Ideas to cut expenses, part 3

Sorry folks, after working on this post for about 4 hours, I went to another link and came back to my post having been eaten.
I'm trying to redo/recapture the lost work.

Ok, some more ideas I have on cutting expenses. This set includes some fun, low cost or free vacation ideas.

Sometimes just a change in our schedule can seem like a vacation. Have breakfast for dinner, eat dessert first, get up early and watch the sun rise, stay up late and look at the stars. Go to
spaceweather.com and find star maps for your location. Also get info for when the different satellites and space stations are passing overhead. One night, my kids and I went out and caught the ISS and Endeavor uncoupling. It was so cool! All we have is a pair of binoculars, but they worked very well. They even make looking at the moon fun. You can see it with your naked eyes, but with regular binoculars, it's a great view. There's also comets and the regular planets to be seen.

Pretend you're a tourist and go to all the local places people go to see. I grew up in a tourist town - St. Petersburg, and I can tell you, I saw hardly any of the "local" sights. For whatever reason, we just didn't go and do the sight-seeing that people paid good money to go to St. Pete and see.

We now live in a little tourist town in Northern Georgia. We have gone to some of the local things, but haven't "seen it all". Many of the things that tourists do are free and we have the added benefit of not having a "time-limit" on us. We can go when ever, where ever and not have to worry about checking out of a hotel at a certain time. And we don't have to pay to eat out. We can always take snacks, drinks and meals with us. Just put them in a cooler and away we go. Anywhere within about 100 or so mile radius is an easy day trip. That's about 1 1/2 hrs drive each way. It would cost about 1/2 tank of gas for the whole trip.

Think outside of the box. Write to your local tourist/chamber of commerce, etc for info or just stop in the local office. You can also write to your state board of commerce and ask them for info. There are a lot of historical places, landmarks and places of beauty in each state. Do an internet search of your state or if, like me, you're close to several other states, also look at what they have to offer that is near you. You can also so searches for "National Monuments", State monuments, national and state parks, you local county and your city (or cities nearby). All have free information that you can have fun with. Make a game of it with the rest of the family.

Take the family on a picnic. Many state and National forests have free pavilion areas complete with tables and grills. Some you can reserve, but many are first come, first serve. Get there early and have a fun day. Bring a Frisbee or a ball and play catch, soccer or other sport. Remember to slather on the sunscreen and/or cover yourself and the kids. Sunburn is NOT good for us.

Create a garden. It doesn't have to be large to be of interest to kids. Square foot gardens are easy and fun. I posted on some ideas on how to do this cheaply here.

Go for a walk. Go for a walk in nature is fun, but even if you just take your kids on a walk around town, it will be good exercise and breaks some of that "cabin fever".

Sit with the kids and brainstorm ideas on things they can do. Have someone be a scribe and make a booklet with the ideas in it. Then when the kids act or even say, "I'm bored", you have a ready group of ideas for them to keep themselves busy. (Around my house, "I'm bored" is not an option. Like my mean mother before me, "I'm bored" is an invitation to help with the never-ending chores that need to be done. And since they are usually the culprits in part of the mess, give me any excuse and I'll find something for you to do. lol)

Tempers

Most of "my ideas" are things I have learned from other people.

Sometimes the weirdest things can make us sit back and look at what we're doing and see things in a whole new light.

I once found a fortune cookie that said; "Do not lose your temper. No one else wishes to find it."

It knocked me back on my heels! I had never considered that when I "lost" my temper that indeed, someone else DID indeed "find" it.

Up to that point in time, I was a pretty hot-tempered person. That "fortune" caused me to think about what I was doing and How I was acting. It caused me to make a choice to control my temper.

No one "makes us angry". Anger is a feeling and we choose what we feel and what to do when we feel that emotion.

You don't think so? Well think back. Has there ever been a time in you life that you were so happy that nothing could rain on your parade? Perhaps you won something - a contest at school, a scholarship, someone you liked a lot told you they love you. Was there anything much anyone could say or do to burst your bubble? Usually not.

Now think back to another time. A time of loss. Perhaps a loved one died or was diagnosed with a serious illness, was in an accident. Perhaps you tried to accomplish something and failed at that attempt. Was there anything anyone could say or do to "make" you feel better? Probably not.

These are extremes, but that is my point. With the first one, we're so happy that anyone who is trying to be ugly to us, can't. We tend to just let it bounce off of us. We "excuse" them with, "they must be having a bad day." or "They're just feeling jealous." With the second one, we could win a million dollars and it wouldn't "make" us feel happy. Life is just too desperate at that point to really "care" about money or anything else. We are so wrapped up in the emotion of the time, that nothing much can be said or done to us that gets through to "make" us feel happy.

That's what I mean about other people not being able to "make" us feel something. What we feel is tied up with what we THINK.

If someone we don't particularly care for tells us they love us, does is cause euphoria? Uhm, no. (And we do well if we can hide our disdain and treat the person with kindness.) Why? Because we don't care for that person as a prospective mate. It's how we THINK about that person.

What if a stranger on the street blurts out; "That's an ugly outfit." Do we usually let it bother us. Not unless we also THINK it's an ugly outfit. Otherwise, most of us tend to THINK; "Well, that wasn't very nice of them to say that."

We can do the same thing with our anger. When someone says or does something that would normally "make" us angry, look for the reasons that we shouldn't be angry. When someone says or does something nasty instead of thinking "How dare they?", we can replace the thought process with "Perhaps they've had a really bad day." Someone cuts us off in traffic or doesn't let us in: "Perhaps they just didn't see me", instead of "They did that on PURPOSE!!".

It doesn't mean that we never "feel" angry, just that a lot of our anger is generated by negative thoughts of our own, independent of what others around us are doing. If we replace those negative thoughts, we can cut down - greatly, on incidents of "feeling angry".

Sometimes things really are "worth" being angry about. There are times when people do things that aren't right and cause grief in our lives or hurt our family. How do we handle that?

First off, when you mess up, how do you want people to treat you? Sometimes people do things and mean one thing, but we interpret it differently. It hurts our feelings. That's the time to confront the person with a simple; "That hurts my feelings".

I personally had that happen to me. Years ago, I was a missionary in Colombia, South America. I was with a group of missionaries. It was Christmas. We had just finished doing a program with the local people and were talking about what to do for our own Christmas. I got the bright idea of us singing some Christmas carols and exchanging a small gift. One of the others, a male, made a comment about how I always took charge. Well that hurt my feelings. (I'd been told many times that I was bossy.) I wasn't trying to be bossy. So I simply stated to him that his comment hurt my feelings. He was so astonished. And immediately corrected my impression. He wasn't trying to say I was being bossy, but rather that he thought I always had such good ideas.

