Homemade Cleaners - All Purpose Cleaner

The fun continues...I went and made myself another cleaner!  Honestly, I've been having quite a bit of fun with this and I'm really sad that I have a decent supply of other cleaners to use up before I make my new versions.  What will I do with all this free time?! 

Down to business...

Everyone needs a general all-purpose cleaner and I hadn't really found one that I liked much.  I have only cleaned a couple of small spots with this one, but so far so good! 

I found this recipe at Macheesmo.com.  This will link you up to a few other recipes that are on my list to try as well!

bottle, vinegar, castile soap, washing soda, and water

 

3 Tablespons Vinegar - $0.03

1/2 Teaspoon Washing Soda - $0.08

1/2 Teaspoon Castile Soap - $0.08

2 Cups Hot Water - FREE (well...included in our monthly rent...)

Old Spray Bottle - FREE

Throw all the ingredients into an old spray bottle and shake!  The Washing Soda will cause a decent amount of bubbling, but the bottle that I used had plenty of room for the bubbles to do their thing. 

Easy as pie!

Total Cost - $0.19

Total Time - 5 minutes

With the warm weather we have been having in Jersey, I am ready to SPRING CLEAN my rear off this weekend!



Homemade Cleaners - Soft Scrub

When I'm barefoot with my pants rolled up and hair pulled back, in full bathroom cleaning mode, my go to cleaner is the Soft Scrub.  I probably use too much of it and therefore it was burning a hole in my 3 year old Coach wallet, that I love.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy to find this recipe online at The Krazy Coupon Lady!  Are you surprised?!  It was one of my first stops on my online search for homemade cleaners.  The articles on the site are fantastic!

So - let's get to it!!

Liquid Soap, Empty Conditioner Bottle, Baking Soda, White Vinegar, Water

Above are the ingredients needed to easily make this cleaner.  Start to finish the project took a total of 15 minutes, no lie.  This included me obsessively cleaning the conditioner bottle and making the mental note that I'm wasting far too much conditioner!

1 2/3 Cups of Baking Soda - $0.60

1/2 Cup of Liquid Soap - $0.10

1/2 Cup of Water - Free

2 Tablespoons of Vinegar - $0.02

Old Conditioner Bottle

First, you'll mix the Liquid Soap, Water, and Baking Soda in a bowl...

until it looks a little more like this...

The Baking Soda dissolved rather quickly an easily!  Add the Vinegar and stir.

The mixture doesn't smell too yummy, so you can add some essential oil.  I used Lavendar since I already had some for the other cleaners I plan to make.

I think the worst part of this process was pouring it into the bottle.  I used a funnel, but since it's kind of thick it was slow moving! 

Final Product - super inventive label, huh?  I included the oil bottle so it wouldn't feel left out!  

I used my new cleaner to quickly clean the sink area...mostly to try it out!  I think it works very well!!!  YAY!!

Total Cost - $0.72
Total Time - 15 minutes

The cheapest I have been able to find Soft Scrub, on sale with a coupon, was around $1.50 a bottle.  All in all my first go at the homemade cleaners went very well!! YAY!



Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Or so the saying goes...

In case you haven't been reading recently, I'm cheap and will do just about anything to get something for a lower price.  This does NOT include stealing, hooking, or anything else that might put me behind bars...no matter what you may hear on the streets.

After going over our recent receipts with a fine tooth comb, cause I'm crazy like that, I noticed that a large chunk of our very hard earned funds were going to cleaning products!  GRRR!  I coupon like it's going out of style - see my weekly match ups for or local store at The Krazy Coupon Lady - but many of the cleaners we used weren't as cheap (aka - free) as I would like them to be.

  

Then I got to thinking.  We live in this super modern world, it's cool and I'm down with progress, but as I grow older I don't honestly think I would mind going back to those simpler days.  Now, I'm not quite ready to trade in my smart phone for a butter churn, but maybe a life with few chemicals would be better?  I'm sure you're response is one of these three.

Answer A:  HECK YES!

Answer B:  No, Thank You

Answer C: You're a nut case

I have combed the Internet, blogs, and pinterest looking for the best recipes for this new project.  I will also be using some old school family recipes too!  Below is a list of cleaners, detergents, etc.that I plan on trying and my supply list.  I gathered most of the supplies over the past few days and I plan to make a few over the weekend.  I have a small stockpile of cleaners, so I'll be using those before I make some of the new cleaners.  Needless to say, this will be an on going project.  Let's just hope the neighbors don't think I'm cooking meth.


We aren't able to skimp on the floor cleaner for the majority of our apartment.  We have beautiful wood floors that were recently professional refinished, it's probably not best to ruin them and not get our deposit back.  So, I purchased the floor cleaner in bulk from Amazon.    

 

Cleaners

Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner

Soft Scrub

Toilet Cleaner
Grease Cutter

Lavender Anti-Bacterial Spray

All-Puropose Cleaner

Window Cleaner
Swiffer Liquid Refill

Laundry Detergent

OxyClean

Fabric Softener

Febreze

Supply List

46 cups Water - FREE! YAY!

5 cups Vinegar - $1.79

3 cups Baking Soda - $1.19

2 Cups Borax - $3.99

2 Cups Suave Conditioner - $0.66
1 Cup Washing Soda - $2.99

1 cup Castile Soap - $7.29

1 Cup Rubbing Alchol - $1.99

1 Bar Soap - already have

1/2 Cup Liquid Soap - already have

1/2 Cup Hydrogen Peroxide - $0.99

30 drops Lavender Essential Oil - $6.89

Tea Tree Oil - $6.89

Lemon Juice - already have

Grater - need to purchase (don't want to use the food grater!)

