Five Ways to Save Money - In the Bathroom

Nobody wants to light five dollar bills on fire, so here are some helpful hints to save some money:

1. Soap is soap: This one is directly 'stolen' from Flylady, the idea is that you don't need a different kind of soap for every single thing. Leftover shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, etc. can be used for cleaning the sinks, tubs and toilets. I keep bottles of hand soap and laundry detergent when they're "empty", add some water, shake it around and use that to 'swish my toilet (with a brush and some elbow grease).
2. Don't buy shaving cream: This one's for the ladies. Use shampoo or conditioner to shave your legs. I've been using conditioner to shave my legs for about a year now, and it works perfectly fine. The only difference I notice in the shower is that it's much easier to fit everything on those little shelves with one less bottle. You can use the same as you use on your hair, buy cheap stuff especially for this purpose, or use up a shampoo you didn't like.
3. Don't buy makeup remover: I paid $10.49 plus tax for a 125mL little bottle of L'Oreal makeup remover. Can we say expensive? NOW, I use Johnson's head-to-toe baby wash. A 444mL bottle runs somewhere around $7.00 plus, I water it down. I fill my L'Oreal bottle about 1/3 full, and top it off with water, shake and I'm ready to go. If it's safe for baby's eyes, why not mine? (Plus I have semi-sensitive skin, and no problems).
4. Use what you have: This always applies. We all have those stashes of "nice" creams and stuff for "special" occasions. Go ahead and use them. You are special all on your own, you don't need an occasion. 
5. Try cheap: Touch and go with this one. I've done the cheap-o Q-tips and was not impressed, so I only buy brand name for them. But I buy the cheaper "Daisy" razors, no name cotton balls and cotton pads. If it's something you use a lot, buy a small package of a cheaper version or brand and see if it'll work for you.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Summer Fun!

The weather is beautiful, and I'm slipping into a more relaxed routine. Yay!

We 'baby-sat' a dog for 2 weeks while friends were in Finland, and because she's a little... excitable,  I kept all the 'extra' doors closed. One great habit I established was LEAVING my home office and closing the door for my lunch break and when I'm done for the day. Doesn't sound like much, but I used to spend my 'lunches' on facebook. And while I do still go on facebook several times a day, I also need to get off my butt, because I sit a LOT (for work and for play, then there's driving, watching tv...)

Anyways. I've found taking a real lunch break is beneficial to me. Getting up, standing for a bit, and getting one or two things done around the house is great. I've been getting outside, starting to do a little gardening.

I've also started doing 'spa dishes' again. I have two pairs of cotton gloves. (One I got for about $4 at a drug store, the other about $1.50 at a dollar store.) I take my rings off, put on hand cream, put on the cotton gloves, then put on the rubber gloves and do the dishes! It's great for the skin (especially with the heat of the water amplifying things) and if I do it consistently, it should save me some money on rubber gloves - My one fingernail always seems to wear a hole... now with the extra layer, the gloves should last longer. Taking care of myself, taking care of my family, and being frugal!

How is your journey towards balance going?


So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1

Jan 12, 2011

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1 :D
First of all, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while... I got a job at Saving Dinner of all places (after I was fawning all over them here) and I got busy, and distracted... Typical SHE ;)

So I'm back, and Saving Dinner is doing a Losing It With Leanne challenge right now! In fact, the whole staff is doing the challenge right along with everyone else!

So anyways. I ordered my protein powder a week ago, and it's not here yet, but I'm done waiting! (I'm in Canada, and I ordered from the States to get the specific one that Leanne recommended, so it's nobody's fault it's not here yet.)

