DIY flax seed hair gel

I have to share this because this hair gel is BY FAR the best hair I have ever tried. I didn't know I could get so excited about hair gel but this stuff is too good not to share. It's super easy to make. Only 2 ingredients, cheap, and it doesn't have all the junk that harms your hair. I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill flax seed at Big Lots for $2.08.You don't use alot of flaxseed so this will last a while.

You have to keep it in your fridge and it will last approximately 10-12 days in your fridge.

Ok, so enough about how great this product is. Don't take my word for it, just make it.

Ingredients
2 cups water
1/4 cup flax seed preferably the brown

Directions:
1.) Bring water to boil. Add flax seed. Let boil until it begins to thicken and looks foamy, about 7-10 mins. Stirring regularly.

2.) Strain flaxseed and stir the flaxseed to seperate the gel from the flax seed.

3.) Place in jar. I use a reused salsa jar. Store in fridge.

I'm not always the best with giving instructions so check out this YouTube video. 

Going Green while putting more green in your pocket

After I received our last electric bill which was , I decided to go on a quest to save green and here is a list to cut your electric bill. Our electric bill was $220 **gasp**. For our family, this is the highest bill we have ever received. Everything in our home is electric. Many of our appliances are new and energy efficient such as the front loader washer & dryer, fridge, and water heater. The central heat and air is new as of a little over a year ago. For many of Texans, this can be a cheaper electric bill but for me, this will not do so here's my list.

1.) Check your rates on your electric bill. When we bought our first home a little over a year ago, we signed a contract with TXU which locked us into a rate for the year. Our rates are variable as soon as the contract ended. I just thought we were using more energy which is partly true but most of the increase is from the variable rate. The bill due this month is at a rate of 11.5. TXU contract rate for a full year is 10.3, Bounce is 9.3, Entrust 9.1, Reliant 9.8, and StarTex is 8.9. Most people's obvious choice would be to automatically go with StarTex Power but from previous experience, me and my husband do not like StarTex and have been treated very well by TXU. When we first turned power on with StarTex, we signed a 3 month agreement with a rate of 7.3. After 3 months, our contract had ended and we were in a variable rate that shot up to 15! Star Tex also seem to tack on alot of extra fees which seemed to make the bill nearly as high as a higher rate. Also, Star Tex does not have a very long grace period for your payment. If I was a day late, they were sending out a disconnect notice for the next week. For me, this does not fly. We are a one income family and we only get 2 paychecks in a month so some bills may have to be paid 1 week late.

2.) Change your light bulbs to the more efficient ones.  Last year, we went through and replaced all the old bulbs with Wal-Mart off brand CFL bulbs. We still have not had to replace the bulbs yet. And they pull less juice than regular old bulbs.

3.) Replace old appliances with new energy star appliances. This may not be something you can do right away but if you could save up the money, this will pay off. Your refrigerator, water heater, heating and cooling appliances run the most and pull the most juice. Check out this link to see exactly what uses less or more energy http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/question272.htm. Even though our water heater is new and energy star, me and my husband want to buy a tankless water heater. These run about $1,000 the last time we checked prices and your get a federal tax credit of $1,500. If you can front the money, you basically make and extra $500 plus whatever their saves on your electric bill. If your not familiar with a tankless water heater, I'll cover the key points. Unlike a tank water heater, a tankless does not constantly keep your water warm until you get ready to use it. So how does it work? Basically it has heating coils and when you turn your water on, your water runs threw the water heater that heats up the water almost instantly. A key benefit is your never run out of hot water and you don't pay for the water heater to be constantly heating your water for the next time you need it.

4.) Turn off your lights! We are the worlds worst about having every light on the house on and all be gathered in the living room. When we remember, we go turn lights off but most of the time this does not happen so we are looking into some sensor lights for the bathrooms and bedrooms. You can buy them at Wal-Mart for $15.

5.) Wash your clothes in cold water. From a web site I read, "most clothes do not need to be washed in hot water and be efficiently cleaned in cold." I am going to try this. It said for medium soiled clothes wash in warm and only the really heavily soiled clothes need to use hot.

6.) Don't use the dryer on the dishwasher.  If your like me, I run my dishwasher every day and sometimes 2x a day. Just cutting out the drying time for the dishwasher should make a difference.

7.) Turn off and unplug electronics that are not in use. This one is a hard one for me. Alot of our plugs are behind furniture making it hard to unplug them every time they are not in use. So I am looking into one of these. http://www.belkin.com/conserve/switchav/  or some of these www.belkin.com/conserve/switchav/

8.) Turn fans clockwise in the winter(on low) and counterclockwise in the summer. Here is a link for the theory on this. http://housewares.about.com/od/coolingheating/f/ceilfanrotation.htm I did this last night. Turned all the fans clockwise on low and it made a big difference. There was spots in the house that felt drafty and I even turned the heater down a degree and it seemed warmer.