What would have happened if I had not given him the opportunity to correct MY misunderstanding of what was said? Well, to this day, when I tought of this incident, I would have had hurt feelings. Instead, I can use this as an example of ME misunderstanding someone else and the need to ASK the person involved, when something hurts my feelings, what they meant. (Do NOT ask anyone else! How often has someone else had their own agenda and we've gotten sucked into it?)

So what if he really meant to hurt my feelings? Well, then that would have been HIS problem. I can choose to then think; "Well that wasn't very kind of him.", or "What a JERK." With the first, I keep my dignity with the second, I get angry and resort to name-calling (even if only in my head.) Do I WANT to be angry?

There ARE unkind people in this world. There are downright hateful people out there. There are control-freaks out there. Do we let them control us by "making" us angry?

I have someone who for the last 13 YEARS, has gone out of her way to make trouble for me and my family. There has been no doubt about it. People have gone to DFCS or the school board because of things she's said to them. I've found out because, later they've come to me and apologized and then named HER as the reason they were "so concerned".

Well, first, I've learned to stay away from her and to keep my kids away from her. She is no friend. Second, I've learned to go to people who "are in charge" and tell them the history of what's gone on. I've circumvented many a problem this way. When you are in a small group that has to interact and a new person comes in, it is sometimes helpful to "cover your booty". Talk briefly to that new person. Let them know that there's someone in the group that likes to get OTHER people to cause problems and to please not be influenced by this person. Then give details of what has been done. You don't need to name names. Sooner or later, this person will start stuff and then the new person(s) are forewarned. Then when the person follows their normal pattern, the person has exposed him/herself! All you have done is warn that there is someone who likes to do this. It avoids gossip while forewarning the new person.

I've learned to see the person who does this to me in the light of what a sad case she is. She doesn't control her own life, so she goes around trying to control the lives of others. I've learned to not respond in anger to her, but rather in a neutral way to her. I tried being friends with her and I've tried talking to her. She denies being involved with anything that has happened. It wasn't HER who was at fault. But 6 different people have named her as the instigator in 5 different incidents of trouble for me. And they all did it in passing. No one was trying to "blame" her, only they've all mentioned that they were concerned "after talking to her", but that they shouldn't have done what they did and they regret it. Would I forgive them? (Yes!)

What of people who kill family members? Who cheat on you when they're your spouse? Who cause a divorce by their constant bad behavior?

Yes, that does hurt (I've had to deal with all 3) No, it's not a good idea to pray to God to "get them". lol Though truthfully, I spend the first year after my divorce hoping that something would happen to the ex. (blush) Then one day, I realized that that that really wasn't a good way to be spending my time. I needed to leave him to a just God and to GET OVER IT! To do so, I had to learn to pray for the ability to forgive him. No, he didn't "deserve" it. (He's continued to cheat on the wife he now has.) He still does controlling things. (He STILL has our daughter, even though he was found guilty of contempt in court.) The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what HE does. I need to forgive him and get on with my life. Yes, I've cried an ocean of tears. Yes, he is in the wrong. But for me to survive as a kind, decent individual, I have to forgive HIM. I have to let it go. Otherwise, I can't move on with my life. And I would be full of anger. Anger that would spill over into all my other relationships.

Now that I have children, I am SO glad that I've had years to perfect "keeping" my temper. I would never wish to lash out at my kids in anger. I'm so glad that I had years of keeping my temper in a bad marriage. It helped to keep the fighting down to a minimum. (Though I'm sorry to say, we did fight and I didn't always keep that temper.) I'm so glad that I read that silly fortune cookie and stepped back and thought about how I chose to handle my emotions. Because how I chosen to handle my emotions has determined the kind of life I have lived. And the kind of life I have lived determines the kind of legacy I leave behind.

What kind of legacy will you leave behind? Will it be one of admiration for overcoming the trials of life or one of disdain for wallowing in your troubles? Will you be known for your kindness or for your temper-tantrums? The choices that you make daily determines your legacy. But the nice thing about life is that we can, at any moment, realize our mistakes and take action to correct them. Isn't that grand! We don't have to be perfect, but we can try to fix the things we see in ourselves that aren't up to snuff. And when we're busy fixing ourselves, we don't have a need to fix all the others around us. We can be generous and let them learn on their own timetable - just as we have. And those that we do have stewardship over (primarily, our kids) we can look at in a kind light. We then discipline from love, not anger. Then anger is not passed to the next generation. And to me that's the biggest reason of all to control myself. To give my kids a childhood that they can look back on and know that they were loved. Not one of being mommy's battering object. One that was full of laughter, not temper-tantrums (ok, well at least not from the "adult" in the house. All bets are off for the kid ones. lol)

Let us choose today to live lives of quiet dignity. Free from tantrums and full of laughter.

New Garden

I'm so excited! A friend and her husband gave me three 3'x3' squares to do a square foot garden. They had them in their front yard, but decided they didn't want them any more, and gave them to me. woohooo!

For the last 5 years, we've had a pathetic "container" garden. Not much grows in them - there's just not that much space. With these three squares, I can plant 27 squares of stuff.

It's gotten too warm for things like sugar snap peas and carrots. We'll put those in in Aug or Sept. It's time here for the summer plants. I already 2 types of tomatoes, one kind in the container and the other awaiting transplanting. I also have some yellow squash, chives, sage, 1 jalapeño plant and some mint in the containers.

In my new squares, I will be transplanting the tomatoes I was given. Then my friends are giving me some heirloom seeds. I'll be planting pole beans, bush beans, cucumbers, some pepper plants, zucchini, and butternut squash, I also want one watermelon plant. (All the "crawling" things will be taught to go UP some fencing so I don't go outside my squares.) I'm so excited.

Now I need to do something about some soil. I'm not allowed to dig up the soil here, so I'm going to have to shop around/ask around for some soil. I know that last choice is to go buy some compost, vermiculite and some peat moss and mix it in 1/3 proportions. But I'm trying to same myself some money, not spend it. So I'll check with a friend that has some animals to see if they have any manure that has sat for a while. I'll ask around to see if anyone would give me any soil that they have. Problem is, North Georgia is full of RED CLAY. It's impermeable and not good to grow in. The nice thing is, I have some options.

