Wood Pellets for Chicken Bedding

This is one of my most favorite money saving chicken tricks! I use wood pellets for bedding in my chicken coop. 

Wood pellets absorb WAY more most than shavings or straw cutting down on smell and extending the time you can go between coop cleanings. The moisture absorption is handy in the winter because it keeps the humidity level down in your coop thus helping to prevent frostbite. 

Several brands are pure pine (as pictured), which is cheaper for bedding than hardwood pellets. 

Composting Benefit

One of the things that really got me started using wood stove pellets is when absorb moisture they expand to a finer sawdust than shavings. This makes wood pellets MUCH easier to compost than shavings or even straw. Shaving take forever - straw takes a little less time than shaving but sawdust from wood pellets composts real quickly because before the wood is compressed to a pellet it's already been run through a mill and reduced to the size of a grain of rice.


A bag of wood stove pine pellets are about half the cost of the "Pet Bedding" wood pellets and are basically the same thing.

Price

While costs may differ depending on your location, in my area a bale of pine shaving now costs about $8 - where as a bag of pine wood pellets cost me $2.99. I can go through almost a whole winter on 3 bags of wood pellets. You don't need to use a lot of them because they expand so much. A bale of straw now also costs $6-$8. When I used straw only I would go through 2-3 bales a winter, depending on conditions. 

I like using Lignetics - they are fairly inexpensive and widely available in our area. But really I will purchase any pure pine wood pellet that is on sale. Please note: while I have included a link here to Lignetics Pellets - because wood pellets are dense and heavy they are EXCEEDINGLY expensive to buy online. It's much cheaper to run down to Costco, Lowes, the local Feed store, or the local farm supply store and pick some up. 

I have nothing against straw, I just stopped using it because I came across a batch that was full of mites. There are no bugs or critters in wood stove pellets. The challenge is of course finding somewhere dry to store the pellets if you buy them in bulk for another discount.

Chicks

When I have chicks in our brooder I will use pellets but then cover the pellets with a thick lay of actual pine shaving or straw. I just don't trust the little guys to 'not eat' the pellets. This way I still get the moisture absorption, and fume control benefits. Very handy trick for a brooder full of meat chickens. 

Wood Pellet Questions:


Won't my chickens eat the pellets?


I have been using wood stove pellets for going on 5 years now with a flock that ranges from 50-25 yearly, and have not had A SINGLE problem with my hens eating the pellets. How do I know this? Every year I butcher a few of my oldest hens that aren't laying much anymore, the meat birds and any roosters that we are not keeping and while I am processing them I look for evidence. I have never found that they have consumed the wood pellets. Since I feed 'layer pellets' I make it a point to look and pay attention to what they are eating. 

However chickens have killed themselves before by eating grass, pine shaving and rocks. So I am sure somewhere some poor little hen has killed herself eating wood pellets too. If this concerns you, opt for a different kind of bedding - I am merely offering an idea.

Are Hardwood Pellets Bad? What about Oak? 

I have read up on oak and found it to be just fine - oak chips from furniture shops are generally bad for chickens because it has been treated with ammonia, which is bad for their lungs. These 'treated' oak chips are not allowed in the manufacturing of wood stove pellets. Other than that hardwood is fine - beechwood is kinda bad for chickens though, if in doubt stick to pine pellets.

Aren't there chemicals and glues in wood stove pellets?

Chemicals and glues aren't allowed in the production of wood pellet manufacturing because the end product has to be safe to burn. The pellets are held to together with their own moisture and sap. No additional chemicals are added.


Click Here to See a Video on How Wood Stove Pellets are Made!


If you like what you see here click here to follow me on facebook for more homesteading and preparedness tips. 

20 Cheap Tricks Around the Farmstead

By Stephanie Dayle

Here is a list of some top tricks that have saved me money and time around the farmstead. Most of these have become second nature to me so I had kind of a hard time thinking of them. Some of them are so farm kid 101 that I just assume everyone knows this stuff, but if it helps someone out its worth it. Do you know of another one that should be on here? Add it to the comments below to help others out! 

