I’ve always wondered how to make apple cider vinegar, and this weekend I thought I’d give it a try.  I actually made pineapple vinegar instead of apple cider because I had pineapple scraps.  You can use fruit scraps to make fruit scrap vinegar, and apple cider vinegar is just another fruit scrap vinegar.

Apple Cider Vinegar Health Benefits

Apple cider vinegar has many health benefits, and is great for making salad dressings, using in a bath for detoxification, and even cleaning.  Apple cider vinegar has been often called a wonder drug, and contains vitamins and minerals essential to good health.  Losing weight, lowering blood pressure, and even healing headaches have been some of apple cider vinegar’s benefits.  Personally, I take it when I feel a cold coming on because I think it helps ward off the bad germs.

When you make your own apple cider vinegar, you control what goes in it, and you know you are getting the real deal.  When I purchase apple cider vinegar, I buy the Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar because it contains all the goodness of unpasteurized vinegar.  It’s unheated, unfiltered, and contains the “Mother”.

How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar

You can make apple cider vinegar, or any fruit scrap vinegar using this method.  All  you will need is some fruit scraps, sugar, and water.

1. Chop your fruit scraps up.  You don’t have to chop it into tiny pieces, so chunks of fruit are fine.  I made sure to wash the pineapple very well before I used it for my fruit scrap vinegar.  Use the core and skin of the pineapple or fruit you are using.  Apples and pineapple are the most popular fruit to make into vinegar.

2. Mix 1/4 cup of real sugar with 1 quart of warm, filtered water.  Allow the sugar to dissolve in the warm water.  You may need to stir to help the sugar to dissolve.

3.  Put the fruit scraps into a large clean jar.  Make sure you wash it well with hot water and soap.  You don’t want your vinegar getting bad bacteria in it.

4.  Add sugar water solution to the scraps and place a kitchen towel over the opening of the jar.  I secure mine by using a rubber band.

5.  Place jar in a warm area (around 70 degrees) for about two days to a week.  Check it every day and stir if you are able to.  When it smells like vinegar and has a darker color to it, remove the fruit scraps and use!

Please remember: when making fermented foods, if it smells bad, don’t eat it! If it has mold on the top, throw it out!

Apple cider vinegar and fruit scrap vinegar can be added to salad dressings, soups, and even green smoothies.  A tablespoon won’t even be detected by your family.  If you don’t like consuming the vinegar, you can actually use it for cleaning or even conditioning your hair with the no poo method.  Making apple cider vinegar is a great way to use up fruit scraps and provide your family with a great quality vinegar!

Have you made apple cider vinegar?  Do you like it?

The other day I was cleaning in my kitchen and I realized that our stainless steel dishwasher was looking pretty bad.  I think stainless steel appliances are beautiful, but after having a stainless steel dishwasher and refrigerator, I think next time I’d go with just plain white or black.  Stainless steel is a pain to keep clean! It attracts fingerprints, dust, and if you get water stains on it, forget it.  Those are so hard to get out.  Luckily, after three years of cleaning stainless steel appliances, I have found the best way for cleaning stainless steel.  Of course, you know it would have to be a safe and natural alternative to stinky chemicals!

How to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances Naturally

-Olive oil & a soft cloth. This is the tried and true method that works for me, and I know you’re going to be baffled when you hear what it is.  I use some olive oil and an old prefold cloth diaper that my mom picked up at a thrift store. What I do is dab a small amount of olive oil onto a corner of the cloth diaper.  I then take the diaper and work with the grain of the stainless steel, polishing as I go.  Make sure you work with the grain so you don’t end up scratching your expensive stainless steel appliances!  I make sure that the oil is rubbed in well, and then move onto the next area. Using olive oil to clean my stainless steel has been a lifesaver! It removes fingerprints, smudges, and even water stains from the dishwasher!

-Vinegar and water. A simple spray of water and vinegar is great for cleaning stainless steel appliances.  The vinegar works well because it is acidic and dissolves dirt and grime.  I make a mix of about 25% vinegar to 75% water, spray on the stainless steel, and wipe with a soft cloth.  I’ve found that vinegar and water works the best for the in-between cleanings of your appliances.  Vinegar is also great for polishing stainless steel!

-Club Soda. Club soda is good for removing streaks and stains.  Just put some club soda onto a rag and apply with the grain.  It will help clean and polish your stainless steel.

-Gentle dish washing soap and water. I like to use Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap because it smells great and works well without damaging the stainless steel. I never have to worry about it being too harsh for the metal.  Sometimes after I get done doing the dishes, I take my dish cloth and just wipe down the appliances.  Of course, this can leave streaks so it’s best to follow up with another one of the methods described above.

