Weird Science - Homemade Laundry Detergent

Last weekend's meeting with "Rapunzel" went well. Marlene's must have been visited by Merlin, because there seemed to be some... magic... in the air. I'll try to reconnect this weekend after the high school football game, and Saturday mid-day's NCAA matchup at Beltown Pub.

On the Financial Independence front, the cell phone is all sorted out - no iPhone 6 for THIS mustachian. One of the more interesting posts I found on the MrMoneyMustache.com website was the following recipe for making your own effective, yet non-allergenic laundry detergent.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to pick up:
1. Borax ($3.38 at Walmart –in the laundry aisle)
2. Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda–$3.24 at Walmart)
3. Fels-Naptha Soap Bar ($.97 at Walmart)
4. 5-gallon bucket with lid
5. OPTIONAL: Essential Oil Drops for fragrance (we did not add this, so I am not sure how much it costs)
Grand Total: $7.59 for 640 loads (180 loads in a top-loading machine). That’s a little more than 1 cent a load! And the savings are even greater the next time you make this because the only thing you’ll have to buy is the Fels-Naptha soap bar!
1. Grate the entire bar of the Fels-Naptha soap.
2. Put in a pot with 4 cups of hot water. Stir continuously over medium-low heat until all of the soap flakes have dissolved and melted (about 10 minutes). It should be slightly foamy with no “chunks” or flakes to be found.
3. Fill a 5-gallon bucket half-full of hot water.
4. Pour in the soap mixture. Add 1 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda and 1 cup Borax. Stir. My husband happened to have a paint stirrer that goes on his drill, so that helped. But if you don’t have one of these, just use the end of your mop (or something that can reach to the bottom of the 5-gallon bucket).
5. Fill the rest of the 5-gallon bucket with water until it is full. Stir again.
6. Cover and let it sit overnight.
7. When you open the top up the next day, it should have gelled and thickened. Stir again.
8. Use a funnel to pour the mixture in a used/clean laundry detergent container only HALF full. Fill the rest of the way with water and shake.
Once you’re ready to use the laundry soap, shake it in the container first. Then add:
-5/8 cups for a regular top-loading machine
-1/4 cup for a front-loading (HE) machine
I HIGHLY recommend getting a paint stirrer to put on your drill…trust me. I don’t even use an old detergent bottle, I just leave mine in the five gallon bucket and I have a quart sized rubbermaid bottle w/ my detergent at the wash. I have very sensitive skin, and therefore have to use a free and clear style laundry soap if I buy it, but this stuff doesn’t bother me a bit. Bonus points, it really gets clothes clean. It even gets my husband’s car clothes clean, and that’s saying a lot.

To predict the questions: 1) No, I haven't DONE this yet, but I'm planning to pick up the ingredients soon. 2) WHY would I WANT to do this? To quote Doc Brown, "It's a SCIENCE Experiment!" (Great Scott!) Seriously... Doctor Bronner's Magic Soap (peppermint) is some of the best laundry detergent I've ever used, and the recipe for the soap (above) sounds enough like a Dr. Bronner's soap that I want to try it. I'll have enough laundry soap to last for years. 3) You say you want to try some? Let's chat once I've tried it.

The rice cooker is on slow-cook mode with a new vegan 'Boston Baked Beans' (NOT the candied peanuts) recipe as a way to cook 2 pounds of the 25 pound bag of pinto beans. And I had no idea molasses is used in cooking boston baked beans.

Let down your noodle

On OKStupid, my old profile was viewed by someone who seemed like a mustachian - health conscious, debt free, DIY homeowner (Go "This Old House!"), and with a sense of humor. Her profile was told in a fairy tale style - mostly taken from the story of the girl who was locked in an ivory tower, and lowered her lengthy golden locks to access Prince Charming... and she also swims 20 daily laps in the 'moat', home schools her young one, and has BFF time with Cinderella, and the other fairytale gals.

