I have a couple of ways that make saving money easy for me.

The first is by having an automatic transfer set up so that each week a specified amount is sent from my checking account to a savings account. Right now we are saving for house repairs and to replace my husband's truck. So I set up two automated transfers. My husband gets paid on Thursday and the transfers are scheduled to take place every Monday. Both items are budgeted for weekly and I don't have to give it another thought.

The other way to save that is painless for me is putting any change we receive in a box. I never spend change. One of the first things I do when coming home from grocery shopping is to clean out my wallet of any change and depositing it into the box. Periodically I get the box out, roll the change and deposit it into my checking account. I usually will then send it to one of my designated savings accounts, or if a budgeted account has had more expenses than I had foreseen, I'll use the change to build that back up.

Both savings ways are easy for me and require little effort. It's amazing how quickly both will add up!

When I quit my job at the end of last year we decided we needed to trim our monthly expenses even more than we had already done while following Dave Ramsey's plan.

The first thing we looked at was our cable. While we were doing the debt snowball we had 10 basic channels, but once we finished paying off the debt we had increased the number of channels because we were offered a "deal". We decided we could do without the cable completely because most of the shows we watch regularly are available on the internet. So by cancelling the cable, I trimmed $39.95 off of the budget. We bought this connector which has worked great to watch on our television. I subscribe to my favorite shows on Hulu and watch when they are available.

We also got rid of our phone plan, saving us over $60 a month and got a Magic Jack. We've been using it for a month now and have had no problems, besides trying to remember our new phone number!

Our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at church has been making their own laundry soap for the past year and some of the mothers were discussing it on Facebook the other day. They shared the recipe with me, so I thought I would give it a try. I picked up the ingredients today while grocery shopping but still need a 5 gallon bucket to mix it in.

The ingredients cost me $12.27 and the bucket is on sale at a local hardware store for $3.99. The ingredients should make at least 4 batches of soap, so it should last a while. One of the moms told me that the last batch she made lasted her 6 months. They have 4 small children so I'm sure she does a LOT of laundry!

They say it is an excellent detergent for high-efficiency machines since it is low-sudsing.

I'm anxious to give this a try!

Here is the recipe for those interested:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap (front or top-load machine: best value)

4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (Ivory can be substituted for those with allergies)
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir and fill a used, clean laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (Will gel)

Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavendar, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

Top load machine: 5/8 cup per load (approx. 180 loads)

Front load machine: 1/4 cup per load (approx. 640 loads)

Powdered Laundry Detergent- Top load machine

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (or Ivory)
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax

Grate soap or break into pieces and process in food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 tablespoon. For heavy load or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons. Yields: 3 cups detergent. (approx. 40 loads)