How to Care for Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is beautiful, but can be hard to care for.  Here are some things to keep in mind as you clean your stainless steel appliances.

-Always work with the grain, never against it.

-Don’t ever use abrasive cleaners on your stainless steel.  They can scratch your appliances easily.

-Always use a soft cloth.  Never use anything like steel wool (seriously, I know someone whose housekeeper did this!)

-It’s easier to take care of your stainless steel appliances if you clean them regularly.  The longer you let it go, the harder it is to keep them clean.

Those are my tips on how to clean stainless steel appliances.  Of course, you can apply them to any type of appliances as well!

How do you clean your stainless steel appliances?

Have you wanted to make homemade soft scrub to clean your bathroom? The other day I decided my bathtub was pretty dirty, so I set out to come up with a recipe for homemade soft scrub.  It contains just a few safe ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen.  Of course you knew that this is one of the baking soda uses.

Making your own soft scrubber for cleaning your bathroom should only take about five minutes.  What’s even better is that you will keep the heavy bathroom cleaning chemicals out of your bathroom.  Have you ever gotten dizzy using bleach to clean the bathroom?  You won’t get that way when you use baking soda, water, and soap.  It’s all natural and safe for your family.  You may even wish to clean your bathroom as you shower!

Homemade Soft Scrub Recipe

-1/2 cup baking soda

-3 Tablespoons liquid castile soap (I used Dr. Bronner’s )

-1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of water

-5 drops of tea tree oil (for it’s antibacterial and anti-fungal qualities)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, using a spoon and ensuring that all ingredients are incorporated well.  At this point, you may add in a few drops of other essential oils if you wish.  Different essential oils are nice to scent your soft scrubbing solution.  When the mixture looks like a runny paste, you’ve got your completed product.  You can use the soft scrub to clean the bath tub, sinks, floors, kitchen and pretty much anything else your heart desires!

The baking soda adds a mild abrasive action to cleaning.  It’s nice because baking soda is very gentle and doesn’t scratch like other cleaners may.  You can use more or less baking soda to your mixture to get the consistency you desire.  I’ve found that after I’ve left my homemade bathroom cleaner sit for awhile, I do need to add more water and shake well to mix.

I would save an old squeeze ketchup bottle to use for dispensing the bathroom cleaner.  It works very well, and helps keep the bottle out of the landfill!  If you don’t have an old squeeze bottle, you can just pour some of the cleaner onto the surface and use a sponge or cloth to clean with.  It will work just as well!  Be sure to cover tightly so your mixture will keep well.

What’s so nice about this recipe is that it’s all natural, super easy to make, and contains ingredients that you have on hand.  I think it’s important when you’re transitioning to an all natural lifestyle that it’s an easy transition.  There’s no need to get stressed out about going natural!  You should enjoy saving money and living green!  Once you start making your own homemade cleaners, you won’t want to go back to harsh commercial bathroom cleaners.  You’ll feel much better as you clean your bathroom, and knowing that you aren’t poisoning your family is also a wonderful feeling!

Have you tried a soft scrub recipe before? Do you use homemade cleaners to save money?

photo credit: Tim Patterson

I’m going to start highlighting some foods that are fairly inexpensive and are very good for your health. Today’s focus is on the green smoothie.  Every day I start my morning off with a delightful green smoothie. At first I was repulsed by the idea (and the look!) but after I got down the art of making them, I was addicted. There’s nothing to help detoxify your cells and brighten your day than a green smoothie! Green smoothies are fairly inexpensive to make, and pack a huge nutritional punch.  They may look funny, but they don’t contain any unpronounceable ingredients.

Green smoothie recipes are simple to me: pick any leafy green you want, throw some fruit in (normally not more than two-three like fruits), add some water and ice, and blend.  I like to keep my fruits in the same “family”, like mango, pineapple, strawberry, or orange, banana, and kiwi.  I think it makes the smoothie taste better.  I try not to add too many different fruits because sometimes it is hard to distinguish the flavors of the fruits.

One of my favorite things about making green smoothies is that they save me money and food waste.  If I’ve got some bananas that are about to go bad, I toss them in the freezer to save for a smoothie. When I buy the 1 pound spinach from Costco, I wouldn’t be able to use it up if I didn’t make green smoothies.  That’s a lot of spinach!  You can throw pretty much any fruit or veggie into your green smoothie, which helps reduce any food waste and helps keep your body healthy.   I’m also pretty lazy in the morning, so throwing ingredients in the blender and mixing makes me happy.  Easy peasy!

Ingredients

-Greens. Any type of greens will do, but my favorites are spinach and Swiss chard.  They are very mild, and if you don’t use too much, you can’t taste them in the smoothie.

