WFMW- No more double creases!

For Works for Me Wednesday I am sharing a new tip I found. My husband wears pants and buttondown shirts to work each day so I iron a lot of clothes each week. I have always hated ironing his pants because they slide around and I would have to be so careful not to get double creases. The problem was I tried ironing the pants legs with them positioned on the ironing board like the photo below so they wiggle back and forth, making it hard to keep the crease stationary while you iron.

Well, being lazy one day I was ironing and the ironing board had stuff on the end. I didn't want to take the time to move the stuff so I just used the space I had free. I positioned the leg on the board like it is in the photo below. Oh my goodness! I have taken 21 and 1/2 years of marriage and ironing to figure this out! The pants didn't wiggle around. I got nice crisp creases. It was so much easier to iron the pants. Now, the job is not as bad as it was, but if you would like to come do my ironing.... just call, okay? I won't object, I promise.

WFMW_Frugal Fashions

For today's Works For Me Wednesday I am sharing how being on clothing store mailing lists helps you find bargains. Lane Bryant sent out a pamphlet and it had a coupon for $15 off any $15 item. I was able to buy the two shirts above for $3.22 with tax. Even if you do not wear plus size clothing you can register to be on the mailing lists of stores like this. They usually send out a coupon like this twice a year. They had dress socks for $7.99 and jewelry. I found the shirts on the clearance rack. The white blouse was reduced to $20 and had an additional 40% off- making it $12.00. The green t-shirt was marked down to $9.99 with an additional 40% off- making it $6.00. I then used the $15 coupon. Wow, $3.22 for two tops! Check out more WFMW posts on Kristen's blog.

Homemade detergent or Tide? The battle of the detergents.

For Works For Me Wednesday I am sharing the results of the test between Tide

and homemade detergent. I made up the homemade detergent with Arm and Hammar Washing Powder, Borax and grated Zote soap.

I have been trying this detergent since December 8th.
The verdict:

I tried. I washed in warm water and was having to spray items with Shout. My husband kept complaining that his shirts had spots- he thinks from the grated soap. When they went paintballing and I washed the pants and they still had paintball powder on them it was the final straw and he told me to go get Tide. He wouldn't even wait for a sale or coupon and sent my son to buy a bottle.

So, I would love to be one of the many that use the cheaper version of homemade detergent, but it just did not work for us. I have not tried the version where you cook the ingredients, it may work better. For us... what works is Tide. I have to have the high efficiency detergent for my front loader so I stick with what has worked. It may cost more to purchase but saves rewashing or the aggrivation of not having fresh clean clothes.

For more Works for me Wednesday visit Rocks in my Dryer. This is Shannon's last week to host this event- next week We are That Family will take over. Thanks Shannon for all the work you have done and bringing us all the great tips.

Letting it Go

My Works for me Wednesday thought is about letting go of all the things that cause me to stress and not enjoy celebrating the Christmas season. When we lived in Florida I put up 4 full size trees and two small trees. We had full size trees in the family room, sunroom, dining room, and our bedroom. I had a smaller 4 foot tree in each of the kids rooms. We would decorate the trees as a family and I would go behind the kids and tweek them a little because you CAN NOT have two of the same color side by side. Everyone knows that, don't they? I was reminded by Meg at Whatever this morning how much I have learned to let go. It wasn't a conscious letting go, I just let them wear me down to where I was happy to have a tree at all the last two years. We moved Thanksgiving weekend two years ago to Alabama from Florida and then again Thanksgiving weekend last year from our rental home into our new home. After so much packing, the last thing I wanted to do was unpack 16 Rubbermaid boxes of ornaments and decoration and put up 6 trees. So, I let the kids do it. I only tweeked a little (I promise), not really there to just take a lopsidedly decorated tree. And, we did need ornaments on the top half. But, in my visually happy world of all the talented blog decorators I would not be invited to speak on how to make a tree that would win many complements. One day I will decorate and it will be beautiful. My grandkids will come and break everything and I will blog about that. But for today I admire my tree with bare spots, crooked branches, naked top, memories of all the things my kids have made, the smiles as they rediscover their ornaments they receive each year, and the fact that I didn't yell once about where the ornament was put- just tweeked a little, remember? When another one went splat against my hardwood floors I just smiled and told him to get the broom. He swept it up and last night my husband discovered it is still in a pile- behind the tree. Didn't mention to actually put it in the trash, so he swept like a good little soldier. If you come over keep your shoes on, don't want you to cut your feet. You could take one shoe off and leave one on so that my tree won't be lopsided anymore. Now, that is letting go.

