Best painless "stretching things" budget tips?

[semo233]

Bump

 

[Chelley00]

PICKLED!!!


I guess that's how DH would describe our house after reading this thread!!

Mine too. He's getting worried about all the vinegar I have stashed everywhere!!!

 

[semo233]

I have really made an effort in the past 3 or 4 weeks to keep spending down to a minimum and put saving at its maximum. I have:

1. Made my own laundry detergent - clothes smelled fresh and clean
2. Made my own dishwasher detergent - worked fine for me
3. Used vinegar as laundry softener
4. Used vinegar as Jetdry
5. Bought two 6 packs of cloths at the $ store to stop using paper towels
6. I spent $25 on a toaster oven to bake with instead of heating up the oven. I even bring it outside on clear hot evenings to avoid heating up the kitchen.
7. Morning coffee always made at home
8. Baked the no-knead bread - The whole wheat flour was $5 and i can make at least 8 loaves from one bag. It is a dense bread and I might try either bread flour or pastry flour next time. I'm also going to bake it in a bread dish so that it will be suitable for sandwiches. Timing is an issue, so plan out when and how long you need to let it rise.
9.. I've started clipping coupons again
10. I am an avid reader of the budget board. I've started CVS-ing!

Thank you for all of the great inspirations! I've been looking for a job and had no luck, so every penny saved is a penny earned in my book!

 

[StillPinballFamily]

I have really made an effort in the past 3 or 4 weeks to keep spending down to a minimum and put saving at its maximum. I have:

1. Made my own laundry detergent - clothes smelled fresh and clean
2. Made my own dishwasher detergent - worked fine for me
3. Used vinegar as laundry softener
4. Used vinegar as Jetdry
5. Bought two 6 packs of cloths at the $ store to stop using paper towels
6. I spent $25 on a toaster oven to bake with instead of heating up the oven. I even bring it outside on clear hot evenings to avoid heating up the kitchen.
7. Morning coffee always made at home
8. Baked the no-knead bread - The whole wheat flour was $5 and i can make at least 8 loaves from one bag. It is a dense bread and I might try either bread flour or pastry flour next time. I'm also going to bake it in a bread dish so that it will be suitable for sandwiches. Timing is an issue, so plan out when and how long you need to let it rise.
9.. I've started clipping coupons again
10. I am an avid reader of the budget board. I've started CVS-ing!

Thank you for all of the great inspirations! I've been looking for a job and had no luck, so every penny saved is a penny earned in my book!

Good for you! I hope a job materializes for you soon, and congrats on your money saving techniques! Re: the bread - I use a blend of regular King Arthur unbleached flour, KA white whole wheat flour, KA whole wheat flour and a bit of all-purpose white flour (ratios vary with your preferred taste - YMMV) to make a good tasting and healthy loaf that is economical, too. It makes a loaf that isn't quite so dense, but isn't the spongy "Wonder Bread" crap either. The price of the whole wheat flour alone is a killer!

Also, another budget tip I've used for years (another DISser told me to post it) is to save your bath soap scraps - put them into a knee-high stocking (or cut off the foot of a pair of panty hose with a run) and tie the stocking to your outside faucet. It makes for easy handwashing while gardening or playing outside! Much less running inside and out...

 

[semo233]

[COLOR="Yellow"]Also, another budget tip I've used for years (another DISser told me to post it) is to save your bath soap scraps - put them into a knee-high stocking (or cut off the foot of a pair of panty hose with a run) and tie the stocking to your outside faucet. It makes for easy handwashing while gardening or playing outside! Much less running inside and out...[/COLOR]
In the house, we only use liquid soap. I leaves MUCH less soap scum in the shower. I need to find a way to get my husband to wash his hands outside instead of in my bronze sink!! I wonder if this would work!

 

[mkaccountant]

Do you keep a bag or something near the dryer to collect the lint in?

I don't use a bag, one cleaning is sometimes enough especially with towels or flannel sheets in the winter. Sometimes I just leave the "sheets" of lint on top the dryer until it is thick enough to use. I am sure collecting it in a bag would work fine.

 

[Leader of the Club]

I have really made an effort in the past 3 or 4 weeks to keep spending down to a minimum and put saving at its maximum. I have:

2. Made my own dishwasher detergent - worked fine for me
!

Okay, I am now out of the expensive little dishwasher pillow-packets. I stopped at Dollar General and got a BIG box of dishwasher powder.

How are you making your own powder?

Any tips for color-safe bleach. I HAVE to use color safe bleach.

I also have to keep using paper towels. I am a germ-a-phobe. I even keep paper towels in the bathrooms for drying hands. I cannot use a hand towel that someone else has used.

 

[grammynelliebelle]

This may sound stupid, but where do you all keep these washcloths/cleaning cloths while you are waiting to wash them? Do you keep a pail or bucket in the kitchen, under a counter or what. I just dont like the idea of them piling up and if you wash them each day, you are using a lot of energy. Please advise, thanks Grammy

 

[Soben]

One thing that I do is use medium grade gas instead of the cheapest. Around here it's always $.10 difference. At $4/gallon, that's 2.5% more and I get a boost of 4 mpg, that's 16% more. So I can go 26 miles for $4.10 or 22 miles for $4.00. That's $.16 per mile or $.18 per mile. Not huge, but like lots of stuff here, it adds up. Plus less fill-ups mean less aggravation. I'm sure that everyone's car is different. I tested it out by doing a couple full fill-ups with each and calculating the milage. I did this back in the good old days when gas was $2.50 and it saved then. I'm doing the math on premium vs. mid-grade now.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I have a plastic basket with holes in the sides (bought at the dollar store) that I keep at the top of my basement stairs (leading from the kitchen to the basement, where the laundry room is) that I just toss the cloths into until laundry day. Since our basement door is normally kept closed, visitors don't see the basket, and it's easy to pick it up as I head downstairs with my laundry hamper.

