10 Things I Never Buy at the Store

**Sorry for the lack of pictures!  I couldn't get them to work for this post for some reason...I have NO idea why...???***

There are a few things I don't ever buy at the store anymore.  Why buy them when you can make them and save yourself the money??  And then you consider the health benefits...you can't beat it!! 

1. Laundry Detergent & Dryer Sheets
   I can't even begin to tell you how much this has helped us with our "skin issues"!!  And I don't have to worry about "extras" that are added by the commercial companies or those synthetic fragrances - which is probably what was causing our skin problems to begin with!  And, did I mention that I only spend about $12.00 - $15.00 a year on laundry detergent??  For a family of 6, I'd say that's pretty good! 
2. Fabric Softener
3. Deodorant 
   I was having the worst problems with deodorants breaking out my underarms!  As I said, we have sensitive skin over here...I was miserable!  I had bleeding, oozing sores cause by a certain deodorant that I had been wearing for nearly 12 years...I guess it was finally catching up with me.  When I started making my own deodorant, the problem went away!  I'll never go back to the other stuff.  I always make it now, or buy the unscented, all natural, Arm & Hammer stuff
4. Dish-washing Detergent {for dish washers}
5. Salad Dressing ~ I always thought I was being "healthy" by feeding my children fresh veggies with ranch every day....until I read the ingredients on the back of the ranch container....  So, I found a recipe and tweaked it to fit my taste and now we don't have to worry any MSG or preservatives in our veggies!  {This is not hard and it costs less than store bought bottles of dressing not to mention you can do more with it ~ like season meats and potatoes!!}
   • Italian 
   • Ranch
6. Bread ~ I've been praying for a wheat grinder for several years now, and God answered that prayer!  The wonderful ladies at our church gave me a Kitchen Mill for my birthday this year and now I have a new goal - make all the breads and goodies for my family!  I'm very excited about this new adventure and I plan on sharing lots of my favorite recipes and even some failures with you!
7. Cream of Chicken Soup ~ Once again, if you read ingredients you will find MSG and added preservatives in creamed soups.  It gets very frustrating, but when I tried making my own, I discovered that it really wasn't very hard at all.  And, it freezes nicely too!!  Like me,I think you'll find that eating naturally isn't that hard when you change little things at a time. 
8. Jam ~ These are so much fun to make with your kids!  Picking berries and fruits and then making jams is the highlights of our summers!  We love to mix fruits and come up with our own favorite flavors.  This summer we mixed black berries and blue berries - try writing that on the top of a canning lid!!  ;)  We also made strawberry, peach and we're planning on making apple jam/butter here in the next few weeks.  One of my favorite things about making jam myself is that it doesn't have any high fructose corn syrup as the store brands do, and it costs half as much!! 
9. Pickles ~ We love to make our own pickles too!  They are soo good for you and make great snacks!  We make spicy ones, Bread & Butter, Lime and Cinnamon pickles.  Can't have too many.  If you get tired of one kind you can always try another for a while!  Stay tuned to Hidden Treasures for a few recipes and tutorials on how to make your own pickles at home!!
10. Apple Sauce ~ I used to buy the small, individual container of apple sauce for my children.  I thought it was so convenient and it was way cheaper than baby food when they were babies.  I was careful not to get the kind with added or fake sugars, but it was still very expensive!  I discovered that making it myself is very satisfying and much cheaper.  I love to know that I have 12 quarts of apple sauce in my basement - plenty to last the winter and NO SUGAR in any of it!  Healthy snacks = healthy kids!!  I'll post an Apple Sauce Tutorial as soon as I can too!  {My kids love the fall...}
11. Sauerkraut~ this is a first for me, but I'm very excited about it.  I love sour kraut, even though I may be the minority around here, I plan on making myself a few pints anyway!!  Now my favorite husband won't have to fuss about my spending all the grocery money on things "no one in the world" likes!!  :D
12.  Paper Towels ~ I hate to spend all of my grocery budget on things like toilet paper and garbage bags, so I try to cut as much of that out as I can by cutting up old towels to use as paper towels.  I can always wash them and use them again - no running back out to the stores to buy more every week!! 

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