Homemade Sidewalk Paint

We are always looking for fun new crafts or projects, especially right now while most of our social interactions is with each other.  The weather has been beautiful here in Iowa and we are loving getting outside daily.  E and I made some sidewalk pain the other day.  Our chalk is down to the bare bones so we needed something else to decorate our driveway.

Mix equal parts cornstarch and water.  Add food coloring.  That's it!  We placed ours in a muffin pan to make it easier to move around.  

Keeping Busy While Staying Quarantined

While some of our state is opening up, we are still very much staying close to home and keeping ourselves quarantined.     There is just too much uncertainly right now for us to risk getting ourselves or other family members sick, when in all reality, it could be avoided or at least we can lower the chances.    

Thankfully, we are and have always been home bodies.  The first few weeks were pretty easy for us, but the last couple weeks have proven to become a little more difficult to keep ourselves busy and entertained.  Here are a few suggestions to keep your kids entertained whether you are staying home or starting to venture out that won't cost you any money.

Teach and play board games or cards.  We just ordered this game it's called Crokibnole.  On nice days, get outside and play some games.

Instead of going out to a movie, stay home and rent your own or find something on Netflex or Hulu.  You can rent a movie, buy some popcorn and maybe even a special drink all for less than the cost of 1 movie ticket.

Play in the water.  Set up a sprinkler, wash the cars, have a squirt gun fight.  Fill buckets of water and give the kids paintbrushes to paint the sidewalk.

Go on a nature walk.

Picnics either outside in your own yard or drive to a park.

Our kids have been writing lots of letters. Everyone enjoys receiving a hand written letter in the mail!

Put together a puzzle.

                                                                         Go to the beach.

Make forts.  We do them inside all the time when it rains but how about outside?  Set up a tent for the day.

Do some baking.  Have your child pick the recipe and help with the baking. 

We have a cookie book that the kids like to pick from.

Paint rocks.

 There is an AMAZING amount of educational resources online! 
     Click here for a huge list of websites. 

Plant some flowers, or start a garden. 

 Whether you are staying home or not, these are just some fun activities that will cost you little, to no money!  Share in the comments any ideas or things you have been doing with your kiddos that are frugal. 

Take care and stay safe!

Happy New Year

Hello and Happy New Year!!  It's been awhile since I have posted.  Time has seemed to fly by.  Things are a little crazy as usual around our house.  It's hard to believe we are into a new year already.

I love the new year.  I always feel like it is a fresh start.  New beginnings.  I usually sit down and write up a list of goals for the year but I haven't even had time to do that yet.  It's on my "to do" list along with many other things!

Our family had a great Christmas filled with good food and wonderful family.  My boys had 10 days home for winter break.  Unfortunately some of that time was spent with one or more of them being sick.  It seems our family has had it all already.  The respiratory bug, the stomach bug, hopefully it is all done and over with for the season (fingers crossed). 

Our new year's was filled with more good food and some time well spent with good friends from out of town.

Now that the holidays are over it's time to buckle back down on our spending.  On the top of my "to do" list is to revisit our budget and make necessary changes.  As usual we have had many expenses pop up.  We had 2 vehicles break down, a daughter who is having surgery in a week, and we are still paying for my husbands very expensive new teeth (2 root canals and crowns in November).  There is never a shortage of people wanting our money!

I plan to start posting more and am excited to share with you some ways my family will be living more frugally and saving money in the new year.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season.  Now it's time to get back on track, get those bills paid, and start saving some money!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween!  Can you believe it is the last day of October?  Christmas is just around the corner.  Yikes!  I am not ready for that!

I thought I would share with you some of the things we did to have a fun, frugal Halloween.  Being cheap doesn't have to mean boring!

For starters we went to the pumpkin patch to let the kids pick pumpkins.  We are lucky and live in an area that has lots of pumpkin patches near by.  Along with pumpkins some of them offer corn mazes, rides for kids, games and other entertainment.  The only problem is most of them charge admission.

