Our Hobbies, Brought to you by Coupons, and Hobby Lobby

Emily and I both have hobbies believe it or not. I think that Hobby Lobby is a great place to find unique things that you can't find elsewhere, even though a lot of it is overpriced. That is where the Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon comes in handy. We saved about $15 dollars because of that coupon today, and it is something that they do on a weekly basis. Every week they offer the same coupon.

We made 2 separate transactions since you can only use it on one item per person per transaction per day. I have the Hobby Lobby app on my iPhone, so I sent Emily the coupon.

Emily bought a fabric that she will be using on her project, which I'm sure she would love to tell you about in the next few days as she works on it. I'm not going to ruin her fun! But I get the fun of saying that she saved $7 by using her coupon!

I finally bought the soap base I wanted, and a basic mold. We didn't feel like going to Wal-Mart to get the other ingredients for the laundry detergent, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. The soap base was $20, and I saved $8 by using the 40% off coupon. I LOVE SAVING MONEY!

After saving money so easily, I want to stand by the check out and make sure that everyone is using this coupon, it's just silly if you don't!

Making a Trip to Hobby Lobby Tonight!

Tonight Emily and I are making a trip to Hobby Lobby to get started on my soap making, and laundry soap making aspirations.

There are a few different routes that I could go with soap making.

1. Actually make the soap myself from scratch(which can be dangerous from what I have read).
2. Buy a soap base(soap that is already made, unscented and cloudy white), melt it to scent it and color it, then pour into whatever soap mold I want to solidify.

I am planning on option number two. The reason for this is that you can get a 5 lb package from Hobby lobby for $20. They also have a 40% off coupon every week, which will bring the cost of 5 lbs of soap down to $12. A regular bar of soap that you would buy from a store is between 3oz and 5oz(I'm talking about Dial or Irish Spring). That means that you get the equivalent of 16-26 bars of soap for $12, plus you can scent and color the soap yourself.

Come to find out, you can use spices like cinnamon and rosemary to scent and color the soap, so I think I will try that out before I try essential oils. I have also read that you can use powdered orange peel too! That means Emily will need to put up with me saving my orange peels and putting them in the dehydrator!

The other reason for going with the soap base is that I can use it in laundry detergent. The appeal there is that it is unscented, and relatively cheap. All you need to do is finely grate the soap, mix it with 20 Mule Team Borax, and Church and Dwight Washing Soda. Then when you do a load of laundry, you only need to use 1-2 tbsp per load.

One pound of soap, one box of Borax, and one box of Washing Soda should supposedly last a year. I'll be sure to make a post about the process of mixing and using the detergent, as well as the actual cost of making the detergent.

I read an article about a cancer causing agent that is in my favorite laundry detergent, and that motivated me to get this done tonight.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-tide-cancer-chemical,0,2213594.story