saving money/live greener

I recently lost my job and have now been forced to find ways to save money. Forced my be a strong word, but I've always known i need to save money, I just never had a good enough reason to. Now I do. And I know alot of people have been effected by the economy and any way to save a penny is good advice in my book. I actually enjoy finding ways to save, or use less, and even be greener in the process. This is a list in my head that i've created. it's not a top 5 or 10 list. just some tips i've picked up in the last few months (or longer).

1. Cloth diaper! I got cloth diapers for my baby shower (i wanted them) and was able to cloth diaper B for the first 2 months then our daycare wouldn't do it so I CD'ed part time. Now that I'm home, I cloth diaper full time. Green too because you are creating less waste

2. Cloth wipe. Makes sence when you cloth wipe. who wants to pick out poopy wipes from the poopy diaper. Make your own out of flannel or fleece. i made about 35 out of a yard. but i doubled mine. Green too because you are creating less waste

3. cloth wipe solution-go here for a ton of recipes-its i use water, baby wash and baby oil. stuff i already had http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-wipe-solution.shtml
Green too because you are creating less waste


4. make your own laundry soap-i make mine...does it work...i wash my cloth diapers and wipes in it. they are definatly clean. if it can clean poop off a diaper then it works. go here for the recipe. you can also google the Duggers. they have one too
It was probably like 7 dollars for all the ingrediants but the ivory soap came in a three pack so i was able to make 3 buckets of laundry soap for 7 dollars. how much do you spend on laundry soap. I've made three buckets, one per month. it can do about 64 loads.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefamilyhomestead.com%2Flaundrysoap.htm&h=d9cb53dd9a55a80935f093b140ba35ac
Green too because you are creating less waste


5. Thank you Margaret for this tip. Put olive oil in your hair before you shampoo then you won't need conditioner. and it's all natural so it's ok to wash down the sink. She also uses it as lotion. she mixes it with tea tree oil.
Green too because you are creating less waste

6.I get recipes in my email from parentsmag.com. it is great because they are usually fairly simple to make and don't take alot of time to make either. And alot of them use items you may already have, or are inexpensive to make. I've printed out about 20 so far that i keep in rotation and some of them call for the same ingrediants so it's easy to shop too. I spend less money at the store too, because I know exactly what i need. I can spend $50-$80 a week on groceries!

7.Sign up for giveaways on blogs. you can win free stuff or get coupons or ideas on other way to save money. The Mom Blogospere is amazing. It's mom's reaching out to mom's. it's a great way to meet new moms in the same situation you are.

8.Participate in a consignment sale. I made $80 by selling B's old clothing and toys. And I'm doing another one this week. It can be better than a yard sale because you set the price and the buyers can't ask for less.

9. shop at the dollar tree. Do you really need to spend 10 dollars on shampoo and conditioner. Like i sad before, you wash it down the drain.

10. Look for ways to mak your own of things. Invest in Dining on a Dime cook book. there are tips on how to save money on grocery bills and the back has recipes for homemade everything (margaret and I made leg wax...ouch) But seriously, you should check it out!


So I guess that's all I have for now. It was a top 10 list after all. I do all of these except use olive oil, because I seriously just bought new shampoo and conditioner (from the dollar tree).
If you do things to save money email me heatherd0584[at]yahoo[dot]com