We headed to the pumpkin patch that is just a couple miles from our house.  The kids enjoyed playing in a corn pit, got to pet farm animals, walked through a hay maze and were able to find pumpkins out in the field.  The best part-admission was free!  We just had to pay for our pumpkins!

I love decorating the house for holidays.  It is a fun tradition the kids and I do.  I have tubs in our basement marked for each holiday and it is always fun to bring them upstairs and pull out all the fun things we have.  The majority of our decorations are things I have picked up over the years at garage sales or were given to me as gifts.  Some of my favorite decorations however are the ones that are made by my kiddos.  Some of them are brought home from school and some are crafts we have done together.  


















Our costumes this year were all costumes we had in our bin of "dress up" clothes.  I have collected costumes the last couple years, mostly from yard sales.  I think the most I might have paid for a costume was $2.  My youngest boy loves dressing up as super heroes or Star Wars characters.  I just so happened to find a Princess Leia costume over the summer and put it back for my daughter with trick or treating night in mind.  With a few modifications it ended up fitting her perfectly!

Here are a few of the sweet treats I made as well.  Rice Krispie pumpkins and mummy and eyeball cupcakes.

Free Things to Do With Kids

It's summer break and I am always on the lookout for free things to do with my kiddos.  With 5 of them it makes it really tough to attend paid events.  I have started compiling a list and figured I would share it with you.

Sign up for summer library programs.  Most libraries offer summer reading programs for kids.  We frequent 2 libraries and each of them offer a reading program.  The kids get a stamp, sticker or prize for so many minutes of reading.

Visit parks.  There are SO many parks and the kids love finding new ones.

Picnics either outside in our own yard or drive to a park.

Instead of going out to a movie, stay home and rent your own.  You can rent a movie, buy some popcorn and maybe even a special drink all for less than the cost of 1 movie ticket.
 
Play in the water.  Set up a sprinkler, wash the cars, have a squirt gun fight.  Fill buckets of water and give the kids paintbrushes to paint the sidewalk.

Go on a nature walk.

Attend free outdoor concert or movies.  Most cities have websites that you can see what is available.  Here are a few if you are local.  City of Ankeny.  Des Moines area.

Go to the beach.

Make forts.  We do them inside all the time when it rains but how about outside?  Set up a tent for the day.

Do some baking.  Have your child pick the recipe and help with the baking.  We have a cookie book that the kids like to pick from.

Paint rocks.

Go for a bike ride.

Attend Farmer's Markets.

Teach and play board games.

What free activities do you do with your kids to keep them busy?

2012 Goals

Happy New Year! I love the new year. A fresh start, a new beginning, time to pause and reflect on the previous year and think about whats yet to come. I have spent a lot of time thinking about my goals for 2012. Things I would like to work on or improve.

It's kinda cliche but here are my 2012 New Years goals, resolutions, inspirations, what ever you want to call them.

Personal
*Drink more water.
*Exercise 3 times per week. It may be nothing too exciting, just a walk around a park would be nice.
*Cut back on coffee. This isn't something I necessarily want to do but I figured if I drink more water maybe my coffee intake will become less. Right now, I drink way.too.much.coffee.
*Read more. I have some awesome magazines and books begging to be read but finding "me time" is difficult.
*Continue to have a large garden and put up enough produce to feed my family for the non-gardening months.
*Keep growing my blog. When I started this blog a couple years ago I never dreamed it would grow the way it did. I LOVE being a resource for helping people and I love the ideas I have gotten and online friendships I have made. I would love to make it to 500 subscribers. I just really like that number! Making a little more money from blogging would be nice too, but honestly it's really not about the money. I truly enjoy blogging.

Ok. Moving on.

Financial
*Successfully complete our 31 Days of Nothing Challenge. Would love to have a chunk of money saved up to go towards our medical bills that we accumulated in 2011.
*To go along with the above...pay off all our medical bills. Right now we owe almost $2000. And unfortunately, since it is the new year, our deductibles will start over.
*Start tracking coupon savings each month. I have always been curious how much money I am saving with coupons. I may do this for a few months just to get an idea.
*Stay on track with our budget and go back to using the envelope system. This system really works for me and I don't spend near as much money when I am using cash instead of swiping my debit card.
*Increase our savings account by $5000. This may be difficult, but if we work really hard I think we can do it.