The other nice thing about these squares are that if I move, I can just move the soil along with the frame - which is bottomless. (I would just scoop the dirt into a container/wheel barrow, and pick up the frame. Move it to my new location and refill it with the soil.)

If anyone has any ideas I've missed on getting some soil, let me know.

Ideas to cut expenses, Part 2

One of the biggest budget busters around here were eating out and the kids wanting to rent movies. We've had to learn to make our own stuff, though lately, we've slipped back into some bad habits - courtesy of an income tax return that made us temporarily "wealthier" than we've been in a while. We're having to break that eating out habit again. It only took a couple of times, and we were wanting to eat out all the time. That's WAY too expensive for most of our budgets. So we've had to relearn to tell ourselves no. The movie rental we've solved with the Netflix I mentioned last post.

Which brings me to organization and keeping all the things we juggle up in the air instead of falling down around our heads.

Sometimes we don't "feel like" doing a certain thing. As Pam Young of "Side-tracked Home Executives" calls it, we have a Brat in us. And it's that Brat that causes a lot of problems. The child that gets fed up being "grown up" and wants to play or run away from problems. I've really enjoyed her website http://www.thebratfactor.com

I've also enjoyed her other website: House fairy. I wish she had had it when my kids were younger. She's good at motivating them to clean up their rooms. That has been the biggest problem for me was getting and keeping kids' rooms cleaned. I tried everything from doing it myself, to getting them to help, to trying to make them do it themselves. I've put stuff in boxes in the closet (supposedly out of reach - they'd climb and get it down) to bagging stuff up and putting it in the attic to actually giving stuff away. None of it seemed to do any good. Of course, a carrot is ALWAYS better than a "stick". None of us likes to be forced to do anything. Her ideas are really fun for the kids and gets them eager to go clean. It appeals to their sense of fun.

One of the thing that has helped me get a lot more organized is another website called Flylady.net

Over the years, I've used Pam and Peggy's Book "From Pigpen to Paradise". It was a 3x5 card file system. Sometimes I will still get it out and sort the cards. But I've also found Flylady to be a big help too. Just the get up, get dressed to your shoes and make sure that before you go to bed, you've shined you kitchen sink. You can sign up for daily email reminders of what to do.

All these sites are interrelated. It all started with Pam and Peggy's book, went to Flylady - who they quote and then to learning about and parenting our own inner "brat" to House Fairy (sister to Santa Claus. lol)

Beware of thrift stores and yard sales. It's not a deal if you really don't have the money to spend. I see so many people overspend for junk at thrift stores and yard sales. It seems that "only $2" isn't much, but it adds up quickly. Especially if you go "shopping" often. It may be a "great deal", but is it really in your budget? Do you really "NEED" it, or is it something you're justifying by saying you need it? It seems that kids' clothing and small household appliances are the biggest purchases at these places. Before you bring it in, ask: DO I need it? Do I have a place to STORE it? Will I REALLY use it or will it sit and collect dust, be tossed out later as clutter or end up in my own "yard sale" later? Truth be told, most people don't make money buying stuff to sell at a yard sale "later".

My kids usually have 5-6 pairs of pants and 5-6 shirts, a pair of PJs, 1 or 2 Sunday outfits, a pair of Sunday shoes, a pair of play shoes, flip-flops, and a package of underwear, and one of socks. When they were very young, they'd go through 4 sizes of shoes and clothing a year. When they got to be school-age, it was 2 times a year. Now that they are nearly grown, it's been about 1 size a year. However, this is still pretty much the extent of their wardrobe. They do each have a "grungy" set of clothing and shoes to paint, get greasy or go camping in. And right now, my son only has 4 pairs of decent pants. He's grown too fast and I haven't have the money to buy more. Plus, we're having a hard time finding his size now. We FINALLY found a pair of dress pants that matches his black suit. They were $20 at Walmart, but will last him a year or so of wearing them every Sunday. They had a matching suit jacket, but I'm going to have to wait until the child support comes in to get it for him. (Ex was supposed to have paid in $500 in April and again in May, June, and July; but as yet, none of its been paid. So we'll have to wait and see what happens in the next month or two. I guess Child Support Recovery will catch up with him sooner or later and this time, they'll probably throw him in jail until it's all paid back. Who know?)

Personally, I don't think kids need a closet full of clothing. They don't appreciate it, don't wear most of it, it causes laundry pile ups (many people tend to run out of clothing before anyone does the laundry) or it's left laying on the floor, it's an expensive habit, and leads to clutter. (and I'm the queen of clutter all on my own. I don't NEED any help making more! lol) So don't go crazy at the thrift store/yard sales "saving money". If you've spent $10, you haven't necessarily saved money. Yes, it may have cost someone $100 at the regular store, but YOU have still spent $10. It's only a good buy if it's needed now or in the near future. (or unless you have a LOT of storage space that is well organized so that the clothing you bought "for next year" can be FOUND next year. No matter what a great "deal" it is, if you can't/don't use it or can't find it, it's just wasted money no matter HOW much you "saved". That's NOT "thrifty".

Also, my kids wore hand-me-downs. When he was younger, my son has worn some of his sister's clothing and his sisters have worn some of his. Not anything that was too out of their gender, I didn't want them being made fun of; but some t-shirts, jeans, etc work for either gender when they're little. And my babies all wore the same things, except for Sunday, when I put a dress on the girls and a little suit on the boy. He hasn't been permanently scarred from wearing the occasional pink onsie or sleeper, nor the girls from wearing a blue one. Babies don't much care about color, only that they're comfortable and loved. Besides, it didn't seem to matter WHAT my girls were dressed in, people always commented "what a cute boy". And they would be in PINK RUFFLED shirt with pierced earrings! And once I even had someone say "what a pretty girl" about son, who happened to be dressed in a BLUE shirt and jeans! Now the girls were rather bald until they were about 2 1/2. But the boy had a haircut at 9 months old, just to get the wispy ends off his neck. I've never let him wear his hair long. So go figure. lol

Also, I let people know we would love their outgrown things and we've passed ours on to others.
I have two girls that as they got older, had two completely different body types. Older is 5'2, and 105 lbs, wears a size 2/4. Younger is 5'7 (and still growing), 150 and wears a size 14. It wasn't too many years before youngest was larger than oldest - and you can't pass clothes down that way. So when you're buying stuff for kids, make sure you take into consideration their body-type as well as clothing size. And of course, most of you know that some things look better on one body type than they will on another, so take that into consideration when buying them clothing too.

to be continued.