Teresa

 

[Sethsmom]

I haven't started using the cloths like everyone else does but I put our dirty washcloths in a bucket of water with clorox. Vinegar may work. I will have to try that instead of the clorox. I have found by just letting them lay around, they pick up a mildewed smell that you can't get rid of. I just pour the bucket water and everything into the washer when I am ready to wash.

 

[MELSMICE]

I also have to keep using paper towels. I am a germ-a-phobe. I even keep paper towels in the bathrooms for drying hands. I cannot use a hand towel that someone else has used.

My brother & SIL do something that we adopted recently.

They bought one of those large square cubes that you hang on the wall from Target, along with a bunch of cheap white washcloths. They hung the cube on the wall (he did it so it looks like a diamond while hanging). They roll the washcloths & use them as hand towels to dry hands. They drop them in a small basket after use & then wash them with towels.

We recently started doing this also because I don't like to reuse a hand towel either - especially when you have company & it gets wet & gross!!!

Actually, at some of the Disney Deluxe resorts (BC & YC) they use the washclothes as hand towels for drying also!

 

[semo233]

Okay, I am now out of the expensive little dishwasher pillow-packets. I stopped at Dollar General and got a BIG box of dishwasher powder.

How are you making your own powder?

Any tips for color-safe bleach. I HAVE to use color safe bleach.

I also have to keep using paper towels. I am a germ-a-phobe. I even keep paper towels in the bathrooms for drying hands. I cannot use a hand towel that someone else has used.

I used a recipe that I found on line: equal parts washing soda and borax. There was another recipe that included 1/4 part salt, but I'm not sure what for. Maybe I'll try it today. Yesterday, I just put a teaspoon of each in the soap dispenser. I wanted to make sure that I liked it before I make up a batch.
1c washing soda
1c 20 mule team borax
1/4 c salt (optional)

Good Luck!

 

[Carrie772]

Lately I have been trying to only have 2 dinners a week with meat in them. The other times, we have plans for rice and beans with diced tomatoes and hoe cakes, veggie lasagna, or vegetable soup. I make enough for 2 nights. Then chicken and rice, crock pot some pork loin in a homemade barbeque sauce, or spaghetti with 1/2 # ground beef.

Seems to be working these past 2 weeks.

 

[magiclj]

Okay... I started making my own laundry soap and it works fine. I am going to try the dishwasher soap. My question is... Does anyone know of any coupons for borax and Arm & Hammer washing soda???

 

[Kycha]

I used a recipe that I found on line: equal parts washing soda and borax. There was another recipe that included 1/4 part salt, but I'm not sure what for. Maybe I'll try it today. Yesterday, I just put a teaspoon of each in the soap dispenser. I wanted to make sure that I liked it before I make up a batch.
1c washing soda
1c 20 mule team borax
1/4 c salt (optional)

Good Luck!

Just an FYI...this is the recipe I used to make dishwasher detergent and all my glassware and glass dishes came out really, really cloudy. I may have to play around with the recipe to get the right mixture for my machine and water(very, very hard).

Anyway, my tip is actually one of my DMil's. When she makes veggies, she saves the water she cooked them in to water her houseplants. And she has the most healthy looking plants around. Just make sure there is no cooking oil or butter or anything like that used in the water.

 

[sweetascanbee]

Well I have read many pages of this thread, I am enjoying the tips.
I have a couple...since I havent read the whole thread I am sorry if tey are repeated.

Someone else did already post about the face cleanser cloths, I cut them in half, you get twice as many that way and I actually find a whole one too much.

The other is that I air dry my bars of soap....I read this tip when I was a teenager and have done it all my life. Most bars of soap are very soft and will be used up quickly. (Try squeezing a bar of ivory..you will see what I mean)
So when I get them home I unwrap them all and put them in the cupboard. They get hard and last forever...Ok not really for every but much much longer than when soft. Also makes it easier if you are the one to get in the shower to find the soap used up...just have to grab it no fumbling to unwrap.


Becky

 

[Chicklogic]

FOODSAVERS:

Have you priced those things lately? I love em but the refill bags are expensive.....so I discovered a trick a few years back
I wash and reuse my foodsaver bags again and again as long as they have not been used for raw meats!

 

[Sethsmom]

Okay... I started making my own laundry soap and it works fine. I am going to try the dishwasher soap. My question is... Does anyone know of any coupons for borax and Arm & Hammer washing soda???

I never see Borax but check arm&hammer.com. They did have coupons on there not long ago. They are usually for any arm and hammer product.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I just wanted to comment to the person who was making the no-knead bread: if you are trying to make a lighter loaf, don't use pastry flour! It is lower in gluten so it won't rise well and you'll actually end up with a denser loaf. Using bread flour might help, though.

Teresa