 

Make your own chicken waters and feeders. Simple poultry waters and feeders can be made for under $10 using repurposed materials. They work just as good as store bought ones at a fraction of the cost. Click here to for an article on how to make traditional waterers and feeders. Click here for and article on how to make nipple waterers.

Compost manure, garden waste, and yard clippings to add back in your garden later. It's cheap and more organic than fertilizer. Click here for an article on how get your own compost started.

                          

Install a drip irrigation system for your garden and fruit patches. It will pay for itself in one season and as a bonus it can be used in conjunction with rain barrels for off-grid watering. Click here for an article on how to do it! 


Toothpaste works great for cleaning horse bits or anything made of stainless steel around the barn.

Photo Credit: 1001pallets.com

Pallets are forever handy. A lot of lumber stores, give away used wooden pallets. Grab a couple and keep them on hand, they can be used in chicken runs during bad weather to give the birds an option to get out of the mud. They also work well keep hay off the moist ground, holding garden equipment and can be reposed into so many things.

Use wood burning pellets to soak up minor annoying puddles in or around the barn or the farmyard. The pellets expand and soon you will have a small pile of sawdust to sweep up instead of an annoying puddle or wet spot.

 

Those cheap laundry buckets you can buy at Walmart or Bi-Mart, are really Muck Buckets in disguise. Use them to clean out stalls or chicken coops, as stools to stand on, or put them in a stall or pen as an extra large water bucket. You have to refill these once for every 3 or 4 times you’d have to refill buckets. When they go on sale at Bi-Mart I can get them for $5 each.

Keep a used horse shoe or two that’s in ok shape after a farrier visit – throw it in in your barn, you may use it as an emergency replacement shoe one day. Even completely worn out horse shoes have many uses.

Keep a small stash of bailing twine around at all times for tying things up in a pinch.

 

Wood burning pellets can be used as inexpensive bedding. For poultry and other animals. They are more effective than pine shavings at absorbing moisture and keeping odor down, WAY easier to compost, they are considerably less expensive than shavings. Again turning into saw dust as they absorb moisture for easy clean up. Wood burning pellets are also cost less than the 'special wood pellets' made for animal bedding. You can, in fact, find 'pine only' burning pellets (see above picture) but a mix of hardwood and pine is ok too. Per EPA regulations there is no additives or glues in wood burning pellets. Click here to read an article on using pellets for bedding.

There are a few types of hardwood that should be avoided for use with animals but those woods are not commonly used in wood burning pellets. The concern I commonly hear about oak is a result of waste wood from furniture building. Oak used for furniture making is commonly treated with ammonia to enhance its appearance and prolong it's life. Oak treated in this way should not be used as animal bedding however, ammonia treated oak cannot be used to make wood burning pellets, so it is a non-issue.

You can open a hay bale with another loose piece of bailing twine: run one end under the twine on the bale (assuming you are dealing with bailing twine here and not metal straps or wire) grab the other in your other hand – saw back and forth briskly – the friction created will quickly create heat and burn/melt through the strap with a satisfying 'pop'. Simply repeat on the second piece of twine.

If you have to store a stock trailer outside park it on wood before the winter so it doesn’t freeze to the ground and so that it doesn’t sink in the mud and become stuck come spring time. This practice will also prolong the life of your tires.

 

To fight flies, and wasps around the barn, use simple homemade fly traps. Cut a plastic 2 liter bottle in half, flip the top upside down and insert back into the bottom half. Fill with a cup of fly attractant solution. Try diluting some cat food in water, old buttermilk, or some rotten meat in water as an attractant (do not use sugar or you will catch honey bees). Flies get in but they can't get out and drown.
It's important to get these traps set out in the spring as they need some time to ferment to work effectively, the worse they smell the better they work. Using organic attractant means if one of the traps breaks and falls (and the chickens eat all the dead flies - which they will) no harm will come to your chickens or any other animal that may get into the nasty smelling fly trap.

