Going Green

(Sorry for the crazy format this time. I meant to upload pictures first and then write, but I forgot. I'm still figuring out how this thing works and am far to lazy to try to figure out how to format it the way I want:))
Doesn't this girl look so silly. This onesie is adorable, but still so big on her. And you gotta love the socks that are much more like knee highs on this kiddo. She looks especially wide this time too because she was sporting her cloth diaper. Still gotta get used to the bulkiness of them, especially since she's still pretty petite.
These diapers make Kamdyn look like she has some major junk in her trunk. She's a tiny thing, but her butt looks big in these diapers. Plenty of room for her to grow into them for sure!

Laundry soap process:
We had to grate the bar of soap up and dissolve it in hot water over the stove. I wanted to use a cheese grater, but we didn't have one, hence the large knife. We will definietly invest in one for the future, it will make it so much faster.
Nicole was trying to cut the soap into bigger chunks and then grate it. Needless to say, this soap was tough and we just ended up doing it the way we had been:) Chris, Nicole's fiance', was just enjoying watching us be total dorks
Progress!!
Dissolving the soap. Nicole was in charge at this point, I ended up making a huge mess buy letting it boil over. Pretty sure I was still trying to get the soap wiped up off the range. We kept joking that even though it was a mess, it was clean.
Brian stepped in to add the borax and baking soda (should have been washing soda:), but at least they can both be used for cleaning).
Chris pouring our dissolved soap mixture to the bucket of borax and baking soda. Then we stirred and filled the bucket (yes, this is a 5 gallon bucket!) with water and stirred again. We sealed it up and it sat overnight and was ready to go in the morning.
We were able to fill all 6 of these empty containers with our soap. This recipe makes a ton of soap! It would take me forever to use if I didn't someone to split it with. The best part is, this cost me under 10 dollars to make!!

I've always been a cheap person. I hate spending a lot of money on things, and I'm always one that will buy the cheapest thing out there that I can (assuming it's still decent quality). Recently I've gotten on a huge "do-it-yourself" kick. I'm tired of spending so much money on laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent, diapers and baby wipes, ect. So....I've decided to start making my own. We are going green here in the Hutton household in an effort to save a few dollars on things we can. It's just an added bonus we get to save the environment too. Last night my friend Nicole and I made our first ever batch of homemade laundry detergent. It was super easy, and while there are a couple of kinks (who knew there was a difference between washing soda and baking soda (I probably should have:)) to work out for the next batch, overall I think it turned out well. I used some for the first time today, and while it was really weird to use instead of my think normal detergent, things came out smelling fresh and looking clean. So that's all that matters. I also tried an alternative to dishwasher detergent this week. The crazy thing is, this stuff is so easy and probably most people have some or all of the stuff they need. For the dishwasher all I needed was 1 tbsp of borax (had this to make laundry detergent) and 1 tbsp of baking soda. Then if you want, you just fill the jet dry spot with vinegar. The dishes looked just as wonderful as they did with our regular detergent. So there goes having to buy that anymore:).

Next comes the kiddos. Having two kids in diapers is a lot. And while I'm thankful that I'm going to be all in the diaper stage at once and then hopefully be out of it all at once, it does hurt the pocketbook. Diapers are not cheap. Wipes aren't too bad, but if you go through as many as I feel we do, that cost adds up fast. So, I've decided that I'm going to give cloth diapers a try. I'm still surprised that I'm willing to do this, but it would save us a TON of money (and we would have a whole lot less trash). Besides, I have several friends that have switched to cloth and love them. Not quite as simple as disposable, but they still aren't too bad. I'm trying out a brand right now (a friend loaned me a couple to try out before I buy). Bum genius. It is a one size diaper and fits kids from 7-35 lbs. So Eli could even wear these until he's potty trained (hopefully!). I know I'm going to have more laundry by going this route, but I plan on getting enough to only have to do a load once at night and then have them ready for the morning. For those of you that are worried we might make you use the cloth diapers when you are watching the kiddos, fear not, we will still have disposables around. But I would much rather cut our diaper budget from 100 dollars a month to 20:). I haven't made my own wipes yet, but that's on the agenda this weekend. I have another friend, Ginger, who makes her own in an effort to save a few dollars and she really likes them. So, I'm gonna give it at shot:).

I'm amazed at how simple making my own stuff has been. I can't believe I didn't do some of this earlier.