As I Hope for Signs of Spring

I started some seeds for some veggies to go in my spring garden - yeah, yeah, I know it's a little early. I get anxious. So anyway, some of my little baby plants have already sprouted! I present, for your viewing pleasure, some pictures!

My Cauliflower:


My Little Cherry Tomato:


My Roma Tomato - which I plan on making lots and lots of homemade pasta sauce with:


Oh, and that little hair on my tomato plant? That would be a little gift from this cat. She likes tomatoes, too.:


And, last but not least, my Okra plant. Okra and Cauliflower are both new to me. I'm really excited to try both of them!:


I'm still waiting for my jalapeno, serrano and banana peppers and my early girl tomato plant to push through the soil. I'm sure I'll post more pictures as they come up.

What are you planting this year?

I Guess It's A Phase

This past weekend I decided to make yogurt. That's right... yogurt. I guess I'm going through a phase. I decided that I want to learn how to make all of these things that I take advantage of in the grocery store. SOMEONE has to make all of these things that we consume so I thought that if they could do it, there was no reason that I couldn't, right?

On to how I made homemade yogurt.

I put the following into a large saucepan:

4c. whole milk
1/2 c. dry milk

Stir to dissolve dry milk powder and slowly heat milk to 180 degrees. You do this to kill off the bacteria that prevents the milk from firming up. Turn off the heat and let milk sit at room temperature until it is between 110 and 120 degrees. Take a ladle full of milk and add it to 1/4 - 1/2 c. of plain yogurt WITH ACTIVE CULTURES. I used plain Fage greek yogurt. Whisk together and then whisk the mixture into the warm milk.

Now you put the mix into the containers that the yogurt will be processing in. I used glass mason jars. There are several ways to let the mixture process, but i used my crockpot. I poured my yogurt into my mason jars and put them into a preheated (on the "warm" setting) water bath in the crockpot and put the lid on. Every couple of hours I would turn my crockpot on and off to try and keep my crock pot at about 110 degrees. In about 6-8 hours my yogurt had firmed up and I put the jars in the fridge to chill overnight. Now I have yogurt! This morning I drizzled it with a little bit of wildflower honey and it is GOOD!


Try it, you'll like it!


Tomorrow I'll tell you how I used some of my yogurt to make yogurt cheese.

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 6

Time for some homemade recipes for floor cleaner! Yippee! I actually have to that I like quite a bit. Here it goes (ya takin' notes?)

Floor cleaner option #1:
The greatest cleaner for linoleum is plain ol' club soda. Works like a charm.


Option #2 :
I got this from my wonderful Aunt (it works great!)

Bucket o' hot water
1 cup ammonia
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup baking soda.

Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water (otherwise you'll get a film - yuck!). Add remaining ingredients. Great for grimy messes.

Hope these work for you!

Question of the day:



Some other quick cleaning tips for you:

Use distilled white vinegar instead of fabric softener in your rinse cycle.

Use dryer sheets up to 3 time (or cut them in thirds) then use them to polish you faucets or dust.

Microwave: Mix 2T baking soda or lemon juice and 1 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for five minutes or until the liquid boils and condensation builds up inside the microwave. Wipe down.

Use hydrogen peroxide in your whites instead of bleach.

Since you can't use bleach in your colored laundry loads, use borax! It disinfects and cleans as well as bleach without damaging the fabric and colors!

Hope this helps!

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 5

I have lots of all purpose cleaner recipes, so here it goes:

#1:
Mix equal parts rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle.

#2:
Dissolve baking soda in boiling water (maybe 1/4 c. baking soda to 1 c. water), let cool. Mix with a couple cap fulls of bleach in a spray bottle.

#3:
Mix equal parts vinegar and water and sprinkle in some borax (Maybe a tablespoon? No specific amount, it just gives the mix a little "boost".)

#4:
Hydrogen peroxide. That's all, just peroxide in the little brown bottle. You can dilute it further with water, if you want.

Question of the day:
Has anyone else tried any of these (or any other) homemade cleaning supplies? What was your opinion of them?

Thanks!

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 4

The Easiest Oven Cleaner in Existence!

Don't Scrub your oven EVER AGAIN! You don't need all those horrible oven cleaners and you don't need to bend over and make your back ache by scrubbing forever, either. Want to know the secret?

Ammonia. Yup, ammonia. Nasty smelling stuff but it's a marvelous cleaner. Just get a glass bowl and fill it with ammonia (about a cup). Sit the bowl on a rack in your oven overnight. That's it! When you get up the next morning your oven will wipe clean easily.

Enjoy saving your back, your advil, and your money!

Homemeade Taco Seasoning

I don't know about you, but I love Mexican food and I prepare it quite frequently. But I always hated having all of those little envelopes of taco seasoning laying around - especially since I use so many. So, I decided to try and make my own. I believe I've got the recipe right now, and it's a lot cheaper than all those little packets.

Taco Seasoning
1/4 c. dehydrated minced onion
1/4 c. chili powder
1 T. cornstarch
1 1/2 t. red pepper
1 1/2 t. garlic powder
1 1/2 t. oregano
1 1/2 t. cumin
1 1/2 t. paprika
1 1/2 t. salt

Mix well and Store in airtight jar. Makes 1 c. taco seasoning. 1 1/2 T. is equivalent to taco seasoning packet.