-Fruit. We buy a large bag of frozen strawberries from Costco just for making smoothies.  We also go crazy buying bananas that are almost brown and discounted in the store and freeze them.  They taste great!  Basically, any fruit will do.

-Ice. If you aren’t using frozen fruit, you’ll want to add in a handful of ice.  I don’t like drinking warm green smoothies. 

How to make a green smoothie

Blend a handful greens with a cup of water in your blender.  Make sure you blend it until it looks like green water.  Throw in a banana (or whatever fruit you choose).  Blend until smooth.  Add in frozen strawberries and pulse.  Blend until incorporated.

At first, I would add in very little greens.  Then you can gradually work your way up to more greens.  Greens are fabulous for your body because they contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C, are good sources of calcium, magnesium, and folic acid; and help detoxify your body.  Fruit is full of antioxidants and tastes yummy.

Green smoothies are inexpensive, so healthy for you, and a great way to reduce food waste.  Give them a try!  You’ll be glad you did.

Have you heard of green smoothies?  Would you try them?

photo credit: neil conway

Have you ever wondered how to make deodorant? I have, and decided that I would come up with a recipe that would work better than just putting baking soda on my underarms. I wanted something that felt more like real deodorant.

Store bought deodorant contains many ingredients and fragrances. After using my homemade deodorant for so long, I can’t stand the smell of perfumey deodorants. Also, there’s a bunch of controversy about aluminum in deodorant being linked to breast cancer. I like to err on the side of caution. I figure it can’t hurt to use homemade deodorant.

Also, your body is meant to sweat to release toxins, so anti-perspirants really aren’t that great.  Just use a little deodorant and you’ll be smelling like roses all day!

Ingredients

-6 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
-1/4 cup Baking Soda
-1/3 cup Cornstarch
-1/4 teaspoon shea butter or cocoa butter
-10 drops of your favorite essential oil

Directions

Heat the coconut oil until you can stir in the shea butter or cocoa butter. Once these are incorporated, add in the dry ingredients and the essential oils. I like to use lavender essential oil because it smells so good! You could also use lemon, sweet orange, or patchouli. Use whatever you like! That’s the fun of making your own deodorant.

When the mixture cools, you can put your homemade deodorant in an old deodorant container or in a tub and just scoop some out with your fingertips. I reused an old Trader Joe’s deodorant container.

You may have to store the deodorant in the fridge in the summer, because the coconut oil may liquefy. Use caution.   Also- I like to put mine on right when I get out of the shower.

What kind of deodorant do you use? Are you concerned about aluminum in deodorant?

Picture this: Mr. Money sits down, ready to get a haircut from his talented frugal wife (me), and out comes the camera.

“…what are you doing with that?!” He asks.

“I want to take a picture of you, honey.” I reply.

“Why?! You aren’t going to bl… you’re going to blog about this, aren’t you?”

“Do you really think that I would- ok, yeah.  I am going to blog about it and I need a before and after picture.”

[blank stare from Mr. Money]

Without further ado, I present to you, my husband, victim recipient of a $0 haircut, done by me!

Here’s what he looked like before, rocking the skater/punk/too long hair:

And here’s what he looked like after:

I’ve been cutting his hair for a few years now, and I’m pretty proud at how good I’ve gotten.  I can only imagine how much money we’ve saved on haircuts over the years!

What’s your preferred method of haircut: at home or by a professional?

Does your desk look like this? A lot of the time I feel like mine does! A lot of my problem is that I don’t know how long to keep records. I know that there are guidelines out there, but do you really follow them? Here’s what I generally do for record retention:

Utility Bills: I shred as soon as I pay the bill if I receive a paper bill. I used to hold onto the bills but then I realized that I had proof of payment once it posted to my checking account. If there ever was a discrepancy, I could provide the bank statement as proof.

Bank statements: Even though I am a pretty self proclaimed “greenie”, I still receive paper bank statements on our main checking account. I know that if I ever needed a bank statement and I didn’t have it, I can get it (usually it costs $5). I’ve been keeping bank statements for 7 years. This is one of the things I’d like to shred. It’s a lot of papers to keep!

Investment Account (ROTH IRA) statements: Both Mr. Money and I have small Roth IRAs that we receive monthly statements on. These are about 4 pages each. I honestly don’t know how long we should keep these. I’ve just been hanging onto them each month.

Insurance Policies: When I switched car and homeowners insurance a few months ago, I shredded our old insurance policy because it was no longer valid. I just kept the new policies and all the paperwork that came with it.

Tax Returns: I’ve kept these for all the years I’ve filed tax returns. I guess I’m a little paranoid. I figure these are probably the most important!

