7 Basic Ingredients = A Cupboard Full of Cleaners

If you are saving money by making your own cleaning products stock your pantry with these four ingredients.
vinegar
baking soda
water
dishwashing detergent (Like Dawn)
rubbing alcohol
ammonia
lemon juice

Using these essential elements you can produce all of these cleaning products for less than the commercially made products.





Glass Cleaner
Clean out a gallon jug and then add:
1 tsp dishwashing detergent
1 pint rubbing alcohol
1/2 cup ammonia
Fill the rest of the gallon jug with water


All Purpose Cleaner
Clean out an old spray bottle and then add:
1 part distilled white vinegar
2 parts water
1 tablespoon lemon luice

Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Sprinkle some baking soda in the toilet
Add a couple of drops of dishwashing detergent
Scrub with toilet brush


Linoleum Floor Cleaner
To a bucket add:
1/2 cup vinegar
Fill with warm water

Oven Cleaner
Not for self cleaning ovens
1 cup baking soda
enough water to make a paste

Put it on the oven stains and let sit for several minutes then scrub.

Now make your own analysis of what you saved. How much did each of these products cost you at your local grocery store and how much did it cost you to make them?

Glass Cleaner
Store Cost__________ Homemade Cost______
All Purpose Cleaner
Store Cost_______ Homemade Cost_______
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Store Cost_______ Homemade Cost_______
Floor Cleaner
Store Cost_______ Homemade Cost_______
Oven Cleaner Store Cost_______ Homemade Cost_______

Free Cardboard for Projects: Reusing Old Cereal Boxes

Many years ago when I homeschooled my children we never threw away a cereal box. I would cut off the sides and store the pieces of cardboard to use in all kinds of ways. Every once in a while I still find things we made from that time made out of the brightly colored boxes. Here are some of the ways we used them.

Game Boards: There are all kinds of free printable games for kids on the internet. One good example is the site TeacherTools.org. If you want to reinforce something your child is having trouble with in school then print out the game. It really helps them to remember the information they are studying and they enjoy that time playing a board game with you!

Flash Cards: If you have ever had a child trying to learn the multiplication tables, then you know the incessant drilling that must go on for them to learn them. ABC Teach has a wonderful collection of flash cards from Pre-K counting to ABC's to colors to multiplication facts.

Craft Projects: On that next rainy day when your kids are hankering for something to do and your piggy bank is empty-try one of these crafts projects using old cereal boxes. If you run out of those, go looking for toilet paper rolls. One of my favorite sites is DLTK Crafts. If you have a printer you can make 100s of craft items.

Paper Dolls: There are many printable paper dolls on the internet. Here are a couple of great sites. I love MakingFriends.com. They have a variety of easy crafts for kids including paper dolls that can be printed out. I like these dolls because they aren't just designed for girls--I saw a baseball player in there as well. There is also Snuggle Up Stories which feature a story with paper doll.

Make a Truck: Yes, that's what I said. This project is so unique, I just had to include it. You will need a paper towel roll as well as a cereal box. They suggest an old granola box, so think about what you may have in that size. What a great homemade toy for a boy! This truck project comes from My Craft Book. Click on this link to see a picture of it.

Make Puzzles: Some of the backs of the cereal boxes are pretty colorful so you could make a puzzle out of what is already printed there or you could use a photo or print out something from the computer. Cut it up into little pieces and now it goes from trash to "puzzle".

Make Magazine Storage Containers: If you have ever priced these things you'll immediately started cutting down the side of that Cheerios box and decorating your own magazine storage boxes. Here is an Ehow article that shows you where to cut your box and decorate it.

Make Them Into a Gift Box: I have used these boxes for years as gift boxes. They work well for most clothing (bulky sweaters, not so much). My kids open that present so expectantly only to find Tony the Tiger staring back at them. For just a second each time they look at me like, You got me cereal????. That's always fun watching the panic hit--but no there is always something inside that's even better than Frosted Flakes. Here is an article showing how to convert a box of Crispix to a gift box.

These are just a few ideas for reusing cereal boxes. If you have recycled these boxes in other ways--let me know in the comments section.

Learning about Life in the Depression

Sometimes I'm not sure if all of the news pundits are talking about an upcoming depression as a historical state or an emotional state. The news we hear daily doesn't seem to be too uplifting. One of the things we can do is to learn about how people coped during the depression of the 1930's. Today, we are such convenience driven/throw away consumers it may seem next to impossible to try to learn to live on less.

An excellent book review written by Charles Hugh Smith of Edmund G. Love's biographical novel, Hanging On: Or How to Get Through a Depression and Enjoy Life , published in 1972, gives us a glimpse into how life changed for an upper middle class family during the 1930s. Click Here to read this book review. I found this book over at Amazon and have listed the link to it over in the left hand column, but at the writing of this blog entry there were only two used copies available. Whether you read the book or not, the things to be learned from this book review are that this family was greatly changed...but they survived.

Another great depression lesson comes from Clara the cooking lady over at You Tube. I love the fact we are sitting in her kitchen as she makes depression era recipes and talks about the depression. It's like visiting an aunt I never knew I had! Here is one of her videos about making the Poor Man's Meal. There are many more videos to view.She is 91 and wonderful.


After watching Clara, and reading about the depression of the thirties, we have to hope that we as a nation are not headed in that direction again. Survival with less money is a daily lesson in how to do things you used to pay much more for--for little or no cash. The more you read--the more you know--the less you feel depressed.

“It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.”
Harry S. Truman