Thrifty Thursday

ok-well, I'm a day late, but thrifty Friday doesn't have the same ring to it, and I want to start making this kind of a regular section, so here is the first installment....
On the budget front I have been doing lots of things to cut back on costs around here since we (and apparently everyone) have a more limited budget than usual due to various factors; not the least of which is soaring gas pricing, that has been affecting the cost of everything, from leaving the house, to running your dish washer, to buying grapes. One way we have been saving is as we have been running out of things, I have been making my own cost effective replacements at a fraction of the price and with only a small bit of effort (which of course is free). I have found my "recipes" in various places, mostly the internet, and surprisingly, mostly at other cost conscious mama's blogs and things, with the occasional website thrown in for variety. Following are my latest efforts at product replacement and a review of their performance (aka value; let's face it, if the home made version sucks, not exactly a savings, but more a pain in the butt)
Before we go any further, let me post my resource, as you know I am not huge on this, but some blogs ask you to give them credit, so here you go. My new secret weapon on fighting prices is:
http://boogiemum.com/
so far this is where I have gotten the recipes I have actually tried (she gathered them and changed them a bit, mostly adding essential oils and things--to make them pretty and smell good like I like) and her blog is funny and she is green (cringe at the word) and hip and cool--hmmm, reminds me of someone I know. On with it:

test product 1) Automatic dish washing powder
Conclusion : this is a tough one. If you use Cascade as your normal detergent, you will not fall in love with this product. It will not eat the left over steak and dried mashed potatoes off of your week old plate. We however have been using an earth friendly product for a couple of years and this is fierce competition. I have found that with more natural products, more cleaning is required on your part in the first place. We have always (no matter what detergent) scrubbed our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, (so we could use the short energy efficient cycle) so this product works great for us, and we love the custom smell, this batch is grapefruit-peppermint and makes the house smell lovely when I ever get around to washing the dishes. On a rare occasion a piece or two will have to get hand washed after it comes out or run through again, but like I said, this was normal for us with our previous purchased product as well. We love this and will be using it from now on. The savings are substantial, and our cost will drop when I start to order the citric acid from Amazon instead of getting it out of the bulk bin at Freddy's. The rest of the goodies you can get at the grocery store, shop around for the best prices, and get your baking soda in the biggest box you can find. Here's the info in case you'd like to make your own:
Dishwasher soap
In a quart jar with a plastic lid put
*1 cup borax
*1 cup baking soda
*1/4 cup salt
*1/4 cup citric acid
*30 drops of essential oil (your choice!)
mix well, cap it up. To use fill each dispenser, I use about 1 Tbsp in each.
*I also read that you can sub 2 sugar free lemonade Koolade packets for the citric acid, but haven't tried that yet. Apparently the citric acid acts as a water softener, so weather it works or not will depend on your water, if your water is especially hard, you can adjust the citric acid levels to work for you.

Test Product 2) fabric softener
Conclusion: we like this one too. I originally got a more simplified version from an e-newsletter that I subscribe to, www.hillbillyhousewife.com, can't remember if I've shared this before, but this is a great site and I have found lots of money saving food tips here. She says that you can just add 1/4 cup of vinegar to your rinse load or downy ball or whatever you usually use to dispense your fabric softener and you won't come out smelling like pickles (which was an actual concern of Alan's--he HATES vinegar) but instead, your laundry will be odor and static free. The option I tried was from the boogiemum blog though and it goes something like this:
you have to recognise when you are getting low on fabric softener and plan to save the bottle to reuse for your home made fabric softener or recycle some other bottle that has a nice sealing cap. Then gather your ingredients:
*1 cup of white vinegar
*1 cup of baking soda
* 2 cups of water
* 10 drops of essential oil
now here's the tricky part, you probably remember a volcano experiment from grade school that had these same ingredients--use this knowledge of chemical reactions to your benefit when whipping up your first batch of this new product. This will take a little practice, but it is suggested to add the liquids to the bottle first and then add the baking soda a little at a time so you can control the fizzing (hahahaaha-yeah right, just do it slow and OVER YOUR SINK!!!) Let the fizz settle a bit each time before adding more. Let this rest for a day or so, and then screw the cap on. Before using this each time, give the bottle a swirl to mix in the soda and add about 1/4 cup to your wash as you would any fabric softener. We love the smell of ours and it has been working pretty well. I think something from the chemical reaction removes all traces of it's vinegary past, and it has passed the sniff inspection around here. Please note, this is not actually downy and will not have the exact same results as a chemical laden product, that being said, we have been satisfied with the results. I have been told from various sources that fabric softener is bad for your machines and should be avoided at all costs, so this information also reaffirms my conclusion that this new product is the choice for us. **Side note, I have a friend that insists you can use a clean wad of tin-foil in your dryer as well in lieu of any softener, it will work for something like 25 loads. I don't think she's actually tried it, but it's one more option if you're looking for a list.

That is all for today, I have more, but I can't give it all up at once, I have to give you a reason to come back. (As if my charming wit were not enough) The sun is out and we are off to play in our new totally awesome sun hats (spf 50 and great prices) check them out: www.coolibar.com