It's back!

It's that time of year again. The days are shorter, the nights are colder, our drinks are pumkpin-ier. Is that a real word? I don't know but in my house it is!

Anyway.... I love the Pumpkin Spice Mocha at Starbuck's. Yes, you heard me right. NOT the Latte' but the Mocha. It's like a decadent creamy pumpkin pie with a chocolate crust. Or Pumpkin Cheesecake with a chocolate espresso sauce drizzled over top. Or heaven in a cup, if you really want to know how I feel about it.

Sooo.... Starbuck's has the delicious, wonderful, nectar of the gods beverages for the very affordable price of...$6.00 a cup. WHAT!?!?!!!! (yes, it the Grande)

That is not in my budget, not even a little bit. So I've been scouring the internet for an alternative I can make at home. So far I've found a few delicious Latte's but still no pumpkin mochas. I guess I could put some chocolate in my homemade latte if I have to.

Here are a few of the yummy Latte' recipes I've found.

Made it in the blender for frothy goodness!
The Kitchn- DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte'

Make it with a homemade vanilla syrup!
Smith Bites- Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte'



The best part of making your cup of loveliness at home? You can stay home a do this....

(did you notice, they're making a list of their dreams...hmmm...)

Ahh... who are we kidding. We'll actually be doing this...

Have a great day!

How NOT to do your laundry frugally

I've been trying to find ways to cut as many unnecessary purchases from our budget. Normally, this means skipping the prepared foods and making stuff from home. Sometimes this means making something you wouldn't think of making, at home. Laundry soap is one of those things.

Yes, you read right- LAUNDRY SOAP. You can make it at home, in either liquid or powdered varieties, and there are even ways to make homemade stain removers too! I was very excited! So off to Harris Teeter I went and bought the necessary ingredients, Ivory soap, 20 Mule Team Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. The total cost was $12.00 and I estimated it should make enough to last us all year. What a savings!

I shredded the bar of soap, using my food processor (made for easy cleanup at the end ;)) and mixed the Borax and washing soda together with it. The next load, I threw in my scoop worth and voila! The clothes were not only clean but my hubby commented that they looked even cleaner!

Encouraged, I moved on to stain removers. Here I have to stop and profess my love for OxiClean. What amazing stuff it is! Since most of my stains are of the organic variety, it works wonders on them and gets the whole load cleans because of its very presence in the water. Am I nuts? No I just love the stuff. So when I found a recipe to make OxiClean at home, I was on top of the world!

I had all the needed ingredients on hand (water, baking soda, Borax and peroxide)so made it up in one of my old OxiClean bottles. It came together just the way the recipe said it would. A few days later my son put it to the test.

Dismal failure. The stuff was rock hard and wouldn't even come out of the bottle.

My sweetie pie husband gave me some explanation involving scientific reasons it had turned rock hard but I was in no mood to listen. I just wanted OxiClean. And to add insult to injury, after days of soaking the spraybottle, I had to throw it away.

So in conclusion, you CAN NOT make OxiClean. :(

P.S. I still make my laundry soap and it work beautifully. I encourage you to try it.

Frugal Weekend Fun!

I LOVE the autumn. There just something about the shorter days and cooler nights that makes me want to be outside as much I can. But I also just want to enjoy the cooler temperatures by snuggling up in a fleecy blanket and taking a nap. This weekend I got to do both!

Other fun inexpensive things we did:

... I finally figured out how to make bread in my Bosch mixer! I'd tried twice before but couldn't get the water temp right. This weekend it worked and I celebrated by making 2 dozen Turkey and cheese sandwich rolls and 2 loaves of Stromboli! (In case you are wondering what sandwich rolls are, think cinnamon rolls but with turkey and cheese instead.) Both of these make wonderful cold lunches and should last us 2-3 weeks.

... my husband and I decided to take up a new hobby-- metal detecting! He already had a metal detector from before we were married (he was a ghost-town hunter!) so it cost us nothing to start. We had to pay $1 for parking on the beach but eventually we plan on finding beaches that cost nothing. It was super fun and relaxing to walk the beach after dark, just moonlight, waves and our little family!

... I made blueberry scones for breakfast but in the middle of making them, I found I had run out of milk. Should I run to the store or find a way to resolve this with what I had on hand? Aha! Yogurt! I put in one container of peach yogurt in place of 2/3 cup of milk and they were delish!

What fun things did you do this weekend?

Finally Friday!

This week has been a complete blur. It seemed like everyday I was asking my husband what day it was because I just couldn't stay on top of it in my mind. I'm so thankful that whenever we don't "get it right" we are given the next day/next week to start all over again fresh!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend because I might get some rest. The Baby Bug has been going though a growth spurt (again!) so he's not been sleeping through the night. But he's getting big enough that I could take a nap and he and his daddy could have some play time! I was able to get into the very messy office and clean it up so I feel pretty good about that room and won't be thinking about it guiltily while I'm doing nothing. Today I'm going to make some delicious Strawberry Banana muffins so I won't have make breakfast in the morning, just in case I get the chance to sleep in a bit.

This weekend I plan on
...watching some TV or something from Blockbuster Online
...finding my knitting so my hands have something to do!
... taking a nap! (Maybe I can convince my husband to take us to the beach and I can take my nap there!)

What do you usually do on a lazy weekend?