What do you make instead of buy?

[alipski]

Hey Ladies! Long time no post! lol I do however, peek in when I have a moment. I've been busy busy busy lately.
Trying to cut costs and was thinking it would be great to make some things instead of buying them. Not only would it save money but would probably be better for us!
I am looking for ideas for everything from soap to spaghetti sauce! Gimme what you got!
Thanks ladies!
Amy

[camilla]

I bake a lot. Pies, cakes, cupcakes, bread, bagels. My DH loves bagel bombs which are basically cream cheese baked inside a roll. It is so yummy. I make tomato sauce, soups and popsicles too. We also bought a popcorn popper and a huge bag of kernels at Sam's so we never buy microwave popcorn either. Tons cheaper.

[AuntSueto4]

Amy,

I'm not sure if you saw this when I posted it originally, but just wanted to encourage you, even as you make instead of buy things.

Sue


Your Children Want You!(ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MOMS)
« Thread Started on Apr 12, 2012, 11:40am »
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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MOMS, I saw this article and thought/hope it encourages you Moms in what you do and are for your children. AuntSueto4


Posted by: Mandy Chronister, on the Flylady site:

powerofmoms.com/2012/​04/your-children-want-you/


Your Children Want You!

powerofmoms.com

There's this crazy phenomenon going on right now. Good, devoted mothers get on Pinterest . . . .and blogs . . .. and Facebook . . . .and Twitter . . . and they're convinced they're not enough. Here's what I've discovered.

[AuntSueto4]

Amy, Check out this post I had bookmarked about kids and crafts to make:

momsofminnesota.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=kids&action=display&thread=1930

[sharon]

We make Alice's Wonder Spray instead of buying household cleaners. We buy a lot of our food in bulk and fresh and keep anything packaged to a minimum.

[lilmermaid]

I have all my DIY's on my pinterest boards!
Tons of homemade soaps and cleaners I've been meaning to try.
I'll try to post a few later.

[alipski]

Thanks everyone! We are a one income family and money is always tight. Although I find it worth it to be home with the kids, expenses that could be cut by me making something instead of buying it sound great.

[dara1012]

I am that worst at this kind of stuff, I buy way too many convenience items....however some tricks I learned that are cost saving and appliance saving is to use about 1/4-1/3 of the detergent in dishwashers and washing machines that the bottle or box says. It is really hard on your clothes and your appliances to use as much detergent as the detergent makers want you to. I learned this from appliance repairmen who service the appliances at the company I work for. This saves you money as you buy a lot less of those products.

I try to use rags instead of papertowels for cleaning (except the toilet I use paper towels for that b/c I want to throw them away). I sweep more often, but only use the swiffer wet jet on the floors 1-2x per month.

[sarahisis]

not having anything to do with food... but we turn off our powerstrip in the living room at night for tv, dvd and all the gaming stuff.... we also turn off the gas (for the oven) at night... it actually does save quite a bit over time!
we don't pay full price for gas, EVER! We generally are getting at least 1.50 off per gallon each fillup! I'll put how in another post...

[sarahisis]

We applied for the BP credit card last year and have used no other gas since. How it works is you earn points from all the purchases you make... travel expenses and going out to eat earns you the most points I believe. We even pay our bills on it, then pay it off with our debit. EVERYTHING goes on this card!!! Then when you go to BP to fill up, after you've accumulated points... (those points somehow transfer into cents off per gallon)... you swipe your BP card and it'll give you the option of using the however many cents off you have accumulated, or saving it for next time and it will only build up from there... we've gotten over 2.50 off per gallon.

I believe there is another option you can sign up for in terms of rewards too.. and that is receiving BP gas cards once you hit a certain amount. When we first applied for this we earned two 100 dollar gas cards pretty quickly , we saved them and they funded all of my gas on my roadtrip to NY and back! what a life saver.

[bumblebee23]

so far nothing but I have found a TON of stuff on Pinterest that I would really like to make: ie: cleaning supplies, laundry soap, body scrubs, etc.