vinegar, part two

I got a few comments on the vinegar post that I thought would be worth sharing for those of you interested in using it as a cleaner (or for other uses as I found out).  

"Vinegar is also a great window/ mirror cleaner when diluted a bit with water.
Also, when boiling eggs.... Add a bit to the water when you put in the eggs- it hardens the shells and they're easier to peel..."

"also to clean the bathroom/tub. my mom uses it like crazy and the smell goes away after a little bit."

"I use it to clean my counters, make fabric softener, heartburn, mirrors and glass, and toilet cleaner...to name a few."

Thanks for the ideas!  I will be giving those a try.  Let me know if there are any other vinegar uses.  Otherwise, I'm done with vinegar posts for awhile.  I promise.

the wonder of vinegar

I know I haven't updated on family things for us in quite some time, but basically...we've all been sick in one way or another much of this month.  So, not too much new to report.  On that note, I thought I'd pass on a few tips I've learned about vinegar (who knew it can be used for more than just cooking?).  When I began cloth diapering awhile back, my friend Amber (who also sold me the cloth diapers) told me that I should do an extra rinse on my diapers as often as possible with a 1/4 cup of vinegar.  Apparently, it helps restore the pH of the cloth diapers and helps with diaper rash.  Also, I've heard that adding vinegar to the rinse cycle of any laundry is effective.  I really don't know the ins and outs of why it's good, but I've heard this from more than one source.

Another use I've found for vinegar?  Using it as a rinse aid in my dishwasher!  I've actually found that it works better than the rinse aids I buy at the store (and it's much cheaper!).  We don't have a water softener, so we really can tell the difference without the rinse aid.

And finally, although I haven't tried this because I'm still somewhat skeptical...apparently vinegar can replace pretty much any of the regular household cleaners you may have (and thereby saving a ton of money).  We still have a lot of cleaners around here, so maybe when they run out, I will try that.  Does anyone have any experience with cleaning with vinegar?  I guess I'm still learning more about it, but my curiosity has been piqued!  Also, in a quick google search, I found this book that seems like it would be a great resource for starting to clean with vinegar.  I can't really review it since I've never read it, but if you are interested, it was recommended on another site.  Happy cleaning!

how diet coke, google and blogging saved me $161.26

Yesterday we got a disc of all the pictures from our photo shoot (I'll show a few more on here soon) and I decided that I best start putting together our holiday cards in order that we get them out relatively close to Christmas (give or take a few days).  I also thought it would be fun that while I was at it, to make up a photo book with a lot of the pictures from our photo shoot in it.  And here's how I went about it and saved a ton of money...

First, Shutterfly offered 50 free holiday cards this year to bloggers and I went to their site and put together our card:

Didn't it turn out great?  I loved having one that could include so many pictures on it.  Then I added it to my cart, entered the promo code they gave me for the 50 free cards and presto!... my total of $119.50 went down to $8.43 (shipping).  Wow!  I couldn't believe how much I saved!  I also tried to enter another code to zero out that shipping cost, but to no avail.  Sometimes sites will allow multiple codes and sometimes not (and sometimes codes can't be combined).  Ah, well.  I still figured my 50 cards for $8.43 wasn't too shabby.

So then next, I thought I should browse through our "my coke rewards" account to see what kind of picture rewards they had to offer (and look for my picture book I was hoping to get).  We started entering in their codes a few years back seeing as I consume massive quantities of diet coke every day.  It's surprising the things you can get from sometimes not too many points!  We have managed to get free 12 packs, photo calendars, free photo prints, restaurant gift cards and much more.  Anyway, as I was browsing through their picture rewards (and they use Snapfish on their site), I saw they were offering 50 prints free for no points at all!  Score!  I was able to print up all the pictures from our photo shoot with that!  Then, I was able to use 300 or so points (which would amount to about 30 12-packs of coke) to create a photo book that is normally $24.99.  Then, I decided to google "snapfish free shipping code" and found the code SHIP30 which cancelled my entire shipping cost altogether!  So, that's how I saved the other $41.76.  Not too bad, huh?  

another great money saver

As I sit on my couch tonight watching and listening to the election returns, I thought I would share another way our family saves money.  I haven't posted much about being frugal, but I have mentioned how we love cloth diapering and hand-me-downs.  This next way was introduced to me by my sister-in-law this last spring.  In a casual conversation, she mentioned that she made her laundry soap.  To which I replied, "you make your laundry soap?"  I had never heard of such a thing and was quite intrigued.  Then I learned that it saves a ton of money.  We're talking 2-3 cents a load!  As a rough estimate, we have spent about $10 on everything we needed to make laundry soap in the past seven months.  And I have enough of many of the ingredients to use for another several months.  The next time I make a batch, all I need to purchase is a $1 bar of soap.  And also?  We do a lot of laundry.  So, interested at all?  First, here is the recipe:

Just click on the image to read it more clearly.  I have only made the Liquid Laundry Detergent so far, but my mother-in-law has tried to the Powdered Laundry Detergent.  However, after trying both, she prefers the liquid.

When I have made it, I always double the recipe.  If you do that, you need to make sure you have a 5 gallon bucket to put it in.  Otherwise, the only other tip I have is to use a fine cheese grater to grate the Fels Naptha soap.  This is somewhat time consuming, but the the detergent turns out much better with a fine grater.

