DIY Laundry Detergent for under $20

With four adults living in my house, a lot of laundry gets done. I decided months ago that I was sick of spending $20+ on laundry detergent every month, so I searched the corners of the internet for recipes to make my own. The ingredients cost less than $20, and the last time I made some was back in July. That's eight months of laundry detergent for less than the cost of one months worth!


You will need:

Pure Baking Soda
Super Washing Soda
Oxi Clean
Fels Naptha
Purex Crystals (Optional, but they smell good!)
NOT PICTURED: Borax (I fail okay?)

You also need a container to mix it in, and a food processor. If you don't have a processor don't fear! A simple cheese grader works as well, it just takes forever and frankly,

Or at least I don't. 

Now that you've got everything you need to make your detergent, take your Fels Naptha and cut that sucker up into little pieces if you're using the processor  If you're using the cheese grate, get to grating. 

Roughly this size works best for the processor.

Toss it in the processor and keep hitting random buttons until your soap is cut up to about this size:

Then take the rest of your ingredients (Borax, Washing Soda, Baking Soda, Crystals, Oxi Clean) and pour them all in your mixing container along with the soap.

With the Borax you may see some clumps, but that's okay! Just make sure to break down the HUGE ones. Then you mix that puppy up until it looks like this:

And there you have it! Use three teaspoons per load and you're good to go! It gets your clothes clean, smells good, and best of all IT'S CHEAP! Enjoy all of the money you just saved and go buy yourself a new pair of pants or something. 

Bacon Cheddar BBQ Chicken on Kaiser Roll Recipe. DE-LICIOUS.

Mmmm....

This recipe is actually pretty quick and absolutely nomtastical. Great for those nights that you want to sit down and eat but don't have the time to prepare something big. Now forgive me I don't cook with exact measurements. Everyone is different so I just guestimate everything. 

You will need:

Crockpot

Oven

Baking Sheet

Chicken

BBQ Sauce

Sliced Cheddar Cheese

Kaiser Roll

Bacon (I used turkey bacon to make it a little healthier, but good ol' fashioned pork works too!)

That's it. Five ingredients! Can't beat that!

Throw the chicken in the crock pot and cover that baby in BBQ sauce. Cook on high for 3-4 hours and then shred that chicken. I use a fork and tongs to pull it apart, but play around with it and decide what works best for you. 

Now that your chicken is done, cook up some bacon. Make sure to test a few pieces to make sure it's not poisoned. If you love your family this is MANDATORY.

Take your kaiser roll and pile your BBQ chicken, a slice of cheddar cheese, and a few strips of your bacon on top of it. Toss them in the oven on broil for about two minutes, pull out, and enjoy. 

These are a favorite here in our house and I love how simple they are! 

Organize Your Life - Finances

This is something that my husband and I really need to work on. We suck at saving money, budgeting money, etc. We a very much a paycheck to paycheck type of family, and if we're already doing that BEFORE we have children I can only imagine how hard of a time we'll have. I think that this is going to be the most important prinatable section for me, and I put a LOT of work into these. To check out the rest of the printable's I have for Organize Your Life click here!

Title Page

The debt payoff worksheet is one of my favorite ones. 

I have a lot of debt unfortunately, not as much as a lot 

of people, but medical bills and student loans leaves your 

wallet hurting. I love that I'll be able to put ALL of the 

people I owe money on and WATCH the 

amount I owe just disappear! 

The expense log is pretty much just balancing a 

check book, but it's for EVERYTHING. 

Debit card, cash, check, etc. 

I pretty much just think that this is adorable, and pretty easy

to follow. You put your reoccurring bills, the amount, and

just check off that you've paid it for the month!

Monthly Budget. Know how much you're planning

on spending, and just try to keep within your budget. 

This is awesome for being able to see where all of 

your extra money is going. 

And because I know that everyone doesn't have the same expenses

I went ahead and made an extra blank one. 

So there's the financial one! I'm sure that I'll get a lot of use out of this one. 

Organize Your Life - To Do Lists/Calendar

This one is going to be a little shorter than the rest of them because there are SO many sections that this one is just a basic covering of them all. They're all pretty self explanatory, and took me FOREVER to make as these were the first ones I did! If you want the rest of the series, click here to be taken to the link!

Title page obviously. 

Monthly Calendar for a quick look at appointments, important dates, etc. 

