DIY Antiseptic All-Purpose Cleaner

I have been making this particular cleaner for years. Non-toxic all-purpose and kitchen cleaners can be pricey. This recipe literally costs pennies to fill a spay bottle. Pennies! 

I have have tried at least a half dozen different formulations of homemade all-purpose cleaner and I have found this one adapted from Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living by Annie Berthold-Bond is the most effective. This is a great cleaner for everything from wiping down kids stuff, to crayon marks, washing baseboards, and kitchen and bathroom countertops. It's almost always the cleaner I grab first. Just let sit a few moments on crusty kitchen cleanup to let it do its work before wiping up. 

DIY All-Purpose Antiseptic Cleaner

- 1/2 tsp washing soda (you can also use baking soda, but it isn't as alkaline and so won't be quite as effective)
- 1 tsp borax 
- 1/2 tsp liquid castille soap or dish soap
- 2 cups hot water
- 1 tsp total antiseptic essential oil (i.e. I like 3/4 tsp lemon and 1/4 tsp rosemary but you can also any combo of: sweet orange, lavender, tea tree, thyme, rose, cinnamon, eucalyptus, or birch) 

Add washing soda, borax and soap to a clean spray bottle. Pour in the hot water and essential oil, cap, and shake until the minerals are dissolved. Give the bottle a shake each time before using. 

Makes 2 cups. 

Weekly Steps Forward...and Back Aug 29 to Sept 4

As long as we take more forward than back, I'm happy...and even the baby steps count.

Home

Made some wall 'art' for our dining room. I followed this idea that I found on Pinterest. I had to purchase drywall compound as we didn't have enough and the canvas itself which I got on sale. I used a combination of paint that I already had as well as the darker green paint I picked up from someone in my local Buy Nothing group. In total I spent $20 on this project. I'm not completely happy with it, but I think it's a whole lot better than the blank expanse that was there before!

Sold a small chandelier on Kijiji for $40 that was here when we moved in. It didn't go with our stuff and we had purchased the new one in the pic above using a gift certificate we got as a housewarming gift.. Our dining room, which is the one room of our new house which is completely done, cost us a grand total of $40! The furniture was given to us by my mother-in-law when she moved and could no longer fit it, plus $20 for the wall 'art' and $20 for new curtains from a discount store. The previous owners left the curtain rod and we didn't need to repaint this room. That it cost so little makes me enjoy the space that much more in a weird way.

Bought a brand new drip coffee maker from a yard sale for $10, still unsealed. When I looked it up, this model retails for about $110 new. Score! We have used a French press for years but lately with more guests visiting and staying with us it's been a bit of a pain in the ass, as we have to make multiple pots in a row when it's more than just us to get everyone caffeinated. Also programming this one for the morning saves my husband a few precious minutes before his bike commute.

Food

Made 5 freezer meals ahead that can just be dumped in the slow cooker day of: including Chicken Curry, Honey Sesame Chicken, and Midwestern Pork Chili. I froze them in the chest freezer gifted to me by my mom when we moved as she had replaced her's with an upright and had this one sitting unplugged.

This will be very handy for evenings when L has swimming and hockey at the Rec Centre starting mid-September as those  nights will be rushed. But especially these will be a lifesaver for days when my migraines are bad. I haven't made freeze and dump kind of meals before so I'll see how it works out and then decide if I'll keep it up making batches of these on occasion.


Batch cooked 2 lbs of dry black beans in the slow cooker and froze in 15oz portions to use in future cooking.

Family and Kid Stuff
One of my husbands colleagues gave him a few pieces of hockey equipment that her children had outgrown. This gives us a head start on equipment for next year for free!

To celebrate our last day  home for the summer with just the two of us, L and I went to play mini-putt together on Friday and then grabbed ice cream cones nearby. It was some good quality time.

We've also been exploring new parks all around our new city, some for kids and some for our furry 4-legged friend. The highlight for L was this big new park with a castle, although he did complain that it wasn't as fun as he'd like. This is always a particular issue with new-build parks as they are so safe that they look a lot more fun then they are. It was still good though and we'll be back as it's only a 5 min drive from our house (thankfully we have 6 parks we've discovered also within walking distance).

Other Random Money-Saving

Hung 5 loads of laundry to dry instead of using the dryer (on our new clothesline! We're pretty excited never having had one before!)

Started using YNAB again. We totally fell off the budgeting wagon leading up to our move so we haven't kept track of our spending at all since April when all the pre-moving craziness started.

Signed up for Swagbucks. My goal is to earn enough to purchase 2 Christmas gifts. I did 3 surveys this week.

Steps Back

Kinda literally this week.

While these classic black pumps only cost me $10 at Value Village, there is no way that I need these and I can't justify them in any way. Oh well. Clothing, shoes, and food out are my weaknesses. I'm getting way better but clearly not there yet.

What did you do last week?

And here we go again!

So I've decided to pick this blog back up again.

I have toyed with the idea many times since calling it quits and now feels like the right time.

Not only because I now have more time on my hands but I also feel like keeping this blog helped to keep me motivated along the path of creating, along with my family, a life of our choosing. We have just had some big changes in our lives, namely moving to a new city, buying our first house and my leaving my job without a new one. I'm excited to figure out what's next. We were so focused on saving for our house knowing that my husband was going to be relocated for work, that now we need to figure out what's next in the plan out of competing priorities. Our goal of saving a decent percentage of our income has not changed however. The peace of mind and freedom that allows for our future is invaluable. How to get their and what exactly our goals and timelines are in very much a work in progress. Unearthing this blog again will, I think, be useful along the journey of sorting all that out.