The ingredients needed for the detergent (Fels Naptha soap, Mule Team Borax and Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda) can sometimes be tricky to find.  I was able to get them all at a local grocery store, but I am pretty sure you can purchase them online if you can't find any of the ingredients at a store.  Lastly, you can also add essential oils if you want it to have a scent.  I haven't tried this yet, but was thinking I'd like to sometime.  But I also don't mind the scent of the Fels Naptha (which is pretty much all you smell in the final detergent).  

Let me know if you try this and what you think!

different girl, same onesie

Perhaps it's the frugalness of my nature, but I just love being able to reuse the clothes that Miriam had now for Abbie. I also enjoy remembering what Miriam was like in the same outfit and thinking back to when she was that little. Of course, the girls were born at completely different seasons (Miriam in late summer and Abbie in late winter), but I've been able to make many of the same clothes work. Plus, I figure that it'll all even out eventually as Abbie grows older and it will be even easier to have them share clothes. Being a second-born myself, I know all about hand-me-downs. But I think hand-me-downs always have such a negative connotation attached with them. I'm sure I wore plenty of my sister's clothes when I was young (and then eventually raided her closet when we were older), but I don't think it bothered me one bit. And this little girl will certainly be wearing her share of hand-me-downs, too. Especially since her big sister was showered with so many adorable outfits when she was born (being the only grandchild and great-grandchild on almost all sides helped that a bit). So, here's the first of I'm sure many pictures to come of the girls in the same outfits. Bonus points: can you tell who is who? I know they certainly don't look all that alike, but I can sure see the similarities when they're put together in the same outfit!

anyone cloth diaper?

...or have a young child? I have been cloth diapering for about a year now --toward the end of Miriam's time in diapers and all but the very early weeks for Abbie. I love it. Again, I never thought I'd say that, but it has been a great decision for us. I know it's not for everyone, but I also know a lot of people can be skeptical at first. I sure was. But then, my friend Amber introduced me to it since she had a cloth diapering store right out of her house. I have learned everything from her and purchased everything cloth-diapering through her.

But, back to my original question: anyone cloth diaper or have a young child? Well, through circumstances out of her control, Amber has to close her business and is offering 20% off all of her products in her store. You can read about all of that here. Even if you don't cloth diaper, check out the other things she has --there's a ton of great stuff there! Anyway, I just wanted to pass this along in case anyone has been needing a few diapering supplies or other "baby items" as of late. I think she has free shipping on orders over $100, too. Check it out!

my new favorite money-saver...

If someone would have asked me as I was preparing for Miriam's arrival what I thought about cloth diapering, I probably would have made a face and kindly explained that we would be sticking to disposable diapers. Thankyouverymuch. And that's just what we did... for two years. We were actually quite blessed to receive about nine to ten months worth of diapers as gifts, so I didn't really think twice about cloth diapering. When we finally needed to start buying our own diapers, I would read baby blogs and find the best deal on diapers for the week and then pair it with a store coupon and manufacturer's coupon and occasionally get a store gift card with my purchase. It really didn't bother me too much because I felt like I was doing my best to get a really good deal on diapers. I also occasionally used store brands -but only when I didn't have coupons or there really wasn't anything else on sale. I found out rather quickly that store brand diapers were cheaper for a reason.

Then, I met Amber... a young mom like myself who had a daughter that shares a birthday with Miriam. She also happens to run her own cloth diapering business right out of her home about 2-3 miles from our house! I was still rather skeptical about cloth diapers when she first told me about her business, but I kept it in the back of my mind. I also didn't really think it was the best timing to switch Miriam to cloth diapers when she was already two and we were working on potty training. However, when we found out about the arrival of our new little one, I decided I wanted to give cloth diapering a shot this time around. So, last October, we took the plunge into this foreign world of cloth diapers... and won't ever turn back!

I started out by purchasing a dozen all-in-one pocket diapers for Miriam. I thought this was the best thing to get for her until she was done potty training because I can also use them for our baby when she is born. They have a slick little elastic band on the sides that tightens to fit a baby's size. Amber sells a variety of pocket diapers, but we decided to go with FuzziBunz. So far, we've been very impressed. It took us a little bit to find the right size for Miriam (to prevent any leaks), but overall we've really liked them. And, the best part is... we've already almost "paid" for our diapers by what we would have spent on store brand diapers in the mean time (and pocket diapers are usually the most expensive kind of diapers)!

Just last week, I finished off my purchases of diapers for when baby comes. In addition to the pocket diapers we use for Miriam (that will also be used for baby), we will be using prefolds with a cover. I can't comment on how those work quite yet as I haven't used them, but I think with a little practice, we'll catch on. We also purchased a handy dandy diaper sprayer that can attach to our toilet and help deal with some of the more disasterous diapers that come our way.

Overall, I am really excited about cloth diapers! I never thought I'd be saying that. I was afraid of doing too much laundry, dealing with awful messes and being stuck when I go out and about. The laundry isn't bad at all. It's so easy to throw the diapers in; usually it's just an extra load every other day or so. The messes? Mmmmm... sometimes not so fun, but we deal with it. It's actually not as bad as I thought. And going out and about... sometimes I still do stick to my good 'ol disposables. I do need disposables for our church nursery and sometimes also pack a few if we're running errands. We also have a few "wet bags" which can easily hold a dirty cloth diaper if necessary. Both options work great.

So, that's my take on cloth diapering... it's so much easier than I thought and such a huge money saver. Plus, it really helps that I have a friend so close by that I can buy everything I need from! She also has a wonderful website for my non-Wisconsin friends that use cloth diapers. It just goes to show you that you never know how something will work until you just try it!