Olive oil from bulk buy stores (like Costco) works great for oiling and conditioning leather products, and is considerably cheaper than the chemical filled products you find at tack stores.

Get your work boots re-soled after you’ve worn them out – it costs a fraction of the price of new boots and will last you another couple years.

White vinegar can be used for a deep cleaning of moldy leather products. It will kill all mold spores. Vinegar will also remove buildup and stickiness on leather.

Listerine in a spray bottle is an all-in-one liquid cleanser use on horse bits or dirty hands, as a disinfectant or as a brace/liniment, it also works as a tail rubbing solution for horses.

Use old stock tanks that no longer hold water as chick brooders. They don't have to hold water for this purpose and they have steep tall walls - perfect for hatchling chicks


Knock sparrow nests down by spaying them with a tight steam of water from the hose – although keep in mind, if they are allowed to nest in areas that aren’t a fire hazard they are a great fly control system.

Pick up an old wool blanket – the thicker the better, from your local Goodwill store for a great livestock 'cooler'.' These blankets will soak up sweat after a heavy work out, during an illness, and they work great for wrapping baby goats, calves, and foals in. They work better than fleece and will keep livestock warm even when damp.

Again if you have some ideas of your own - add them to the comments section below! Hope these ideas help someone out there - they sure help me.

Click here for recommended homesteading products from The Home Front

Memorial Day Weekend DEALS for Preppers!

During each major holiday weekend retail stores around the nation have big sales and offer great deals on things we all want to stock up on. Often you can't get these deals during any other time. You only need to know what to look for.

I am going to focus on national chains, not because I don't believe in shopping locally, but because my local hometown store deals will not help most of you. Also I am not against making stuff myself. If you can make all of this stuff yourself, well then, good for you! But not all of us can.

**Prices will vary location to location - but in general this is where to look and what to look for.**

THIS INFORMATION IS CURRENT AS OF 5/23/2013 but these are the typical items to look for at the follow stores EACH YEAR.  

Here are some great deals for the prepper minded out there who are stocking up!

Charcoal  $9.99 - You may be able to pick it up for a couple of bucks cheaper during Labor Day, but this is the best deal you will see until then. Lowes is offering two 20 lb packs (40 lbs total) for $9.99. Charcoal is a good emergency cooking fuel to keep on hand and it will last a long time if kept dry, but it must only be burned outside only. (Charcoal is a big consumer of oxygen. Do not burn charcoal indoors, ever, it will rob all the oxygen out of an enclosed room before any carbon monoxide gets you. )

Pork and Beans  33¢ - We all love Pork and Beans and it doesn't make a bad emergency food in a pinch. My local WinCo stores recently had Van Camps Pork and Beans for 33¢ a can.

Baked Beans - regardless of the brand, many stores have baked beans on sale right now. Beans are always a good food to keep on hand because they can be easily combined with something inexpensive like rice to provide a life sustaining meal. This combination of beans and rice has been a prepper staple for years. I store and use a variety of canned beans as well as dried beans.

Folgers Coffee  $6.98 - This doesn't usually make my list but I noticed Walmart had it on sale for $6.98 a can, which is dirt cheap. Now, I am not a coffee snob so it really doesn't bother me to use cheap pre-ground coffee that has been stored for 6 months. Coffee is coffee when you need it, and at this price it will save you some money. (If you hear anyone say "pre-ground" coffee only stores for 6 months, stop listening to that person. Of COURSE it stores for longer than that, it just won't taste as good that's all.)

Camping Food - Mustard (which never goes bad), ketchup, relish, hotdogs, beans, and marshmallows (which can be dehydrated and stored, kid you not!) are all on sale this weekend. Check you local grocery stores for some of the best deals of the year.