Maybe something more interesting will be at Rocks in my Dryer. Does anyone else have rocks in their dryer? I have actually found rocks in my dryer. And pens, and crayons, and cars, and little men, and indians, and legos. Where do the socks go???? Why can we not figure this one out? Maybe if we had rocks in there they would beat up the bad runaway socks and keep them in their place. Anyone else have the, "I told you not to wear your socks outside." syndrome. They haven't figured out that I fill their stockings, I mean Santa fills their stockings with socks, and that they get less candy just because they wear their socks without shoes outside and they look like we are destitutes.

Works for me Wednesday- Medical Flex Account

I elected to have the maximum amount taken out of our check this year to put into a Medical Flex Account which was $7500. I had four children in orthodontic treatment and two that had wisdom teeth removed and one that had adenoids removed. Then add in the trip to the orthopedic doctor with my son's broken foot and paying for my husband's high blood pressure medicine. Whew, it was an expensive year for medical expenses.

The money put into your check is before taxes so it reduces your taxable income. We saved $881.25 in taxes this year by having this put aside into the flex account.

Our account allows you to claim expenses online and through faxing the forms. I fill out the online form then print it and sign it. I then fax that with the copy of my doctor's bill or a copy of my reciept with over the counter medicine costs. We always have payment within two weeks, and ours is set up to be automatically deposited into our checking account.

The only drawback to the plan is that if you do not use the amount elected to be put into the account you lose it. But, the flex account is not just for doctor visits. It covers orthodontic care, eye care and lenses or glasses and solutions. It covers over the counter medicines. It covers prescription charges. Have a reasonable amout deducted that you are sure you can use.

I like that it is a set amount each check and the money is there waiting when I need to make a payment to a doctor or fill a prescription. Other than figuring out what to have put into the plan I do not have to have any other medical budget. I am keeping more of my money rather than paying taxes on it. I don't have to worry about expenses that come along. When you are sick or sitting in the emergency room you don't want to be thinking about money. It gives you a peace knowing that you have put the money aside for this expense.

Visit Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday posts.

Works for me Wednesday-Filling out forms online

I send away for a lot of free samples from companies and also print a lot of coupons off the internet which require you to fill out the form with your name and address. I never use my first name. I always use my initials "HE" as my first name. That way if I receive any email or delivered mail with HE on it I know it is either just spam mail or might have to do with a coupon or product sample. I am not having my full name generating through companies that buy lists of names and addresses from people. It is also shorter to type, although most of the forms will automatically fill in when I double click.

Hey, it works for me! If you don't like this tip you can try to find a better one at Rocks in my Dryer.

Watch TV when you want to

We have been watching our favorite shows that come on TV through the computer. We now don't have to change our schedules to be home to watch our favorite shows or worry about recording them. We can pull them up on the computer, hook up a cable to the big screen TV and watch it without all the commercials. Another benefit is that because we have a cable box we cannot watch one show and record another one with our DVR. For some reason, we have to be watching what we record. So, if there were two things we wanted to watch we could just watch one on the computer later. It is also nice to watch later at night when the little kids have gone to bed. We don't have many shows that we really have to see but there are a couple that if you miss one you miss a lot of information, like Lost, so we really want to see each one in order.

For more tips go to Rocks in the dryer.