Bottled Water~ A Cost Comparison for Savings

I loved the convenience of individual water bottles purchased in bulk but I knew the cost was busting our budget.  In the past I'd also find multiple bottles opened and half empty around the house~ not good!    I knew my dollar would stretch alot longer if I purchased cheaper.
This led to a little price comparison when I went to Food4Less last night with the hubs.

Recently I purchased a cutesy water cup pre~Valentines Day that I just LOVE and have been refilling it daily!  I love it since it matches my kitchen (red!) and it's easy to take with me since it fits in my handy dandy cup holder in the car as well~!  Yay for Convenience!
I've been purchasing gallon jugs of generic Kroger brand water for quite a while now and I really wanted to see how the prices compare.  Here's what I found~

A gallon of generic water costs .88 cents for one bottle.
One gallon is equal to 128 ounces and the cost comes out to .0068 cents an ounce.

A package of generic brand water with a total of 101 ounces of water cost $2.28 costing .02 cents an ounce.

So... the savings are over double for buying the gallons of jug water compared to single serving bottled water in bulk.  Am I buying the water or the containers and packaging?
The cup will quickly pay for itself over a short period of time.

I'd love to do a cost comparison of a water filter system like Brita in the future as well!  We don't have one yet but maybe in the future!  

 

Mondays~

 

Motivate Me Monday!

Tuesdays~
Linda @Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

 

 Wednesday  Wow us Wednesdays

http://www.thethriftyhome.com

Friday

 

Saturdays

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Sundays~

5 Cleaning Supplies I keep in my Bathroom

I've finally got all stocked up with the 5 things neccesary for my daily Swish and Sparkle in each bathroom.  I was getting a little tired of carrying the cleaning supplies from upstairs bathroom to guest bathroom to basement bathroom so streamlining is putting a great smile on my face since it makes everything so much easier!   Oh~  and I found the small spray bottles at a beauty supply store and they are great quality and take up very little space!  

So... here are my 5 things~!

1. Homemade Glass Cleaner~

I've even added a drop of blue food coloring!  Love that!

2.  Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

3.  Powdered Abrasive Cleaner 

I've not made the switch to a natural abrasive cleaner yet, so until I do, this meets our need.  I buy the cheapest that I can find which, in this case, was generic.  

4.  Lysol Concentrate Disinfectant

I've gotta have Lysol for disinfecting!  I use it for my daily Swish and Sparkle where I wipe down the counters and the inside and outside of the toilet.     One bottle of Lysol will make 9 gallons of disinfectant cleaner~  a definite bargain!  

5.  Cleaning Towels

We've gone paperless and haven't used paper towels for about 2 months.  These are cheapo washcloths that were purchased for showering that quickly made the jump to cleaning towels because they started fraying.  Since we're doing our best to live a frugal lifestyle,  we've tried to do everything the cheapest and most effective way possible.   

I hope to post more about my Daily Swish and Sparkle soon!  

Super Easy DIY Non~Slip Hangers

I'm on a tight budget but there are a few things that a girl's gotta do.  One of them is have matching hangers in all of our closets.  In my opinion it's worth EVERY dime!  I can't stand having wire, flocked, dry cleaner castoffs and all of that jazz all tangled up inside of my closet.  

(By the way, you can take a look at my closet here if you interested!)  

Funny thing is we never realize how much clothing we have until we had to buy hangers!  We made multiple trips (and I mean multiple!) to WalMart whenever we passed by because we never had enough!  (I have to pick up another 10 pack! gasp!)  It's a wonder that I still think I have very little variety and clothing in my wardrobe~  Go figure!  

When we first moved in, I had purchased some wooden clothespins to use in my closet.  I thought it was a pretty smart idea to hang up skirts so they wouldn't get wrinkled, but they wouldn't grip around our white plastic hangers and my clothes sufficiently because they didn't open wide enough.  They also would come apart from the stress on the hinges and I'd find them all over the floor of my closet.  No bueno! 

I had a humungous stash of rubber bands and I wrapped them around the shoulder area of the hanger.  

It works wonderful!  Knits stay on the hanger and do not slip off!  

