Kirkland diapers

I love using cloth diapers. But I have been informed that the church daycare on Sunday mornings doesn’t do cloth. If kiddos come in wearing cloth and need a change, then the staff will ONLY change them into a disposable diaper. I usually like to change my kiddo moments before I put him in daycare. He’s only in there for an hour. But there are a few times when he goes poo moments after he’s gotten a diaper change. It’s bound to happen. So that means I have to have a few disposables on hand for church.

I like shopping at Costco. There boxes of diapers cost $38.99. Sometimes they will run a sale of $5 off…so $33.99 a box. But each box contains a different amount of diapers depending on the size. Here’s the breakdown….

Kirkland diapers
Size 1-2: 136 diapers
Size 3: 210 diapers
Size 4: 180 diapers
Size 5: 162 diapers
Size 6: 135 diapers

This means each size diaper costs a different amount. So, I was curious how much on average I pay for each diaper regardless of size. This way I could compare Costco’s price to the national average cost of 26 cents a diaper. (This is the number I found off of Google.)

Breakdown
Size 1-2: $38.99/ 136 diapers = 0.287 per diaper
Size 3: $38.99/ 210 diapers = 0.186 per diaper
Size 4: $38.99/ 180 diapers = 0.217 per diaper
Size 5: $38.99/ 162 diapers = 0.241 per diaper
Size 6: $38.99/ 153 diapers = 0.289 per diaper

If you average all the sizes together you get 0.244. So Kirkland is 24 cents a diaper vs the national average of 26 per diaper. Yep. Costco rocks!

Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

In inspiration of… one) the rainy London-type weather and…two) upcoming St. Patrick’s day, I decided to make shepherd’s pie last night. I don’t understand why more Americans won’t make this dish a staple in their house. It’s delicious and easy. If you can brown meat and make mashed potatoes, then you can make this meal. It was an instant hit in our house (as usual).

By the way, interesting fact….Americans often use beef in this recipe so it’s really called “cottage pie” in this instance. Europeans often use lamb, which is the true way of making shepherd’s pie.

This is also a good recipe to use up some leftover mashed potatoes if need be…

Here’s the modified recipe I used based off a recipe online I found at http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_shepherds_pie/.

Shepherd’s Pie
ingredients
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1-2 c. Vegetables—chopped carrots, peas, corn
1 stick butter (that’s a lot…you can scale it back if you want)
1 c. Milk
1-2 tsp. thyme
1 tbsp. Worcestershire
Salt and pepper to taste

steps
1. Peel, quarter and boil potatoes until soft.
2. Sauté onions with 1/2 stick butter. Add meat and brown. Add rest of vegetables until soft.
3. Add spices and 1/2 c. milk.
4. Mash potatoes with 1/2 stick butter and 1/2 c. milk. (I like to use my kitchen aid mixer. Makes my life so much easier.)
5. Place meat in baking dish and top with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. Bake 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

More on Lacking Green Thumb

Like I said. You don’t lack a green thumb. You just lack the right plants. And that’s where I come in to help.

On my last post about gardening, I talked about how bulbs are so easy. Now I want to talk about blueberry bushes. We live in the south. This might not apply to everyone. But we have found blueberry bushes to be so easy! They make a great landscaping bush and they give us delicious berries in the summer. Plus, the leaves turn a rich red color in the fall. I think the leaves are more beautiful than some of the trees!!!

 

 

Watering:

 

I usually don’t water my bushes unless we are in brought conditions and even then I only water maybe once a week.

Fertilizing & Pests:

I don’t spray my blueberries. I have found that they usually do fine without spraying for pests. I do usually feed them once a year. I like to buy fertilizer stakes from Home Depot. You just stick them in the ground by the base and done. Your bush will be slowly fertilized all season. Another great way to fertilize your bush is to spread rabbit droppings around the base. BUT only rabbit droppings! If you try using any other kind of droppings, you will burn your plants if you don’t let the droppings sit for a year and mature. Chicken, cow, horse, human, etc. All of these need to sit for a year before use.

Pruning:

I don’t usually prune my blueberry bushes. You can trim and shape them a little if need be, but I would only trim them in last fall. You can trim them in the spring, but you lose some of the buds that have already formed. Again, I usually don’t trim unless a branch started growing in my walkway area. So, more shaping than anything.

When to plant:

You can find blueberry bushes at most gardening stores. It’s recommend to plant new bushes in the fall or spring.

Hope this encourages you to go out and start gardening. Growing your own food and flowers can be so much fun. It really doesn’t take a lot of work to enjoy a nice harvest 🙂

Berry Good Muffins

These muffins were an instant hit. I asked my husband to critique them, but he couldn’t think of anything I should change. They were that good.  And my husband knows baked goods. He used to work in a bakery. I give the muffins maybe another day before they are all gone. Guess I’ll have to double the recipe and make more next time. Yum!

