Money saving Tips for home

[tymejumper]

Hey, Zerbie had a great idea with her thread about buget meals. I think that I will springboard off of her thread and start one on money saving tips. Anyone who has one for groceries or toiletaries or whatever, this is where to post it.

Here are some from me:

I ALWAYS make a list of groceries and stick to it! How? I start by shopping the paremeter if the store. This is where you will find fresh fruit and veggies, and meats. Start going down the aisles, you start getting into convienence foods.


I don't buy glass cleaner. I use Amonia, or vinegar and amonia mix, to clean mirrors and glass with. To get a great shine, use newspaper. There is something in the ink that makes glass very shiny, and you can save on paper towels this way.

I cook breakfast for dinner one time a week, not only is it nutricious and easy, but cheaper also. Eggs, are a cheap from of protein, you can make omletes, or put them in pancakes or french toast. (I get white bread from the bread store to make my french toast) and also fruit that is in season is way cheaper(which is grapefruit now). My kids love it because it seems like a treat to get a big breakfast for dinner.

Did you know that you can clean your tub with vinegar? Just plug it, and wipe it down with vinegar. Let it sit for awhile and use a bit of elbow grease. It gets the soapscum ring off. Also, put it in a sprayer and spary your shower walls with it to cut the soap scum.

Speaking of vinegar, that is the BESTthing to clean wood floors with. You don't have to buy pricey floor cleaner for your wood floors. The smell disapates with drying.

Get music and movies from the library, they are free here. You also get to keep them longer than over night.

[Jennifer5]

Speaking of vinegar, that is the BESTthing to clean wood floors with. You don't have to buy pricey floor cleaner for your wood floors. The smell disapates with drying.

Good tips... I just need to correct this one. Vinegar may seem like a good way to clean your hard wood floors, but in time it eats through your finish and in the long run will hurt you. If you use vinegar, use less than a cup and the rest of the mop bucket should be water (which should be even cheaper).

You learn interesting things when your mom runs an organic cleaning business.

This >>> http://www.bonakemi.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=3
is the BEST thing for hardwood floors as far as we can tell. I'm not sure if it's al natural, we use it at home and it won't damage your floors in the long run like most of the other products. It's not cheap though.

[Montanna]

I use vinegar and baking soda to clear out drains. Put the baking soda in then add vinegar. It foams and bubbles all the clogs out and smells good too.

[sjbouza]

Here are some links for making your own cleaning supplies (http://jlyne.com/homemade_cleaning_supplies.html).

You can simply google cleaning supply recipes (http://www.google.com/search?q=Recipes+for+Homemade+Cleaning+Supplies&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) and you will find tons of links to sites that have them. I do advise being careful on using some of them on things such as wood and carpets. Make sure you check for color fastness in a small inconspicuous area. Remember if it calls for anything that is an acid or abrasive for use on wood I would avoid it. Either of those products will take the finish off of wood rather quickly.

Also another good idea is get as much FREE STUFF as you can. Send in for those free tubes of toothpaste, soap, shampoo samples. Again you can just google FREE PRODUCT SAMPLES (http://www.google.com/search?q=free+product+samples&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) and see what pops up. MySavings.com (http://www.mysavings.com/free-product-samples-section/) is a great place to start. Most of the time you can get them without having to go through too much hassle.

Another idea is get those BOGO (buy-one-get-one) coupons online. Coupons are a great way to save. If you can get the BOGO offers then you will save a lot. What I do is print them off then photocopy a couple of them. Take it into the store, use one coupon, go back again and use another, etc. If you can get those BOGO coupons and it is something that you use frequently, why not stock up while you can save!

Also, watch the stores for BOGO offers. Meijer store frequently offer buy-one-get-two free on Dynamo Liquid Detergent. These are 65 load bottles and you can get them in either scented or no scent and dye. I have about 12 in my storage cabinet now. I spent about $55 on 4 bottles and got 8 bottles FREE that is a savings of $110! At 65 loads per bottle (12 x 65 = 780 loads) that works out to about .07 cents per load ($55 divided by 780 = .0705).

I am a HUGE believer that if you have the money stock up on items that you can get at a good price. You may not need 12 bottles of laundry detergent, but you WILL use them. The theory is that when you don't need to spend that $13 on detergent you can spend it on something else. Canned goods, basically anything that is shelf stable, you will REALLY USE IT and if it is a GOOD PRICE stock up on it as much as you can now. This will save and allow you to spend the money you would have used on something else.

By doing this I have actually been able to save a lot more money. I don't have to run to the store once a week and get this and that. I just get a few perishables and am outta there. I can now actually put some money away in the savings too.

One last point. You do need a place to store this. I have a back room that is not in use and is dedicated to my "extra supplies".

Learn to work the system so you can save as much as you can. Good luck and hope you save some money.

Peace,
Scott