Clothing does not slip off the hanger onto the floor anymore!  Even my fabric waistband clothing that is larger than the hanger itself stays put!  It just doesn't budge and I'm such a happy camper!   

It's such a great~ and cheap alternative~ to buying expensive hangers!
Isn't this brilliant?  I wish I knew the exact video I saw this on but I'm almost positive that it came from either Malitose79 or Do it on a Dime's YouTube Channel.

We'll be hosting our first Frugal Friday in two days and we do hope you'll join us!

Linking up this week with these great blogs! 

Coastal Charm
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/

The Thrifty Home 

Homemade Bunuelos/Sopaipilas

I finally figured out that I can add a 'blogger' follower gadget instead of a Google Plus followers gadget to my sidebar at right so if you'd like to follow me that option is available!  

My blog is still under construction and the sidebar still needs a bit of help but I'm liking what I see so far.  Maybe another week or so before things are (hopefully) perfect!  

We're having our first link up this Frugal Friday and I do hope you join us.  You can read about it here!  

And now on to the main reason for posting!  

Bunuelos/Sopaipilas can be made with store bought flour tortillas or by rolling out your homemade flour tortilla dough and frying it in oil.  The 'real' homemade ones are SOOOOOO much better but the store bought version are pretty a~ok too! 

Just fry your rolled out dough or storebought tortillas in some oil, let them drain, and then sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the top of them.  They are so yummy!  

Great with coffee or on the side of a dish of ice cream.  

Some people call them bunuelos and other people call them Sopaipilas.   Fights might ensue about which is the right term but I just say 'either' and call them very, very good! 

By the way, Frugal Friday Linkup starts TOMORROW~  I do hope you join us with all of your frugal tips and hints on how you save money!  Please do join us!  

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Love, Baking, Heartache, Frugality and Normalcy

This week I'm grateful for~  

Love.  

Valentined Day has come and gone.  

I'm so thankful that we don't need a holiday to encourage us to share and show our love for one another.

It's just there.  Unassuming and yet, always there. 

This week I enjoyed~ 

Getting in the kitchen and baking some homemade bread and pizza.

There's just something about making from scratch, kneading the dough and baking fresh goodies.  

This week I learned~ 

That my heartache and hardship will never be wasted.  

God will use it for His glory in some way even though I can't see that at this very moment.  

This week I accomplished~ 

Frugality.   We've been trying to live as frugally as possible and this week was very productive for us.  

I am looking forward to~  

A week of normalcy.  We've traveled, mourned the loss of a friend and attended their funeral.  

I'm yearning fora little bit of normal life this week.  

Homemade Pizza

I recently saw Elaine's recipe over at Sunny Simple Life for Pizza Dough and gave it a whirl this morning for our Saturday Lunch/Brunch/Dinner.  It was delish!  The crust baked out evenly and was very soft~  just the way I like it.  I was able to get two large pizzas and used two 13 by 9 cookie sheets. 

For the sauce I mixed up 2 cans of tomato sauce and added some Italian Seasoning, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder and mixed it up in a bowl. 

I also rolled up a pound of Jimmy Dean Sausage into balls and baked it until it was done and used that for a topping.  I found a WONDERFUL deal on cheese and tried using  farmer's cheese since it was what I had and it had a great flavor.  I baked at 400 degrees till it was golden on the bottom side of pizza crust  which was about 10 to 15 minutes

I think I've gotten used to the lure of convenient food and become accustomed to the 'flavor' of chain store pizzas and convenience foods.  Even though most Pizzas are assembled and baked at the store, the dough is rarely made fresh on the premises.  The dough on my homeade pizza was great. 

For the cost analysis it was definitely cheaper than going out and buying pizza.  Little Caesar's- which is the cheapest of all pizza places~ has an ongoing $5 hot and ready pizza special but my recipe made double as much.   

2.50 for the pound of sausage

2.50 for the pound of cheese

.60ish cents for the tomato sauce

.33 cents for theYeast

Flour

sugar and salt~ a few pennies

This is definitely a keeper!  I'd lost my recipe for pizza dough many years ago and I prefer this one much better.  Nom Nom~ 

400 degrees for 10 minutes.

The Thrifty Home~  Penny Pinching Party