Tip O'the day!

26. Carry your coupons with you and check out your store's clearance section(s). Our Kroger often puts Tribe Hummus on clearance near the deli and with the 0.75/1 coupons on http://www.coupons.com/ and http://www.smartsource.com/ I can often get free Hummus. And I got our Pur water pitcher for $2.50 as well which has caused DH to drink more water at home! It's amazing the unadvertised deals you can find. Now, I know this doesn't play into the "stick to the list" idea but I have found that for stockpiling purposes I can get many items for pennies or free by shopping this way. The other night I was on my late night Tuesday trip and saw Ester C vitamins for $4.26 and the sale ended that night. With the $5/1 coupon that was out the week before, they were free or better! So it didn't add to my total at all and we can use the vitamins or sell them at the garage sale. And diapers were on a deep discount 2 weeks ago too with the old style packaging of Huggies for only $4. After coupons, 30 diapers for $2!! I have so many examples. I tend to only buy items off the list if they're on this deep discount or free but it's really helped build the stockpile up.

27. Make your own Laundry soap!!
Here's my recipe for homemade detergent:
2 cups Water (boiling) + 2 gallons hot water
0.5-1 Bar soap (grated- I like FelsNaptha but Ivory or Dove works fine if it's on sale)
1 cups Borax
1 cups Washing Soda
1 Cup Oxiclean or equivalent (keeps clothes from looking dingy, especially with hard water)

Into a large pot, grate the bar of soap into already boiling water and stir until soap is melted. Reduce heat to low and add the Borax, Washing Soda and Oxiclean. Stir well until all is dissolved. Add 1 gallon of hot water, stir until well mixed and allow to cool.
Cover for storage and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. It will gel so you'll have to stir it or shake it each time.

I like to let it cool and then store in old laundry bottles, then I can shake it and pour it like regular. LET IT COOL if you do this though or it will expand and explode out the top (messy, trust me LOL).

And I usually buy 1 bottle of Tide on sale and mix in 1/2 a bottle with this recipe too. That way my laundry smells like my Tide that I love but costs sooooo much less ;-) You can also double this recipe if you have a big container like a big 5 gallon bucket to store it all in (covered).