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Frugal Living: Make Your Own Terrarium

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It is planting time! One of the things my kids enjoy is watching little seeds sprout into something beautiful. This year, we made terrariums out of empty pop bottles and my kids get to watch them grow each day. How fun it will be to plant the seeds in the ground soon!

These terrariums are so easy to make and inexpensive. Even if you’re not a pop drinker, you might have family members who throw out 2 liters, just ask if they can give them to you instead.

{Supplies}

2-liter Pop Bottles

Potting Soil

Seeds

Spray Bottle

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Directions: This could not be more easier to create. Simply cut the 2-liter bottle towards the bottom. Add dirt into the bottom half of the bottle and plant your seeds.

 

Place the bottle back together (you might have to tape it to secure it). Then, spray water inside the top with your spray bottle and close it with the lid. If it dries out, just open the lid and spray with water. Be sure to put them in a sunny spot to get your seeds sprouting.

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Even my youngest thought it was fun…

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{Related Posts}

Frugal Living: 4 Tips for Successful Square Foot Gardening

Creating a Vegetable Container Garden

8 Things You Need to Know About Raising Chickens

Frugal Living: How to Make Your Own Shampoo

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As you’ve probably noticed, we have been making a lot of things around here! Check out our Frugal Living page for tons of great recipes. A few weeks ago, someone requested a homemade shampoo recipe on our facebook fan page. For a simple recipe, you can easily just mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 8oz of hot water for a quick and easy shampoo…not to mention cheap.

However, if you want to dress it up a bit, check out the recipe below.

{Ingredients}

1/3 Cup Castile Soap (You can get this at health food stores)

1/4 Cup Coconut Milk

1/2 tsp of Vegetable Oil or Olive Oil

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Directions:  Mix the ingredients together and pour it into a squirt bottle or even an old shampoo bottle. The bottles below were only .49 each, they’re great for this. Be sure to get the ingredients correct, too much coconut milk or oil and you will end up with oily hair.

It only takes about a teaspoon of this mixture to wash your hair, much less than conventional shampoo.

You’ll find using organic Castile soap does not necessarily make this recipe frugal. If you’re trying to save money, go with 1 TBS of baking soda and 1 cup of hot water. However, if you want a nice shampoo that is free of chemicals then use this recipe. The Castile soap was $6 for Dr. Bronner’s and I bought a citrus scent which was great. The coconut milk will run close to $3 at most stores.

I love that it is free of harsh chemicals and smelled great too!

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{Related Posts}

Frugal Living: Make Your Own Terrarium

Creating a Vegetable Container Garden

Frugal Living: How to Make Your Own Dish Soap

Make Your Own Toilet Fizzies

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So let’s have this conversation…

I live in a home with 6 other people, yep, I remarried last month and now have 5 kiddos and a husband. Did I mention all 5 kiddos are boys? That’s right, I’m completely outnumbered. At this point you can only guess what our bathrooms are like, I have to clean them daily and sometimes several times. Yuck.

I was scrolling through facebook when I saw this awesome recipe for Toilet Fizzies on AllYou.com. I think these are the coolest things and easy for my boys to throw into the toilet as needed. I’m going to make some this week and I thought I’d share the recipe with you too!

Couponing 101: A Coupon Matchup Decoded

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Do our coupon matchups have you scratching your head? A matchup is when we take your weekly sales flyer and match it up to coupons that are available. We then tell you the final price so you can plan your shopping trip according to the deals. The big question, what does SS, RP or P&G mean? Let’s look at an example below:

Huggies Diapers $5.99

-$5/1 SS 1/23/11

=.99 per pack (wouldn’t that be a great deal?)

First, the $5/1 means $5 off the purchase of 1 package. If we were to say $5/2, it would mean $5 off the purchase of two packages. Second, the SS means SmartSource. This is an insert that comes in your newspaper or mail. Here’s a list of those abbreviations:

SS=SmartSource

RP=Redplum

P&G=Proctor and Gamble

The numbers next to the SS in the example above is the date when that coupon came out in your newspaper. This way, depending on how you organize, you can go back to that insert and find the coupon easily.

If you’re wanting to save hundreds of dollars a month on your groceries, check out Coupon101 and get started saving today! You can also read all of our coupon abbreviations to help you learn this awesome money saving strategy!

Remember, you can jump start your couponing by downloading my new eBook, Couponing Bootcamp!