Homemade Febreeze

I think I have a serious obsession with Febreeze.... I'm serious. I love for my house to smell good! I'm constantly fighting the diaper champ stench & the wet bag with the cloth diapers in it! Ugh!! Also, what is the mysterious smell coming from the bathroom occasionally?! I also have an obsession with apple smelling candles but that's another post (I WILL figure out how to make my own apple scented candles so I quit spending so much money on candles!:) But I digress.

I use bottle after bottle of this stuff! It smells sooooo good!! I found this recipe at www.fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com

Supplies:
1/8 cup of your favorite fabric softner
2 Tbls. baking soda
Hot tap water to fill bottle to top
32oz. empty Febreeze bottle or spray bottle

Mix baking soda & fabric softner in bottle, then fill to the top with hot tap water. Shake & you're ready!! When I'm at the dollar store, I just grab 2-3 spray bottles so keep on hand in case I find a recipe for something else:) So you could use one of those instead of an old Febreeze bottle. Also note: the Snuggle bottle you see in the picture contains homemade fabric softner:)
****You'll want to test on a small area of the fabric or item that you're going to spray where it's not visible before you spray the entire thing.
****Shake before each use:)

Homemade baby wipes

When my daughter was born, I only used Huggies diapers & Huggies wipes. Even at that time I tore every single wipe in half to help save (she had a small little tush & really you don't need that huge wipe!) I thought she had to have name brand everything! Then I got pregnant with our son & quickly realized there are great alternatives that are exactly like name brand stuff! We started using store brand diapers (there are certain ones I cannot stand but I'll go over that in another post:)  but still used Huggies wipes. Then, in December, I started staying home with the kids & looked for ways to save even more money & found this recipe! I think they work perfectly...especially when you really think about what you're wiping with them & then just throwing away! haha It's like you're wiping poo with money & throwing it in the trash! So why not make your own?

Ingredients
Viva papertowels
2 cups of boiled water at room temp.
2 Tbls. baby wash
1 Tbls. baby oil


Boil the water then let it sit til it gets to room temperature. While that's cooling cut the papertowel roll in half, then take the cardboard roll out of the middle. You could us a really sharp serrated knife but mine wasn't really sharp so I used a hack saw! ha! Mix the water, baby wash & oil in a tupperware container with a tight lid. Place the half roll of papertowel with the cardboard roll taken out in the liquid mixture & let it absorb. Once it's all soaked up, put the lid on the container & turn it over & let sit for about 10 minutes until all the liquid has gone through the roll. Finished!! Pull the center out & you have a continuous baby wipe container:) Make sure to get Viva brand... they are softer & more like regular wipes. If you want to use reusable wipes, use the same ingredients & just cut up a material of your choice... jersey, fleece, etc.

Homemade fabric softner

Ok, today is Monday....in every way! Why are Mondays so jammed packed full of just stuff?! My other question... how does laundry multiply?!! I promise I was caught up & then I turn around & there's 2 laundry baskets full to fold! How did that happen?! Oh well, I'll fold & eat my cheese popcorn while the kids are napping:) Anywho, here's the recipe for the fabric softner. I will once again refer you to the wonderful ladies of The Savvy Savers. They also gave me this recipe. www.thesavvysavers.net

This recipe takes 3 ingredients!! Woo-hoo!! So I'm normally a Snuggle user...it's so hard to get away from it because it smells soooooo good but this does too!! I'll admit it's not as fragrant as Snuggle but when I tell you how much it costs it won't matter! You'll be like Snuggle who?

Supplies:
6 cups water
3 cups of vinegar (white distilled)
2 cups of hair conditioner

Mix into a 1 gallon container & stir but don't shake it. You'll use an entire bottle of the Suave container.  Use it like you would your regular fabric softner! That's it! What I did was kept my old Snuggle containers & just pour it into those so I can just measure with the lid from that. You'll want to get a plastic pitcher to stir it in (I've seen these so cheap right now at Dollar Stores) & not all of it will fit in the container so just store it in that until you have room in the bottle. How much does this cost you might ask?? I got the conditioner for $.94 at Kroger & I always keep a HUGE jug of vinegar on hand because you can use it for anything & that was $2 at the Dollar Store! And that right there is exactly why I make my own instead of buying Snuggle:)

Homemade laundry detergent

I'm still trying to figure out this blog thing so bare with me:) I was going to wait to post this tomorrow but I just can't wait to get some exciting things on here so I have just a few minutes before we have to leave. Of course the kids are running rapid in the house & the hubby is playing Call of Duty right now but chaos is commonplace in our house:) I love it!!

This detergent is super easy to make & will cost a FRACTION of what you've been spending on detergent! I'm serious! A fraction!! It hasn't been officially tested for people with sensitive skin but so many people I've talked to said this is the only kind of detergent they can use. Also, it is safe to use with HE machines. The Savvy Savers are the generous women that introduced this recipe to me! You can check them out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thesavvysavers or www.thesavvysavers.net ! They have all kinds of money savings tips & coupons!

Supplies:
1 box Borax (4lb 12oz)
1 box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (4lb)
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3lb 7oz)
3 bars Fels-Naptha soap, grated
2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (3.5lbs total)
5 gallon bucket with lid

Just get a 5 gallon bucket from your local hardware or the local bakery that might have 5 gallon buckets (in this area Donut World might have some), dump everything into the bucket & mix. That's it!! I heard of some women grating the Fels-Naptha bars with the grating attachment on their food processor but I don't have one so I hand grated them & it seriously didn't take that long. I just used a long kitchen spoon to stir it all up since it's all soap so it won't hurt anything just wash it afterward. I couldn't find a 4lb box of baking soda so I bought 2- 2lb boxes instead----I usually buy generic everything but went with name brand for this. I did buy generic Oxy Clean at Kroger & the detergent is working wonderfully! All of the ingredients you can find in the laundry aisle. Please note: the detergent will not suds up like name brand detergent because it doesn't have all the fillers that name brand has in it so don't fret..it's still getting your clothes really clean. Also, save the little scoop that comes in the Oxy Clean container to use as your measuring scoop. You will only use one of these scoops for a LARGE load of laundry.... again, because it doesn't have all those fillers you don't have to use as much. Calls for 1-2 tablespoons per load.

This recipe yields 365 loads of laundry!! That's right people, if you do one load of laundry a day you have enought laundry detergent to last a year!! Total cost: about $17. You can reuse the bucket over & over again too so you won't have the cost of that out!

Like the new digs?:) Thought I'd make it a little more fun! I can't wait to post all of the things I've been working on! I'll post the recipes for all the homemade stuff I've made too so that you can access it here. I also have a few crafts in the works. The things I've finished I'll just post a picture of the finished product & in the future I'll take pictures as I go so that everyone can have a visual. So far today I've made  a curtain for our rental house & accomplished some cleaning. I'll be working on updating the posts probably tomorrow. Today, I am going to the church (Lancaster Community Church or LCC) to get things ready for The Current- women's even tomorrow night! If you want to go just message me! I am the 'craft-lady' for these events!! It's going to be fun!!!! :)

My first post!!!:)

Ahhhhh!! This is so exciting!! I've always wanted to start a blog & here we are!! Welcome!! I will update more tomorrow because my kids are in bed already & I need to take advantage of that! You all will learn quickly that my two children (ages 1 & 2) do not sleep at night so when they sleep, I should too:)! Have a great night & can't wait to get this thing going!!