Making Your Home Sing Monday - Becoming Self-Sufficient

It's time for another Making Your Home Sing Monday! After you read this, hop over to Mom's The Word to find out how you can tell others how you make YOUR home sing! Have a great week!



With the economy on the down-low and jobs becoming scarce, it's becoming more and more important for people to start trying to become self-sufficient - if for no other reason than out of necessity!

There are so many ways that one can do this, and though it may take some time and effort, it is so worth it in the end.

Let's face it, produce is one of the most expensive things to buy in the grocery store. Therefore, if you can, this spring try planting a little vegetable garden. Even just planting lettuce, tomato, and cucumbers will save hundreds of $$ over the summer. We plan on planting the above, plus potatoes, onions, zucchini, bell peppers, squash, and okra. We're also planing on planting a pear tree and maybe some strawberries. Our plot is so large, that we intend on making it a "community garden" by inviting friends and family to share in the work and the rewards!

Next on the list is meat. Now while for most of us it may not be practical to have a cow in the back yard or raise chickens, there are many places out there that will sell a whole side of beef for pennies on the dollar. While the initial cost may seem like a lot, the end savings is tremendous. And if you or a loved one hunts - even better! Venison is one of the leanest, most healthful meats out there! (note, to get rid of the "gamy" taste, try marinading it in milk for 8-12 hours!). And let's not forget wild pig, wild turkey, even rabbit! Again, the cost of having the meat processed may seem high, the overall savings can be huge!

Household cleaning products cost more than anything else in the grocery store. So, try making your own! I made my own laundry soap in August, and haven't bought any since. And we're JUST NOW halfway through the bucket. If THAT'S not money saving, I don't know what is! You can also make your own dishwasher soap (although, I will admit it does NOT work as well as the store-bought brand!!). As for regular household cleaning - I LOVE baking soda as a scrub and vinegar for all other jobs. CHEAP and THEY WORK.

What about clothes? Well, as the Duggars say "Buy used and save the difference". With the exception of myself (because it's very hard to find plus size clothes in a thrift store) the majority of my family's clothes have come from thrift shops. You can find some very nice gently used shirts, pants, skirts and tops for a fraction of what you would pay new!

As someone that will very soon be a college graduate, I am anticipating the dreaded loan repayments that face me. In order to pay these puppies off as quickly as possible, we are going to have to save money everywhere we can. These are just a few of the things that we're doing to do just that, I encourage you to follow suit and find your own ways to become self-sufficient!

Making Your Home Sing Monday - MORE money-saving!

Happy Labor Day everyone! It's time for another edition of
Making Your Home Sing Monday
Hosted by Nan at Mom's The Word

Be sure to pay her a visit and, if you blog, tell us what you do to make your home sing, then link up to her blog!

Last week, I talked about saving money with home made household laundry soap. Let me say, that I love my soap and I will never buy it in the store again.

This week, I want to share with you some more things that I've done to help my family save money on costly (and sometimes unsafe!!!) cleaning items.

Dishwasher Soap

I used the recipe on this web site to make my own dishwasher powder. According to the recipe, there is a possibility that there will be a residue on your dishes. Now, the recipe calls for citric acid to fix this problem, which I did not have, so I instead used a couple of vitamin c pills that I crushed up. This didn't prevent the residue, but I do have some citric acid on it's way, so I will be adding it to the mix when it gets here, and we'll see!

In the meantime, the soap cleans very well - in fact, it cleans better than my store brand gel. The downside is that it, like ALL powders and tabs in my dishwasher, can sometimes get stuck in the soap dispenser. But I think this is my dishwasher's problem, not the soap's. When this happens, I just close the door and run it again.

With the gels, I often have leftover food on the dishes, and some of it even ends up on glasses and cups in the top rack. This has not happened since I started using the homemade soap.

When it comes to rinsing agents, rather than using the expensive chemical ones found on the dishwashing aisle (you know - the electric blue stuff) - I use vinegar. It's cheaper, cleaner, and healthier to use (no chemicals)!

Scrub Cleaners


I never was big on using scrub cleaners, really. They were messy, smelly, and honestly didn't really work that well. But I did discover that a simple paste made with 4 parts baking soda to 1 part kosher salt and 2 parts water (less or more may be needed depending on weather and climate) works beautifully to clean up stuck-on messes on stove tops, sinks, counters, and even tables (I've used this on my Aunt's antique coffee table and it's worked beautifully). This also is all food grade and will harm neither the environment or humans or pets.

Spray Cleaners


I love spray cleaners - I use them for everything from floor messes to windows to . . . well, you name it. And some people will rave about ammonia or bleach in water to replace expensive cleaners. But for me, even ammonia and bleach are not safe enough to be around my children, so I make a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water in a spray bottle. I can give this and a rag to my kids and know they're safe with it as they go around the kitchen spraying and wiping. This also works wonderful on windows and mirrors - even better if you use newspaper to wipe it with!

Other Tips


-Instead of paper towels, use dish towels or microfiber rags. They work better, last longer, are re-usable and washable and use less waste!

-Instead of fabric softener, dunk a washrag in a solution of one part baking soda to three parts water and toss it in the dryer with your load.

-Make your own mixes for biscuits, skillet meals, spice mixes, rubs, and sauces.

-Make your lunch instead of buying it.

-Shop sales/clearances/and thrift stores.

