I’m all for making my own stuff if possible. Especially if it saves money. Having parrots in my life costs money for their care and I’ve had to find ways to tighten up and save a buck here and there. So I actively searched for ways to save money. I did an extensive post about some ways years ago and you can find that here: Not Your Usual “Parrot Nation”Post.

I had heard of this before, but I’d never tried it. But I did it. I finally did it. I made my own laundry detergent. And it was easy! I simply grated up a Fels Naptha bar soap with a cheese grater, (any bar soap will do) to make up two cups of shaved soap.  I then added one cup of 20 Mule Team borax, 1 cup of washing soda and put it all in my food processor. I spun it up for about a minute to get it well mixed and finally ground up and poured the resulting powder in a tupperware container.

You use one tablespoon per load; 2 tablespoons if you’ve been working out in a barn somewhere. I did the math on this and based on my calculations it will cost me about five or six cents a load to do my laundry. Or about $3.60 for 60 loads. That’s quite a savings over the cost of buying the soap at the grocery store where the cost is about eleven-plus dollars for 60 loads of laundry.

Here’s another thing I do to save tons on something. Years ago I stopped buying toilet bowl cleaner. I don’t use it. I use bleach. Why in God’s name would I want to pour, or spray some fancy-pants stuff into my toilet just to clean it when bleach works just as well? Pour some in, swish it around with a toilet brush and let it stand for a while. Then flush and brush and you’re done.

I don’t get jiggy with all of the budget living tips I see. For instance, I once saw instructions on how to make my own welcome mat by crocheting plastic grocery bags together. Umm…no.

But I do try and make my own lunches to carry to work and that includes making my own soup. I can barely stand canned soup anymore once I began making my own on a regular basis. I’ve also begun making more things with beans which have a lot of protein and are relatively inexpensive.

This is one of my favorite sandwiches and my crew always likes this as well. It’s a mozzarella, basil, tomato and avocado sandwich and it’s really good!

It certainly beats any of the crap you find at the airport and it’s better for you.

These are just some of the ways I find to save money. If you have any suggestions or know how to really crunch on the budget let me know!

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