Homemade Dishwasher Soap

This is to be used for your automatic dishwasher. It works just as well if not better than store bought brands, in my opinion.

1 cup borax (found in the laundry aisle)
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt
2 packets of Kool Aid (or 1/4 cup citric acid, found at brew stores...I find the Kool Aid easier and cheaper)

Put 1 Tbl in the the wash compartment and 1/2 Tbl in the pre-wash.

Put 1 Tbl vinegar in the "jet dry" compartment. (Be careful not to spill the vinegar into the wash compartments.)

Vinegar

I know I've probably posted about vinegar before, but I'm adding some more uses for it.

I clean my floors with a little bit of vinegar in a bucket of water (c. 1/4 cup to 1 gallon).

I clean my bathroom and kitchen with a vinegar blend. Take a mason jar and fill it with orange peels, add vinegar to top, let sit 10 days and then it's ready to use.

I clean my coffee maker and pot with vinegar. Take 1 Tbl of vinegar and fill the rest up with water. Run through the maker. Run just water through the maker afterwards as a rinse. Works great!

Vanilla

Oh vanilla, you are wonderful. How I love how you flavor the foods I bake. How I love the way you take the stink out. Huh? Yeah, you read that right, vanilla de-stinks!

Add 1 tsp to a gallon of paint, stir it up, and voila! The excessive stench is gone!

Put a little cup (1/8 cup) of vanilla in the bathroom to help mask the diaper pail smell.

Or put a little cup of vanilla anywhere you'd like a fresh vanilla sent. Yum!

Foam Soap

I got this tip from a friend so I cannot claim credit.  Go to the store to buy a bottle of foaming soap (I got soft soap, it was the cheapest). After enjoying the soap that's in there replace it with your own mixture.

1/3 soap
2/3 water

This is especially great for kids! For either getting them excited about washing their hands or to save on excessive soap usage for the enthusiastic hand washer.

You can use a liquid baby soap and then rock the bottle back and forth once (don't shake!!!). I use the regular creamy soap but you have to rock the bottle back and forth for about two minutes to get the soap to disolve properly into the water. Otherwise it will clog the pump.  I also suggest periodically (maybe once a week) rocking the bottle back and forth once to make sure the soap doesn't all settle at the bottom. 

This has really cut down on my soap expense!

Paper Plate Crafts

I like to do crafts with my kiddos. They love it, I enjoy it, and we have good times together. There are so many things you can do with el cheapo paper plates. You can cut a triangle out of it for a fish mouth and put that piece on the end for the tail. You can staple two plates together with noodles in the middle for a shaker instrument.  You can glue noodles on them. You can make masks out of them.  And the list goes on and on. AND you can get a BIG stack of them at the dollar store.

Bake Bread

I make my own bread. After noticing that even the "good bread" had ingredients in it that I didn't understand I took to baking my own bread.  I use the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook for my soft whole wheat bread but you can do online searches for free recipes as well.  This is not only healthy but it is inexpensive too.  And it doesn't take as much time as you think it does.  I spend maybe 10 minutes letting my KitchenAid doing the kneeding and then it's a mater of moving it from the bowl to the pans when it's done rising and into and out of the oven. Easy peasy right?! The "hard part" is planning a little so that you have time to let the dough rise. But you can still do things around your house while it's rising! You can even go for a walk or play outside with the kids if you want. The dough will still be there!

Omma Brand Shout Out

I have a confession, I dislike cooking. I love to bake. I could bake all day (ok, I have actually done that). But I just find cooking to be such a chore.  That's why I love to use my slow cooker! And why I love to make big batches of whatever I do cook and freeze a portion of it for next week.  It's like making two meals at once!

And I have to give a shout out to http://onceamonthmom.com/ who has great slow cooker recipes that you can freeze.

You need gluten free and dairy free? She has it.

You need baby food ideas? She has it.

You need vegetarian meals because you are vegetarian or are just trying to save on meat costs? She has it.