Weekly To Do's, what needs to be done, what bills need

to be paid, who you need to call for the week, etc.

Pretty much the same thing as the weekly one, but broken down

into morning/evening of what it is you need to get done!

And the important dates! For when you have an appointment that

was scheduled months in advance, or have a birthday,

graduation, anniversary, etc. where not remembering the date

will get you into trouble!

That's it for this segment! I hope you enjoyed it!

Organize Your Life - Cleaning Schedule

And now onto the cleaning schedule! I've left this pretty blank for the most part so you can decide what chores you want to complete on what day! I know that the majority of cleaning schedules I've found online always have something on it that doesn't apply to my house, and my OCD does not do well with this in the least bit. So I just created my own. I hope you enjoy! To check out the rest of this series, click here.

Super pretty title page

First we have the Cleaning Checklist. It's just the overall

view of the different chores broken down from daily to yearly,

these are where you put your chores that you may forget like

cleaning out the gutters or dusting the ceiling fans!

This is your daily/weekly chore list! It has a section for you

to write all of the daily chores in it and the chores you only

do once a month, such as dusting the baseboards. 

This is the daily cleaning chart! These are basic items

that you should probably be doing every day anyways. It's

basic picking up of the house each day, with focus on a specific

room each day! This is going to be SUPER helpful for me. 

Pretty self explanatory here. These are for when you deep clean

your house. Can't remember the last time you washed the 

windows in the living room? Just flip to your list and you'll 

be able to see! This is also a super awesome tool for 

when your husband comes home and asks what

YOU'VE been doing all day! Just pull this puppy out

and show them!

So there's the cleaning schedule! I hope you enjoy! 

Organize Your Life - Blog Management

Today's organizational post is all about organizing your blog! I've only been blogging for about two months at the time of posting this, but I've completely fallen in love with it. I have all of these different ideas floating around my head that I really want to put into action on my blog, and always end up forgetting because I don't have anywhere to organize all of my thoughts. I found a printable kit online that I liked, but didn't want to pay, (I'm cheap!) and I wanted to be able to put my own changes on it. Therefore, I created my own management kit! I'm VERY proud of it and think that it turned out pretty cussing spiffy! Check back here for more updates on my binder!

To start out we obviously starts out with the title page. 

These aren't 100% necessary, but are rather helpful when 

it comes to separating the sections and making your

 organizational binder more, well, organized!

I plan on doing different events through out the year.

I'll eventually run contests and make certain posts 

based off of the theme's that work with that particular

month. Valentine's Day in February, fun activities to do with

kids during July, etc. etc. 

The Blogging Month also helps keep everything that

you have to do throughout the month. Pretty self explanatory. 

It's broken into a monthly and weekly section for easy 

accessibility when you just have a minute to glance for what

you need, along with any upcoming advertising/giveaways.

A great way to track different things that you do on a monthly
basis with your blog, whether that be a monthly wrap up, 

a link exchange you belong to, or a care package program like

The Toy Box!

Once again, still pretty self explanatory. Simply

a list of the posts you want to make, and your to do list. 

Daily Blog Tasks. Yeah, I'm THAT into blogging. 

I know that some of you reading this are rolling your eyes, how

could someone possibly need an entire page dedicated to what

you're going to do in your blog? Well, with all of the idea's 

floating around in my head, and with upcoming giveaways, there 

are important things to remember during the day when your blog starts to grow. 

Contact Information! With all of the

people that you make while blogging it's important

to be able to keep track of who comes from what blog

ESPECIALLY if you're going to start doing

reviews and giveaways!

I suck so hardcore at remembering passwords and log-in

 information. Almost every website has different 

requirements for passwords and user name.

This is just a handy little took to keep track of 

what websites you use what information on!

Like I said, I always get really good ideas for posts and then

end up forgetting about it within the hour. There are so 

many of my good ideas that are forever lost in the mess that's called my brain, that something like this is going to 

be EXTREMELY helpful!

A series is different from a normal post planner because

it's something that happens on a regular basis. I have a
few of them that I've been throwing around,
so this is going to be AWESOME to be able to see all my ideas in one place. 

If you're going to start doing reviews or trying to get sponsors

this sheet is a very easy way to be able to know how to get

into contact with your sponsors. 

So that's how to organize your blog! I'm VERY excited to print these all out and finish them! I can't wait to post the final installment with everything all put together!