Life laundry and making a workable Budget PART THREE

**Englishlady** · 11-27-2005, 12:29 PM

If you are serious about saving money and want to simplify your life then read on!

First of all you need to get a diary ( mine is an A5 size) and each day write down

what you eat for dinner.

This enables you to keep track of what the family eat the most and so will give you

an idea of what is a good thing to stock up if and when you see a bargain.

Make friends with masking tape! I use mine to write notes & reminders for myself &

dh and then stick them on the door where they are hard to miss.

Put a peice of tape on Shampoo/toothpaste/deoderant/laundry liquid etc. on it note

the date you start using it and the date it runs out.

This enables you to work out how many of each item you need to take you over a

year/6 months or however long you intend your own personal stock pile to last.

Then for fun and to save even more money, challenge yourself to use less of each

product,make them stretch a week longer...........

DO NOT BUY SEPERATE body wash & shampoo! you do NOT need it!!

Buy the biggest and mildest bottle of shampoo and use it for hair AND body, if you

want it to be a bit more luxurious then buy the biggest cheap bottle of shampoo

with conditioner already in it, it is more moisturizing and you may need less ( or

none) of the after shower/bath body lotion you normally  use.

I use Aloe Vera body gel as a hair conditioner and I also use it on my body after my

shower, double duty products save time and money!

If you insist on "normal" conditioner, then dilute it down 5 parts water to 1 part

conditioner, mix well and using our old friend the plant spray bottle spray your

hair and comb through, this is your new "leave in conditioner" and the one bottle

of conditioner will now last you months instead of weeks!.

whatever it is you buy, it only needs to do the job, it doesn't need to have bells

and whistles and  if YOU insist it does then you must be prepared to pay the extra.

Buy a set of plant water spray bottles.........................

For those who wash up by hand fill the bottle 3/4 full with water and top up to

full with dish washing liquid, invert the bottle to mix gently.

Use this mixture to spray into the sink/on to dishes, it froths up wonderfully

well! you will find a bottle of dish soap will last a very long time.

The same mix is also useful for a quick clean up of counter tops,, just spray and

wipe and unless you have over done it if you wipe up with a dry cloth, you don't

need to rinse. If you want to add a bit of germ killer to the mix add about 12 drops of tea tree oil to the above.

Stop buying all the different cleaning products, you don't need them, you can cover

pretty much all your bases with Vinegar, Soda Bicarb, salt,laundry liquid, Borax.

I clean my sink ( white sort of faux granite) with a thin film of laundry liquid

and a bit of borax, scrub into nooks and crannies with a pan scrubbie and leave for

half an hour to an hour rinse off and ta da! it's clean and fresh and I didn't buy

a special product for it.

Think about all the products in your house that you bought but didn't use, the half

used shampoo, the 3 inches of bubble bath.

If you have a selection  shampoo/bodywash that you started but didn't finish, put

all the "soap" into one bottle and use mix gently ( by inverting bottle, don't

shake it!!!!!!!) if you don't like the smell add a few drops of essential oil,

lavender, or tea tree and use as hand soap.

DO NOT BUY liquid handsoap! instead buy a bottle of cheap bubble bath and decant

into the pump bottle. I get a full bottle of liquid hand soap for about 25pence

using this method, but the cheapest "proper" liquid handwash soap is normally 4

times my cost!

In  North America, you guys seem to be able to buy things in huge vat size

bottles/tubs, so YOUR savings would be even bigger.

If you have picky family members, just re-fill the old bottles of bodywash/hand

soap or whatever, they will never know the difference!.( if they DO, & complain,

let them buy their own stuff!)

Always use a sponge in the shower, add the soap to the sponge not directtly to your

body with your hands, THAT way uses far too much product!

On a tight budget the savings you can make by NOT buying specific products are a

valuble contribution and certainly do add up.

One of the biggest advantages to my method are the savings on space and storage of

the few products we do use.

It doesnt' matter what size house you live in, the less clutter you have, the less

stuff you have to find a home for.

The pack rats' and "messies" amongst us, note this well, if you use up all your old

products and then restrict yourself to buying only what you need, you will save

yourself a lot of future de-junking and storage hassles.

When you are going through your stuff to de-junk, be ruthless! don't kid yourself

that you will get into that old dress/pair of jeans, when you loose another 10

lbs.........that may be the case, but whilst ever you are looking at clothes that

don't fit, you are sending yourself negative subliminal messages.

If you really won't or can't part with them,pack them up and put them out of site

and re-vist them in 6 months time, & then think again.

When you are packing things away for storage( for whatever reason) save yourself (

and others) hours of torture trying to find your swim suit/tennis dress/ ball gown 

or whatever.

Pack up your stuff and put a peice of masking tape on the parcel stating the

contents of the box & THEN you also WRITE IT DOWN in your diary!

In my diary I have a page at the front that states: contents of drawers under our

bed/things stored in Loft/items stored in garage.The follows a list of the

objects.........

Instead of asking dh/arguing who had what last & where it is, I just go to this

page in my diary and look where "battery operated storm lamp" is stored and see it

is in the garage and find it very easily because it is already in a box with the

contents labled.!

we live in a very small house and my storage options are ever more creative and

alternative, so having a list of where things are is HUGELY beneficial to saving

time and sanity!.

Alter your bed changing day! if you change your sheets just one day later, so that you change them every 8 days instead of every 7 you will have a 12.5 % reduction in the number of washes you do! even if your bedding fills the washer only once that's 6.6 washer loads LESS per year.   Just by making the sheets last ONE day longer.

To be continued...............................................................

 

**SHOPGIRL** · 11-27-2005, 12:39 PM

Karen,

Great ideas as always. I LOVE your idea of keeping a diary. So many times I store things away then I forget where they are or if I know where they are, I'm not always sure what box their in. I'm working on packing away all my summer clothes today so I'm going to do what you suggest. It will take more time, but it will save me a lot of hassle in the long run.

Thanks.

**Michele Annette** · 11-27-2005, 03:07 PM

I love all of your ideas Karen! It feels like we are constantly dejunking and I'm really enjoying it!

**Lori Biever-Launder** · 11-27-2005, 03:31 PM

"masking tape is your friend"

LOVE this! DS#2 is the orginal masking tape king. He uses it for everything!

I just took four bags of clothes out of my closet to take to the thrift store. Less IS more.

**daddys3chicks** · 11-27-2005, 05:08 PM

Thanks again Karen!

**thrifty gal** · 11-27-2005, 10:40 PM

Thanks so much!

**Scattymum** · 11-28-2005, 02:54 AM

Thanks Karen, I really enjoyed reading that - you have some great tips - thanks for sharing!

I am eagerly waiting the next installment!

**homesteadmamma** · 11-28-2005, 10:02 AM

Great tips Karen.

**canadian gardener** · 11-28-2005, 01:39 PM

Karen, just catching up and these are GREAT!!!!

Thanks for sharing

**graci42** · 11-28-2005, 02:02 PM

Love it! Going back to read installments 1+2!

Graci

**hollyhill** · 11-28-2005, 02:49 PM

Oh I am going to try this!! Karen said to-

Buy a set of plant water spray bottles.........................

For those who wash up by hand fill the bottle 3/4 full with water and top up to

full with dish washing liquid, invert the bottle to mix gently.

Use this mixture to spray into the sink/on to dishes, it froths up wonderfully

well! you will find a bottle of dish soap will last a very long time.

The same mix is also useful for a quick clean up of counter tops,, just spray and

This is great!!!! I have an empty mister I am going to do it right away!!

Thanks Karen!!!!! Can we get this thready stickied somewhere please!