I'm going to blame this one on the milk...

I have fallen off the cliff...jumped overboard...become obsessive....BUT THIS TIME...I'm going to blame it on the milk.

You see, I have been contemplating for a while now about changing our milk to organic milk. The more I research organic milk (the pros and cons) the more I think it is the best thing for our family. Less pesticides and antibiotics. Well, this sounds simple, right? Wrong! We drink a little over a gallon of milk a day. Money plays a major issue in this factor. A gallon of organic milk here cost and upwards of 6 dollars or more. For us, you don't just add in that significant cost without making some sort of "adjustment"...and that's where the laundry comes in.

I made a list of all of the things we spend a lot of money on. Milk was first...laundry detergent was a close second (apparently we are very dirty people here...) or I like to think of it as we are very CLEAN people. So I decided to just shift the laundry money to the milk side of the table. Well, you can't just not "do" laundry so I had to find a way to make that cost drop dramatically. I began diving into research of how to make your own laundry detergent. I found a recipe from the Duggar family website and took on a little experiment of my own. I would give it several weeks and see what our laundry looks and smells like after that...basically see if I noticed any differences.

I am happy to report that after several weeks I will NEVER go back to paying for Tide ever again. I spent a whopping 7 dollars on the homemade laundry materials...made a good 640 loads worth of detergent and barely made a dent in the supplies I bought for it. Viola! I found my milk money....

I wish I could say that it stopped there...but alas, I have fallen off the cliff...jumped overboard...become obsessive. Next, came the homemade yogurt and granola. Then it was juicing all of our drinks (orange, apple, etc.) and making all of our breads. I have been reading everything an anything on going organic all the way. Once we are out of all of our cleaning supplies, I plan on making my own stuff there as well. Vinegar and baking soda are very cheap and work wonders.

It's like taking on one big "experiment" for me. Exactly how much can I make homemade in the house. I know some of you are thinking...yeah, what about your time involved. Well, you'd be surprised...it takes a lot less time than you think...just a bit more planning. Plus less processed foods and more natural for the kids. It just makes sense. And man oh, man has our budget ever looked so good!

Now, if I can just talk my husband into a few chickens in the backyard....Ahhhhh!!!! Someone help me, I've become a pioneer woman.