Make your own laundry detergent!
Just in case you missed this article the first time we shared it a couple of years ago, we are republishing it. After Marne wrote this blog originally, I tried the laundry detergent. I love it and have used it ever since.
I used to be a HUGE couponer. My stockpile was massive with almost everything, most especially laundry detergent. I haven’t been such an avid couponer the past few years, and just last week I ran out of laundry detergent! First time in years. I haven’t bought laundry detergent for such a long time that I about DIED at the price when I went to the store. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay for a large container of good detergent! I did my research online and decided to make my own. I have thought about doing this for years, and decided now was the time.
There are a lot of recipes out there for homemade laundry detergent. I went with a recipe my friend Heather shared on her blog. It looked easy, which was key for me! Plus, it is supposed to make enough for 8-9 months, which I liked.
Here is what you need to make your own laundry detergent. All of these I found together at Walmart in the detergent asile.
3 bars Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
1 three lb 7 oz box Washing Soda
1 four lb box Baking Soda
1 four lb 12 oz box Borax
3.5 lbs Oxi Clean (or the store brand equivilant)
First, grate the Fels Naptha Soap. I used a hand grater, you could use a food processor. It smelled great and was really easy. Kind of looks like grated cheese! Don’t worry…it dissolves just fine in the washer. I usually use cold water and I have not had a problem.
Next, get a large bucket or container to mix everything in really well. I used two tubs and just divided everything up in half and mixed it up together really well. Worked great and smelled great!
This is what it looks like when all mixed up.
This recipe makes about 2 gallons of detergent. I didn’t want to spend extra money on a container, so I just used two empty ice cream buckets I had and labeled them with a sharpie. Walmart does carry 1 gallon glass containers if you want something prettier.
Now here is the best part….you only need 1-2 Tablespoons of detergent per load! Isn’t that amazing? Homemade detergent doesn’t have all the fillers that store bought does so it stretches much further. I have used this detergent this weekend 3 times in color loads and whites. The clothes have come out smelling great and are nice and clean! I am very pleased so far.
Here is the cost breakdown of this detergent recipe. I got everything at Walmart in the detergent asile.
3 bars Fels Naptha Soap (grated): .97 each, $2.91 total
1 three lb 7 oz box Super Washing Soda: $3.24
1 four lb box Baking Soda: $2.12
1 four lb 12 oz box Borax: (I already had this on hand, so I don’t have the exact price)
3.5 lbs Oxi Clean (or the store brand equivilant): $7.52
TOTAL: $16.74 (minus the Borax, but that is around $3)
So for about $20, you can have 8-9 months worth of detergent! It works out to be meager pennies per load. Now so you know, the Oxi Clean is an optional ingredient, but if your kids are messy or you have lots of stains and heavy washing I recommend adding it. My Walmart was out of the store brand Oxi Clean, which was cheaper.
I figured this was worth the investment to try it out. I do between 35-40 loads of laundry a month, and that is only increasing! Have you ever made homemade laundry detergent? How has it worked for you?
Can meal planning help save your budget?
Have you ever asked yourself how can meal planning save your budget?
Does this sound at all familiar? It’s 7:00 pm and you just got home from picking your daughter up from dance and you just dropped your son off at basketball. The phone is ringing, the baby is crying and your husband wants to know what’s for dinner. You have nothing planned, the meat is frozen and you already had pancakes the night before. There is a fast food restaurant just around every corner so you decide that on the way back from basketball you will swing through the drive-thru and pick up some burgers, fries and drinks. For $32 you feed your family a meal full of nothing nutritious and you have spent ¼ of your grocery budget for the week.
With some simple planning this situation can easily be avoided. Meal planning is easily accomplished and can save you lots of money and feed your family healthy food.
There are several ways to plan your meals.
Most weeks in my house I have a chart of the wall with each day listed and what I am planning for dinner each day. I make my plan based upon 2 things: what is on sale at the grocery store this week and what I have on hand.
Another idea is to make a rotating schedule based upon what your family likes. Include your family in this plan. You can take a few minutes to devote to meal planning. Be sure to plan enough meals for a 2 week or 4 week rotation just by making a simple chart. Wouldn’t having a monthly plan help you at the grocery store? You would know exactly what you were eating and you would know exactly what to buy. This way when you see things on sale or you come across a coupon you can quickly decide if it’s worth it to you.
Have you ever thought of having “Taco Tuesdays?” If you’ve watched the LEGO Movie I am sure you know about Taco Tuesday! Every Tuesday you can have tacos. I am sure you can come up with a few “theme nights” of your own. My kids have come up with these ideas: “Meatball Monday” and “Waffle Wednesday.” Of course they don’t have to be fancy themes. Your meal planning could just be based on things like Chicken, Beef, Pasta, Crock pot, BBQ, etc… You know what your family’s needs are. Plan for leftovers too!