Ideas to cut expenses, Part 1

Someone wrote me about being a SAHM and that they might have to go back to work, despite having cut back and being out of debt - except for the mortgage.

This is part of what I wrote back to her.

I'm a single, working 2 part-time jobs, mostly at home mom. I homeschool 3 kids. I've been divorced for almost 13 years and have managed to stay home with the kids. I will add that I do have some help in that we live in Public Housing - I have a stand alone house in a fairly nice neighborhood - the mayor and a superior court judge are my neighbors just down the street. Also, we used to get food stamps, but with the oldest 19, they count her income, even though she has control of it and doesn't give it to me. She's still in school and only working part time, but it still counts, so we don't get much help anymore. I do get child support - when he pays it. I have a friend that has an internet business and I do her data entry and shipping. I also go clean our church once a week for 5 hrs. (Disclaimer here: I have sat down, quite a few times and done a budget, plugging in the going pay rate here in my rural county. To have put my kids in day care/school and gone to work would have left me $200 in the hole to just walk out the door. That was just for child care, raising of my rent (it's 1/3 of the family income), and taxes on my income. That figure did not include food (food stamps would have been gone), gas to get to work, car maintainance - we've had old cars and every mile driven put it closer to the grave yard; not to mention any of the other expenses a family has. So I've always had work at home jobs - but babysitting doesn't pay much.)

My number one tip is to STOP spending. That doesn't sound very hard, until people try doing it. We're so used to justifying what we "need" or we think it's "only $20" or we think "I deserve this". But these type thoughts are a real budget breaking thought pattern.

So first thing is what is a "Need". It's something that you can't physically live without. Usually defined as air, water, food and shelter. Since the advent of DFCS, we must also add electricity, RUNNING water - no outhouses, lol and appropriate clothing. (no shorts in Dec, unless you live in the Southern hemisphere or are in Bermuda on vacation. If you could afford THAT, you probably wouldn't be reading this! lol)

To me, with kids that used to get a lot of sinus and ear infections, a phone was also a necessity. I called the Dr. almost weekly. However I didn't need to be making long-distance calls to family and friends. I didn't need call waiting, call forwarding, etc. Those come under the heading of "Luxury". Yes, really!

So redefine the word "need" in your and your children's minds. (and if he needs it, Hubby's too)

The next tip is an old pioneer one: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
When we "choose" to be frugal and make a game out of it, it doesn't seem like "deprivation". I've always taught my kids that as "poor" as we may seem, we're really quite rich. I was a Missionary in Colombia. Even the "middle" class there are poor compared to me and I make sure my kids know about life there. I've taught them that really we are NOT poor, sometimes we just have a bad cash flow.

My kids have been raised this way, so it's not so traumatic for them. But even so, sometimes they would complain about not having ...... And I would point out to them the fact that for us to have what..... has, I too would have to go to work and what did they want more? Me at home, them in homeschool or to have "stuff". They've always answered me at home - especially since I point out that even with the mom working, a lot of people are in debt for what they buy. Most of mom's salary goes to pay for work/school clothes, day care, transportation and convenience foods/fast foods. Some of the "stuff" tends to be bought out of guilt, oft times unconsciously. After all, who wants to say no to a kid you haven't seen all day. And since she's working, they "deserve" to spend some on "things".

Next is to turn off unnecessary items. Here the cable went to almost $50 a month and I told them to come turn it off. We joined "Netflix" and get a movie sent to us, plus can watch stuff online - all for less than $10 a month. As soon as you return the movie, they send the next one on your list. It takes about 5 days to do a turn around. You can watch all the movies you want to online. I will say that some of the movies aren't available to watch on line, but there's still a bunch that you can watch. (Block Busters has a similar deal where you can just return the DVD to the store and get a new one, but the closest one to us is in Canton, an hour away.)

Also cut off some of the "extras" on the phone. Do you need to have call waiting, call forwarding, caller Id, answering machine, etc? Most of us have cell phones. Even I have one. But mine is a "Tracfone". I only put minutes on it every couple of months and use it to stay in touch with the kids when I'm out, not to talk on. Perhaps when your contract comes due you can scrutinize it for places to cut it. Sometimes with kids, it's better to have a cell plan that lets you add family members to it. My kids had the Tracfones, but they only have a certain amount of minutes. If I try to reach them and they don't have any minutes, they lose the phone! So that helps keep the text messaging down. Or turn off the house phone. (then you usually can't use the internet and don't have 911 calling from the house. So just keep that in mind.) I have basic phone ($13 for the monthly phone, but it's another $15 in TAXES!!! grrr) My long-distance is with an private provider - I just Googled Long-Distance companies and looked at what was available in my area. Since we're not in a metro area, there's not as much available, but still, i only pay about 4 cents a minute. I've not had the phone company's LD service in about 9 years. You can also find unlimited long-distance packages that let kids call friends. Mine have learned to use IM to keep in contact with their friends. It's free. You can also check into things like Skype, and most of the IM programs will let you talk to a friend over the computer. Or pay a fee and go from your computer to their phone. A lot of time, these things are a lot cheaper than the phone company's assigned LD carrier.

Also, I have an answering machine. They are not that expensive and last longer than paying money each month to "rent" from the phone company. Go online and see what Wally world has for machines. Mine lasted for 3 years before we acquired a new one from a rebate program. I spent about $20 for it and it was still going strong when we gave it to a friend. Divide the price of the machine into how many years you think it should last (about 5, unless it's getting some really rough treatment.) Then multiply how much you pay each month to the phone company and see which is cheaper.

We own our own phones and don't pay "maintainance" or "insurance" on our phones. Most of the problems with phones are either in the outside line (phone company's responsibility) or with the phone itself (your responsibility). The "maintainance" or "insurance" only covers from where the line comes into the house until it gets to the phone. So if something goes wrong with the line inside the house, then you are responsible for it. But it doesn't happen very often. Phone line is cheap and easy to install yourself. If anyone needs to know how, email me and I can tell you. Or you can probably do a Google video and find detailed pictures or a video on how to do it.

I also require my kids (19, 16 and 13) to help pay for some of their "extras". If they want to have a car, they have to buy it; and to get a driver's license (not a learner's permit - no ins. needed for that), they have to pay their insurance. Same for Scout camp and EFY. I pay part and they pay part. If they want their own phone line, they have to pay for it. If they want a cell phone, they have to pay the bill - actually, I won't sign anything for a kid to get something with a contract. I can't afford to pay it if they can't. So they had to use the Tracfone until they reach adulthood. Then they can sign any contract they want. If they can't pay it, it's their problem. I don't mean to sound cold, but they need to learn to be responsible financially and me bailing them out wouldn't teach them anything good. Plus, I REALLY don't have it to pay it myself. The two older ones do have checking accounts at 16, that I'm on with them. They both have been very responsible. Of course, my eldest now has her own account, and she's now on MY account. lol

continued tomorrow.