How do you deal with record retention? What do you keep, and what do you shred?

image from elisasizzle

Do you remember the flooring dilemma I had a few months ago? I’m almost embarrassed to say that I am just now getting around to solving the problem. I installed laminate flooring into my hallway and bedroom. And I have to say, at this moment I am confident this was the best decision for us.

Not only do I have the peace of mind of having a complete, normal, beautiful floor in my bedroom, but I have the financial peace of mind knowing I didn’t spend $3737.50.  I love the look of hardwoods, but with the dogs I couldn’t justify spending that much money and watching them get scratched.  Going with laminate flooring eliminates that worry.  It’s going to take a lot (knock on wood) for them to scratch the laminate.  Also, I was able to install it myself, which saved us a ton of money.

With the current housing market the way it is, we’ve decided to love the home we’re tied to, and make improvements that fit our lifestyle.  We can afford the laminate flooring.  We actually bought it at Costco and will get 2% back on our purchase because we have an executive membership. Also, I was able to pay with cash out of our hardwood floor fund, and I’ll tell you, when I pulled out my envelope and paid cash for the flooring, it was amazing. It felt so empowering to know that I had been saving for so long to be able to do this, and I wasn’t having to charge it or use my debit card. What a natural high!

Although I was worried about the resale value of the home after installing laminate, I realized that was a silly concern, as there are more serious problems going on that are making my home value go down right now.  We love our house, and although it’s not where we’d prefer to stay for the rest of our lives, it’s where we need to be right now, and we need to make it into a home we can love.  We’ll just have to keep making frugal renovation decisions and realize that anything’s possible if we put our minds to it.  After all this is said and done, I can look back and realize that sometimes the most frugal decisions are the wisest ones when we are pushed to our limits.  I’m thankful the flooring is done in my bedroom, and now I can relax.  Or paint the living room…

Helpful readers: I am in desperate need of your help. I am looking for a dish soap recipe and dishwasher soap recipe. As you are probably aware, I love making my own cleaning products. I have tried and tried to make my own dish soap and dishwasher detergent, but every time it either doesn’t work, or turns out horrible. I want to “be green” and also be frugal at the same time. Here are a few things I have tried.

Dishwasher detergent recipes:

Mix and use per dishwasher load:
1 Tablespoon Borax
1 Tablespoon Baking soda

and
1 Tablespoon Borax
1 Tablespoon Washing soda

These recipes never seemed to get my dishes clean!

Dish Soap Recipes:

I’ve also tried melting soaps down to a liquid consistency and then using those as dish soap. I have a ton of bars of soap that I wanted to use up. I used Dr. Bronner’s bar soaps, melted them, and then used it as dish soap. The problem is that it doesn’t lather up very well. It works fine for hand soap, but when you put it in the sink to wash dishes it just stinks.

I have tried googling, asking around, and asking my mom, who normally knows how to make everything. No one has a dish soap recipe to make your own dish soap or dishwasher detergent!

Do you make your own dish soap and dishwasher detergent or know of a recipe that I can use?

Well, just when Mr. Money thought I couldn’t get any more frugal or crazy as he probably thinks, I’ve shown him. Not only did I do laundry and hang it out to dry, I also baked bread. That’s right, I made homemade bread.

Last month I decided I was going to give it a try because I was sick of all the crap that is put into bread you buy at the store and I was tired of paying $3 a loaf for store brand organic whole wheat bread. My plan didn’t work out so well last month. I tried using my bread machine, and needless to say, my beautiful homemade bread tasted like sawdust. With a little glue.

In all my domesticness yesterday, I went grocery shopping and bought all the ingredients to make my homemade bread. I had high hopes for it this time. This time I was skipping the evil bread maker.

Here’s the recipe:

* 1/2 cup warm water
* 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 3 tablespoons active dry yeast
* 3 1/2 cups warm water
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1/2 cup molasses
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 3 tablespoons lemon juice
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 9 cups sifted whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup ground flax seed
* 1 cup quick cooking oats
* 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
* 3/4 cup cracked wheat
* 1 tablespoon sea salt

1. Stir together the 1/2 cup water and applesauce in a small bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the mixture, let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl with 3 1/2 cups of warm water, honey, molasses, vegetable oil, lemon juice, and eggs; stir together to combine well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, flax seed, sunflower seeds, cracked wheat, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the yeast mixture until a smooth dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
3. Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans. Punch down dough, shape into loaves, and place in the pans. Allow to rise in pans until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when removed from the pan and tapped on the bottom.

It was heavenly! Not only did I (hopefully) save money, but I also avoided having to eat High Fructose Corn Syrup in conventional breads. I will definitely be making this again!