From seeds to starts!

I started with a mini green house ( I accidentally bought the tomato one. You can get smaller ones.), my seeds, and my handy dandy SFG book. This book has all kinds of great information about when to plant and when to start seedlings.

I decided to so cucumbers, beef steak tomatoes, broccoli, and later I added celery.

The green house comes with direction. Thank Goodness!! So I followed them to "pump up" the little planter guys. I did not use the whole tray just a few. Then I planted my seeds.

Next I made a little chart of what I planted. Make sure to add the date!

On the bottom of that same paper I made a very artistic drawing of my outside garden. LOL!! I put what I planted and again made sure to add the date.

As of yet nothing I have planted outside has sprouted. I did how ever find a mystery plant in my other box.

We are pretty sure it may be a bean from last year sad 3 beans from 6 bushes crop. I wish it better luck this year!

Here is my mini green house crop! So stinking cute!!!

Look at those skinny little broccoli plants and those cucumbers.

See those tiny little white flecks in the ones towards the front? Those are my 'mater plants. YEAH!!

No sign of the celery yet....

DIY Laundry Soap

I finally did it. I had all the stuff and so I made myself do it. I thought it would be really time consuming, but not so.

You will need:

1 five gallon bucket with lid

1 bar of Ivory, Fels Naptha or Zote soap

1 cup Borax

1 cup washing soda

Other tools:

old cheese grater only to be used for soap

a long spoon or paint stirer

sauce pan (comes clean)

First you will grate your bar of soap into your sauce pan.

Then you will fill the sauce pan with water. Heat to a light boil and stir constantly as the soap dissolves. ***DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED*** It can boil over quick. Or so I am told I never left it. When the soap is dissolved set aside.

Fill your bucket with 4 1/2 gallons of HOT tap water. As hot as you can get it. Add you soap soup, your borax and washing soda. Stir until well mixed.

Leave to cool for 24 hours. I finished making mine at about 8:30 PM and it was ready to go around 10 am the next day. I know that is not 24 hours but I needed clean cloths. :) It is supposed to look like this when it is done.

Then I stirred it up well and added it to my left over laundry soap bottle. Leave room to shake it up before you use it. You will need to shake it up before each use as it gells up.

I use 2 to 3 cap fulls for each extra large load I run. This come out to 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

You probably want to know cost, huh? Well I would say probably about $7 to start, with the average 5 gallon bucket full maybe costing $2 to make. Heck I pay around $2.99 for that little bottle of all and that last only two weeks.

Tasty Tuesday

Cook Books

If you are like me you collect recipes from every source. Magazines, newspapers, hand written scraps from your friends house, Internet print out, and everywhere else. LOL!

Well here is my solution: Make your own cook book.

First you will need a few things. I had most of these around my house when I made mine.

• A 3-ring binder - 3" would be great and a clear pocket on the front is handy too.



• Page protectors - easy to keep clean!



• Left over craft paper and stickers if you want



• computer paper

I made a cover for mine to match my kitchen color and added a little title.

Then I made dividers labeling the section. Hints and tips, breakfast, breads, soups and salads, main dishes, kids favorites, pasta, cookies, deserts, and cake decorating ideas.

Next start adding you recipes. I have a mix of magazine cut outs ( I LOVE pictures.),

printed out pages,

and hand written. Some of the are on odd ball scraps so I just glue them to a piece of paper first.

A couple of hints here.

If you are printing from a blog: cut and paste to word or whatever program you use. Also include the name of the blog/site you printed from. This makes for easy referencing if you need help or more information about that recipe.

When dealing with hand written recipes, be sure to write who you got the recipe from or what book you copied from.


Also a binder with an inside pocket is nice. Sometimes you want to try a recipe before you add it or you simply don't have time to add it yet.

Are you lucky enough to have a spot to stand this baby up? Make sure to label the spine.

These make great gifts. I made one for my sister one year. It had red and white checked paper and I found some cute little ant stickers. Very Cute!! You can make it so individualized it's insane!!

