Saturday - Home Management

Today's tip is for recipes for going more "green" with your cleaning. I also find it cheaper to use items like baking powder and vinegar than buying lots of different types of cleaners, and it is also easier to add these items to my home storage.

All-purpose Cleaner
1/2 cup washing soda
2 quarts warm water

Sink Cleaner
Combine equal parts baking soda and salt. Scrub on sink surface. Finish with a quart of hot water in the sink and a cup full of bleach. Remove the plug. Wipe with a terry cloth towel.

Window Cleaner
Vinegar
Newspaper

Put a little vinegar on the newspaper and wipe the windows.

Floor Cleaner
1 cup vinegar
1 gallon of hot water

Furniture Polish
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice

Mix ingredients in a glass jar. Dab a cloth in the solution and wipe on surface. Seal remainder.

Laundry Soap
Water
1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap, Grated
5 Gallon Bucket
1 Cup Washing Soda
4 1/2 Gallons Water

Place grated soap in a small saucepan and cover with water. Heat on low until dissolved. Fill bucket with hot water, and add soap. Stir to combine. Add 1 cup washing soda and mix well. As it cools it will thicken. May be used immediately. Use 1-2 cups per load.

Frugal Friday

My tip for today is to use coupons*. Do you see that asterisk after the word "coupons?" It should be a REALLY big asterick. I do use coupons, but I only use coupons for brands that I MUST use. I buy all of my canned goods at Aldi's and anything else that I know that I can't get cheaper anywhere else. I try and cut down on using brand names as much as I can, but we do have some "have to" things like Angel Soft toilet paper, Cascade dishwasher soap, and Secret antiperspirant. I also use my manufacturer coupons to Kroger because they will double coupons up to 50 cents. (Check with your local stores to see what the store policy is on coupons.)

I will also use coupons if I can use the manufacturer coupon in conjuction with a sale or store coupon so that I'm spending less than I would if I got the store brand. I do this type of couponing the most at Walgreens. I use the website Money Saving Mom (it is in my Simple Blog list too) because she will show you what the deals are at Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, and sometimes Costco and Wal-Mart, as well as some other random deals. Again, I really try to buy the things that we USE, not just get stuff because it is cheap/free. So I don't always get some of the deals that I see on coupon blogs because it just isn't worth it to me to make 10 trips to buy stuff so I can get coupons so that I can get the stuff I need for free.

I also use the coupons that Kroger sends me. I shop at Kroger for 3 main reasons - One, it is pretty close to my house. Two, they do double coupons. Three, they track the items you purchase, and then about every couple months, they send you pack of 10ish coupons for items that you buy regularly. I've got coupons on 3 separate occassions for a 24 pack of drinking water for FREE. Most of the time, the coupons are for at least a $1.00 off the item.

Oh, I forgot another reason I shop at Kroger. They have a store discount card, and I try to not buy anything that isn't discounted by using the discount card, or I have a manufactur or store coupon for it. Most of the time, I save equal to what I spent (so say I spend $75, it means I got $75 off in coupons and discounts.)

Oh, yea, another reason I shop at Kroger is that you can load coupons from Shortcuts.com and Proctor and Gamble right on to your card. That way, you don't have to print it out or cut it out, etc. I think I went to the Kroger website to set it up.

Maybe I should have labelled this tip - Shop at Kroger instead of Use Coupons, LOL. But if you live in an area that doesn't have a Kroger, you may have one of their affiliates (check on at Kroger.com). You also may find that it is cheaper for you, and the type of shopping that you do, to shop at another grocery store. I went to all of the main grocery stores in my area (Schnucks, Meier, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Jewel-Osco.) and priced out the items that I would generally buy at a grocery store (as opposed to a drug store, discount store, or Aldi's). I took my grocery list and wrote down the prices of the items and compared it. It took me AWHILE, but I learned that for my family, Kroger was the winner, especially when you added in the coupons that they send and the double coupons, etc. But you may find that another store works best for the type of items you buy and the stores that are available, etc. I also will look at the sale papers and I will be willing to go to another grocery store if they have something on sale that that is a very good deal, particularly if it is an item that I am trying to use to build up for my 3 month/one year supply/once a month cooking.