I got the recipe from ajoyfulchaos.blogspot.com. You should check out her blog. It’s very down to earth and refreshing. Here’s her recipe….. Much better than the store bought and cheaper too!

Blueberry Crumb Cupcakes

½ cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1½ cup blueberries

****I used a mixture of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. I bought a huge bag of mixed berries from Costco. That way I can have delicious berries even when they aren’t in season.

Topping

1/3 cup flour
¼ cup butter (softened)
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl combine butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix. Add milk and water and mix well. Add remaining flour mixture. After mixing spoon into cupcake liners. Sprinkle blueberries on top.

In a bowl mix topping ingredients until crumbs are uniform and spread over berries. Bake at 350º for twenty minutes.

Yield 20 delicious moist cupcakes with a delightful sugary crunchy top.

Pancakes

Pancakes…..

It’s so easy to throw a few waffles in the toaster in the morning for breakfast. Fast, simple. Nice. I usually buy my waffles at Costco because it seems likes a pretty good deal. But what if I made my own waffles instead?

 

 

 

 

 

I’m going to work out the calculations in a future post. But in the mean time….

I do not have a waffle maker. But I can make pancakes. So, I surprised my kiddo with homemade pancakes instead this morning. I haven’t made pancakes in a long time. My dad actually taught me to make pancakes as a kid. It’s one of the few things he cooked and I enjoyed sharing this experience with him.

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note, if you ever see a vintage Pyrex mixing bowl at a yard sale then get it. They are amazing. I have several. This happy yellow bowl is my favorite. They really come in handy for skinning tomatoes and peaches while canning.

 

I knew that my little one and I couldn’t finish all the pancakes from this recipe. So, I decide to eat what I could and freeze the rest for later. I was afraid the pancakes would stick together. To solve this, I froze each pancake individually on a baking sheet. Once frozen, I stacked the pancakes together and placed in a freezer bag. Labeled. Done!

I don’t really enjoy syrup. Weird. I know. I like using homemade jam instead. This picture shows my homemade blackberry jam from last summer. Yum!!!

Diamonds, Flowers, and Wiper blades

What did your sweet heart get you for Valentine’s Day?

I guess my husband and I are just too practical for our own good. We like to give each other frugal gifts and if we do spend money it’s usually on things we need.

For example, my husband gave me a really nice hot rock massage. It was very relaxing and totally unexpected. Price? $0

He also gave me new socks. Price? $12.99 (He said I don’t have to darn my socks and that we could afford to buy new ones. He said I was being silly, but that’s why he loves me. I have to admit. Nothing feels better than new socks. I’ll keep the darned socks for those days out in the garden.)

Next he replaced my wiper blades on my car. How romantic….That’s right girls. No diamonds. I got new wiper blades. I love my husband. Price? $7.99×2 (I love having a handy man around the house. Before we got married I made sure he’s hands didn’t look better than mine. I wanted a man that could do stuff around the house and wasn’t afraid to get some dirt under his finger nails.)

Finally, he got me flowers. Price? $9.99 (This was unusual because he typically buys me live plants instead. It’s been a harsh winter and I’m not sure if we are done with the snow and ice. We live in the south, but it’s been pretty cold even for us.)

To top it off…He cooked a really nice dinner. Like really nice seafood dinner and we almost never buy seafood. Price? $20.00

Valentine’s day grand total: $58.96

Not bad. How was your Valentine’s Day??

Stainless Steel

Here’s an easy and quick way to clean anything stainless steel….

Do a quick wipe down with a wet cloth. Then use some baby oil to buff out fingerprints and make it shiny. Finally, take a clean rag and wipe off the extra oil. “Wax on…Wax off…..”

Done!

A La Naturale

I don’t like buying cleaning supplies. Why do you ask?

1. Buying cleaning supplies even on sale is expensive
2. I don’t like all those nasty chemicals in cleaning supplies
3. Homemade cleaning supplies are SO easy to make
4. Homemade supplies saves me money

Here’s my shopping list for cleaning supplies:
1. Baking soda
2. White vinegar
3. Tea tree oil
4. Hydrogen peroxide
5. Rubbing alcohol
6. Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile soap
7. Peppermint or lemon balm essential oil (or whatever scent you like)
8. 32 oz spray bottle (These are pretty cheap. Usually a dollar each or you could reuse an old bottle.)

