Thrifty Tuesday: Castile Laundry Soap

I've mentioned a few times that we make our own laundry soap. I just ran out of our last batch and it was time for a new one, so I made some up this morning. I tried a new recipe because although the other one cleaned the clothes well, the soap & water separated and you had to shake it up before you used it. I wanted to make a more concentrated detergent without all the water. So I did some web research on Castile laundry detergent and this is the recipe I decided to go with: Homemade Castile Laundry Soap.

You will need:

1/4 cup liquid Castile soap (I used Dr. Bronner's)

1 cup baking soda

1 cup super washing soda

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 cup boiling water

 

 Add the soap, baking soda, and washing soda to a large mixing bowl. 

Slowly add the vinegar & prepare for a bubble explosion! 

Aislyn loved that part ("my turn mama, my turn!"). Then whisk until thoroughly

 combined. Pour in boiling water and whisk again.This is what you'll get:

It should be a loose paste. Store it in an air tight container and use about 2 tbsp per load. If you leave it uncovered, it will solidify so unless you want a huge rock hard block of unusable detergent, don't do it. :)

While I was finishing up the laundry soap, Aislyn was busy cleaning her table. She's such a good helper!  (It's the only picture I could get of her as she's going through a phase where she hates her picture taken... and yes, her hair is nuts :))

Happy Thrifty Tuesday,

Kaitlin

Money, Money, Monday: Save it by going 'poo-free

If you're like me, there's nothing like waking up, hopping in the shower and coming out feeling sparkling fresh and clean. Showering recharges you, wakes you up and starts you off on the right foot. But did you know that you can make most of the products you use in the shower? It costs a lot less than you pay for them at the store and they work just as well! Today we'll start by talking about shampoo & conditioner. Chances are you use a commercialized shampoo product that is loaded with different chemicals and a ton of fragrance. Right? Shampoo is a hair care product that is designed to remove dirt, oils, pollutants and other contaminants from hair. Unfortunately, when you remove the oil, your scalp reacts by creating more of it since it has been stripped. You especially notice it after a couple of days, or if you have oily skin by nature, possibly by mid-day. However, there is a way to clean your hair, get rid of the contaminants without using shampoo, and eventually De-grease your hair. It's called the "'poo-free method."

Would it freak you out if I told you I haven't shampooed my hair since....Early November 2011? Please still be my friend even if it does and keep reading...

I haven't. And my hair hasn't looked this good in a long, long time. I don't use any hair product after showering either because my once crazy baby hair around my face has been tamed. And, my hair is super shiny without any tangles.

Here's the method:

My "shampoo" is a mixture of 1 tbsp. baking soda to 1 cup water.

I make this mixture fresh every time I clean my hair. (Some people that use this method make large batches of it and store it in containers in the shower, but for the amount that you go through you'd be mixing up a new container every few days.) I pour the entire solution onto the roots of my hair and really massage it in. Then I leave it in for a couple of minutes and then wash it out completely. This mixture does not lather and it will not feel at all like a traditional shampoo, but it does clean your hair. It does not strip the oil out of you hair though, so until your hair and scalp adjusts to it you may go through an oily period between 1-2 weeks. After that, your body will not over-produce oil and it will be much less greasy looking. 

My conditioner is just as easy. It's mixture of 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar to 1 cup water.

Like a traditional conditioner, it goes on the ends of your hair and not the scalp. Pour it on, let it sit, and rinse it out. Done. Like the shampoo, it will not feel like commercialized conditioner, but it works just as well. Once you rinse out the ACV and dry your hair it will not smell like vinegar. Your hair will smell like nothing (unless you add essential oils, then it can smell like whatever you want it to). You will have to use a wide toothed comb or a paddle brush to get the tangles out the first couple of times you use it, but after your hair adjusts to it it will brush out easily.

There's a lot more information on the web about this method of shampooing. Just google it and a whole lotta info will come up.

Here's the price breakdown:

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (16 oz): ~$1

Apple Cider Vinegar (Store brand, 32 oz): $1.69

Note: I've been using the same container of ACV since November and I'm not anywhere near being done yet.

Questions? Please leave them in the comment box. Here's to our first Moolah Monday. Hope you enjoyed it and you consider trying this method!

-Kaitlin

Colored Rice

My little girl has been feeling under the weather for the past few days so I thought I would cheer her up by making some fun, brightly colored rice. It's a perfect sensory activity for toddlers and you can change it up daily to keep them interested.

You will need:

Uncooked White Rice

Rubbing Alcohol

Food Coloring -- I used the gel kind

Plastic baggies

Cookie Sheets

Sensory Bin

 Put 2 cups rice in a plastic Ziplock bag

 Add 2-3 large drops of gel food coloring & 1.5 tbsp. rubbing alcohol

 Shake bags until mixed well

  Pour onto a cookie sheet to dry. Laying it in the sun 

will make it dry faster but it isn't necessary.

  Put into a bin, mix together, add some fun toys

and go to town.

 Have fun!!

