I know, I know....its been forever, right?

No excuses!

I wanted to share some things I am about to try this week:

1. making my own dish detergent (http://www.diynatural.com)

• 1 c. borax ($2.19 for 55 oz box)
  
• 1 c. washing soda ($4.99 for 76 oz box)
  
• 1/2 c. citric acid or LemiShine
  
• 1/2 c. kosher salt ($1.99 for 48 oz box)
  
• white vinegar as rinse agent
• **$2.28 for a 24 oz batch** most store bought are about .14 cents a load but this one is 0.05 cents a load)
  

1. making my own laundry detergent (http://diynatural.com)

• Borax ($2.89) 1 box=10 batches
  
• Arm and Hammer Super Washing Powder ($2.77) 1 box=7 batches
  
• 1 bar of soap
  
• a 5 gal bucket ($3.50)
• **$1.78 for 10 gallons or 640 loads (about $0.05 a load)** most store bought are about $.21 per load
  

3. fabric softener

• 1 bottle of favorite liquid softener
• a sponge cut in half
• water
• **you throw a rung out sponge in the dryer so would last years!**
  

1. cleaning supplies (http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com)

Some things that I have been trying:

1. couponing with The Saving Life (http://www.thesavinglife.blogspot.com)

I went to a couponing class and found several good web sites. I asked my mom and grandma to save me insert from the newspaper (specifically SmartSource and RedPlum) I also subscribed to All for You. The Saving Life tells you which SS (Smart Source), RP (RedPlum), or AFY (All for You) so if there is a good sale on something they will tell you to use a coupon from a few weeks ago. They do all the hard work for you-you just have to save them in a file and go back in find them!

1. budget meal plan with E-mealz (http://www.e-mealz.com)

E-mealz is a really great way to facilitate the sales and it makes A LOT of food! It provides 5 meal options that I usually split in to two disposable square cake pans. When the second one cools I put in ziploc freezer bag and pull back out a month later to heat. So on average the plan is 70-80 a week which equates to 2 weeks for us! It gives you all the recipes on one page and a shopping list broken down in to the sections of the store. I LOVE IT-print it off and go shopping!