Cheaper living ideas

Following a suggestion in the "average spend" thread, I'll start the ball rolling with some ideas for cheap alternatives to supermarket products. I'm sure there's heaps others can add.

1. Toilet spray/air freshener. Instead, buy a pack of matches and some tea lights - or a scented candle. I find a lighted candle is much better at... erm... absorbing toilet room smells than spray. My theory is that the flame burns off the methane. The tricky bit is remembering to blow it out afterwards (which is why tea lights are good as they are better designed not to burn the house down). And of course remember to keep the matches out of reach of little fingers.

2. Rince aid. Use that wonderful multi-purpose white vinegar in the rince aid compartment of the dishwasher instead.

Brush your teeth in Baking Soda. - dip brush in water or cider vinegar or food grade peroxide then in Baking soda and brush as usual.

Much cheaper than toothpaste.

I did some research and discovered that one of the best ways to prevent plaque build up was to brush with food grade Peroxide 3% and Baking Soda once a week. It also removes staining from tea and coffee.

I hadn't been to the dentist for 7 years and the dentist didn't even really need to clean my teeth.

OH needed repeated visits (6) for scaling and the dentist was concerned about gum disease. - OH will only use the commercial toothpastes.

Get together with a few friends and buy a 5 litre/kilo pack of Eco store dishwashing powder or liquid between you. even with freight costs this will save you money. If you wait for a special even better.

I bought a 1 kilo from supermarket on special (1/2 price) recently and walked into the wholesalers later that day to realise that even at 1/2 supermarket price it was still twice the price of the bulk pack at the wholesalers.

Friend of mine used to have a saucer in his loo and after the "act" you would burn a gum leaf on the saucer. No smell except the lovely gum and it had worked for the other. Probably not such a good idea with small children in the house!

Oh I'm glad someone has started this thread!

Seaside, I use white vinegar as rinse aid too. I also use it in place of fabric conditioner. If you like some fragrance a few drops of whatever essential oil you fancy does the trick.

My benchtop cleaner is a mix of methylated spirits, white vinegar, water and lavender essential oil mixed into a spray bottle.

I make my own dishwashing powder and laundry powder. I get good results from both and I know exactly what is going down into my septic tank. And its CHEAP!!

Dish washing powder
1 cup of borax
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid
30 drop of essential oil of your choice (citrus ones are good for grease cutting)

I have been using this for the last 5 months and am very pleased with the results. You don't need to add the essential oil if you don't like it, it's just for a pleasant smell really. All of these things are available at the supermarket but you can get larger volumes at a more economical price off TM or from Gilmours. Works out VERY CHEAP. White vinegar for rinse aid.

Laundry powder
12 cups of borax
8 cups baking soda
8 cups washing soda
8 cups grated bar soap (sunlight soap is best)
Use 1/8 cup per full load.

I have just started using this around a fortnight ago and made up a batch that was only a quarter of the volumes above so I could give it a good test but not be left with massive amounts of laundry powder I didn't like if it didn't work out. Luckily it has worked out really well and it's very cheap!

Surface cleaner is 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water which works on most things. To get soap scum off the shower I make a paste of baking soda and water or white vinegar if its really bad. To clean the toilet I use white vinegar and baking soda. Give it a good scrub and leave it for a few hours.

Commercial cleaning products are really expensive and I have saved a lot of money using these and I know what I'm using, there are no hidden ingredients or things I cannot pronounce the name of!!

On the tile floors I use a steam cleaner and sometimes put vinegar in there as well as it is a great grease cutter!

There are some really good tips on the GreenGoddess website also ShannonLush has great tips also.

I make my own dishwasher powder and liquid laundy detergent. The detergent only costs about $2 to make and lasts me about three months. I no longer have itchy skin.

I also use vinegar in the rinse aid compartment instead of the expensive supermarket stuff.

We get homekill beef and lamb done, so we only buy in chicken and pork products. So basically we get to avoid the cleaning aisle and the meat aisle for much of the time.

I belong to another forum called Ohbaby - for Mums and Bubs. There is a thread in there called 'Babe's Fantastic Tips' under the General thread. This money saving thread has been going for ages and is well worth a look.

I was making laundry powder too as per the recipe given above by blimeyvicki and was initially happy with the results but...I'm using cloth nappies on our son and I found I was needing to strip them more often plus my husband's work shirts (which do recieve a bit of punishment each day!) were starting to look dingy, so have gone back to buying Persil in bulk when it's on special at the Warehouse. The homemade stuff was great if it faced few challenges I found.

I made my own washing powder and dish wash machine powder also and used the dish wash for 2 months not really happy with the result. I do use white vineger as a rinse aid. ( There is a site called something like 1000 uses for vineger). I used home made laundry powder for 1 year bosting the white wash with a little frend. I have since gone back to persil I have a front loder washing machine you only need 1/4 of a scoup per load. In a front loader the rulke is if you see sudsd you have to much soap. From the 1.25 kilo packs of persil I get around 100 washes 7 cents a wash. Less if yoiu buy 5 kilo bags from warehouse.

Just a note on Borax.

It is toxic, as little as 5gms can kill a child - 10-15 an adult. So keep well away from food preparation areas and children and animals.

It is also a skin irritant, so if you have sensitive skin or allergies you might want to not include it in your recipes.

Great thread, I have some books on this subject. This is the website.
So full of great ideas.

Great ideas.
Toilet freshener - water and a few drops of your favourite essential oil in a spray bottle.
Dishwash liquid extender - This mixture not only makes your dish wash liquid last longer, it softens the water and leaves everything grease free and sparkling.

1 T washing soda
1 1/2 cups very hot water
1 cup dish wash liquid

Dissolve washing soda in water- stir in dish wash liquid.
Return to container and shake before use.

www.destitutegourmet.com (Sophie Grays website) has some great recipe ideas and money saving ideas too.

www.simplesavings.co.nz is good as well for different ideas to cut costs in all parts of daily life

and I second the website Spoook suggested too.

My only 'hint' is planing - inventry of whats in the pantry and freezer and menus, then make a shopping list only for those things on the menu.
I used to have a pantry full of possible ingredients and decide on the day what to cook, some things sat for months. Now I make menus for the week, usually on a sunday morning over coffee with input from DH.
then when I do the shopping list, I can look in the pantry, look at the menu and just buy what I need.
The inventry of whats in the freezer really helps as I cross off things as they get used so I don't then put that on the menu. Also I can tell if I've used all the sausages but have a glut of mince, that sort of thing, and I don't spend ages hanging over the side of the freezer searching

really good idea TKP will try it