We Like Making Our Own Stuff

Are you looking for ways to save money?  Who isn't nowadays? Every little thing you do helps and the small things really do add up.  Which is why I have a somewhat creepy tub of soap scraps in my bathroom. I admit, it seems a little weird to save soap scraps, but it wasn't always this way.  In fact, they used to have little contraptions for saving your soap scraps. But those days are gone.  Or are they? I think frugality is making a comeback--at least, it is around here, because I save all our soap scraps.  What do I do with them? Recycled Soap Scrap Bars If you are regular users of bar soap, a family of four can easily manage to get six additional bars of soap per year by saving soap scraps.  It doesn't seem like much, so I'll write it this way instead:  in ten years, that would be 60 bars of "free" soap.  There, that seems more impressive. Ingredients: Soap scraps Water Herbs (optional) 1.  Grate or fi...

Another summer has come and almost gone here in central Wisconsin.  The night temperatures are now regularly dipping into the 40's, signaling the impending arrival of fall.  This summer has proved to be challenging, mainly because we've hardly gotten any rainfall!  Thankfully, our area is only considered to be "Abnormally Dry," so it could have been much worse. However, we were still forced to water quite a bit this year, and many of our garden plants did not do as well as we had hoped--most notably the squashy plants, like the pumpkins, butternut, zucchini, and crookneck.  These plants are finally setting fruit, but I have my doubts as to whether or not they will reach maturity before it gets frosty. But what may have saved the rest of the garden was our wash water and other gray water saved from the house.  My husband has rigged the washer machine discharge hose up to some large barrels outside; the water is then pumped through a hose and into the garden....

I do not consider myself a shallow person.  I don't Botox or spend hundreds of dollars on anti-aging serums. But when I noticed a wrinkle beginning to form on my brow, three words popped into my head:  WTF!?  I'm only 31.  A wrinkle?  Really?  I used to hear older women complain about them, and would think to myself, big deal.  It's a natural part of aging.  Get over it already.  I'd like to go back in time and smack 25 year old me in the face. Still, I do not consider things like botox or plastic surgery as being options.  They just creep me out.  Therefore, I look for alternatives--something I can do myself at home that wont cost a fortune.  And that is how I stumbled upon a very simple idea:  baking soda. Baking soda is a cheap exfoliant, which means that you can use it often without breaking the bank, and it will remove dead skin cells, revealing the beautiful, healthy skin beneath. When you use baki...