Category: Every Day

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Every Day

The Wind Is Howling

I have been listening to the wind howling for hours. It is gusting at 45-55 miles per hour.  We have skipped autumn this year. Two weeks ago we were in the ’80’s and now it is winter. They even predicted some snow on the weather forecast last night. I am hoping they are wrong.

Our heat has been on since the day after our last 80’s day. I think that has been about 2 weeks. We were reviewing the past years electric and gas bills today and we have had a significant increase in the cost. Hubby says the yearly amount has jumped from October 2017 to October 2018 by $250. Most of the increase is a result of how hot our summer was which cost so much more in air conditioning. We are just under $2000. for that year time period. I realize rates have gone up also and now they are telling us that here in western NY, we can expect our winter heating costs to go up about 5% more. 

So all of this has me thinking about how you and I can save on our heating costs this winter. I am going to try to hold them down where I can.

We have a programmable thermostat. Hubby has it set for the heat to go down to 65 at night and then back up to 71 in the morning. Hubby gets cold easily so we can’t lower it anymore. This makes it easy because it does it automatically. If you don’t have one, you should get one. You can get one for $ 40. – $ 50. on Amazon.com.

This morning I will dig out our cloth snakes to put up against our outside doors and the basement doors to keep the heat in the house.

Our back door is not as tight as it should be so we will be purchasing a storm door this week and have it installed. That will keep the drafts out and off my back while I am eating at the table. 

Hubby changed the furnace filter when he turned the heat on. We will do this monthly.

I have the small heater that plugs in ready for company for one of the guest rooms. Because the windows in that room are almost floor to ceiling, it gets colder than the other rooms. We only run it about once or twice a year for a few days.

We are already keeping most of the shades and blinds closed day and night. The only ones we open are the ones where the sun is brightly shining in. We have shades that have a heat layer inside- like a honeycomb. The shades in the living areas let the light shine in. The room darkening ones in the bedrooms do not let the light in. But in the winter, we rarely open those. It is cheaper to use one LED bulb. 

Extra blankets have been put on the beds so that we can be warm at night when the temperature in the house goes down.

All of the baseboard cracks have been resealed and the house has been caulked outside.

We have our supplies ready to make hot chocolate.  Our supply of coffee and tea is stocked for the winter. If we catch a chill even when it is 71 in the house, the hot beverages usually warm us up.

I love to bake in this colder weather. So when I have time, I bake quick breads, muffins, donuts, cakes, pies, etc. I turn the oven off a few minutes before they are done. Then when I take my baked goods out of the oven, I leave the door open to let the hot air into the house. I always try to load my oven when I bake or roast meat and then I freeze some of it for the future. 

We try to only use our garage door when we go in and out. Less cold air comes into the house that way. The wind doesn’t come into the house. We also stay home more in the winter so there is less opening and closing of doors. 

We have our supply of sweaters and sweatshirts at the ready. And all of our throws are near the sofas and chairs in the great room. 

We also continue to do whatever we can in the house to use less electricity and natural gas whether that is hot water, lighting, using the dryer less or not at all, running full loads of laundry and or dishes. We continue to use as many small appliances to cook as we can instead of the stove top or oven. If we can fit something to roast or bake for dinner into the toaster oven, we do.

What do you do to save on your winter heating bills?

         

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Every Day

The Best Laid Plans

I had planned on grocery shopping either Sunday or yesterday but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Hubby ended up in the hospital those two days. He scared the living daylights out of both of us. But he is home now and fine.

So today I got to go to the dentist for an appointment that I rescheduled from yesterday to today.  Then I was able to go grocery shopping. I purchased more than usual but that is okay since I didn’t spend much last month.

My first stop was Aldi’s where I purchased the above. I hadn’t planned on going there but decided to check prices against my Top’s list. Well I purchased more than I had planned to this week but I am stocking for winter.

This is my Aldi’s receipt. The sour cream was needed for dinner tonight. It was such a good price compared to Top’s so I got two. One for now and one for later. The chicken broth was $1.29 which is about $.70 cheaper than Top’s. I use ground coffee in my refillable cup for my Keurig. I was down to my last can and saw this large can priced at $4.89 so I thought I would try it to see if it is any good. They have the best price on the northern beans and soon I will be making ham and bean soup.  

