My husband rocks! Or, A New Bed for the Boys!

So, my kids have wanted a bunk bed ever since they got to sleep in one on vacation a couple years ago.  Unfortunately our near-century home has very low, sloped ceilings and a normal sized bunk bed would never fit in their room.  But then I saw some amazing examples on blog posts and Pinterest of how people got creative with IKEA's Kura bed, so I checked the measurements and realized it would actually be a perfect fit.  The $199 price tag seemed pretty reasonable too.

 However, as soon as I showed it to my husband, he said what he always says - "Pssh, I can build that!"  So it's been on his very long to-do list for months.  This past Friday, while perusing our local buy/sell/trade Facebook page (if you recall, that's where I scored our awesome lockers), I came across a posting from someone who was selling this loft bed in barely-used condition for $75.  I showed it to him and asked if it might be easier to modify this one than to build a whole bed from scratch.  He said yes and we liked the price, so we picked it up the next day.  That was Saturday.

 

Tonight (Tuesday) he came home from work and tackled the project in just a couple of hours.  We installed it in the boys' room and *poof* project complete.  Sorry I don't have an actual tutorial for you, but he basically popped the plastic caps off the bottoms, sawed off the legs to make the bed the right height, and popped the plastic caps back on.  He adjusted/reinforced/welded a couple other spots on the frame to make up for what he had cut off, and that was it.  So we basically ended up in a sturdier version of the IKEA Kura bed, for less than half the price - and we only had to drive about 10 minutes to pick it up versus the hour-plus drive to the IKEA store.  I am super pleased with it - he did a great job. 

We still need to get a second mattress for underneath, but for now it's a cozy little play area/reading nook.  The boys are loving it - way to go, Daddy!

DIY Locker Project

I have developed a new semi-obsession:  following several local buy/sell/trade pages on Facebook.  It's like a giant virtual garage sale - people post pics of things they're selling and you just scroll through to peruse the offerings.  If you see something you want, you comment on it and then contact the seller via private message to make arrangements to meet.  Since there are pages for very specific local areas - even neighborhoods - this means that you can get the benefits of yard sale-ing without having to actually drive around and visit dozens of individual sales, and you never have to travel very far.  When I buy or sell something, I usually just meet people in the library parking lot up the street, which is super convenient since we go there all the time anyway.  I have scored some great deals and I've also made a little money and gotten rid of some clutter by selling stuff on there as well.  If you've never searched for local buy/sell/trade sites, I highly recommend it.

I want to share my favorite find so far.  I bought a set of school lockers for $30.  I knew as soon as I saw them that they would be the perfect solution to our unfortunate lack of closets and cluttered, unorganized side-entry hallway where we shed our coats and shoes.  I also loved the idea of our home school having its own lockers!  There were two banks of three lockers, for a total of six, which means one locker for each family member plus two more for guests.

Forgive me, but I forgot to take a "before" pic, so you will have to form one in your mind.  They were just painted a plain white and the door fronts were a bit rusty.  My wonderful husband cleaned them up and fixed/reinforced a few things, and then painted the frames and insides with about 10 cans of this:

Rustoleum's Hammered Finish Silver Paint

There were probably cheaper options (10 cans @ $5.77 each = $57.70) but we went with this paint because it looks nice and will leave a very durable finish.  When he finished that step, I painted the door fronts with a charcoal grey chalkboard paint.  I thought it would be fun for each person to be able to decorate their own door, and change it up from time to time.  I am very happy with how this product covered and how it looks, and it was very reasonably priced at $9.67 for a quart.  I did two coats and I still have over half the can left so I can do another chalkboard project somewhere else in the house as well.

Rustoleum's Chalkboard Paint - I had mine tinted to the color "moonstone".

First, here is the "before" shot of my hallway.  We just had coat hooks on the wall and a heap of shoes below, as well as a catch-all shelf constantly piled with stuff.  Oh, and Noodle's dish, which we moved to the kitchen.

Aaaannnnndddd.... AFTER!

And finally, after 3 days' curing time for the paint, we were free to write on our lockers!  Yay!

 

I am beyond thrilled with how they turned out.  What do you think?

