Saving Money?

Could this kid get any cuter??
Holy moly, he's a doll!!

Is it counter productive to make your own laundry detergent to save some money and then go to Meijer and spend $50 all in the same day?? David seems to think so... :)

I FINALLY got around to making the Duggar's homemade liquid laundry soap today and it was so easy!! It has to sit, covered, overnight in a bucket so it can gel and will be ready to use in the morning.

I made the whole 5 gallons (and that's a concentrated 5 so actually 10 gallons) so I hope we like it!! I did the math and the supplies: super washing soda, borax, Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap and a 5 gallon bucket, only cost a little over $12.  That right there is already cheaper than a large container of store bought detergent and you only use a portion of each ingredient to make more than those large store bought containers hold.  I also got some lemon essential oil but didn't include it in the total since it's optional.  I've heard mixed reviews and I'm eager to add my two cents...

I dropped Little Miss off at her family's store at 2:00 both days this week and it worked really well for me. It gives me plenty of time to take a little nap (if possible), straighten up the house, get dinner started and regroup before David comes home. As it turns out, it might have been the lack of downtime between Little Miss and our evening family routine that was spreading me a bit thin. I also love that I am now in control of when she leaves. Her family will be on vacation in Florida next week so that will give me a glimpse of a week without watching her at all.

Before dropping her off I swung by the afore mentioned Meijer with a few items on my list:

1) Some fruit because grocery day isn't until Saturday and somehow we were already running out.

2) A retractable clothesline for the diapers in the back yard. I've been using an accordion style drying rack but a lot of the upper diapers cast shadows on lower diapers defeating the stain fighting purpose of sunning them in the first place.

3) A few new toys for Ayden. All of his current toys are in use and I felt like he needed a few more so we could have enough rotate them out. This makes the old ones new again after he goes a few weeks without them.

4) A storage bin for Ayden's newborn/0-3 month clothes. I've been in the process of switching him over to 3-6 month clothes for a couple of weeks now. It's quite the task! I'm finally ready to put a few boxes in the attic. I can't wait until they're out of his room. At least we'll have a few weeks before we bring in boxes of 6-9 month clothes to clutter it up again.

There you have it. $50 spent just like that. It always seems like we "need" something else, doesn't it?? I'll just go with the argument that my laundry soap making and Meijer spending cancel each other out... I will eventually save $50 in detergent, won't I?

As for Ayden, one of the toys I purchased for him was the Bright Starts car seat toy.  I had registered for it but no one ever got it for us and we chose to wait on it since he wouldn't be interested in it for a while.

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I told David that I had my first experience with seeing his face light up at the sight of a new toy.  When I picked it up off the shelf, I held it in front of him and his eyes immediately lit up and he smiled as he reached for it.   We're in trouble...  We have these grand plans of not purchasing random toys for him on impulse.  I'm going to need David's help to stand strong on that one. I also hope I'm there to witness David turning down Ayden's sweet little smiley face the first time he encounters such an opportunity. I bet it'll be just as hard for him and he'll be needing me to help him out!   When we got home, I put the toy on the bar of his bouncy seat and he loved it!  His face was very serious and concentrating and he totally got lost in it.  It definitely showed that he was ready for some new things to explore!

What's your biggest impulse toy purchase you ever made for your child(ren)? 

Do you do anything beyond the obvious (couponing, etc) to save money?

~Sarah