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!
Showing posts with label saving money tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saving money tips. Show all posts
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!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Back in the saddle....
I've been going back and forth deciding if I really want to keep this blog going. I don't lead a very interesting life so I don't always never have any good "material" to write about. However, recently due to unforeseen circumstances we've taken a good hard look at our budget and where our money is going. This prompted me to take a look at DIY projects and things I could make myself instead of buying in the store. Examples? Laundry detergent, household cleaners, yogurt (Kenz eats a ton and it adds up quick!), christmas gifts, etc.
This blog had actually got me thinking about it before. Allison is extremely down to earth and her kids are adorable too! It really helped me think of ways to get started and whatI we could do. I love the idea of debt free living. Do I think it is realistic? Yes absolutely, however I also believe that you will "always" (like for 20-30 years) have a mortgage so that kind of negates the debt free living to me. Though we are lucky we have no credit card debt and the loans we do have are small. Neither of us has college loans or anything like that, yes losers that didn't go to college over here! We planned a lot when we decided to have a baby and had quite a bit of money set aside for an emergency fund and had both of our vehicles paid for. THEN the baby came along and we realized we needed a bigger car and.... etc, etc. We also sold our house bought a bigger (more expensive, but thank goodness for a good downpayment from our "emergency" fund, plus equity in our first home) house and the list goes on.
Moving on, I also looked meal planning(which we have successfully done before and I love it), couponing (which I don't have a good handle on yet), etc. Meal planning isn't easy for us, 99% of the time I don't start cooking until Eric has actually walked IN the door. It never seems to fail if I start cooking before he is home, he calls to say he is going to be late. Yes he works *that* kind of job. Its annoying but I've come to terms with it. So I would say at least 1-2 nights a week he is late so we keep frozen foods or boxed meals on hand for these nights, because they are quick and easy, and give us more time together as a family. Anyway I love meal planning, I love knowing what we are cooking so we have everything on hand and not playing the game every day where we talk about what we are going to eat for an1/2 hour before we decide and start cooking.
So what I would like to do with my blog is share these things with you, what we are doing to save money, the recipes for meals as well as cleaning supplies, my fails (because I will have many!) with trying all of these new things and how we get to where we want to be financially! Which is debt free! Isn't that what everyone wants?!
So to sum it up the things we are going to be doing and trying to do are:
This blog had actually got me thinking about it before. Allison is extremely down to earth and her kids are adorable too! It really helped me think of ways to get started and what
Moving on, I also looked meal planning(which we have successfully done before and I love it), couponing (which I don't have a good handle on yet), etc. Meal planning isn't easy for us, 99% of the time I don't start cooking until Eric has actually walked IN the door. It never seems to fail if I start cooking before he is home, he calls to say he is going to be late. Yes he works *that* kind of job. Its annoying but I've come to terms with it. So I would say at least 1-2 nights a week he is late so we keep frozen foods or boxed meals on hand for these nights, because they are quick and easy, and give us more time together as a family. Anyway I love meal planning, I love knowing what we are cooking so we have everything on hand and not playing the game every day where we talk about what we are going to eat for an
So what I would like to do with my blog is share these things with you, what we are doing to save money, the recipes for meals as well as cleaning supplies, my fails (because I will have many!) with trying all of these new things and how we get to where we want to be financially! Which is debt free! Isn't that what everyone wants?!
So to sum it up the things we are going to be doing and trying to do are:
- Meal planning
- Sticking to a (strict) budget
- Making our own cleaning supplies
- Making our own food we would normally buy (yogurt, possibly pasta, etc)
- Looking at where we shop - what we can buy with coupons vs whats on sale vs dollar store, etc
- Stopping the impulse buys. Me=GUILTY
- Looking at need vs want
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