Family
*Read more books together. All my kids love to read and this would be a good thing to do
as a family.
*Spend more one on one time with my husband. With the business of life, sometimes we don't get a chance to really connect just the two of us.
*Establish a good morning routine with the two youngest children. Once the 3 older kids are off to school sometimes I feel lost with what to do with my little ones that are still at home. I want to get some sort of schedule in place.
*In general just spend more time with my kids and husband. I am always so busy and feel like there is so much to get done in the day that I need to just sit back and truly enjoy life.

Greener, Healthier Living
While my family has made huge leaps this last couple years in being more earth friendly there is always room for improvement. I want to step up a few things this year.
*Step up the composting and actually move it around so that is composts!
*Continue to recycle. I need to get a larger recycle bin for our kitchen.
*Completely switch over all cleaning products to homemade. Right now about 80% is made by myself.
*Buy less packaged and processed foods. Cook more from scratch.
*Continue to garden, shop local, attend produce auctions and support our local farmers.

Well I think that is it! Doesn't seem so bad huh? I look forward to 2012 and I hope you continue to follow me and my family on our journey.

My First Produce Auction Part 2 - Bidding

So if you missed it I am blogging about my first ever produce auction. You can read the beginning of my story here.

First off I want to put out there where you can find produce auctions in Iowa. I have had a lot of people email me and leave comments wanting to know where to find them. Here is a list of the Iowa produce auctions that I could find. Thanks to Frugal Family Examiner for helping me compile this list. If you are not from Iowa, I would suggest doing an online search of produce auctions in your state.

Cedar Valley Produce Auction
Farmsong Produce Auction
Southern Iowa Produce Auction
Frytown Produce Auction
Wapsie Valley Produce Auction in Hazelton, Iowa



I really should have taken a picture of the back of my van with all the produce winnings shoved in there. However I took advantage of eager kids wanting to carry things in and check things over when I got home and never got a photo taken of the whole lot.

Here are the good and not so good deals of the day.

The first thing I bid on was green beans. These went up for sale early in the auction. There was people crowding around the cart when the auction started, so not only was I nervous about bidding in general, I also knew I had a lot of possible competition. The auction was for 2 10lb boxes of fresh green beans. Sweet! I wanted them. I figured at the store I could purchase them at a good price of $.99 lb (non organic) so that is what I was willing to spend on these bad boys. My thought process was I could go up to $20 for the 20 lbs of beans.

Bidding started and I jumped right in. My heart was pounding a bit since this was the first bid I had ever made. It ended up being me and another person bidding against each other at the end. The bidding ended and I won with a price of $19. Great! I stayed under my goal bid! I was so excited I won.

Then as bidding went on for other items I started to think about the beans I had just bought. Was the $19 for each box? I forget or better yet, wasn't experiencecd enough to realize that they bid off "x" item and then take the winning bid times how ever many of that item there are. I would find out later when I went to pay that yes, it was $19 per 10 lb box of beans. Ouch! So that 20 lbs of beans cost me $38 or $1.90 lb. Not such a great deal.

Once I got that first bid out of the way things went alot smoother and I was a bit more relaxed. The next thing I won was a box of jalapeno peppers. I spent $3 on the box and the minimum I could take was 2 boxes. I didn't realize at the time that those boxes weighed 16 lbs. So I had won 32 lbs of jalapeno peppers and paid just $6 or roughly $.19 lb. That's a whole lot of jalapenos!

The winning bids on peppers didn't stop there. I won this beautiful crate of Hungarian hot peppers for a whopping $2. There was 9lbs of peppers in here plus a cool crate!Here is a look at the tags they used. The yellow tags were on each item at the beginning of the auction telling you what it was and the size or weight of the items. Once the item is sold a white sticker is placed somewhere on the box or item with the winning bidders number and then the quantity is written on there so you know how many you won.