Today, I sat down with my grocery list, Losing It With Leanne volume 1 (well, I have the whole thing printed off in my binder, but I'm starting at the beginning), and my Saving Dinner recipes that I already had printed out. I flipped through the Body Clutter menus that I had and picked dishes based on what sounded good and what meat I either had or was on sale. (That's how I usually shop, except I'm not always in the BC recipes.) I picked 6 recipes that look SOOO yummy even though they're good for me ;) and noted what I needed to get to make them (mostly produce, you'd be amazed at how little time I needed to spend in the middle of the store).
Sirloin tip roasts were on sale this week for half price, so I bought 3! You'll love this trick: they were on for $2.00 a pound and I had 2 beef recipes, one called for 2 pounds and the other for 3/4 pounds... So I looked for a roast that was as close to $5.75 as I could find :D Actually, I ended up buying three roasts and froze 2!
After I did my mains, I went through the rest of the daily eating plan and picked my options. There are 7 breakfast options in the LWL plan and 6 lunches, and I didn't want to buy for ALL of them at once, so I picked - again, based on what I had and what's good. Now I have most of the stuff for the breakfasts and stuff for 4 lunch options plus the soup! And I added some stuff to the list for my DH, he's not officially going on the plan with me, but I'm not cooking separate dinners for us. I jut told him that the recipes look good in and of themselves and he's fine with that. But I did get him 'regular' cereal and Black Forest ham for sandwiches, because he likes that.
That's the great part about the Losing It With Leanne plan, it's not all that different from regular eating, we just really need to make the healthier choices (low fat, not full fat dairy products, lots of veggies, less carbs (not no carbs, less carbs), and watch our portion sizes. It's more regimented for the people on the plan, but it's not the type of plan that turns you into a short order cook because your family "won't" eat it.
When my grocery list was done it was almost 50% produce, with a LOT of stuff around the outside of the store, and I only had to go down 4 centre aisles and that was for: Picante sauce, Kashi (and regular cereal for DH), bay leafs, tuna, white beans, and diced tomatoes. In my opinion, that's a pretty good list! And the best part was, I got to the cereal aisle and Kashi was ON SALE!! I love it when I'm going to buy something anyways and it's on sale! :D I really didn't spend any more than usual, especially considering how much nutrition was in my cart, plus I was buying 3 roasts instead of just the one I needed. So it cost about the same as normal with a little extra for all the meat, but that is normal :D
OK, so that's groceries... Got home, put everything away, had my 'mid-afternoon snack' of Kashi and then did all my measurements, then went downstairs and got on the wii fit to weigh myself. Today my BMI is 27.18 the wii wants me to aim for 22. It's a little high, but it has been slowly but surely coming down with me making good choices and learning by osmosis while working at Saving Dinner. I set my goal to lose 3 kg (6.6 pounds) in the 4 weeks of the main plan. I think that's doable. I've been slowly losing weight already, but now I'm going to be putting an effort into it!
I even did my circuit on the wii and burned a glass of coke and then some! (I have a list of about 8 of the activities that I 'always' do.) And I even hit a new high score in boxing, guess I'm not that rusty after all. I'm gonna plan to stay active through the duration of the Challenge, no easy task in the winter when you work from the computer ;) But I ran through my circuit today in 28 minutes, and I repeated some activities, so I should be OK. Plus, I'm committing to all of you and putting this our in cyberspace so I will be held accountable!
Dinner tonight from a past Body Clutter Menu-Mailer was Autumn Apple Chicken with acorn squash. What an easy and yummy recipe! I asked DH and he's all for us having it again someday (although apparently he's not a squash fan).
Hope to see you here more often as well as on the Losing It With Leanne facebook page!

Grocery Shopping

OK, people, let's talk food!

Everybody needs to eat and cooking your own food is the easiest way to be healthier and to save money. Now in order for cooking at home to save you time, you have to take a little time to do some planning. Running to the store or the drive through every evening wastes an incredible amount of time, plus knowing ahead of time what you want to make takes the stress out of dinner.

I try to grocery shop only once a week, usually when my list of dinner entrees is down to one and/or the milk is running low. I start with a menu plan. I have a pretty good idea of what food I already have in the house, so I can usually plan most of my meals around what's on hand and what's on sale. So my menu planning is really simple: I pick 6 entrees for dinners. That's it. As I pick the entrees I list ingredients that I don't already have on my shopping list and then I'm mostly all set. I quickly go through the flyer and see what else I "need" then I look in the fridge and pantry to scan for any staples that we're out of. I add that to the list, grab my shopping bags, and I'm ready to go.

Now, you may have noticed that I've been using a lot of singular words, so yes, I only shop at one grocery store and I really like that. It's the store closest to me, the next closest one is 10 minutes further away, and while 10 minutes doesn't sound like much, I'm not driving 10 extra minutes both ways every week just to save 15 cents on apples (or whatever). And even if I lived close to several stores, I still really like only shopping at one. I can find things faster because I am familiar with my store, I only have to stand in line once, and I only have to look through one flyer each week. I don't have to take the time to compare (and keep track of) pricing and sales at several stores.

Also, I have made up a form grocery list with items I buy frequently in an aisle by aisle format for my grocery store in the order I walk through the store. So picture that my piece of paper is divided into 12 squares and each square has several lines listing items (and prices) I frequently buy with a few spaces for other things to be written in. Because when I walk in the store I first come to the produce, deli, and bread departments, the first box has items I buy in those departments listed. (I enter the store, walk around the outside U of the store and then go through the centre aisles.) The second box is the meats and milk, the third is the dairy, frozen foods, eggs, and refrigerated juices. Then I get one box per middle aisle with those items listed and the best thing is that if I don't need anything in aisle 7, I don't have to walk through it!

I hope that form makes sense because it's really helpful to have one and I encourage you to make one. I did mine on the computer, but you don't have to. If you're already shopping at one store, you can start making it now. When you are familiar with a store you can remember roughly where things are. You know if you start in the middle or the outside of the store. Don't make your list in my order, make it in the order you walk around the store. Think about where you go first and write down a few things that you get in that aisle, then think about where you go next and continue the process. If you don't remember if the cereal is in aisle 5 or 6 don't worry about it, try to remember everything that you get from the cereal aisle and the next time you're in the store you can edit your list. It will take a few times to get it the way you want it, but that's ok. I still edit mine on occasion, but for the most part, I have the set up done.

When I started my form I didn't include prices, I added those later. I put down the regular price and the brand(in shorthand) of what I like to buy and that way I can tell if a deal is really all that great. Also, each square in the chart has a column for writing down how much you want and a column for checking it off.

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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