One of the things I agreed to do on our saving money journey was to unsubscribe from "sale" emails.... this one guys? KILLS ME! I want deals! It is way to much temptation for me though to buy things we DO NOT need. But those cute little outfits for Kenz? Or those hot boots for me? Yeah.... don't need them. Wouldn't even know about them if I didn't get the stupid emails in the first place.
I am going to stay subscribed to:
-Wal-mart (actually home goods we MIGHT really need)
-Carter's (come on, I can't quit Carter's! The cute!)
- Price Chopper (food actually is in our new budget... shocker, right?!)
-No More Rack (I can't quit it yet, I have to be weaned from this one)
-Coupon emails (we still need to eat people!)
I have let my emails pile up for a few days cause I wanted to have a do it all at once session while Kenz is napping. I have 133 emails to unsubscribe from and I am even doing the ones that go to my spam box.... I want to see no "fliers".
If my husband were here he would be so proud. Go me!
My next goal? Getting rid of drama via Facebook.... cutting back my friends list!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Laundry!
I'm going to start our saving money plan by cutting back on laundry. No, not cutting back on actually DOING laundry, by starting to dry all of our clothes on a wooden rack and fluffing them in the dryer. I'm also hoping to convince hubby to put up a clothes line in the spring! Nothing better than clothes dried outside in fresh spring/summer air! This will probably mean clothes will need to be ironed more, and since I've never done that, another learning lesson! I got an awesome iron for my bridal shower oh about 4 years ago and I've never used it. Oops. Good excuse to start right? I am getting an inexpensive ironing board also ($11 table top board from Amazon).
We are also washing everything in cold water to save money on heating hot water and therefore propane.
I am going make my own laundry detergent, but not use it immediately because we have an almost brand new bottle of detergent. The "recipe" I found online for laundry detergent calls for:
Once you have all of these items, you mix together:
Cost breakdown looks like this:
Soap $1.09 a bar (3 cups shaved),
Borax $4.19 for a 4 lbs box,
Washing soda 55 oz $3.59
I don't have any essential oil (though I have ordered some), but I am thinking that I will not use it, this stuff smells yummy just the way it is. We found all of these items in our local grocery store, I was planning on buying them from Amazon but it was MUCH more expensive on there than at the local store, shame shame Amazon!
The finished product?
I am doing these things in hopes of saving money, saving wear and tear on clothes (hence saving even more money!). I found this neat website that has formulas for costs of electricity. If you run your dryer approximately 4 hours per day (this is probably a bit overkill in our case but nonetheless) it saves you $192 a year. That doesn't sound like a lot but I am 26, lets say I do laundry until I'm 80 (we can only hope) that's 54 years. $192 for 54 years is a total savings of $10368, that is CRAZY, do you know what you can do with $10000 over the course of your lifetime? Many many things, starting with a college fund for Kenzie!
We are also washing everything in cold water to save money on heating hot water and therefore propane.
I am going make my own laundry detergent, but not use it immediately because we have an almost brand new bottle of detergent. The "recipe" I found online for laundry detergent calls for:
- 1 bar of laundry soap (Fels Naptha, Zote or Ivory)
- 1 box Borax
- 1 box of washing soda
- Essential oil of your choice, I'm gonna try peppermint and lavender (not together).
Once you have all of these items, you mix together:
- 1 cup of soap
- 1/2 cup washing soda
- 1/2 cup of borax
- Few drops of essential oil
Cost breakdown looks like this:
Soap $1.09 a bar (3 cups shaved),
Borax $4.19 for a 4 lbs box,
Washing soda 55 oz $3.59
I don't have any essential oil (though I have ordered some), but I am thinking that I will not use it, this stuff smells yummy just the way it is. We found all of these items in our local grocery store, I was planning on buying them from Amazon but it was MUCH more expensive on there than at the local store, shame shame Amazon!
The finished product?
I'm sure that I was supposed to put it in the food processor and blend it up, but I got out the food processor and it didn't work, so this will have to do. I tried it out on one load of laundry last night and it seems to work great! Clothes are clean and smell good too.
I am doing these things in hopes of saving money, saving wear and tear on clothes (hence saving even more money!). I found this neat website that has formulas for costs of electricity. If you run your dryer approximately 4 hours per day (this is probably a bit overkill in our case but nonetheless) it saves you $192 a year. That doesn't sound like a lot but I am 26, lets say I do laundry until I'm 80 (we can only hope) that's 54 years. $192 for 54 years is a total savings of $10368, that is CRAZY, do you know what you can do with $10000 over the course of your lifetime? Many many things, starting with a college fund for Kenzie!
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