Save Money While Spring Cleaning: Use What You Have

As you might have seen from my blog post in the Home Blog, I am ready to start our spring cleaning. The weather may not exactly be cooperating, but hey, there are still some things that I can get done. One of the great ways to save on spring cleaning is to use what you already have, or at the very least, what you can obtain for little money. Makes sense, or should I say cents? Right? Forget wasting those expensive paper towels and store bought cleaners. Look around your home and see what will work well to clean and … Continue reading →

Frugal Cleaning Arsenal

If you want to attack your dirt, you’ll need an arsenal of supplies. But forget the fancy cleaners, battery powered mops, and expensive robots. You can have a sparkling clean house without spending a lot of money. Head over to your local warehouse and/or discount club and pick up the following items. You can use them to make your own cleaners and cleaning equipment arsenal. Baking soda: A natural deodorizer and scrubber that is great for cleaning ovens, microwave ovens and the refrigerator. Combined with the next ingredient, it can clean bathrooms. Vinegar: A grease cutter that makes surfaces shine … Continue reading →

Frugal Magic Erasers

Don’t you just love it when a miracle cleaning product comes along? I remember being skeptical about the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser until I actually tried it. The thing seems to be a miracle worker when it comes to crayon marks, scuffs and layers of grime that have built up over time. Before I start sounding too much like a commercial for this product, let me point out one huge drawback to the magic eraser. That is the price. At $2.50 for 2 magic erasers, the price is pretty steep, especially when you consider that they don’t last very long. … Continue reading →

Three Frugal Ways to Remove Soap Scum

Bam, Pow, Wham! Don’t buy expensive soap scum cleaners when you have three frugal options that will do the job for a lot less. In the home we used to have, we had a combined shower and tub, and regular normal cleaning of the wall prevented any soap scum build up. In our current home, we have a master bathroom that contains a shower stall with glass shower doors. Unfortunately, the soap scum can build up pretty quickly on those doors, even with regular cleaning. Don’t ask me why the soap scum is doing this. Perhaps it is because of … Continue reading →

Frugal Tips for Vacuuming

Want to save money and still keep your house clean? In the past, we’ve covered such topics as making your own cleaners, finding inexpensive cleaners, making your own swiffer refills, and using inexpensive and natural products to clean your kitchen. We even talked about using your broom to save on the expense of vacuuming Now, let’s take a look at vacuuming itself and how we can be very frugal when doing it. Skip the expensive vacuum with all of the fancy attachments and crevice tools. Instead, buy a simple machine with the basic tools. To get into tiny crevices, make … Continue reading →

Frugal Kitchen Towels

If you have had a chance to follow my blogs, then you know that I am a big advocate of reducing paper towel waste. Not only is it frugal to do so, but it is also good for the environment. To take the place of those paper towels, we use terry cloth towels and thing terry washcloths for the kitchen. We can go through several of these towels and cloths in a day. They do everything from wipe sticky hands and faces to clean up spills and dry dishes. I like to keep a good number of the towels available. … Continue reading →

Removing Price Labels

Believe it or not, stubborn price labels can cost you money. Removing them is easy, if you know how. There are two ways that price labels can cost people money. One way is that many people throw out items, believe it or not, if they incorrectly remove a stubborn price label and damage an object. The other way that stubborn labels can cost money is when they prevent you from purchasing a bargain piece just because you know that you’ll never get that label off easily. Two places that difficult labels tend to pop up are also the two places … Continue reading →

A Great -and Cheap- Way to Clean Carpet Stains

New carpet or any other type of flooring just isn’t in my budget right now, less than a month from Christmas. Yet, with four kids and a puppy, the carpeting seemed to be on its last breath and in major need of resuscitation as I was getting ready for last minute Thanksgiving guests. Well, what it really needed -which I give it often- was a good cleaning. Once I did the overall area cleaning it was time to get down to spot cleaning. Some of the spots I had just about given up on but I hate stains, so I … Continue reading →

Another Bargain Glass Cleaner

Here is yet one more way to get your glass cleaned without spending your money on commercial cleaners. I’ve talked about glass cleaners before, but I recently discovered a new technique that creates a glass cleaning solution that is as good or better than anything you can find out on the market. I do clean my windows with a vinegar solution because it works well, as well as some of the other methods that I have mentioned in the past. But for a glass cleaner that is really strong and acts just like Windex but without the blue coloring, I … Continue reading →

Vinegar Your Floors

Here is another great use for vinegar! You can use vinegar as a safe and effective floor cleaner for wonderfully clean floors. I love this method, because not only is it frugal, but it doesn’t leave any of that film that regular floor cleaners leave behind. It doesn’t even need to be rinsed. To make your own vinegar floor cleaner, simply add one cup of white vinegar to one gallon of hot water. Remember when using vinegar for cleaning, that it always needs to be white vinegar and not cider vinegar. White vinegar can be purchased by the gallon at … Continue reading →