Cloth Sanitary Pads

This is a guest post from my friend Samantha.  I have not had the guts to try these myself yet but  here is her story.

When I went to cloth pads a tad over a year ago it started as a joke my sister and I had. We was sending each other links
to some of the odd choices that was out there. Sea sponge tampons, diva cups things of that nature. We both agreed that the cloth pads
really was not that bad of an idea if they work. I got to reading more and more about them finding that you could buy them in all
kinds of shapes and sizes. You could also make them for very cheap if you are able to sew.

Best pro of them really is they are reducing your exposure to harmful chemicals. Disposable pads contain a 
myriad of chemicals and additives which serve to increase their absorbancy and keep them looking white and bright but these 
chemicals don't do you any good at all. 

Your genital tissue is highly sensitive, and these chemicals are easily absorbed into your body, 
causing irritation and discomfort in the process. Once going to cloth I no longer get the burn you find by the end of the week
from the toss out kind.

If you are like me and can not sew to save your life there is a bit of a upfront cost. I spend 90$ on my batch. But that was 90$ a year
ago and I have not had to worry about pads since. Depending on your flo and how offten you do wash will effect how many you own. 
I own around 30 total because I have everything from panty liners to overnight pads and when I was shopping I was having way 
to much fun picking
them all out. I got mine off of http://www.etsy.com/ I found them to have the nicer choices and I am supporting some mom at home. 
They are sold all over the web even major companies make them if you want to go that route. 

Only downfall to them is like when you first got the hang of pads back at 13 you have to reteach yourself when to change your pad.
Depending on the style you have will change the times. The folding kind do last longer then the "normal" med flow kind.
They make "wetbags" so you can be out at work and still use them. (they are just a zipper bag with a leak free liner so you can toss
the used one back into your handbag) In one weekend you will know what you need to bring with you when you are out.
For me I do not work so if I am going to the mall I just put on a overnight pad and I am fine for the few hours I am 
walking around. I wash mine with everything else and never had an issue with it messing up anything. If you think thats a tad gross
let me tell you my kids get much grosser things on their outfits then a little blood LOL.Some just get a bucket (like a icecream one)
and soak them till the week is over then do the wash in one batch. You can go that route but you will need to buy more overnight
pads then I own and they are the ones that have the biggest cost. I only own 3 of them.

There is a ton of info on people much smarter then I am at this webpage.. http://www.ecomenses.com/

Happy saving 

Sick

I promise to get a new post up soon.  I'm soooo sick right now that I can't even think straight.  I will be trying some new homemade things as soon as I feel better and I will of course blog about them all :)

Quick Shampoo Update

I am still shampoo free.  I am still loving it.  AND there is an added bonus that I have found!  I am pulling much less hair out of the drain than I was when I was using shampoo.  Who knew!  Just that fact alone will keep me poo free because I was seriously afraid I was going bald for awhile there.

I did feel like my hair was a bit dry so I tried the apple cider vinegar conditioner and while it worked well on my hair, even though I kept it away from my scalp, I was very oily and had to wash my hair again that same evening.  I'll let you know when I figure out what works for me as far as conditioning my hair.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ahhhhh, finally!  The long awaited laundry soap post!

I have been wanting to try making my own laundry soap for years, but every recipe I found was really quite intimidating and I didn't want to have to try to mix up a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff and then have to store it.  Did you like that wonderful, long run on sentence I gave you there?  Anyway, it never occurred to me that I could cut the recipe down so I never tried.

Recently, in my money saving quest, I started looking for laundry soap recipes again.  Originally I found this one for a powdered soap.  I loved this recipe because it didn't require me to use a 5 gallon bucket and it didn't require mixing it using a stick mixer to try to blend it well.  I was planning to go ahead and make it when I found this recipe for liquid soap.  In reading the tutorial it mentioned that the powdered version is not good for cold water washing because it won't dissolve without heat.  Since I only wash in cold water, unless there are gross germy things involved, I figured I would have to go with a liquid version.  The recipe was for 2 gallons of soap and I thought I could surely cut the recipe in half and fill my 1 gallon  Hawaiian Punch container with some wonderful homemade laundry soap.

So here is what I did:

Ingredients:

1/2 bar soap- most people prefer Fels Naptha but I used Zote because it was cheaper
1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup baking soda
water

Directions:

• Grate the bar soap into a medium sized cooking pot
• add 4 cups of hot water and bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring frequently until the soap is dissolved
• add the borax, washing soda, and baking soda stirring well until they have dissolved
• bring it back to a boil then remove from the heat
• let it cool slightly
• add water to gallon container until it is about half full
• slowly add the soap mixture
• add more water until it is a few inches from the top
• close the container and shake well

This mixture will thicken a lot and that is OK.  Use 1/2 cup of the mixture per load of laundry.  I attached a 1/2 cup measure to the bottle using a metal ring that opens easily so it will not become lost.