Remember to think about Christmas, mother's Day, and birthdays. You could even make a smaller Blank Family Recipes Favorites. Make one for each sibling ! Or you could make one for a missionary, collage student, or newly weds.

Money Monday

Christmas Cash ( Thank Sharron for putting this in my head.)

I know we just got done with that holiday, however there are less than 365 until it is here agian.  So...we must plan ahead.  A few ideas to help you do so are:

Make a per person budget.  List all those you buy for. Include Giving Trees, church Christmas events and other such carities you participate in.  Divide it out by month or by paycheck and start saving that cash now.

Make a gift wish list.  For example my one and only princess wants an American Girl doll.  Oh joy to my budget.  LOL!!  So we will see, those things are quite spendy, but my kids only get stocking from Santa and one awsome gift from Mom and Dad (this year we got a Wii plus a game per person and one family game).
So knowing this is what Girlie wants I can now keeps my eyes and ears open for any cool deals on these ouch spendy dolls.  Plus I can look at sales, clerance items, internet deals through out the year for all of those on my gift list.

Work towards a goal.  I mean literally work.  My family works at our local fair every year for our house hold that equals Christmas cash and ride money.  What can you do to earn that gift money during the year?

Gift swap. What do you make that you can swap with a friend for something they make?  I have a cousin-in-law who makes beaded jewlery.  Anouther is a scrap book wiz.  I like to make sewing crafts.  We haven't done a swap as of yet but maybe one day we would.  It is an idea.  Think about it.

DIY. Make it a home made Christmas.  Now don't fool yourself this takes planning.  Both time and money.  It can be very rewarding though.  It is also great it you have a great stash of craft supplies, fabric, canning jars and wood.  A great stash of leftovers from other projects can save tons of cash.

Well those are my ideas.  Do you have any you want to share?

Thrifty Thursday

With just a coat of paint.....

What to do with that end table the kids carved their name into? Or an old hutch in drab brown stain? Well add a coat of paint (you may have to do miner sanding first).

Here are a few wonderful examples.

Over at You paid more than me you can see a very awesome hutch that was just painted for a hip new look. Try to just look at the hutches. The rest of her site is so fabulous you will not tend to be to awful thrifty after looking at it. LOL!!!

Check out these cute night stands. A Goodwill find gone well over at jcaroline'sblog.

If you do not currently own any piece you want to redo and are in the mind to shop for some here is a great article on what to be looking for. Also remember Criags List is a great place to look just don't forget to haggle a little.

Food Storage Friday

5 Easy Steps to using your Food Storage

1.Figure out what is in your food storage.

Do you have a lot of powdered milk, wheat, rice, beans?

2.Write down a list of the meals that your Family typically eats.

Be sure to include baked good, breakfast and dinner.

3.Look for the ones that you can make simple adjustments to.

Recipes that call for milk are easy to substitute powdered milk to. Taste the same. I keep a container of reconstituted milk in my fridge for cooking purposes.

Do you bake? Try using some whole wheat flour for SOME of the white flour. Pancakes, waffles and cookies are great places to start.

Add rice to your soups, casseroles, and burritos.

4. Start conservative

You have to start out with small amounts of things like wheat. Converting over whole heartedly WILL cause major stomach problems. Take it slow.

Also look at only changing one or two recipes so you do not get overwhelmed. Next week add another and so on.

5.Look for new recipes that use more food storage items.

When looking for new recipes look for ones that have more food storage friendly ingredient lists.

Here are some GREAT food storage recipe sites:

http://safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/

extension.usu.edu

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/category/recipes

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/recipes/

Tasty Tuesday

School Lunches Part 2:

Convenience food are easy but costly.

Take fruit cups. You know those presealed little cups of fruit chunks. On average the are $2.50 for a 4 pack. Well make your own and save come cash. Plus my kids can never open those store bought ones with out a mess. LOL!! The American Homemaker did a great post about making her own fruit cups here.



I put mine in cups just like this. Mine are green though.





Make your own lunchables. My kids LOVE to stack their own mini sandwiches. I cut my meat into little circles using an old spice jar top. Mini cookie cutters would be fun too.