They had Honeycrisp apples on sale for $ 1.99 a bag and they are a favorite. The frozen  veggies were great prices compared to Top’s and I am stockpiling for the winter. I only had one egg left in the house so I needed them badly. Aldi’s large eggs are small so I only bought one then paid a little more for a dozen at Top’s. We needed basil and the granola bars because I am almost out. I like stove top stuffing as a quick side when we have poultry or even pork and I had none left. We also are on our last bottle of tartar sauce and soy sauce.

So the total at Aldi’s was $ 24.82. 

The next and last stop was Top’s. I needed bacon and ham slices for Sunday breakfasts and I stock up when they have a good sale. The bacon was B2G3F. Then I bought 2 on sale ham slices. I used a coupon for get a $1.00 off any Smithfield breakfast item when you buy 1 bacon. I meant to get another flyer at the front door and use 2 coupons but I forgot so I lost a $1.00 there. I have so much on my mind right now that I am not surprised. They also had really nice chuck roasts on sale for $3.99 and that is a great price in our area. So I went to the butcher shop and picked two nice ones and had them individually wrap them for me. I would have bought more but I  am trying to make space for turkeys when they go on sale.

Hubby was out of his crunchy peanut butter and his quick meal meatballs. He loves these Rosina in a meatball sandwich for lunch. When I make spaghetti and meatballs I usually make my own. The meatballs were on sale for B1G1F and I had 2 coupons for $1.00/1 so I got 4 bags. Strawberries were on Super Coupon for $ 1.99. I bought the large eggs on Super Coupon for $ 1.29. Also the pasta sauce which I use for a base for homemade was on Super Coupon for $ .99. This week is chock full of appointments and we want to get up to the gym a few days so I picked up 4 Smart Ones for quick lunches. With Hubby in the hospital I did not have time to prepare lunches ahead for the week. We will fill in the other days with leftovers. 

Here is my receipt for Top’s. As you can see the total was $67.00. So I spent a total of $ 91.82 this week.

I roasted a whole chicken over the weekend so we have a lot leftover that hasn’t gotten eaten because of Hubby’s hospitalization. So tonight I am going to make a big pan of cheesy chicken enchiladas. They should serve us for two or more meals. 


I am out of here to try to catch up all the things that got neglected the last few days.


If you are buying any great deals at the grocery store feel free to leave a comment about them.
 

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Every Day

What If You Lost Your Income?

A company that has been in business for years in a town in our area announced today that they will be starting factory shutdown next week and will cease operations. They say they will only need 10 employees of the 150-175 they currently have for the shutdown. That is a lot of employees who will be out of a job next week. Even though the economy is good and workers looking for employment are in short supply, these workers will most likely find it hard to make the wages that they currently make. Finding that new job may force them to move.

So what should you do if you lose your job or even part of your income that you have counted on. I can only tell you what I would do if I was in those circumstances.

Before you lost your job or part of your income, I would hope that you have plenty of money saved in case of this emergency. But many people don’t due to many different circumstances. Or if you knew far in advance that you were losing part of your income, you would have had time to save every dollar you could. 

First, I would apply for unemployment. Then I would update my resume. Next I would start searching and applying for as many jobs as I could. Any and all adult household members should be looking for jobs if they are unemployed. Even stay at home Mom’s or Dad’s can find a part time job on weekends or evenings.  

Then, I would cancel as many recurring expenses as I could. Cable TV, extra cellphones, or a home phone would get cancelled. Cancel all magazine subscriptions or any other subscription services that you have such as the newspaper. Then stop the gym memberships or any other memberships that you pay for. You can no longer afford these luxuries. 

Next I would try to lower other expenses like homeowner’s and car insurance by researching who is cheapest but still has an A or B+ rating.

Check to see where the food pantries are. Can you get food stamps? If you have worked almost 10 months in a job, you probably won’t qualify this year but perhaps in January you will. 

Figure out how you can maintain health insurance for you and your family. That is important. When family members were without a job many years ago they used COBRA to keep their health insurance for a couple of months till they found another job. COBRA is not cheap but it is important to not go without it. One injury or illness could wipe you out.

Stop all spending immediately except for necessities. Necessities to me would be food, mortgage payment or rent, house or car insurance, internet service so you can apply for jobs,  transportation or paying for gasoline to drive  to job interviews and the market, utility bills for gas and electric, water and sewer, medical co pays and insurance. You also need just one cellphone or home phone so that you can be reached by companies looking to interview you. Any spares need to be cancelled. The rest are all luxuries.

