Money Saving Tips for the Home

We all know that these days money is becoming tight for many of us. Myself included. There are a number of things you can do to help save yourself some money without sacrificing the cleanliness of your home.

Switch to Microfiber cleaning cloths. This one is my favorite tip. That's why I put it first. There are SO many benefits to switching to microfiber cloths instead of using paper towels.

1.  You spend less money on paper towels. Now, I'm not saying to eliminate them all together. But, I am saying that any job a paper towel can do...a microfiber cloth can do. And in a lot of cases it can do it better.
 

2.  They can soak up much more liquid than a paper towel and they obviously don't fall apart nearly as quick. Actually...you have to be trying really hard to make one fall apart. I haven't managed it yet.
 

3.  It saves trees! Well duh...if you're spending less on paper towels then you're not cutting down as many trees to make them! It's great!  Save money and save the environment!
 

4.  They're reusable. When they get dirty, throw them in the washing machine/dryer and start all over!
 

5.  They come in a variety of sizes and colors. We ladies love our color options, lol. I use certain colors for certain things (i.e. blue for the kitchen/counters/table/place mats; yellow for dusting..blah blah blah).

Use a vinegar & water cleaner. This one is really great too. Vinegar can be used for all sorts of things. In fact...there are so many uses that I'm not going to bother listing them. I'm just going to direct you to a site that's done the work for me! Lol. I'm lazy...I know. 23 Uses for Vinegar.  Just mix 1 part vinegar to 1 part water and put it in a spray bottle!

I can personally vouch for the odor removing and the making things shiny.  Bryan has an obsession with making things that are supposed to shine, do it blindingly...so he's tested that out.  Trust me, I have the shiniest kitchen appliances around!  We also have small children, so there's bound to be a bedtime accident here and there.  We can scrub mattresses all we want, but sometimes there's still a faint lingering smell.  The vinegar helps with that.  And no...it doesn't leave your fabrics smelling like board walk fries.  The smell dissipates, taking the odor with it. 

Make a basic bleach cleaner.  You can use it for a number of  things, including kitchens and bathrooms.  There are different recipes for making bleach cleaners.  The one I like is 1 TBS of bleach to 1 QT of water.  If you like a stronger bleach smell you can add a little more bleach, but I'm not really one for the heavy bleach smell.  I live in a house with kids...not a hospital, lol.  Do make sure you mark whatever bottle you put it in so you don't mistake it for something else.  A helpful tip about bleach...adding bleach to a wash load once a week helps prevent biofilm build up in the machine. I learned that from the clorox website.

These are just a few of the things that I've picked up.  There are lot of different things you can do to save money.  A lot of people already know about switching to energy saving appliances and light bulbs.  If you have any others that you'd like to share please let me know!