Making things!

I think I've become addicted to making things.  In the past few weeks, I've made several batches of soap.  I'm using hot process in my crockpot (instructions and photos to come), and I've made a darn good imitation of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap.  I toyed with a few other recipes and scents, too.  The lavender came out a bit iffy, but the lemongrass/clary sage oatmeal soap is nice, as is the oat and honey.  I haven't quite gotten the hang of adding enough essential oil to properly scent the soap, but it lathers really well in my hard water - which is far more important to me.  So many handmade soaps I've tried just don't have long-lasting bubbles, and I need to re-soap my pouf or washcloth halfway through my shower.  But my soap bubbles, so I'm ecstatic.  :)

Tonight, on a whim, I whipped up a mini-batch of chapstick.  I'm utterly addicted to Burt's Bees peppermint (hmmm, I'm noticing a minty trend here...), but I'm on my last tube.  I'm also not addicted to the $3.50 per tube price tag.  After a bit of Googling and a peek at the ingredients on the real thing, I got busy. Here's my recipe:

.2 oz beeswax
.3 oz coconut oil
.1 oz shea butter
.05 oz avocado oil
peppermint essential oil, "to taste"

I melted all the ingredients, except the peppermint EO, using a 2 oz mason jar in my cast iron skillet with some water (sort of a mini double boiler).  After the beeswax melted, I dipped a knife into the mixture, removed it, and allowed the chapstick to cool so I could check its texture.  It was perfect; not too oily and not too hard.  I removed the mason jar from the heat, added about .2 mL of peppermint EO, stirred, and poured the chapstick into 2 little tins I'd ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs ages ago.

Broke and Healthy, one of the sites I used while coming up with my recipe, breaks down the cost of making this chapstick from scratch.  By their calculations, each .15 oz tube of chapstick costs $.08 to make.  My recipe weighed about .6 oz, making each tin cost approximately $.16.  My tins cost about $.70.  Even including them, which is kind of silly since I'll use them over and over, the cost to make this at home was about 25% of retail.  And it took less than 10 minutes.  You can bet I'll be doing that again!

I love the feeling I get when I replicate something I usually buy.  Yes, I'm still a consumer, because I have to buy my oils, beeswax, and other ingredients.  But the "value added" part of the equation?  That's me!  I have total control over the ingredients; no petroleum products, preservatives, or artificial anythings.  And, I'm not giving any of my money to corporations with questionable ethics or business policies.  Good stuff!

EDIT - I sat down a few nights ago and figured out my actual costs, based on the real ingredients I had purchased, including tubes, which I didn't originally have.  As made, it cost me $.20 per tube (of that, the tube cost $.14, so my chapstick was only $.06 per tube!!).  If I were to make it using all organic ingredients, which I plan on doing when I sell these and/or run out of my current stock of oils, it would cost $.24 per tube.

Making applesauce

Fall is here!! Shayne and I went to the farmers market yesterday morning and were amazed at how quickly the harvest went from "summer" to "fall". There were corn stalks, pumpkins, and mums everywhere. And apples. We bought a half bushel of "mixed seconds" to make applesauce, then got fresh cinnamon-sugar doughnuts and apple cider. Mmmm....!

I love spring and summer, but I think fall is my favorite season. I love the changing leaves, the cool mornings and warm days, seeing Orion in the southern sky, and the rush to put up the last of the fresh produce. I also love fall food; we start making the switch to heartier fare like beef stew, shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, and thick soups. And, of course, there's applesauce.

Poor Shayne has been waiting since spring. I didn't make anywhere near enough applesauce last year, and we ran out around March or April. I caved and offered to buy apples out-of-season from Meijer, but then we both agreed that making and eating certain foods in-season just makes them more special. So we've been waiting. And waiting.

I bought an apple peeler-corer-slicer from Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday, and Shayne tested it out on the first few apples. What a nifty little invention!! I still peel the top and bottom of the apple first, and you have to properly align the apple on the spikes in order for it to get the entire core... But what a time-saver! Definitely worth the $15 I spent on it.

And by noon we had our first batch of applesauce in the canner. I got 4.5 quarts and only used about half of the apples. For a cost comparison, my applesauce costs about $1.33/quart to make. Musselman's is $1.96/quart. And while I haven't ever tried Musselman's, I can tell you for sure that my homemade version blows Meijer's organic applesauce out of the water. And mine is certainly nothing special, just apples, a teeny bit of water, and cinnamon. Cook, smush, mix, serve. Doesn't get any easier than that.