My next purchase was red Anaheim peppers. These went so cheap I kinda just jumped in at the last minute. I bought 4 pecks of peppers for $1 each. Here is what one peck looks like.Yes, I admit I went a little crazy with the pepper bidding. It was just so cheap I couldn't believe no one was bidding. So I would and I would win.

My favorite purchase was peaches. Missouri peaches. I bought 4 lugs for, are you ready for this? $11 a lug. That is 120lbs of peaches for $44. I was so psyched. It ends up being $.37 per pound. And they were awesome peaches.

After purchasing all the peppers I decided I had better get in gear and get some tomatoes bought if I could get them cheap enough. The only thing I could think of to do with all those peppers was make a whole lot of salsa.

I was shocked at how high the tomatoes were being sold. 20 lbs was going anywhere from $22-$28. I wasn't willing to pay that much. I had almost given up when some how nearing the end of the auction I was able to win a box of 20lbs of canner tomatoes for $12. Not too shabby.That concludes my winnings. I had filled up the entire back end of my van. By the time I reached home my eyes were starting to water a bit from all the peppers!

Stay tuned for part 3 of my first produce auction.

My First Produce Auction - Part 1

I attended my first produce auction a couple weeks ago. I have read about produce auctions before from one of my favorite bloggers Jennifer from Getting Ahead. She had blogged a couple times about attending produce auctions and I have always been fascinated. After doing some research I went with Julie from Juliecache.com and together we made a road trip to see what it was all about.

What is a produce auction? It's like any other auction, your just bidding on fruits and vegetables. You register and get a number. Sellers lay out the produce on carts and pallets (or leave the really large lots in their wagons) and you can walk around and inspect all the items prior to the start of the sale. The auctioneer starts the bidding and the highest bidder wins the lot. For this particular auction the produce being sold must be grown within 100 miles of the auction house. Special consideration is made for anything not considered local.

When we rolled into our destination I was giddy with excitement at the sites. The auction was mostly supplied if not fully supplied by Amish farmers. There were horses and wagons everywhere and children and men busily unloading produce onto carts and pallets.

I was surprised at how much there was to look at. There was probably 50 different pallets/carts of produce. Some carts would have multiple items on it. For instance it would have 8 boxes of Jalapeno peppers, 4 boxes of tomatoes, 2 boxes of beans, and 6 watermelon. Others would just be a cart full of only one item like watermelon or cantaloupe. I wasn't sure exactly how the bidding was going to go. Would I have to buy the whole cart? Was each item sold separately?

After walking around and viewing all they had to offer the auctioneer finally got things going. The first cart had zucchini. Lots of zucchini. It was in boxes of 25 and the auctioneer was selling 3 boxes of 25. Bidding started at $1 and went up from there. Those 3 boxes of zucchini sold for $3 a box and the buyer would pay $3 x 3 boxes or $9.

(sorry for the turned picture, thank you Blogger for being picky tonight)

Later down the line was a cart of 16 cantaloupe. The bidder won that cart for $.65 per cantaloupe x 16. It was then I started to realize if I was going to bid I would be bidding on a large about of produce at once. There were a few smaller lots, but not many.

The bidding went quick and you had to listen carefully to what was being auctioned off. I got a fast lesson on bushel, peck, #1 and #2 tomatoes as well as some other produce auction lingo that I still don't think I understand.

I made a mental note of what I had wanted to bid on at the begging of the auction. My list included...

Potatoes
Peaches
Tomatoes
Green Beans

Are you dying to know what I won? Stay tuned to find out.

Welcome to my Blog

I am excited to be featured in our local Des Moines Register paper today in the "green" issue. If you are just visiting my blog for the first time, welcome! Here is a brief summery of what you will find here at Learning the Frugal Life.

I have been blogging for about 2 years. Our family is on a mission to live a simpler, greener, more frugal lifestyle. We want to be as self suffiecient as possible. We grow a lot of our own fruits and vegetables and raise backyard chickens. I would love to some day move to a farm where we could raise our large family and all our own meat.

I blog about lots of different things. Chickens, frugal tips and ideas, recipes, gardening, you name it. I also have a Grocery Rules Ebook that I wrote that you can purchase for only $1.50. In this book I list ways to save money, use coupons as well as meal plan.