Solar Lights  $1.99 - Again for Labor Day weekend and year-end clearance you might be able to get these cheaper if you watch them like a hawk and if there is any left, but $1.99 - $2.50 (Walmart and Lowes) for a larger solar light, not one of the smaller dollar store ones, is not a bad deal. There are literally hundreds of uses for these things. They would make a nice emergency light source if the grid goes down. Charge them up outside during the day and bring them in at night, pop the battery out to turn them off. Take the top off one, and glue it to the top of a canning jar for a homemade lantern. Avoid candles, and save your batteries for something else. Click here to see how to use them as a cheap solar battery charger.

Bags of Fast Setting Concrete $3.98 - This is great to keep on hand if you have your own house and property. Home Depot has some for $3.98 a bag right now. I find we use several bags a year on various projects, but it's also good to keep on hand for just 'incase'. Just incase you need to make emergency repairs to your property or house when the cement company is no longer answering the phone. Just incase you need to reinforce a gate, fence post, or your house to beef up security. You know just incase. Keep in mind you have to keep this stuff in a DRY location or you'll just end up with a big cement brick.

Canning Jars - Tis the season for canning jars! Jarden Home Brands (the parent company of Ball and Kerr) puts out several great coupons for their jars around this time of year in the Sunday inserts, keep an eye out for them. When you combine these coupons with a sale price you can get really good deals on new jars. Bi-Mart has pint jars on sale for $7.99 right now and while I don't consider that a super great deal - if you were to combine that sale price with a $1.50 off coupon, it is fine deal indeed! Keep an eye out for more canning jar deals around the 4th of July.

Ortho Home Defense Spray $5.98 gal  - I normally don't encourage the use of chemical insecticides - especially if you have a garden, pets, or chickens! There are many effective organic options. But if you have ever seen an episode of Discovery Channel's INFESTED you would know that in some cases it is necessary. If it ever came down to bugs eating my food and me going hungry?  I'm busting out the chemicals, sorry bugs.  Walmart.

Spectracide Hornet and Wasp Spray $1.58 - Again with the chemicals remember anyone can make an very effective bee/wasp spray out of soap (dawn) and water, that will not harm the environment at all but will effectively kill a hive (the soap clogs their breathing holes). All you have to do is wait until they are back at the hive and less active around dusk and you won't even need that 22 foot reach.  (Remember modern "environmentally safe" propellents used in spray cans will not last longer than a year so don't go crazy on the hornet spray thinking you'll be able to use it a few years down the road.)

Tiki Torches $5.00 - Can burn more fuels that what is provided

at the store for $10 a gallon. They will also burn, used veggie oil, kerosene, mineral spirits, rendered bacon grease, diesel, and rubbing alcohol or any denatured alcohol (Everclear anyone?). Handy to have to light up your property if needed. Just please don't set your house, the woods, or your neighborhood on fire during a national emergency or during Any. Other. Time. This deal is at my local Lowes.

Camping Supplies - Some good deals can be found on camping supplies for Memorial Day Weekend, just make sure not to impulse buy because again retailers are not as motivated as they will be later to move inventory.

Coleman Propane $5.00 - Double set of Coleman Propane tanks are on sale this weekend at Walmart. Making each one $2.50 each. Normally this would not be that special, however I have been hard pressed to find a better deal on little propane tanks lately, seems like last year you could find little propane tanks all the time for cheaper...

Garden Supplies - Some good deals can be found on garden supplies too, especially on seeds and potting soil, be sure to price check however as I have not seen a sale price that will beat Costco's regular everyday price on potting soil.