Forsooth! I replied post haste, and talked about eating mostly vegan, mustachianism, and how I thought the distance was large, but the chance of meeting was great. I followed up with this P.S.: "It's good to find another person who believes in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures. ;-)

Evidently that worked - after a phone conversation, we're trying to work out a face-to-face in the coming days. More soon...

Freedom Friends = more free data!

Okay, I'm going to have to get a 2nd FreedomPop device and account for myself for in-the-car use (Google Maps, Wikipedia searches, etc. in those rare times when I'm between wifi at home and work). Why? Primarily because of our PITIFUL data consumption so far this month. In 1 week, my son and I have used a total of 5Mb - - - out of our 500Mb monthly allotment of FREE DATA! BUT... my son has 'our' device in his backpack at school 90% of the time, so it's unavailable for my personal use.

After calling Customer Care, and having them REMOVE the "Premium Service" that was so kindly added - for a monthly fee of $8/month, I could roll-over any unused FREE DATA balance to the next month. Not a bad deal... but that is *NOT* why I'm using FreedomPop. And while I was automatically enrolled in the 'Premium' service when signing up for FreedomPop service, I was forced to CALL IN to customer service to have the 'Premium' services removed. Did I mention you have to watch these 'free' things? Oh, they're "free", but you have to watch them. Log in at least once a month, etc...

But WAIT, there's MORE!!!
FreedomPop has a program called "Freedom Friends" where you can add 'friends' (who ALREADY use FreedomPop) to your 'friends list', and for each 'friend' added, you get an addition 10Mb-per-month of free data above-and-beyond the original free 500Mb! A quick web search found several places with lists of FreedomPop users who are ready and willing to become your 'friend', because... those users ALSO get an additional 10Mb per month! To date, our FreedomPop account has 1000Mb of free data... AND... I have a list of names I'm going to submit next month in case some of the current users stop using FreedomPop.

Where did I "find" these 'friends'? Two main sources: 1) SlickDeals.net, 2) a FaceBook page (that I'm NOT using, but others may choose to use it), 3) this forum post with 329+ friends listed.

YMMV - but from my perspective, SFSG!!

FreedomPop and Airvoice

Over the weekend, we received the FreedomPop wifi hotspot. In signing up for the service, they make it so you have to sign up for a 'premium' - an additional monthly 500Mb above the original 'free' 500Mb. It states it's on a trial basis, and that you have to call support to withdraw from the 'premium'. I'll be calling soon.

Meanwhile, my 3 phone numbers have all been ported to Airvoice, and that's going well. I'm down to $5.88 remaining in my original $10 allotment for Sept. Son1 and Son3 are both plugging away with their $10 plans. Son1 is upset - thinks he may have missed a job offer call while he was working at his current job. I told him to call them back, and ask.

On the dating front, went out on two (2x!) first-dates this weekend from the FIRE Weirdness profile.
The first seemed doomed to failure before it began...
Notable quote1: (on the phone BEFORE meeting)
"Oh, you sound taller on the phone."
Notable quote2: (upon meeting)
"You look just like your pictures!"
I don't know WHAT to do with the first quote. It was just strange. As for the second, I *SO* wanted to quip: "Am I supposed to look like someone else?"
Conversation that killed any future dating prospects:
Q: "So, you can see from my profile that I'm debt free, how about you? Do you have credit card debt?"
A: (rolling eyes, and entire body) "Oh, LOADS! I'm an artist"

Oh well... The second first-date was more promising - she looked GREAT - her pictures truly didn't do her justice. She looked like a cross between Debra Harry (Blondie) and Marilyn Monroe. Conversation went well, and we even moved from drinks to dinner. But she slowly detached, and when the check came, her $15 drinks (two of them) did not bode well as someone with a mustachian 'value' mindset. Hell, $30 is 3 weeks drinking budget for me! (but I took it out of the 'travel' budget)

Today... got a 'ping' from an attractive user on my OLD OKCupid account, and she seems like a great fit for the FIRE Weirdness profile, so I sent a nice message saying, "check out my other profile FIRE Weirdness as well, and let me know". Her profile made reference to her being locked in a castle tower, and wanting a prince to ride in, and carry her away. I sent a 2nd message saying... "P.S: it's good to find someone else who believes in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures." :-)

Airvoice Wireless - results 3

I've been with Airvoice since Friday, and after many calls and texts over the long Labor Day weekend, I have a $7.00 balance in my plan to last the rest of the month. Data costs are indeed 6.6¢/Megabyte, and so far I've used 0 Mb. Lots of talk minutes @ 4¢/minute, and several texts @ 2¢/text message.

