Mothering Many

Here’s a tip I use when food shopping. I learned it from another mom of many years ago. Calculate the cost per ounce of foods, and don’t spend more than ten cents per ounce. In addition to saving money, you’ll find that the foods you can buy for this amount are typically healthier than the pre-processed expensive stuff. I’ll admit that I don’t always follow this advice myself, but when I do, it saves me a bundle. And even when I don’t follow it exactly, I still try to keep the cost of our food to $2 per pound or less. That means that if we splurge on steak one night, we eat a meatless meal on another night.

From my email:
OK, what do you think about Ziploc bags? My husband kind of banned them and we have to use the Tupperware, but I just don’t think that they keep the food as fresh as a Ziploc would. I guess it is kind of like your cloth is best post, but didn’t know what you thought.
Alli

I don’t use very many Ziploc bags, and truthfully only buy them when I have a specific use for them. What I do use are the Ziploc containers. I used to be a Tupperware dealer long ago, and I do like the Tupperware products, but several years ago, they priced themselves right out of my budget. The Ziploc containers are cheap enough that I feel like I get my money’s worth out of them. I use them in the freezer, in the frig, and also for dry goods storage occasionally. And they are totally awesome to send/take food in because I don’t have to stress over my dish!

I don’t use those in my laundry either. Fabric Softeners coats your clothes, and that will cause your towels to not be absorbent. And most of them reek, IMO. Most of what makes your clothes nor feel soft is detergent residue, which you can avoid by using the small amount of dish detergent I discussed earlier. A little vinegar in the final rinse will also help with that. Use the Downy© ball that you already have, or the fabric softener dispenser on your machine.

One good use of the fabric softener sheets is for “fresheners” if you need to store off-season clothing, which we do. I find that if I toss a dryer sheet in the bins, I don’t need to wash them (again) when we unpack them.

Technorati Tags: fabric softener

I have a dirty little secret to share, but it really helps me clean up. I do not buy laundry soap. Ever. I use dish detergent instead, about a tablespoon for a normal sized load, about a tablespoon and a half for a super capacity machine (guess which one I have?). Try it and see how it works for you.

In my house are many children. Children have friends, and they want to trade phone numbers, don’t they? You go out, and meet someone you think you’d like to get to know better, and want to trade numbers. Professional business cards are great for this. Order some, and carry them in your purse, and you won’t have to search for a pen and a scrap of paper (you know it’s only going to get lost in that pocketbook anyway, right?)

I’ve found them handy for another use as well. I read, my dh reads and 5 of my children read, plus another is learning. And of those 7 readers over half read more than one book at a time. You know where I am going with this don’t you? Business cards make excellent bookmarks I have a set that I “outgrew”, and whenever someone asks for a bookmark, I get one, write their name on the back, and viola! instant bookmark. And it’s special, because it’s “Mom’s Business Card”.

I wanted to follow up on my cloth post with a little word on dishtowels. In general I have found the cheaper towels work much better for drying stuff and soaking up spills than the nice, thick expensive ones That’s all I have except for a few that I have received as gifts or bought for decorative purposes. So, choose your dishtowels for how you plan to use them.

One way to save a bucket load of money is to use cloth instead of paper whenever possible. Now, we still use the Charmin©, but we’ve replaced most other paper in this house with cloth. We use cloth diapers on the babies. In the kitchen, we use cheap dish towels instead of paper towels.

It may surprise you to know that my family of 10 generally makes less than a garbage can full of garbage each week. I’m talking about the ones the trash service gives out, now, not the one you bought for your kitchen. So not only does this save money, it also reduces the amount of garbage you are hauling out to the curb. And we all know that garbage has to go somewhere, right?