HTH - Shock and Swim 1 lb $1.99 - Ace Hardware has Shock and Swim on sale this weekend. HTH is High Test Hypochlorite. It is mainly comprised of Calcium hypochlorite which is used for the disinfection of drinking water and swimming pool water. It is super concentrated powdered bleach and you can use to to mix with water to make your own bleach. I prefer to buy Super Shock and Swim as it contains a higher percentage of Calcium Hypochlorite than regular Shock and Swim. Safety? Here is a link to the actual Material Safety List for Shock and Swim. The safety concerns they list are universal to ALL FORMS of powdered concentrated bleach - because, in that form, it's not safe to consume or breath.  Mixed with water, it's actually a different product.  As you can see on the list there are no algaecides in this brand of powder which would make it exceedingly toxic to use to disinfect drinking water, the rest of the ingredients mainly provide stability and prevent caking.


UPDATE: 5/24/2013 - One day after posting this - I saw my first happy customer on Facebook! You go Catherine! THIS is why I write, not to sell charcoal, but to help others.

Shopping Tips to Help Maximize Savings:

• Keep in mind the time of year. Memorial Day weekend is a hit and miss. Retailers want you to come and shop but the incentive to mark down the summer stuff you want is not always there. Some of these items - such as charcoal, camping gear and garden gear can be had at slightly lower sale prices during Labor Day weekend because retailers want to get rid of their inventory rather than take a loss on it by sending it back or to a 'end of season' clearance house. 

• Focus on the Door Buster deals.  They will tend to be the better price points than the ones on the inside of the flyer - but don't ignore the inside of the flyer either, it's worth looking through. 

• Use coupons when you can. Combine them with sale prices to drive your price per item even lower! But don't buy an item just because you have a coupon, it has to be worth it. 

• Use price thresholds whenever you are shopping. This means keep a list of the lowest sale prices you commonly see for certain items that you want or usually stock up on. When you see a price that falls below this what you normally see (aka: the price threshold) this should trigger you to buy. If the price meets your threshold AND you have a coupon, even better!

• Buy enough of the item to last you until the next sales cycle. This could be the next major holiday weekend or next year, ignore funny looks from other shoppers and nosey questions. Even if you are not a 'prepper' this will insure that you never have to pay "retail" for that item permanently lowering your grocery costs. 

Just incase you are wondering about my expertise in this area: my 'real job' has been in Marketing and Advertising for the past 15 years. So I know how this stuff works. Hope this helps you save some money - happy shopping and don't forget to remember those who served.

How Meat Chickens Fit Into Our Food Plans

On the left is a Cornish Cross - on the right is a good sized Dual Purpose breed bird in the prime for butchering.

The Stats:
Cornish-Cross Chicken at 10 weeks of age 11.4 lbs - $8.50 to raise - start to finish.
Dual Purpose Chicken at 10 months of age just under 6 lbs - $12 to raise (and was allowed to range).
__________________________________________________

People have argued with me before on why I don't raise dual purpose breeds of chickens for meat. Until you have raised both and can compare, it can be hard to completely understand. If you are growing chickens for your yearly food supply you need to be cost efficient in doing so. It is not cost efficient to raise most dual purpose breeds for meat. They take too long, and don't produce enough meat to justify the expense AND time. We have a flock that ranges from 10-15 of "dual purpose" layer birds plus a roo for eggs alone - we raise Broilers or Cornish Cross birds for meat.

If anything bad were to happen - because we have a roo and hens that have proven themselves to be good mothers within our laying flock they would be sustainable for a certain amount of time. And we could double or triple those numbers in one summer really easy. Therefore in the interest of time and money we raise meat birds for meat only.

The comments I get on Cornish Cross birds are these:

• Those Cornish eat 4 times as much food in 10 weeks than those dual purpose eat in 6 months.
• Cornish Cross birds also die off easier so more loss.
• Then there is the amount of poop to deal with, it can get unhealthy very quickly, they do not range or exercise at all and don't find their own food.
• They don't like to free range.
• They will get so heavy their legs will break.

I want to address these concerns:

Cornish Cross chickens DO eat 4 times more. They are also ready to butcher in 8-10 weeks. Dual purpose breeds are ready to butcher in 8-12 months. At 6 months of age, dual purpose birds are still tiny. This is how meat bird breeds will save you money and time.