Funnel - need to purchase

4 Spray Bottles - hope to re-purpose

1 Squirt Bottle - hope to re-purpose

1 Sqeeze Bottle - hope to re-purpose

2 Gallon Jugs - hope to re-purpose

Mason Jar - already have



Approximate Cost - $45.00



I'll update the exact cost once I purchase the grater and funnel.  Most, if not all, of these items will make two batches of all the cleaners.  The larger sizes were much more cost effective!

What may be done at any time will be done at no time.

Scottish Proverbs rock my face off.

Hey kiddos - I know the posting here at the ole blog has been lack luster, at best.  I promise I'm not ignoring my adoring fans...*wave* Hi Mom! Hi Dad! *wave*

This whole full-time job business is for the birds.  They stuck me with a laptop and a cell phone, I can't hide!!  In actuality, they are quite respectful of my non-work time, but both of the devices have a tendency to call my name.  What is wrong with me?  I feel the need to keep all my email inboxes clean.  It's a sickness. 

The new part-time job is really eating my lunch (great - now I'm hungry).  I'm so torn by this because it's fun and it puts a few extra dollars in the bank account as well, but it took up quite a bit of my weekend.  I think I'll become faster at the process over the coming weeks, let's bow our heads and say a prayer that this is true.

All of that being said, I vow to attempt to blog more in the future and I will leave you with some recent pictures that I love.

Yes.  You go Glenn Coco

One of my grocery store receipts! Saved more than I paid!

We call this Sophie's Yoda look.

This is the adorable Miss Lilly Louise during story time with Nate all the way from Kuwait!



The look I get when I drag my husband to a Red Dirt Concert.

I attempted to make Grandma's famous jelly.  I give myself an A for effort and a C for crappy.

We hit up a sweet record store in the Village - I love me some Three Dog Night.

I apologize for the blurriness, but the Empire State Building was Green for the 100th birthday of the Girl Scouts!  YAY!

On the Mend Monday - Idiot Edition

Welcome back kids!  Let's get this ship sailing normally again, shall we?

Let's start off with the good news - my left ring finger, that I injured way back on Super Bowl Sunday, is MENDED! Please note that I am not giving it a completely mended title just yet.  The wound isn't open and I no longer need to wear a bandage, but the scar tissue has created a nice bump that doesn't feel too great.  This is made worse by the fact that I type all day at my normal job, type for my new PT job, and I'm typing this now.  Oh well...

Let's move two fingers over and talk about mister index.  Early last week, while preparing what would have been a yummy Chicken Piccata dinner, I managed to slice the tip open with a rather large knife.  It hurt and since I was halfway through cutting a chicken breast it also looked like a bird massacre occurred near our sink.  Luckily, this was a clean cut that only required a band-aid for three full days.  Now it's COMPLETELY MENDED! But I'm still afraid to cut meat and have been told to inform my husband prior to picking up any sharp object.

Let's stick to the left hand and discuss how skin deals with boiling hot jelly.  It's not good friends, not good at all.  I finally found the time, and the fruit, to try my hand at Grandma's famous jelly recipe.  I'll be tasting it tonight, so we will see how well I did.  For those of you that don't know, you have to boil the ingredients prior to pouring the jelly into the jars.  Long story short, my aim sucks, the top of my left hand can confirm this.  It's slightly red today, but all in all I'm lucky that I was on my last jar and the mixture had cooled slightly.  How do I even have a left hand anymore?!  I'll rank this as MENDED simply because it wasn't that bad of an injury to begin with...but it still hurt!

On Saturday the almost birthday boy and I ventured into the big city!  He bought me tickets to see one of my favorites, the Eli Young Band, at Terminal 5 in NYC for Christmas!  I put on my boots and we started the walk to Journal Square to catch the PATH train, about 1/3 of the way there I realized that we had left the tickets on the desk in the living room.  So, after a slight detour we were really on our way to Journal Square!  The 30 minute train ride to 33rd Street was standing room only and by the time we walked off the train the extreme foot pain was hard to ignore.  We walked about 15 blocks to a bar and grill (that over cooked our burgers) and this is when I knew the boots were a mistake.  After another 20 blocks or so we were at the venue and I wanted a wheelchair. 

The concert was amazing!!! I was really impressed by the Josh Abbot Band and the Randy Rogers Band, who performed an acoustic set.  The Eli Young Band hit the stage sounding better than the last time I saw them!  They even played Oklahoma Girl! YAY!!!! The final act of the night was Pat Green, who is quite good, but not good enough for me to suffer through the standing room only show.  We headed out and had to stop half way for a break...and some pizza.  We also called my parents from a pay phone!!

I won't go into much more detail, you're probably bored of this already, but by the time we finally made it home I needed help removing the boots I love so much.  The swelling started and I'm still walkin a little funny today.  I have two blisters on my right foot and three on my left, my thighs are quite sore and I think my Grandpa's fake knees work better than mine right now.  So, I'm sittin on the INJURED list, but I'm still going to try and muscle through some treadmill time today at the gym.

Announcement Time! My first submission to The Krazy Coupon Lady was published yesterday!!  No creative writing involved, but I think I finally found a place to use my mad math and organization skills! What What!   Check it out HERE, and search for stores in your local area to save some of that hard earned money! 

I also encourage you to tune into CNBC tonight at 9pm EST / 8pm CST for Luxury Boom: The New Big Spenders.  A special project that my sister-in-law produced!  Maybe you'll save enough money couponing to buy some of the featured items!!