Socktopus

I love this thing! In order to continue to cut back on expenses, I've started hanging some of our clothes to dry. I bought a metal drying rack but was struggling with how to keep the socks from falling off. I found this little gizmo at Ikea and HV named it the Socktopus. It does have eyes too! (No, I don't leave it hanging here. It's just hanging there for the picture). We'll see how this impacts the electricity bill.

Warm Your Neck!

Look at the right-hand side of your screen. Yep, over there at the top of the blog. I've added a new page titled Warm Your Neck, Guatemalan Style! Check it out and let me know what you think! You can also see some pictures of some SWEET girls that I know. :)

Clothing Rotation

As HV outgrows her clothes, we put them in bins by size, saving them for HM (and now HG too). The girls' school closed last week due to a flu outbreak and so we took advantage of that and the fact that it was a rather rainy weekend to "rotate the clothes." This is one of my least favorite things to do, honestly. But, it was necessary and it's done. Thank goodness. HM has a new wardrobe. I can't think of anything that she is lacking except perhaps a pair of jeans. If the pants fit her in the waist but yet were too short, then the clothes went into HG's closet. All I could think while I was carefully and nicely arranging the clothes for HG was
the clothing was hung in the closet with care,
in hopes that HG soon will be there.
Oh, I do hope so. I'm missing that girl something awful right now. Since we started HG's adoption 2 years ago, we had been saving the 3T and 4T clothes for her. Well, she no longer needs those. I was able to pack up 5 bags of clothes for my niece and for a friend that is in the process of completing a domestic adoption of a little 2 year old girl after being a momma to boys only! We are grateful that we were able to help them both.
Poor HV. Her closet is about empty. Thank goodness her birthday is this week and we can give her new clothes for her presents and it will serve a dual purpose--presents and new clothes. Yeah!
J and I laughed as we went through the "old" clothes of HV. You can tell our priorities have changed because the girl had a TON of clothes. Now? We don't buy like we used to do.

Pinky Dinky Goo III

Today I made another batch of laundry detergent. While I haven't used this one, I like how it turned out MUCH better. Here's what I did different than the last time:
Last weekend, I used a grater to grate up the two large bars/cakes of Zote soap. I thought this would be very messy and difficult but it only took a few minutes to do both bars (HV had been being a weenie and so I actually was going to have her do it as somewhat of a disciplinary task, but I had it finished in no time). I put the "flakes" in the largest plastic dish that we had and then covered them with warm/hot water. I put the lid on and it has been sitting in the garage since then. When I opened the plastic container today, the soap "flakes" had dissolved into the water. The whole container was like a soapy gel. I then used a ladle to put several scoops into a pot on the stove with more water for melting. This was MUCH MUCH easier than when I did it before. I also left it on the stove top a bit longer than I did the last time, allowing it to melt better. I learned that it will turn a darker pink color and the water will be clearer, not cloudy or opaque, when it has melted more fully. I had two pots of this going and, again, it was so much easier than before. This pretty much added the remaining water that was needed to fill the 5 gallon container. It's still cooling and setting up in the pantry now. I think it looks very smooth, not quite as chunky as before. We will see how it is when it cools completely.
Yes, this is only our 2nd batch of this stuff. We started using the first 5 gallons at the end of June. We still have some left, but we will run out this week and so I took advantage of this rainy day and made another batch. Granted J didn't have to do as much laundry while we were gone, but it's still has lasted a LONG time. I have enough Super Washing Soda to make one more batch and I have LOTS of Borax left so I won't have to buy that ingredient again for a while. So, I only had to purchase the two bars of Zote soap for less than $2 total for this 5 gallon batch. Great!

Goo II

I've had a few comments here on the blog and a few conversations about the Pinky Dinky Goo laundry detergent. I thought I would post the recipe here and then give you some tips on what I did and what I would do differently the next time I prepare it. This is a long one, so get comfy before you read this one.
First things first, however. Here's the recipe as I received it:

Homemade Laundry Detergent

4 cups of hot tap water

1 soap bar/cake

1 cup Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, Washing Soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stire, cover, and let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of the way with water. Shake before each use (will separate and gel).

Optional: you can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas would be lavender, rosemary or tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons

Top Load Machines: 5/8 cup per load (approx. 180 loads)

Front Load Machines: 1/4 cup per load (approx. 640 loads)

This stuff is not "bubbly" and so you can use it in a front load washer without any problems. We have a front load and it's been fine. (I did read on some sites that people would occasional run some white vinegar through their machine to remove any residual soap that remains. I haven't done this but we also use our washer almost every day--6 out of 7 days at least).

Soaps: You can use Fels-Naptha, Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps or deodorizing soaps.