Two jokes and a new post later today

Whoa, have I been busy and delinquent!

I have a couple of cute jokes for you for today. Tomorrow, wow, make it later today, I'll post about some ideas for a new SAHM that I have already written and will expand. It's 2:30 am and I have GOT to go to bed!

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, 'This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.'

The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, 'Which do you want, son?'

The boy takes the quarters and leaves.

'What did I tell you?' said the barber. 'That kid never learns!'

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. 'Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?'

The boy licked his cone and replied, 'Because the day I take the dollar, the game's over!'

MISSING HUSBAND

Rick was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. She told him 'Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in less than 6 seconds, AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!'

The next morning Rick got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, and brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Rick has been missing since Friday. Please pray for him.

And if he's smart and missing on his own, he'd better STAY missing. kwim? lol

Sauces, white, otherwise and gluten-free sauces

We make "white sauces" quite a lot and sometimes don't even realize that this is what we're doing.
Ever made gravy? That's a browned white sauce. Ever thickened soup with flour? Make cheese sauce? Same principle.

Sauces in general are nothing more than a fluid that has been thickened and has had some spices, for flavor. Then you can brown it or not. You can add other ingredients such as eggs, cheese, mushrooms, or other herbs.

Before I make my sauce/gravy I make sure I have what I need on hand. Yeah, ok, so that's a no brainer. But is your cheese already grated, measured out and ready to be dumped into the sauce? Are the mushrooms cleaned, sliced or chopped, cooked, measured and ready to be dumped? Are your seasonings out, lids off and ready to go? Gottcha. Once the sauce is ready to have the add-ins added in, you don't want to have to leave it to go do these things. You risk the sauce scorching on the bottom. You want to be able to stir with one hand while adding stuff with the other. That way it won't scorch and you won't get popped with hot gravy - and it DOES pop when it cooks - unless you keep stirring it, and even then sometimes you get popped.

Traditional basic sauce: (can be doubled, tripled or more)
2 Tbs Fat source - butter, margarine, rendered fat(chicken, beef, bacon, etc) or oil
2 Tbs thickener - flour, cornstarch, tapioca, arrowroot, bean flour, etc
1 cup liquid - milk, cream, water, stock, broth, liquid from drained veggies, pan drippings or a combo of these

This is made into a medium thick sauce by melting/warming the fat source over a medium low heat. If you want the sauce to stay white, you need to use milk and not let the fat brown. When the fat is melted/warmed, add the thickener to it and stir it around. The best thing to use is a wire whisk, but in the days before I owned a whisk, I used a spoon or fork.

Remove the pan from the heat and slowly add in the liquid, stirring in a bit of liquid at a time and thoroughly incorporating it into the flour before adding more. This takes a bit of patience, but it will keep lumps from forming. You want a smooth mixture.

After the liquid is completely mixed in, return the pan to the heat and keep stirring it. Truthfully, I turn the heat up to med-high and stir it constantly. It will thicken as it comes to a simmer. Turn the heat down and keep stirring it. Let it cook for about 3 minutes. You may want to keep the heat down so you don't scorch it, especially if you're using milk or cream.

Now you need to make some decisions. If you want to freeze it, this is the point to do so. Freezing changes the flavors of sauces, killing some of the taste. It's best to freeze it and then add the seasoning to it when you're ready to use it. You can divide the sauce up into portion size servings or put it into ice trays and then, when it's frozen, pop those into a zip bag. Oh, and don't freeze this if you've used cream for the liquid. If you do, the sauce breaks down upon thawing.

Season your sauce with whatever rings your chimes. Around here it's Adobo (without pepper), some salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. (Part of me will be glad when I'm only cooking for me again and can use the "real" stuff. Kids, gotta love 'em but I'm sure gonna miss 'em.) Here is where you'd add any special ingredients you'd like to use - herbs, mushrooms, cheeses, etc.


Variations:

Thinner sauce:
1 Tbs fat
1 Tbs thickener
1 to 1 1/2 cups liquid

Thicker sauce:
4 Tbs fat
4 Tbs thickener
1 cup liquid

Cheese sauce:
Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded cheese, tightly packed, for each cup of sauce. That's about 1/8 to 1/4 pound of cheese. If it's too thick, thin with milk.

Mushrooms:
1 cup mushrooms, sliced or chopped to each cup of sauce
Cook in butter, bacon grease or olive oil and add to the white sauce.
To make cream of mushroom soup, use a thin white sauce and the mushrooms.

Bechamel sauce:
Reduce the flour to 1 1/2 Tbs. After making the sauce, beat either on egg or just the yolk of an egg to a froth. Stir in a 2 tbs of the hot mixture into the egg and mix that well, add another 2 Tbs and mix that well (temper the egg) and then add the egg mixture into the sauce and stir well. This will not freeze well either.

Alfredo sauce:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, per cup of sauce
1 Tsp garlic or garlic powder (opt)
Yep, that's all it is! Too easy for something so expensive.

Now in a total departure from "rules", this is how I make gravy. When I cook my meat, there is usually some "drippings" left in the pan. If you fry meat, stuff sticks to the bottom of the pan. Unless you've cooked the meat in a LOT of fat, you don't need to strain off the fat. We tend to not use much fat when frying. I use cast iron pans and we keep them well seasoned so that only a Tbs or so of fat is used. When the meat is done, I will add water to the pan and "deglaze" it - stirring the water around until it picks up the bits of meat and the "fried on" stuff. It adds flavor to the water and you get "free" gravy. I then use this water to make the gravy. If I want more meat flavor, I sometimes will add a bouillon or two to the water.

When I make a roast, I use the pan drippings, add water and deglaze the pan just like I would with fried meat (if anything has stuck to the bottom of the pan). When I make a turkey, I will simmer the neck, gizzard, and the heart with an onion, rib of celery, some poultry seasoning, salt and I use a 3qt pot. I add water to cover the ingredients, refilling as needed. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer, cover and let it cook while the turkey cooks. When the turkey is done, I strain out the veggies and add this to the pan drippings to make my gravy. (I remove the giblets, but you can dice them and add them back to the gravy. Again, kids) I don't use the liver in the pot as it's too strong. I cook it with the meat and either eat it or give it to the dog.

