In my quest to simplify my life I have been cleaning out a lot. Its also that time of year that we have way too many toys around the house. So I like to get rid of stuff. I have gotten rid of a large bag of toys and other random stuff we don't need. It seems like I have a constant DI bag going on. Its good though. I put up two totes of toys and a box of books. Its nice to up them up away and then in a few months when they start to get tired of their christmas toys I will pull these totes out. They will seem like new toys for a few days and maybe weeks. Its a great trick I learned from some fellow moms.
I have some random penny pinching/ use it up type of things I have been trying to do lately.
One of them is my dryer balls. I have had them probably about a year or more. I love them. We do have static still but I have learned that is from drying too long. Your supposed to stop them before they are compeletly dry. This also helps on shrinkage and fading. I need to work on that one. I am the queen of shrinking clothes. I need to just hang up my clothes to dry on the rack. I was just talking to my sister about this. One of my new goals is to do this and not use the dryer as much. It will be a lot easier when the basement is finished and my laundry room isn't in the garage anymore.
Next one is lemon ice cubes. I buy the big bag of very large lemons at Costco. They are so much bigger and better at costco. That should be their slogan or something Bigger and better. I can't eat/drink all of those lemons before they go bad. I have started to juice them and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays so they stay good. Then I can just throw them in my hot water with honey and off goes the scratchy throat.
Cloth Diapers..... Yes I still love them, but we have struggled lately because of the stink. Its harder with just one in diapers to remember to wash them as often because the pail doesn't get full every other day. So that has contributed to the smell. My baby has this ammonia smelling pee and no its just not how I wash the diapers. He even has this smell in disposables sometimes. I have been a slacker lately on using my diapers. Then we go through a sleeve of diapers that comes in the big box and I think this is such a waste. So I have gone to cloth full time again. No more slacking and I think I switched up my wash routine so we avoid the stink again. Sometimes it can be tricky getting the right routine down. I love how cute the diapers are though. So fun to use.
We go to the dentist every six months and now that there are 5 of us that go these little sample tubes add up quick. I usually saved them for camping but we have so many floating around in our bathroom drawer. I decided I am going to use them all up. This doesn't save much I know but it does use it up and not waste. That is what I love. I love using a tube and then throwing it away after a few weeks. Its a weird great feeling.
I have three kids and one loves to turn on all the lights in the house so we are working on that one. I go around turning lights off all day. The kids have a bathroom in their room and that light is always on I swear. There is no window so they have to turn it on every time they go in there. This will add up and so I am trying to teach my kids to turn the lights off when we aren't in the room and in the day time we don't need lights on. The sun in our lights. I remember growing up and my dad would say you have to turn your lights off or you can pay me a nickle or quarter I don't remember.
We bought our first house from Jareds Grandparents because it was their house and he was in a nursing home so we fixed it up. They were raised in the great depression so they saved everything. They also got really good deals on a lot of stuff and stocked up on it. I mean really stocked up. We didn't have to buy toilet paper for probably a year and a half. We are still using garbage bags, cleaning supplies and dish soap. They had so much of it I have given some away and we are still good for probably another 5-7 years on dish soap and I hand wash most of my dishes so we are using it everyday. I am so thankful for their preparation, we are reaping the benefits of their hard work and saving.
Meal planning..... I have never been good at making dinner. I am wonderful at eating it. haha. I just am not a very good cook so its hard. I have really tried to make healthier meals since having kids. My wise older sister is so good at cooking and meal planning. So this inspiration came from her. I have been doing it for two weeks so far and its been great. I plan a week at a time and then I go once a week shopping if I need stuff.
There is this wonderful new thing called grocery pick up that walmart does. Now I generally don't shop for food at walmart. I am a winco and kents girl myself. Walmart got me at pick up..... I don't have to haul my kids into the store and find the stuff I need and try to keep the kids in the cart or by me. I love that I can add things to my virtual cart just when I need it. It takes over my grocery list. Its great. I was wary of doing any produce in this pick up style but I ordered some and they picked out great stuff, I have been very impressed. Then when I get to $30 or I am already there and need stuff for that week of meal planning I set up the pick up time. This has been a life saver for me so far. I have only done it three times but I am won over. Now if they would build a winco up by me and start this pick up thing it would be perfect. I also love the online shopping because I don't walk by something at the store and think oh I need that..... or that is cute. You know you all do it. You always come out of the store with something you didn't plan on getting. So this helps me not spend as much I feel like.
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