For me knowing what we are having and having it documented and posted somewhere that everyone can see is super helpful. I have found that when it’s planned and written down, we stick to it. My son who struggles with anxiety really liked it when he knows what is going on and this applies to meal planning too. AND if you are lucky enough your spouse and children might be able to help you!
One more note about meal planning. If I have a plan for meals it really helps me to be able to do a little prep work throughout the day. Then there is really no going back, because I refuse to waste the food!
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Shopping Online – Let’s talk about using coupons and pinching your pennies!
We’ve been talking about pinching your pennies and using coupons to save money. Last night we mentioned the concept of never paying full price again. We love the idea of never having to pay full price. This idea works far past shopping at the grocery store. When we want to save money, we want to save money on everything, all the time. Not just some of the time or in some situations. One good way to do this is to shop online.
Shopping online provides a new shopping experience for many people. Believe it or not there are many people who have never shopped online. Shopping online is a lot like shopping around town, there are lots of choices and places to shop. Most major retailers have websites where they offer the same products found in their stores. There are also many retailers who just sell products online through their websites. Many times items can be found online at great savings. Lots of times an item will be cheaper online than it is in the store. Many online retailers off free shipping or have other kinds of promotions.
Most internet retailers offer discounts by providing discount coupon codes for things like free shipping, percentages off or fixed dollar amounts off a purchase. Using these discount codes is easy and it increases your savings. There are many places online that compile lists of these codes for shoppers. There is a list of discount coupon codes for most of the popular online retailers here on Pinching Your Pennies. Find it by clicking on Online Coupons & Codes at the top of the page. Along with discount codes, many websites like this have areas devoted to sharing internet shopping deals. Our blog features the best deals around the web every day. We scour popular retailers and bring you the best deals. Taking a look each day will help you avoid missing the best money saving deals online.
Shopping online has also become extremely safe. When there is a data breach at an online retailer many people panic and become afraid of shopping online. Shopping online at a reputable retailer is actually very safe and panic is usually needless. One good tip to remember is to be smart and choose to enter your credit card number each time instead of storing it on the different websites.
When talking about shopping online and saving we also have to look at other kinds of saving. Lots of times shopping online can help you avoid running from store to store looking for a deal or special item. Save gas, save the money spent on snacks or lunch – it all adds up. Your time is also very valuable. Saving time can be factored in to the overall savings you get when you shop online.
With a better price, no shipping charges, increased internet shopping security, no hassle of going to the store and further discounts available with coupons codes, online shopping is growing in popularity. It has become a first stop for many smart shoppers. Shopping online is a great way to pinch your pennies.
4 Tips to Save Money on Food and Groceries
Here are 4 tips to save money on food and groceries. If having the kids home for the summer is wreaking havoc on your food budget, hopefully we can help you out.
1- Drink water!
It’s better for your body anyway. If you are like me you may drink a 32 oz (or more) of soda each day. That Big Gulp can cost anywhere from $1.00 – $1.50. At a dollar a day that’s $365 a year! One thing we have tried to do in our home is rather than buying a drink at the gas station, we buy 2 liter bottles at the grocery store when they are on sale for $1.00. It still saves money. The same goes for coffee. Fancy coffee drink are expensive! Can you substitute a regular coffee in place of your latte or cappuccino? By doing that you might save $2 a day that’s $730 a year!
2- Don’t dine out as much.
I admit this is a struggle for our family. When it’s hot outside in the summer the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. Even barbequing is even tough for me when it’s hot. I would much rather go sit in a restaurant basking in their air conditioning. Dinners out can cost my family of 4 anywhere between $25 and $35 on average. I can make dinner at home and spend $5-10 per meal! If you cut out one restaurant meal a week you can save your family about $780 a year.
3- Plan your menu and stick to it!
It’s a breeze around here when we plan our menu and stick to it. I post the menu on the fridge and there is not arguing about the food. The kids know that unless there are extenuating circumstances what is on the list is what is for dinner. This helps a lot with lunches in the summer too. If I have a plan then I am more likely to prep in the morning or throughout the day. I have at my house what I call the “Witching Hour.” It’s that time of day before dinner when people are getting grumpy and hungry. If we are prepped, ready and we know what’s for dinner it helps! Again this keeps us out of the fast food line.
4- Make a shopping list and stick to it!
Make your shopping list and menu based upon what is on sale in your local grocery store that week is a great way to save money on food and groceries. Even without coupons, just shopping and meal planning off the local ads can make a huge difference in your grocery budget. Don’t forget if you find a great deal in your ad, stock up! Compare prices while you are shopping. Take a calculator with you and compare the prices per serving between container sizes and brands. You might be surprised to see the differences.
