Another Way We Are Saving Money

This is a neat little gadget that my mother gave my husband for Christmas. Since he is the only coffee drinker in our house, it was the perfect gift. Until the K Cups ran out. We went to purchase more and cannot find them for less than 50 cents per cup. That seems expensive to us since you can brew a whole pot of coffee for less than that. So for a while we used the coffee "tea bags" with it. That worked, but was still a little pricey.

When we are out and about, we will often stop to get a cold drink at some point. It became cost prohibitive when our financial crisis hit at the end of last summer. So we stopped doing that as much. We still did it though (every time we were looking over our shoulders for Dave Ramsey - eek!).

Earlier this spring I found a little cooler at a church rummage sale. Perfect! I started taking drinks with us when we went out. Usually bottled water, but sometimes tea or other drinks that I purchased at the store. It was cheaper than going to a convenience store, but still not cheap.

Then one day, I was looking at my husband's Christmas gift and I thought I'd try to brew iced tea with it. At that moment, I started a new trend in our house.

Now I am brewing the tea we take with us when we go out and about. There are many benefits here. #1 being cost. A tea bag costs pennies compared to the $1.50 to $2 we were spending on drinks at convenience stores.
The side benefit is that I know what is in that bottle now. I don't use corn syrup or artificial sweetners or chemical preservatives. I use tea and honey or raw sugar and sometimes I squeeze lemon juice in. Labeling the bottles is very important. When I brew fruit teas for the kids, it can sometimes be a hard sell if the children don't know what's in the bottle.

I haven't calculated costs, yet. However, I know this is just better.

I brew the tea right in the bottle with the water from our Kreurig machine. When it's finished brewing, I add water to fill the bottle and stick it in the refrigerator. Hubby likes having the individual servings in bottles to grab and go.

Laundry Soap update

The laundry soap that Lucy and I made is working out great. Our clothes are clean and we are paying a fraction of the cost of commercial laundry detergent. I'm thrilled with it.

Laundry Soap

While at the Tractor Supply Store purchasing pullets this spring, I noticed this issue of Mary Janes Farm magazine on the rack near the check out. It caught my attention and I thought "What the heck". (Truth be known, I'm a sucker for magazines. Don't know why. I just love them.)

I found a recipe for laundry soap and was intrigued. After doing more research, I found that making your own laundry detergent is economical. Hmmmmmm....

So tonight, we made laundry detergent. I haven't done the calculations yet and I'm waiting to see if this actually works. In the meantime, I'll share pictures.

These are the ingredients. I found these items at the grocery store in the laundry aisle. (Confession: As much as I hate that place, I checked "Wally World" first. They did not have all of these items. So much for one-stop shopping.)

My husband even got in on the action. He likes the saving money part.

Enjoying the Free Stuff

Sometimes the free stuff can be worthwhile.

For example, at Lowe's twice a month they have a Build and Grow Clinic. The kids are given a kit and tools to build a little project to take home. Today the project was a treasure chest. I feel these projects are good practice with a real hammer in a safe environment. It is also good for the older kids for practice in following directions.

Home Depot also holds Kids Workshops that we have enjoyed.

We pick and choose projects that are items that we could actually use and not feed the clutter monster in our home. For Father's Day they made a very nice box with dividers in it for nails and screws.

Once they complete these projects, they get a certificate and a patch or a pin. The certificates go into their portfolios with a picture of them holding their finished project.

Note: I recommend reserving your spot at Lowe's. Often times, they do not have extras so if you just show up, they may not have a kit for you.

On to the next freebie of the day -

We had coupons for free Roastburgers at Arby's. My two youngest don't like this sort of thing, so my oldest daughter and I each got a lunch that filled us for about $3.50 total! The sandwiches were free, but we had to buy a drink.

After that, we stopped by 7-11. They were giving away free Slurpees. They were only 7oz each, but that's really all a kids needs so far as sugar and calories go. They were completely happy with this.

My final freebie for the day was a deal at CVS for cereal. I was able to combine coupons and a $4 ECB to get 3 boxes of Trail Mix Crunch for free. I walked out with my cereal and a new ECB worth $5.

So for all of this, I spent a grand total of $3.50 for the day.