Interesting Finds

This week, we celebrated Ray's fourth birthday. She is quite the young lady; we're very proud of who she is. Jordi celebrated her second birthday a few weeks ago, so last weekend we threw a big birthday party for them, family and a handful of their little friends. At first I wasn't entirely sure we could afford what I wanted to do, but after a lot of research, work and bargain hunting, we did it...and we did it under budget! The party was a lot of fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves quite a bit. The only thing I didn't like was how exhausted I felt after everything was done & cleaned up!!

In light of all the celebrating we've done in the last week, I thought it might be fun for me (and anyone reading this blog) to write about something other than our unemployment situation. :) So I'm returning to my roots and sharing a couple of household cleaning "finds" that I've tested this week and will definitely use again. In addition to trying to keep our weekly grocery bill down, I've recently turned my focus to what we spend on cleaners and other household consumables. Hopefully I'll find some gems in the bunch I've collected.

So without further ado....

Fight the "Nasty Sponge" Syndrome: I don't know about you, but I hate washcloths for washing dishes. They aren't nearly tough enough on the pots & pans that I wash by hand, so I opt for those dish washing sponges. The problem is that they're expensive, and even when wrung out and air-dried, they take on a nasty smell after awhile. In addition to the normal "nasty" smell, we have very hard water that results in a very icky metallic smell too. Try our best, the sponges don't typically last longer than a few weeks. For a few years, I've read about cleaning these sponges in the dishwasher during a regular cycle, but I've never tried it....until now! And it works!!!! The sponge that went in was dirty and smelly. The sponge that came out was like new. It was awesome! So now I can indulge in my choice of cleaning apparatus and still cut back on the cost. AWESOME!

Non-Traditional Stain Fighter: Dawn dish washing liquid is advertised as the most effective on grease, right? Well, I served spaghetti for dinner several nights ago, and as usually happens with little kids, the spaghetti sauce ended up in their mouths and on their laps. Unfortunately I didn't get around to doing laundry that night, and I forgot to spray the spots on their pants. When I did laundry the next day, I sprayed the stains liberally with OxiClean and washed. (I LOVE OXICLEAN!) Imagine my surprise when I pulled the pants out of the washer and the stains were still there! I remembered that the spaghetti sauce was particularly oily, and I remembered reading that Dawn liquid is awesome at taking out greasy stains in clothes. We don't normally buy Dawn, but we happened to have it on hand. I figured what the heck? I covered the stains with the liquid and laundered again. The stains didn't come out completely, but the difference was pretty dramatic...between throwing the pants away and being able to keep them. I have read that the dish soap needs to sit on the stain for a little while, which I will do next time. I was very pleased w/the result though, which is why I'm sharing it here.

More tested cost-saving ideas to come! Stay tuned....