And the SKOY winner is ....

Number 1! It was the woman that said, "number one is rarely the winner." Well, today, it's number 1. Congratulations, Rita. Email me your address and I'll get your new SKOY cloth in the mail to you. And, I'd like to see what you think of it!

I was excited to see so many comments that you'd probably buy it anyway, and I definitely recommend you do. Hide your paper towels and save some money AND trees.

SKOY: review and giveaway

I'm headed to Mobile for the weekend, but here's a giveaway for YOU!

About a month ago, Mandy had a giveaway. And I won 1 skoy cloth and the privilege of reviewing it having my own giveaway of 1 skoy cloth (provided by Mandy).

For months, nay years, we've tried to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. And just be overall better stewards of our resources. Sometimes, I'm proud of our efforts, but most of the time I know we can do more.

My Achilles heel is paper towels. The first step I made in cutting back on them was getting cloth napkins. At the time we used paper towels as napkins at meals. Next, I bought lots and lots of cloth rags for cleaning (very cheap at walmart). And I'm ok about using them ... when I remember.

So, what do we still use paper towels for? cleaning cat vomit (and that will continue), cleaning toddler poo off the hardwood floors (that will continue until Son remembers poo goes in the potty) And that's all I really wish we used them for.

BUT for convenience sake, I use them to dry my hands in the kitchen, wiping off the counters and the dining room table. -- this is what I bought the cloth rags for. But I'm a slacker. An improving slacker, but still, a slacker.

So, here's what we have:

The Skoy

versus

the paper towels I wish I used less often (maybe I should move these to a less convenient place in the house, so I can't just reach for them...)

versus

the cloth rags I wish I used more

this is only about half of what we have, the rest are in the laundry. I've decided that instead of putting them in a drawer, I'm keeping them stacked on the counter, so I can remember to use them more often.

So, what is this skoy cloth? I think the best most useful way to describe it, is a biodegradable Sham-Wow. It's a reusable muli-use cleaning cloth, that was designed to help cut down on the use of paper towels.

It's microwave, dishwasher and washing machine safe. Which is important for keeping it germ-free between uses.

awesome, right?

Husband and I both used the Skoy for a month and we both really liked it as a replacement for paper towels. We popped the damp skoy in the microwave every night before bed and bam, germ free until we're ready to use it again. We're both committed to using the Skoy until degrades into uselessness. And at that point, we're going to sanitize it one more time and throw it in the composter.

According to the website, one skoy cloth is equivalent to 15 rolls of paper towels! You can get a 4 pack of skoy clothes for $6.99 (shipping is free). That's $6.99 for the equivalent of 60 rolls of paper towels. I don't care how extreme of a couponer you are -- you can't beat that price.

Now for the fun part: the giveaway.

To enter to win1 skoy cloth of your own, leave me a comment - 1 per person. It can be about what you had for lunch, why you want to win, a discussion about how a peanut is neither a pea nor a nut or how you think I post too many pictures of my kids on the blog -- no, don't do that last one. I'll close comments and announce a winner on July 23.

And even if you don't win, maybe this post will give you a little more motivation to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Another Week at McWane

We went to McWane THREE times last week. seriously.

On Friday, I took the kids in the morning. Then we met Husband for lunch. That was nice. Except for having to wrangle two kids by myself. Husband and I prefer Man-to-Man versus Zone Defense at places like McWane so we can keep a better eye on the kids. But they did great and it was fun.

On Saturday, we all went instead of going blueberry picking. It was too hot to be out in a field at noon! We tried to get Daughter to ride the zip line (one of the new exhibits) but she didn't want to. Saturday was a fun fill day.

On Sunday, I met Husband and the kids at McWane after Second Sewing Saturday so Husband could take Daughter to her first movie. And an IMax at that! The plan was he'd take her to the 40 minute movie while Son and I played and after the movie we'd all play some more.

I'll admit, I was a little nervous about the movie. 'Born to be Wild' is an inspired story of love, dedication and the remarkable bond between humans and animals. This film documents orphaned orangutans and elephants and the extraordinary people who rescue and raise them - saving endangered species one life at a time. Sounds sweet and heart warming. Nevertheless, I had visions of wild animals doing, well, what wild animals do. Ya know, eating each other and such. I know it's nature and that's what animals have to do to survive, but I avoid watching things like that whenever possible and I sure didn't want to explain it to my 3.5 year old any time soon. Luckily, (for me) Husband said there wasn't any of that. He did say at the very beginning, there was a baby elephant nudging its dead mother elephant to wake up. That would have made me cry, but Husband said Daughter didn't even mention it.