So far I have been very impressed by the cleaning power of the laundry soap and it does a great job of stain removal on its own.

It cost me about $9 to purchase the ingredients to make the soap and I have enough to make many, many more batches.

Poor Man Stew

Poor Man Stew Recipe


1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
chicken broth or bullion
1 bag egg noodles


boil cubed and seasoned chicken breast in broth or water with bullion.  Once chicken is cooked through add egg noodles and boil until noodles are tender.  Lower heat and simmer until sauce thickens.


This recipe as written will feed a family of 4.  I double it to feed the 8 of us.  I like my stew more brothy so I always make my bowl and then continue cooking because my husband and kids like theirs thicker and more stew like.  I like to sprinkle some grated parmesan, the kind in the jar, on top of mine.  Sometimes we have crescent rolls or biscuits on the side.

This Week's Grocery Trip

Here are the dinners I planned for this week, the list of food I need for the week, and the cost of the food I bought.  I usually do 7 dinners, but this week I did 8 because I was shopping a day early and we were pretty cleaned out of food.  I also bought more fruit than usual because I'm on my newest health kick and I got extra chicken and veggies because I am going to start making my lunches for work rather than eating the prepackaged crap.  

I do my shopping at 2 different stores.  I always go to Aldi first and get everything on my list that I possibly can there, then I finish up at Food Lion.  I don’t generally get meat at Aldi, meat is about the only thing I don’t like their prices on.

I have divided the shopping list up by store.


Dinners:

curry chicken, chili, spaghetti, poor man stew, meatloaf, salisbury steak, stroganoff, tacos

Aldi:

4 lb. rice

2 lb. spaghetti noodles

2 bags egg noodles

chicken bullion

2 cans tomato sauce 

2 cans tomato paste

chili powder

salt

1 jar gravy

1 can kidney beans

1 can black olives

3 blocks cream cheese

1 bag shredded mexican style cheese

1 container sour cream

1 bag apples 

2 cans pineapple

1 bag broccoli

1 bag peas

1 bag corn

1 bag carrots

1 bag green beans

1 bag white potatoes

snacks for kids

cake mixes and frosting for the husband

sugar

3 loaves bread 

3 boxes cereal

1 gallon milk

1 jar peanut butter

Food Lion:

3 bags chicken

8 packs ground turkey

2 lb. beef cubes

curry powder

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cans chick peas

I can’t believe its not butter spray

1 bag cauliflower

3 sweet potatoes

soda- 1- 6 pack each diet coke and pepsi max

Aldi total- $54.84

Food Lion total- $48.21

Total- $103.05

this will feed my family of 8 for 1 week.

A Few More Tips

Its been a busy week so I haven't had a chance to write a good blog post.  I hope to have my laundry soap post up soon :)  Since my last post about the changes we have made over the past year, I have gotten some great suggestions from some friends and I have also thought of a few more things myself.  So here are some more tips on how to save yourself some money.


Some suggestions from Mom-Pinion:


Use coupons in conjunction with store sales- sometimes you can get the name brands cheaper than the store brands this way.


Do not buy lunches out, her husband takes leftovers for lunch in order to save some dough.


Get memberships to places or use groupon and living social deals on kids stuff.


Use redbox for movie rentals, you can google free codes to get free movie rentals.


Sell your unused stuff on ebay or craigslist.


When you do go out to eat, share your food with your small children.


Shut off the AC or heat when no one is home.


Take advantage of kids eat free nights at local restaurants.


Do not use credit cards- she has been credit card free for more than 3 years now.


Some more of my own tips:


I do all the family hair.  I cut my boys and husband's hair and I do my daughter's relaxer.  I dye and cut my own hair as well as trim the girl's hair.  This saves me $100s a year.


I use swagbucks.  This year I swagged from September until early December and got $75 in free amazon gift cards.  I used them to get Christmas gifts for my kids.


Go to the library instead of the book store.


Hang your clothes out on the clothesline if you can.


I only fill up on gas during the week since gas prices go up on the weekends.


I buy gas at Sheetz since they have the rewards card.  Sometimes I get gas at Kroger when I have enough points on my Kroger rewards card to get a good price on gas.