Once Upon a Child - Grab Bag Sale - Saturday

This Saturday at select Once Upon a Child stores, you can fill a bag with clearance items for only $15.

Here are the locations that are participating:

86th & Ditch 846-7011

71st and Binford 842-0533

U.S. 31 South 888-7013

Stores are open from 10 am - 8 pm.

Disney Store Closing - Greenwood Park Mall

The Disney Store at the Greenwood Park Mall is closing on or before 2/20/10. Currently all items are 25% off the lowest marked price.

























I was able to get this pretty little dress for only $15.00. The retail price is $49.50. As you can see, my little girl was very pleased with her "Princess" dress. If you get one of these dresses - they seem to run a bit small. My daughter wears a 24 months and this dress is a 2/3.

























She was very excited that it matched her dolly's dress!

An added bonus is that our floor is now "sparkly" - even without mopping =).

Mattel Toy Recall Settlement

If you have certain Mattel Toys, they have been recalled for high levels of lead. You can go here to see a list of the recalled toys.

You can go here to read the information and see how to send the toys back.

Some of the toys are in the following collections: Barbie, Dora, Polly Pockets, Batman, Doggie Daycare, Diego, Geotrax, Cars, Sesame Street and others.

The Children's Place Warm Winter Pj's - $3.99

Today I happened to be at the mall running some errands and stopped into The Children's Place. There was a huge sign saying 50% off the lowest marked price on clearance and so I had to check it out.












I found my FAVORITE winter pj's for my daughter for only $3.99 each. The regular retail is $12.50. I also found some of the lighter weight pj's for only $3.47 each!!! I bought the next sizes to put away for next winter and the following Spring. I also got an extra pair for this year as I never seem to be able to quite keep up with the laundry!

She was more than happy to do a little modeling of them tonight before she went to bed.

I checked on their website and they have them there too for the same price and shipping on all orders is only $5.00. You can go here to view the page with the pj's. There was a lot of other nice clothing on sale too for very good prices.

When you are able to buy ahead then YOU are choosing the price you will pay for an item. If you wait until you need an item you will have the price dictated to you by the store. This is one of the basic principles of my money saving philosophy - Choose Your Price. I choose $3.99 now - not $12.50 later.

Yes, I have to store it for a year until next winter - but I have a box in my daughter's closet (and an under the bed box in my son's room) for just this sort of thing, so that is no problem. I am always looking for things I will NEED (not just want) in the future and trying to purchase them at their lowest price ahead of that need. This strategy will save you a lot of money - as long as you stick with buying things you NEED and not buy a lot of stuff just because it is on sale.

Great Clips Hair Cuts $5- $6

I received an email from a reader letting me know that Great Clips at 86th and Ditch is doing haircuts for only $4.99. She also said that all the Indianapolis area Great Clips are going to be doing cuts at $5.99 starting this Friday 1/30/10.

I do not know how long this special will be going on - but that's a great deal if you need a hair cut.

Here is the location and phone number of the 86th and Ditch salon:
1424 W 86th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46260
317-269-7294

You can find out the location of the other salons by going here.

I recommend calling ahead before going to confirm that the special is still in effect.

Thanks Kimberly for sharing this deal with us!

If you've found a great deal send it to me and I'll pass it along!

Welcome Hamilton East Library - Savvy Saving for Everyone Program!

It was so nice to meet you tonight. You were an awesome class! I would love to hear from you, feel free to leave me a note in the comments section!

Here are a few links that you might like.

Bloglines Blog Reader

Dave Ramsey - budgeting


Check these great blogs for deals:

Money Saving Mom

Bargain Briana - local Indiana grocery deals

BeCentsAble.net - grocery deals


Grocery Store links:

Meijer

Meijer Mealbox (for coupons click on the "Specials" tab in the box)


You might also enjoy this post about Menu Making with your Stockpile.



Here are a few other of my favorites that I mentioned tonight:

Click on the picture to visit the site.

