How to Make Oxiclean - DIY Oxiclean

                                                        

Photo source: Homesteading in Ohio

Many years ago I started making my own cleaning concoctions that have saved me a whole lot of money.  For instance, I have a new respect for vinegar.  Just vinegar and water are like a magic potion.  It is great for cleaning so many things.

Anyway, I was searching for more concoctions that I can make to save more money and I ran across Cari from Homesteading in Ohio.  She is seriously into DIY cleaning products.  I'm already impressed and I haven't gotten beyond the DIY Oxiclean page.  I have lots to learn from her!  

Click here to be impressed by her page on Oxiclean and so much more.  You will be glad you did!

You are welcome.

Avoid Christmas Debt When Cash Is Tight

It seems like the older I get, the faster the Christmas holidays come around.  For me, I have taken care of avoiding the debt since I have not celebrated Christmas for a very long time since a lot of the people close to me have passed away.  I just don't feel it anymore.  However, it was a problem in the past.

The last seasons I celebrated, I cut way down on Christmas decorating.  It was once an obsession for me to decorate to the max.  It was beautiful, but expensive.  Anyway, that is where I started and just became very aware of where every penny was going.  Not being cheap, just frugal.

Another thing I cut out was the large open house Christmas celebration where we set up a large buffet of food that was outrageous now that I think about it.  It seems like we would invite everyone we knew.  It got out of hand fast and got bigger and bigger every year.  The smart thing would have been to make it a pot luck celebration where everyone brought a plate of food.  Well, it went away the last few seasons I celebrated.

Mary at Everyday Cheapskate has an excellent article with lots of tips on how to save money during the holidays.

Click here to go to the article.

I know it is early to start posting holiday stuff, but it takes time to start planning in order to save money.

The Frugal Mindset

 

Learning to be frugal with money by saving where you can so that you can spend where you want.  In my opinion, this is the foundation of being frugal.

A frugalista mindset focuses on what she/he needs, not trying make purchases based on what others have.  The major premise is to focus on needs.

Frugal spending habits is a good starting point to gain the mindset.  Remember that being frugal isn't being cheap . . . a positive attitude is key in anything you attempt to do.

Keeping a budget and sticking to it is very important.  Take your time to set your financial goals in order to develop a realistic budget.  A frugal mindset tracks expenses often as it relates to the budget.  I've developed a mindset of checking it every day, makes changes as necessary.  

Sometimes an emergency will make it necessary to update your budget.  It is not always easy.  But being frugal can make it easy to manage the emergency because you have probably saved money and hopefully put it in your savings to cover emergencies.  That one thing has saved me from a financial disaster when an emergency arises . . . I'm retired on a fixed income and saving money has become a major thing.

Your life situation will guide your mindset if you just give it lots of thought.  Just remember to make it about needs, not wants and save what is left over at the end of the month.

Replacing your washer or dryer

 

One of the things I do as a frugalista is research high dollar purchases.  Educate yourself on various features of the item and how they affect the cost to start off.  Know exactly what you want before going into the store and purchasing the item that has features you don't need.  If possible, familiarize yourself with the brand and compare store prices.

Unfortunately I am currently in the market for a new washing machine and have no idea what I actually want.  So I was very happy to come across the following article from Mary Hunt of Everyday Cheapsake that goes into everything you need to know before making the purchase of a washer or dryer.

Click here to go to the article and check out her blog while you are there.

Thoughts from a frugalista!

 

Frugal people understand the value of their money and don't indulge in unnecessary spending.

Being frugal is not being cheap.  A simple explanation is possessing an awareness of being over indulgent in spending.  Ask yourself "do I really need this?" before making purchases.

I'm a serious frugalista!  Read on for some of my thinking on being frugal.

In the past, I would overwork myself to make more money.  For what?  So I could purchase more stuff?  Currently, after a lifetime of overindulgence in my purchases, my house is stacked with way too much stuff that I should never have bought.  Now I have to get rid of the unnecessary stuff so I can live an orderly life and be comfortable in my surroundings.  

I often laugh at my former self for foolishly spending money instead of realizing that retirement and a fixed income was in my future.  What was I thinking?  Or was I thinking at all about my crazy spending?

One of the most important things I do to make it easy to stay frugal is to keep a budget and stick to it.  

My favorite way to overindulge and spend too much money is ordering meals from Door Dash rather than having to cook a meal for one that I really don't like to do.  If I didn't keep a budget and track my spending throughout the month, it would be so easy for me to dangerously overindulge in placing those orders.

Set financial goals!

Tracking my spending throughout the month keeps me living within my means.  I am aware of the fact that I am living on a fixed income through Social Security and have to stretch those dollars and leave enough at the end of the month to go toward my savings to cover emergencies.

Don't spend more on name brands . . . buy generic!  You'd be surprised at the difference in cost.  From what I have found in my research, most items are made at the same factory.  The only difference is the label and the cost.

I could go on and on!  I've gone through some rough financial times and try so hard to not go back.  There are so many little things I do that I will discuss in future posts.

A great article on how to be a beginning frugalista . . . click here.

How to Save on Your Electric Bill

 

My electricity bills went up drastically this year until my AC unit stopped working and was too expensive to fix.  That is when I realized how much it actually costs to have the luxury of air conditioning.

Anyway, I found an article that gives many tips on saving on your electricity bill.

Click here to go to the article.

Food Expiration Dates, Explained

 

I know I am probably guilty of tossing out grocery items prematurely based on those expiration dates.  The thought is always "better safe than sorry."  However, with the price of everything going up, I'm thinking it is a good idea to educate myself about those expiration dates.

Click here for an article that explains what items are still safe to consume and which must be tossed out past that expiration date.