I've renewed the $2.99/month Skype calling plan membership - I use Skype for most of the daily 'conference call' communications, and so far this seems like a great deal. It's amazing how easy it was to wean off cellular data once I realized I can save over $100/month by choosing a pay-as-you-go plan.

Back to School clothes shopping at Value Village set me back $42 for 14 pieces - 11 shirts, and 3 pairs of pants - including some new work "office-drone" outfits for me. Today's outfit cost $8.

Tonight, school supplies for Son3...

FIRE Weirdness

FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early Weirdness:

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.” ― Robert Fulghum, True Love

During the summer, I became a follower of the MrMoneyMustache blog. He's a Canadian who lives in Colorado, and 'retired' at age 30 to focus on doing the things HE wanted to do rather than chase the almighty dollar for the rest of his life. He blogged about his thought process, tips and tricks for saving and investing, and his philosophy to living life to enjoy LIFE NOW, letting his dollars be the workers, and earn returns in the stock market and investments, and not to hope for some magical retirement at age 60+ by which age he'd be too tired and worn out to enjoy his leisure time.

In short, it sounded right up my alley.

So now I'm focusing on becoming FI again (10 years after the dot-com bubble, and Microsoft stock meltdown took away my first 'stache).

I was reading on the Mustachian Forums, and found the "Single and Mustachian" section very interesting. I read some of the things people were saying there, copied the best thoughts people were having about their own struggle with on-line dating, and re-wrote some of those thoughts (along with some of my own) into a new separate dating profile which I called "FIRE_Weirdness". And here's the resulting new profile:

"Mustashian on my 2nd run at Financial Independence - goal: 3.5 years

I know I won't change who I am for another person, but part of love is the willingness to explore, and find the common ground we can romp through together, maybe even kicking some leaves around from time to time. We may value different things, but as long as we can collaborate on things we can agree on for 'mutual mischief', we'll probably be okay.

Thriftshop is more than a Macklemore song - it's a wardrobe, and decorating source. And Craigslist is my 'storage unit'. Travel means wanting to collect the National Parks, whether that's from a tent (air mattress - no cold hard ground for this guy) or old VW bus. Shoestring budget when possible, but will pay for value. $500 monthly travel/entertainment budget - let's go places! Rice & beans are my 'go to' - the disastrous environmental impact of factory meat farming, and the disastrous health effects of animal fat on my heart arteries has made me a 'mostly vegan' for the past few years... never felt healthier.

Deal breakers: addiction (smoking, alcohol, gambling, drugs), jesus freaks, and "angry" women.

There is no algorithm for love. If there is, it's something we write for ourselves - not the robots at OKC or PlentyOfFish, or Match, Tinder, etc.

Well adjusted weirdo looking for same - for someone whose weirdness is compatible / complementary with my weirdness, and we can combine those weirdnesses into a whole new level of weirdness, and call it love.

I've changed over time. We all change over time. Sometimes a lot. You will change too. It's more important to find someone I can change, take chances, dance lessons, etc, and GROW WITH than someone who is an exact match to the person I am today. It took me a couple years (ok, more than a couple) to get to where I am today, and I'm not finished yet.

Wanna come along for the ride, and see & do new stuff along the way?"

If there are *any* responses, I'm sure they'll be from people who have their financial act together, and have a similar mindset relative to savings and early retirement (that's the hope anyway). Not much to say so far... the first email response was a scam/phishing attempt... I mean REALLY... does a 50+ year old guy think a 25 year old female with "pictures on another site" is a potential match? If she's not within ~10 years of my age, forget it. I have a son who'll be 25 before I know it.