Guest Writing for another Blog

A friend had asked me to be a "guest writer" on her blog and write a piece discussing my recent frugal-ness.   I'll get back to writing about homeschooling next post.   There is only so much I can say about it and still hold an interest, so I thought I'd sprinkle in a few of these every now and then.  This post holds a little more insight into our family.  Enjoy.   

Labor Day weekend came and went, signaling the ending of summer.  Time to send kids back to school, bring in the harvest and get busy with canning.  A few short months to prepare for the long cold months ahead called wintertime. 

In our 12 years of wedded bliss I've never been put in charge of the "Big budget".  That's the husband's department. I'm in charge of the families 'consumable' budget; ie, groceries, toiletries, kid's stuff.  Like everyone else on a budget, I've gotten creative with trying to make it stretch.  As you may well know that's not an easy feat in today's landmine of a ridiculously priced market.  

My husband, is a frugal under appreciated super genius.  He grew up in the land of sunshine.  Spending a lot of time outdoors and working with his hands.  He was only 17 when his home was devastated by a class 4 hurricane.  He lived for nine months without electricity and helped his father rebuild their house which was flattened.  I think the experience of living in the aftermath of a natural disaster played a significant role in shaping the person he is today.  I call him a "Redneck", or more affectionately, my "Professor  Gilligan".  We pride ourselves on recycling, repurposing and are huge fans of self reliance and sustainable stuff.   We plant a garden every spring from seed and make our own compost for it from worms.  We frequent the farm market through out the summer for fresh produce and visit the orchards in the fall to supplement what we don't grow.  I've only recently started canning but I enjoy the pay off of all that hard work.  Months worth of spaghetti sauce, canned diced tomatoes for cooking,  green beans and peas. My kids are crazy about the refrigerator pickles I make and enough yummy salsa to host many game nights.     

On any given weekend Professor Gilligan can be found in our backyard or in his garage building something, making something or trying to figure out how something will work.  Here's a picture of his latest thing he's built, it's some sort of waste oil burning stove.  He put it together from things he's had laying around the house.  

May I add, they don't just miraculously appear here, he actually drags them home from a curbside, junk yard or they come as gifts.  He's been affectionately nicknamed by friends as Sanford, from the old show "Sanford and Son".  Every time he brings home something new I hear the Sanford and Son's theme song.  I could go on about him for days.  Needless to say he's had an influence over me all these years too.  I frankly don't even recognize myself from the kid and young adult I grew up as.  I used to poke fun at the person I've become.  "Domesticated", married and old with kids.   I was the rocker chick wearing spandex with big hair of the 80s that never had a concern for the future or the environment.   I probably single-handedly  destroyed the ozone layer with all the Aqua Net I used back then.   

 Years ago, when I became a mother to my girls, I became very aware of all the chemicals that are in the products we use on a daily basis.  My first realization was the soap and lotion I used on them.  They have very dry skin and need lotion on a daily basis sometimes twice a day.   I started reading labels and educating myself on the ingredients which led me then to the use of organic products.  Believe it or not organic products still contain chemicals that can be toxic.  Being a member of the medical field since 1995 hasn't helped calm my quandary either.  Our skin is the largest organ of our entire body.  It's like a sponge, releasing and absorbing constantly.  Those trace chemicals applied every day to my babies for many years ends up looking like a huge amount if you consider what it actually means in terms of ACCUMULATION.  Which was enough for me to take action.  Now buying organic anything on average costs more in a retail setting.   For instance the lotion I started purchasing for the girls costs almost $7 for a 12oz bottle.  But I let it slide because I thought it was a small price I had to pay to feel better about my "future generation".   Until the day I stumbled upon recipes for making your own lotion and soap.  The Professor figured out the schematics of soap making for me, wrote the exact recipe down and Volia! my first batch of homemade soap was created.  The very next day came the lotion which is made from the same ingredients as the soap with a few added luxuries and I've never looked back.

    On top of my kids having very dry skin they're also very sensitive to laundry soaps.  I've had to use Tide for years because it's been the only thing that doesn't break them out in a rash.  I had stocked up on laundry soap over a year ago on a coupon shopping frenzy and I had noticed we were finally running out.  I absolutely loathe paying full price for it and I didn't have any recent coupons so I was dreading the purchase.  Which brings me to poking around on Pintrest one day.  Some random girl pinned one of my pins, so in turn. I was stalking her boards.  Come to find out this random chick and I had a lot in common!  She had a recipe for laundry soap,  I thought maybe I could try for all of us.  

 I could hardly believe how little it costs to put this concoction together and it only uses ONE TABLESPOON per load!    I said to myself,  "This can't be?!  No way!  I'll make a little batch to try and hopefully the kids won't turn into a gigantic hive".  I was so impressed.  It gets your clothes clean AND they smell good (I use the Fels Naptha version).  I'll never go back to buying commercial laundry detergent.  I'm picky about the way they smell so I haven't given up my dryer sheets just yet.   I was telling my bestie about the laundry soap find one day and how I wasn't prepared to ditch the fabric sheet and she suggested getting the liquid stuff, adding a little water to thin it out then spraying it on coffee filters to toss into the dryer!  I'm surrounded by super genius(S)!  I haven't tried it yet but she swears it works and that's good enough for me.  

The very same website also had a recipe for automatic dishwasher detergent which I've tried and like as well. My dishwasher is cheap and I've battled the post wash crud on my dishes for years.  Professor Gilligan won't take a dish down to use without pre rinsing it first because of the ensuing battle.  I hate stuck on filth and despite my best efforts of scrubbing the dishes before putting them into the machine it would continue.  Since the switch, I have to say it's gotten better.  I won't go as far as to say eliminated, but a difference for the better has been noted by the hubby and he never sugar coats anything.  Again both recipes share the same ingredients so they're easy to make and I love that!   If you have to have a rinsing agent, I've heard you can use one cup of vinegar and the dishes will come out looking like you've used a commercial rinse.  I have also discovered through trial and error if you put the dishwasher detergent powder in the freezer it won't clump up as Lemishine has a tendency to do.   Trust me on that one, it's not pretty.  Testimonies swear on both recipes effectiveness in hard water too.  Bonus!

I urge you to give these a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Speaking only for myself, it gives me piece of mind saving a little money and possibly not using harmful ingredients.  That has been my biggest motivator for sticking with them.  I haven't tallied how much money I'm saving yet, but I do know I'm NOT missing listing these items on my shopping list.  

Now if only I could find a recipe on how to make my own toilet paper.  No matter how much I stock up, inevitably we're always on the last roll without a spare in arms reach!