Help reducing grocery bill?

[FarmerChick]

the second bedroom. Is that for children? if so then no extra space.

but if no kids, what are you using this room for at this time?

 

[ORChick]

Do you have any crawl space under the house? Depending on climate you could probably fix up some rodent proof boxes for certain types of supplies.

 

[hqueen13]

Hqueen- can you give us your recipes? I would love to try making my own detergents. I will say im a bit scared that it won't clean well enough, I have a bit of ocd and part of that is the germs, so please tell me how well it works and if there are things that it doesn't clean well. Also on the shampoo- do you just use viengar? I have oily hair-does it cut the oil? And conditioner- does it really work that well? My hair has to be detangles as it is very fine and breaks and splits easily. I personally would love to try all the things you make, so if its a lot to post, feel free to pm me. And tell me about each one too! Costs, how well it works, anything it doesn't work on, any variations to the recipes and so on. Thank you!

Haha, that's a lot of questions!!
There is a super detergent discussion thread on here in the 'roll your own' section, that is also where I found the dish washing recipe. I commented in the laundry thread already, so I will only be brief, I use the Duggar family recipe (found on their website, just google it), with the exception that we do not cut it 50/50 with water when we refill our cabinet container. We found that it needs to be used straight out of the bucket in order to get our clothes clean. If things are really dirty, I boost it with extra baking soda in the load. Our water is very hard (only just figured that out a bit ago... duh!), and so the extra washing power is needed. If you use well water or have softer water, you could probably follow the recipe, which means you'd be making 10 gallons total rather than 5, which is a LOT of soap!! The initial investment requires buying the *washing* soda, and borax, which of course you won't use all of. But many household recipes call for these things. Even counting that, AND purchasing the bucket, our first batch cost less than $10.00 to make. Silly stupid cheap

As for being scared of it not being clean, you just have to take the plunge and try it. Worst case if it doesn't work, you're going to lose about $5.00 in supplies. That is a pretty cheap experiment! We found we had to adjust ours, so it takes a little testing and trial to work through some of that. Don't be afraid to try, the worst thing that will happen is you'll have to rewash a load to get the amounts correct

As for germs, they're over rated! Really, we give them too much focus in our world today, and as a result we're breeding super bugs that are becoming lethal where they never would have been if we had allowed our bodies to remain healthy to deal with the germs. That's another rant entirely!

For the hair: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/going-poo-less/ This is the blog post that changed my mind. There are a LOT of chemicals that are hidden in soaps and products we put on our bodies all the time without a second thought. Your skin and hair are your largest organ, and also absorb things that you touch constantly. If you're trying to save money by buying cheap shampoo, you are risking exposing yourself to chemicals (things made cheaply are often low quality, with poor quality control) as well as supporting things that don't nurture the environment, let alone you.

I have thick curly hair. It wasn't until I spent 6 weeks out in Colorado's arid mountains that I was able to see what my hair would look like if it were smooth and shiny! I have always had challenges with tangles. The first time I used the baking soda and ACV on my hair, I was able to comb STRAIGHT THROUGH with NO trouble after I got out of the shower. It was amazing. I was hooked. I have 2 bottles (one is actually a re-purposed spice bottle) that I keep in the shower. I use a scoop of baking soda in the spice bottle and about one ounce of the ACV in the other (I keep a gallon of ACV under the counter in the bathroom with a large pump in it, they can be found at feed stores). Once I get in the shower I fill both bottles with water (shake the baking soda to disperse it good), and then use each in the same manner I would shampoo and conditioner, rinsing between. Conventional shampoos actually are often the source of oily hair - they strip the hair so the body thinks it needs to replenish, so it produces more body oil. If my hair seems like it is beginning to get tangles, I rub a bit of coconut oil into it after I get out of the shower when it is still wet, and it dries nice and glossy. Coconut oil is what I basically use in place of lotion, too, these days.

I'm happy to share, people sharing with me is how I do everything that I do! I'm thrilled to find this site and keep learning ways to cut expenses and do what is best for us.
(I hope that answer wasn't too off topic!)

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks, moolie, for the idea. Sadly, the place isn't ours (actually, that isn't too bad of a thing!!). Part of my issue that I am aware of is that I don't organize and plan well in the kitchen. I need to do better with that in order to keep things efficient and maximize space. Pretty much all areas of this trailer are stuffed with crap. I have 4 foot stools that double as storage for extra throw blankets and things because of that problem. If we didn't constantly move the coffee table around (he pulls it close to his chair so he can eat dinner), I would probably get a storage coffee table. Hmm, I might have to look into one on wheels.....
Someday we're going to have a place of our own that will have plenty of room for a pantry!! We'll build it if all else fails!!

 

[edjanuary39]

Hqueen- so I got lost last night for hours following your link and others! Wow! So much info! A site I ended up at that I really like for those home recipes is littlehouseinthesuburbs.com- I found an olive oil soap, my husband has sensitive skin- used to have exema, so we HAVE to use lever2000. So I was worried about making soaps that he could use. And then I read a bunch about the poo-less revolution, and decided to give it a try! So we were short on money a couple of weeks ago so I bought the dollar general brand of Pantene. My hair has been greasy! So greasy the next morning after a mid day bath, my hair is too greasy to touch! So I used an egg to cut the grease, bakingsoda wash and acc for a rinse! I am so impressed! My hair isn't totally grease free, so I may wash with shampoo tonight- but I now know the washing power in a bad situation! The acv actually worked! And it rinses so easily! Thanks so much!

