Any frugal mommmas out there?
I thought this would be fun to see if any moms or moms to be had any tips or recipes for things to make from simple inexpensive ingridients to save you money. Since these are harder times and we all could use the extra cash in our pockets. I make my own homemade laundry detegent and it waorks awesome and saves me money, escpecially for my large family of soon to be 9. Anyone else have homemade things to make that work as good as store bought stuff? :-D
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Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value
4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!
**I bought all my ingredients including the 5 gallon bucket and lid for under $12. I didn't buy or use the essential oils, those do cost a bit more by the bottle and from what I hear can usually be found at health food stores. BUt I use fabric softner and that alone makes my clothes smell scented.
** I also bought my 5 gallon bucket at Lowes for about $3 and the lids was $.99 all my other ingredients I bought at Publix grocery store. Not sure if you have one of those where you live. But you can call around to some of your stores to see if they have these things. I found all of the last 3 ingredients in the laundry detergent aisle.
GOOD LUCK AND HOPE YOU CAN TRY IT! Mine has lasted me for over 8 months. Love it!!!
Inexpensive Fabric Softener Recipes
Recipe #1
1 Cup White Vinegar
Add vinegar to rinse cycle. Works great. Removes residue and odors. Also helps to keep washing machine and hoses fresh and clean too.
Recipe #2
1 Container of Name Brand Fabric Softener
4 Inexpensive sponges, cut in half
Pour entire container of softener into a 5 gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice. (2 parts water to 1 part softener) Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet.
Hope you find this helpful, theres lots of other things to try on there too.
http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html
I buy almost all my kids clothes from childrens consignment places or yard sales. They are still young so they still look good and are in style. I've signed up to be on the email list at these consignment shops so they will notify me when they have sales. This year they had a sale in our town where you could shove as many clearance clothes as possible in a bag and it was anywhere from $10-$20 (depending on which store I went to) I got almost $400 worth of clothes for $80. Its everything we will need for the next year for both kids!!
I also check out craigslist and wait for people to post deals especially on toys