I think I might have to marry a contractor.
I was randomly websurfing and found this builder’s site. I don’t know anything about them other then the fact that this is the coolest play room any kid could EVER have.
I want it.
Your kids want it.
You’ll want it too. Trust me.
Click HERE for the drool worthy pictures.
Told you so
ATM fraud is VERY prevalent in this current economy so beware!
Check out this excellent article at to learn MORE.
When the wealthiest man in America speaks people tend to listen, and that’s exactly what Warren Buffet is doing this weekend at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. He gave some insight into what he thinks about the economy (I’m not getting into that because this isn’t a political blog).
He also mentioned that he doesn’t think newspapers are a sustainable business and he sees more and more of them failing. This isn’t earth-shattering, we see headlines like this daily, but it is sad. For one thing, I’ve been reading more and more newspapers now that I’m deep into coupon mode.
The average Sunday paper has at least $100 worth of coupons and costs me roughly $1 to buy (I buy it from the Dollar Tree because delivered newspapers in my building tend to get stolen). If I use even $5 worth of those coupons, and I usually use many many more, then that newspaper is definitely worth my time.
I’m not sure what will become of our beloved Sunday coupon inserts but I hope we don’t go strictly internet. I MUCH prefer the inserts to having to print coupons myself. I guess we’ll have to see…
Don’t forget that there will be no coupons inserts in the newspapers this weekend! It’s a good time to organize the coupons you have!
There has been a lot of bad press about genetically engineered food. We’re supposed to be organic as much as possible. Okay, I get that. Still, for many of us that’s not possible. In the meantime it is always good to know what foods to be wary of so I’m posting a handy dandy link to a list of Genetically Engineered Food to be aware of. You can read this or print it out and take it shopping with you. Click HERE.
I should warn you the list is seriously depressing.
See the post HERE to read the original post first.
I MADE IT! I’ll be honest and say I kind of did this as a joke (what kind of person sits there and grates soap in this day and age? apparently the smart people). I have a lot of laundry fragrance allergies and lived in perpetual fear that Tide is going to discontinue their original scent. I liked the smell of all three ingredients. And yes, I sniffed them at my Albertson’s grocery store before i bought them and they smelled fine.
The big pain is grating the soap. (I should mention that a normal otherwise sane person might have just thrown everything into a food processor to grate. I preferred to remain true to my roots as an frontierswoman…that and I don’t have a food processor). I’m a multi-tasker by nature so I spread out a beat up looking 2 gallon ziplock bag I was getting ready to throw away on my lap as a sort of plastic tray. It took me 20 minutes to grate two bars on an old grater while watching the news. I felt kind of silly but kept at it anyway.
I used 1/2 bar of Fels instead of 2/3 so I got two uses out of one bar. It still worked great even with cold water. I now have enough powder for 128 loads of laundry detergent. And yes, I only use one tablespoon of detergent per load. It worked! of couse I am a relatively clean female adult so if you have little boys who love mud and grass you’ll have to adjust this to your liking.
If I use all the borax/washing soda/fels napatha correctly measured it costs me $0.92 for 32 loads of laundry. That comes out to roughly $0.02 a load. And I didn’t even shop around and price check my ingredients I just bought them from the local store. How crazy is that?
I definitely wouldn’t do this all the time but I certainly don’t have any problem grating soap a couple times a year. At the moment I have a large stockpile of Tide though so it’s going to be a LONG while before I need anything else. Still, it’s good to know!
Any other homemade recipes you have heard of or recommend?
Okay I’ll admit I’m not a big do it yourselfer. Like many of us I’m a busy person and frankly, there are some things I’d just rather buy. My friend Jen, however, told me about a receipe for homemade laundry detergent that doesn’t require 5 gallon drums for storage and doesn’t smell like a fruit stand or a hospital. I haven’t tried it yet but I thought I’d post it for those of us getting tired of paying for detergent.
The best part is? It’s not a liquid laundry detergent so it doesn’t take much storage space. It makes a nice powder if you grate the soap really fine. Jen washed 5 loads with it (in cold water, no less!) and it worked great! She stores 32 loads worth at a time in a small Folgers jar that I’ve been recycling for years
Here’s the recipe , the original source of which has been unfortuantely lost. (I love the way the cost is broken down):
Powdered Laundry detergent
Ingredients:
Directions:
Grate the Fels Naptha soap with a grater or use a food processor. Approximately 2/3 of a bar of soap will make 1 cup of grated soap.
Add the ½ cup of Borax and ½ cup of washing soda to the grated soap.
Shake and/or mix well
Use:
One tablespoon of detergent is sufficient per load of wash. If you have a high-efficiency machine, you might want to experiment with using a little less detergent for normal loads. If your clothes come out feeling stiff, lower the amount of detergent. For clothes that are heavily soiled, add a teaspoon more of the detergent..
Yield:
The recipe yields 2 cups of laundry detergent. If you use 1 tablespoon per load, you will be able to wash 32 loads of clothes.
