Little Things Add Up

In our efforts to spend less and save more, we have started to limit our consumption and waste. I'm not sure how much these little steps have actually saved us but I have no doubt that they add up. Here are some of the things we're doing:

1) We make our own laundry detergent. I know I could probably get great deals on store-bought laundry detergent but I seriously doubt I'll ever pay around $0.50 for 16 loads of laundry. Plus home-made detergent is a lot less toxic than store-bought and since we re-using the same gallon sized Gatorade as our detergent container, we don't go through multiple plastic containers from store-bought detergent. It works really well and doesn't have an annoying scent. Here's the recipe I use modified from the one at this website: http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
1 gallons Water (hot)
1/2bar Soap (grated)
1 cup Baking soda

1 cup Borax

• Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soap is melted.
• In a large pail, pour 1 gallon hot water. Add melted soap, stir well.
• Then add the baking soda and borax, stir well again.
• Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load.

2) We reuse plastic baggies. I have just recently started doing this about 2 weeks ago after reading about it in a book but my boyfriend's mom introduced me to it years ago. I used to think it was kind of gross but I just realized it's not. I turn the baggies inside out and use a soapy sponge to scrub it, I rinse it then let it dry inside out. Then after it's dry I flip it right side in and throw it in the drawer. I'm not sure how long I'll wash the same baggie but so far they're doing just fine.

3) We make beans from scratch. It does not take any actual knowledge to make beans from scratch, you just follow the instructions on the bag. It's not labor intensive at all. You empty the bag into a big bowl of water and I usually cover them and let them sit over night. Then I'll rinse them and throw them in a pot full of water and cook them on low for a few hours. If you have a crock pot then you can leave them in there while you go to work. Sometimes if I'm feeling like I want gourmet beans I'll throw in a couple cloves of crushed garlic and salt but usually I don't add anything at all. Then we'll eat the beans for dinner and whatever's left over (usually a lot), we'll throw in little Tupperware containers with water and freeze them. When I know we're going to have beans for dinner, I'll take out the beans in the morning or throw them in the microwave to thaw them out. It's so easy and soooo much cheaper than buying canned beans.

4) I use the dryer to dry 2 loads at once. we just moved into a new apartment that doesn't have a washer and dryer. So we have to use the machines in the building. At first I noticed that the dryer was pretty powerful because one load came out super dry- much better than my last dryer. So I tried 2 loads and it dried those well too. Then I pushed my luck and tried 3 loads- this failed miserably. Almost everything was still wet. So now I know, 2 loads for the dryer. This saves us $1.25 each week. It doesn't sound like a lot, but remember, it's the little things...

(photo: the green field blog, flickr)