Reducing expenses

[Wifezilla]

I know a guy who used to be a cable phone rep. He canceled his cable for tv but kept it for internet. Between HULU, youtube and NETFLIX he has his favorite shows taken care of. For football he just got a newer tv that can get over the air digital. I think he said he was saving over $60/month doing this.

 

[abifae]

Making my laundry soap will be my next task

 

[savingdogs]

I love my homemade laundry soap Abifae. There are lots of recipes, ours works great if you need one. We figure our laundry soap is about 1 cent a load now. We also use the soap in the dishwasher and while it is a better laundry detergent, it isn't so bad in the dishwasher and sure is cheaper.

 

[abifae]

Yes please! Share share.

 

[savingdogs]

Well there are threads all over BYC about this but this is what I do.

Assemble three ingredients and a five gallon bucket with a lid.

The three ingredients:
Fels Naptha Soap (or Zote or homemade washing soap) 1 bar shredded
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 1 cup
20 Mule Team Borax 1 cup
(optional....1 cup baking soda)

In a pot on the stove, mix a gallon of water with the shredded Fels Naptha. Shredding the soap is the hardest part. Anyhow, heat up that soap + water until the Fels Naptha is all dissolved and turn off the heat.
Pour it all in your bucket and add the dry ingredients. Stir like heck until dissolved. Then fill your five gallon bucket up to the lid with water, warm. Stir like heck again. Put your lid on and wait 24 hours.

24 hours later, open your lid and (easiest to do this with a bare arm) stir it up really well. It comes out like egg flower soup. Stir well and take out what you need immediately (I use a recycled laundry container) and replace your lid. You do need to shake your container before you pour it in your machine.

There is a dry recipe but I always wash in cold so the dry doesn't work as well for me, but some people love it. I also have a HE washer and it actually works BETTER in it than the purchased HE washer soap. This laundry soap has no smell and no emulsifiers and no junk in it. You could add essential oils for scent if you chose. We do use dryer sheets so that adds a little scent.

Our clothes have never been so clean as since we started making our soap. I also share some with relatives who are broke. I can give them a big jug for a dollar and it helps them a lot more than a dollars worth.

It is also kind of fun to make. Those ingredients can usually be found at a grocery store (we got them at Winco).

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

where do you get this:

Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 1 cup

and thanks for posting.. i've been thinking about giving this a whirl. hum.....

ps i like the 'stir like heck' part
;-)

 

[ranchhand]

We could pay off my car with a lump sum from savings cancel comprehensive insurance on it and switch to a high-deductible insurance plan. My car is 11 years old, so no sense in having a low-deductible insurance.

When football season is over we *could* switch to a lower cable package. We have HD. Last year he was going to cancel cable after football season - but then we would lose internet too. Because of my mental health issues, I don't think I could live without internet. I attempted suicide 2 weeks ago and a FB friend saw me post a goodbye, opened up a chat with me and talked me down.

I sold off most of my stuff this year. I can't think of anything of value left except musical instruments I don't think I can part with. :/ The stuff I didn't want to mess around with selling I donated to Goodwill and got tax credit slips. I should look around some more. I probably could find *something* I could sell!

Another way to think of it is with the health insurance cost, I know how much money we need to save or earn. I'm going to work on the earning part with trying to sell some artwork and get some commissioned portraits. I have entered 2 exhibitions with cash prizes and the artwork put up for sale. I have another one due in a week.

Gosh. Between that and the weird pregnancy confusion thread, I really think an endocrinologist could possibly provide some relief for you. See if you can budget for that, your health and well being are a priority over anything else.

 

[savingdogs]

I have been thinking about your post and the section ranchhand highlighted all morning.

This is a great place for support Tortoise. I can vouch for them! I have gone through a very depressed time, perhaps not really suicidal, but a lot of bad things happened to me and this group really helped me.

We can help with things other than what stuff costs. I don't think you would have mentioned what happened if you didn't want us to know.

Please let us help you in whatever way we can. What made you feel so down?

I know "reducing expenses" can really, really, be a bummer. I have had a really hard time with this one and accepting my lower station in life. I have to slap myself around sometimes and remind myself that people have it much worse than I do, but doing without can sometimes be a huge burden, or worrying about how you can cope with expenses.
Been there, doing that. Feel free to share....or not. But we are here for you.

OFG regarding the soap, I got all the ingredients at a local bag-it-yourself type store. It is usually in the laundry section and you just never noticed it before. It is not Arm and Hammer Baking soda, you want the washing powder, it is intended as a laundry booster.

I also did not mention, you only use less than a half cup, it is concentrated like HE detergent. I use a whole cup on heavily soiled stuff. If it is really smelly for some reason (like when we had our BUCK) I added vinegar instead of laundry softener. However there is no reason you could not continue to use laundry softener with this (we don't like scented laundry). But we save a bundle using this because we do a ton of laundry with five indoor dogs and two teenagers and all our outdoor activities.

 

[Bethanial]

where do you get this:

Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 1 cup

and thanks for posting.. i've been thinking about giving this a whirl. hum.....

ps i like the 'stir like heck' part
;-)

I haven't been able to find locally the washing soda, but based on an article I found online (posted about on here somewhere), baking soda is sodium BIcarbonate, whereas washing soda is sodium carbonate. All that's needed to make that simple chemical change is to bake your baking soda (on a baking sheet, not in the cardboard box ) at 250* for one hour. You can tell when it's done that it feels different (little rougher on the fingers, and the powder is more likely to make you sneeze/irritate your nose). Anywho, that's what I've been doing, and I'm loving my homemade laundry soap!

 

[Javamama]

OFG- I've seen washing soda at Kroger, Meijer, and I think the Anderson's around here.