She loved it! We met in the lobby after the movie and she RAN to me and said, "Mommy, I had a little popcorn and coke. And I saw baby elephants and baby 'or-nang-e-tangs' and so much other stuff. It was so fun. I loved it." (sigh) happiness.

Husband said that because of the IMax, when the screen moved with that "moving" feeling she would whisper, "Daddy, we're flying."

I love that she had a great time. I love that Husband got to share that with her. He's been talking about her "first movie" for years now.

Also on Sunday after the movie, Daughter decided she wanted to try the zip-line. And try she did. She went down it about 8 times. And of course I didn't have the camera! She was so fearless and brave and excited. I love that about her. Don't get me wrong, there are things she's scared of. But when she's fearless, it's exhilarating to me.

A shot of Husband and the kids playing soccer. It's one of the HAVE to do things for us.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday's tickets.

Because, Friday's tickets involve breaking down adult admission versus child admission because there were only 3 of us, I'm taking the lazy way out and saying: We have MORE THAN GOTTEN OUR MONEY'S WORTH out of our $90 membership! (Heck, it paid for itself in these 3 trips)

McWane - again

Saturday:

That brings our total to

$90 for 8 tickets: $11.25

8 tickets at if we'd paid full price: $84

No new pictures from this trip. I didn't bring the camera in, but they mostly did the same things anyway. Daughter did meet a new BFF and the two girls played and played and played. That was fun to watch. And new BFF also has a membership, so maybe we'll see her again soon.

McWane Center and Getting My Money's Worth

Husband and I have been talking about getting a membership at McWane Center for awhile now. But we wanted to wait until Son was old enough to enjoy his time there too. After the fun we had right before Son's birthday, we decided it was time. We went Sunday and signed up and played (and played and cried when it was time to go -- well, not all of us cried).

I'll spare you all the pictures we took. They pretty much look exactly the same as the last ones just in different clothes. But here's Daughter petting a rabbit. That was different.

For $90 we got a family membership. That includes admission for all 4 of us for a year (plus free parking in the deck) and $1 off Hollywood feature films (ie The last Harry Potter movie we'll be going to see there soon) and $1 off guest tickets. Without a membership it would cost $42 for all 4 of us to go (without parking). So, we go three times in one year and it's paid for.

I decided to see just how much money we "save" with the membership, I'm going to collect our "tickets." I'm not factoring in parking or gas (I'd rather not know how much that is)

So, yesterday we paid $90 for 4 people. (If we didn't have a membership we'd paid $42) I'm not calculating children tickets versus adult tickets into the equation. I'm going to keep it simple. VERY basic division. That means that each ticket cost $22.50. Thus after one visit we have not got our money's worth. ;-)

We thought about getting a zoo membership instead. But 1. It's more expensive and 2. I'm not going to want to go to the zoo when it's raining, 112 degrees outside or 32 degrees outside. Thus, McWane won.

I love: what-EVER!

I used to save money by using a vinegar/water mixture in a spray bottle as my all purpose cleaner. It worked. I was satisfied. And it was cheap.

A few months ago I discovered this at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck, whatever). I was looking for something to get crayon off our walls, so I wouldn't have to paint. I found this and I LOVE IT. I use it for everything now. (except I still use Grease Lightening to clean the oven hood -- Well, Husband usually does that actually)

It's $5 and some change, I think. But it truly is amazing. Give it a try if you're in search of something that cleans great, is a little more earth friendly and has a pleasant very light scent.

saturday morning adventure

We just got home from a Saturday morning adventure.

It started with a trip to an appliance store to get a part for our leaky dishwasher and to drop off recycling.

When you have to drive an hour to get to these places, you need to do more than 2 things.

Husband suggested the Farmers' Market and the Flowers Bakery Store.

This is our Farmers' Market Haul

4 sweet potatoes

4 eggplants

1 bunch of fresh onions (we'll use the top and bottoms)

3 green tomatoes

1 bunch of cilantro

a small basket of peaches (a couple are missing bc Daughter already ate them)

a small basket of plums (Son already ate one of these)

TOTAL: $13 score.

Our Flower's haul:

2 loaves of 100% whole grain bread (for everyone)

1 pack of hamburger buns (for Husband)

2 packs of hot dog buns (for Husband)

2 bags of tortilla chips (for when we make Mexican. I love these chips bc they are thick. not much breakage and they taste GREAT)

Total: $8 score.

