For those of us who get the “spring fever”  and feel the need to scrub our entire house with a toothbrush to make it sparkle, you know how manufacturing companies have created “needs”, things we supposedly absolutely have to have or our dwellings are not clean. Obviously, this is a myth. It does not take $100 worth of products and “stuff” to make our houses sparkle. I do a major cleaning twice a year, towards the end of spring and the beginning of winter. Never have I spent more than $15.00 on cleaning products  to clean my home. New items like the Swiffer products are not necessary, convenient and time saving, yes; but not necessary. The chemicals in the cleaning solution on the swiffer and like items can actually be harmful, while the pads take up landfill space. These are all the items and cleaners that you need to spring clean your home.

Broom, dustpan, mop, bucket, rubbing alcohol, baking soda, all purpose cleaner or a bucket of mild soap and water, rags, and yes: a toothbrush.

Use the bucket of soap and water and the toothbrush to get into any cracks or small areas of furniture to clean away winters grime and dust. Rinse tootbrush with clean water and wipe any soap out of crevices. Use a rag to dry.

Clean all windows, glass, and mirrors with rubbing alcohol and a rag. They will really sparkle. If you worry about lint on these surfaces, use newspaper(black and white print only).

Use a bucket of mild soap and water and a rag or scrub brush to clean walls, base boards, floors, etc. For grungy looking wood furniture you can scrub the wood with mild soap OR my personal favorite, Murphy’s wood oil soap. Rinse with a clean, wet rag then use an oil like olive oil or linseed oil to make the wood shine again!

Use a paste of baking soda and water for “soft scrub”. Use on sinks, tub, and tile.

Don’t buy expensive smelly powders for your carpet. Just sprinkle your carpets with baking soda, let sit for 15 to 30 minutes and vacuum as usual.

Wash all washable rugs, curtains and table cloths in the washing machine. Curtains can actually be hung back up wet and let them air dry. The smell from the soap will make your rooms smell wonderful.

Sweep and mop all washable floors. Apply any floor wax treatments if you choose to do so.

Open your windows and let the entire house air out. Bacteria, dust, possibly mold, and other allergens build up in enclosed houses over the winter. Let them all out!

Following these steps will make your entire home smell and look wonderful! Don’t forget to declutter also! Most often we let mail, magazines, newspapers, old clothing build up over the winter. Recycle and donate whenever possible!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

Tomorrow, May 21 at 12 noon cst/ 1pm est I will be on blogtalkradio.com on Journey to Self… Tonya Ramsey’s radio show! We will be talking all about frugality and the environment, including ways YOU can keep more green in your wallet! It will be very exciting and informative.

http://blogtalkradio.com/journeytoself is the link to the radio show.  I hope you all enjoy the show.. please call in with any questions you may have and we will do our best to answer all of them! Look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

School will soon be over for the summer for most children. Soon after the “Mom… I’m bored” calls start. My son is 15 and I still here that one. So I spoke with some moms that I know and asked them what they do to beat the summertime boredom blues.

• Play board games or card games. These can be found at rummage sales and thrift shops in mass quantities very cheaply.
• Do some art projects. You can use materials you have on hand already. Anything is fair game. Old colorful junk mail, cotton balls, paints and markers, glitter, construction paper, old scraps of leftover material and yarn. Be creative and so will your kids. I remember making macaroni necklaces at a friend’s house and making a bird house out of a reused large oatmeal container(the round kind with plastic lid).
• bake- kids love to help in the kitchen. They can help make anything: cookies, pies, cakes, get creative with homemade popcicles.
• Take a walk. You could get a book from the library and identify your local birds, trees or flowers. Make a game of it and see how many your child can spot.
• many communities now offer free movies. I have seen them offered in the park or at the library. Sometimes refreshments are even available for free. It would be worth it to check out your local paper or city office to see if your community does this.
• Libraries offer story time for small children in the summer months. Many also have other fun times for kids as well. They can make art projects, get free gifts by reading so many books. Check it out.

Leave a comment with your “beat the summer time blues” idea and help other parents cure the moans and groans of their kids in the summertime while spending good quality time with your children!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

Hello All!

As I look at everyone around me, very few people are “doing well” in this terrible economy. Many people are out of work and looking everywhere for a job to support themselves and their families. Unemployment claims have gone up, people going to our local food bank have increased in numbers, more people are shopping at thrift stores and other discount stores. Many people however, have not re-evaluated their lifestyles, several are still living the lifestyles they have become accustomed to, without thought to their shrinking bank accounts and wallets and their needs in the future. So, I wanted to address this issue.