Of course you can save money on food and groceries by combining the grocery add prices with coupons! Here are some links to printable coupons: Coupons.com, Smartsource.com and Redplum.com
You can also use cash back grocery services like SavingStar, and Checkout 51 to save even more money on groceries!
*The one exception to the shopping list is… don’t forget to check the clearance bins. I ALWAYS look through the clearance bins at the grocery store. My local store has bins for canned goods, boxed goods, deli, meats & dairy! Watch the prices to make sure they really are clearance worthy and also be sure to check the expiration dates.
One final note: there are great places to shop for groceries online. Be sure to check Amazon for their Subscribe & Save and also for great quality meats checkout Zaycon.
PinchingYourPennies is giving away a YEAR’S SUPPLY of Quilted Northern Bath Tissue!
At PinchingYourPennies we LOVE giving things away! We have a great new giveaway and we LOVE the awesome prize, it’s a good one! We are so excited to give one lucky reader a YEAR’S SUPPLY of Quilted Northern Bath Tissue!
In my review yesterday, I mentioned that I was given the opportunity to try out and review Quilted Northern’s Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue. I was happy to report that I really liked Quilted Northern’s Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue. Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue combines strength and flexibility to deliver a confident clean where it counts and it’s still soft as ever. No raw bums, no lint and no toilet paper fails. The quilting seems to really help the toilet paper do its job while staying both soft and strong.
Now we can give a YEAR’S SUPPLY away so one lucky reader can try it too! Entering is SUPER easy! Just head over to our Facebook post and tell us how many rolls of toilet paper you think you and your family use each year. A random winner will be chosen a week from now on Friday, June 13th at 12:30 PM Mountain Time.
After you enter, make sure you check out the newest member of the Quilted Northern team – Emily, an inquisitive little girl who’s always looking for a good experiment, to help test the strength and flexibility of Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong. Emily’s fun and full of curiosity, always looking to put Quilted Northern to the test and isn’t afraid to try new things. Check out Emily’s World here to see what she’s been up to lately!
Don’t forget to print a couple of coupons to try Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue. You’ll be glad you did! Remember to give Quilted Northern a “Like” on Facebook and print a couple of coupons?
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Print coupons for Ultra Soft & Strong and Ultra Plush bath tissue!
Check out the Quilted Northern website and print a couple of coupons for Ultra Soft & Strong and Ultra Plush bath tissue!
Let’s talk toilet paper – Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong!
Don’t you just hate pouring money down the drain? I sure do! There are so many things we buy all the time that are disposable, consumable, drainable, flushable. You use them up and have almost nothing to show for it when you are done. I hate spending too much on items that fall into this category. One of the worst, by far, is toilet paper.
When I was given the opportunity to try out and review Quilted Northern’s Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue I was pretty happy. If it was as great as they claim it is, I could look forward to saving more money on something I don’t like buying – win! I also have some REALLY exciting news to share from Quilted Northern but we’ll get to that at the end of this review, so stick around!
Let’s talk toilet paper. We all know the flaws toilet paper can have. It can be too tough and scratchy, no one likes feeling raw after wiping. It can be too soft and leave lint all over those areas where lint is just not ok, ever. Eeewww! It can be too thin and that might be the worst flaw. No one likes to have toilet paper give way mid wipe; that is something that is just not ever going to make anyone happy or ok as they leave the bathroom.
I am happy to report that none of this happened with my trial of Quilted Northern’s Ultra Soft & Strong bath tissue. Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong combines strength and flexibility to deliver a confident clean where it counts and it’s still soft as ever. No raw bums, no lint and no toilet paper fails. The quilting seems to really help the toilet paper do its job while staying both soft and strong.
I also noticed that we could use much less of the Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong each time we were in the bathroom. After the family got used to the idea that less really was more with this new toilet paper, we were using less and changing the rolls less often. This really boosts the money saving potential of this toilet paper.
I’ll definitely be watching the sales and looking for coupons on Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong. It is one I am adding to the list of favorite products in our house. Want to grab a couple of coupons now? Why not give Quilted Northern a “Like” on Facebook and print a couple of coupons?
Now for the really exciting news! PinchingYourPennies has been chosed to give one lucky reader a YEAR’S SUPPLY of Quilted Northern Bath Tissue! We’ll be starting the contest tomorrow afternoon so keep your eyes open and enter tomorrow!
While you are waiting for our giveaway, make sure you check out the newest member of the Quilted Northern team – Emily, an inquisitive little girl who’s always looking for a good experiment, to help test the strength and flexibility of Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong. Emily’s fun and full of curiosity, always looking to put Quilted Northern to the test and isn’t afraid to try new things. Check out Emily’s World here to see what she’s been up to lately!