You shouldn’t spend any money on clothing, entertainment, meals out or anything else. Christmas may have to be celebrated with just a family meal and no gifts. We did this one year when Hubby was hit by a car while walking from the parking lot to his office only 5 weeks after he started a new job. He had no sick time at that point and so we went without pay for a few weeks until he was cleared after surgery to go back to work. We had only had our new home a year so we didn’t really have much savings at that point. We just told everyone that we couldn’t afford to buy gifts that Christmas. We just had a small family gathering with a cheap turkey.

Every expense that isn’t a necessity must be cut! I can’t say that enough. Until you have another job, you spend not one dollar unless it is really necessary.

If your situation is such that you are permanently losing income, then you have to find a way to replace that income and pay your bills. If you have to downsize your home or find and apartment to live in, it is the choice you will have to make. If you have to find a part time job or a way to make up that income, then that is what you have to do.  

Even the amounts you spend on the necessities such as food can be cut with proper planning or couponing.

It isn’t going to be easy but you know that when you get a job it will get better and you won’t always have to be so thrifty.

Feel free to add in comments any other advice that you feel is important in this situation.

 

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Every Day

Our Easy Busy Day Dinner

We woke up to 40 temperatures today. It is getting cold fast considering we were 70 yesterday and 80’s the day before. 

Hubby and I were craving soup. So this is my fallback soup that is easy. It basically a dump tortilla soup. 

Usually, I use leftover chicken from a rotisserie chicken or one I have roasted. However, I had no cooked chicken in the freezer. So I quickly cooked up 2 small chicken breasts.

Then I proceeded to put all of the ingredients I needed to make it in my dinner prep tray and stored it away in the fridge until an hour before dinner. 

Then I mixed it all in my big pot and simmered it for about 45 minutes so the flavors could meld together. 

At dinnertime, I served this tortilla soup with broken tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese on top. It is so yummy and the heat of the soup melts the cheese. 

With our gym schedule, I like easy more and more.

Yesterday was my “39 again” birthday. I had a wonderful laid back day doing whatever I wanted. Last night Hubby took me out to dinner where I enjoyed my favorite rib eye steak sandwich and French fries with gravy. The French fries with gravy have been a very favorite of mine since I was a teen.

I was happy to receive these beautiful flowers from my son, DIL and granddaughter. But my very favorite thing was a card that my granddaughter decorated and she wrote to me ” I wish you a very long life!” That brought a big smile to my face.
   
Today, I helped Hubby push our great big John Deere riding lawn mower back into the shed. It wouldn’t start when Hubby tried to mow. So we have made a call for service and they will come and pick it up on Tuesday and then repair it and bring it back to us. Hopefully it won’t take too long since our lawn is long now. UGH!

Anybody have a favorite homemade soup recipes that you would be willing to share in comments? I make chicken or turkey rice, ham and bean, and this tortilla soup all the time. I could use some new and easy ones for the winter.

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Every Day

Simple Ways We Save Money Every Day

There are so many simple things that we do every day to save money that many people new to frugality may not realize. I became aware of this when a friend came over to see my stockpile. I showed her why I buy powdered lemonade in bulk. She asked me why I didn’t tell her about that a long time ago. I have been doing these things for so long that they are second nature to me now. But it was an aha moment that made me realize that not everyone knows about these things.

So I have been compiling a list for all of you. Here they are:

– Almost all of our meals are eaten at home. It’s healthier and cheaper than fast food or eating out in a restaurant.

– We drive as little as possible. When we do drive, we do a lot of errands at one time. Now that we are going to the YMCA, we run many of them afterwards. We run them in a circle to be as fuel efficient as possible.

– I take Navy showers. Wet down, soap up and rinse off. I turn the shower off while soaping up. This saves on water and natural gas to heat the water. When we are at our swim classes at the YMCA, we shower there.

– Most of our laundry is hung to dry. I use EcoEggs to wash our clothes instead of detergent.

– Last night I cleaned our dishwasher using powdered lemonade. It is so much cheaper than the dishwasher cleaner you can buy. They both have citric acid. I have been using it for years and it does a great job.

