Dish soap!

In trying to avoid the stinky smelling Biokleen dish detergent my husband picked up, I spent a little time looking up how to make your own dish soap.

I’ve made my own laundry detergent for ages, and I can’t recall why I imagined making dish detergent would be so difficult a process. I found a couple of recipes that I may play around with and make tonight.

Haven’t posted in a while for two reasons – 1) I’ve been packing a lot, that combined with homeschool, household, play time – has eaten up the majority of my time. And 2) From packing – my upper back and shoulders are screaming at me daily. Typing is a torture I haven’t been indulging in much.

Do you make your own dish soap? Have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? Is it cost-effective? Time consuming? Easy as anything?

Spelling…

As much as I love my Kindle (and I really, really do adore it) there is one instance when only a book will suffice.

Let me start this off by conveying to you my immense loathing of shopping. Picture it if you will – when it’s time for new clothes, I hold off as long as possible and then head to the thrift store. It’s also the thrift shop or Land’s End overstock for the children (my husband is 6’5, so all his clothing we generally buy new, it’s not often I’m able to locate his sizes).

I used to have a soft spot for purses – Coach. At One point I had seven different Coach bags, but this was when I was single and far more flush. I love living frugally. I actually have fun researching where the best price for something is, but there is one aspect of life where I want to buy just everything appealing (and so, sooooo much of it is) – homeschool supplies. Programs, a box full of books delivered to my door. When my children were younger, it was the boxes of fluffy mail I waited for with bated breath, now, I know what true happiness is when I place some homeschool orders. Piecing together a curriculum, using the best items for my types of little learners at the best prices I can find is certainly a satisfying endeavor. But, oh, how I occasionally long to spend like I used to, on homeschool needs.

Example in point – my children are currently seven and eight – I’ve read fantastic things about All About Spelling, but I’ve also heard quite a few negatives. Being as frugal as I am, I don’t want to spend $60. on a relatively new product to find out whether or not this is a program that works for us. My children spell quite well, orally – writing or typing out the words correctly is the issue. I’m currently looking at the The Writing Road to Reading, which teaches the Spalding Method. I’ve read that AAS is basically a simplified teaching of these rules – I don’t know how accurate that is, as I have no experience with either. The only negative I’ve read about utilizing the Spalding Method is that it can be difficult to ‘get‘, and difficult to implement if you prefer a scripted method.

I’m intrigued by AAS though, and think we’ll wind up with it eventually.

What do you use for spelling? How many programs did you try before finding one that worked for your child(ren)?

Eating organically on a budget.

Now that we are closing in on moving in less than three months, in the spirit of saving as much money as possible, I’ve spent the better part of my day wondering how to cut our grocery budget.

I try to buy only organics, I cook the majority of our snacks, I eat a solely vegan diet, although my husband doesn’t and my children occasionally partake of eggs and meat.

 

I re-read all the old standby advice –

1. Join a co-op – Great advice, but not always sound, for example – I’ve found that it’s far less expensive to buy organics anywhere but the co-op in this area, where the prices are jacked up higher then I ever paid in Manhattan, NY.
2. Grow a garden at home or at a community garden – Again, terrific idea, but what if you live in a teeny, tiny walk-up apartment with nowhere to put even a window box? Or you live in such a polluted area, that you don’t want to bother even trying to garden? Or, there are no community gardens nearby?
3. Bake and cook from scratch – I already do that and I still want to cut my budget.
4. Buy from the bulk bins – this works wonderfully for a lot of people. However, it does not work for us. My youngest daughter has severe food allergies and considering how I have on numerous occasions seen people using the incorrect scoop in different bins, there is a ton of cross-contamination going on in those things. We can’t touch them.
5. Farmers markets – Awesome for the warmer months, but what to do during the other months when there no markets if you don’t live in California?
6. Canning/Dehydrating and Food Storage – I love to get a box or two of ugly tomatoes from one of the local organic farms, let them ripen, and then spend a day with my husband making up and canning batches of tomato sauce. But (you knew there was going to be a ‘but‘ in here) what if you live in a super small apartment, or don’t have space? Hey, I’d love to get a separate freezer, but I don’t have the room for one.
7. Shop at Trader Joe’s – I’d like to, but I don’t live anywhere near one.
8. Join a CSA – this is something I’m looking forward to trying after our move.
9. Create a menu before food shopping – then, write out a list and stick with it – I’ll admit it, I don’t always make up a menu before I go shopping. I do, however, make up an idea of what I’d like to prepare based on what season it is and what we currently have in the pantry, then I write a list and stick to that.
10. Buy in bulk from stores like Costco/Sam’s Club/BJ’s – This is one I do stick with, but I’d still like to further cut my grocery costs.

 

Obviously, this is an incomplete list, but you get the general idea. Some things I can do – I can start perusing new library cookbooks and looking online for fresh ideas (my own cookbook collection has grown rather stale) and make up a menu for the week/bi-monthly, shop accordingly, and stick with it.
Out here in the PNW, I miss having a kitchen herb garden, but I have a tiny window that never gets sun (it’s under the patio roof) and there is no where that I could have put a little garden where it would have gotten regular sun (I carefully packed up my East coast kitchen herbs and my husband drove them out here, and they died within 6 weeks). This is one thing I’m looking forward to after moving.

 

What are some of your tried-and-true methods for eating organically on a budget?