Cost:
20 Mule Team Borax: $2.50 for 70 oz. – Cost per batch: .14 (4 oz needed for recipe)
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda: $2.50 for 55 oz. Cost per batch .18.(4 oz needed for recipe)
Fels Naphtha: $1.24 per bar. Cost per batch: .83 (2/3 bar of soap needed for recipe) *
Total cost to make: $1.15 Yields 2 cups which translates to 3.5 cents per load.
Please note all products can be puchased both on Amazon.com and at Lehmans.com (a site I’d never heard of before but a place full of tips and tools for old fashioned and self-sufficient living). I picked up all three items at my local Albertson’s grocery store so you might want to call your local stores and see if you can save on shipping.
Let me know what you think!
Edited to Add: I made this! To see my results click HERE
For all those parents out there who dread that phrase I just discovered a new receipe site. You input the ingredients you have and it lists a bunch of possibilities. It’s not perfect by any means but when you have a fridge full of veggies about to rot and nothing to do with them it’s nice to be given options.
Okay so you have your handy dandy coupon book.
And you have the pages labeled. Well, now you might want to label the individual slots. I did this and it saved me a LOT of headaches. Other then the first page which only has two slots, every other label should have at least 4 slots since I read mine like an open book (you can do it differently obviously)
My primary strategy is to put the imporant things in each category on its own label. Then I try to include a “misc” slot in each section for random things. And trust me, there are ALWAYS random things
My system looks like this:
DISCLAIMER- I had everything in my one coupon book and it was VERY full. After lugging this around to several stores I decided I didn’t want to risk losing gift cards, punch cards, etc on the off chance I get distracted and leave my booklet. This is pretty unlikely for me but those of you with kids will surely worry. So I bought a second target album for those other things I don’t need on a day to day basis and I’m afraid to lose. I stuck the whole thing in a two gallon ziplock bag, sealed it and threw it in the trunk of my car.
That’s my strategy. Let me know if you have any tips/questions I’m always curious to learn from other people and share what I know!
I really had no idea how to start this post. For one thing it took me YEARS to find an effective coupon storage system. I’ve tried those mini accordian files, I’ve tried using an envelope or multiple envelopes, I’ve tried those index card storage boxes that are huge and impossible to travel with. All of them had one thing in common. They FAILED.
I spent so much time flipping for coupons it really made shopping with coupons miserable and I almost quit. Then I found Being Frugal is Fabulous. Her post on coupons books is genius. The coupon book she suggests is one that I have since picked up.
It is a softcover, spiral bound Target photoalbum. I’m specifically mentioning Target because it is produced by Target corporation and I haven’t found anything like it anywhere else. Please note they do occasionally change covers. The current cover looks like this:
Where you see the breast cancer sticker in the middle? That’s my sticker, the actual album comes with this pink heart bead thingy and I’m not a pink bead heart kind of gal. They also come in blue and purple if you’re not into pink. I didn’t know that when I bought mine or I would have gotten blue for sure. LOL.
Anyway, the point is this thing has ROOM. It holds 160 photographs so that means you have 160 pockets for your coupons.
I set mine up so that when I open the book and lay it flat the four picture spaces are all one category.
I also tape flagged the pages with these nifty flags that saved me in college. You can buy them from target also I think the last time I saw them they were around $3. You don’t have to use those but if you do you’ll use a full pack.
My categories are pretty simple I took the Being Frugal suggestions and tweaked them for my own. My problem is that I need a bit more organization then she does so I further labeled each of the 160 photoslots (see the image to understand what I mean).
The primary categories are simple:
1) NOW- this is for the first 2 slots, I put things that are going to expire in the next couple days here to remind me that I need to use them. I also use this for store ads that I see. For example if CVS is giving away free toothpaste with extra bucks and I can use another coupon for it I put those put those upfront.
2) Breakfast
3) Dairy
4) Meat/Fish
5) Fresh
6) Canned
7) Frozen
8 ) Carbs
9)Snacks/Candy
10) Drinks
11) Condiments/Spices/Sauces
12) Staples
13) Ethnic
14) Paper Goods
15) Cleaners
16) Toiletries
17) Hair/Skin
18) Face/Makeup/Female
19) Medicine/Vitamins
20) First Aid
21) Baby/Pets
22) Misc Grocery
23) Grocery Store Coupons
24) Misc Other
25) Department Store Coupons
26) Take Out/Eat In
27) Punch Cards- this is for all those buy 10 get one free cards that we throw in our wallets until they get too heavy. If you have these you might as well gather them up and use them!
28) Home Goods-
29) Entertainment
30) Rebates/Receipts
Now not every one of these is only a page. Sometimes I will use multiple pages like for store coupons or punch cards because I have a lot of them. But above all remember that this is what makes sense to me. I even have a baby/pets category although at the moment I don’t have kids or pets. I save those coupons and give them to people that can use them. They still need to be organized.
I’ll post the sub categories for each of my main categories later today if you’re interested. Right now I have to get to a meeting.
Hope this helps!