-If you have a small load of dishes, try hand washing them instead of using the dishwasher

Saving your family money is one of the greatest ways to Make Your Home Sing.
Need recipes? Try Google or contact me here.

MYHSM: Adventures in Soap Making (finally)

Making Your Home Sing Monday . . . Er . . . Tuesday . . . 

ADVENTURES IN SOAP MAKING

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this or not, but I ♥ The Duggar family. Never do I miss an episode of 19 Kids and Counting. One of the things that I love the most about them is their ability to take care of so many children and not lose it.  One of the ways they do this is by doing everything they can to be thrifty. They shop at resale shops and thrift stores, they use coupons, and, when they are able, they make their own household products such as cleaners and detergents.

I am a firm believer in saving money, and I love making my own cleaners (I am a sucker for baking soda and vinegar), so when I saw their recipe for making your own laundry soap, I knew I had to jump on that band wagon. 

Laundry and dish detergents are two of the biggest expenses in our family. When Jake finally got out of diapers a few weeks ago, we jumped for joy. Knowing that we will never have to buy expensive laundry detergent again made us jump even higher. 

Before I go into details, let me go into a price comparison . . . 

I use All free and clear for my laundry detergent. I buy a 32 oz bottle of it every week for around $5. In a years time, that comes out to be a grand total of $260 in laundry soap.

Now, for the ingredients for the homemade soap, I spent around $11 total for a box of Borax, a bar of Fels-Naptha, and a box of washing soda. But here's the thing. I made five gallons. There are about four of my All containers to a gallon. Let's do some math, shall we?

4x5=20

20x5=100

100-11= 89

SO I've just saved my family $89 in laundry detergent. And let's not even mention the fact that the only thing that I will have to replace in about two years is the soap bar at $1.29. 

I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

Now, you wanna know how to do it?

Alright, let's have a short lesson (it's actually really easy!)

You will need:

1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap

1 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda!!!)

and 1/2 cupBorax

You will also need:

LOTS of hot water

4 cups hot water

a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (found ours at wal-mart for around 6 bucks)

Don't forget a good pan and a measuring cup:

First, you're going to want to grate your soap on a hand grater:

I used a hand grater simply because I didn't think it would work very well in my food processor.

When you're done, it will look something like this:

(My son actually thought it was cheese)

Next, you're going to boil four cups of water:

Then you're going to turn your heat to medium and gradually add the soap to the water to dissolve and melt down. It will look like this until it's dissolved:

A little lumpy, but don't worry, it WILL melt eventually (it actually took me about 20 mintues). Just keep stirring and squishing and it'll get there.

After the soap has dissolved, you're going to fill a 5 gallon bucket about half way with HOT water:

Then you're going to add the melted soap, the borax, and the washing soda and mix it thoroughly.

Then you need to fill it up the rest of the way with more hot water.

Put the lid on and allow it to sit overnight.

The next morning it will look like this:

It will be a little gelatinous and lumpy, that's okay, just stir it up really good.

NOW, if you want, you can keep some in a used detergent bottle (I use one of my old All ones), or you can just use it straight from the bucket (although you will have to stir it up every time - I prefer the detergent bottle so I can just shake it).

*NOTE It WILL NOT suds up when you use it. This is fine - it IS cleaning your clothes! It doesn't suds because there aren't the chemicals that most commercial products use in it.*

So, how did it work?

Well, quite well, actually. The fragrance is nice and not overwhelming - just fresh. In fact, when the clothes are finished, you really don't smell anything. My clothes came out clean and fresh smelling, which is nice (I have a bed-wetter in the family, and those smells are HARD to get out, this got them out nicely).

Did it work as well as All? Yes. Yes it did.

I am pleased with the results, and look forward to using this for years to come!

*Next week I will be doing a review of my home made dish soap. Keep watching for that!*

Don't forget to visit my friend Nan at MomsTheWord to learn how you can make YOUR home sing!

Elbow Grease

You know, Aimee, my best friend of well over 20 years (we won't say how many so that we don't age ourselves, here, LOL) once told me that to get something REALLY clean, all it took was "a lot of really hot water and elbow grease". After using cleaner after cleaner and never really being satisfied with any of the results, I grew to embrace that philosophy. And I still hold to that.

Store-bought cleaners are nothing more that money making schemes and chemicals that are harmful to us, our children, and our pets. I made a promise that I would stop buying those that are not certified to be "green" (and am holding to that) but I also started to make a plan to make many of my own. Not necessarily to "clean" - let's face it, you can't GET much cleaner than scrubbing a counter for three or four minutes with soap and hot water. No, these are more sanitizers than cleaners. Now, we can buy a bottle of chemical sanitizer or buy those cool wipes (which I, admittedly, use on occasion), but why waste money and add chemicals to our home when we can make our own that is safe?

Generally speaking, I use two types of household sanitizer - I use a food-grade one for the kitchen and a bleach-based one for the bathroom (mostly bleach). The recipes are so simple - simply one part vinegar or bleach to four parts water. That's it. I mix these up in bottles and keep them in their prospective places. The food grade one is great for counters, cutting boards, sinks, etc. The other is perfect for toilet areas, bathroom sinks, and bathtubs or showers. Incidentally, you can switch out the vinegar/bleach for ammonia, which works great on glass!

So that's it - to get anything really, REALLY clean, all you need is some soap, hot water, and a sanitizer.

Oh yeah, and some of Aimee's elbow grease . . .