– I use vinegar instead of Jet Dry as a rinse agent in my dishwasher.

– I cover my pots on my stove to keep the heat in so that our food cooks faster. I use a burner that is perfect for the size of the pot.

– I turn off the oven 5 minutes before things are done.  Afterwards, I leave the oven door open to let the heat out into the room.

– We rarely buy bottled water. We drink filtered tap water.

– I don’t drink soda. Hubby does but he has been drinking more and more homemade iced tea lately than soda.

– We have given up most snacks except for popcorn, tortilla chips, and potato chips. Both kinds of chips are used in meals.

– I buy 99% of Hubby’s clothes from LL Bean. I wait for sales and use coupon codes when possible. The clothes are classic and wear like iron. They last a long, long time.

– We wear casual clothes 99% of the time. Lots of T shirts, shorts and jeans. I buy mine on sale with coupons from either Kohl’s or J.C. Penneys. If we are doing something in the yard or washing the car, we wear old stained clothes. I do the same to clean.

– I haven’t purchased floss in years. Between the samples the dentist gives us and a stockpile of Reach that I got for free after coupons, we are set for years. The dentist also gives us toothpaste, toothbrushes and mouthwash. 

– We use every free sample that we get. Right now I am using travel size shampoos from our last Disney World trip to take to the gym with me for when I shower. 

– We never wear shoes in the house. Our white carpeting looks new and it is almost 9 years old. We shampoo it ourselves rather than hire a company to do it.

– I clean my toilets with cheap Equate dental tablets and a brush. Put it in and let it dissolve and wash the dirt way. Right now I am using all natural toilet cleaner that I got for free. 


– I use a pump bottle in the shower to dispense shampoo. It prevents me from pouring too much.


– We purchase our razors and blades from Dorco online. They are cheap, work as well as name brands like Gillette and the blades last so much longer. I also like the fact that any blade fits any razor head.

– We don’t let the water run while washing pots and pans or dishes in the sink. I fill the sink a little ways on one side with soapy water and then the same with rinse water on the other side.

– I use cold water to wash clothes unless I have an exceptionally dirty load. That rarely happens though.

– We check the furnace filters once a month to see if they need changing. On the advice of my furnace people, I use the cheapest furnace filters from Home Depot or Lowe’s. They advised that the more expensive ones block air flow.

– Anything involving money, we take care of right away. We don’t procrastinate. For example, we got a survey from our school district yesterday. They gave us a code to take it online. They want to charge us $ 35.90 more in our school taxes next September so that they can give a discount to a certain class of people. I jumped online very quickly to vote no. They wanted to know why I voted no. I advised we pay a fortune now with no kids going to school there. I also told them we are senior citizens on a fixed income and we don’t get a discount. I don’t understand why the school is pushing this discount. They had us vote on the same issue a few years back and it was voted down handily. Now instead of a vote, they want you to go online and vote. How many people will throw that stuff out from the school and not look at it? You can bet the class of people it involves will all vote yes. I am going to be furious if this goes through but we only get one vote.

– We keep our home clean and organized. That is the best way I know to take care of/and find our things so that we don’t have to replace them. 

– We wash our own car in the driveway except for winter time. We go to the car wash then.

– We use our outdoor fireplace in the Fall and Spring. We collected leftover wood from when they were building homes in here. We are still using it. Now they will be building again soon so I will be collecting it again. 

– I keep an online inventory of our stockpile and freezer contents so that I always know what we have and can make meals from those items. 

– I also have updated my price book so that I know where to buy items at their cheapest.

– And the biggest thing we do everyday is track our income and expenses. You can’t save money unless you know where your money is going. Do this for just three months and I think you will be shocked at what your expenses are.

That is enough for today. I will post more another time.

What are the simple things that you do to save money every day? 

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Every Day

Why Do We Save So Much Money?

So many people have asked us why we save so much money especially since we retired. There are many reasons. Inflation is one of them. We don’t ever want to worry about going without as our money depreciates. If we need a new furnace, car, roof repair, appliance, etc., we want to never have to worry about paying for it.

If our car dies tomorrow, we want to be able to walk into the dealership the same day and plunk down the cash for a new one. The same with anything else that needs replacing. 

If we need dental work, we want to know that we can afford it. We want to be able to pay our medical insurance and bills.

