I love the Instructables sight. It has so many do it yourself projects on it and they break it down nice and simple. HERE'S a great one if you've been thinking about starting your own square foot garden. It's easy and you can grow an amazing amount of food in a small space with very little weeding.
Pauline asked me for a homemade oven cleaner recipe and I came across THIS list with several options. That's about the only thing in my house that cleans itself so I haven't tried these yet but they look like good ones.
And news on the home front....Have you wondered why I've been putting my posts up later than usual? Well, we added a fifth mouth to feed to the family this week so I've been a little busy getting to know the little guy.
Meet Tucker.
No, not a baby....a dog.
My teenage son wanted a dog, found his own work, and managed to save several hundred dollars to cover the adoption fee, vet visit, neuter, and food for his dog all by himself. It was a great money management/responsibility lesson as he learned to budget, plan and work diligently. This won't increase MY monthly budget, but now I get to pass down my budgeting lessons for my son to learn.
Have a WONDERFUL weekend and we'll see you on Menu Plan Monday.
15 comments:
Congrats on the sweet new addition!
I just read somewhere that you can sprinkle a packet of unsweetened lemonade (yellow, not pink) flavored Kool-Aid into the dishwasher and run it. I tried it, and the dishwasher was pretty clean!
Aww ~ your new family member is absolutely adorable!! :)
Is that a shepard mix? We have an oooolllddd shep mix dog and she has been wonderful. I wish your son many years of happiness with his new friend.
Speaking of teens....how do you accomodate the teens that seem to congregate? I could spend my whole budget just on snacks and drink for teens and that isn't going to happen but I also like them here so I can keep an eye on them as opposed to their friends houses - where I don't know if mom is home.
I enjoy your blog! Please include some recipes for squash (yellow)as I am inundated with gifts from my friend and I don't want it to go to waste! Thanks!
The smile on your son's face says it all. Pure joy. By the way -- that T-shirt he's wearing seems to be his favorite one, isn't it? I myself have dozens of photographs that appear to have all been taken on the same day (but weren't) just because I tend to wear my favorite outfit over and over and over :)
Congrats on the new fur baby.
The recipe you shared for cleaning out the dishwasher also works well for the wash machine, especially if you have a front-loader!
Congratulations on the new addition. I'm glad to hear that your son was so responsible. We got a puppy for our 15 yr old son 4 weeks ago - he's always wanted one and we'd been told how good dogs were for ASD/Asperger's. I love your blog and your challenge is great. I think I'll try it here in the UK. Just need to figure a budget (I'm about to lose my job due to the fact I'm diabetic and can't promise I will never be off sick!). Sadly the dog does add to our budget, along with the four cats and 3 chickens:)
I was so excited when I started reading your post b/c I thought you'd found a good homemade dish detergent recipe...sigh..I guess the hunt goes on. I have also been experiementing and so far NOTHING!!! But my dishwasher does need a really good cleaning after all these mess ups. Thanks!
As far as oven cleaning, I usually just sprinkle whatever I want to clean up with baking soda, and get the whole thing wet with a squirt bottle of water, then just leave it overnight. In the morning I sweep the remaining baking powder into the trash can and that works well for me. I hope that is helpful!
have you tried white vinegar in your dishwasher (fill your jet dry thingamajig with the vinegar) for spots?
Just wondering what detergents you've tried - I search the site and didn't find any posts. I, too, am looking for a frugal (and more importantly to me, environmentally and kid-safe) dishwashing detergent. I had some failures (http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/02/early-results-natural-dishwasher-detergent-experiments/) and finally gave up, although the 3 drops of regular dishsoap thing would work if you were willing to rinse all your dishes. Right now I'm test driving a natural soap from Mrs. Meyer's and I LOVE it, but I'm sure it's not very frugal. That's always the rub!
This is where I think coupons work best for my large family (2 adults, 5 kids) -- after coupons I hardly pay anything for dishwasher detergent. I too have tried the homemade options, with no luck.
But I can get the electrasol tabs for .49-.99 per box, and I can also get a monster box from Costco for $5.00 if I am coupon-deprived. I do use way way less than called for -- 1 or 2 Tbsp. depending on the load (full, or extra-full).
Have also used the Kool-Aid trick with great success.
This is where I think coupons work best for my large family (2 adults, 5 kids) -- after coupons I hardly pay anything for dishwasher detergent. I too have tried the homemade options, with no luck.
But I can get the electrasol tabs for .49-.99 per box, and I can also get a monster box from Costco for $5.00 if I am coupon-deprived. I do use way way less than called for -- 1 or 2 Tbsp. depending on the load (full, or extra-full).
Have also used the Kool-Aid trick with great success.
I just wonder why you don't use coupons? You can get Electrasol dishwasher tabs for FREE this week at Meijer or really cheap at Target and CVS (free there too if you have Extra Bucks). I don't know which stores are available to you but you should be able to find deals like this near you. Through couponing, I have been able to stock up with about a year's worth of dishwasher tabs for nearly FREE. You can also get several coupons for FREE Cascade Rinse agent when you request a coupon book from Home Made Simple online. They offer these books several times a year. Even if you don't want to get full into the coupon thing, just get the items you really use all the time when they are at rock-bottom prices. I never have to pay for shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc.
I used to be a diehard Cascade Complete user, but it was sooo expensive. I recently tried something new... Palmolive Eco I think it's called? Anyway, it was less than $3 at Walmart, it's eco-friendly, and it works GREAT! I really wasn't expecting much since it was so much cheaper than Cascade, but it cleans and rinses wonderfully, even stuck on sticky sauces and such!
Post a Comment