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Lowering food bill; healthy frugal foods
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I am not sure if I should start a new topic, but I want to discuss more about household products like cleaners and paper products. We use wash cloths instead of paper towels most of the time. But other products we use are paper plates, baby wipes, and swiffer dusters. It just seems like throwing too much money away. If you use old rags for dusting, what do you use on it? How well does it work dry? I do not want to use chemicals for dusting.
I do not buy cleaners! We don’t use paper towels. We use wash cloths and cloth baby wipes. We don’t not use family cloth because it seriously grosses my husband out.
I clean with vinegar and water. I use a steam mop on the tile (we have no carpet the whole 1200 sq ft is tile in out house) I very very rawly use bleach. I don’t buy bleach wipes (but just did to clean up pin worms junk)
I make laundry detergent. I dump a box of borax, a box of washig soda, a tub of oxy clean and 2 bars of fels naptha (grated) in a bucket. And use 2-3T a load. It doesn’t work great in cloth diapers. But as a testimony my dog used to eat my underware even clean ones! And since using homemade detergent he doesn’t. It makes me wonder how clean that fancy expensive orange bottle was getting them.
I don’t buy cleaners either.
Hydrogen peroxide: bleach for whites, produce wash mixed w/ water, and a good disinfectant.
1/3 cup Dr. Bronner’s + 25 drops tea tree oil + water = my all-purpose cleaner. I use this on counters, sinks, tubs, showers, the kitchen table, everywhere.
Vinegar + water + 2 tbs rubbing alcohol = glass and faucet cleaner
I dust furniture with damp cloths. I mop w/ Dr. Bronner’s mixed w/ hot water. We have wood and concrete floors mostly. When it’s time to clean carpets, I use Dr. Bronner’s w/ water and lemon essential oil. Works on stains so well!
I used to make my own laundry soap, but now use Charlie’s Soap. I feel like it works better than homemade, although it is more expensive. We rarely use paper towels or paper plates. We use cloth napkins most of the time for meals. We do buy baby wipes still, and family cloth kinda grosses me out, not to mention dh! I don’t use swiffer products at all. I tried them and they were a waste of money for us. I always had to change the pad out before I was even halfway through a small bathroom! We have a small upright vacuum for our hard floors, and kids have to vacuum all hard floors twice a week. I use a wring mop for mopping. Swiffers, in my opinion, are worthless and expensive. Sorry!
Another money saver for me is that I quit buying feminine products four years ago. I only use a DivaCup/Moon Cup now. I’m on my third one. You don’t have to replace them once a year, but I do, just to be sure. It costs less than $30/year–way less than what I spent on nasty, bleached tampons and panty liners. It’s so much cleaner, no smell, and makes my time of the month way more bearable. Seriously, the DivaCup was a game-changer for me!
Thank you. I use vinegar and water 1/2 mixed for produce. I use it as a general cleaner too for wiping tables and counters. Is hydrogen peroxide supposed to work better on produce? How much do you dilute with water? What kind of Dr. Bronner do you use and how is it better than vinegar and water?
As for swiffer, I am specifically referring to their feather type furniture dusters. Dusting is a challenge for me and I do not like the chemical sprays for dusting. If I use rags, should I use dry? If it is damp, won’t water hurt the furniture and electronics? What do you do with the rags when done? Handwash them? I do not think it would be cheaper if you had to run a small load of laundry just for dust rags, especially with hot water.
I do use dr bronners too! I don’t think the scent matters just what ever you prefer. I like peppermint around Christmas and almond or lavendar the rest of the year. Some times I add a little to the steam mop just. So the house smells clean too!
If I add something to white laundry I use peroxide. It is amazing. I had homebirths and my first was not a water birth and my midwife washed the sheets with peroxide and I swear they were cleaner after delivering a baby on them than before!
I don’t do much dusting (hiding head in shame) but I have seen tutorials on Pinterest for fleece things that slide into the swifter instead of buying the swifter products.
Famiy cloth is cloth toilet paper. You would just have a pail much like you would for cloth diapers to put used wipes in, and wash them in the washing machine
I have friends who do it. You save a lot of money. But between laundry and cloth diaper I don’t need to add anything else to be washed in my house!
Haha, that last bit made me laugh!
I really love Norwex cleaning products! They work amazingly well (their laundry detergent is excellent with cloth diapers as well!), are environmentally friendly and a lot of it is just adding water to their wipes, so non-consumable. They’re a home party sales thing, but I just throw a party every summer or two when they have extra specials for hosts and for the cost of a pot of tea and ingredients to make a baked good I have my cleaning supplies for the next year or two. The only product of theirs that I don’t like is their dishwasher detergent. I’ve tried every recipe for homemade too, and there’s nothing I’ve been happy with. I buy Ecover’s detergent from either Amazon or Vitacost in bulk. That’s the only purchase I make, and it costs me about $3 a month.
Hope that helps some,
Rachel
I don’t care how much savings are possible, family cloth is really gross. I’d start selling things before I’d ever go that route!
I use dry and/or damp microfiber cloths for dusting and then simply rinse and wash. Works great. Our house is mostly wood floors, we have a flat mop with terry covers. I mix vinegar/water in mop bucket and throw a whole bunch of covers in. I wring each out until damp, but not drippy and use til it’s dirty. When dirty, I use a new cover. Dirty water NEVER touches the floor. I simply wash and dry the covers and they last for years. This is also the fastest way to mop IMO.
The diva cup has been a life changer for me, too, in addition to saving money.
We use cloth napkins and only occ. paper plates. I even bought metal reusable straws and we LOVE these. I liked the glass ones, but knew we’d break them.
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