 This project was really quick & easy and held Aislyn's interest for an extended period of time. You can easily double or triple the recipe and do many more colors if you wanted a large quantity of rice. It could be a great preschool activity too!

Homemade Fabric Softener

I just made a batch of homemade fabric softener. It takes about 5 minutes to complete and it's so easy to put together. I used a combination of a couple of different hair conditioners because I didn't have enough of one to make up a whole cup, but stick with one if you want a consistent scent. The scent is not overwhelming, and the smell of vinegar completely disappears altogether.

Ingredients:

1 c. conditioner (I used Suave and VO5 because that's what I had on hand)

3 c. warm water

1 1/2 c. white vinegar

Put all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and whisk until incorporated. The warm water will help dissolve the conditioner into one homogenous mixture. Pour into a container to store it (I used a recycled Juice bottle) and use what you normally would in your washing machine's softener slot. If you want a stronger scent play around with adding essential oils. 

Happy Washing!

Kaitlin

Day 3 of no facebook & its a lot easier than I thought! I completely disabled my account, and I deleted the button on my toolbar and the app off my phone so I'm not able to access it easily. 

I'm in the process of refinishing a dresser to go with my dining room set. I'm planning on using it as a sideboard/linen chest. It will take awhile to do it properly, since the paint takes a few days to cure and there's a leg that needs to be fixed, but I'll post pics as soon as it is done. I'm hoping it will turn out great!

Our washer has been out of service for about two weeks now, which completely stinks. Luckily we have an extended warranty on it and Sears is going to cover the parts and labor for free... but it has taken awhile to get the parts sent out (they were back ordered) and then we received twice the amount of parts ordered. So now we have four HUGE boxes sitting in our dining room. We'll be making an awesome playhouse out of the boxes for Aislyn soon! Anyway the whole point to this is that I haven't been using my homemade laundry detergent which means I haven't needed to make another batch... which means I won't be sharing it with you all quite yet. But it's coming!!

We are looking at more houses tomorrow to make sure the one we placed an offer on is truly the home we want to spend the next several years in. Wish us luck!

Until next time,

Kaitlin

Eliminating Facebook

I hate to admit it, but I'm addicted to Facebook. It's bad. I check it every morning, multiple times a day on my phone, and right before I go to bed. It's horrible. It's shameful. It's not rewarding. I'm quitting.

We had a conversation in my Child Anthropology course yesterday about the damaging affects the internet has on our us and our children. It literally acts as an addiction. We get excited about a notification, new friend requests and messages. We start to crave it and so we sit behind our computers everyday and have virtual conversations about whatever instead of initiating face-to-face in our actual lives with actual people. Human beings are social creatures, yet social media is driving us away from fulfilling satisfying, normal social needs and instead allowing us to believe that a computer screen is going to provide that for us. It isn't.

So, for lent I'm giving up Facebook. I've deactivated my account until after Easter (maybe even longer, who knows?). I know that without it, I won't know exactly whats going on in my 600+ "friends" list. And I'm completely okay with that. I don't need to know about the relationship status of a kid I met once at a college party. I do know I will be much more productive, and much more engaged in the lives of my close, true friends. I also know that it will be a challenge... that I'm up to.

So see ya later, FB. I'll try not to miss ya,
Kaitlin

Homemade Yogurt

Before I researched how to make yogurt I was intimidated. I knew nothing about it and thought it was going to be a HUGE challenge to make. Boy, was I wrong. It's so simple! It does take about 12-14 hours to complete, but 99% of the time the yogurt it's resting, which means you can go about your day. The best part? TWO INGREDIENTS!

You will need:

• Whole Milk
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• Candy thermometer

What ya do:

 I have made several batches of yogurt with varying amounts of whole milk, but usually I do about a half gallon at a time. It depends on how much yogurt you want hanging around your house in the end. It makes slightly less than the original amount of milk you use due to evaporation but it's not by much... Let's get to it:

1. Pour your milk into a pot and heat it over medium heat until it reaches 185° F. Make sure your thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pan but is at least one inch into the milk. The milk will become a little frothy when it gets close to the right temperature. DO NOT LET IT BOIL. The milk doesn't like that.

2. After it reaches 185° turn off the heat and let the milk cool to 115°. Take about 1/4 cup of the warm milk and mix it into your plain yogurt (tempering). Then put the starter back into the pot of milk.

3. Cover your pot and put it in a warm place (I usually put it in a slightly warm oven) and walk away. It usually takes all day, or overnight if you start it late in the day. 

4. After the time is up, eat it up! Add some fresh fruit or honey, granola, whatever else you want and chow down...

...Or make Greek yogurt. You do this by lining a mesh sieve with cheesecloth, placing it over a container to catch the whey and pouring the yogurt into the cheesecloth. This step also takes some time (an hour or two), but it is the best, simplest, all-natural Greek yogurt you'll ever have. 

 This is my set up. See the whey at the bottom?

 Final Product: Creamy, delicious Greek Yogurt

There you have it, cheap and easy!

-Kaitlin