Making Fire Starters

Since school was canceled today due to ICE I decided to do a post that will bring some warmth and a sweet reminder of summer! Fire starters. These are super easy, fun, and inexpensive to make, and they work GREAT!

You will need:
Candle wax (I buy cheap, broken candles at Salvation Army, garage sales, or other thrift stores)
Cardboard egg cartons (Styrofoam does NOT work)
Lint from your dryer (FREE:)

I use a size 10 can to put the wax in. When I was taught how to do this they suggested using a crock pot, but I didn't want to deal with the mess of cleaning it out or having an extra one just for this purpose as they suggested. I put the can directly on the stove to melt the wax.

 

Once the wax is completely melted, I spoon the wax into each individual well of the egg carton. The first few times I did this, I filled the carton with the lint first then poured the wax in (as I was taught). I found it sticks better when you put the wax in first then fill the carton with the lint. Below is a picture of both methods.

Below is a picture from the bottom on the difference between the two. Putting the wax in first definitely works better! The one on the right had the wax put in first.

 

The more lint you can cram in there the better. Cram, cram, cram it in there. This is the free part so don't be afraid to use it.The more you use the more affective the fire starter is and the longer it will burn. I often will pour more wax in over the top once the lint is in. There always seems to be a little more room for more lint.  I even have other people collect lint for me. However, with a family of 8 we collect lint pretty fast ourselves. :) 

Once the fire starters have cooled (putting them in the fridge or freezer is ok), you can leave them whole as they are and break them apart when you need one or you can break them apart and store them as individual starters. My kids enjoy breaking them apart so we do that before we store them.

One day when we made these, my son and I decided to turn it into a "science experiment" and time how long the a single starter would burn.

What it looks like when it is initially lit.

After 12 Minutes!!

After 18 Minutes!! It finally stopped burning at 21 minutes!

What are the results of these fire starters? Free Family Fun!!! I am SO ready for summer to come and enjoy some campfires! I think I'll go make some fire starters today to help "burn" away my winter blues. These are also great to put in your 72 hour kits!

Black Friday Frenzy!!. . .How to benefit w/out the craziness!

If you know me, you know I HATE shopping! I especially hate crowds. I hate grocery shopping, clothes shopping, and even "necessity" shopping (for things we need). I have endured a few Black Friday shopping days for the sake of my daughter (it falls on or near her bday), but it is only out of the love of my daughter. She is fully aware of this and expresses her gratitude.

This year she requested again to go black Friday shopping for her bday. By some miracle, we got my hubby to go this year.We live in a fairly small area so the crowd wasn't insane as I have seen in the past, but it was still a little too crazy for me (and poor hubby). However, as most people there, I had an agenda! Socks, jeans, and a movie or two. I felt justified, as these were necessities (except the movies) and super cheap. Frugal and simple! That's me!

However, as I walked (rather squeezed) through the crowd, two things came to mind.
1. I was SO glad I couldn't find a cart! There was NO way I would have gotten through the crowd with a cart!
2. The TV's tempted me! The prices were great and we were in "want" of a new TV! We are a family that enjoys movie nights (and popcorn), and the 8 of us were crowding around a 32" TV that was slowly losing the sound! The TV's were so big and pretty and cheap! No wonder people went nuts buying them.

But, I controlled myself and so did my hubby! After all, it was a "want" and not a "need". If we still wanted it later, we would find an even better deal (positive thinking)! We left the store with 8 packs of socks, 7 pairs of jeans, 5 $2 movies, and a curling iron and perfume for dd's birthday. I left feeling accomplished, free of guilt, and without unnecessary "things".

A few days later, a thought came to me! What are all those people who did buy TV's on back Friday going to do with their old TVs? Why, sell them of course! I got on Craigslist and went "shopping". I was shocked!! There were LOTS of TV's for sale. . .big, in good shape, and cheap! At least 5 of the posts that I read said that the TV's worked great, but they just bought a new one on black Friday. My assumption was confirmed! To make a long story short, we bought a 60" TV (with remote) that was only 5 years old. How much? $100! Our 32" had a built in dvd player so I talked to my daughter and she had an extra one that she gave us for FREE! So we went from this:

To this:

We fulfilled a family want with a very inexpensive budget and in a much more Earth friendly way. We were able to benefit from the sales of Black Friday without the expense to our wallet. And we did not have to contribute to this:

(picture source)

Earth Day! =)

Tomorrow is Earth Day! Our family has celebrated Earth Day every year in some way or another for the past several years. Sometimes we have even planted flowers, trees, or a garden. One year we went one entire week with no TV. We actually really enjoyed it.

For tomorrow we are turning off everything! Cell phones, TV, computer, lights, and even our car! Yep, we are walking to church. =)

We've been celebrating Earth Day all month with our buy nothing challenge. We have had to purchase gas. :( We wanted to leave that off the list, but with emergency dental surgery, dentist appointments, play practices, track meets, church activities, scout activities, and other school activities it just wasn't possible. We haven't had to go shopping for anything yet though! The only thing we have had to purchase was a weed eater as ours broke down. We've saved lots of money this month though, and have learned a lot about not being consumers! =)

We are really looking forward to tomorrow. We will be walking to and from church. Then we'll play some games, read some books, sing some songs while Tom plays the guitar, and then take a walk down to the beautiful Mississippi River (we only live a mile from it). It will be nice for our family to turn everything off and get back in touch with nature and each other!

What will you and your family be doing to celebrate Earth Day? Please post below some of your ideas.

Make everyday Earth Day! Happy Earth Day!!=)

Meatless Monday!

I wrote in a previous post that our grocery bill is around $150 a week. Sometimes it is a little more, but we try to stay within that budget. I know for a family of 8 that seems impossible to achieve. However, I should mention that we do not eat meat in our home. It is SO expensive and WAY unhealthy. Sure, you could go for the lean meats or the chicken breast. However, that's only going to reduce the amount of fat intake. It won't help with the high levels of cholesterol, toxic pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, and all the other garbage that are in the meat you eat. Why not eat organic then? Well, in this area good luck finding it and this is a blog for frugal living; ever seen the price of organic meat?!

I'm not making a call for everyone to be a vegetarian. My entire family are not vegetarians, they just don't eat meat at home. I have 9 children and only 2 of them are vegetarians at all times. In our goal of being a healthy, frugal, and an environment friendly family we just don't consume meat at home. Below is a chart showing the affect raising meat has on our Mother Earth.



So, my challenge to you is to try the Meatless Monday challenge. Why not? You will have a healthier family, help to do your part to reduce your carbon footprint, and save some $$! What is there to lose? I'm not an animal rights activist but I do believe in living healthy, being frugal, and taking care of the planet that Heavenly Father has blessed me with.