Frugal Laundry Hacks

 

Cutting costs of everything has become a challenge lately!  I don't think we are alone . . .

One Good Thing by Jillee has an excellent article on frugal laundry hacks with some great tips.  Click here to go to the article.

Many uses for DIY Cleaner - Dawn and Vinegar

 

The combination of Dawn and white vinegar as a DIY cleaner is frugal magic.  You can just about forget all other cleaners . . . talk about saving money!

Check out the following articles to find out more:

New Uses for Dawn and White Vinegar

Dawn Dish Soap Uses

Best Ways to Use Vinegar

DIY Liquid Laundry Detergent

 

Since the pandemic began, we have used a shopping service to shop and deliver our groceries for us.  Of course, that made the already rising cost of groceries go way up.

Needless to say, I've been looking for ways to save money on groceries.  Although I have posted DIY recipes for laundry detergent in the past, I have not yet used them.  Mainly because they are powder detergent.

Today I found a recipe for liquid laundry detergent.  Click here to get the recipe.

DIY Recipes for Kitchen Cabinet Cleaning

 

My painted white kitchen cabinets are a nightmare to keep clean.  One of these days I'll get around to painting them another color.   In the meantime, I'm going to use one of the DIY recipes found in the following article.

Click here to go to the article.

DIY NATURAL CLEANING INGREDIENTS

As I get older, the smell of most cleaners mess with my sinuses really bad.  My solution is using cleaning concoctions I make myself with natural products that make it an awesome and frugal thing to have gotten into doing.  My favorite is white vinegar and water mixed in a spray bottle to clean counters, windows . . . small jobs.

Here is an article with a few ingredients that are natural and cheap.

This article is all about amazing ways to use hydrogen peroxide.

DIY Fabric Softner

Another use for baking soda and vinegar and one less expensive product to buy!

Click here for the tutorial.

Get the Scoop on Shampoos and Save Money

There are many misconceptions about shampoo that have originally come from the marketing of these products.  It is all about the manufacturers making more money.

This article opened my eyes to so much that I didn't realize before.  Check it out!

Don't Ruin Your Non-Stick Pans

The most effective practice in being a frugalista is to take care of what you have so you don't have to keep buying the same item often.  Non-stick pans can be ruined fairly quickly if you don't use them correctly.

Click here for an excellent article on taking care of your non-stick pans.

Secret weapons to get your toilet clean

Ughhhhhh . . . this is my least favorite thing in the world, cleaning the toilet.  I'll try anything to make it an easier task.

I found an article with some awesome tips I had not heard of . . . worth a try!

Click here for the article!

Awesome ideas for an organized fridge

Don't you hate when your refrigerator gets out of control?

Hometalk has an awesome slide show of all types of ideas for getting it organized.

Click here for the article.

Organize Your Spices!

How many times do you buy duplicate bottles of spices you can't find because your spices are a disorganized mess?

That mess is a money waster!

Click here for an article on how to make the pictured spice rack from the blog The Honeycomb Home.  

Take those basic directions and make it bigger or smaller to suit your kitchen.  Design your own to meet your needs!

DIY All-Natural "Soft Scrub" Cleanser

Vinegar is the one item that can save you so much money for a wide range of uses if you like to make your own stuff.  Baking soda and vinegar is a dynamic duo for all types of household chores.

Click here to learn how to make your own "soft scrub" cleanser.  

Take a big step toward frugal living and make own cleaning stuff!

Some tips on saving money the unconventional way

One of the ways that has always helped me save money is to budget.  Keeping track of how much is being spent helps to control spending.  

We opened up a savings account with an automatic deposit every month.  Start with the least amount you can do without and increase the amount as you can. Those regular deposits add up!

Both The Captain and I participate in Bing Rewards.  We simply do all of our searches through the Bing Rewards dashboard and cash in our rewards with Amazon gift cards.  If  you are active on the internet like we are, the points add up fast.  

We also use charge cards that give reward points for purchases.  We pay as many of our bills using the charge cards to build up points fast.  Make sure to have the discipline to not carry over balances of paying those bills.  We cash in those points for restaurant gift cards and treat ourselves to going out to eat at a nice restaurant at least once a month.

Those gift cards are a great way to give yourself a treat without spending money for it!

Here is an article with lots of ideas to save money using unconventional methods.

Cookie sheet and muffin pan organization

What a genius way to store those cookie sheets and muffin pans that end up all over the kitchen.

Click here for a photo tutorial.

How To Store Tomatoes

Less waste from proper storage of tomatoes saves money!

Want to know how?  Click here for the article.

DIY Screen Cleaner

It is so funny . . . sometimes I will be working on photo editing or graphics and there will be a spot or mark that doesn't look right, so I pull down the eraser tool and try to erase it.  After trying to figure out why the tool won't erase it, I realize it is my dirty screen!

I found a DIY screen cleaner recipe that costs pennies to make that is safe to use on our computer, television and phones.  Click here for the recipe.

Be safe . . . don't forget to spray onto the cloth, not the device!

Make Stained Bakeware Like New Again

I must admit that I'm so frugal that I will hold on to bakeware that looks like that one indefinitely and cover with aluminum foil.  Well, it is still functional and you know . . . I'm frugal!

You know I was so happy to find the article at Tip Hero that shows how to make your bakeware sparkle like new again.

Click here to go to the article . . . save some money!

Economical Castile Soap Uses

Lately we have been using artisan natural soaps and shampoo soaps that we love, but they are a bit pricey.

As a result, I've set out to educate myself on making my own concoctions and soaps.  It seems I keep hearing about castile soap for a wide array of  DIY projects that will hopefully save us lots of money.

When I ran across this article from One Good Thing by Jillee, I was amazed at all the practical uses for castile soap in my DIY endeavors.  Hopefully you will find one you like!