Save Money On laundry Detergent

In today's post I want to look at another area where we all tend to over spend, Laundry. We spend money on Laundry soap, softener, static sheets, and countless other items, that we are told we need, to keep our clothes white, bright, soft, and full of color.Before I go into the savings, let us first look at what a person might spend if they decided to buy name brand laundry detergent.

For a 150oz container of Gain, which does 96 loads, you will pay $14.97 at Walmart. So if used as recommended you will pay roughly $0.16 per load. Which isn't bad, but come on, you know we can beat that.

 

For a 150oz container of Tide you will pay $17.97 at Walmart, which at 96 loads would bring you too around $0.19 a load.

 

Now of course there are cheaper options of premaid laundry detergents, but homemade tends to always run cheaper. So here's the recipe..

 

LAUNDRY DETERGENT

 

1/3 bar of Fels Naptha Soap

1/2 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax Powder

A 2gallon or bigger bucket.

 

Grate the soap and add into saucepan with 6 cups of water. Heat until soap completely melts. Add soda and borax and stir until desolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups of hot water into bucket. Now add soap mixture and stir. Finally add 1 gallon and 6 cups of water and stir. Allow to set for 24 hours until product becomes a liquid gel. (product won't completely gel, it will be runny). Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry, will make 64 loads worth of detergent. *** Can also add essential oil if you want your detergent to have a specific smell. Otherwise it will smell like lemon.

 

 

This recipe will make enough to do 64 loads of laundry. And here's the cost.

• Fels Naptha 5.5oz bar - $1.12 (about $0.37 per recipe)
• Washing Soda 55oz box - $2.23 (about $0.17 per recipe)
• Borax Powder 76oz box - $3.27 (about $0.14 per recipe)

 

So for 64 loads of detergent we pay $0.68 or about $0.01 per load. You're litterally paying almost nothing for laundry detergent, and your clothes will be every bit as clean as the name brand detergents would get them.

 

 

****As an extra side note for the people of Cassville. If you don't want to spend extra money on a bucket, to put the detergent in, then stop by our local Ramey's Supermarket and ask the deli if they have any frosting buckets. They will give you a 5gallon bucket with lid for free, just to get rid of them.

 

Hope this helps you all save a little extra.





Save Money On Milk

Milk has become more expensive than gas, here in Cassville. With the cost of everything going up I have been looking at ways to save money on groceries. So I started with the one item I spend the most money on, MILK. At over $4 a gallon milk can easily cost me $30-$40 every month, and for someone who only budgets $200 a month, for food, that amount really hurts. Below I will show you my research and the super easy way to save at least half on your milk bill.

Powdered milk at Walmart is $7.88 for a 25.6oz container. It will make 2 gallons if used as directed which comes to $3.94 a gallon, if you drink only powdered milk. However, to me it taste like bitter water, so I would dilute whole milk half and half. Which would come to $3.97 a gallon, which is cheaper than regular milk, but we can do better.

I won't drink soy because of the estrogen it contains. However, if you did decide to use soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk you would pay between $2-$4 for 1quart which is gonna be super expensive in the long run.

 

So I kinda ruled out buying premaid milks at the store. However, the real savings can be seen by making your own, homemade. If you do much baking then you know the price of nuts is outrageous. So unless you grow your own then almond milk or any other nut milk is only gonna cost you more. But I did mention another type of milk, RICE MILK!

You can pick up rice for around $1 a pound. Following my recipe below you can make 4 gallons of rice milk using only 1 pound of rice. THAT'S $0.25 A GALLON!! But if you don't want to switch to just rice milk then do like I did with the powdered milk and mix whole milk with rice milk, half and half. The results will be a slightly sweeter milk that is costing you $2.13 a gallon.

 

RICE MILK

1C RICE (CAN BE WHITE OR BROWN)

16C WATER

VANILLA AND SUGAR (OPTIONAL, DEPENDING ON TASTE)

 

Add rice and 8 cups of water to saucepan and bring to boil. Once boiling reduce to simmering and let cook for 15min or until soft. (If you don't have a great blender then allow rice to cook on low for 3 hours or use minute rice.) Add cooked rice to blender, along with remaining 8 cups of water and blend until completely blended, about 4 min. Then flavor to taste with vanilla and sugar. ( You may get some rice pulp after blending, which can be removed using a strainer, although personally i just leave it.) Rice milk will last 2 weeks in fridge.

 

***Also little tip for the people of Cassville. Great Value milk at Walmart is $4.17 a gallon, for whole milk. However, Dollar General sales Hiland milk for $4 a gallon, it's a small savings but we all gotta start somewhere.

 

 







Ubuntu Review "FREE OS"

Hey All,

  Sorry for all the delay in my post but I was the unfortunate victim of a computer crash. This is the third time in just a couple of months that my windows computer decided to not boot into itself. It continually rebooted so finally I decided to reinstall the operating system. However, there was no way I was going back to Microsoft Windows, they seem to be a virus sponge.

  It bothers me that a company with so much money would put out a product that is so bad, and vulnerable to problems. Worst of all you end up paying hundreds of dollars for it.

Well I did my research and I found something that really surprised me. There is a OS which offers more than Windows and even Mac, and best of all it won't cost you anything. Because of this discovery I have decided to save you all the research and give you the link to get your hands on this OS. But first lets talk about what makes it so great.

  Window's users are victims to more than a thousand new viruses every month which cause computers to mess up and data to be lost. These are problems that aren't necessary even though most people have written them off as normal occurrence. But viruses are not something that should bother you. With the Linux Operating System, called Ubuntu, you don't need an anti-virus. Imagine, you could save that extra money you spend on Norton.