Enjoy!

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 3

Make your own toilet cleaner! It's a breeze!

Sprinkle your toilet bowl with borax and baking soda. Splash in some distilled white vinegar (or spritz on with a spray bottle). Swish around the bowl and let sit for a few minutes before scrubbing and flushing.

Works just as well as any other toilet bowl cleaner that I've tried.

Hope it works for you, too.

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 2

A great (and cheap) window wash:

1/2 c. white vinegar
1 qt. warm water

Combine and pour into spray bottle. Works like a charm and is MUCH cheaper than windex!

Also, hydrogen peroxide cleans windows wonderfully.

Another great tip: use old newspaper to wash your windows. It doesn't leave lint and the print leaves a streak-free shine.

Enjoy!

Save Money by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies - Part 1

One way I save a lot - and I mean a LOT - of money for my family is by making my own cleaning supplies. It's amazing what you can clean with just a few products. I'm going to share my cleaning supply recipes for you in a few posts.

First, I'd like to share with you my favorite cleaning recipe in my arsenal. Dishwasher detergent. Yes, that's right, you have other options besides those cardboard boxes at the grocery store. Dishwasher detergent is very simple to make, you use far less and it is much, much cheaper than buying it.

You need:
1 c. borax
1 c. baking soda
1/4 - 1/2 c. salt (we have well watter with lots of minerals so I use 1/2 c. to help with build-up)
2 pkgs. UNSWEETENED Lemon Kool-aid (yes, it must be lemon - it's the only one with citric acid.)

Mix together and store in an AIRTIGHT container. If it is not airtight it will clump and it's a pain to fix.

Use 1 tablespoon in the wash compartment and 1 tablespoon in the rinse compartment. That's it - 2 tablespoons total. It costs me approximately $2 to make a batch of this stuff and I can wash about 20 loads of dishes with it. That averages out to .10 cents per load.

Also, in your rinse aid compartment, start using distilled white vinegar instead of Jet-Dry. It does a superior job for far less money.

Your Welcome!

The Middle Class Crunch

With our economy and our dollar how they are and with all of the Presidential Candidates using scare tactics and pretty little economic plans to lure votes, there has been a lot of talk recently about the "Middle Class Crunch", particularly the housing market situation, health care costs and out of control childcare costs.

Now, I'll admit that inflation is out of control (even thought the government completely denies it. Hello! Where I live a gallon of milk is $5 right now!) it's getting harder and harder to make ends meet. But, honestly, is it really just the rising costs making it so difficult? I don't think so. You want to know the biggest part of the problem? Debt.

That's right, it's your credit cards. It's your car payments. It's your big screen TV that you just HAD to have. It's that huge house you bought 3 years ago that you really couldn't afford, so you got an ARM. Debt. Americans spend money like there's no tomorrow - money that they don't even have! Look, just because you have a huge credit limit, doesn't mean you need to use it. And just because they tell you that you can pay that monthly payment, guess what, it doesn't mean you can afford it!

To quote the linked article:
"A generation or two ago, Mom -- and it was usually a mom -- could stay home with the kids while Dad put in the hours at the office. His income was enough to let them own a home and a car, and put a pot-roast dinner on the table once a week."

Exactly. The article hit the nail on the head without even realizing it. They had enough for what they needed and the occasional treat. Today we don't think twice before going out to eat 5 times a week (or more, for some people) and putting it on the credit card. We have huge walk-in closets full of nice clothes - your probably still paying them off, too. We have $50,000 SUV's . We have piles of store cards, cards with airline miles, cards with cash back rewards - and it just KILLS us to miss out on a reward. So what if you spent $25,000 (plus interest) to get that free airline ticket , it was FREE!!

Now the average costs for childcare in this country are $8,303 per year, per child for infants and $6,215 per year, per child for preschool. That's a lot of money, I understand that. The cost of childcare is rising at twice the rate of inflation. Many claim it's impossible to have a one-income household anymore. Bull.

I'm a SAHM. My husband works very hard for me to be able to stay home with our son. We're by no means rich but we don't have to worry either. Why? Because we make sacrifices and we have priorities. I manage to keep our monthly food bill to $300 a month, including diapers, formula, baby food, toiletries, etc. It's hard, I have to be creative sometimes, but I do it. And no, we're not living on Hamburger Helper, either. We will have our house paid off in 6 more years - we've only lived here a year and a half. We're maxing out our Roth IRA contributions every year and my husband is maxing out his 401k contributions. That's a ton of money going straight to investments. Not including our house payment, we live on $10,000 a year so that we can do that. That $10k includes utilities, gas, insurance, cell phones, food, entertainment - everything. And we end up putting a small portion of that in savings.

I know that for some families, it truly isn't possible to have a one income household. But I think that the vast majority of families could do it, if they really wanted to. It's about discipline, it's about priorities, it's about goals, it's about common sense.

I'll get off my soapbox now. ;)