Stop spending hundreds on cleaning products with these frugal budget cleaning creations!
Laundry detergent, fabric softeners, dishwasher soap and stain removers! The list of cleaning products you buy every month seems to go on forever. The family of four can spend as much as $600 a year to keep things looking spick and span.
But you can get your cleaning done on the cheap using homemade cleaning creations and stuff you’ve already got around the house. Best yet, some of my favorite homemade cleaning creations work better than even the name brands!
I’ve cleaned for years using vinegar, baking soda and ammonia and literally saved thousands of dollars. Just these three items can replace nearly all of your expensive cleaning products.
Frugal Budget Cleaning for your Clothes
I spend about just $12 a year in laundry detergent. Yes, just $12 bucks to make five gallons of my frugal budget laundry detergent. You can adjust the recipe to make less if you need to or just give some away to friends and family.
You’ll need:
- ½ cup Borax
- 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
- 1 bar of Fels-Naptha Soap
- 5 gallon bucket with a lid or five milk gallon jugs
Be sure to use ‘washing soda’ and not baking soda, not the same thing. You can find all of these at most groceries stores and it shouldn’t cost much more than ten bucks for the whole batch.
You’ll need to grate the bar of soap and add it to a saucepan with four cups of water. Dissolve the soap over a medium heat, stirring continuously for a few minutes. Fill your five gallon bucket, or individual gallon jugs, with hot tap water leaving a few cups of empty space.
Then just add your dissolved soap, borax and washing soda and stir until it’s all mixed. Fill to the top with more hot tap water and cover it. It will thicken over night into a gel and will keep for as long as you need it. Just shake the jug a little before adding it to your laundry. Use about half a cup for top load machines or a ¼ cup for front load machines.
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Save money on dryer sheets by using balls of aluminum foil, a tip I originally shared in our first homemade cleaning creations post. You can also use a ¼ cup of vinegar in your rinse cycle to get rid of soap residue and kill any remaining bacteria in the wash.
For a great frugal budget cleaning creation for stains, I use:
- One cup hot water
- ½ cup hydrogen peroxide
- ½ cup washing soda
Mix it all in a spray bottle and spray stains before the wash. You can even add a little of the stain remover into the wash for extra power. Set it on the soak cycle for a couple of hours for a brighter wash.
Frugal Budget Cleaning for your Furniture
My favorite frugal budget furniture polish is plain mayonnaise. I know, sounds pretty disgusting but mayonnaise contains all the oils you need to make your wood shine. It also moisturizes the wood so it doesn´t dry out. Just dab a little on a rag and the vinegar, eggs and oil in the mayonnaise will do the work.
You can also use black tea, white vinegar and olive oil for a great frugal budget furniture cleaner. The tannic acid in the black tea removes residues while restoring a natural shine. The vinegar is a great all-purpose cleaner after adding a few drops of oil to make it gleam.
Frugal Budget Cleaning in the Bathroom
Fumes from my bathroom cleaning products used to force me to take breaks for fresh air! No more! Now all my products are safe to breath and all natural.
For cleaning the tub, heat 12 ounces of vinegar and pour into a spray bottle. Add six ounces of Dawn dish soap, shake lightly then spray and rinse.
If you have a really bad scum buildup in the bathroom, soak cleaning rags in vinegar and leave in the tub overnight. The next morning, sprinkle some baking soda, scrub and rinse. It’s amazingly easy and will get rid of buildup and rings in the tub.
For general toilet cleaning, I sprinkle a little baking soda into the bowl and follow with the vinegar solution spray. Use a little borax and lemon juice for those stubborn toilet rings. Just mix both ingredients into a paste and cover the stain, let it sit for an hour and just scrub it away. A great frugal budget saver!
For mildew stains, dilute one or two cups of chlorine bleach in a gallon of water. It will kill the mildew and keep it from coming back.
Not only will these frugal budget cleaning creations save you a bunch of money, they’re all environmentally-friendly as well. Please share with your friends, they will thank you. Frugal Grandma
