have to be fast in whatever I do.. When I was first approached about cloth diapering with my oldest son (now 4), it was perceived convenience that made me say no... I mean, how easy is it to take a diaper off and throw it away? I was young(er) and didn't want to do anything different. My first baby, my first son... he should have the best of everything! Looking back, the best for him would have been cloth all the way.... He had such significant skin issues that we couldn't use any of the major brands of disposables. It was a nightmare, but I was right and I was going to do it the "normal" way. We found one brand that didn't cause as many issues and stuck with that brand only.
Now, with my second son... Cost of disposables was making me more and more upset and with a third baby looming on the horizon the cost was only climbing. It seems like every time I went to the store because we needed diapers, I was paying out the nose for something that was going to end up in the trash. We started seeing some of the same skin issues with him and I got frustrated... There had to be a better way. Luckily, I have an amazing friend that cloth diapered her kids and she convinced me to borrow some diapers and just try it. So I did. I figured it couldn't be worse than what we were using.
Our first trial of cloth diapers gave us a run for our money. I put my son in the first diaper, he was very confused, looked down at the diaper and tried to figure out why this was so different. After a couple minutes he was happy and moved on to vacating his bowels.. Gross, I know, but it is part of diapering. My son, who was 10 months old at the time was already in size 5 disposables. He is a huge chunk! We have had issues with poopy diapers and boy did he show us what the cloth diapers could do. My husband was the lucky winner of that first diaper change with cloth. He wasn't totally against cloth, but he wasn't sold on the idea either. So him getting the first poopy was quite the ordeal. Long story short, the cloth diaper held everything in and we didn't have a massive messy blowout which we had become so used to. My husband was floored. He took the diaper off and the clean up was so much faster because the diaper held everything and not as much was on our son. So that being said... my husband became an instant convert. He came out of the nursery saying I can't believe it... I just can't believe it. Now the worst part of cloth (for me) is dumping the poop in the toilet. Basically, when you have a poopy, you dump the poo and flush. Then you put the diaper in a wet bag and that is where is stays until you go to do laundry.
Right now we are using a normal trash can for our pail. I use what are called pocket diapers and so when I go down to wash them, I just take the whole thing down with me, pull the inserts from the diaper and throw them in the machine. I started with pockets and that is what I know the best. There are several different types of cloth diapering and when you are starting out it is very overwhelming. Fitteds, prefolds, AIO, AI2, and the list goes on and on and on... I am sticking with the pockets because I have the inserts for them and I don't want to have 7 different kinds of diapers to confuse everyone that comes to my house to watch my kids! This picture shows a pretty good representation of what I use daily. The riser snaps make it smaller. This is a pocket or a One Size (OS) diaper. I don't use insert snaps which you can see at the lower middle, but I know moms that swear by the snap in inserts. I am sure this looks complicated, but it really isn't. You put this cloth diaper on the same way you put on a disposable. Bring the tabs around and snap. The tabs will allow you to overlap to adjust for skinnier babies. That is why you see so many snaps on one side and only three on the other.
Now, with my second son... Cost of disposables was making me more and more upset and with a third baby looming on the horizon the cost was only climbing. It seems like every time I went to the store because we needed diapers, I was paying out the nose for something that was going to end up in the trash. We started seeing some of the same skin issues with him and I got frustrated... There had to be a better way. Luckily, I have an amazing friend that cloth diapered her kids and she convinced me to borrow some diapers and just try it. So I did. I figured it couldn't be worse than what we were using.
Our first trial of cloth diapers gave us a run for our money. I put my son in the first diaper, he was very confused, looked down at the diaper and tried to figure out why this was so different. After a couple minutes he was happy and moved on to vacating his bowels.. Gross, I know, but it is part of diapering. My son, who was 10 months old at the time was already in size 5 disposables. He is a huge chunk! We have had issues with poopy diapers and boy did he show us what the cloth diapers could do. My husband was the lucky winner of that first diaper change with cloth. He wasn't totally against cloth, but he wasn't sold on the idea either. So him getting the first poopy was quite the ordeal. Long story short, the cloth diaper held everything in and we didn't have a massive messy blowout which we had become so used to. My husband was floored. He took the diaper off and the clean up was so much faster because the diaper held everything and not as much was on our son. So that being said... my husband became an instant convert. He came out of the nursery saying I can't believe it... I just can't believe it. Now the worst part of cloth (for me) is dumping the poop in the toilet. Basically, when you have a poopy, you dump the poo and flush. Then you put the diaper in a wet bag and that is where is stays until you go to do laundry.
Right now we are using a normal trash can for our pail. I use what are called pocket diapers and so when I go down to wash them, I just take the whole thing down with me, pull the inserts from the diaper and throw them in the machine. I started with pockets and that is what I know the best. There are several different types of cloth diapering and when you are starting out it is very overwhelming. Fitteds, prefolds, AIO, AI2, and the list goes on and on and on... I am sticking with the pockets because I have the inserts for them and I don't want to have 7 different kinds of diapers to confuse everyone that comes to my house to watch my kids! This picture shows a pretty good representation of what I use daily. The riser snaps make it smaller. This is a pocket or a One Size (OS) diaper. I don't use insert snaps which you can see at the lower middle, but I know moms that swear by the snap in inserts. I am sure this looks complicated, but it really isn't. You put this cloth diaper on the same way you put on a disposable. Bring the tabs around and snap. The tabs will allow you to overlap to adjust for skinnier babies. That is why you see so many snaps on one side and only three on the other.
Now the inside is super simple for my pocket diapers. I put an insert in the pocket and away we go. I put my inserts as I am putting the clean diapers away. That way I always have one ready to go. This particular diaper has Velcro tabs, and they are available, I just don't use them since I am not a huge fan of Velcro anything. It is merely a personal preference.
