Saving More Money wtih Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Like I mentioned at the end of my last post, Justin and I have been looking into other ways to save money by making our own stuff, or by simply doing things the old-fashioned way (hello cloth diapers!). A few days ago we ran out of our Clorox Green Works Cleaning Wipes, and let me tell you, we use those things for everything! Instead of going to the store and getting another container for $3, which will generally last us 2-4 weeks, I decided to make some homemade all-purpose cleaner.

It's really easy to make...it's just equal parts water and white vinegar. And since you can buy giant bottles of discount vinegar I spent less than $1 on 4 cups worth of cleaner and have plenty left over for when I run out. Now, instead of using Clorox Wipes, I just grab an old wash rag, spray some vinegar solution on it, and go to town. It works really well to break down grease and it's also a disinfectant. The only downside is that it smells like vinegar when you're done (not cool), but it goes away after awhile. If it weren't so dad-gum hot outside I'd open a window, but I don't want to waste my precious AC!

So far I've had a good experience with it. I've been able to get some tough grease off of our stove that I'm sure has been there since before we moved in and it made cleaning around the bathroom faucets super easy. It also makes me want to clean more! There's a sense of gratification that comes with successfully cleaning the kitchen counters with something I made myself. If only this translated to some of our other chores...

Speaking of which, here's an update on our recently-implemented chore chart: Just as I predicted, Justin was a little hesitant to use it at first, but he's come around (yay!). We haven't worked out a perfect system yet, but the longer we use it, the more on top of things we become. I'm sure Levi's arrival will throw us off for a while, but I'm glad we already have a (somewhat) working system in place to fall back on when we're ready to start operating with routines again.

Saving Money with Homemade Liquid Handsoap

Part of becoming a new mom, at least in my situation, is learning how to be even more frugal than we have been throughout our marriage. I would say that Justin and I have been operating at a nearly professional level of money saving for our entire marriage, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes because, quite frankly, why wouldn't you? We don't have cable, we rarely go out to eat, we keep our thermostat at warmer or cooler than average temperatures depending on the time of year, and I plan our weekly menu with coupons and cheaper food items in mind.

With all of this already in practice, it would seem that we were on the right track to be able to afford this baby, but if there's one thing you learn during pregnancy, it's that babies are EXPENSIVE! We've already been able to cut some of the heavier costs by using cloth diapers and wipes instead of disposables items, as well as by planning to breastfeed (assuming all goes well in that department), but I've been feeling like there's more that we can do. Also, I think going all cloth in the diaper department has put me on an all-natural kick.

That being said, we were running low on liquid hand soap in the bathroom late last week, so I suggested to Justin that we make our own instead of continuing to buy refills or new pumps. Being the awesome and like-minded guy that he is, he got just as excited as I was and told me to go for it. I'm so glad we did! After doing some research, I got my recipe from this blog. I won't repeat the recipe here, so feel free to go there if you are interested.

For our soap, I used Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in Almond. It's a fair trade, organic product made with essential and vegetable-based oils, so you know its good for you, the environment, and social justice (win win win!). I spent about $8.50 total on the soap at the Vitamin Shoppe here in town (they're cheaper at the store than on the website above), and then about $.84 on a gallon of distilled water from Walmart. So, for about $9 I made A BUNCH of soap. After I finished with everything I filled 2 liquid hand soap dispensers and two half-gallon glass jugs (I'm guessing...they may be bigger) that I already had around the house. I'm guessing I won't have to make more soap for probably a year, but we'll see.

As far as the soap itself, it seemed pretty snotty and kind of gross when I was stirring it and later when I poured it into the containers, but when you get it out of the dispenser it doesn't feel any different from store-bought soap. It also works really well and rinses easily, leaving your hands feeling clean without feeling dried out. Justin especially loves it and refuses to help me finish off the rest of the store-bought soap we have in the kitchen and bathroom. Haha!

Overall, it feels good to be able to save money in this way and, while hand soap is not a major expense, anything helps, especially when there's a kiddo in the mix. This has also convinced Justin and me to try other homemade items to help save money in other ways. So far, on the non-baby front, this is all we've pursued, but we will also be making our own all-purpose cleaner soon (maybe tomorrow?) to replace our Clorox Wipes, and are researching homemade laundry detergent, though we're a little hesitant to do that (what if we do it wrong and ruin our clothes?). Finally, we'd also eventually like to go from paper towels to cloth napkins (and I can embroider them to make them more fun!).