Posted on 02/11/2010 10:06:15 AM PST by hennie pennie
Frugality. That's been the buzzword of the Great Recession.
Sliding home values, stumbling stock portfolios and a shaky job market brought with them a consciousness about spending that many of us misplaced during years of consumer overindulgence. Americans responded to the crisis by buying less, clipping coupons more and increasing savings to 4.8 percent of disposable income in December, up from near zero before the recession.
In the past year, blogs about frugality went viral. Everyone from Oprah to President Obama joined the frugality parade.
Now a new term is marching through the blogosphere: Frugality fatigue. But I'd argue that if frugality is done right, there should be no such thing.
Being frugal doesn't mean being stingy, miserly or downright cheap. The true spirit of frugality is to be mindful of how you use your limited resources. To be prudent with your money. To buy the best of what you need but no more. To avoid waste.
That's why the new frugality aligns so well with the growing.....
(Excerpt) Read more at m.startribune.com ...
If you live near an Albertsons, then definitely save Marcal coupons. Every few weeks Albertsons sells Marcal TP and paper towels for just a buck each. The Marcal coupons makes them free so you just pay the sales tax. I usually stockpile about 20 of those items which is enough to tide me over until the next sale.
Here's an excerpt:
....Reintroduce candlelight at State banquets and for small evening gatherings and entertaining.
- Keep Buckingham Palace open to visitors for longer periods to generate more income for the upkeep of royal palaces.
- Recycle all bars of soap from all royal homes and turn them into liquid foam bath oil.
http://wap.cbsnews.com/site?t=EWB5Q9gMEEpnWED9FA7XVg&sid=cbsnews
Say... I wonder if that phrase, "liquid foam bath oil" is High English for what we Americans refer to as BUBBLE BATH? And I wonder how it is made? How does one recycle old bits & pieces of bar soaps into "LIQUID FOAM BATH OIL"???
Do you have a ping list for the frugality / survivalist stuff?
We make our own soap - use it for everything - bathing, hair, laundry, dishes, etc. We collect all the grease from cooking, add lye, make soap. Low cost, great soap with nothing “bad” in it. Environmentally clean - we have no grease to dispose of in trash, recycle or whatever.
What was good for g’ma or great g’ma is still good! And it’s easy to make.
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition [Survival Today - an On going Thread #3] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2299939/posts
If you search on the KEYWORDS survivalism or preppers or frugal or do title searches on similar words, you should be able to locate all the threads pretty fast, as there aren't too very many. I 'had' to take a break from following the news out of Iran with something less stressful to follow, thus I started this thread, curious if anyone had newly adopted frugality measures I was unfamiliar with.
So you're saying that the litle pieces of leftover barsoap simply dissolve in water?
Works great. Just put the scraps in a pump bottle and add warm water ... a touch of Dr. Teal’s Spearmint and Eucalyptus bath salts adds just enough scent and just enough magnesium sulfate to suspend the oil and soap in the water.
Exactly. Some soaps take longer to dissolve than others. Small thin pieces dissolve faster than thick chunks. Hot water dissolves them faster than cold water. But, yes, just add water and let sit until dissolved. The soap is still strong enough to prevent “stuff” from growing, although I’m sure if you diluted it enough you could get something to grow, by that point it would be too diluted to use as a soap anyway.
Hadn’t tried adding salts, I might do that with the next batch.
Say... I wonder if that phrase, “liquid foam bath oil” is High English for what we Americans refer to as BUBBLE BATH? And I wonder how it is made? How does one recycle old bits & pieces of bar soaps into “LIQUID FOAM BATH OIL”??? <<<
It would be easier to buy a real cheap bottle of shampoo at the dollar store and add your essential oils to it, for foaming bubble baths.
Melt your soap for liquid soap, doubt it will give many bubbles for a bath.
Slip several thin pieces of leftover soap into the foot of a nylon stocking and you will have a new bar of soap for your hands. Can even be tied to the water faucet out doors so it is always there for your hand cleaning.
-PJ
Sorry, just thought of something else. Distilled white vinegar is a great alternative to fabric softener. Just pour it into the washing machine. It also keeps the contraption and hoses build-up free and fresh smelling.
I’ve been wanting to do this and found a recipe that uses volume and not weight for its ingredients. Do you use the same pots/pans/blenders for soap as you do for food? The only thing holding me back right now is finding good used things to do this with so I don’t have to use my food items.
Do the same thing with Fels-Naptha and you get a fantastic, low-cost stain pre-treater. It’s good enough to get breastmilk spit-up from clothes after sitting without pre-treatment for several days.
Soap cleans. It is ok to use cooking pots, pans, stirrers etc for soap making. The lye, sodium hydroxide, is water soluble, and also washes out, no problem. Use stainless steel pots etc.
I will send you our aproximations on lye, fat etc later. I am on my way out the door, will do so when I get back.
Thanks!
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition [Survival Today - an On going Thread #3]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2299939/posts?page=5940
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition [Survival Today - an On going Thread #3]
What else can one quanties of clean rendered fats for, other than soap????
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