Frugal tips

I use paper towels in my bathroom for hand drying. I know it sounds crazy, but I have guests over and don't want to share my hand towel with anyone. That is one place I cannot be frugal.
I save a lot on paper towels because I have those Sham wow, and they work great and I also have cleaning towels from sams in a big bar rag pack.

I have always made my babies food. I just took what we ate, and ground it up in the food processor for my babies. Yes, occasionally I bought some for on the go food, but there are so many other things you can feed your babies, they don't need those unhealthy jarred baby foods.
I just read somewhere, instead of buying windex, use windshield washer fluid. That is a great idea...if you use windex. Personally, I use Shaklee Basic H2 with a bit of essential oil for smell. I know, smell has no clean, and I agree. I like to add smell tho..so I add clove oil to my kitchen cleaner, as it adds a natural anti bacterial to it. The Shaklee basic H2 can be bought on ebay pretty cheap. I am a member of Shaklee so I get mine there. A bottle lasts more than a year in an average household..and its about 10 dollars, it turns into an all purpose cleaner, window cleaner, degreaser, and people even use it to clean their veggies.

We do not go to the hairdresser. I went to a hairdresser one time since 1995 and she did my hair exactly like I do it...so why pay her? I get my hair color at CVS and dye it myself. I cut my hair, and help hubby get the back of his..he does the boys cutting and I dye my older teenage boys hair for him. Its 6.00 for dye and the hair scissors are the only price we paid for hair cuts.

We save money buying pizza by making it at home. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is a great book with doughs you can make without having to knead. Check my other blog entries for links to watch the authors in action making it on you tube. Super fast and its always ready. Yes, we buy pizzeria pizza on occasion, but we love the Artisan dough pizza because we make personal pizza's and everyone gets what they want. Besides, the pizzerias charge you a fortune for a few scraps of toppings you end up getting.

Learn to sew...even a little bit. Its not hard to make curtains! I made curtains for all 19 of my windows at my house, and I am so happy I did. The curtains at the store are super expensive and the pickins are slim on styles. I got to chose from 1000s of bolts of fabric and made them in about an hour per room (3 windows).

If you get a plastic grocery bag, reuse it before you get rid of it. Use it as a trashcan liner or save them and when someoen comes over for veggies from your garden, send them home with it.

I grind my own meats instead of buying good ground beef..if its ever good. I also ground turkey and chicken to make burgers. It just tastes so much better.
Something I recently read about greeting cards..rip the front off and use it as a postcard...9.5 times out of 10,nothing is written on the back of the front cover of the cards..and sending a post card is cheaper than sending a full card in an envelope. Go figure!
Pack your lunch, for goodness sakes! If you can get a hot lunch for less than 2.00, then by all means, go for it..but you can pack a good healthy lunch for a dollar or two.

Make your own fabric softener sheets. Sure its not totally homemade..but if you take one part fabric softener, and four parts water and put it in a spray bottle. Then take a washrag and spritz it with the fabric softener spray and toss it in the dryer. Wala! One bottle of fabric softener will last you a year or more!