HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022!
I feel like this New Year has started off to be a downer. We are still battling the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, inflation, worker shortages, high gas prices, a bombing stock market, a crypto winter.... the list can go on and on. However, I usually won't count it as a new year yet until Lunar New Year has passed which will be on February 1st this year.
I have been partaking, and I'm sure others as well, in doing a little bit more penny pinching around the house in order to save extra money to fight inflation. We can't help that prices of everything is going up but at least we can make small habitual changes to soften the blow. Especially here in Silicon Valley, we have seen housing go up astronomically! You really can't get a decent single family home for under $1mil anymore. When I was growing up, my parents were both working class and were able to buy a 3 bedroom home about 22 years ago for about 200k. Now you have to have a high paying job at Google or Apple and tech stocks to live here, my parents didn't really invest in the stock market either by the way. And here I am, a part-time house wife, and working part-time in healthcare so I definitely feel the blow of inflation eating into my expenses.
One huge way that I have been fighting inflation and overall saving money even before this stupid pandemic started is making my own cleaning products. I have been doing this since my babies were born because I wanted non-toxic products, but the best side effect of that is that it saves $$$. I used to spend lots of money at Target on Mrs.Meyers products but then I did more research into fragrances and VOCs and realized that their products weren't that great for our respiratory health or even that great at cleaning.
These are my work-horse ingredients for cleaning products that make my home sparkly clean and can all be bought at cheap prices.
The baking soda I use to clean almost anything and I buy in the bulk size at Costco. I use it in combo with the Kirkland dish soap to scrub sinks, toilets, and bathtubs. I saved my old Mrs. Meyers dish soap bottles and refilled them with the Kirkland dish soap and keep it under each sink for easy cleaning.
The citric acid has been a life saver for getting off food stains. I use it to get the calcium build-up off my pots, clean the tea and coffee residues off of the pots and mugs, and use it to get rid of stubborn stains in the toilet.
The Bar Keepers Friend was something that I stumbled on accidentally at an AirBnB and I'm so glad I did. I use it to clean burned pots and pans, clean off burnt food from the oven, and use it to make my stainless steel sink shiny. It only costs $1.99 at Target and it doesn't smell like Ajax.
The vinegar I use mixed with water to clean mirrors, shower glass, and also make my stainless steel shiny. Vinegar is wonderful at cleaning toilets and porcelain bathroom floors, the smell dissipates after it dries.
I don't know why Kirkland dish soap gets some hate from the internet. I have found that it cleans better than more expensive brands like Mrs.Meyers, Method, and Seventh Generation. I feel that it's not as harsh either as Dawn.
One of my favorite cleaning products is concentrated Castile soap. I can be bought for ~$12-13 dollars at Target or Wholefoods. I use it in a cheap spray bottle shown on the right side. I bought that bottle at Daiso for $1.50 and have been using it for 2 years already. I just filled the bottle filtered water, add a few squirts of Castile soap and 4-5 drops of essential oil and I have a fresh home cleaner. The essential oil I use is Bergamot because it's the closest smell I can find to Yuzu. I use this cleaner to clean tabletops, kitchen/bathroom counters, food stains from couch/carpets, microwave, refrigerator, mop my hardwood floor, and it can be used as a natural pesticide in the garden! Talk about multiple uses around the house.
The bottle on the right hand side of the Castile soap mixture is my vinegar glass cleaner. Just mix 75% vinegar with 25% water. I buy my vinegar bulk at Costco. 2 huge jugs for under $4.
I used to use a lot of Bleach in the bathroom but since making my own cleaning products I have noticed that I have been coughing less when I clean. The only cleaning products I'm not going to bother making are laundry detergent and fabric softener, it just seems like too much trouble for me.
I am hoping to find more ways to fight inflation and share them with the world. Especially for people living in expensive areas. Next time (Fighting Inflation, Part 2) I want to post about thrifting, which is a shopaholics way to get a dopamine hit without having to file for bankrupcy.