On Mondays I always post our menu for the week. It is important to me to stick to this menu plan because that prevents us from spending additional money when we are hungry and don't have a plan. Tuesdays I, along with 2 other local bloggers host a Frugal Tuesday Tip. This is where people can link up frugal ideas and tips to share and we can all learn a little something. Wednesdays I post coupon match-ups for both Hy-Vee and Fareway. I try and post what I think is a good deal in the current weeks ad and list any coupons that may apply. For the rest of the week I usually just try and post whatever is on my mind.

I love finding new ways to save money or be a little more earth friendly. I am always looking for new ideas and ways to help myself as well as others. Feel free to have a look around and if you have any questions please email or leave a comment.

I am also having a great giveaway right now for an eco-friendly resusable snack bag. You can enter a chance to win here.

Update on My Frugal Fabric Softener

Remember a few months ago when I posted about my frugal fabric softener? Well it has been 2 months now and I thought I would update you on how it is going.

I just made up my second batch. I used 1 capful of fabric softener and poured it into a spray bottle. Then I filled the rest of the bottle up with water. Give it a little shake shake and then spray 10 or so squirts onto wet clothes in the dryer.

I am still using this and it is working great. My main reason for using fabric softener wasn't really to "soften" my clothes. My problem was the crazy static electricity we were having. This has helped a lot.

I also just invested in some dryer balls which I will be doing a post on here soon.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom. Make sure you head over and enter my giveaway for a reusable sandwich bag.

Color Coded Cups

I was getting extremely frustrated one day last Summer when I went to do dishes and realized there was about 15 cups on the counter. Each time one of my kids were thirsty they would grab a new cup. I would say "don't you have a cup out already?" and the response was always the same, "I don't know which cup is mine." This resulted in lots of dishes and multiple loads a day.

I fixed the problem. I went out and bought cheap plastic cups in different colors. I bought a few of each color and assigned each member of the house a specific color. This way they always know what cup is there's. They now use one cup a day and sometimes that same cup last a couple days.
And in case anyone forgets, I have posted a note on the outside of the cabinet.This post is linked to the Frugal Tuesday Tip. Stop over and see what other frugal ideas you can find.

Frugal Fabric Softener

In the warmer months I hang my clothes out on the line to dry. During the winter though I dry everything in the dryer. I used to use dryer sheets and cut them in half or even thirds sometimes. That works really well.

In January I ran out of dryer sheets and posted on Facebook if anyone had any suggestions on other options to use in the dryer. My main purpose for fabric softener is for static cling. I really don't care for the odor and prefer to not have the scent (hubby doesn't like the perfume smell).

I got quite a few responses and one of my readers suggested using a squirt bottle filled with a capful of liquid fabric softener and filling the rest of the bottle with water. Squirt 6-10 sprays into dryer on top of wet clothes.

So I tried it, and guess what? It works great! I spent $3 on a bottle of liquid fabric softener and I am pretty sure it is going to last me a very long time.

This post is part of Frugal Tuesday Tip.

Using Coupons for Non-Grocery Items

There are other uses for coupons besides on just food items. I am getting ready to start scapbooking again, after a 3 year break. I am very excited to get back into this hobby. The only problem is that it can be a very expensive hobby. It doesn't have to be though.

I love buying stickers, embellishments and paper. If I watch the paper each week Michael's craft store puts out a coupon for 40% off one item. Also they are constantly running a cycle of sales on their scrappbooking materials (other stores such as Hobby Lobby do this too.) The best thing to do if you are needing an item is try and wait for it to go on sale, most likely it will within a couple weeks. If you need it sooner check the weekly ad for a coupon or go online to the companies website, sometimes there is a coupon there you can print off. Sign up for the stores email and they will send you weekly sale information and/or coupons.

You could end up saving 50% or more on items watching for sales or using a coupon. This isn't only for craft stores, but fabric stores, furniture stores, etc. Being an informed shopper and doing your research can save you money.

This post is part of the Frugal Tuesday Tip.