So use coupons, but don't get too caught up in it, and it is easy to get caught up in it once you start. My goal is to buy the things that are on my master list as cheaply as possible, and using coupons can sometimes help me spend even less than normal.

Thursday - Social and Emotional Strength

According to the Provident Living website, here are ten common challenges facing families.

1. Parenting Issues
2. Marital Issues
3. Divorce
4. Grieving
5. Out of Wedlock Pregnancy
6. Emotional and Mental Problems
7. Substance Abuse
8. Eating Disorders
9. Stress
10. Pornography

Lots to talk about in this area. I'll probably keep my goals in this area to myself, and just post about diffent topics. Today, I'm going to post part of a talk (Garth A. Hanson, “Building for Their Future,” Ensign, Dec. 2003, 39)that talks about how to help your children make good decisions.


1. Pray about decisions in family prayers, and encourage your children to pray about decisions in their personal prayers.

2. Find as many ways as possible to interact with your children at all ages. Establish basic practices in your family that will encourage conversation, interaction, and teaching opportunities.

3. Regularly interview your children individually. Ask your child questions that will encourage him or her to discuss, make, and evaluate decisions. Such questions might include: How are your relationships with friends? Are you embarrassed by anything we do as a family? What financial and transportation needs do you have?

4. Provide appropriate advice as children make decisions in each stage of their development. Let them know how you feel about the choices before them and the possible outcomes. Provide less advice on less significant decisions as children mature so they can practice the decision-making process. Know that your children are more capable of making good decisions than you realize. Let them try what you’ve taught them.

5. Hold regular family councils. Invite all the children to participate in family decisions. Follow up on decisions made in earlier family councils by evaluating together the results of those decisions. Let the children see that their opinions matter.

6. Treat your children with respect throughout their lives. When you do so, they will respect you in return, even though at times they may cause you grief. Interacting and teaching without respect can bring negative results. Children who see their parents’ respect and sacrifice for them are more likely to honor their parents’ desires, which leads to better decisions.

7. Teach your children to gather good information. Encourage them to get to know teachers, Church leaders, and other adults. Then ask them to share that information with you as they make important decisions.

Another little change

OK, home management isn't really part of provident living, but this is my blog, so I'm going to talk about it on a regular basis. So Tuesday will be Education or Employment Day, and Saturday will be Home Management Day. I'll talk about cleaning, organization, schedules, etc.

I've got a giveaway folks!!!!

See this post!

Only 2 1/2 days to go. At this rate, I'll be keeping the book for myself. Which is o.k., too, but if you want this book for free, go comment!

Wednesday - Food Storage

For many years, members of my church have been encouraged to "prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings." (All is Safely Gathered In) Back when I was a child, it was recommended that you have a year supply of food. And that recommendation stayed in place until very recently.

In 2007, I decided to finally start my food storage. I was starting from scratch. As in, we could MAYBE live for a week on what we had around. But I figured that I could start small, and anything would be better than what I was doing. I had just managed to acquire a three month supply of canned supplies when the church's new guidelines came out. The main points are 1) Build a three month supply of food that is part of your normal diet. 2) Store drinking water. 3) Establish a financial reserve by saving a little every week and gradually increasing it to a reasonable amount. 4) For longer term needs, store items such as wheat, rice, and beans.

So I had done step one. Now I needed to work on the rest.

And I've done some - I've got some water saved. We have a little bit in savings. I haven't started on longer term needs.

But since I'm a big fan of not reinventing the wheel, when I saw a couple of my friends post about Food Storage Made Simple, I went and checked it out. And I like it. So I'm going through the the babysteps right now. Well, right now, I'm working on Step 1, to be more precise. They do have a planning step before that, which I have already done. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a great planner. Follow-through, not so good.

I really like that step 1 is shelving because that is the whole reason that I haven't got started on my longer term storage. I've been paralyzed by what to get/make, where to put the stuff after I've cleared the area, how much to buy, etc. But no more. I am going to move the stuff to the garage, and I'm going to buy one plastic shelf. When I get more $$ and more long-term food, I'll get more.

Seriously?

I live in Illinois. Land of Lincoln. Oh, and two corrupt former governers. I thought that Ryan was bad, but I swear, just when I think it can't get any more ridiculous with Blagovich, then something like this shows up.

Blago Wants To Tape A Reality Show In Costa Rica

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!