Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

   The Junk Drawer might be the greatest or the worst drawer in your house. For me, it's the greatest. At least since I organized it. I know you're thinking why organize a junk drawer, it's suppose to be unorganized, chaotic, and crazy. I could never find what I needed that I knew was in that drawer. It wasn't until after I cut.my.finger! that I decided that drawer needed a good cleaning. Of course I went to my trusty Pinterest to see what I could find.   Here's what I found:  Take everything out of the drawer. Yes, everything. Leave only the dirt and dust. Vacuum out said dirt and dust. Use a wet cloth and disinfect the drawer (my vinegar mixture did the trick). Decide how you need to sort things. Pens/pencils, batteries, note pads, miscellaneous, etc. Save boxes such as cereal, rice, whatever (these types are easier to cut with regular scissors.) Cut the bottoms off of those boxes. Wrap boxes in pretty scrapbook paper… or wrapping paper… or anyt...

  Well, this wasn't fun! Definitely had a trial and error moment.   After researching several blogs on how to make these money-savers, I decided on the paper towel ones. Apparently I should have found the blog with pictures before attempting this. I followed the directions, so I thought.   Here's what went wrong and where I went wrong: Cut the paper towel roll the short way; not the long way. AKA cut the fat way, not the skinny way. Do not take the cardboard piece out until after the paper towels have soaked.   I wish I had taken a picture of the disaster. Sorry!   When I was ready to use a wipe, I opened the reused diaper wipes container to find a big pile of mush. Basically I wasted an entire roll of paper towels. Awesome.com   So I went back to the drawing board… or the other blogs, and found another recipe. This time I decided not to waste any more Bounty since the idea is to SAVE money and not waste it. I had my husband clean out his whit...

  Instead of adjusting our monthly budget plan like I should be, I'm procrastinating and blogging. I'm not ready for the automatic depression that is sure to come as I try to figure out where to subtract $80 a month from our already tight budget. Thanks, lawmakers, for tightening the EVER SO TIGHT ALREADY belt of the middle-working-class.   Anyway, since I've been staying home with my little man to save money on daycare costs as well as because he has been on 3 daycare waiting lists for 10 months now, I've had to go green, homemade, penny-pinched, etc. I've always been quite a bit frugal with my money but now that we are down to one income, I've had to get resourceful. I cannot take all the credit for some of these ideas as I've found them on the Internet. Who doesn't Google/Pinterest these days? These are all money-saving things that I have tried and still use to save money. No, I haven't figured out exactly how much you'll save, but use your i...

Vinegar is the new duct tape. You can use it anywhere for anything! I use vinegar to cook, clean the bathroom, disinfect, wipe down countertops, degunk the garbage disposal, etc. Not to mention, it is super cheap! Once you quit being a brand snob and train your nose/brain to think the vinegar smell is a disinfectant, it'll be one of the best money saving experiences of your life. I'll just paraphrase some things I've read about household cleaning products. Do not quote me. Google it for the "facts". Everything on the Internet is true, right? Ha! Household cleaners do not have to put what's in their products on the label, only the active ingredients and "other ingredients" which are not listed. So, who knows what those actually are. Don't get me wrong, there is always a bottle of knock-off Clorox under the sink because, let's face it, somethings just need to be Cloroxed occasionally. I actually just got that bottle out from under the s...