All-Purpose Spray:
2 c. Water
1/2 c. Vinegar
3/4 c. Hydrogen peroxide
1 tsp. Castile soap
20 drops tea tree oil
20 drops essential oil
32 oz spray bottle

I got this recipe from the book “Gorgeously Green” by Sophie Uliano. Great book. I’ll do a more thorough book review soon. She also has a website at sophieuliano.com.

Disinfecting Spray:
32 oz spray bottle
3 c. Water
1/2 c. Rubbing alcohol
20 drops tea tree oil

I like to use this spray after cooking raw meat to make sure everything has been disinfected. Also, this spray works wonders for spraying down sports equipment. My husband’s hockey equipment smells horrible, but after using this spray it’s much better. And again, I don’t have to worry about those harsh chemicals.

I used to use Lysol spray before making my own cleaning supplies. One time our family got a bad cold and I figured it would be a good idea to spray down the door knobs with Lysol to disinfect the house. Much to my surprise, the Lysol ate off the finish to my new door knobs! If something is really that powerful, I don’t think I want it in my house.

Windows & Mirrors:
32 oz bottle
Half white vinegar
Half water

BTW… If you use coffee filters instead of paper towels to clean mirrors or windows, you won’t get any streaks and it’s cheaper! Pick up some coffee filters at the local dollar store today 🙂

Toilets:
Sprinkle some baking soda in the toilet bowl. Next spray with vinegar. Let it bubble and fizz for a few minutes. Then shrub with a toilet brush. If it’s really dirty and you have some stubborn stains, get a pumice toilet stone from the store. I got mine from the cleaning isle at Walmart. Finally, use the all-purpose spray to wipe down the seat and lid. Done!

Sinks:
Sprinkle with baking soda inside the sink. Next spray with vinegar. Let it bubble and fizz for a few minutes. Then use an old toothbrush and scrub. Disinfect with disinfecting or all- purpose spray. Rinse with water. Done!

Try Not to Laugh

Ok. Try not to laugh.

After I calculated how much it costs to run my dryer per load, I have decided to REALLY make an effort not to use the dryer. Usually I like to use my drying racks indoors or out on the back deck. I’m not allowed by the HOA to have a clothes line. (Yes. I tried the clothes line outdoors anyways. I got a written warning in the mail and if I continued I was told I was going to be fined. Bummer!) But I only have 5  racks and if I do all the laundry on Monday, I tend to run out of room, especially with kiddo stuff…What’s a girl to do? It’s nice to just get all the laundry done in one punch and not have to worry about it the rest of the week.

I used to just throw the clothes that wouldn’t fit on the clothes racks in the dryer. At least I saved some money. After calculating each load to cost 76 cents, I felt that wasn’t good enough. So, I decided to hang some string in my family room and hang the rest of the laundry out to dry.

My kiddo thought it was awesome. He tried to pull down the clothes even though they were just out of reach. Better luck next time kiddo! My husband is going to be flabbergasted when he gets home. You can’t miss the indoor clothes line when you walk in the door. Hopefully they dry quickly. I am going to be some strange looks if I have to answer the door for a solicitor.

I thought about hanging a more permanent solution in the attic. It would be a pain to carry up and down all the laundry. But it would only be once per week. I started thinking. Would my clothes start to smell like insolation? I’m not sure it’s worth saving money if I have to end up rewashing my clothes. What do you think? Have you tried hanging clothes in your attic??

How much does it truly cost?

I know dryers are supposed to cost a lot to run. So, I wanted to specifically calculate out the cost to run my dryer in my area.

I found this great site to help me with my calculations. It wasn’t hard. But I love math!

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/clothingcare/qt/How-Much-Does-It-Cost-To-Run-A-Dryer.htm

Here’s the formula to help you out…

(dryer’s wattage x length of load in hours)/1000 = kilowatt hours (kwh) used

kilowatt hours x cost per kwh = cost per load

cost per load x # of loads per month = cost per month

cost per month x 12 = cost per year

Real cost per kWh:
I took my total bill and divided by the total kWh I used. This way I get the whole picture, base charge and taxes included.

$70.13/518 kWh= $0.1354 / kWH

Plug it in:
Plug and chug…plug the numbers into the formula and prepare for your jaw to drop.
(5600 watts x 1 hr.) / 1000 = 5.6 kWH used
5.6kWh x $0.1354 = $0.758 per load

MEANING….
It costs me about 76 cents to run the dryer for an hour per load. OUCH!

Or… $30.32 per month. (I usually run about 8 loads a week.)

Or… $363.84 per year. (And that is being conservative.)

Sometimes I run 10 loads per week if I have a lot going on. That’s $37.9 per month or $454.80 per year.

That’s a nice chuck of change! Think I’ll let Mother Nature dry my clothes instead!! And just in case, I put a note on my dryer of the true cost to discourage me from using it unless it’s necessary.