WE MADE TOOTHPASTE :)

From L to R: Homemade toothpaste in a jar; baking soda; 100% natural coconut oil in a jar; measuring spoons; and spearmint essential oil.

Well, we finally did it! We made our own toothpaste this evening. I'm super excited to see how this goes. We are going to start using it tonight, so I'll post about the brushing experience in a few weeks.

A couple of things to consider...

• RECIPE: I used Trash is for Tossers recipe by Lauren Singer. She does a great job of explaining how to make your own toothpaste in this video. It only takes three ingredients - baking soda, coconut oil, and essential oil - and no more than a few minutes to make! 
• Another recipe that I haven't tried, but looks just as easy and I'm sure is just as good, can be found on Bea Johnson's Zero Waste Home blog.
• Alternatively, you could just use baking soda and water!
• YOUR HEALTH: Here is a good overview of why baking soda is a safe alternative to traditional toothpaste for brushing teeth.
• THE PLANET: Toothpaste comes in 2-3 layers of unnecessary packaging that isn't reusable and obviously creates a lot of waste. Even the toothpaste at health stores like MOM's or Whole Foods comes in at least 2 layers of packaging. 
• On the other hand, you can purchase both baking soda and coconut oil in bulk. Most baking soda comes in paper containers, and both coconut oil and essential oil can be found in glass containers. Furthermore, all of these ingredients can be re-purposed for other uses, and an empty coconut jar can be reused to store your next batch of toothpaste!
• YOUR WALLET: I first have to see how long this first batch of toothpaste is going to last us to determine the exact cost savings. In the meantime, here are some numbers to consider:
• Toothpaste prices can range anywhere from $3 to $7 on average for a standard 7.8 oz size. If you're like us and you brush your teeth at least 2x/per day and sometimes more, then a standard tube of toothpaste for two people will last about a month. Thus, the total cost of toothpaste per year comes out to anywhere from $36 to $84. 
• A typical price for 1lb of baking soda is about $1. This makes for approx. 32 tablespoons of toothpaste!
• Coconut oil prices vary, but you can easily find a 16oz jar for under $9.
• We bought .5 fl oz of essential oil for $5.49. 

Happy DIY toothpaste making! 
Modern Akhmatova

FUN DIY EXPERIMENT: haircuts

Source

As noted in previous posts, my significant other (SO) and I review our finances (savings and spending breakdown) on a monthly basis. The two main tools we use to track all of this information and make projections into the future are Mint and Google spreadsheets. We discuss many different things during these monthly financial reviews, including ideas for how to save even more. One such idea that came up during our recent annual review is haircuts. 

I have been cutting my own hair for over 5 years now and my SO wanted me to start cutting his hair so that we could save the $100 or so a year that he spends on haircuts and use that money instead toward experiencing things together. As I mentioned before, we don't believe in being cheap, we believe in using our money toward experiences that fulfill us. Furthermore, being creative about how we save our money has the added benefit of having fun together and the thrill of DIY-ness that comes from experimenting with things like this. 

So on Wednesday of last week we decided to finally try it. I found a great video on YouTube on how to cut hair similar to his, watched it twice, took notes and went for it! We didn't really have any appropriate hair cutting tools that are used in the video, but we decided to do it anyway. I used our regular scissors, a simple hair comb, and a tarp to collect the cut hair. When his hair got too dry he'd just dump it under the sink :). 

At first, I was really concerned and unsure of whether I was doing a good job, but I took my time and the longer I did it the more comfortable and fun it became. The one thing that became obvious pretty quickly was that the scissors we had were NOT meant for cutting hair! But that didn't stop us. I managed to cut off about 2 or so inches all around, and in the end, after about 30 minutes, SO had a pretty descent haircut. For all intents and purposes this DIY haircut experiment was a success. 

We'll try to do this again in two months and see how it goes. For now we'll enjoy the fact that his hair looks decent, we saved some money, had fun in the process, and learned something new!

Happy DIY experimenting!

Modern Akhmatova