Duh Moment: No More Chip Clips!

I love chip clips! I would have hundreds of them clipping everything in my house if I could, but they can be really expensive. Even at the dollar store you can only get about 6 for a dollar and then they fall apart almost immediately. Oh, and they have those wonderful little death-magnets on the back. You know, the ones that are perfectly shaped and sized for children to swallow when they inevitably fall off. As for the expensive ones... they're just expensive. So until recently I made do with the handful of chip clips I possessed, replacing them frequently as they fell apart. (I'm too cheap to get the good ones).

Then, one day my husband and I were at Walmart and we saw a pack of 100 clothespins for $1.88! Let me repeat... 100 clothespins for $1.88! This was my duh moment. I grabbed the pack of clothespins and haven’t looked back. It’s been six months and I haven’t had to buy any more. Now, I have pins keeping everything in my house fresh – cereal, chips, snacks, and even stuff in the freezer. They work perfectly. Sure, sometimes they come apart, but less so than the dollar store ones, and they're wooden so it’s actually better for the environment… if you’re into that.


I can’t believe I paid so much money for chip clips for so long. It’s just another marketing gimmick that has become a part of our culture, and I refuse to buy into it any longer.


You want something cuter? Something you can hang on the refrigerator? Easy peasy! Just hot glue magnets to the back of them, add ribbons or buttons. The possibilities are endless!
 

And if you make any cute clips, send them to me and I'll post them on the blog.

Duh Moment: Children’s Detangling Spray

I try to use all natural products for my children including their shampoo and conditioner, but all natural detangling sprays are quite expensive so I was using a cheaper brand. It worked well, but smelled awful, and I worried about all the toxic chemicals I was potentially spraying on my daughter's head.  


Then one day I had an epiphany… detangler is just watered down conditioner. Duh! I got a regular spray bottle, filled it with water, added a few squirts of herbal conditioner, shook well  and voila - all natural detangling spray for pennies. And it works great!

****Just make sure you clearly mark the bottle or you might find your significant other cleaning the countertops with it.****

Duh Moment: The Rippoff that is Foamy Soap

 As many of you  know, foamy soap makes washing children's hands so much easier because they aren't globing 2 gallons of soap on their hands with each washing, they like it, and it's easier to rinse. BUT... it is so expensive, and the kids go through it way too fast. So I came up with a solution that has saved me a ton of money. My husband liked it so much, he told me to write about it on the blog.


So here goes....


What I discovered is that the key to foamy soap is the bottle. All you need is to take an empty dispenser (7.5 fl oz), and fill it up to about an inch with regular hand soap, then fill it the rest of the way with water, shake it up, and voila you have foamy soap.

That's it.

No. It doesn't work as well as regular foamy soap. You have to shake it up fairly regularly to keep the soap and water all mixed up, and if you want to make it really foamy. But in the great history of things I have done in my lifetime to save money, a few moments shaking a bottle before washing my hands is nothing. What really bugs me is that this discovery has essentially confirmed my suspicions that I have actually been paying a lot more money for what is, essentially, less soap.

Oh well... that's consumerism for you I guess.