Living on the Cheap

I know these days everyone is trying to save a buck. Well, its difficult. These are some examples that I have done to make things stretch:

Milk: I use an iced tea pitcher and make one batch of powdered milk and add 2% milk to double the amount in the pitcher. With a young kid who loves to drink milk in the morning and at night, I feel like I have to or I'm buying a ton of milk. Its about $3.75 per gallon these days.

Laundry Soap: I make my own with borax, super washing soda and Fels Naptha soap. I've learned to not add as much water to my 10 gallon bucket. I do at times add Clorox color safe bleach, but its still cheaper than spending around $10.00 every 2 weeks on laundry soap.

Dish Washer Soap: I make my own with Lemi Shine, Borax, Super Washing Soda and Kosher Salt. One batch lasts over a month and its the same price as one big box. One big box at the store is usually $5.00 but only lasts two weeks.

Eggs: I've been buying eggs that are on a flat of 2 1/2 dozen at a time. It lasts two weeks and usually cheaper than buying per dozen. My husband likes omelets and my son likes his scrambled eggs on most days and only buying an 18 count or dozen doesn't last long.

Buying bulk: I do like to buy bulk on some things that are worth it. Oatmeal, sugar, flour, rice and powdered milk. Mostly sugar, flour and milk are great to buy at the big box store. Usually oatmeal is the same price for the smaller containers in the grocery store. Its funny how I can shop mostly at Walmart for some things but be careful. Not everything is cheapest there. I do still get some things once a month at Trader Joe's and weekly at Ingles. Its the west coast equivalence of Safeway but better prices without it having to just be on sale. For our bulk items we have food grade containers with lids to keep our food safe. I don't think I've haven't had to buy rice in a year. We do eat rice pretty often, but we had checked when rice went on sale or major coupons.

I was talking to my husband this weekend and I just don't know how everything still seems so expensive even with all my things I save with a family of 3. In about 3 months it will be 4 and we will have more money to need to go towards diapers, but hopefully will be able to breast feed and not have to spend a small fortune on formula. I know that with medical costs they are killing us. Moving out to North Carolina our health care changed dramatically. We went from Kaiser where we paid minimal each month to have it and only paid $20 in co pays and prescriptions were cheap. Now we have to pay $635 per month to have insurance and a $3,000.00 deductible per year and it renews in July. So the first $3,000. we pay and after that its 30% of the cost is out of our pocket. It makes such a difference. After this year I won't be having anymore babies and when our baby Claire is one she won't need to see the doctor every month. I don't know how other people do this. Its crazy. I hope these tips help you, if you have any please post them in comments. Thanks for taking the time to read.