So, update on the DIY stuff, right?
Shampoo/Conditioner: Oh, this took a while after we moved. It was so slow I didn't notice it, but one day I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair looked... waxy. Not dirty or greasy, just weird. And it would not curl.
One of you lovely reader suggested boiling the water first, mixing a bunch ahead of time, and then just having it in the shower. Well, that worked the first time, but after it had cooled for a day, almost all the baking soda crystallized and plated itself to the bottom of the container. It was like rock salt. Great, if I want to exfoliate my scalp, not so great if I want to clean my hair.
So then I decided to run the bath faucet as hot as it would go before each shower and filling up with that. Magic! It worked again. Now my problem is my hair getting too clean. So I'm back to washing it every other day, which really is better for it, even if I hate it. I also mix honey in with the vinegar once a week. It was moisturizing too much when I used it every day, but it makes a nice once-a-week thing.
Dishwasher detergent: This works fairly well, compared to the commercial detergent. Again with the hard water, though (and Utah disallows phosphates in detergents). Residue and gunk on everything. Feh. So with the second batch I added half a cup of White King, a magical box of stuff that has solved almost all of our hard water problems and I can only find at WinCo. I also mixed it in with two cups of boiling water. It gelled very nicely. And then it turned to gritty, half-frozen butter. Next batch, three cups boiling water. It does work much better now.
Laundry detergent: It was a total waste of time until I discovered White King. I don't think it ever did mix properly, so I still only use it for things that never really get dirty. For diapers, I still use Charlie's Soap. Without our high-efficiency washer and with the special crap we have to buy to deal with the hard water problem (even Charlie's doesn't perform well at all with our water--ammonia burns, yay!), the money savings is not as substantial. It makes my skin itch. Sigh. Oh well. It's still worth it, if not AS worth it. We better not have any more babies until we're in a house with a water softener.
More DIY I've been thinking about: cloth diapers need special diaper rash cream. Many of the ingredients in most creams bond to the fibers, rendering them inabsorbent and smelly. Yay. No more Boudreaux's Butt Paste, which was magic, crafted by Gandalf himself. Both girls are prone to crazy diaper rash, no matter how vigilant we are about changing them frequently. The next person who tells me cloth-diapered babies shouldn't get rashes is going to get punched in the face. The only cloth-safe cream I've found in stores was a bazillion dollars. The ones online are not much better. So! I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to make some myself. This should be interesting.
What else can be DIY without sacrificing quality (or so much efficiency that it becomes far more inconvenient that it's worth)?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Shampoo
Dear sister, I know you will laugh at this post. But don't make fun of me too much until you see my hair.
I'll never have fabulous hair, but this is the most fabulous it's ever been in my entire life. It's kind of a pain in the rear since I have to rinse it forever and a day, lest I smell like vinegar. But I consider it worth it. My hair not only looks better, but it's softer, shinier, and it does the things I tell it to. It curls and stays curled, I pin it up, and it stays up, I leave it down, and it does not plaster itself to my head like a hungover eel.
So! Here it is.
Step One: Baking soda.
To be honest, it's probably not much of a money savings. I have (used to have) a taste for expensive shampoos and conditioners, but I could make them last foreeeever. A tankard of Aveda shampoo and conditioner can last me at least two years. That's about two dollars a month. A gallon of apple cider vinegar lasts about two months, and the cost of baking soda is negligible. Honey is a bit pricier, but we use so little, and we buy it in the gigantic jugs (I use it in just about everything The Child eats that's sweetened). This gets us about three cents a day. Yaaay!
This brings me to my next point.
For the longest time, it's been hard for me to get motivated to save money because I haven't ever thought to tie it to something concrete. We're only saving twelve dollars a year by doing this, but twelve dollars is a movie ticket. We love the movies! And we never get to go! Before, I would have seen that twelve dollars and thought, "Pssssh. Totally not worth the self-denial."
But it IS.
I love how I'm learning delayed gratification at 28.
(If you listen closely, you'll hear my siblings and parents snickering into their sleeves. Li'l Naomi done growed up. Kind of.)
I'll never have fabulous hair, but this is the most fabulous it's ever been in my entire life. It's kind of a pain in the rear since I have to rinse it forever and a day, lest I smell like vinegar. But I consider it worth it. My hair not only looks better, but it's softer, shinier, and it does the things I tell it to. It curls and stays curled, I pin it up, and it stays up, I leave it down, and it does not plaster itself to my head like a hungover eel.
So! Here it is.
Step One: Baking soda.
- Keep a cup (16 oz) in the shower. Before you get in, put in 2 Tbsp of baking soda. In the shower, fill the cup and mix until the baking soda is dissolved (I use the end of my razor handle).
- Pour in sections over your dry head. I'd like to get a squeeze bottle to do this, but so many of them have really narrow necks. This method is time-consuming enough that I really don't feel like bringing a funnel into the whole business as well.
- Rub into scalp, then rinse thoroughly.