Measure out how much liquid you want to end up with. If you want 3 cups of gravy, then you need to start with 3 cups of liquid. (I know: well duhhhh)

2 cups of that liquid will go into a pan, turn the heat to med and start warming it up. Take the remaining 1 cup of liquid and add it SLOWLY, to 1/2 cup thickener (we like thick gravy), stirring after each addition, so that it makes a smooth paste. Then add just a little more liquid to it so that it will pour - you want a slurry(we're not making dumplings, lol). Slowly add the flour mixture into the pot with the warm liquid in it, stirring constantly. Bring it to a slow boil and KEEP stirring it. Let it cook for about 3 minutes on low while you add the seasonings to it. Keep stirring it frequently while you do this! Again, our personal cast of reoccurring characters are Adobo, onion and garlic powder and salt. Though I do use sage, thyme and other herbs depending on what meat I've used. I will sometimes add a tbs of bacon grease to the pot too.

Notice that I make the gravy without added fat. You don't HAVE to have fat to make gravy, any more than you HAVE to use flour to make it.

What you DON'T want to do is to try and add the thickener TO the liquid. Always add liquid to the thickener. Add a bit and stir it up, then add a little more liquid and stir that up, until you have a slurry. A slurry is thinner than a paste. This is the secret to lump-free gravy.

Oh, and if like me you fail to measure your liquid, you just eyeball it and then it turns out too thin; just add some more thickener to a cup, bowl, measuring cup, whatever will hold liquid/thickener and add enough liquid to make a slurry - just like we did before. (Great run on sentence!) If your slurry doesn't have lumps, your gravy won't have lumps, so make sure the slurry is smooth.

Ok, so now it's TOO thick - add more of your liquid to thin it out. But JUST a LITTLE at a time and stir it well!

For those that need gluten-free sauces or gravy, select the gluten-free thickeners. I believe that the list would include the cornstarch, rice starch, arrowroot, bean flour, and tapioca. Since no one I personally know needs gluten-free, I'm not positive about this list. As always, read the label on the package. Also, there may be more choices, but I don't know them.

Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie

This makes a nice meal that is VERY low cost, and for vegans, just use the veggie bouillon and forgo the sour cream or get soy "sour cream".

If you don't have access to a wheat grinder - sometimes you can get a used one for about $50, you can use a coffee grinder. I bought one at Wallyworld for $10. I use it to grind flax seeds, but before I bought the used wheat grinder, it's what I used to grind my beans and peas into a flour.

Adobo is a seasoning that is also found in most Mexican sections of the store, though my local Wallyworld doesn't carry it. Masa Harina is a type of flour found in the Mexican section of the grocery store. The masa does have a slightly different flavor than regular ground corn flour. You can make your own masa by soaking corn in lime, washing it, and cooking it, then drying the corn and powdering it. There's a little more to making masa than that, but that's the quickly typed version. If anyone's interested, I can post a how-to on it.

On to the Tamale Pie recipe.

Base:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup masa harina or corn flour (not corn meal, flour is ground finer than the meal is, if corn meal is all you have, grind it in your coffee bean grinder to a finer texture.)
1/2 cup pinto bean flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Gravy
2 cups warm water
2 Tbs pinto bean flour
2 Tsp masa or corn flour
2 Tbs chili powder
1 1/2 Tbs cumin
1 chicken or veggie bouillon or 1 tsp bouillon powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Topping:
1 cup cheese


For each serving:
chopped green onion and tops
sour cream
lettuce
diced tomato
diced hot peppers, fresh or canned (opt)

To make the base:
In a 3 or 3 1/2 cups sauce pan, whisk together all of the base ingredients and then bring them to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn down the heat to low, cover and let cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add 1 cup of the gravy, and place in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Let this cool about 5 minutes or so, then spread with the remaining gravy. Top with the cheese and place in 350 degree oven for about 20 mins to let the cheese melt.
Remove from oven and serve with onions, sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes.

To make the gravy:
Whisk all the dry ingredients into the water, Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. lower heat, cover pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This should freeze well, though I've never frozen it.

Make your own Jello-type gelatin

This is an easy way to use up leftover juice, juice from canned fruits, or freshly-squeezed juice.

The basic recipe is 4 cups of liquid to 2 packets of gelatin broken up this way:
1/4 to 1/2 cups cold water
2 packets of unflavored gelatin (around here, all we have is Knox brand, found near the Jello brand)
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups boiling water
2-3 cups juice, any flavors EXCEPT FRESH or FROZEN pineapple or kiwi (it won't jell), canned is fine.
1/2 - 3/4 cups sugar (OPTIONAL)
Pieces of fruit as desired.

Put the cold water into a large bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Just let it sit there for 4-6 minutes to soften, then add the boiling water and you can add the sugar if you want/need it. (how sweet is your juice? Make it to the sweetness you like and don't worry about adding sugar to the boiling water.)
Stir the mixture until the gelatin is dissolved (you don't see any crystals in the liquid on your spoon. Let it cool down a bit and then add the juice. From this point on, treat it just like you would Jello. Add fruit to it after it is partially set. Put into single serving portions, leave it in the bowl or use it in a pie (graham cracker, gelatin - let it set up with or without fruit, top with Cool Whip, maybe some nuts).

Homemade Pudding and Pie filling mixes

Sorry to say, that these do need to be cooked on the stove top or in a microwave, but they are easy to make.

Each batch of the mix will make 15 one cup servings or 5 nine inch pies.

To make each mix: Mix the ingredients together and store in a zip lock or mason jar(s) on the shelf. (These have a long shelf life, there's really nothing to spoil in it.) Write the cooking directions on a 3x5 card and tape to the zip bag or jar(s).

To make 3 cups: Measure out the amount of mix called for in each recipe - it varies, into a medium size sauce pan. A heavy pot is best. Gradually blend in 2 3/4 cups of milk over a low heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken and come to a boil. Let it boil gently for 1 minute, but keep stirring it. Remove from the heat and add vanilla extract (or extract of your choice). Adding 1-3 Tbs of butter after adding the extract will give a richer taste, especially if you've used skim or powdered milk to make the pudding.