Desperate times sometimes need desperate measures. People cannot go along spending money as they did before their job losses, or whatever it is that has changed their financial lives. For example, my boyfriend recently lost his job and I currently only work part time. Both of us have been applying at places that are both hiring and not in the hopes that he gets a job and/or I get a better one. Just to pay the rent and other bills we have had to cut expenses down to the bare minimum. I do mean bare minimum. My back porch, which was my “Zen Spot”, where I went to read my books, do homework or just relax, is now strung with clothes lines. I wash my clothes at the laundromat or in the sink myself then hang them up to dry. We have not eaten out in 3 months, we do not buy anything but the necessities of life. We both are smokers and are working on quitting. In the meantime, we now roll our own cigarettes, as a result we smoke less and hope to quit very soon. I am a Diet Coke junkie, however, it is not a necessity so I have been drinking “sun tea”, iced tea brewed in the sun in the jug. This is a very cheap beverage. I cannot have much sugar so I drink  it unsweetened but you can sweeten it with sugar if you like. I make real lemonade from lemon juice (one cup lemon juice, one cup sugar in a 2 qt pitcher) It is very tasty. I bake our “treats”, cookies, cake, brownies, pies, from scratch here at home. I love to bake and am good at it, my family likes my homemade items much better than any store bought treat.

I only drive to the store, work, or to put in applications at businesses, and to take my son to and from school. I combine trips to save gas. I do not leave my car running, this wastes gas. My son’s birthday is in July, we had a huge party planned that cost a lot of money. We have changed plans and are now having it in a beautiful local park ( no rental fee). My family will all be making some of the food to help defray some of my costs. 

We have to keep internet services, as my boyfriend is going to school online and I have my website to run. However, if we could get away with it, I would happily have it shut off. We still have cable, but I did contact our cable company and am having our services reduced to save money. We turn the lights off and unplug appliances when not in use. My mother struck an agreement with the 0wner of her apartment complex, she now cleans and shows the apartments for rent and gets a significant amount of money off of her rent.

There are all kinds of measures one can take when financially strapped. Think outside the box. Do you have more than one vehicle, do you need both? Maybe you could sell one? Write letters instead of making long distance phone calls. Buy inexpensive foods instead of pricier versions.

I hope this gets people thinking about things they can do to decrease their spending. Thanks to all for reading, and check out my “Recommendations” page for inexpensivly priced books you can buy on all kinds of ways to save money!

The Domestic Goddess

Your food bill is one of the easiest places to cut your expenses. Since nobody can have enough recipes, here are a few of my families favorites.

Create a Casserole:

This recipe is an all purpose guide. It allows you to use ingredients that you already have on hand. This is a great recipe to use when have a lot of leftovers you need to use up.

1 can cream soup- which kind is your choice (I usually use cream of chicken or mushroom, my mom uses cream of celery), 2 - 3 cups pasta or rice ( leftover noodles and rice works here also), 2 cups meat, 2 cups vegetables, 1/2 can water or milk (your preference). Put all your ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir until soup and water is mixed together. Pour into a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees until heated through, usually 20 to 30 minutes depending on your altitude and oven.

Scalloped Potatoes:

You can bake in this dish in the oven or put it in the crockpot in the morning. It’s yummy either way.

4-5 med to large potatoes- peeled and sliced, 1 sm - med onion- peeled and chopped,  2 T. flour, 1 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper, 3 - 4 T. butter, 1 c. meat ( I usually use ham, but any leftover or on hand meat will work), 1 1/2 c. milk. Put potatoes and onions into an 8×8 baking dish or similar casserole dish. Sprinkle on flour, salt, and pepper. Dot with butter. Add meat and stir lightly. Pour milk over entire potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and stir lightly. Put back in oven and bake an additional 40 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Taco Bake:

1 lb hamburger, 1 packet taco seasoning, 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar or mexican style cheese, 1 batch homemade biscuit dough or 1 can plain biscuits, any additional taco toppings your family likes. Prepare hamburger and taco seasoning according to packet directions. Pour meat into a large casserole dish or large baking pan. Sprinkle shredded cheese over meat. Add any taco toppings you choose that needs to be warm at this time. Either spread your homemade biscuit dough ( i use a homemade biscuik recipe) over entire surface OR place your canned biscuits over the entire surface with sides touching. Bake according to biscuit directions. If you have any taco toppings that have a lengthy cooking time, it would be best to fry them up first and then add them to your taco bake.  Remove from oven and serve. Each individual can add any additional toppings they like, like sour cream, lettuce, chopped tomato, jalapenos, etc.

