Today’s the last day to register for the virtual Spring into Organising workshop. The handbook is done and I can’t wait to share all this information with you. We already have people registered from Australia, the US and South Africa. Are you next?

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Since I started using Pinterest, I’ve been a huge, huge fan.

Mainly because I used it to store and organise my bookmarks.

Now that that’s done, I’ve been using it like a second Google.

I have a love for washi tape (that’s a story for another post) and recently I went into Pinterest and typed “washi tape” and tens of lovely pictures popped up on my screen.

Too lovely.

Anyway, the point is I search for things I know I want to find, and sometimes I also find other things I didn’t know I wanted.

Like handmade liquid soap.

When I clicked over and read the post, I thought, “no way, it can’t be this easy” but duly put glycerine on the shopping list so I could try it this weekend.

It is EASY as pie, people.

1 cup grated soap flakes (5 minutes – and I didn’t even use a whole bar of soap)
10 cups of water (2.5 L)
1 Tablespoon glycerine

(you can add essential oils if you want to play with fragrances)

That’s it.

Combine all in a pot, heat til the soap has dissolved and let it cool completely.
It will look like it’s not going to set (mine looked like milky water for the longest time) but my best advice is to forget about it. I left it overnight and when I checked it on Sunday morning, LIQUID SOAP!

Use a funnel to pour into bottles and enjoy.

Over 2 L of liquid soap for about R7 (one bar of soap cost me R10 and I used about 70%)

I chose a neutral, non-girly fragrance so that if it worked we could use it as shower gel too.

Next up, I’m going to use baby soap and make some baby foam bath – I can’t WAIT – I’m on a soap-making high

Here’s my Pinterest link if you want to see what tickles my fancy.

As an aside, a few weekends ago I went to do a load of laundry and after I screamed in frustration because the nanny hadn’t put fabric softener on the list, I went to my friend Google (the real one) to look for alternate solutions.

(I really needed to do some laundry and I hate getting behind)

I found lots of links that said a quarter cup of white vinegar would do the trick.

Well, friends, I’m happy to report that we haven’t used “real” fabric softener since then but I have been through about 2 bottles of white vinegar

There is absolutely no vinegar smell – the clothes just come out smelling clean.

Do any of you have some tried and tested homemade recipes for cleaning solutions? Please share links and so on in the comments and let’s all save some money.

I hate to say this but it’s true.

I’ve been using money not very intentionally but I’m happy to say I’ve turned a corner…

Bond

I was paying x on my bond and when interest rates dropped I forgot to do what I normally do in these cases which is pay in the difference every month anyway.

Well, I fixed that a couple of months ago.

Interest rates have continued to drop so I’m still paying in the difference into our bond account.

There’s something so satisfying about seeing all those “extra payment” entries on our statement.

Am I the only one who gets excited by debt reduction?

Credit Card

We get HUGE cash back every month (on average R1500) simply by using our credit card at partner stores, like Pick and Pay for groceries and ToysRUs for nappies and other baby-related purchases. Places we were shopping at anyway.

Again, we used to fritter away our cash back which is literally like a credit on your credit card, and the money seemed to just disappear.

Odd, that.

But again, since October, I’ve been adding that cashback to my trusty little spreadsheet as “extra money” coming in. So that I’m forced to budget it.

The weird thing?

We seem to have more money even though we’re not even using that extra money.

It’s the power of intention - it makes you more aware and I think, makes you wealthier.

I know it’s been said that if you respect money, it will respect you. Suze Orman?

On a scale of 1 – 10 with 1 being terrible, how good are you at managing your money?

I’d say I was an 8.

My babies will be 9 months old tomorrow (gosh! where has the time gone?) and have still not had a drop of Purity (our local jarred baby food, for the non-South Africans) pass their lips.

I will admit – I nearly, nearly cracked this weekend when we had two SPECTACULAR power failures, but I didn’t.

Still, there was NO WAY I was going to be spending R6 per baby for a jar of baby food, 2 – 3 times a day.

After all, I have twins (my new excuse for being cheap )

So I decided to try my hand at making my own.

It’s a lot easier than you think especially if you cook them in batches instead of cooking daily.

We bought a butternut squash for R12,78 (let’s not forget the 78c ) and it made all these portions.

6 portions for Connor and 6 for Kendra.

That’s at least 9 jars of baby food = R54

Saving = R41

You can save even more money when you use cheaper vegetables like sweet potato.

Another way I like to save money on our food is this – every month there is one week (happens to be this week) where I cook from the freezer and pantry.

I’m forced to get creative using strange combinations of whatever cans and bits of frozen food I have, all to empty it out.

Sometimes these strange combinations work really well, like a potato bake I now regularly make with a can of sweet corn stirred in.

How do you save money on food?

We go through around 12 – 14 nappies a day and I’m proud to say I still have not bought or used ONE fancy nappy disposal bag.

Why?

I use bread bags. And apple bags. And bags from the CD and DVD stores.

They work beautifully and they’re free.

When you’re spending thousands on nappies, bum creme and baby wipes every month for your babies, you save where you can!

What do you do to save money that others may find unconventional?

P.S. I don’t see us running out anytime soon. Either I hoarded quite a bit before the babies were born or we eat lots of bread and rolls. Or both

pic from the Household Organising File

(part of the Organise your Home ecourse) 

Do you menu plan?

Menu planning is probably the one thing I do that saves me the MOST time every single week.

It’s also going to save you mo.ney when you start using up all the food in the freezer and in the back of the cupboards. Oh, and not doing so much impulse shopping.

Note – you should do your menu planning BEFORE you go to the shops to do your grocery shopping

Here are the five steps I use:

1. Go to your freezer and cupboards to see what food you have that you need to or want to use, and make a list.

2. Write out a menu plan for a week (if you do weekly shopping) or longer, using recipes to use up that food.

3. Add any items that you need additionally to your weekly shopping list and do your shopping.

4. Stick the menu plan to your fridge.

5. Follow the plan to the letter, or move things around and have Monday’s meal on Wednesday, etc, etc. At least you have the ingredients for all the meals available.

Now you don’t have to rack your brain every night wondering what to cook.

You have a PLAN.

Another tip that will save you lots of time is to cook something on a Sunday afternoon. This meal is not for eating that day, but for freezing.

When you have a busy day it’s easy to just defrost the meal and have a healthy supper on the table in minutes.

We went through a stage where we didn’t buy any meat for two months while we finished everything in the freezer and started on the cupboards.

You see, we all get into a habit of buying the same groceries every week without checking if we really need it.

If you’re not already menu planning, I’d like to encourage you to at least start. Do so for at least a month and give it a good go. If it REALLY doesn’t work with your personal style then so be it.

If you already do menu planning, then your challenge for this week is to only buy perishables for your next shopping trip and eat from your freezer and cupboards.