You can portion this out into six 1/2 cup portions, or store it in a bowl. When it's cooled a bit, you need to cover this pudding to keep a skin from forming. The skin won't hurt you, but it's a little tougher than the pudding underneath it. I put some plastic wrap directly on the cooled pudding. (If it LASTS that long! lol)

Basic pudding (vanilla flavored)
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 2/3 cup of mix (add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla to cooked pudding)

Chocolate pudding
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 1 cup of mix (add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla to cooked pudding)

Butterscotch Pudding
1 7/8 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 3/4 cups plus 1 tbs of mix, plus 2-4 tbs butter (not optional if you want the correct taste)
1 - 1 1/2 Tsp vanilla to cooked pudding.

You can make any other flavor pudding by adding that flavor extract to the basic pudding (in place of the vanilla extract - or even with the vanilla).

Pie Filling
Prepare any flavor pudding to the boiling point, but don't let it boil for that minute, just take it off the stove and stir in your flavorings and opt. butter. Let cool, stirring once in a while, for 10 mins. Pour the filling into a cooled, baked 9" pie shell and chill until it's firm. You can add any bits of candy , chocolate chips, nuts, Cool Whip, fruit pieces (fresh, frozen, canned or dried), coconut or any other add-ins that you can think of. Strawberry extract with pieces of strawberry, lemon extract with mandarin orange pieces, etc.

You can also add artificial coloring to your cooked puddings if you want to, but why?

These puddings can also be made with powdered milk, but will have a limited shelf-life, unless you keep the mix in the freezer. You would have to adjust the amount of powdered mile to make 2 3/4 cups of milk and then when you go to cook it, just use that amount of water instead of milk. You would also need to divide the amount of powdered milk you used into 6 portions and add that much more to each basic flavor.

For instance, my milk calls for 1/3 cup of powder for each cup of milk you want. So I'd add 4.5 cup of powder (yes, it is a little off, but not enough to hurt anything), and add that to the dry ingredients, mixing it all together very well. Then for each recipe, I'd need to add 1 scant cup (11/12ths of a cup) more of the mix than what the recipe calls for. So for the Vanilla pudding, I'd measure out 1 2/3 cups mix and remove 1 tbs of mix.

Actually, for me and my laziness, either way I made the mix - with or without powdered milk; I'd make the mix and then immediately divide it equally into 5 packets. Each packet will make 3 cups which is six 1/2 cup servings or filling for one pie. Keep the packets all in a larger zip bag with the instructions inside it. When we want pudding, dump the packet (save bag to refill later), add the milk/water and off you go.

Oh, you find cornstarch in the baking aisle with the salt, baking powder, baking soda, etc.

Appreciating the little things in life

Things have been quite hectic and upsetting here, but seem to be settling down - at least for a bit.
As I've gone through the hard times of the last couple of months, I think I've become attuned to the little, good things that I have been blessed with.

For example:
Last Friday evening I was running some errands. On the way home, we heard a noise that sounded like my Ham Radio antenna was flopping around; something that, with a very strong magnet on it, it shouldn't be able to do. I pulled the car over and my daughter got out to see what she could see. Nothing looked wrong, so we drove on and in a minute or so, the odd noise stopped.

We got home safely. Then next day, I took her to work and went to work myself. I got home late and through the fog, safely. (Blessing one) Sunday, I took my daughter to work and headed to church and we heard that same noise again. I was able to pull over onto a deep, paved shoulder. My son looked out the door and said, "Mom, the tire is flat." (Blessing three) So he gets out the stuff and changes the tire (Blessing four) in his Sunday suit - which he didn't get messed up while doing this (blessing five). As he was working on it, a friend of ours, also on the way to our church, pulls over. Since I'd be driving on one of those "donut" tires, we stopped by the house (blessing six, we were before the turn off to our house).

Today, I was able to get two new, just slightly used tires for $10 each and put on for $12; total $32 for tires that, brand-new are over $85 each - and that's before adding balancing, mounting, etc. (Blessing seven)

Then I was able to get someone to help with something that I've needed help with for years. (Blessing eight)

I was able to go to work today and a friend pitched in and took my daughter to work for me (blessing nine).

And finally, the new Young Men's president loves music and is locally famous. He's giving my son private voice and piano lessons for free. I didn't ask, he offered to work with both my son and the other young man that attend our church (Blessing ten). All I have to do is send our keyboard, some paper and find my old piano books from when I tried to take piano in Jr. College. (and failed! lol)

So, all-in-all, I've had a really great few days.
Sometimes ya just gotta do what the song says, "Count your many blessings..."

Oven meatballs and saving money

I answered another person's question on one of my elists. The topic was making meatballs in the oven and the person posting wanted to know "do they splatter and cause a mess in the oven?"

Here is my expanded reply:

I put my meatballs on a stainless steel cooling rack and put the rack on my cookie sheet (Technically, it's a jelly roll pan - it has the lip on it), it took about 7 minutes to cook them. I undercook mine a bit so that when they are reheated they aren't dried out and overdone. I cooked them at 350 degrees.

I also do my chicken - whole or parts, this way. Next time I make this recipe into meatloaf, I'm going to use the rack instead of my cast iron pan or a loaf pan. I will make a round "patty" out of the meat mixture and set it on top of the cooling rack. I'll grease the rack with either a baking spray or some shortening. (I've tried several times to make a homemade "sprayer" out of some oil in a spray bottle, but they don't seem to spray very well at all.) I've never noticed a problem with meat spattering. It may be that because the food is up on a rack, there's no interaction with the fat that is draining off.

I also cook bacon (usually frozen, lol) on my cookie sheet in the oven, I just now thought about trying it on a rack. But I've never noticed it splattering either.

To cook the bacon in the oven, I open the package, dump the meat on the cookie sheet, put the sheet in the oven, and then turned the oven on. I bake it for 15 mins at 350-375. I use thick-sliced bacon, so the timing might be off for regular bacon when it's stuck back into the oven the second time to finish cooking.

After the 15 mins, the bacon is usually thawed and partially cooked. I take my tongs and pull the slices apart and lay them on the sheet. Usually they'll all fit tightly side to side, with the last two pieces going at the bottom of the pan. If you have to overlap a couple of slices, no big deal. In another 5 mins, you can fit them all side by side. Anyway, I after I lay the slices out, I put it back into the oven for another 15 mins. Like I said, my slices are the thick ones. And I like mine crispy, so I end up cooking it another 5 mins. My kids, however say it's burned. So theirs comes out sooner. lol

I could freeze the bacon at any point along the way. That is, I could if we didn't EAT it all. lol It's cheaper to bake most foods in a large batch and put them into the freezer, taking out the number of servings you want and reheating them than it is to just bake up fresh everyday - remember it costs to reheat the oven as it takes about 10-15 mins to preheat. (And you only have to clean up one big mess.) I'm learning that I prefer to just slightly under cook what I want to freeze. That way, when I reheat it, it finishes cooking that little bit and isn't overdone.

