The past few months I have been very busy making more homemade things. So far I have been very succeful at it. I've also made cleaners, toothpaste, conditioner, hair detangler and my very own garden repelant. Since I wanted to start a garden in one shape or form I decided on getting a meyer lemon tree. My father-in-law has the same one and it smells and tastes amazing. It basically makes other lemons just look plain ordinary.
Then as a part of cutting my cost on household cleaning and hygiene products I made my own hand soap and laundry detergent. I got the recipe for the handsoap at http://familyoffarmers.blogspot.com/2011/11/liquid-hand-soap-diy.html. I like it cause you can choose any bar of soap you want and the end result is a gallon of liquid. Then for the laundry detergent I went to http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/02/make-it-homemade-liquid-laundry-soap-1.html. I shared my soap with family and still had a lot left over.
Then of course I couldn't forget my furry kids that I love so much too. I've made cat and dog treats. I would have to say that the dog treats were a complete success while the cat treats not so much. I've made two kind of dog treats, peanut butter and honey and the other pumpkin and parsley. Both were clear winners. :) I got the pumpkin ones http://simmertilldone.com/2009/10/07/retriever-retriever-pumpkin-eater/ and the peanut butter http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/pet-advice/brooklyn-dog-bites-dog-food-recipes-3. When it came to the cat treats I felt like they were to hard for my cats to break apart, but you can be the judge http://sewdarnthrifty.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-tattoos-home-made-cat-dog-treats.html. 
Finally, since sometimes everyday food items that we want or just need tend to get expensive I decided to make my own. Now if I only I had my own cows, chickens, pigs and goats and I would be set. :) Strawberry jam is so easy to make and so delicious. Now all you need is 1 1/3 cup fruit, 3 tsp. lemon juice, 1 1/2 tbsp. pectin(Found in most grocery stores.I got mine at Target in the baking isle.) and 1 2/3 sugar. I used the instructions that came off the pectin bottle. I also decided to make my own stock because one day I was watching the Barefoot Contessa and it just looked so much better and I could just imagine the smells that were coming off that normal stock doesn't give. :) So of course when I did mine I found her recipe and redid it http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stock-recipe/index.html. Yesturday I made my own pizza dough and it was amazing! I also thought well if I'm doing that then why not the sauce and cheese. For my first time making cheese it wasn't so bad, but I think I need more practice. My sauce on the other hand was awesome and since I didn't have regular tomatoes I just the fire roasted ones I had and my sauce had a little flair to it. Yum :) This is were I got my sauce http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-pizza-sauce/detail.aspx , cheese http://allrecipes.com/recipe/home-made-farmers-cheese/detail.aspx and pizza dough http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pizza-dough-i/detail.aspx. Hopefully in the future I'll be making my own recipes and sharing those as well. 
