Moving is not conducive to tightwadding

I've been hiding from this blog in shame. We've spent the last two weeks throwing caution and money to the wind in an effort to alleviate the insanity that is moving. Paper plates! Plastic cutlery! Convenience foods! Booze!

---

We're still living in the hotel, but at least The Guy's job is paying for our food and basic living expenses. This means we get a nice introduction to Salt Lake City's varied cuisine while someone else picks up the tab.

Saturday or Sunday, though, it's back to the grindstone. I'm actually kind of excited. The children are turning feral in this hotel room, since we're stuck here all day with no car and unseasonably chilly weather. All day is spent keeping the bubbling frustration from bursting out of me in a fit of temper that would rival a toddler's. Then naptime comes, and I lie around in a haze of apathy.

I'm so much happier when I have productive things to do. I grumble about it the whole time, but really, I'm not a happy person when I'm allowed to be as lazy as I think I want to be.

To be sure, there are things I could be doing. But like I said, haze of apathy. Seem like when there's no home to keep clean and running, I lose all desire to accomplish other things.

---

So, this post will hopefully be a running start for the weekend.

I have two new daily money-saving ideas.

First! We will have a dishwasher in our new place. DISH. WASHER. A machine that runs on its own and cleans things for me. The chore I hate most is now all but gone. I can't even handle this.

But this means special soap. And special soap means more money. With two kids and two adults living in the same house, I'm guessing there will be at least one load of dishes washed per day. So, using this recipe: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent, I will attempt to save *$.73/load. We'll say that's $.73/day for now.

Yes, I know homemade dishwasher detergents tend to leave dishes cloudy. However, I don't really care, so long as they're clean. And we'll just wait and see for now.

*I went by the savings that blog posted for the dishwasher detergent, but figured out my own for the rinse agent. $3.99/load seemed extremely high, even though I have no experience with dishwashers.

---

The other thing is homemade laundry detergent. Right now, I use Charlie's Soap. I love it with all of my heart. I really do. But it's expensive. Worth every penny, I should add, if this homemade thing doesn't work out. Commercial detergents--even free and clear detergents--are full of gunk that coats the fibers, rendering cloth diapers almost useless after enough washing, which means you have to strip them regularly, and why go through all that when you can save money making your own detergent AND avoid having to strip them so often?

Charlie's Soap costs about $.19/load unless you buy it in the gigantic buckets. And even then, it's still $.156/load. I've also read that it doesn't work well in certain areas with certain types of water, so you have to buy a laundry booster, and that increases the price, too (I wonder, though; would just a little baking soda do the trick instead of shelling out for a special product?).

So, I'm going to try something like this recipe: Homemade Laundry Detergent. I think it works out to about $.01/load, but we'll have to wait and see what things cost around here.

So that's a savings of $.18/load. I figure I do about seven loads a week (depends entirely on the baby), so that works out to about $.18/day.

We'll see how this goes.