Ways we are saving money

Since March, my husband and I have really been trying to spend less/save more money. We have done the usual:

• coupons
• deals
• not eating out
• menu planning
• growing a garden
• and more...

But there are also some more "outside of the box" things we have been working on that have really helped. I know I am not the first to come up with these, but they are simple and small things that can easily be overlooked, but can make a big impact!

• homemade dish detergent
• using the dishwasher less. it has been easy in the past to just throw everything in. and it has been easy in the past to run 2 loads a day. with just 2 of us! that had to stop! we are better about washing bigger things and things that were hardly used, things that are just easier to wipe clean in the same amount of time as rinsing and loading.
  
• using washcloths instead of paper towels to clean messes
• recycling (this saves money because we do not have to take our trash to the curb as often)
• composting (same as above, as well as both being environmentally friendly)
• using a deep freezer to cook in bulk and stockpile foods when they are on special.
  
• reusing paper towels. we do still have them on hand, and I like to wash and dry fresh lettuce before making a salad. then I dry the towels and use them a few days later when I get more lettuce from the garden.
• reusing dryer sheets for dusting
• making my own baby food

Things I have thought about doing to save money, but am not totally convinced yet to do (I do believe that time and effort equal money too):

• cloth diapering
• drying clothes outside on lines
• making all my food from scratch
  

More Food For My Freezer-Peaches!

I love it when I have a seemingly tedious task to do and I find an amazingly simple way to do it!
We have a couple of peach trees in our back yard. They do not get real big, but they are very sweet and delicious. Last year they all came in within about a 2 week span, just before we were leaving for a week! Bummer! We ate as many as we could and then gave a bunch away before we left. I was happy to give them to people who would eat them, but I would have loved to have figured out something to do with them so we could enjoy them for a lot longer (without canning them, I am just not into canning yet!).

Well, now that we have a deep freezer, this is my first though on just about any food...eat some now, store some for later. The part about these peaches I was not looking forward to was their size. They are small. This means a lot of peeling for just a little fruit on the inside. It is good fruit, and it is worth it to get to the middle, but I had been putting it off for a while.

Until I found this info about freezing peaches. Hooray! This made the process SO simple! And now I can enjoy these peaches so much longer this year!