  Ubuntu also offers FREE alternatives to the programs you use most on Windows. Plus Ubuntu comes with all these essential utilities and programs installed from the beginning. Look below at a list of these programs....

PROGRAMS

Microsoft Office-OpenOffice

Windows Media Player-Movie Player,Rythmbox

Adobe Reader-Adobe Reader

Internet Explorer-Mozilla Firefox

Outlook- Evolution Mail

MSN Messenger-Empathy

Java-Java

Windows Calenders-Evolution Calender

Windows DVD Maker-Pitivi Video Editor

Windows Photo Gallery-Shotwell Photo Manager

Calculator-Calculator

Command Prompt-Terminal

  Now that is a simple list of the programs, but I'm sure there are more I didn't remember to mention.

  Another thing that sets Ubuntu apart is its free app store, the Ubuntu Software Center, where you can go download games and other programs for FREE!!! Plus if you can't find what you want there then check out the Synaptic Package Manager to get an even larger amount of software to download, again for FREE!! You can find both of these stores already integrated into Ubuntu.

  If I haven't helped pull you away from your current OS yet then lets talk about playing your current windows games and programs on Ubuntu. Ubuntu has a few choices to get those programs to work, so you can still enjoy them. The first option is a program called WINE which by itself can allow Ubuntu to run a good amount of windows programs. However, WINE can be a bit difficult to figure out so a program called PlayOnLinux simplifies the process and supports a HUGE list of Windows programs. But if you still want the look and feel of Windows then you can use a program called VirtualBox to run Windows inside of Ubuntu. You heard me right, you can run multiple Operating Systems on one Computer which will allow you to play all your Window's Programs.

  Okay well I didn't cover a lot but I could write a book on the benefits of Ubuntu. So instead of writing that book I'm gonna let you do some of your own research. However, if you want to try Ubuntu now check out the link below and either download Ubuntu or have a disk mailed to you. ALL FOR FREE!!! You can also check out books on Ubuntu at your local library because a lot of the Ubuntu books come with a copy of Ubuntu. HAPPY SAMPLING!!!!

(A Screenshot of my new Screen...Man I LOVE UBUNTU!!!) 

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Just click on “Desktop Edition”

Free Samples for 1/26/2011

            I hope all my readers are doing good and keeping warm. I have a real treat for my readers today, not only do I have a couple of good samples for you, but I also put a link for a free meal at IHOP. Happy Sampling!!!

Free cup of Yoplait yogurt:

https://yoplait.com/get-your-free-cup

Free Maggi Soup Sample:

http://www.descubremaggi.com/Promotion/ChickenSoup/Default.aspx

Free meal at IHOP:

http://ihopcorp.fbmta.com/members/UpdateProfile.aspx?Action=Subscribe&_Theme=30064771093

Free Samples for 1/25/2011

Good Morning All!! I half expected to wake up with snow on the ground. But don't get me wrong I am definitely glad it didn't snow.

            I ended up not getting a post up on my common-dollar blog yesterday and so I am going to try and make it up today, although I don't have the time to do a long post. I will try and do some more writing over the next couple days.  In the meantime click below to grab a couple of samples and don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment.

Quaker Oatmeal Squares: http://quakeroats.com/share/. click on "start sharing."

You T Cranberry Concentrate: http://www.drinkyout.com/free-sample/

Cove Girl Natureluxe Foundation: http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid93528.aspx. click on free sample in bottom right.

Use Those Potatoes and Save!!!!

            The other day I was walking through my store's produce department and noticed they had 10lb bags of russet potatoes for $2.65 compared to the normal price which was around $4.00. Now this was a good deal and since there are a lot of uses for potatoes I decided to buy a couple bags and freeze what I couldn't use.

           

           Most people have probably seen the frozen fries, hashbrowns, and other potato products. Why not save a little money by making your own. All you have to do is buy some potatoes, cut them into the shapes and sizes you prefer, and freeze then in individual baggies.

            #TIP: When freezing the potatoes lay the cut potatoes on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for 30min before placing in bag, to keep potatoes from freezing together.

HERE's a few ideals for prepping potatoes before freezing

1. Shredded potatoes

2.potato wedges

3.potato fries

4.cubed potatoes

5.sliced potatoes

            I hope that this has given you a few ideas on how to take advantage of a great deal on potatoes, so you can save a little money.

            For some great potato recipe ideals check out this site:

 http://www.best-potato-recipes.com

Breathe Right Review W/Sample

            When searching the internet today, looking for money saving opportunities, I ran across a product that my grandmother use to swear by.

            

            many people, like myself, suffer from allergies and other factors which can make breathing hard and uncomfortable. One Example is when I lay down, I usually have trouble breathing unless I prop my head so high I wake up with neck cramps.  If this sounds like a problem you have had then read on to learn about "Breathe Right" and get your free sample.

PROS?

            Although I have not personally ever tried breathe right I did do some searching online to see what others thought of this small strip that is suppose to open your airways. Most testimonials seemed to state that people liked the fact that breathe right was small and convenient. They also liked that it was available mentholated, and of all the reviews I read people seemed the say it worked.

CONS?

            Of the few complaints I did read most of them stated that breathe right didn't stick to the nose very well, and they hated that the strip could not be reused. Also a complaint that showed up on a lot of the testimonials was the fact that people feel breathe right is just too expensive. I know if a product cost too much I won't try it, unless I can try it free.

PRICE?

            I feel like an important part of any product review is the price. A product can be as good as gold, however, if that product cost as much as gold then it is kind of useless to me. When searching the prices online I found breathe right runs between $10 to $14 for the 30ct box of the regular strips. I did however find the strips on Amazon.com for $8.39. Here is the link for Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GU5YCQ. 

          However, if you're not ready to pay for it just yet then jump on over and claim your free sample at: https://www.breatheright.com