Homemade Cleaning Supplies - Powdered Laundry Detergent

Since many of you at the Savvy Saving Class asked for this tonight - here it is!!!

























A month ago I wrote a few articles regarding homemade laundry detergent. I have to admit a few years ago I really thought people that made their own laundry detergent needed to get a life! Why would you want to do this? Well, more recently I have realized that laundry detergent can be a BIG expense! So why not give it a try?

The first post that I wrote included a video by Trent at The Simple Dollar showing how to make your own liquid laundry detergent. It didn't look too hard, but the thought of a large bucket of liquid in my house with a new and not so steady walker did not seem safe (and possibly very messy) to me.

I decided to research the possibility of homemade powdered laundry detergent. The second post included a recipe for powdered laundry detergent from Felicia at Blulow. This seemed like a more reasonable approach for our lifestyle - so I decided to give it a try.

Okay, so I'm a month into my experiment. I spent about $7.00 on supplies and that will probably be enough for a very long time - I'll let you know! So far, I have been very pleased with the cleanliness of my laundry, I have had no trouble washing my whites with bleach and actually they look better than ever.


Here is what I used:

4 Bars - soap - (I hate to admit I actually used Irish Springs bar soap because I had some in the closet that would never get used otherwise - I'm not necessarily recommending this - but it seemed to work fine for me. However, the scent was a bit strong at first!)

3 Cups - 20 Mule Team Borax

3 Cups - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda.

First I grated each bar of soap in the food processor one at a time. After the bar was grated I switched out the blade to the chopper blade and ran it through again with that to make a fine powder. Then I added around 1 cup of the Borax and 1 cup Soda and pulsed to mix. I put in a large bowl and repeated the process. At the end I did the extra soap and worked it into the rest.

This made a nice amount - about what you would get in a box of laundry detergent. I have found that 1 Coffee Scoop (about 1 TBS) is just the right amount for my washer. I have a regular top loader that runs a very large load. I think this will last me for many, many months. I put it in a plastic container and it is keeping very nicely.

What will I do differently next time?

1. I will do this outside on the back patio with one of those funny doctor looking paper respirator things over my nose! The soap makes a fine dust and I could not get the smell out of my head for about 3 days!

2. I still want to use up that Irish Spring soap! - but I think I will only use 1 bar of that and 3 bars of either Ivory or Pure and Natural (which is sold in a 3 pack for only $1 at the Dollar Tree) This should cut down on the strong scent - although I do not smell a strong scent on the clothes after they are washed. If I smell like Irish Spring - someone please tell me!


What did I do right?

1. I tried something new - and it worked!

2. The food processor is definitely the way to go! Made a nice fine powder - I have not had any trouble with residue on my clothing!

3. I made a BIG batch. I figured while I have the food processor out - why not keep going? It didn't really take very long to make a quadruple batch - about 45 minutes max.


My recommendations

1. If you have sensitive skin- use a fragrance free soap!

2. DO NOT use a food processor if you decide to use Fels Naptha laundry soap. I have heard many people say they ruined their food processor that way! That soap MUST be grated by hand.

3. Add the laundry soap first in the bottom of the washer with a bit of warm or hot water to let it dissolve and then you can turn the water to cold or whatever temperature you want - (doing this has worked very well for me!) Add the clothes after you have dissolved the soap powder - literally just takes about 30 seconds or so!

4. Don't be afraid to try something new! - It was really easy to do. And I am actually pleasantly surprised with the results. (I was not expecting nice white whites!)

5. MAKE SURE to tell your husband to only use 1 SCOOP!!! Thankfully I caught him after only 1 load! He had put in 4 scoops! He said 1 didn't seem like much - (and it doesn't seem like much) but my laundry is just as clean as before so I'm sticking with 1 scoop! By the way - this soap will not make bubbles like you might be used to - that's fine it will still work.


I will let you know the next time I make laundry soap and how long this batch lasted. I would love to hear from you if you give this a try. Next time I will take pictures and show you how I did it!