Coffee grounds and Baking Soda

Typically, at least of the moms I know, coffee is a moms best friend! Every morning there is a mad rush of mini vans, not heading to school, heading to starbucks first, then to school dropping off the kids. Sure starbucks isn't just popular among mothers, but the workaholics, the over worked, ... and pretty much everyone else ;) but all those coffee grounds... what is being done with it? Those old coffee grounds have a suprisingly wide veriaty of usefulness. (And so does baking soda, but I will get to that in a second) if you go to starbucks for your coffee, they have a program called coffee grounds for gardens (or something to that nature) but if you brew your energy at home here are a few uses for those.

1) Dry it out on a cookie sheet and it can be used in place of banking soda to deoderize your bathrooom/fridge/closet etc. So you know those baking soda boxes you buy to deoderize various things, well dried coffee grounds work the same and just as well.

2) Use it in your garden. Just as the starbucks program suggests, its great for your soil. I use it in my house plants, justset it right on top. (You can also mix it in if you want) this stuff is really high in vitamins and nutrients essential for healthy plants.

3) If you have some scratches on your wood furniture, use the old coffee grounds by putting it in a few tablespoons of hot water, then use a QTip, dip it into the coffee ground/water and rub in into the scratch then wipe off. If its not dark enough, do it again. (Apparently you can also use old strong brewed coffee to stain your wood instead of buying wood stain)

Now onto Baking Soda!
I've got to say, baking soda is a good friend of mine! I use it very frequently for just about everything. What A nice mineral that God put in the earth for us! Here are two things I use it for the most
Febreze: in a spray bottle put a table spoon of liquid fabric softener and a tablespoon of baking soda, add hot water, until full, shake it up... there you go. Spray on fabrics and couches. Not so much for the air or bathroom. But works great on anything cloth.

cleaner: a couple TBS of baking soda half a cup of vinagar, a tablespoon or few of water, shake (yes it will fizz, add the vinager slowly) and your cleaner will work great on almost anything!

Now you have it. Just another solution to saving some cash!