Friday, April 24, 2009

Money Saved

I am constantly on the look out for ways to save money or make our limited income stretch further. I have done very well, in my opinion, and am constantly getting better at it.

So far, since the begining of January, I have saved:
** $180 on laundry detergent, by making my own. I made the equivalency of $180 of laundry detergent by spending less than $10.
** Roughly $200 in cleaning chemicals by switching to baking soda, vinegar, water, & essential oils...I've spent roughly $30 on these products this year
** Not to mention my garden...I have spent roughly $50 in seeds & supplies. So far I have been able to harvest the grocery stores' equivalency of $30 in leaf lettuce, $20 in fresh spinach, $15 in radishes... and the "real" crops haven't even started yet!!!! I've even had enough spinach to start freezing it to use later in the year & during the winter when I don't have a fresh crop to pick from! I still have much to get planted, but so far it's been a GREAT payoff!
** I've also worked very diligently to combine my trips into town & don't do as much running around as I used to...so I have gone from 3-5 tanks of gas a month to just one, sometimes two! Creating a savings of (average $25 per tank) almost $500 just this year!!!

So, since I have saved my family almost $1000 in just the first 4 months of this year, do you think my husband will wake up and realize that the leak finances are not of *my* doing? Oh, and I'm not really one to spend that money on something else, except on new clothes for the kids here and there, but I'm always with at least one kid in tow when I do "go shopping" and 99% of my shopping trips are to buy groceries, so doing much browsing & other shopping just doesn't get done.

It took a little bit of getting used to and took some willpower & a lot of doubt on my part to actually start doing most of this...the garden has really been my only "easy" part...but its been awesome!

1 comment:

  1. I love my laundry detergent and today we made dishwashing liquid, febreeze and fabric softener...

    ReplyDelete