Just Plain Frugal

Okay I just found this blog where a lovely woman posted about how to make shades out of your old abused mini blinds. It is a great way to recycle and a cheap way to dress up your house!

Check it out HERE

See this stamp? The price goes up on May 11th. I know many of us pay things online now, or with autopay but these pesky stamps are always necessary for something. So now might be a good time to stockpile them. They’re going to go up in cost from $0.42 to $0.44 cents on May 11th and chances are your local store will sell out before then so get them while you can! (And if your post office runs out remember Costco/Sams/Grocery stores/etc. All have Forever Stamp strips too).

For info from the USPS about the price increase click HERE.

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…

I love discounts. I love free stuff. I love saving time. It turns out I can have all three of these things and so can you!

When I first started my money-saving adventures I would scour the local store circulars. The problem with that is there are so many stores out there I couldn’t possibly look at every circular every week and try to find the discounts. And now I don’t have to!

For those of us who love CVS/Pharmacy there is a blog that does a rundown of weekly CVS discounts. I heart CVS

This week at CVS you can get free shampoo, free bandaids (yes, the actual Band-aid brand), and save a lot of money on other stuff! (If you’re a John Freida fan this is totally the week to stock up!)

And the Walgreens fans should be really delighted to discover I heart WAGS.  

This week at Walgreens you can get Buy One Get One Free Edy’s Ice Cream!  There are a bunch of other deals too but that one was the one that caught my eye since the weather here in Southern California is already REALLY hot (104 last week and it’s not even May!)

I wish there was a blog like this with store circulars for every store. The problem is most stores have regional prices so it’s not always the same but these two blogs in particular seem to be universal. Genius!

There are a ton of freebies in honor of earth day! Check out your options HERE at Yahoo.

I just found out about the discount haircut:

For Earth Week 2009, Paul Mitchell has kicked off “Cut Hair, Not Trees.” From April 20 through 24, Paul Mitchell schools will cut your hair for $10 to $15. There are over 100 locations where you can get this recession-friendly cut, and all hair clippings will be donated to Matter of Trust, which makes human hair mats to clean up oil spills. Visit PaulMitchellTheSchool.com to find a Paul Mitchell school near you.

My advice is to call first to make sure the deal applies.

I talked about this a little bit last month but I thought I’d reemphasize because this is such a wonderful way to save money. So many of us fear tile problems or plumbing issues because even the minor stuff costs a fortune if you have to call out a professional.

This month Home Depot’s classes include:

Installing Interior & Exterior Doors

Tiling Floors and Walls- Tiling is the #1 all-time most popular workshop at The Home Depot

Eco Options- Learn how you can make simple improvements around the house that have a positive effect on the environment, your health, and your wallet.

And the one I’m so excited about:

Repairing Drywall- Avoid costly repairs by learning easy and affordable techniques to keep your walls in tip-top shape.

For more information click HERE

I took the tile class last month. It was fun, it was hands on, and it was FREE! Let me know if you take one and what you think.

For those of us who REALLY love pork. The Pork commission (or whoever it is who put together the Pork, the other white meat campaign) has a number of FREEBIES about how to cook meat and get the best benefit from what you buy.

One particular freebie caught my eye.

There are also receipes and other tips on the site so check it out!

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:

• 2/3 bar Fels Naptha Soap (equivalent of 1 cup grated)
• ½ Cup 20 Mule Team Borax
• ½ Cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda.
• Container large enough to hold 2 cups of laundry detergent

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.

http://www.recipematcher.com/