What are some of your frugal but tasty lunch ideas?

Survival Saturday

Blog Spotlight

Ready Set Plan

You want to be prepared. You want the simple easy way to get there. You like a site with out too much fluff. You know one a mom can read while handing out crackers, nursing a baby and chatting on the phone (yes ALL at once....you know you do it.....I am NOT the only one.... right?) Here is a super, wonderful blog for you!!!

Crystal (AKA the girl with a plan) over at readysetplan is just the gal we have been waiting for! Go check her out! And leave a comment. They make a girl feel so very good!

Water Storage Myth and Fact

For the real water storage low down I must refer you to another blog. I can not compete with the entry here.

Not Just For Storing is a great blog ran by an incredible gal in Arizona ( my homeland LOL!!) ENJOY!! And get you some water storage!!

Canning Instrustions.......

How to Make Homemade Canned Peaches, Plums, Pears, Plums, Nectarines and Cherries

Here is a great how to complete with photos and detailed instructions.

I think I will be using this when I do pears this fall.

Link

Sara over at Learning the Frugal Life gets the credit with finding these great instrution. Go check out her peaches. They look awesome!

Money Monday

Dave Ramsey is a financial guru and very well regarded in the financial realm. Here are is baby step to becoming debt free and in control of your finances.

Baby Steps

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund

2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings

4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement

5. College funding for children

6. Pay off home early

7. Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate

Here is his printable. Want to know more about Dave? Click here to go to his site. Still need help with a budget (I do!!)? Want a free budget guide? Go here.

Where are you and where do you want to go? Have you done or tried Dave's plan? Did it work for you? Do you think this might work for you?

Whatever Wednesday

Garden Tips

Parade magazine had some good tips on Sunday. The link to the whole article is here. The tip I am most eager to try is the one about eggs shells and tomatoes.

Eggshells are a good source of calcium, essential for tomatoes; without it, they develop brown patches known as blossom-end rot. Just crush the shells and sprinkle the bits on the soil.

I'll let you know if it works!

Making resumes work

The News Tribune had a great article Sunday on making the most of your resume work. Be sure to check out other links on their page. There is even a free trail at a networking site. You may think you need not worry about this but odds are you know at least one person who is unemployed right now. So if you don't need it for yourself think about those you know.

Money Monday

Teaching our Family about Money

As we learn to manage our money better let us also teach our children those lessons.

LDS Living Magazine has a great article about how to teach your kids about money. Click here.

SmartPiggyBank is a site that helps your kids learn how to manage their money.

At my house my two older kids have divider banks. I t is basically a long box with three separate sections. First is tithing, then savings, and then FUN! We tithe 10% of our increase. Then we put 10% into savings. The rest is theirs to spend. They have learned to love the toy clearance isle. LOL!! Tyler has learned to save up for bigger Lego's and Elizabeth has learned it is sad to go broke over Whoppers. Kids will be kids.

Food Storage Friday

Powdered Milk

A year supply of powdered milk for 1 adult is 60lbs. When stored under ideal conditions powdered milk can be stored up to 20 years. For a great how-to on powdered milk storage go here. The LDS Provident living site also has a great guide on packaging options.

Want to know more about powdered milk? Including nutritional value and more recipe ideas? Go here

Where to purchase? I have bought mine from my local grocery store and most recently from the LDS Church Cannery. The cannery tends to be a cheaper plus if I go one our wards cannery day I can get it canned in #10 cans. You can check out cannery prices here. If you would like to know where your nearest LDS cannery is go here. Please remember you do NOT have to be LDS to access this wonderful resource!!

I know this post is short but the links posted are perfect and well I have no desire to improve on perfection.

Resumes

I did a search for bullet proofing you career and it came up with a ton of resume lists so I thought I would highlight a few here.

Here are few links:

A tutorial and examples

This one is great for starting from scratch or as a refresher course on resumes.

Short to the point link

This one is great if you are just looking to update and refresh your current resume.



How to email your resume

In this world of technology here is a how-to that will help you look you best if emailing is the option for you.


And here a great link about recession proofing you job.