I'm planning on continuing my weekly progress reports (those are really motivating for me), the odd recipe, diy projects, thoughts and plans.

It feels good to be back!

This Week's Meal Plan

Because I've been very busy at my new job and have less energy left at the end of the day, I've chosen meals for this week that are less intense for me to prepare.

Saturday: Breaded Fish Fillets, Roasted Cauliflower (1/2 head leftover from last week), and Mixed Green Salad with Italian Vinaigrette

Sunday: Hot Dog Hotpot (from Economy Gastronomy)

Monday: Beef and Blue Cheese Pot Pie (using leftover cooked roast beef) with Mixed Green Salad with Italian Vinaigrette

Tuesday: Vegetable Potstickers with Sweet Coconut Ginger Brown Rice

Wednesday: Smoky Tomato Soup with Toasted Baguette with Tepenade and Melted Mozzerella (using up some Tepenade I had leftover from last week)

Thursday: Black Bean Cakes with Sweet Potato Fries

Friday: Use it up day

Accomplishments April 5 to April 11

I have been swamped with my new job! It'll be great once I get caught up and settled but right now it's the reason that I haven't posted for a couple weeks. Right now I keep fluctuated between feeling like I'm starting to get ahead and like I'm drowning. Because of the intensity at work right now, I didn't accomplish as much last week.

Made: from scratch vanilla pudding, oatmeal packs, a vegetable soup from all the leftovers bits in the fridge (it turned out especially delicious), chickpea candies, and a batch beef roast (this provided one main meal and several containers of leftover roast beef and 5 cups of beefy broth for the freezer)

We went to the zoo for free with our Public Library's Museum and Arts Pass (which explains the polar bears in this post!)\Spring has been very hesitant here but this was a beautiful day so it was great to spend most of it outside checking out the animals.

I cut open my tube of face sunscreen to get the last couple uses out, turns out that I was able to get 7 more days use out of it! I never used to cut open bottles to get the last bits but I've started recently. It not only cuts down on a little bit of money, it cuts down on our waste in a year if we're diligent about using everything.

This Week's Meal Plan

We're eating a bit more meat this week than we typically do (and no fish), but I was really trying to buy the last number of  grocery items this week, and these meals mean that I use mostly things I already have with only the purchase of a few sale items. We were also send home with lots of leftovers this week from supper at my mother-in-law's and we already had some so I don't have to cook today!

Sunday: Leftovers (Chicken and Vegetable Stew with Dumplings)

Monday: Pasta Primavera

Tuesday: Lemony Lentils and Kale

Wednesday: Pepperoni Pizza Chili with Garlic Muffins

Thursday: Slow Cooker Butter Chicken with Rice

Friday: Cabbage and Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Saturday: Creamy Herbed Chicken with Apple, Carrot, and Beet Salad

Accomplishments Mar 8 to Mar 14

Made: a batch of all-purpose cleaner

Took out some children's books and a DVD for my husband and I (No) from the library.

Visited my parents last weekend who live 2.5 hours up north in a house in the woods. We spent some time enjoying some outdoor activities. My son got to try snowshoeing (using my childhood snowshoes!) and cross-country skiing (which he LOVED). It was fun...but I'm REALLY ready for spring to show up.

The Sunday that we were up there was Value Village's 50% off sale, so we went. The prices at the VV closest to them are a bit lower than any of the ones near us so it makes the 50% extra good. I bought some great items of spring clothing for myself (8 items, mostly higher-end, including a shirt that is identical to one I had last year that I loved but got a stain on that I couldn't remove!), two shirts for my son and a pair of dress pants for my husband. The total for all of these was less than the retail cost of one of tops I purchased.

My mother also gave me a winter jacket that she had bought for herself at a thrift store for $18  but she found a bit too small to be comfortable. It's a Rossingnol ski jacket originally retailing for over $350 and in perfect condition. My father also gave me a box of mason jars that he has been collecting for me. He's hoping it will encourage me to do more canning this year..and then share.

The biggest accomplishment of all this week was I got a new job! It's with the same organization I already work for but its a better and more challenging position that is, essentially, my ideal job. It came with a small raise and I negotiated successfully for a higher one. I have never before negotiated my salary, as with many people I think, it's something that falls outside of my comfort zone. I have been really making an effort at being more assertive lately and it's been paying off in more ways than one. With applying for and obtaining this job plus 10 minutes of negotiation I managed to increase my salary by $4500 -- worth a bit of squeamishness I think! I am so excited by this new opportunity and it will help us to move ahead with our goals of finally paying down our debt that much  more quickly.

We ordered in one night (I was stuck in a snowstorm and I was home late and came home to a massive tantrum....that's my excuse anyway!) and one other night we went out for a celebratory dinner! I don't feel guilty about that one in the least! The other nights we had tasty and frugal homemade meals including an especially inexpensive Ham Fried Rice made with leftover rice I had stashed in the freezer and leftover smoked picnic ham that I had purchased for .99 a pound and some sale frozen peas among other ingredients.

All in all...it's been an exceptionally great week!