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

L~O~V~E~!

Happy Valentines Day~!

I hope you have a wonderful day planned with the ones that you love!

In thinking of Relationships,  it's easy to have expectations  of what we seemingly desire a relationship to be like instead of just enjoying the relationship we are in. 

It's so easy to walk away dissapointed in our marriages when we see impossible expectations all around us.  Isn't it so much easier to enjoy and live with what we have rather than focusing on what we don't?  Living in contentment really is a great gain even in matters of the heart!

When my husband nearly died,  I saw our relationship through new eyes. 

He might have not loved me exactly the way that I wanted, but he did love me in so many way that I had never seen!   I had put very little value on his way of loving me and it saddens me to know that I discounted his love and overlooked it. 

It truly opened my eyes and made me appreciate of him like I had never been. 

Love comes in many different packages and sings a differents song in so many different keys!  There are so many songs of love and expressions of love!   Mine will never look like yours and yours will never look like mine!  Our life and love relationships deserve to be relished and enjoyed, instead of being filled with dissapointment, scrutinized and being picked apart!   

Life is short! 

Let's enjoy our LOVE!

Happy Valentines Day to my sweet husband Dave!  I love you more each day and am so appreciative of everything you do for me!  You are my greatest earthly treasure and I love you with all of my heart! 

And I can't help but mention about the greatest love story ever told! 

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  ~  John 4:10

Linking up with A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Our Everyday Cost Cutting Strategies to Save Money~!

We're trying to save money wherever we possibly can and I decided to write down all of the ways I've been trying to be frugal~  aaanddd...here they are.  I've put a *** by all the ones we are implementing and hopefully soon more will be added.  This is an ongoing work and we always want to try new things!  If you have any other ideas please comment~  I'd love to hear them!  

Cut your dryer sheets in half.  Better yet, make your own homemade dryer sheets!

Cut sponges in half.  (will do this my next sponge!)

***Make your own bread.  It’s tastier and cheaper!

***Shop Second Hand for clothing.  It’s a~MAY~zing!

***Make a price book to compare costs of groceries at different stores.

***Decorate on a Dime!  Forget retail and go thrift. 
It might take longer to complete but it’s SO worth the challenge and money you will save!

***Make food from scratch.  Those packages that sell in the meat department with all the veggies and meat you need in one package?  Skip them!  They cost more.   Make your own hamburger helper~like foods from scratch. 

***Shop Loss Leaders.

***Skip processed food~  it’s expensive. 

***Make your own laundry detergent.

***Make your own homemade cleaners.

***Use your freezer.  Buy meat on sale and then freeze it.

***Freeze Milk.  Smaller containers are usually more expensive than a half gallon. 
Buy a gallon and freeze half. 

***Make your own soup from scratch instead of buying a can.  It's more healthy and tastier!

***Make a grocery budget and stick to it.  Don’t overspend.  If you fall short this week you can always get that item next week.  It will all even out. 

***Buy Generic Brands.

***Don’t drive all over town to shop sales.  With the cost of gas it really adds up. 
Use 3 or 4 grocery store/outlets closest to you.

***Drink Water.  I know this one is hard, but how many glasses of water do I drink daily, weekly, monthly?  How does that amount compare to what I should be drinking?  How much money can I save if I skip soda pop and other expensive drinks? 

***Eat at home and have food prepared so you're not tempted to eat out.  Preperation saves the day!

***Eating out?  Skip the drink and get water instead.  Your bill will be much cheaper if you order a burger and fries alacarte.  It's also more healthy!

***Stop buying trash can liners for smaller trash receptacles.  Use your plastic bags that come from the grocery store and other shopping.  

***My friend told me this and it was something that I didn't know about!  Whenever we drive by/go by Wal~Mart we stop in an buy a gift card and we put our 'gas money' on the card.   We use it to pay for our gas and save 3 cents a gallon!   We're usually in the store anyhow and the gas station and Walmart are in the same parking lot so it's pretty convenient.  Walmart has the cheapest gas in our area.  So far we've saved $1.25. 

Who knows how much money we'll be able to save? 

 

Cream of Broccoli Soup

This soup was born out of a head of broccoli that was in the fridge needing to be used quickly! 

It is so much more tastier AND healthier than the cream soups you will find at a local restaurant. 

It also packs more punch in fiber and has so much more broccoli in it! 

I hope to try this with cawliflower in the future.  I've tried my best to come up with measurements on this but it's a pretty indefinite recipe depending on how large your broccoli size is. 

I'm sure it will work well smaller or larger! 

Oil

1 large bunch of broccoli 

5 Tbsp of flour (or 6 if you like thicker soup)

6 Tsp Chicken Bouillon

3 cups Milk

3 cups water

Cream Cheese

Chop up onion~

Saute in oil till golden brown. 

Cut the stem off the broccoli and discard.   Run the broccoli through a food processor.  If you don't have a processor just chop it up.  Your end result will probably be much chunkier. 

Add broccoli to pot.  Add more oil and saute broccoli. 

Add about 5 spoons (Tbsp) of flour. 

Over medium heat stir flour in and cook till the flour mixture starts to stick on the bottom and turns brown.  The flour will thicken the soup later on when liquids are added. 

Add 6 tsp of chicken bouillon.  (1 tsp for every cup of liquid that will be added later)

Stir broth in.  Add 3 cups of milk and 3 cups water. 

Keep heat on medium and cook till thickened. 

Add 1 block of cream cheese and stir till melted and warmed through. 

Yummy with homemade bread!

Enjoy!

By the way,  I've tried this with grated cheese and it the texture wasn't as good as the cream cheese. 

I say cream cheese for sure! 

Linking with Sunny Simple Sunday Link Up Party