DIY Laundry Soap

After hearing several people talking about making their own laundry detergent, and after my husband badgered me for months to get the recipe & buy the ingredients so we could try it... I finally did - and I am extremely happy with the results.  This stuff will save you SO much money, and after using it for a few weeks now, I can confirm that it actually works BETTER than the stuff I was buying at the grocery store.  Here are the supplies you need:

One five gallon bucket and lid to dedicate to detergent making/storage = $3.88
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda = $3.24
Borax = $2.98
Bar of Fels-Naptha soap = $0.97
Bar of Ivory soap = $1.00

Total to get started = $12.07
(Note:  You will get quite a few batches out of the Borax and the washing soda, plus the bucket is a one-time expense.  So the cost per batch is around $3.50)

Instructions:

• Grate the Ivory & Fels-Naptha soap and add to saucepan with 4 cups of water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
• Fill 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add the melted soap mixture, plus 1 cup of the washing soda and 1/2 cup of Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
• Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of the way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
• Optional: you can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. (I didn't do this)
• Yields 10 gallons of laundry soap

This is what ours looks like, all done.  It has a thick, gel-like consistency.  Remember, you use a smaller, everyday use bottle with a mix of half this stuff, and half water... so this should last a long time.

And here are before and after pics of one of Shane's dirtiest, grubbiest work/garage shirts.  The before pic was taken AFTER the shirt had been laundered in our old store-bought soap - I pulled it from the clean clothes basket to see if there was any noticeable difference with the new homemade stuff.

BEFORE

AFTER

Now I know the after shot isn't pristinely beautiful, but in comparison to the before shot, I think it's easy to see some improvement!  What do you think?

Oh, and one more benefit of the new soap - I really like the smell of it.  I did not choose to add any essential oils, so it just has a nice clean soapy smell (which came from the Ivory & Fels-Naptha) rather than the overly perfume-y smell of the store bought stuff.  So there you go: $3.50 for 10 gallons of laundry detergent, that works BETTER and smells nicer than what you buy at the store.  Everyone should be doing this!

In case you were wondering...

...this is what $64.52 worth of clothes from the thrift store looks like. Brands represented: Levi's, Children's Place, Gymboree, Osh Kosh, L.L. Bean, Gap, Old Navy, and Jumping Beans. There are 32 items of clothing here, so the average price is around $2. All are for my two boys, ages 4 and almost 1.



And my favorite find of the day is this adorable Christmas sweater vest, which was $1.


The very beginning of my path to choosing homeschooling was when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I knew immediately that I wanted to stay home and raise him, instead of leaving him with strangers all day and going to work. I had no idea how to make that happen financially, but I knew I would figure it out. I remember being terrified to tell my boss that I was pregnant because I knew the question to follow was going to be, "So what do you plan to do after the baby is born?" and I already knew the answer in my heart - and I knew it was one she wouldn't like.

The solution ended up being that I still work part time, but just a couple evenings a week and on Saturdays. This way I can work around my husband's work schedule and we don't have to worry about outside child care. This is a good balance for us, although it still leaves us with a lot less money coming in than we used to have on two full-time incomes, and now we are feeding twice as many people! I often hear other moms saying that they wish they could afford to stay home with their kids, but it's really not as hard as some would think. Our budget is pretty tight, but it works. I highly recommend the book, America's Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides. (Yes that really is their last name.) I am definitely not as hardcore as they are, but this book does have tons of useful advice on stretching your money as far as possible, and implementing just a few of their strategies has really helped us. There is a whole section on shopping for clothes, which is what inspired me to start shopping at thrift stores. Sure, you have to hunt around a little, but you can find some great, barely-used, high-quality stuff. Because here's the thing: kids grow really fast. Sometimes they outgrow things they've never even had a chance to wear, or maybe only wore once or twice. And those are the things I hunt for.

Another piece of the Economides' advice I have tried to use is to make fewer trips to the grocery store each month, but buy more and stock up when you're there (so you don't have to go back again as soon). This is because for every time you walk into a grocery store, there will be a certain percentage of impulse buys. Fewer trips = less temptation and fewer impulse buys. I have found this to be very true for me, and this principle has definitely chopped a lot off of our grocery bill. They shop just once a month, but I have only been able to stretch it to about once every 2-3 weeks. The one area where I differ with them is that they are major coupon clippers and plot out their trips using store ads and buy only what's on sale. Personally, I'm just not that motivated. But at my Mother-in-law's insistence 2 years ago, I grudgingly began shopping at a store called Aldi and discovered that a) their prices are usually better than other stores' sale prices and b) their products are usually as good as or even better than the brand name stuff I used to buy. I truly have to credit Aldi with helping us balance our budget... I am a huge, huge fan.

I think bargain-hunting is a natural part of life for a homeschooling family, so I will occasionally be sharing great finds and things that have worked for me. There's a lot more where this came from...