Saving Money Daily Around the House
Updated: Apr 9, 2022
The thought of making huge changes to save your household some money can be quite intimidating, but you can actually save dollars and cents each day by making some small changes around the home to cut back on your overall expenses. Check out this quick overview of how to make a difference in your wallet!
Affordable Cleaning
As any parent knows, cleaning is basically your full-time job the second that baby arrives home and until the day that they eventually move out. For those of us cursed with the messiest of kids, it's basically a 24/7 job trying to fight against the insane amount of dirt, food, and clutter that finds itself on every surface of the home.
When you have to clean that much, it's no surprise that it's going to start taking a toll on your overall budget and savings plans... but having a clean and healthy home is also something that can't simply be passed over and put on the backburner.
Here are some of the easiest ways to reuse items you already have instead of generating more waste and buying more replacements:
Instead of using napkins and paper towels for every spill, use dish rags, old cloths, etc. As long as you've cleaned it well, it will work just the same. Simply toss it in the washer when you're done, and you have a perfectly effective and reusable cleaning rag that will last you far longer than disposable and wasteful paper goods.
Make your own cleaning mixes. Although I'm always going to be a hardcore fan of certain disinfectants, when it comes to needing a daily spray to wipe down your counters and other surfaces after every use, it's much cheaper to make your own homemade cleaning solution rather than using that expensive, name brand product for every single use. There are plenty of vinegar-based, bleach-based, and other easy-to-make mixes you can put together yourself with minimal effort and minimal expense. Save those expensive products for when you really want to hardcore clean!
Reducing Food Waste
This is often best accomplished by trying to plan out some of your meals. However, there are still a few things to keep in mind without having to worry about any planning or other tasks that require brainpower, and these can easily begin making a difference in your overall expenses after a while.
Try to use interchangeable ingredients as the main stars of your meals. For example, you can easily cook up a batch of cheapo, boil-in-a-bag white rice in just ten minutes. Minimal effort. In great news though, especially if you have picky eaters, that rice can be paired with black beans to make a perfectly suitable meal, with tomatoes for Spanish rice, with gravy and your preferred choice of meat to pair with such, or even scrambled up with some eggs and pan-fried to make fried rice. You could use it as a side and then choose to use those lingering leftovers a day or two later to make an entirely different dish, such as those listed prior. Versatility is key, and then you won't have kids or spouses whining about eating the same food 24/7, and you'll also completely avoid food waste too.
Freezer bags are your best friend. Now, not everything will reheat as well, and not everything can be thawed later and used as-is or even repurposed. Storage bags are not miracle workers. However, you'd be surprised how many things are easily frozen and thawed later with minimal deterioration.
Entertaining the Kids
The extent to which kids need to constantly be entertained is just mindblowing to me sometimes. How do they have all this energy? How do they have absolutely no desire to take a break after numerous board games, puzzles, and multiple rounds of hide and seek? Why are they bored and harrasing me yet again when it's only been about 90 seconds since we just finished up the 500th game of the day?
If you're lucky enough to have a child that's willing to calm down for a moment and watch a quick movie or tv show—or maybe you've hit the jackpot and have an older child that's turned into a total bookworm—your local library should be your best friend at this point. Local libraries are absolutely saviors when it comes to saving money on books and DVDs. They have everything from baby books to comics to junior-level novels and more. For the little ones who are unable to read yet, they also tend to have a great selection of kid-friendly movies, if your munchkin is willing to let themselves be distracted for an hour or so for you to get things done around the home.
Although you will still be spending money, you'll at least be saving a good deal if you turn to your local thrift store when your kids want new toys or even some affordable dress-up clothes. If you've got a Halloween-obsessed kid, you know how much even the cheapest of off-brand costumes costs on Amazon, Luckily, with a bit of patience, you can find some fun attire for your kids to dress up and play in at your local thrift store for a fraction of the price! Even aside from fun clothes to give them hours of imaginative play, you can often find plenty of like-new toys if you simply look. (And for the germ-paranoid parents, a little bit of sanitizing will make these perfectly safe for your youngins even though they were pre-owned.)
How to Save More
As you can likely tell, we're still adding more content to the website to provide readers with even more information to help them save money and successfully manage their kids and household.
Check back in with us soon for a directory of even more tips and tricks to make your life easier!
In the meantime, why not read more about how to easily boost your savings with minimal effort or how to clean your home in just minutes a day?