We have moved twice since we retired. We want to be able to move again to a condo or townhouse when the time is right. Right now, we pay someone to maintain our outside property. So we will buy something where everything is done for us for monthly maintenance fees. When we get tired of the big house and want to downsize to a condo, we want to have the cash to do that. 

We want to be able to give nice gifts to our children and our grandchildren. We definitely want to leave them a nice inheritance.

We wanted to do things like join the YMCA to be able to use the machines and go to the Aqua Fit classes. We did that even though the cost was more than I was told. When the old Y closed in the city, the new YMCA in our town costs us $48. per month instead of the $37. I was quoted when I called the old place. We are loving it but I have to admit it takes a lot of time out of our week. However we are doing it to get fit and we are worth it.  


When I went to Dick’s for a new gym bag and swim shoes this week, I didn’t have to worry about where the money would come from to pay for them.

If we want to go out to dinner or a night out on the town like last night, we know that we have the money to afford it.

You see when we first got married, we saved for a nice life for our family just like you do.  But we also saved for the future because we knew that life is short and the future and retirement would happen rapidly. It did in a flash. 

I am always amazed at people who say that they are going to spend all of their money before they die. How do they know when they will die? No one does.

So if they spend all of their money by the time they are 80 and live to 100, what do they do? Live in poverty? That is not my idea of living a good life.

So I think I have answered that question that I get asked over and over again.

The moral here is that you should save and save. Not only for the things you want now but for the future. You can live a good life while married, while raising your families, and then when you are retired. It’s all in the planning. If you fail to plan, your retirement either won’t happen or you will run out of money before you run out of life. 


With that said, I am trying to juggle life this past week and this one. We had so many appointments last week and we do this and then tried to fit in days at the Y that something had to suffer and this blog was it. Hopefully as I get better at doing it all, things will get better.

How do you do it all?    


   

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Every Day

September’s Grocery Challenge Results

Now that September is over, so is the Grocery Challenge. I will let you know how I did for the month and you can add your results in the comments.

I had a total of $106. to spend for the month; $25.00 per week and about $6. for the last 2 days. Most of what I purchased I put in my posts with a few exceptions of things we needed that didn’t make it into a post.

I spent including tax a total of $ 37.48 for the entire month. So I guess I did pretty well. We mainly ate from our stockpile which served us well. The extra $ 68.52 will be used for the October budget. That will be all the less money I have to take out in cash for the month.


So please feel free to add in comments your results for the month of September.


It is another really busy week here. We started working out at the YMCA yesterday. It felt so good and I enjoyed it immensely. Hubby is too. I didn’t know how he would make out because of his bad back but they have a lot of machines that work well  with back issues. We are also enjoying fitness classes. So that is eating up some time every day.


Today, I had another dental appointment. They are making me an entire new permanent denture. The first one was awful and didn’t fit. The dentist has made me a custom tray for the mold. They are making the metal base of the denture this week and I go back to make sure that fits. Then it goes back for them to make a wax mold and I go back to see if that fits. Then finally the permanent denture. I have been at this since May 1st. I told the dentist that I feel like part of the family now since I see them so much. Actually I can’t wait for it all to be over with.

After our appointments, I dropped Hubby at home and went on to Top’s. It is 6% Senior Discount day. I only picked up things that we have run out of that we use all of the time. My total bill was $32.12.

I am doing laundry now and soon it will be time to make dinner. I hope you all have a great evening.
  

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Every Day

Our Frugal Saturday

We have been extremely busy today. Hubby hired a company to fix our stone front on the house. Three of the ledge stones had fallen off. They wanted $800. to do the job. We said okay. That was back in May. They said they would do it when they got time. They have never come or called us. With winter upon us, Hubby decided to fix it himself. He did a lot of research this week to learn how to do it. This afternoon he has been working on it. He is an engineer so he built a contraption to hold the stones against the house while they dry in place. It is ingenious and seems to be working well.

This morning I cut up all of the leftover lasagna from Hubby’s birthday dinner. I used the food saver to package in up in 2 portion meals and put them in the freezer for future dinners. Two nights in a row was enough. It’s very rich. 

Then I made my next two weeks of menu plans. I like having to do this every two weeks instead of one. Sorry about the shadows on the first week.