- Optional: Pour about 1 tsp of honey into the cup. My hair comes out shinier and sweeter-smelling when I use this.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of your choice of vinegar into the cup. I use apple cider vinegar. I've heard of people using pomegranate vinegar and others. I'm sure just about anything would smell better than ACV (except maybe white vinegar). Fill the rest of the way with water and mix again.
- Pour in sections over your head, work into hair, and rinse thoroughly. Very, very thoroughly. And then rinse some more. If you're still unsure, rinse a little bit more.
To be honest, it's probably not much of a money savings. I have (used to have) a taste for expensive shampoos and conditioners, but I could make them last foreeeever. A tankard of Aveda shampoo and conditioner can last me at least two years. That's about two dollars a month. A gallon of apple cider vinegar lasts about two months, and the cost of baking soda is negligible. Honey is a bit pricier, but we use so little, and we buy it in the gigantic jugs (I use it in just about everything The Child eats that's sweetened). This gets us about three cents a day. Yaaay!
This brings me to my next point.
For the longest time, it's been hard for me to get motivated to save money because I haven't ever thought to tie it to something concrete. We're only saving twelve dollars a year by doing this, but twelve dollars is a movie ticket. We love the movies! And we never get to go! Before, I would have seen that twelve dollars and thought, "Pssssh. Totally not worth the self-denial."
But it IS.
I love how I'm learning delayed gratification at 28.
(If you listen closely, you'll hear my siblings and parents snickering into their sleeves. Li'l Naomi done growed up. Kind of.)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
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 $.18/day.
We'll see how this goes.
We're still living in the hotel, but at least The Guy's job is paying for our food and basic living expenses. This means we get a nice introduction to Salt Lake City's varied cuisine while someone else picks up the tab.
Saturday or Sunday, though, it's back to the grindstone. I'm actually kind of excited. The children are turning feral in this hotel room, since we're stuck here all day with no car and unseasonably chilly weather. All day is spent keeping the bubbling frustration from bursting out of me in a fit of temper that would rival a toddler's. Then naptime comes, and I lie around in a haze of apathy.
I'm so much happier when I have productive things to do. I grumble about it the whole time, but really, I'm not a happy person when I'm allowed to be as lazy as I think I want to be.
To be sure, there are things I could be doing. But like I said, haze of apathy. Seem like when there's no home to keep clean and running, I lose all desire to accomplish other things.
So, this post will hopefully be a running start for the weekend.
I have two new daily money-saving ideas.
First! We will have a dishwasher in our new place. DISH. WASHER. A machine that runs on its own and cleans things for me. The chore I hate most is now all but gone. I can't even handle this.
But this means special soap. And special soap means more money. With two kids and two adults living in the same house, I'm guessing there will be at least one load of dishes washed per day. So, using this recipe: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent, I will attempt to save *$.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.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
My head is too small
Full Brain Syndrome. People to see One Last Time, chipped paint to take care of, children to keep alive, et cetera. It also means my funny bone is mostly gone, but I'll update just because a few of you have asked. Once I'm less overwhelmed, I'm sure I'll have all sorts of things to say. Probably more than you want to hear.
Emmy is thisclose to walking. Grace was thisclose to walking for months, but she's certainly more cautious than Emmy. I don't think Emmy will wait until she can walk perfectly. She's perfectly happy crashing into sharp objects all over the place. I catch her halfway up the stairs several times a day. Blockading them with chairs doesn't work anymore. She just slides right under. I'm so glad we're moving soon. Carrying her on my back all the time is good for me, but it's also tiresome.
Speaking of Grace, she is suddenly... normal.
She's still shy, but she smiles at and flirts with anyone and everyone so long as one of us is close at hand. She asks for vegetables. She picks up mushy food. She doesn't throw a fit if I wait until the end of breakfast to wipe the yogurt off her face and bib. Screaming during hairwashing has gone from Psycho to barely a yelp. She ate seven large, weird-looking mushrooms (in sauce!) at dinner today. I don't know what happened, but I'm not going to question it.
We found a good home for the cat. Jeremy dropped her off today. Huuuge weight off our shoulders.
That's all. I'm kind of fried. I'll be back soon. We move in two weeks, and then I'll never shut up.
Emmy is thisclose to walking. Grace was thisclose to walking for months, but she's certainly more cautious than Emmy. I don't think Emmy will wait until she can walk perfectly. She's perfectly happy crashing into sharp objects all over the place. I catch her halfway up the stairs several times a day. Blockading them with chairs doesn't work anymore. She just slides right under. I'm so glad we're moving soon. Carrying her on my back all the time is good for me, but it's also tiresome.
Speaking of Grace, she is suddenly... normal.
She's still shy, but she smiles at and flirts with anyone and everyone so long as one of us is close at hand. She asks for vegetables. She picks up mushy food. She doesn't throw a fit if I wait until the end of breakfast to wipe the yogurt off her face and bib. Screaming during hairwashing has gone from Psycho to barely a yelp. She ate seven large, weird-looking mushrooms (in sauce!) at dinner today. I don't know what happened, but I'm not going to question it.
