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!

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.

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:

http://www.howdoesshe.com/cheaper-and-better-diy-laundry-detergent/

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!