About 10 minutes from home we passed a church yard sale. I saw a dozen kids "church chairs" and asked Husband to stop. I jumped out of the car and asked how much they were (knowing I only had $6 and no check book on me) THREE bucks each. They'd been selling them for 7 earlier in the day, but now they were breaking down tables and starting to load the leftovers into the Hannah's Home truck.

So I got two. I thought about getting two taller ones, but then decided to get a tall one for Daughter and a shorter one for Son.

Back in the car, I told Husband I wish I would've asked for two more so I could have 4 (for some imaginary kids table I don't even have yet).

Always the philosopher, Husband reminded me that the Hannah's Home/King's Ranch were either going to use those chairs in their homes or sell them for money for the homes and they probably needed the money more than I needed those two chairs.

Oh, Husband.

I love these chairs. Such sweet memories of Sunday School, Children's Choir, GA's, Vacation Bible School -- both as a student and a teacher.

today's top 7 reasons I love ALDI

Remember how much I love Aldi? We got some great deals on Sunday and I wanted to share.

I didn't get this bag Sunday (we've had 2 for months) but I wanted to mention it. It's by far the biggest reusable grocery store bag I've seen. It's more like a beach bag than a grocery sack. And at .99 it's well worth stocking up on.

We got all three of these wines (a Reisling from Germany, a Cabernet Sauvignon from California and a Liebfraumilch from Germany) for $10. Yes, three great bottles of wine for ten bucks.

This was what I was most excited about. I used to be quite addicted to Lorina Pink Sparkling Lemonade. I couldn't drive by World Mart without stopping to pick up at least 1 bottle. But that was a long time ago. It's fabulous but expensive. No longer in the budget. But Aldi has THIS:

It's a BIGGER bottle (1 liter instead of 750ml) and it tastes better, in my opinion. The Aldi version has a more tart lemonade taste where the Lorina was sweeter. AND it was only $2.49! The only downside to the Aldi brand is the screw top instead of the cool old school pop top. It's definitely affordable as a rare occasion treat.

How much have you been spending on avacados lately? Our Wal-Mart has them on 'sale' right now for .74 a piece. (the lowest they get is about .64 in the summer) This winter they got as high as .99. Not ideal for a family who loves guadamole as much as mine OR puts them in salads as much as we do! Aldi has then for .49 a piece. I almost croaked when I saw that! Husband and I were both scrambling to pick out the best ones!!

These are my favorite string cheese sticks. I have no idea how they compare in price to other string cheese sticks because these taste so incredible I don't think that $2.79 is too much to pay. Seriously. It's like I'm eating off a block of fresh mozzerella and not pulling cheese off a stick. Husband takes these in the car for breakfast sometimes. I enjoy a couple a week as an afternoon snack and Daughter loves them anytime.

Finding these on Sunday was a little surreal because we've been buying the organic Target brand for a few months (and eating them very sparingly because I think they cost a lot). Sunday morning, about 6 hours before our Aldi trip, I decided I'd start making our own fruit leathers (it's easy and there will be a blog about that in the future). So finding these, with the same exact ingredients and nutritional information for $1.99 was exciting! The only downside is they only come in strawberry and raspberry and the Target brand has about 6-8 flavors.

I was defnitely excited about this because it's the first WHOLE BEAN COFFEE we've seen at Aldi, until now it's just been ground. bluh. We paid $3.99 for this bag which is cheaper than the Wal-Mart or Sam's club brands we've been buying and much cheaper than the Starbucks brand we used to buy. It tastes great too.

p.s. I'm not sure why I added the other store links ... you can't view groceries on their websites. doh.

how I made my own laundry detergent [no pictures, boo]

I could tell you a whole long story about all the internet searching I did and how I looked from store to store and where I actually ended up buying all my ingredients and my learning as I went making of it all ... but instead I'll just tell you what to use, how to use and store it and where it's the cheapest.

score.

What to use:

1 55 ounce box washing soda -- I used Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 76 ounce box of Borax -- I used 20 Mule Team, which seems to be the only brand around

10 bars of bar soap -- I used Fels Naptha a bar soap made specifically for laundry but Ivory or pretty much any bar soap you want to use on your laundry is fine too

How to use it:

grate the bar soap. I used a box grater and Daughter thought it was cheese. That was a nice tantrum when I wouldn't let her eat soap cheese, I'll tell you.