OK so that is my list for now. I am still researching ways to save and have probably have left a few ways to save out of my list so I will probably be adding to this later. 

I love Mrs. Meyers

If you have never used the Mrs. meyers brand, it is a better alternative to the normal cleaning solutions and laundry detergent. I love the smell of the basil. Yes, I said Basil but it smells better than you would think.

I have a HE washer and dryer and this stuff works wonders. My favorite part about the laundry detergent is it doesn't leave behind a residue. I used to be a big fan of Tide but when I switched to Mrs. Meyers, I will never go back to any of the brands like Tide, Gain, etc.  I ran out of the Mrs. Meyers one time and had to purchase regular old Tide since the health store was closed. My husband was begging me to chunk the Tide and use the Mrs. Meyers. I was tempted to but I didn't want to waste the money.

The Baby laundry detergent smells really good as well. Although the laundry detergent looks very small, it is concentrated so you get about 64 loads out of the bottle. This lasts me for a good while. It's about $11 at Vitaglo, and is about $17 at my local health store. Vitaglo is the cheapest place I have found on Mrs. Meyers and many other health conscious products. The shipping is high unless you order $50 worth of stuff and then the shipping is free. Since I always want the cheapest price, I try to order at least $50 worth of stuff which is easy for me since they carry vitamins and other products I love. The site is set up a little weird so if it isn't your cup of tea, Amazon and Vitacost are more user friendly. 

I also love the Mrs. Meyers all purpose cleaner. I buy the solution you mix yourself. When I say mix yourself, all I mean is add water. It is 4-1 solution. So I have some spray bottles that I mix the water and solution so I can spritz my counters, bathrooms, and whatever else needs cleaned. The solution is  in a 32 oz bottle and lasts forever! I bought a bottle before I was pregnant and just ran out a few weeks ago. My youngest daughter is 3 months old now so that tells you how long this stuff lasts. It's ranges anywhere between 6.39-8 a bottle depending on where you purchase it.

A healthier choice to ciggarettes

I have been a smoker since 08 and smoked on and off since 06. In 09, I heard of the ecig which I researched it. I sucessfully quit smoking in 09 using the ecig. In 2011, I became pregnant and quit smoking altogether. Ashlynn was born via csection and had premature lungs so she was care flighted to Cooks hospital in Fort Worth where we stayed for very LONG 2 weeks. Me and my husband drove to Fort Worth the day after my csection while my oldest daughter, Allie, stayed with grandparents. Needless to say, the stress levels were out the roof and I did not pack my ecig since I had not used it during the whole pregnancy so we bought a pack of ciggarettes... We have been smoking since then and I am currently trying to switch back to the e cig. Yesterday, I only had 3 regular ciggs.

The e cig does not have all the toxic chemicals of a regular ciggarette. You can order liquid with or without nicotine but even with the nicotine, the e cig is still a healthier choice. The liquid comes in many different strengths and flavors.  Dekang liquid if my favorite liquid which can be ordered from litecigusa

I have tried out many ecigs and did alot of research on the ecig. The Joye is by far the best. My favorite is the Joye ego with the joye ego atomizer. The Joye 510 is great but the battery life kind of sucks. If your new to vaping, I would recommend buying a starter kit. It comes with everything you need to start vaping. You can buy the Joye 510 here http://www.litecigusa.net/joye_510_starter_kits_p/joye510kit.htm for 39.95. The Joye Ego is 54.05 at LiteCig http://www.litecigusa.net/Joyetech_EgO_s/177.htm. I have ordered many items from LiteCig and have always been pleased with them and many web sites can not beat their prices. But one downside is most of the Joye products online come in 3 colors; black, silver, and pink. I'm not a big fan of the pink color b/c it looks like breast cancer pink so when I need to order an atomizer or battery, I normally order from http://www.route66vapor.com/. They are slightly higher on some of their products (59.95 for the ego starter kit, the 510 is the same price as litecig) but have many colors; black, pink, silver, copper, blue, green, purple, red, titanium, and white.

If your serious about ordering the e cig, please do not waste your money on other brands. The Joye is on the cheapest ways to go and by far the best. Me and my husband almost gave up on vaping until we found the Joye. And please order a starter kit because you do need at least 2 whole cigs so you can charge one battery while using the other battery.

If your new to the ecig world check this site out http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/index.php/beginners-ecigarette-tutorial.html. Also check out http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ if you want to ask question or just browse. This is the site where I learned about the joye and have learned alot of information about the e cig.