Homemade Treats

Our kitchen has been busy today - full of laughter, smells, and yummy food.
I wanted to share these recipes with you that we made today!
We are on the quest to replace our old snacks and all of our food with healthy alternatives. After reading the ingredients in a lot of food, I can't believe what is added and I don't want to give it to my family! Here are a few replacements!

One of my favorite treats to make is graham crackers, but they are more similar to teddy grahams. They are super popular in our house!
I have been using Weelicious' recipe for Homemade Graham Crackers for nearly two years and we love it!

Caelyn is like any other normal kid and loves fruit snacks - ya know, those Welch's ones that pretend to be healthy and 100% fruit but then you turn over the box and can't pronounce the ingredients? Yea.. that one!

So, these are SUPER easy - they might take me 10 minutes but most of that is cooling down. This recipe for homemade fruit snacks makes me happy as a mom because there is FOUR ingredients - fruit (whatever one you pick), juice (whatever you pick - lemon gives it more of a sour taste. We like apple juice), honey, and gelatin.

I have been gearing up to make homemade yogurt. To be honest, it scared me a bit! It seemed intimidating. Yeah, I was so wrong!

I browsed a few websites and most of the recipes were the same. Here is a good description of what I did.

To make flavors, I blended up different fruit and mixed it in! Banana and strawberry banana are our favorites!



Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have had a lot of people express interest when I say that I make my own laundry detergent. Many think that it has to be difficult or take too long to make. Quite the contrary really, I can do it when I start dinner and be done with the detergent way before dinner is finished. The total of time is probably 10-15 minutes and, considering how much money we save, it is well worth the time!

To start off, you need 4 simple ingredients: water, borax, washing soda (NOT baking soda!!!), and a fels-naptha bar.

Get a large pot (similar to the one in the right of this photo and a cheese grater. Grate the fels-naptha bar. You could probably use a food processor or anything to get it into small little chunks.

Put all of the grated fels-naptha bar and 8 cups of water into the pot and bring to a boil.. I let it boil for a few moments to let all of the chunks melt completely.



At this point tonight, I started dinner (Andrew took a picture of me doing so! haha). Once it has began to boil, add 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. Stir this well and let simmer/cook together for about 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat!

You will need two gallon jugs. I use milk jugs and the same ones have lasted me 6 months. But, they aren't pretty!

I use a measuring cup and measure out 4 cups of the detergent for one jug and 4 cups for the next jug.

Fill the jugs up the rest of the way with water and shake them well! I let them sit for awhile.

Warning: this will get lumpy at times. Thats ok! I readd water after I put detergent into the washer. (So you get even more out of it all!) This tends to help it unclump.
I have used this detergent for over 6 months, probably closer to 8-9 months. I use it on everyone's clothes - including Brayden and I have from the start.

I consider detergent making pretty thrifty. I was never able to get detergent for free via coupons. I suppose if you can do that, then this isn't as cheap as that!
The cost to make this detergent:
$1 per fels-naptha bar
3.99 for a box of borax
3.99 for a box of washing soda
Water = free (Well besides your water bill but you get the point!)
Out of each box, I will probably get 20 cups so the price per cup for each is:
$.20 approx

so for $1.40 I get two gallons of detergent thats $.70 a piece and they last me about 1.5 months. Awesome!! I don't think I will ever NOT make detergent again!

What is a Thrifty Homemaker?

I renamed the blog and some of you might wonder why, although the name can give you hints.

Like many people, Andrew and I live paycheck to paycheck. While it is fairly common, it is also quite difficult. Andrew is having a harder time adjusting because he is so used to have smaller bills and extra left, while I am very used to not having extra to spend on haircuts, video games, or anything else.

Thats where the thrifty homemaker comes into play. I am still learning. Andrew works hard for his money and I do too. Stretching our dollars is sooooo important! One of the easiest places that a homemaker can stretch the budget is the grocery bill. If you pay attention like I do, you will notice that the grocery prices lately are rising and it is quite sad. When you pair the higher grocery prices, to lower coupon prices and stricter coupon rules in most stores (Thanks Extreme Couponing!!), it makes it even harder to keep the grocery bill down.


Part of my goal for this blog is now to start blogging about thrifty meals and recipes. Another great way to stretch the grocery budget is to cook from scratch. This is because a pantry full of the basics can make so many amazing things. The sky is the limit.

Remember: Almost anything you can buy in the stores, you can create at home.

The key is figuring out the price to make vs the price to buy. Some people completely don't care about the price to make because they are in it to make sure that their families don't eat the chemicals and that is totally respectable. I try to be the same way, but it doesn't always happen!

Another way to save money is canning! I am so happy to say that I am a beginner in the canning world. I can't wait to start sharing my recipes and experiences with everyone. When canning is going to come into huge play will be next summer when Andrew and I plant our first garden.

Thriftiness is learning how to stretch the budget, but still providing your family with wonderful meals, a beautiful home, and a great life.

I have so many ideas to blog about and I can't wait to show you what goes on in this little mind of mine!