Mix all three ingredients together. (you'll need something roughly the size of a 5 gallon bucket)

in small batches (about a cup to a cup and a half at a time) put the mix in a blender and blend it until fine. VERY fine. If the bar soap isn't fine, it runs the risk of not dissolving in the wash thus not rinsing off your clothes properly.

I made the mistake of trying to blend JUST the soap so I could mix it when it was fine, but that didn't work. having the borax and washing soda WITH the bar soap worked fabulous. I also found if I put for than a cup and a half in the blender at a time, it got bogged down. so blend more at your own risk ... or risk to your blender.

For storage, I'm using a five gallon bucket with a tight lid. I'm sure you could also use zip lock bags or a myriad of other things you can think of that seals tightly.

You only need to use between one to two tablespoons per load, depending on the size and dirt of the load. Luckily, I have a scoop that is two tablespoons and marks the one tablespoon mark. [from my Allen's Naturally detergent that I use on the cloth diapers]

Where's it the cheapest:

Publix on the laundry detergent aisle. You can buy all three ingredients for under $20 at Publix.

other places to find the ingredients:

I've heard Wal-mart, but my local one only had the borax

Ace Hardware. (you can also order from their website and have it delivered free to a store)

Amazon or where ever else you buy your online things-its and whats-its.

I wash in hot and cold water and the detergent works great in both.

Have an HE washer?

you can still use it. The only thing 'special' or different about HE detergent is that it produces very low suds in the wash [yes, it's true.] This detergent produces low suds too. It's safe.

p.s. I really love Fels Naptha. I have an extra bar that I'm using as a pre treater. and it smells pretty fabulous. my laundry room has never smelled better

while I found various websites, with various recipes this is the only one that's exactly like the one I used. I'm going to try their homemade dish washing detergent soon.

Aldi - my experience.

Rita, I love Aldi.

Husband says he's told me about Aldi before I told him. I don't think he's a liar. I just don't remember. Our closest Aldi is in our closest "shopping city" Where our Sam's Club, Publix and Target (our major grocery stores) all are. We pass it a lot and I've been interested, but skeptical. cheap groceries rarely equal good groceries.

Susan started talking about it. She's a smart girl. I trust her. I decided we're going. and I loved it!

I decided to wait a few days after our trip to blog about it so we could actually eat some of the things we bought. to see if our cheap groceries equal good groceries.

according to our receipt, we bought 100 items. exactly. we spent $127. not exactly, rounded up. (keep in mind we bought a lot of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste for spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce)

Things we bought that we've eaten:
string cheese
salomi
provolone
veggie stir fry
whole milk
green bell peppers
fresh garlic
graham crackers
table salt
chardonnay
diced tomatoes
tomato sauce
tomato paste

I am so pleased with everything we've tried. above and beyond what we expected. before we walked in the store I told Husband, "I guess this will prove if we've been buying quality or just buying a brand name." we've been buying a brand name for too long.

we also got:
ground beef
cat litter
Riesling
frozen shrimp
frozen salmon
bacon
red and yellow bell peppers
chicken broth
fresh zucchini
fresh squash
onion soup mix
all purpose flour
10lb bag of potatoes

Before we left the house I had Husband go to Sam's website and write down price per unit/ounce for the things we routinely buy at Sam's because we've already determined it to be the cheapest choice. Aldi beat Sam's on cat liter, chicken broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ground beef, wine, fresh vegetables, salomi and provolone (actually, salomi and provolone is Husband's favorite sandwich and it got so expensive he had to switch to peanut butter for workday lunch - we can afford it at Aldi). The only thing Sam's won on was all purpose flour.

When we've used all our Starbucks Sumatran coffee, we'll be trying Aldi's Sumatran coffee. I also wish they had canned artichokes and cous couse. those are both things we buy a lot of that they didn't have. I think we'll try their sandwich bread next time too.

I didn't price their sodas because we don't buy soda. I didn't price their toilet paper. I really have no idea if we're buying the most cost effective toilet paper.

Things to know about Aldi before you go:

• bring a quarter if you want a shopping cart.
• they don't take coupons (bc most of their items are their brand, I assume)
• they don't take credit cards (bad when my Discover Card offers double cash back on groceries during certain months)
• bring your own bags or buy bags there or like Sam's Club - don't use bags.
• check out is warp speed FAST. and you are the sacker. it's almost intimidatingly fast. they actually have a counter at the front of the store to move your sacking to after checkout.

It's nice to make your dollar go farther AND it be quality.