Tag: budget

Categories
Recipes

Homemade Dishwasher Tablet Recipe

With our no spend year challenge came the promise to ourselves and to all the followers of the freedom family that I would purchase no luxury items this year. We had a little debate as to whether dishwasher tablets are luxury or not, in the end it was decided that a dishwasher itself is a luxury item so anything to go with it falls into that category as well. I have to say honestly I wasn’t prepared to run out of anything in the first week of January and be in the kitchen whipping up alternatives, and truth be told if I had realized just how empty the box was I probably would have bought a new box before the challenge started. But alas this is how it happened and I have to say honestly it was fairly easy to come up with something that works quite well. So let’s get right into it.

Dishwasher tablets

1 Cup Bi-carb Soda

1 Cup Borax

1/2 Cup Salt

2 Tablespoons Corn Flour

2 Tablespoons Citric Acid

2 Tablespoons White Vinegar

12 Drops Lemon Essential Oil

4 Drops Yellow Food Colouring (for fun)

  • Mix all dry ingredients together in a glass or stainless steel bowl
  • Mix wet ingredients together in a small bowl
  • Slowly add wet ingredients to dry, about 1 teaspoon at a time stirring in well. Do not allow the dry mixture to fizz as this is the activation of the soda and you want this to happen in your dishwasher not in your bowl. Mixture will look quite dry still but it is supposed to.
  • Spoon mixture into an ice cube tray. (I prefer to use a silicone one as it makes removal so much easier). Compress the mixture down very tightly.
  • Leave trays to set for 2-3 days. I like to leave mine for at least 3 as I live in a very humid climate and if not properly set the tablets can crumble when being removed from the tray. (when this happens I still keep it and use it as dishwasher powder)
  • Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

You can watch the video of me making these here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75jAnAyrbw&t=10s

I impressed myself!

I honestly find my dishes just as clean as using the store bought tablets. I do however clean my dishwasher regularly and empty the filters weekly at maximum. This helps a lot with the end result. Occasionally if I have a lot of glassware going through I find it helps to put a small bowl of white vinegar in the top tray for extra sparkly glass.

I am also quite interested to try to make a recipe without the borax. I will have a play around and leave an update if I have any success.

If you want to join the freedom family for more recipes or anything else we are doing during our debt busting year to freedom you can find us here.

https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

https://www.facebook.com/familyseeksfreedom/

Categories
Finance

Finance update 9th Jan 2020

Today is payday, and while that may make a lot of people happy to us this week it was just full of frustrations. We are so motivated to start paying down our debt and to see those numbers creeping closer and closer to black, that it is rather disheartening when there is a pay cheque that had to be used for something else. For us that something else is our cars. I am happy to report that one of our cars is completely fixed and operational again, unfortunately the other will cost us $7000 on top of what we have already spent on her. This week has also brought the news of my wisdom teeth needing to be removed at approximately $3000 and a blood test that was done on our dog, that the vet ‘forgot’ to bill us for at the time, is now due also. Not the best start to a January we have ever had, but at least the rest of the year should be up from here.

So with all that being said, let’s get to what we are all here for today and that is some real figures.

We still owe ourselves $290 that we borrowed from our car registration fund.

We paid $200 to my in laws leaving us a balance of $580 for the portion of the Christmas day emergency vet bill they paid for.

Zip pay is down to $65 owing and it should be knocked out very soon.

Gem visa has $1376 left. The interest free period is still valid until June.

Our phones have not changed since last payday.

The big bad wolf has more owing than last time as interest was charged to the account. This leaves us with $26,685 to pay on the principle.

Our emergency fund only increased by the default $20 that was added from our payday as we are still trying to fix the cars.

Overall our position has crept slightly down from -$31,052 to -$30,799 that is $253 towards our goal this pay day.

I am doubtful there will be any major improvements around any of these numbers until we have fixed our second car and my wisdom teeth have been removed. When life stops getting in our way we will get going!

Join the freedom family on this year’s no spending debt busting challenge

https://www.facebook.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

Categories
goals

January goal

short sweet and simple. This month our goal is to have both cars properly fixed. no ifs, buts, or candied nuts. Two fully functioning not-a-single-thing-wrong with them cars by the end of this month.

Categories
no spend year

No spend year 2020

So I thought I would go a little deeper into what we are doing with our no spend year. we have set out some rules for ourselves to make this a bit clearer and easier to stick to because obviously we do have to spend some money.

Rule #1 We are paying rent/ utilities/ groceries/ Swimming lessons/ pet vet bills.

Rule #2 NO luxury items. At all. If it is possible for me to make a cheaper alternative at home from staple household supplies then I will. (that should be interesting)

Rule #3 No bulk or stocking up shopping beforehand. If something we own breaks or runs out during the year, there will be a serious discussion about if we should replace it or not. If we do we will replace it with a quality and permanent replacement as we try to move away from single use items.

Rule #4 We want the smallest utility bills possible, so everything from turning off a light to negotiating with supply companies is on the table for us. Also all subscriptions will be cancelled.

Rule #5 A complete clothes buying ban for my husband and I. As our daughter is only 2 and growing 17 inches a day she will inevitably need clothes this year. we will purchase everything possible from thrift stores for her.

Rule #6 Our cars will be properly fixed this January no matter the cost. this is long overdue and needs to happen before we cause further damage and bigger problems.

Rule #7 We will buy gifts for our daughter for her birthday and Christmas but no gifts for ourselves for any occasions this year.

As we move through the year we will keep a list of everything we wanted to buy and constantly update it. I’m willing to bet by the end of the year very few things on that list will still be important to us.

Our no spend year will be vlogged in detail on our you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog including updates with real figures, triumphs and fails, along with all sorts of money saving recipe attempts. this is where we will be discussing any purchases that need to be made throughout the year, and our progress on digging ourselves out of a mountain of debt.

Until next time xx CC

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