Coupons, daily deals, bartering… these are all popular ways
to save a buck. Many have also taken to making their own household cleaning
products in order to keep costs down. Rather than spending hours on Google
searches or Pinterest trending topics, we’ve put a variety of effective methods
for home-made cleaners and remedies all in one place. Many of these have
actually been tried by our staff, so we know they’re legit.
Laundry Day
Let’s compare store-bought laundry detergent to a home-made
batch. We’ll go the cheaper route and compare to one gallon of Purex, which
costs approximately $8. Utilizing this recipe
for liquid laundry soap (which is usable in front loading washers), the
cost breaks down to approximately $0.38 per gallon. The recipe makes five
gallons and lasts for about a year for a family of four. So that’s $40 a year
for the store product versus $1.90 a year for the homemade product. A no
brainer in our book!
And let’s not forget fabric softener. Now, the easiest fix
here is simply to put vinegar in the dispenser. This method limits static, but
doesn’t really soften the clothes. If you’re looking for that soft touch too,
without the expense, then utilize this fabric
softener recipe. After experimentation with several scents, we recommend
Suave’s everlasting sunshine conditioner.
While the scent of the vinegar and conditioner does not transfer to the clothes
once dry, it can be strong out of the bottle and these two scents complement
each other quite well.
As far as price comparison goes, a 75 ounce bottle of
Snuggle fabric softener runs approximately $6 and it costs about $1.25 for 88
ounces with the home-made version, which equates to 99 cents for 75 ounces (as
opposed to $6).
Tidying Up the Place
As a starting point, our research showed that this dishwasher
detergent recipe didn’t save any money when compared to the off-brand at
the store and was actually more difficult to use, and proved less effective.
Additionally, homemade dish soap didn’t work very well or save much money.
However, home-made disinfecting wipes are certainly the way
to go! With the guidance from this home-made
wipes method, we used an old disinfecting wipes container and it works
great! Store-bought wipes breakdown in cost as follows:
- Redi-Wipes (off brand at Wal-Mart): $3 for 75 ct = $0.04 per wipe
- Lysol: $4.50 for 80 ct = $0.056 per wipe
- Clorox: $4.63 for 75 ct = $0.062 per wipe
We’ve found that the distilled water the recipe suggests is
not necessary. By using the tea tree oil, our wipes have never molded and it
usually takes a month or more to go through a container of them. Bownty paper
towels are about $6 for a package of eight, so that’s approximately $0.38 per
use when cut in half. While tea tree oil can be expensive to purchase outright,
it comes out to about $0.20 per pack of wipes. And we used the Fabuloso Lavender
Scent, a generic Pine-Sol for about $3 for 56 ounces; with half a cup used it
comes to $0.21 per set of wipes. With 52 sheets per roll of paper
towels, that comes to $0.015 per wipe; or $1.14 for 75 as opposed to $3 for 75
count in the generic brand. And they work and smell great!
Additionally, Eartheasy provides recommendations for several homemade cleaning solutions and combinations that
will give you quality cleaning results, save money and are all eco-friendly.
You might also find use for these homemade options tried and tested by a member
of our staff, and guaranteed to continue to save you money:
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