Frugal Tips: Personal Care Made From Scratch
The past two weeks I have talked about making foods from scratch to save money and making household cleaners to save money. You can also make many personal care products at home to save money. The list of things I want to try is far longer than the items you see below.
One of the favorite things I’ve made is Homemade Lip Balm. What a success! It was easy to make and I was able to use our own honey and beeswax. I poured it into little tins, which worked out to be a great way to store it. It’s going to be a perfect gift item to make for Christmas.
Peppermint Lip Balm
After my success with lip balm I decided to make some Hand Lotion. I was just as pleased with the results. Absolutely loved the scent from the lavender essential oil I used.
Hand lotion thickened overnight.
My Master Tonic recipe would fall under personal care. This is a tonic that you can mix up each spring and fall. It stores well and when ever someone is feeling like they are battling something out comes the Master Tonic. This picture shows the tonic before it was strained.
Master Tonic
In the spring I mixed up a batch of Mama’s Bug-Be-Gone Bug Spray.
Bug spray ingredients.
If you read Prudent Living’s free online magazine this bug spray recipe may be familiar to you. It works really well and is so much better for you than a commercial bug spray. For other recipes check out the online magazine!
Prudent Living Magazine
Another favorite homemade salve is the Sore Muscle Salve that I recently made. I couldn’t have made it at a better time as my muscles have been so sore from all the weeding I am doing! You will love using this salve at the end of a busy day.
Sore Muscle Salve
As you look through these various recipes to make these products I hope you are inspired to try them. I have quite a list of things I want to try in the next year. What sort of personal care items do you make from scratch?
Linked to: OffTheGrid-30, LearningTheFrugalLife, Earning-My-Cape, WeAreThatFamily, TheThriftyHome, FrugallySustainable, FemineAdventures, Thrifty101, ThePrudentPantry, LearningTheFrugalLife
Monday Facebook Update!
Welcome to On The Home Front
It’s been an exciting weekend. For weeks I’ve been encouraging friends to “like” the On the Home Front Facebook page. Little by little the “likes” have been increasing in number. However in the last week the numbers have increased by over 50, this weekend I think there were 30 “likes” until I am just 5 away from reaching 200. Not bad for a new Facebook page!
So thank you to all my faithful readers who have taken the time to “like” the On The Home Front Facebook page. I couldn’t have done it without you! If you haven’t had a chance to like it, head over to the On The Home Front Facebook page and click the “like” button under my cover photo!
On The Home Front Facebook page
Have a wonderful week and be sure to check my blog out tomorrow when I talk about making personal care items made from scratch.
Recipe Box: Kale Salad
I’ve seen numerous recipes online for various kale salads. I attended a dinner meeting recently where we all had to bring something for the meal. One of the other ladies brought this very simple kale salad. I thought it was delicious and so easy to make. We have an abundance of kale this year so we’ve been making this salad on a regular basis!
Kale
Kale Salad
Dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp sour cream
1 tsp chili sauce
celery seeds to taste
Chop up a bunch of kale. If you want to blanch it quickly you can do that or just eat it raw. We’ve been eating it raw.
Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
Dressing ingredients
Stir the dressing into the kale, dress the salad according to your tastes. The dressing will keep so if you don’t use it all up you an save it for another salad.
Chill in the refrigerator for a little while for the flavors to combine. The great thing about kale is it won’t wilt when dressed!
Enjoy!
Kale Salad
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Prudent Pantry: Preserving Kale
My garden is full of kale right now and despite the fact that we’ve been enjoying kale salad and dried kale we are not able to eat it all. So I decided to freeze some. This is a very simple process.
Kale
Select your kale that you want to freeze. Pick early in the day so the greens are crisp and fresh. About 14 pounds of greens makes 7-quart bags.
Small bunch of kale.
Wash the greens and cut off any of the woody stems or damaged pieces.
Rinsed Kale
Get a large pot of boiling water ready; it should be about 2/3rds full. You will also need a large bowl full of ice and cold water.
Because the kale contains enzymes and bacteria that over time will break down and destroy nutrients and change the color, flavor and texture during storage, kale requires a brief heat treatment called blanching. Basically it means placing your kale in the boiling water for two minutes.
Blanching Kale
Then place in the ice water for two minutes.
Ice Bath
Drain.
Drain and dry kale
Use your foodsaver or a Ziploc bag. You want to get as much air out of the bag as possible.
Kale ready for the freezer.
That’s it! You’re done. Place your kale in the freezer and it will be ready to use this winter.
Linked to: LauraWillaimsMusings, ThePrudentPantry, HomesteadRevival, ThePrairieHomestead, TheMorrisTribe, MamalDiane, PremeditatedLeftovers
My Garden: Protecting Our Blueberries
We have ten blueberry bushes planted at one end of our vegetable garden. Some of the bushes are early-bearing; some mid-season and some are late-bearing. As a result once the berries start turning blue we have ripe berries for quite a long time!
Blueberries
I think blueberries are my favorite fruit and I just love having them on my cereal in the morning.
Blueberries are also a favorite with the birds. Much as we like our feathered friends we do not want to share our berries. With a few cut saplings, a drill and some sheetrock screws my husband made a great blueberry cage to protect the berries from the birds!
Blueberry Cage
The saplings we cut out of our woods and everything else we had on hand. Once the cage was made we covered it with netting, which we stapled in place.
Corners of Blueberry Cage
At one end we have a simple opening, the netting is stapled to a post, which we can lift and open to get under the netting. With the exception of one very smart robin that has figured out how to come and go, the rest of the birds stay out. As a result the blueberries are protected!
Protected berries
I like the rustic look and I really love the abundance of blueberries!
Blueberries
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Frugal Tip: Made From Scratch Saves Cash (Part Two)
Last week I talked about how making certain foods at home can save you money. Did you know you can also make all sorts of household cleaners and detergents that will also save you money!
Making my own window cleaner is something I have been doing for ages. In the last year I also started making my own household cleaner similar to “409”. It works so well and is so cheap to make.
Ingredients for a simple window cleaner.
Making my own laundry detergent was also something I’d wanted to do for the longest time. When I started writing this blog I figured what better time to try this. Not only did I find it was very easy to make but I’ve been so pleased with the results.
Homemade laundry detergent ingredients.
Once I had made laundry detergent I figured why not make my own liquid hand soap. For just the cost of a bar of soap you will have a gallon of liquid hand soap.
Liquid hand soap ingredients.
I used a bar of peppermint soap and the resulting liquid hand soap has such a wonderful smell.
Homemade Liquid Hand Soap
The last thing I tried was making a toilet bowl cleaner.
No Scrub Toilet Bowl Cleaner
No I’m not sharing a picture of a dirty toilet. But you can imagine the final result.
Clean toilet, inside and out!
With very little time and expense you can make so many of your own cleaning products that will do the job well and be much healthier for you to use!
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