If I haven't had a baby by next Saturday I'll definitely be buying more "mixed seconds" for more sauce and apple butter...

I just saved $54,000!

Things had been moving rather slowly on our refinancing project, but move they did.  On November 26 we signed our closing papers and went happily on our way, knowing that we were protected from going to a variable rate two years from now.  The rate wasn't great (6.375%), but it was lower than our original rate.  And we were happy just to know that we had a fixed rate.

And then, the day after Thanksgiving, something made me look at the bank's mortgage rates on the website.  As of the 19th, the rate had dropped to 6.25%.  And we had signed a rate lock-in to allow us to get a lower rate if it should present itself.  It had, and the bank had screwed us.  The bank was closed, but I planned to call first thing Monday morning and take advantage of the 3-day-cancel-with-no-repercussions paper we had signed.

Monday morning came. and I checked the website yet again.  As of the 26th, the rate was now 5.75%!  I called, the bank manager kissed my ass a little, and we went in the following day to cancel our loan.  As we were sittining his office having the new paperwork drawn up, he received a message saying that the rates had dropped again.  We were now down to 5.625%.

Over the life of the loan, that saves us $54,551 in interest...!

All I can say is that it pays to do your homework.  The only one looking out for you is you, so make sure you do a good job of it!  Had I not checked the rates on the website, I never would have known they had dropped so much.  I was tempted not to do business with them again, but since they made it right, I guess we'll just stick with them.  We're going to save another $30-60K anyways, depending on how early we pay off our mortgage.  Amazing how it all adds up!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Those who know me know that I'm sometimes frugal to a fault.  I won't say cheap, since I will buy expensive things when I think they're well made and will last a long time ($600 bookcase and $750 HE washing machine illustrates this).  I also don't skimp on food.  I'll always pay more for healthy food that doesn't have preservatives, additives, or funky chemicals.  Cleaning products are another story.

I found a recipe online in early spring for do-it-yourself laundry detergent that claims to work as well as store-bought detergent.  I'm surprised I even tried this considering the luck I had with the homemade dishwasher soap.  All of my dishes came out looking like they'd been dipped in milk and left to dry.  Icky.  And I've had poor luck with the natural laundry detergents as well.  I've since learned that vegetable based detergents don't mix well with hard water, and they tend to stay in the clothes and make them stiff.  Which is exactly what happened.  I had finally settled on Method detergent, which was reasonably priced (~$15 for 64 loads), smelled nice, and was biodegradable.  Oh, and it happened to do a good job cleaning my clothes...

But, like I said, I found the homemade recipe and decided to try it.  I bought two bars of laundry soap, a box of washing soda, and a box of Borax at the store, grated the soap, and mixed it all up.  I was a little nervous about using an unknown powdered substance in my new HE washer, but the information I found on the internet says it's low-suds and ideal for HE machines.  Apparently, suds have nothing to do with cleaning power, even though that's what people associate with clean.  Weird.

I've been using my homemade soap since then, with no complaints.  It costs about $.01 per load (compared to $.23), and I estimate the homemade soap has cost me about $1.50.  I use about 3/4 of a tablespoon per load, and I've never felt that my clothes weren't clean.  They don't come out smelling like perfume, which, once I got used to it, doesn't bother me.  They just smell fresh.  I used a dryer sheet a few weeks ago and hated it, since the smell seemed overpowering.  I don't use any kind of fabric softener or dryer sheets, but the clothes have very little static.

The recipe I use is 1/2 cup finely grated Fels-Naptha soap (about 1/3 of a bar), 1/2 cup of washing soda (I use Arm and Hammer -- not baking soda!), and 1/2 cup borax (I use 20 Mule Team).  There are recipes that call for dissolving the mixture in boiling water, which makes it gel, but it seems harder to store and more of a hassle.  I've never had a problem with the powder not fully dissolving, and a full batch takes up less than 2 cups of space.  I don't think the Fels-Naptha is biodegradable, but I use 1/4 tablespoon or less per load.  The wasing soda and borax are considered all natural and biodegradable.  I'll try to find a biodegradable soap for my next batch, but I can't say I'm unhappy with what I've got now.