Thrifty Thursday - Laundry

Thrifty Laundry, yes there is such a thing. For the longest time I was not a person who thought much about how much doing laundry cost, I just bought laundry soap, fabric softer, had the husband pay the electric bill , water bill and  buy me a new washer every 2-3 years when I would burn out the motor.

But then I finally grew up and had to think about what doing laundry was costing and with a family of 8 that is a lot of laundry and expense.

                                                              

First I have learned that with a top loader I will always overload, and never balance right. So after much looking and thinking we bought a front loader, a pricey investment even with getting the cheapest model  but it uses less water, the clothes come out dryer, and I can never overload, and rarely unbalance a load. We also bought the 5 year warranty just in case I did manage to kill it, I did have the repair guy out a few times to empty the pump trap thingy. I also know how to do it myself now and can skip calling the repair guy.

Picture from Google Images

Next is the commitment to use the clothesline outside for drying when the weather permits, even going as far as looking at the weather reports in the spring-fall and doing laundry on the days I will be able to hang laundry. It is easier to just toss the laundry in the dryer, but hanging is cheaper, gives me a upper body workout and some sun to my pale skin.

Picture from Google Images

Laundry soap and fabric softener, I do a couple of things here I do sometimes buy laundry soap when it is on sale, but usually make my own laundry soap using washing soda, borax, and  fels napta soap ( that soap your mom and grandma used to get stains out). It's cheap to make, it works, and it lasts a long time. I have made it both as a Liquid Laundry Soap and a powder, right now I am using the Powder Laundry Detergent.

For fabric softener I use plain white vinegar bought in the big jugs at Sam's Club, you just fill the fabric softener cup on your washer with the vinegar. Yes when you take your clothes out they will smell a bit like a salad, but once dry there is no smell ( it even gets rid the pet smell out of towels), and your clothes are soft.

Thrifty Thursday- Using Leftovers

One big point of waste in any food budget can be leftovers, I really noticed it this summer when I was working. I wasn't home to re- purpose the leftovers , the kids followed the menu, just adding more left overs to the fridge, which usually found themselves in the trash at the end of the week.

We don't usually serve leftovers as just reheated food, mostly because there never is quite enough for all, and they go over better if re-made into another meal. I keep a running list of meals that can be made out of different leftovers right now the list is in my head, but I am working on getting it onto paper.

Ham and potatoes for dinner, turn the leftovers into a egg casserole, layer the potatoes, then ham diced, and then top with some cheddar cheese and enough beaten egg to cover. Bake at 350 till done.

Only left over potatoes - fry them up for breakfast.

Leftover taco meat, cheese, and soft shell tortilla- beat some eggs, scramble the taco meat and eggs together, serve wrapped in a tortilla topped with cheese and taco sauce or even tomato if you have them.

Leftover chili - boil some noodles, mix in chili.

Leftover chicken and rice- make fried rice

Odd pieces of meat save them for pizza night and have chicken or ground beef on top of the pizza.

How do you re- use leftovers ?

Thrifty Thursday - on a Friday morning

Yesterday got a bit out of hand between a early morning dentist apt, helping at school, Girl Scouts, and life in general. So here is Thrifty Thursday on a Friday.

Last week I talked about what to pack lunches in, this week some ideas on what to pack in the lunches.

The main idea is think big and pack small.

The average lunch in our home has one sandwich ( 2 for active teen boys), a fruit /veggie, a snack, and sweet.

Sandwiches- I asked the kids what the like to eat in there lunches as far as sandwich fillings, and as much as giving them the same sandwich each day makes me cringe, that is what they want. So for bread we use the white whole wheat, and filling options are PB and Jelly, Bonogla, Ham, Turkey, and on some days tuna fish or egg salad. Right now the lunches are Dad- Ham, Conner- Bologna, Sarah- Turkey, Nolan - PB and Jelly, Kat- likes to change it up between tuna, ham, and peanut butter. In order to keep lunch meat fresh, when I buy the big pack of turkey or ham I only place what will be eaten in one week in the fridge the rest of the package heads to the freezer.

Fruits and Veggies - this includes carrots, celery, salad, apples, bananas, grapes, pears, applesauce, oranges and so on. For fruits like apples and bananas I buy the smallest ones I can find, for things like applesauce buy the big jar and then package small for lunch. Oranges cut into slices and then use a 1/2  a orange for each lunch.  We also eat the fruit that is season or cheapest. So in the spring when strawberries are out the children will find strawberries in there lunches, and in the winter when citrus is cheaper more oranges.

Snacks- once again buy the big bag and give the kids a serving size, so for example the average bag of pretzels is bought for 1.29, and has 11 servings in the bag. We use pretzels, tortilla chips ( with salsa in a small cup), sometimes chips, popcorn, graham crackers, and so on in this category.

Sweets- this is yogurt , pudding, a cookie, jello,quick bread once again bought big and repacked small. Yogurt is bought in the quart size, pudding I buy in the large #10 can from Sam's for about 4.00, and that makes about 22 smaller servings. Jello buy the big boxes and make your own in smaller cups.

If school lunches are 1.70 a day for grade school, and 1.80 a day for the older children and a husbands lunch out is 4.00 ( if he sticks to the dollar menu ), and on average it costs me 1.00 or less to pack there lunches. The weekly savings alone is over 30 dollars a week, over the course of a year that is a tidy bit, and worth the time for me to plan and get up a little bit before them to help in the lunch making.

Thrifty Thursday

I found this idea on another blog and thought it a great idea starter for Thursday's blog entries, thrifty ideas that our family uses to make the budget stretch.

Today's thrifty ideas are all about weekday lunches, right now I am making 5 packed lunches and 2 of us eat at home on weekdays. Lunches for the two of us at home Aidan and myself are easy and can be summed up in one word " Leftovers".

The other lunches are packed and require a bit more thought, I used to pack mostly leftovers for my husband for lunches but that wasn't working out well as it never failed the day he had leftovers that needed to be heated he would be on the road. Which meant that instead of his packed lunch he ended up eating out, so now I might send leftovers but mostly he gets the same packed lunch as the kids.

Packing lunches does require some up-front costs, but they are mostly one time purchases that can be done with in budget limits. We also live in a area were allot of kids pack lunches, so it is not un-cool for a middle school or high school child to pack a lunch.

1- Lunches boxes, bags - Every time I go to the thrift store I check out the area were they have the lunch boxes looking for ones in good shape, size that I need, and colors that will work ( the boys really don't like pink lunch boxes). Over time we have enough lunch boxes for everyone and a couple extra for those times lunch boxes get left in school or at work. We used to use brown paper bags but have found that paper bags are best left in the craft closet for puppet making.

2- Food containers-  I bought the sandwich sized containers during back to school sales for 50 cents each, two per lunch that is usually packed. I also have a supply of the small round 1/2 cup size containers, and some larger square containers. I also want to get some hot food containers so I just keep on looking at the thrift store and clearance racks to see if there are any there.

3- Drinks- I used to do the whole juice box thing and if I bought the cheap ones they were mostly sugar, and the all juice ones were costly, so this year I bought them all small metal water bottles. They can choose what to put in them usually water and sometimes juice.

4- Utensils- I buy plastic forks and spoons and the kids know to put them back into the their lunch bags and we wash them and re-use. But if for some reason they get tossed or broken not a big deal.

Next week on Thrifty Thursday what to pack in those lunch boxes.