 

[k15n1]

Buy in bulk and only when it is on sale. Then stock up the pantry and either freeze, can or store the majority of it.
Example: Meijers had carrots on sale. 10, 3lb packages for $1.00 per package and get the 11th one free. I can't grow them that cheap! We bought 40 packages, got 4 for free and canned every last one of them. That made enough pints of carrots to last us well over a year. We do the same thing with potatoes and fruits when they are in season.

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL264/2074170/10842722/376295957.jpg

Very nice.

 

[FarmerChick]

SKR is one smart dude!

 

[hqueen13]

Hqueen- so I got lost last night for hours following your link and others! Wow! So much info! A site I ended up at that I really like for those home recipes is littlehouseinthesuburbs.com- I found an olive oil soap, my husband has sensitive skin- used to have exema, so we HAVE to use lever2000. So I was worried about making soaps that he could use. And then I read a bunch about the poo-less revolution, and decided to give it a try! So we were short on money a couple of weeks ago so I bought the dollar general brand of Pantene. My hair has been greasy! So greasy the next morning after a mid day bath, my hair is too greasy to touch! So I used an egg to cut the grease, bakingsoda wash and acc for a rinse! I am so impressed! My hair isn't totally grease free, so I may wash with shampoo tonight- but I now know the washing power in a bad situation! The acv actually worked! And it rinses so easily! Thanks so much!

Yup, works SO well. I am finding with almost everything that sticking with the basic stuff works SOOOO much better than the crazy stuff that our super duper technology has come up with. I just keep cutting things out of our lives, and it makes me happy!

Have you ever tried something like Dr. Bronner's? It might be worth experimenting a bit with the soaps that are natural to see if there is something better than the Lever for him. Lever probably has some things in it that aren't so good either.

 

[edjanuary39]

I have no idea what that is, but I found this olive oil reciepe, very simple! I think that the oliveoil will do wonders for him. I have been stuck on this site- lilltlehouseinthesuburbs.com. Its been so informative and teachsoap.com has a lot of recipes for lotions, face stuff and the extra beauty type stuff. I dont know that I would use much of it, but it would probably be a good seller! As I hope to sell my goods as well to make some extra money, maybe even supplemental income someday. Thanks so much for the direction! Check out those sites! The little house one has a more natural approach than the teach soap, they add a few extra chemicals, I assume to cut some corners, but I think once I get going into that stuff, I'll figure out how to modify to be cleaner and healthier. Thanks so much!

 

[Leta]

About ideas for where to store pantry items-

Hang shelves that are 12" deep, or even 8" will accommodate Mason jars (even the half gallon size). To really cram stuff on there, put a stick of corner round on the edge of the shelf to form a lip so things don't fall off. Put clothesline under the shelves, and put some clothespins on there. That will hold bunches of drying herbs, or things in bags. Put a curtain around the whole thing. I like to use pretty sheets for this purpose, you just open the edges of the hem. You can put some crown moulding in front of the curtain rod to make it look more built in. You can do this anywhere you have an open wall, even a living room or bedroom.

If you have space between your kitchen cabinets and the ceiling, that is bulk food heaven. Fill some Mason jars and stack them up.

If your closet rods hang at 5' in your closet, you probably have about 18" of space between your closet floor and the bottoms of your clothes. Move your shoes under your bed (they make underbed shoe containers now, they are about $10) and put 5 gallon gamma seal buckets on your closet floor.

Clean out your sock and undie drawers. You know you need to. If you have pretty/fancy socks and undies that go with specific dressy outfits, clothespin that stuff to the hanger that the outfit is on. Then, for everyday stuff, weed down to 6 pairs. 6 bras, 6 undies, 12 socks. Even if you have to go to the laundromat, this stuff is small, easy to handwash, and 6 pairs gives the just-washed ones plenty of time to air dry. Put your new, condensed socks and undies in garment hanger in your closet, and use your freed up drawer space to store toiletry items.

This is my most important idea: Discard packaging. I bought about 20 boxes of ziploc freezerbags this summer, when I had good coupons and they were on sale. I got gallons and quarts. I also bought five 2 gallon ziploc bags from the dollar store. The 2 gallon were the cheap-o kind, not good for freezing, but perfect for storage of non-food items. I took all ten boxes worth of gallon ziplocs and put them in one 2 gallon bag. I did the same with the quart ziplocs and 15 boxes of Magic Erasers. I was amazed at how much cardboard there was- it filled a boot box! These three bags stand up, like files, in a tote that lives in my basement.

I do the same thing with my toiletries. I took all my free-after-coupon toothbrushes and disposable razors out of their little boxes and put them in a new ziploc. Saves tons of space. We have eliminated most all bottles from our bathroom stuff- we use bar soap, shampoo bars, shave bars, etc. We have a ton of toiletries stockpiled- I would guess as much as 5 years' worth for some things, and a year's worth for everything else- and it all fits in a plastic box the size of bankers box. It lives in my basement pantry, but it would easily fit under an end table.