We found a good home for the cat. Jeremy dropped her off today. Huuuge weight off our shoulders.
That's all. I'm kind of fried. I'll be back soon. We move in two weeks, and then I'll never shut up.
Friday, November 26, 2010
I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner
The fans in the kids' rooms! Idiot. We switched those out for the noise machines we use when we travel. I figure between naps and nighttimes, that's $.26/day. I'll have to look at the actual wattage on them later, but I'm guessing a fan on high draws 100W, and the noise machines draw 2W each. Yippee!
I'm never going to make it to 100, am I?
I'm never going to make it to 100, am I?
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Hair
I'm saving my hair to make pillows.
HAH! Just kidding. There are some things I will never do for the sake of a few dollars. That's one of them.
No, I've noticed since I started showering every day that my hair just doesn't get clean enough when I wash it. It gets all gunky in back, just below the crown of my head. I have three different kinds of shampoo that I use, I use very little conditioner (maybe a pea-sized amount), and I make sure I get shampoo down into my roots all over my head. And still, with all that, there's this spot on the back of my head that is just gross unless I shampoo twice, which kind of defeats the purpose of showering every other day. More time spent in the shower, using hot water and lights, AND extra money spent on shampoo.
So I decided to try something else today. I grabbed a bit of baking soda (maybe a couple of teaspoons) and plonked it on top of my wet hair, then I rubbed it in with my shampoo. And what do you know, my hair came out beautifully clean (but not stripped and dry, like it can when I shampoo twice).
I also used the extra baking soda left on my hands to scrub my face a little bit (I'd already washed it). I don't really need to exfoliate with the oil cleansing method (I know I sound like an infomercial with my OIL CLEANSING METHOD! evangelism, but I am telling you, it's that good) and haven't in ages. But lately my face has been feeling a little papery and oily, all at the same time. Probably the dry winter air.
Wow! What a difference! My skin feels extremely soft today, and it's practically glowing. I don't know exactly what the baking soda did, but my skin looks amazing right now.
Now I just need to figure out a way to keep some baking soda in the shower without getting it all wet and clumpy and gross.
HAH! Just kidding. There are some things I will never do for the sake of a few dollars. That's one of them.
No, I've noticed since I started showering every day that my hair just doesn't get clean enough when I wash it. It gets all gunky in back, just below the crown of my head. I have three different kinds of shampoo that I use, I use very little conditioner (maybe a pea-sized amount), and I make sure I get shampoo down into my roots all over my head. And still, with all that, there's this spot on the back of my head that is just gross unless I shampoo twice, which kind of defeats the purpose of showering every other day. More time spent in the shower, using hot water and lights, AND extra money spent on shampoo.
So I decided to try something else today. I grabbed a bit of baking soda (maybe a couple of teaspoons) and plonked it on top of my wet hair, then I rubbed it in with my shampoo. And what do you know, my hair came out beautifully clean (but not stripped and dry, like it can when I shampoo twice).
I also used the extra baking soda left on my hands to scrub my face a little bit (I'd already washed it). I don't really need to exfoliate with the oil cleansing method (I know I sound like an infomercial with my OIL CLEANSING METHOD! evangelism, but I am telling you, it's that good) and haven't in ages. But lately my face has been feeling a little papery and oily, all at the same time. Probably the dry winter air.
Wow! What a difference! My skin feels extremely soft today, and it's practically glowing. I don't know exactly what the baking soda did, but my skin looks amazing right now.
Now I just need to figure out a way to keep some baking soda in the shower without getting it all wet and clumpy and gross.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Toilet
I know this is totally gross. Which is why I will only do it when it's just me at home. I'm going to flush less.
I've always though this was something only weirdo crunchy types did. So I guess I'm turning into a weirdo crunchy type. But it's hard to argue with 1.6 gallons of water per flush. That's $.38/flush each day (can that possibly be right? maybe I'm reading this wrong). And, to be honest, I do a lot of toilet-flushing that isn't... elimination-related. Things like kleenex and whatnot go down, too. So let's say I flush ten times a day now. Just halving that means $1.92/day (no, seriously; is that right?).
Update: Hah! I knew this was all wrong. It's $1.87 per one hundred cubic feet. Idiot. I guess this just means a lot more water conservation, right. I will have to think a little harder, though, and I'm a little fried at the moment.
I've always though this was something only weirdo crunchy types did. So I guess I'm turning into a weirdo crunchy type. But it's hard to argue with 1.6 gallons of water per flush. That's $.38/flush each day (can that possibly be right? maybe I'm reading this wrong). And, to be honest, I do a lot of toilet-flushing that isn't... elimination-related. Things like kleenex and whatnot go down, too. So let's say I flush ten times a day now. Just halving that means $1.92/day (no, seriously; is that right?).
Update: Hah! I knew this was all wrong. It's $1.87 per one hundred cubic feet. Idiot. I guess this just means a lot more water conservation, right. I will have to think a little harder, though, and I'm a little fried at the moment.
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