How I Came To The Number $522 and Some Cleaning Recipes Too!

In looking at the website today, I am sure that I have my dollar amount of allotted food stamps wrong, but I am going to stick with the number I came up with yesterday anyway. (I took the minimum wage here which is $8.40x40x4 = $1344. The government says that I should be using 30% of this amount on food from my own cash. This amount = $403. I then subtracted that amount from the total amount the government will give a family of 6 which is $925. This new amount is $522. Some of you might say well, really you could be spending up to $925 a month of food expenses. But let's be real here...if our family was only bringing in $1344 a month (before taxes, mind you) there is no way that I am going to have any of my own money to allot for groceries when I would have rent, utilities, phone bill, child costs (and I don't think I could afford a car on that amount, so I didn't even factor that in). So, that is why I am using the $522 dollar amount because that is the dollar amount of food stamps we would get. The formula is more complicated than that for example I can subtract several items such as rent and other things from that $1344 to get even more aid from the government, but in order to simplify everything for me and my brain I just chose to calculate the amount of my food budget for this month using the formula above. (If you are curious to get your own figure this is the website I used.)

Yesterday I went to the store in order to get garbage bags, more carrots, and dishwasher detergent. I have $22 left in my food budget for this week. I want to save some of it for fresh veggies and fruit at the end of the week. So, I wanted to only use around $9 for these items. Well, we all know that dishwasher detergent and garbage bags alone could set you back over that amount, so I had to make my first choice. I decided to get the carrots and the garbage bags and forgo the dishwasher detergent. My thought process was that I could either hand wash the dishes or I could make my own dishwasher detergent. I opted for the latter.

This got me to thinking about how much money I already save by making my own laundry detergent and household cleaners and I thought I could pass those on to those of you who currently use traditional cleaners, but are going to join me in this challenge and are looking for ways to save money.


Laundry Soap

1 Bar of Fels Naptha
2 Cups of Washing Soda (not baking soda)
2 Cups of Borax

*Mix/Shake all of these ingredients up in a container and use 1 to 2 Tbsp per load of laundry
*I prefer the powder laundry soap. Many people prefer liquid. There are a ton of recipes online that you find to make liquid laundry soap.

Fabric Softener

White Distilled Vinegar

*You do not have to use the "cleaning" white distilled vinegar. That is a marketing ploy by the makers of the vinegar to get you to pay more money for the same product you can just get in the aisle that sells plain old vinegar.
*I just put the vinegar in the liquid fabric softener dispenser in my washing machine.

Essential Oils

*I use essential oils to help make my laundry smell pretty. You can use any scent, but I prefer lemon or peppermint. I place between 5-10 drops in the water before putting my dirty laundry in and my clothes come out with a faint smell of lemon or whatever other scent I put in.
*I use tea tree oil because of its antibacterial properties in loads such as towels & whites.

Hydrogen Peroxide

I use hydrogen peroxide in my whites because it has bleaching properties.

Floor Cleaner

Equal parts warm water, distilled white vinegar, and rubbing alcohol.
 (I buy the 70% rubbing alcohol bottles.)

Counter Spray

Hydrogen Peroxide

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Baking Soda & White Distilled Vinegar
Tea Tree Oil (a few drops)

Tub Cleaner

Baking Soda
Hydrogen Peroxide

*Mix ingredients together until you have paste. Apply to tile walls -if you have them - and in grout. Hydrogen peroxide will help to whiten any stains you have. If you have tough stains you may have to leave the solution on for a while.


All of these products can be purchased for under a dollar if you buy the smaller boxes/bottles. I buy my baking soda at Sam's Club because I use it for pretty much everything. I also buy the larger bottle of vinegar at Walmart for around $2.50 a bottle. Depending on how much laundry I have to do that week it takes between 2-3 weeks to go through 1 bottle of vinegar.