And since I keep mentioning inserts...this is what an insert looks like. There are primarily three different types of materials inserts can be made out of... Microfiber (MF), Bamboo, and Hemp. I have all three, and I typically avoid the microfiber ones. My favorite inserts are hemp. They are quite pricey, but are the best at holding liquid. We use them overnight and if we are going to be in the car for awhile. Bamboo is the next step down both in price and effectiveness. I don't notice a huge difference between bamboo and hemp but I do think there is a difference. Microfiber I am not a big fan of.. With microfiber, we typically have to use 2 inserts and I think they make the diapers bulky.
That is a very basic overview to modern cloth diapering. I will be writing more and being more specific as time goes on. I am still experimenting with what I think works best, but I encourage anyone with questions to email me at meangreenmommie@gmail.com! I have converted several people already in the few months we have been doing it and I am more than happy to answer any questions I can! If I don't know the answer, I probably know someone who does!
Day One
Yesterday was day one or ground zero in our efforts to move from being total consumers to living a greener life. I want to say that this change is going to be easy and convenient. It's not. And it is costing us some money up front... More than we really want to spend, but in the long run we are going to start saving far more than what I have spend thus far.
I started with a very selfish goal. To save money. My husband and I are fast approaching the arrival of the 5th child in our family. We have to find creative ways to cut costs and make ends meet. With the addition of baby number 5, we knew we were going to have 2 in diapers for at least a year. That is a lot of money going out each month just for diapers, so I made the decision to switch to cloth. We have been using a combination of cloth and disposables for a few weeks now and fully switched over to cloth this past week when I got a shipment of the rest of the diapers we would need to get us through 2 days. I have gotten a lot of funny looks from my other mama friends, but I truly believe this is the right move for our family. It has taken our diaper budget from around $80 a month, to nil. I have put in about $300 so far buying used diapers, but that is more than enough diapers for us to get through 2 days.
So I started with my cloth diaper conversion and I have fallen in love with cloth. I am kicking myself for not doing this all along. I am literally keeping over 2 tons of waste out of our local landfill. I will save well over $2000 by the time it is all said and done. AND, cloth diapers are way more fun to buy than disposables.
Cloth Diapers made me start questioning all of our other choices.... Why are we using paper towels? Why am I still using diaper wipes and not cloth wipes? About every choice I had made in the last 10 years was called into question... I started doing research into the products that we use on a day to day basis. I was appalled. My oldest son has pretty severe skin issues. I thought I had done everything I could to help him. We use special soap, detergent, etc. I didn't stop to think. I also have very sensitive skin and things like Pledge or Endust bother me while I am cleaning. I am constantly washing my hands and using a sugar scrub after to get the chemicals off. So now, my husband and I have made the decision that we are going to get all the non-natural chemicals out of our house and start a completely new lifestyle. Yesterday was the day that we finally started to pull the trigger on all of this... Today we are purging our house and tomorrow I will set aside most of the day to making homemade products.
I am doing this for so many reasons I have lost count now.. I think it will be better for our family. It will cost us significantly less than traditional cleaning products, and everything I am finding in research suggests that cleaning naturally will actually boost my kids immune systems. I have been called a granola flake, a hippie and a tree hugger... Well if that is what you think, hooray for you! But as a mother, I want to do what I think is the absolute best for my family. I am excited about the change over... My family and close friends and starting to be converted to my line of thinking... And I know that I am going to be reducing our families carbon footprint by a significant amount.
I started with a very selfish goal. To save money. My husband and I are fast approaching the arrival of the 5th child in our family. We have to find creative ways to cut costs and make ends meet. With the addition of baby number 5, we knew we were going to have 2 in diapers for at least a year. That is a lot of money going out each month just for diapers, so I made the decision to switch to cloth. We have been using a combination of cloth and disposables for a few weeks now and fully switched over to cloth this past week when I got a shipment of the rest of the diapers we would need to get us through 2 days. I have gotten a lot of funny looks from my other mama friends, but I truly believe this is the right move for our family. It has taken our diaper budget from around $80 a month, to nil. I have put in about $300 so far buying used diapers, but that is more than enough diapers for us to get through 2 days.
So I started with my cloth diaper conversion and I have fallen in love with cloth. I am kicking myself for not doing this all along. I am literally keeping over 2 tons of waste out of our local landfill. I will save well over $2000 by the time it is all said and done. AND, cloth diapers are way more fun to buy than disposables.
Cloth Diapers made me start questioning all of our other choices.... Why are we using paper towels? Why am I still using diaper wipes and not cloth wipes? About every choice I had made in the last 10 years was called into question... I started doing research into the products that we use on a day to day basis. I was appalled. My oldest son has pretty severe skin issues. I thought I had done everything I could to help him. We use special soap, detergent, etc. I didn't stop to think. I also have very sensitive skin and things like Pledge or Endust bother me while I am cleaning. I am constantly washing my hands and using a sugar scrub after to get the chemicals off. So now, my husband and I have made the decision that we are going to get all the non-natural chemicals out of our house and start a completely new lifestyle. Yesterday was the day that we finally started to pull the trigger on all of this... Today we are purging our house and tomorrow I will set aside most of the day to making homemade products.
I am doing this for so many reasons I have lost count now.. I think it will be better for our family. It will cost us significantly less than traditional cleaning products, and everything I am finding in research suggests that cleaning naturally will actually boost my kids immune systems. I have been called a granola flake, a hippie and a tree hugger... Well if that is what you think, hooray for you! But as a mother, I want to do what I think is the absolute best for my family. I am excited about the change over... My family and close friends and starting to be converted to my line of thinking... And I know that I am going to be reducing our families carbon footprint by a significant amount.
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