Next I made my prep tray for dinner tonight. I do this every morning for meals that need prepping. That way when it is time to cook all I have to do is pull the tray out of the fridge. We are having chicken stir fry with onions, red, orange, and yellow peppers, and pineapple chunks. We will use a little of the stir fry sauce. Hubby will make rice to put on it in the rice cooker.  


After that I made a little homemade blueberry and banana ice cream and it is freezing in the freezer as I write this.


Then it was time to bring all of the items for our next two weeks of dinner meals up from the chest freezer. They all reside now in the first drawer of my fridge freezer. I also keep my yeast here for making bread.


On the left side of that drawer, I keep our breakfast items like chopped onions for our omelets and hash browns, sausage, bacon, orange juice to make cranberry orange muffins, and blueberries for muffins, smoothies, and pancakes. I also have two toaster waffles left from when my granddaughter was here. West will eat them next time he is here to visit for a weekend. 

Now I am about to go watch football with Hubby before I make dinner. 

How is your Saturday going? 


 

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Every Day

Is Everyone Trying To Take Your Money?

As I was sitting here this morning, drinking my Irish Cream coffee with Irish Cream whipped topping (Thanks Sis!), I opened my e-mail. I had no less than 36 e-mails from companies trying to tell me about the latest great sale and how I could spend my money this morning. It’s exasperating!

Every company that you have ever done business with in the past 20 years thinks they can take up your time by sending e-mails and trying to sell you something. Some even give you a coupon to entice you even more. I am getting e-mails from companies that I haven’t done business with since we lived in AZ, almost a decade ago.

My time is valuable! I need it to do the frugal things around here that allow us to up our net worth not lower it by buying stuff. I need my time to write this blog and help a lot of other people. I don’t have time for all of these companies who want to part me from my money. But they don’t make it easy to get rid of them. Delete doesn’t do it. So I painstakingly took the time this morning to unsubscribe from each of those companies. 

Oh, you say, but I might miss out on a sale. Believe me, there will always be another sale. If I need to buy something, I know how to find a coupon code. 

You get the same thing on Facebook, ad after ad. Open the newspaper and all of the ads are there on Sunday. If I need something, I can look through them and follow the sales that way.

No wonder so many people are in debt today. They are bombarded with information on how to save money by buying the companies’ products. Don’t miss this sale, it is the best ever! Grab our coupon code and save some money! These tactics are everywhere.

The only way to save YOUR money is to put it in the bank and not touch it. These tactics aren’t saving you money; they are making you spend money. 

Bah humbug you say!  Yes, I know that Christmas is coming. Hopefully most of you purchased gifts throughout the year and are done. But if you didn’t, do yourself a favor and make a list of what you want to buy for whom and how much you want to spend that is within your budget. Then look for a sale at specific stores or peruse your Sunday ads when you have the time. 

I can’t even stomach TV commercials; hence I don’t watch much TV unless it is on You Tube or Amazon Prime who have limited commercials. So much of an hour show is taken up by everyone wanting to sell you something. At the rate commercials are going, it won’t be long before there is more commercial time than show time.  

Don’t let these advertisers take up your time! Life is too short. Make up your own mind on what you need to buy not what they want you to buy. The advertisers aren’t trying to save you money. They are trying to part you from your money!

Also keep track of what you are putting on credit cards this upcoming holiday season. Don’t spend more than you can pay off when the bill rolls around each month! That way you will start off the New Year with much less debt and stress! 

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Every Day

Homemade Laundry Detergent

You all know that I use the EcoEgg for my laundry. That said, I need some laundry detergent to soak hand washables that I feel are too delicate to go in the washer. I also need something that I can soak stains in.

There are tons of homemade laundry detergent recipes online but this is the one that I find works the best for us. So I make up a small batch and keep it in a reused container. 

Here is the recipe:

1 bar of Soap grated(I use any soap that I have.) 
1 cup of Washing Soda
1/2 cup of OxiClean
1/2 cup of Borax

The worst part of this is grating the soap. I use a box grater. Once that is done, it is just a matter of  throwing it all together and mixing it well. I use 1-2 tablespoons of this soap mixed in a bucket of hot water to soak or wash items. 

Since I am out of purchased regular laundry soap, I needed to make a couple of batches to soak 4 items with stains. I will soak them overnight. Rinse then well and then wash with the EcoEgg. This detergent has never let me down.

Do you make your own laundry soap? Do you have a recipe you like?