I hope you like these recipes and try them in your own kitchen. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

Thanks to all!

The Domstic Goddess

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for being gone for a week, I have been trying to recover from a nasty virus that left me unable to do much besides lay on the couch. My throat hurt so much I could barely talk, my entire body hurt, but especially my ears. I have never experienced an earache myself before so that was a new experience. I did realize, however, that the more my throat hurt, the worse my ears ached. I was unable to go to the doctor because I lost my insurance 2 months ago. So, I went online in search of some answers and rememdies. I did not get much in the way of answers, but I did find some remedies that at least eased some of the pain and were low cost or free. I was at work and several customers asked how I was feeling and I found out that several people had the exact same thing that I did. A few did go to the doctor and were told there was nothing to be done other than what I had already been doing at home myself, only I didn’t have the big doctor bill. I decided to share these tips that I learned in hopes that it will help someone else. I must say, first: please do not take any unnecessary risks with your health or your families health. While these home remedies did provide relief for myself, they may not work for you.

When my ears first started to hurt, I remembered my ex’s father used to put “sweet oil” in his and his sister’s ears when they were kids when they had an earache. Everyone swore by this for reducing ear pain not associated with an infection. I was not sure what sweet oil was so I looked it up on the internet. Sweet oil is olive oil! How handy is that as I have a large bottle of olive oil in my cupboard! You can use a dropper at put 3 to 4 drops of slightly  warm olive oil in your ear and plug ear with half a cotton ball. This is best to do overnight. When I woke up the next morning, my earache was markedly less painful. I repeated the next morning and that night. The third day my earache was gone. In addition to the olive oil I also used warm/hot compresses on my ears as well. The combination of both methods worked wonders.

I had some OTC cold tablets from my son’s last cold, so I took what remained but ran out. Then I realized that I did not have a stuffy nose, just a very sore throat. So I took some pain reliever (I used Aleve) and that helped to relieve the pain, not only in my ears but all over body aches, too.

A hot shower also helped to relieve aches and pains and loosen the slight congestion that I did have in my sinuses. The hot steam felt great when I breathed it in.

I also slept and rested as much as I could between being a mom, work, and my own school responsibilities that could not be put off. I also recommend, as does any doctor, to drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.

I hope these tips help any who may try them. They are good alternatives for those who like to avoid pricey OTC medicines when possible. I urge you to see your physician if you have a fever, vomiting, or are unsure of what  is making you sick. You can also use these natural alternatives in addition to most prescriptions your doctor may give you. Ask your doctors advice to be sure. I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day to all the moms.. and moms of  moms!

Thanks to all!

The Domestic Goddess

Many of us have had to give up our luxuries just to be able to pay the bills and put food on our table. I have given up most of the few luxuries I had. I no longer get my nails done every two weeks. I only get haircuts once a month ( I have short hair), and then it is done by my stepmother, who is a hair stylist, at my house for $10.00. I love purses, but have been rotating between the five I have instead of buying any new ones. These are just luxuries, not things we have to have in our daily lives, but things that reward us. However, there are little luxuries that do not have to cost alot, that we can all still do to pamper ourselves or make ourselves feel better. Here are some ideas: if your a reader who loves to buy books you may not be buying them right now, but you can still read “new” books by going to the library. Thousands of titles are at your fingertips. While your there, check out their cd’s.   You might  just find one you like. Take your book, run a bubble bath, grab a hot beverage and relax in the tub while listening to some music. Another luxury many people have given up is going out to eat at restaurants. One way you could still have a little luxury is to go out for coffee and dessert. Eat your meal at home then head to your favorite restaurant for their yummy cake, pie, or whatever you like. Most of us women, and some men too, love to shop. However the economy has left most of our wallets thin. If you need a clothing item, or maybe something for your house or your children, head to the nearest Goodwill Store. These stores are packed with good quality clothing and household goods. They do have a return policy if you change your mind about a purchase later. Your purchase will also go towards helping someone with developmental disabilities receive training and a job. So you can have the peace of mind that your purchase is actually a contribution towards helping others who need it. Instead of going out to the movie theater ( who wants to deal with those crowds anyway), head to your rental store and rent a couple of movies, make some homemade popcorn and enjoy a night of entertainment in the comfort of your own home.

We all need to find little ways to perk ourselves up, to help us not feel deprived but to actually be grateful for what we do have. I have discovered new ways of having fun and treating myself that do not cost much money. Sometimes it doesn’t cost any money at all. Leave a comment and share your little luxuries! You might just give someone an idea to use themselves!

Thanks to all

The Domestic Goddess