A friend of mine called me this morning and told me about a church that was selling cherry tomatoes for $2 a case!  So, I got myself two cases so I can share with some family and I got another friend a case too!  Oh, they taste really good too!  Thanks Mo4 for letting me know!!!

The birthday parties went well and we had a good weekend.  The weather wasn't as bad as they had predicted, praise God for that.

Gotta go for now, laundry is calling.

Blessings

Rashel

• 1 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

I am looking for a good liquid handsoap recipe and haven't been able to find one.  I have tried a couple but they just don't work, one was like marshmallow creme consistency and the other was more like a salve or something .  I would like one that does not call for lye because I don't have that yet.  My dh is wanting me to start making soap, so I will eventually but I don't have all the right equipment for that yet.

Thank you in advance for any help you might have,

Rashel

• 3 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Here is a list of ways we save money.  I started this list awhile back and decided I would go ahead and post it for y'all.  Enjoy.

Here are some of the things to help us save money.

1. we don’t have cable, satellite tv or high speed internet
2. I don’t go clothes shopping; kids get new jeans, shoes, etc as needed for birthdays, Christmas and such, I also get clothes at rummage sales and take hand me downs
3. I don’t get my nails done and I have a very easy hairstyle
4. I cut the boys hair at home
5. I don’t wear makeup
6. I make my own laundry soap and household cleaners
7. I don’t buy a lot of convenience foods; individually wrapped snacks, frozen meals, etc.
8. I have a grocery budget and stick to it
9. I try not to make unnecessary trips to town
10. We don’t go a lot of places; the movies, the mall (only on certain occasions), big vacations, etc. We take little vacations, like to Silver Dollar City for a day (we have season passes) or camping for a weekend.
11. We don’t go everywhere or do everything everyone asks us to do, example day trips out of town or bowling, etc.
12. I hang clothes on the line to dry, when I can
13. I buy used home school curriculum when I can and our main curriculum can be used by all our children for several years
14. I don’t use a credit card at all; dh has one and pays it off every month
15. Dh handles all our bills and gives me an “allowance” for groceries, gas, etc.  I have a set amount that I can spend and I fit everything we need into that budget.  The times I need more, dh and I discuss what for and how much to allow for it.
16. I don’t pay a babysitter, I don’t have to buy work clothes, pay for gas to & from work, or spend money on lunch everyday – I am a stay at home mom.
17. We don’t have a big house.
18. We don’t have new furniture.
19. I do not put Christmas on a credit card.
20. I shop at bulk, discount or off brand stores for groceries.
21. Our kids do not have the latest play station, game boy or video game.
22. We figured out we could save money by using electric heaters in the winter in addition to our central air unit which is propane, instead of central air only.
23. We don’t turn the ac on until it is really, really hot.
24. Dh changes the oil on our vehicles and does repairs of any kind that he can (and he can fix a lot of things).
25. We don’t have brand new vehicles and any loan we had for a vehicle was paid off as quickly as possible, sometimes using tax returns.  Don’t get me wrong, our vehicles are nice and dependable, last October I got a ’03 Chevy Suburban – I LOVE IT and dh has a 4 dr Chevy truck.
26. I have been known to rinse out ziploc bags and reuse them.
27. I use cloth wipes for dd and me.
28. I just made momma cloths for me.
29. I have been trying to cut out paper products or at least cut down on them, napkins, etc.
30. I have made a couple dresses for dd and me using clothes we already had here.
31. We use the library for books/movies, it is free.

I know there are even more things that we do to save money that I can’t think of and there are things we do that don’t save us money. For example, we do go out to eat an average of 2-3 times a month, our kids do play sports, we do buy Pepsi, and other little things like that but I think every family needs to find the balance and choose what is important to them.  These things I listed are also things we have been able to add to our indulgences because of saving money on other things and getting our debt down.  The only debt we have is our home/land and that will be paid off within 4 years (if things stay as they are now), praise God.

  Have anything to add? Leave me a comment or post on your blog and use the same title I did so we can find it easily.

Rashel

• 4 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

If you have wanted to try them but don't want to spend alot of money or take the time to make them just to try, here is your chance! Gladrags and Lunapads will both send you a free sample if you post a link to their websites on your blog and them tell them you did!  How simple is that?  And how awesome that you can try their products for free! 

So, go ahead and post your links and enjoy your free sample. 

Rashel

**I am so sorry I wasn't more clear on how to do this. Just post a link on your blog to the websites above, then email the company and tell them you linked their website, give them your blog address and your mailing address and request a free sample.  That is it.  Here are the email addresses I have for them but if these don't work, I just used the contact page on the websites.
Lunapads: blog@lunapads.com
Gladrags: orders@gladrags.com

• 3 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Tonight, from 8pm til midnight, Sonic is giving away free (duh, that is what giving away means ) rootbeer floats. It says at participating Sonics, so you might contact your local one and see if they are participating.  I think we are going to head there after the baseball game tonight!  I tried to find a place on the website that might tell the locations, but my internet is slow and I have too much to do.  I will just call them later.

Enjoy!

Rashel

• 1 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

I make my own laundry soap and love it.  Well, dh mentioned that to some of the girls he works with.  They had been talking about the cost of detergent and he told them about my soap.  One of them wants to buy a gallon.  I don't know what to charge her.  I did figure that even with paying the highest price for fels naptha, the soap is $.65 a gallon (roughly) to make, plus my time and the container I put it in.  What would you charge?

Rashel

• 3 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Today was garage sale day - ALL DAY!  Today was the big citywide sale in a town close to here and my mom, sis, niece, nephew and I all went.  We met at 7am and I got home about 5pm.  It was so terribly cold that I wore long johns under my jeans and three shirts under my coat!  We did get rained on and even a little snow here and there but that didn't stop us!  We ended up having a great day and we found some great bargains.  I did find some skirts, 8 actually plus 3 dresses and umpteen shirts/sweaters and two great pairs of shoes to wear with my skirts.  I also found a few pair of shoes for my girlie and some things for the boys. Girlies favorite was a pink cowboy hat and a pair of pink boots. I found some stuff for our camper too.  I am thankful that the rain didn't keep people from having sales, most were inside.  There weren't as many as normal but enough to keep us busy all day.  When I got home, I tried everything on and almost all of it fits, there were 2-3 shirts that are a little big but I may just keep them to wear around the house.  All the skirts fit, I was so excited!!  Ok, gotta go pick up the house since I was gone all day and check on laundry.  I wanted to wash the clothes I got today so I can start wearing some of it.  I will have to do another load, it wouldn't all fit in one load!

Have a great weekend!

Rashel

• 1 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link