It is true there is more poo with any meat breed of chicken - they eat more, therefore what goes in must also come out. But, just like raising any other animal when their area is dirty you have to clean it to keep the animals healthy.  This is part of farm-steading and shouldn't be a big deal. Compost the poo and add it to your garden. 

The 'die off' ratio of meat breed birds differs from year to year, but I have never had more than two birds die on me.  The way you feed and care for your meat birds will effect this number greatly. After a few weeks of age you need to remove their food at night. This will prevent them from gaining weight too quickly and breaking their own legs. They also benefit from electrolytes in their water from day one. These are cheap and easy to mix up. As mentioned above their pens require more attention but its only for a short period of time, as they don't live that long.

It's is also true that CC and a majority of meat breed chickens don't like to free range, they aren't bred for that and don't "need" exercise like dual purpose chickens do, however this doesn't mean they are less healthy for you to eat.  Just make sure you are providing good quality food for them, and your end product will also be good quality. As you might have noticed I am not real big on free ranging my meat birds so if they want to stay in their pen all day that's fine with me.  It may sound cold but I would rather have my meat chickens plump. I have a chicken tractor for my meat birds so they get a new patch of grass every couple of days. I have found that "free ranging" meat breed chickens tends to make the owner happier than it does the chicken.

The feed to meat ratio of a Cornish-Cross is 1.9 - 1 which is extremely efficient.  Second only to salmon (and you can quote me on that). The chicken on the left (pictured at the top of this post) tipped the scales at just over 11 lbs (after they were dressed) the dual purpose chicken was just under six pounds.  If I were to have raised 25 dual purpose chickens it would've cost me $87 more to raise them compared to the Cornish Cross birds (not counting my time).

When my meat birds are ready to butcher in 10 weeks compared to 10 months - it frees up my time to take care of other animals, and the garden. Since Hubby and I work 40 hours plus a week - our time is just as valuable if not more so than the food we feed to those meat birds.  This is the experience I am referring to when you have actually raise both types of chickens for your year's supply of meat. While I'm not trying to make a big commercial for Cornish Cross chickens I am giving you a logical reason for raising meat breed chickens for food. Consider it, a defense of meat breed chickens.

Other Meat Breeds to consider if Cornish Cross is not your thing:

• Cornish Cross (slow growing and fast growing)
• Red Broiler
• Freedom Ranger
• Black Broiler
• Dark Cornish
• Buff Cornish
• White Rock (they are more for frying)

There are other heritage breeds that I know folks raise as meat chickens, because they don't like how modern meat breeds look and how unsustainable they are.  However, when both adults at your household work full time and you are on a tight budget - meat breed chickens can be every cost and time efficient. They give us the option of raising our own food - otherwise it would not be a possibility. 

Homemade Dishwasher Soap – Save Money Right Now

By Stephanie Dayle - via The American Preppers Network

(This is one of my most popular articles at APN - click on the link above to check out all the comments on this one over there too!)

Most of the time I hand wash all of my dishes mostly to conserve water and power, but sometimes I am just too busy taking care of the garden, farmstead and working.  Lots of people involved in emergency preparedness and homesteading, get real busy in the summer with food preservation, their garden, and camping, so there is no shame in leaning on the dishwasher during this season.  Plus that ‘sanitize’ cycle sure comes in handy when you are washing up box after box used canning jars you just bought at that yard sale up the road.  Here is a recipe for homemade dishwasher soap that will save you some money and you can bank on the fact that its better for you and the environment than the store-bought stuff. Use the extra money on your emergency preparedness items!