My recipe - of sorts - for meatballs/meatloaf is with ground whatever is on sale, Italian bread crumbs, an egg, onion and garlic powder (kids, sigh), Adobo without pepper, a little salt, some dried parsley and a bit of ketchup. Used a mini-scoop - the kind you'd use for cookie dough, for portion control and rolled the meat into mini balls. (About 1-2 TBS)

Sorry, there's no portions on this. I make meatballs/meatloaf by the seat of my pants and just know when it looks right to me. Mix what looks right to you, then cook 1/2 tsp and taste it - that's what some of the chefs do. I'm guessing here but I think that to about 2 lbs of ground whatever, add 1-2 eggs, 1-2 tsp each: onion powder, garlic powder and Adobo, 1/2-1 tsp salt, 1-2 TBS dried parsley and 2-3 TBS of ketchup (opt). If it were just me, I'd add real garlic and onions. We don't like pepper, so there isn't any in it, but you can add about 1/2-1 tsp and it would be about right.

When the meatballs are done, I put them in serving size portions in a zip bag, suck the air out and then put all the bags in a gallon zip bag and suck the air out of it(with a straw). They go into the freezer. I've only kept mine about 6 months, because we use them up pretty quickly.

You could also freeze them before you bake them. Put them on a cookie sheet with some space between them and stick into the freezer for a couple of hours. Then put them into a zip bag, get the air out and pop back into the freezer. (This is called "flash freezing" and it keeps things from sticking together into one ice block. I've also frozen this recipe as meatloaf. I normally cook mine all at once so that I don't have to keep reheating my oven. I tend to preslice the loaves so that we can just eat them, but I have frozen the whole loaf. You can let it thaw or pop it into the oven frozen or into the microwave. It will just take a bit longer for it to cook, if it's frozen. The last time I made meatloaf, I didn't undercook it and it was a bit dry.

I also found that if I want to make up a large amount of meatloaf/meatballs, that it's better to do it in smaller batches. For me, more than about 3 lbs of meat was too hard to get everything mixed well into it. You don't want to over handle the ground meat, it makes a paste. If you're a person that measures things, measure out all of your spices for the number of batches your going to make. All the onion powder, garlic powder, etc. Each batch can have it's own bowl, so if your making 3 batches, you only dirty 3 bowls. You're only measuring each ingredient 3 times in a row, instead of opening and closing bottles. It's like, one for you and one for you and one for you. lol Since I don't measure, I just leave the tops off the bottles, only putting them back on when I'm done with that ingredient for the last time. (you can break all your eggs at one time too, then you only have one egg mess to clean up. Dump the egg(s) in a bowl and put the spices on top. (that way, the spices don't get glued to the bottom of the bowl, but will slide off with the eggs.)

I found that making meatballs takes longer than cooking them does. So my suggestion is to line up anyone from about 3-4 years old (yes, that's 3 to 4, not 34. lol) on up, get the kiddies' hands washed and line them up around the kitchen table. Using what ever it is you use for portion control, scoop up your portion and plop it into their palms and show them how to "roll" the mixture. (It's the same way you do it to make balls of dough for baking.) They do NOT have to be "perfect", only sort of round - they don't stay perfectly round unless you cook them in something round. Next time I do it, I'm not even going to do anything but scoop them up, level off the top of the scoop on the side of the bowl and plop it onto the rack! That way will take a LOT less time to make them. I seem to remember getting 48 on a rack on the cookie sheet.

When all the meat mixture has been dealt with, line up the kids, (youngest worker to oldest - or from the one most likely to eat, touch something to the one most likely NOT to do so. lol) and one at a time, squirt about a dime's worth of dish washing liquid (that hasn't been diluted) into their palms. Don't wet their hands first, just apply the soap and have them rub it around on their hands and between their fingers. Then turn on warm water, wet their hands a little and have them make a lather. Rinse well and usually their hands are clean. On rare occasions, I've had to rewash, but it's a "normal" washing of my hands. This trick works well for ALL types of grease - auto as well as household.

I've also found that squirting dish soap on a grease stain, rub it in and launder it, usually (not always, especially if it's been on the clothing for a period of time and/or dried in the dryer) gets rid of a grease spot from clothing too. I've never had it fade or discolor any of our clothing, from 100% cotton down to poly and rayon. YMMV.

My comment about diluting dish soap refers to my habit of add some water to my soap. My kids have been really bad about squirting too much detergent into the water. I've tried to get them to use the cap as a measure or using a spoon as a measure, but they don't. Add to that, now a days, detergent is super concentrated. Also, for us, Dawn seems to work best. It is more expensive than the dollar store brands are, but I get more clean for the buck - unless people just squirt a lot of it into the sink.

What I do is this. I keep a couple of my old bottles. When I bring the new bottle home, I pour about 1/2 to 2/3 a bottle of water into one of the old bottles, then remove the cap from the new bottle and gently pour enough soap into the water to not quite fill it - you need headroom to mix it, about 1" worth. Recap both bottles and HIDE the new stuff. Gently turn the other bottle in a top to bottom direction to mix the soap and water, but not so hard that you make a foam "head" on it. It will take some gentle agitation, but it does mix well and you don't know it's been mixed.

Another thing I have done is bought one of those "pump" bottles (on sale of course), used the contents and then refilled them. Yup, you can do that. Place about 1 1/2" -2" of soap into the bottle and gently fill it with water to the fill mark on the side of the bottle. (You need to leave room for the pump piece. If you over fill it, it leaks). Again, gently agitate the bottle. You're tipping, NOT shaking. If you need some soap to wash several dishes, you've got it without running a sink full, nor wasting a lot of soap. This pump soap usually works for greasy hands too. But for auto grease, I stick with the undiluted soap.

The last thing I did happened by accident. When I used up a bottle of liquid I had, I refilled the bottle 1/2 way with water and agitated it a bit. It was great for washing hands or glasses with. Just enough soap to do the job (unless it's grease!) and not so much you're wasting soap. This was free soap. It's what would have been thrown away with the "empty" (and I tip mine on their tops to get all the soap to drain to the bottom and hold it there for a few minutes). I was really surprised that it worked so well. (If it hadn't, I would have just add back a little bit of soap until it did.)