Lets save money in the kitchen!!

Following on from yesterdays blog post about our Frock Swap Parties, I thought I would systematically work round the house telling you about the different things we do at Nice Buns, Nice Life Hq to save money.

Lets start in the kitchen.

Toys on floor, boots at door....a normal day in Nice Buns, Nice Life Hq kitchen!

The kitchen is one place where I would say we all spend a lot of money. Between antibacterial sprays, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets and that's before we mention washing powder or the food in the cupboards.

Today we will tackle Anti-bacterial spray and washing up liquid.
I did a lot of research into both of these and was shocked at quite how simple they were.
For the Anti-bacterial spray I filled an old spray bottle with water and then added 10 drops of Pure Tea Tree oil and 10 drops of Pure Lavender oil. Shook it all together and hey presto, its ready to use.
Tea Tree oil is anti-infectious, anti-septic, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Lavender oil is anti-infectious, anti-septic, anti-viral and anti-bacterial. A simple and cost effective alternative to store bought products. We purchase our essentials oils of ebay so as we can get them in larger quantities. Trust me, when you start this, it is addictive and you will find you will be using them for everything!

The recipe I use for the Washing up liquid is:
1 litre boiling water
2-3 drops tea tree oil or lavender oil
 2 heaped teaspoons of grated soap
 2 heaped teaspoons of Soda Crystals - available from all supermarkets, hugely in expensive and useful for lots.
1 tsp white vinegar - Again buy a large bottle as it is used for loads of different cleaners around the house.

Mix all of these ingredients together and then leave for a couple of hours before you use it. We kept an old washing up liquid bottle so we refill that. When you make it up it will just look like cloudy water but once left for a couple of hours to cool it will take on a gel like consistency.
The biggest thing you will notice with your homemade washing up liquid is that it won't foam as you would expect. This is because there is no foaming agent, makes sense now eh? I suppose what we should be asking is why is there a foaming agent in mainstream products? Does it help? Ours doesn't clean any less. We are really pleased with it, the only thing to remember is that it doesn't contain a degreaserator so if we are washing anything really nasty we add a glug of lemon juice to the water.

Nothing in these recipes are dangerous for children so get the kiddies making it with you. It is great fun, it really doesn't take much effort and they will love the change from watery soap to gloopy cleaner. Maybe you can even con them into washing up to test it. We have failed this bit so far.

Tomorrow we will tackle dishwasher tablets, now this one was so fun and so successful that I cant wait until we have to make more!!

Little changes will make a big difference over time.

Love n hugs,

Suzi xxxxxx