Again, there are different versions of this recipe all over the internet.  If you don’t like mine, just search for “homemade dishwasher soap” and you will see many others.  I have tinkered with this one a lot, and finally have the way I like it.  It works really well, and I will never go back to store-bought detergent.  Homemade dishwasher detergent is going to depend a lot on your water.  Is is hard water or do you have a softener?  Is there a lot of iron in it?  (if so, increase the amount of vinegar you use.)  This is because  getting your dishes clean is a snap, getting them shiny and residue free is kind of tricky, as most of that has to do with the type of water you have.

This is what works the best for me.  To maximize your savings, try to get all these ingredients as cheaply as possible.   Price shop, and keep a note who carries them at the lowest prices.  Personally, I stock up on these ingredients to take advantage of sales.  But not to prep them, because almost any long-term emergency will include a power outage and this recipe is specific to dishwashers.  The last time I calculated the cost per load for this it came in at 3 cents a load.

 DIY Dishwasher Detergent

• 1.5 cup Washing Soda  (washing soda is a natural water softener, abrasive, and is pure cleaning power – baking soda will only act as an abrasive and is not nearly as effective as washing soda, so I just leave it out)
• 1/2 cup Borax  (Borax – again, an abrasive not super effective, but I have found it helps with glass, which seems to need a finer abrasive)
• 1/4 cup Citric Acid (citric acid, which is also used in canning, will counter your washing soda, so you have to be very conservative with it.  But it can be the only way to deal with some hard water marks and residue)
• OPTIONAL: 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of Dawn  (this just adds more cleaning power – be very careful with it though, just a small amount or you’ll end up with an overflow of suds all over your kitchen floor)
• Some people add salt  (I don’t bother with salt either – it is used as an abrasive and as a softener, since washing soda AND borax also act as a softener, I didn’t find that it added anything to the existing recipe)

Double or triple the recipe as needed.  Combine ingredients and shake up real well.   1/4 cup in your “Wash” compartment should be all you need for a whole load of dishes!  If using a long cycle, go ahead and sprinkle some in your “Pre-Wash” compartment as well.

I have had great luck using vinegar in the “Rinse Aid” compartment to help get my dishes shiny and residue free.  Since we have fairly hard water, I ALSO add a splash in the bottom of the washer before starting a load.  I found that it made a huge difference.  Be proud of your efforts!  Don’t hide them – post a picture of your finished product on Facebook, and see who messages you for the recipe.

If you put a little Dawn in your soap mix, it will have a fragrance.  If you don’t and you need it to smell, you can add 5 drops of lemon essential oil to this mix.  Sometimes our obsession with fragrances baffles me, as I think its nice when things don’t smell all the time.  Walking down the cleaning section at the grocery store sends me into a sneezing fit.  So keep in mind that by the time your dishes are washed – if your recipe has done its job, your dishes will not smell anyways.  So you might not need the essential oils.

You can add this recipe to a half gallon jar, and keep it under your sink.  Since you are adding a little liquid to dry ingredients expect some clumping.  The next day, get it out and break up the clumps with a fork, and mix it up again real well.  If you want to avoid future clumps you can add a marshmallow or piece of bread to it – just like you do for brown sugar!

Also click here to check out my recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent!  It is more compact than many of the recipes on the web, and it has a little more cleaning power as well.  It will also save you money and uses many of the same ingredients as I listed here! I like keeping products around that have more than once use.

Frugal TIP: In my area, the best price on Mule Team Borax can be found at Target.  Best price on Washing Soda I can find is usually at Wal-Mart, but I have seen it lower  at Bi-Mart.  The best prices I have seen on Citric Acid were at Wal-Mart, during canning season and Bi-Mart also during canning season.  If you can’t find it there, look at your local Health Food Store!  And you can’t beat Costco or Cash and Carry stores for vinegar prices!  For the price of a gallon of vinegar at the grocery store, you can buy two at Costco – but supporting your local grocers is also important.

Questions?  Have a good recipe of your own??  Share it here!  Remember to include what type of water you have at your house to help others, and stay tuned for more money-wise articles!

There are many homemade dishwashing recipes out there on the internet, any similarities are merely coincidental.