Now, my Sister's friend that gave me this recipe posted that she doesn't know anyone that likes using Ivory because it doesn't smell nice and doesn't seem to clean well. That was enough to tell me that I would not be using that. Sister's friend recommended the Zote soap. I have only made one batch of this and I used Zote bars. This is NOT found in the soap section with soap for washing your body. It's in the laundry section and costs less than $1/bar (I paid 44 cents at a Mexican grocery store). There are 2 sizes of Zote "cakes" in my stores here and I used the larger size. I read on one site that the writer recommended putting the bars of soap in water for a few days before you melt them. She said that it would make it easier to dissolve and now she did this instead of grating the soap. She said that she would then I put the Zote bars (more below on using 2 bars), whole, in one plastic container with a lid (a small one that we use to store leftovers). I put it in the garage, thinking that it would warm the water and help the soap to dissolve more, similar to a bar of soap in the shower. While this did work, to some degree, I will do it different in the future. I will cut each bar, at least in 1/2, before putting it in the water AND I will either use a larger container or put each bar in its own container. I suppose you could grate it before putting it in the water but I just thought it would be awfully messy to grate the soap.

Now, on the Super Washing Soda--this was a bit difficult to find in our area. I checked at 5 different stores without any luck and then I read online that someone said that Kroger carries it in our area. Super Washing Soda is NOT baking soda but it is made by Arm & Hammer and does come in a box (larger than baking soda). I believe that you can purchase it online, but the shipping costs would bump you out of the cost savings, I think. Some people have said that if your store carries Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent, you could ask them to order this for you. I didn't do that since Kroger had it already. I asked a little old lady in WalMart one day about Super Washing Soda and she grinned. She said, "Oh my! That brings back memories." She said that this was an "old fashioned thing" and that she had not seen it in a long time. She told me that it came in box, however, and was NOT baking soda. I had Sister on the phone and the little lady told me to tell her that she was 82 years old and while she did know about Super Washing Soda, she didn't know where to find it! Cute!

Borax is easy to find. It's in almost every store (WalMart and Big Lots both have it). It is found in the laundry soap section as well.

Sister's friend said that she doubled the "cleaning ingredients" for the recipe above since most detergents are now boasting of their double or triple cleaning action. She said she kept the water amount the same. I did this as well, so I used the following:

2 bars of Zote Soap

2 cups of Super Washing Soda

1 cup of Borax

I followed the same recipe steps as above for preparing but just doubled the ingredients.

We also have not put it in the clean laundry bottle. We just use the scoop/cup that came with some commercial detergent, scooping it out of the 5 gallon bin (trash can with a lid). We keep this in the floor of our pantry which is in the laundry room. After we scoop it out, we do typically put the cup/scoop in the washing machine with the clothes.

I think this stuff cleans great! I like how it smells (light scent from the Zote and fresh) and it's even getting HM's clothes clean (for those of you that don't know HM, she is Messy Marvin!). I've used it to pretreat clothes too. I have simply stuck my finger into the Goo and rubbed some on a super dirty spot on the clothes, thrown the clothes in the washer, and started it. When I wash my "whites," I do still use some bleach in there. Again, clean stuff!

Now, the other day I decided I needed to wash the interior of my car. If you have been in my car, you will know that it is not super clean. It's not super nasty, but it's definitely no like J's car--spotless. I put a gallon of water or so in a bucket and 2 scoops of Goo in there. I stirred it around to mix/dilute it, got a rag, and went to town on the ol' carro. It's never looked better! I have leather seats and I cleaned them with this, all plastic molding with it--you name it, I washed it! It has a nice clean scent now and looks like a new car. I had three spots on the seats that were like a silver foil something. I have no idea what it was or how it got there, but it's been there for a long time--we're talking at least 2 years. J has tried all kinds of cleaners on them to no avail. Guess what? They are gone now! The Goo took care of it. HV rode with me the other day and said she couldn't eat in the car because it was too clean. :) I was grateful that she waited, of course, until we reached our destination.

Questions? Let me know. I've tried to cover it all here, but I'm sure I missed something.
Happy Washing!

Pinky Dinky Goo

We've been trying to look for ways to spend less money each month. We've cut back on many things and when I saw a post on the blog of Sister's friend about making your own laundry detergent, I thought hmmm.... So, I had Sister get the recipe from her friend for me. The friend claimed that the concoction got out spaghetti sauce and even yellow baby poop! (The poop actually sold me on trying this). I bought all of the ingredients and mixed up our pink goo a few weeks ago. We've been using it for about a week now, and it's GREAT! It got red wine out of a white napkin from church! I have no complaints about it and it is significantly cheaper. I'd have to go back and put a pencil to it to come up with my figure of creating 5 gallons of this stuff but I know it's cheaper. I did have some "start up" costs (the container to store this in and a grater) but 2 of the ingredients were purchased as a box and only a few cups were used so I'll be able to make many more batches with those 2 ingredients. Only 1 ingredient is used completely with each batch, but it costs less than $1 to purchase.

Got any other good ideas for spending less money each month?