Foaming Handsoap for 5 CENTS a bottle

I really like foaming handsoap.  My girls use 2 squirts of whatever kind of soap I put at the sink, so if I use regular liquid soap, we go through A LOT of soap.  I have tried to get the perfect foaming soap recipe and FINALLY found it, so here it is...

1 Tbl. Dawn Ultra-Concentrated dish soap
Water
An empty foaming handsoap bottle (I used an old Bath & BodyWorks one that I received as a gift.)

Add a little warm water in the botom of the dispenser, add the dish soap, fill to ALMOST the top, leaving a little room to gently combine after putting the lid back on.
THAT'S it; the perfect foaming handsoap. WOW!

So, because I am a little bit nerdy (maybe a lot frugal), I wanted to do the math and see how much this was going to save me.  I bought the dish soap at WalMart's regular price- no coupons.  (I KNOW, all you couponers, this is something I should be getting for free, but I just don't get the whole couponing thing yet- Never say Never, but right now, it's not worth it for me!)  I paid just over $2.00 for the bottle.
This ONE bottle will refill my soap dispenser about 47 times, making each time I refill it a whole whopping 5 CENTS (on the high side) to refill!!!!  The Aldi brand of foaming soap I normally use is $1.57 a bottle!!!!  I just made $70.  Now, just think if I actually bought the B&BW soaps normally- WOAH!  Major Savings! 

Try it out.  Tell us what you think!

Homemade Fabric Softener

I originally found a recipe online and began to use it, but I still found that my clothes were full of static.  The adjustments I made have helped (more vinegar.)  And NOOOOO my clothes do NOT smell like vinegar. They don't really smell like anything.  I love how much money I am saving by making my own cleaning products.

3 simple ingredients

One of the secrets to less static is not overdrying your clothes- sometimes tough to do.

I love to add baking soda to my towels (I just dump about 1/4 cup on top of my towels as I put them in the wash.)  My towels are incredibly SOFT when I do this!

Here's what you need:
6 cups water
6 cups white vinegar
2 cups hair conditioner (I like fresh breeze, rainfall, etc...scents,  but you can use whatever you like)

Mix all together with a whisk and pour into a large container.


Use in your Downy ball and put in the washer. 


Some people wet an old rag with it, squeezing out the excess, and put it in the dryer with their wet laundry.  (I haven't tried it this way, yet.)

Costs around $2 to make almost a gallon of fabric softener. You use it just like regular fabric softener!) 

Liquid Soap Made from Bar Soap

My lovely daughters kept leaving me a ooooeey goooey gross mess when they were done with their baths and showers.  It completely grosses me out to pick up slime off the bathtub floor, so I decided to try and find a soap for them...enter Pinterest (of course) and I found several recipes for homemade liquid soap.  Now, I fill up an old shampoo bottle and they can squirt away onto their bath sponges and scrub away- we're all a litle happier over this.
One bar of soap, water, and a little glycerin makes a GALLON of liquid soap.  They were using up at least one bar of soap a week before; this lasts us well over a month.  My husband and I still use the bar soap or bodywash, but this has been a great thing for our girls.

All you need plus water

2 cups soap, grated really fine
20 cups water
2 Tbl. glycerin

I used one bar of Dial bath soap- it was a little more than 2 cups. The glycerin I bought at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon in the soap making section of the store.



Grated Soap makes me smile!  (Weird- huh?)

Heat the water on medium heat as you grate the soap. Add the soap and stir gently until the soap is completely melted.  Add the glycerin. At this point, I pour mine into pitchers and allow to cool; this makes it pouring into smaller containers much easier once it is cool.

Once the soap is cool, (I let mine just get lukewarm) pour into containers that you can use for your soap.

NOTE:  The texture is NOT the same as body wash or liquid soap and I haven't tried it in a soap pump yet, but I am over that with the savings I have seen! 

Tell us what you think after you try it!

Tub and Shower Cleaner that AMAZES

These 2 ingredients will clean your shower like never before- it really is AMAZING!

ONLY 2 Ingredients Needed!!!!!

What you need:
1/2 cup Dawn Dish soap
1/2 cup Vinegar

Yes!!! REALLY!!! That's all you need.

You need equal parts of each ingredient. (I made 8 ounces, because that worked best in the bottle I reused.)  Warm the vinegar in the microwave being VERY CAREFUL not to inhale the vinegar when you bring it out of the microwave.  If you do this, be warned....I TOLD YOU SO! 
The solution is a milky blue color.

Pour the Dawn Dish soap into the vinegar and gently mix together. Pour into spray bottle.

Now, if you are like me, you will head straight to the shower and try it out. You won't need as much as your old shower cleaner. It is soapy, obviously, so you have to rinse it.  Really stubborn soap scum build up?  Let is soak for awhile or overnight.

I clean my shower every day- really, it's true- but since finding this, I sometimes skip a day (gasp!) and there's no build up of nasty!  YAY!

