Clean your house and save money at the same time

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sat, Nov 14 2009 | 3 Comments

Whenever I go to the store to pick up a few things to clean the house, I have noticed that there are more and more new kinds of cleaners and dusters; just basically a lot of things that I have never needed in the past to get my house clean.

I think that it’s important to show everyone that they don’t need Swiffers or Shamwows to clean their homes.
So here are a few tips to save you some money on the cleaning aisle and in your house when it comes time to clean up:

1) Paper towels can be a waste. While I think it is important to ALWAYS use a clean cloth to clean up in the kitchen, it isn’t necessary to have three rolls of paper towels to clean. Reusable towels are a good alternative to paper towels. You can clean up with them and throw them in the wash with your towels. This will also help reduce some waste that comes from your house.

2) Lysol or any other concentrated antibacterial cleaner is your best friend when it comes time to clean the kitchen. Before I discovered this tip, I can’t tell you how many bottles of pre-bottled Lysol or Formula 409 I went through cleaning up around the house (especially in the kitchen). One day while I was getting ready to mop the floor, I discovered that you can also use Lysol to clean counters. So, I put the recommended amount in a spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle up with water. One bottle of concentrated cleaner can last our house 3 months (and that’s also using it to clean the floors).

3) Swiffer dusters are nice, but a wet cloth can do the same job. If you have a lot of knick knacks in your house and have to walk around and dust them every single week, then maybe a Swiffer duster will save you some time, but if you don’t, a wet cloth could be the cheap alternative that you are looking for.

4) Plastic bags from the grocery stores can be a good alternative to buying trash bags. Okay, unless you have completely started using reusable shopping bags, then I’m sure somewhere around your house you have some of those plastic shopping bags. I keep all of mine and use them as trash bags. This keeps us from having to buy trash bags. While you’re probably thinking that they are just too small to be used as trash bags in the kitchen trash, think about it this way: How often have you walked past your kitchen trash that you probably should have taken out yesterday? When you use smaller bags, you have to take the trash out more often and therefore, there’s less stink to deal with.

Now these tips might not be fore you or you can pick and choose which ones sound like something that you may give a try.

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Tags: grocery store, Money, yesterday

Easter in January?

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Jan 13 2009 | 0 Comments

I was at my local Wal-Mart, again, when I noticed something a bit…off.

As I was in the check out line a bright yellow display caught my attention. On the bottom shelf, Reese’s Easter eggs and Cadbury eggs.

I could not believe it. Just 50 feet away, the store is still trying to get rid of Christmas leftovers…and there is Easter candy already sitting out.

Now, this year Easter isn’t until April 12. That’s 4 months from yesterday. If I saw Christmas candy out before they had put away the pool toys, something would be wrong there too.

I am beginning to wonder when I’ll be able to go pick up my decorations for the fourth of July…

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Save money even with the holidays around the corner

Tags: yesterday

Economy beats Middle East violence, oil falls today

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Dec 30 2008 | 0 Comments

When watching oil prices it is a struggle between the economic outlook and other external factors. Yesterday the violence between Israel and Hamas caused oil to jump because of fears of output and exporting problems, but today it fell because of a “grim economic outlook.”

With consumer confidence falling, yet again, the economic outlook isn’t great when viewing it in the short term. However, there is a lot to look forward to in the New Year including some much needed lending from banks to consumers.

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Tags: violence, economy, economic outlook