Tips for a Well Stocked Pantry

Having a well stocked pantry makes it easier to put together healthy meals for your family. It also helps eliminate frequent trips to the store and saving on impulse buys.

The key to having a well stocked pantry is to stock up on items that you use frequently as well as items needed for a go to meal. For example, pasta and spaghetti sauce are a great go to meal. Stock up when items are on sale if possible.

In order to avoid running out of an item you always use, keep a running grocery list on the fridge. Jot down when you are getting low on something.

Like I said, stock up on items when they are on sale or you could shop once a month for pantry staples. Here are a few items that stock my pantry...

home canned fruit and vegetables
soups
peanut butter and jelly
cereal
rice
pasta and sauce
oils (olive and canola)
baking supplies flour, sugar, baking powder, yeast etc.

What do you keep stocked in your pantry?

Cheap Bananas

Have I mentioned how much I love my local Fareway? I ran into the store today to get some fruit and I found 2 bags of bananas filled to the top with old bananas. The bags were marked $.99 each. These bananas make the best banana bread. I will have the boys peel these and then I will bag them up 6 per bag and toss into the freezer. 6 bananas will make 2 loaves of bread. I have enough here for 12 loaves of bread. I love when I find deals like this.

This post is linked to Frugal Tuesday Tip.

Use the Sun for Savings

I am very fortunate in that I live in a house that has a large south facing window in my living area. Each day in the afternoon we tear open the curtains to let the sun shine in. You would be surprised how much it heats up the house.

Once the sun goes down the curtains get closed. We also use the sun as our light source. Our lights remain off all day until evening and only if we absolutely need to, do we turn them on.

The sun is a frugal and easy way to heat and light your home.

This is part of the Frugal Tuesday Tip blog hop.

2011 New Year Goals

Happy New Year! The new year is always a good time to set new goals. I have spent the last couple days thinking of things I would like to accomplish this upcoming year. I am sure there are more but here a few I have thought of.

1. Learn to sew. I have the machine, now I just need to learn to do it. My sister is awesome at sewing and anything crafty and has offered me lessons. Now I just need to find the time.

2. Start scrapbooking again. I used to scrapbook and I loved it. Again time is the issue.

3. Build up our emergency fund. My goal is to have 6 months of expenses saved. We had this done this year but used it all to pay for a basement remodel.

4. Eat more real food and less processed. I have expanded my cooking and have learned to make alot of things from scratch. I want to continue to plan meals at home and eat out less.

5. I have been thinking alot about milling my own flour. I have seen the Nutrimill and have contemplated saving my money for one and making my own flour. I haven't committed to this one yet but I have been strongly thinking about it.

6. I want to have a large garden again this year. I really need to thin out the strawberry patch which will take some time. I am hoping to can enough produce again to last the winter months.

7. Drink more water.

8. Spend less time worrying about the house and other little things and spend more time enjoying my family. Sometimes I have a problem sitting down and relaxing. I want to be able to feel ok about leaving the dishes dirty or the laundry unfolded and just enjoy spending time with my husband and children. (This is a big one for me.)

How about you? Do you have any goals for the New Year?

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Homemade Bread and a Giveaway

Welcome to my post for the Des Moines Area Frugal Blog Tour! Thank you Julia for hosting such a great tour. Be sure to check out all the bloggers involved, you are sure to come away with some great frugal ideas. I am fairly new to baking my own bread. I would make a loaf here and there, but never really thought about substituting my store bought bread with fresh homemade bread. It seemed a little intimidating. Then I discovered that baking bread was really not that hard, nor was it as time consuming as I once thought (thanks to some great bread machine recipes!) Now I would say that I make roughly 80% of the bread consumed by my family. I also make all my own biscuits, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls.

Knowing all the ingredients and being able to control how my bread is made really appealed to me and is what got me started. Homemade bread is obviously fresher and much healthier than most store bought breads. When I looked at the ingredients list on the store bought bread that we used to buy, I was shocked to see the how many different ones were listed. Some of them I couldn't even pronounce. My homemade bread recipe calls for 6 ingredients, one of which is water.