Now that my shower has NO BUILDUP at all; I cut the Dawn Dish soap in half, so this is how I make it now for the size bottle I have...
1 cup Vinegar
1/2 cup Dawn Dish Soap

Let me know what you think!

Birthday Party

It's finally over... Hailey's 8th Birthday Party Sleepover, and let me just say I am tired! Who knew 8 little girls could wear a person out so much? Well, in all honesty Michelle and I know that very well but have decided that the smiles that appear on our children's faces make it worth it! Now Michelle already showed you the invitations but I'm just going to attach them again to complete this post.

I love how they turned out! (Good job, Michelle)

After invitations were complete off to Pinterest http://pinterest.com/ we went to find ideas for decorations, cakes, and games. Let me just say I love love love Pinterest! With the sleepover theme it was easy to decide on decorations. I set a table to make it look like a bed with pillows and blankets. Then on top of blankets I scattered all kinds of candy. The girls thought they had entered a candy store; they even played a real life Candyland game. I know the parents were thanking me the next day for all the sugar :) shhh.

I decided to make Hailey a special birthday shirt to wear to school. I bought just plain shirts to decorate with fabric I cut out with my Cricut. This turned out to be a little more challenging that I had thought, but this was my first attempt at cutting fabric. After some trial and error, I ended up with a great shirt.

First, I did some practice cuts on scrap paper to make sure my sizes weren't off. I thought I had decided on the design I wanted but you will see that as I work on projects they tend to change into something totally different most of the time.

Before you cut your fabric you need to purchase an item called Heat n Bond. You will Iron this onto your fabric giving it a more stickable texture to help it adhere to the Cricut mat. make sure you use a clean sticky mat for fabric cuts, and a new Cricut blade. If you mark your blade with a F for fabric it will help you remember which is which. After fabric is cut just iron it on. Then for some extra touches I used stickles tracing around edges.

For Hailey's treat for class she wanted to take homemade Melting Snowman cookies. These are so easy. I was short on time so I took the easy way out with pre packaged sugar cookies.....come on it was already 2:15am I was tired.

Melting Snowman Cookies

Cut into 1/2 slices and bake according to package.

(They don't have to be perfectly round you want them to look a little messy)

Next I used a mixture of Cookie Icing and Whipped Vanilla Icing and mixed it together then microwaved it for about 8 sec to help drizzle on cookies. You want icing to run off the sides and look sloppy.

For the head of the snowman I used large marshmallows and microwaved them for about 6 secs then took them out and cut in half and placed sticky side on cookie . Press down a little to make it look smushed.

Finally decorate faces and body with different color icing.

Now the Cake... Hailey choose the one she wanted on Pinterest. This was my first try at piping a cake and I think it turned out pretty good. The cake had four layers top one yellow, two middle ones just a hint of cherry and the bottom layer was cherry. For the cherry flavor and color I used koolaid. for the icing I made a homemade buttercream icing for sides and vanilla icing for top. I have to say this was one of my best tasting cakes ever. It was a big hit!

Breakfast the next morning I made pancakes and used food coloring in the batter and the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever. Overall, I think that the party was a great success.

Homemade Laundry Detergent CLEANS UP!

Right before our youngest was born (three years ago), I started hearing talk about making my own laundry detergent.  I didn't think much of it really. It wasn't until about a year ago, I began to give it considerable thought. I was paying $17 a MONTH for detergent for our family of 5...eeek...I wanted to change that, but I really liked the eco-friendly version I was using.  A good friend of mine started making hers; I decided to give it a go.  All of the ingredients needed cost me around $10.  I figured I wasn't out much if I hated it.

We have been using it for about 6 months and I just bought the ingredients for only the second time- WOW!  That is great savings.

It takes me MAYBE 15 minutes to make.

Recipes abound all over the Internet. I adapted mine from one I found on Pinterest.

So, now for the recipe...complete with pictures for you.

Homemade Laundry Detergent Ingredients:
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda
1/3 bar Fels Naphta soap- finely grated
Water

Heat 6 cups water on the stove as you grate the bar soap.  Heat to boiling, add the soap and reduce heat to medium.  Stir until all the soap is melted.  Don't let the soap boil.

Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until completely dissolved.  Stir for a few minutes longer until it thickens slightly (kind of like cooked pudding before it is cooked.)  Remove from heat.

Add 4 cups hot water to the soap mixture and stir.  (You can add essential oil here if you like- sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.)  Add 6 more cups water. Allow to cool.

Most recipes, tell you to let it sit overnight; I do not let mine sit...I am a get-it-done-check-it-off-the-list kind of girl...so I let it cool enough to pour it into my old detergent containers.  Leave room at the top to give it a good shake when you use it.  (Someday, I might get pretty containers, but for now...these are FREE!)

Use 1/4 cup detergent per load.  The detergent I make is more concentrated than a lot of the other recipes you will find- why store water?  It is necessary to shake this up before using as it will settle into "layers."  A good shake and you are all set, though!

DONE. I can NOT imagine buying detergent now.  Let me know what you think after you try it.