Bread made from scratch is fresher, it certainly tastes better, and I know the recipe I use is healthier than most store bought breads. But is it really considered "frugal"? Is it cheaper to make your own bread? I decided to do the math and see.

Here is the break down of the ingredients used for my sandwich bread.

1 cup water
3 tbs sugar (I use raw sugar which I buy in bulk) = $.09
1 packet yeast (I buy this in bulk) $.05
2 cups bread flour (usually buy flour for around $.99 lb) = $.20
1 cup whole wheat flour = (this can vary depending on where I buy my flour) = $.32
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil ( I buy this in bulk from Sam's Club) = $.34
1 1/2 tsp salt $.01

Cost of the ingredients for my homemade bread recipe is roughly $1.01. There are ways to make it cheaper. Using all white flour or using regular oil instead of EVOO for example. But this is how I like my bread and feel it is healthiest for my family.

I can usually find store brand generic white bread on sale for around $1.00. If you are looking for whole wheat bread the price will go up. Artisan breads can sell for $2-$4 at the store. You can make your own by reading here. The bread I typically buy for my family is normally $1.99 per loaf, $1.59 when it is on sale. So, by making my own bread I am saving a minimum of $.59 each loaf.

Only you can decide if it is worth the time and effort to bake your own bread. I would consider making your own bread a frugal alternative to buying store bought bread. Plus nothing beats the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven.

Now how about a give-a-way? I am giving away one copy of my new ebook "Learning the Frugal Life Grocery Rules". This ebook covers some of my most useful posts as well as additional information that isn't on the blog. The ebook will give you great advice for getting started with coupons, where to find coupons, how to organize and use them effectively, learning to meal plan as well as many other helpful tips all at your fingertips.

There are 4 ways to enter. You can do one or all of the following.
1. Just leave me a comment on this post telling me how you save money on groceries.
2. Become a follower of Learning the Frugal Life
3. Subscribe by email. You can do so at the top of my site. Then leave a comment letting me know.
4. You can "like" Learning the Frugal Life on Facebook. Leave an additional comment letting me know.

One winner will be chosen December 3rd at 8 pm. Make sure you check back to see if that's you. Also the Frugal Blog Tour continues until December 15 so be sure to check out the rest of the stops for some great frugal tips and advice.

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

I have been experimenting the last couple months with my homemade dishwasher soap. At first I was not a huge fan. It didn't clean as well as commercial brands and left spots on the glass. However, I have increased the amount (from 1T to about 1 1/2-2T) and it seems to be working better for me. I also added vinegar to my rinse dispenser which I think has helped too.

Here is the recipe I have been using.

1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax
1/2 Cup Salt
1/2 Cup Citric Acid (like Fruit Fresh)

Mix together and store tightly covered in a Mason Jar. Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load. Add vinegar to the rinse dispenser for best results.

For those really greasy, dirty loads I am keeping my commercial soap on hand-just in case. But for everyday washing this seems to be working well.

Linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Evaluate Your Laundry

With 4 boys and a husband in the house you can imagine the piles of laundry that grow in front of my washer and dryer. I feel like I never get ahead of this chore.

I do laundry daily. There are lots of ways to save money on laundry needs. A few tips I use are..

*Always wash a full load.
*Wash with cold water.
*Wash during non-peak hours, usually early morning or late at night.
*Use less soap than recommended.

But as I was sorting my families clothes the other day I started looking at items and pulling things out that I thought could stand another wearing before they went into the washer. For example, jeans. I am not ashamed to admit that I will wear the same pair of jeans all week. In fact, it takes a good day or two for them to become "comfortable". Also pajamas. I mean really do you get dirty while you sleep? There is no reason to wash these after one night of wearing (with the exception of my youngest who is still in diapers). Then there is my husband. He works at a desk all day. I see no reason why he can't wear his work pants at least twice before washing.

After sorting all the laundry I was able to pull out about 2 loads worth of clothes that could be re-worn. So, we are having a little family discussion at our house. Things need to be worn until they are visible dirty or smelly! I am hoping this cuts back a little on my washing.

How do you save on laundry?