3 Ways to Cut Household Costs Naturally

Cost of living crisis mode identified. Mortgage increases, power bill increases, food and fuel! You know what? I was talking to a friend of mine who said they received their Home and Contents premium renewal (from whom will remain nameless, but they've been with them for years), and the premium increased by 22%! That is one heck of an increase. And the reasons? Apparently, simplified as "various".

Trying to make sense of it all just sends one into a blind panic sometimes. When it seems that everyone else in this world either has their hand out or dictates to you what you do you with hard earned dollars trying to take back a little control can feel like a massive achievement.

We've come up with our top 3 ways to help cut some of those daily life expenses, and of course it all comes down to doing things naturally.

1 - SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER

Are you spending $18 a month each on Shampoo and Conditioner? Why not try $18 a year? 1L of shampoo can last a whole year! The standard dosage for dispensing shampoo is two pumps from a 5mL lotion/gel pump. That's 10ml. That's 100 washes from 1L of shampoo. If you can cut your washes back to twice per week, and there's a lot of support from the hair experts out there that we should be reducing our hair washing even further to allow it to develop its own natural oils, 1L of shampoo will technically last 54 weeks. 

I must admit that I personally use a little more than 10ml per wash and these days get about 6 months out of my shampoo which right now i have added fractionated coconut, Kakadu Plum Extract and Fragonia oil to.

Even still, the total cost upfront for this exercise was $89 to buy everything once. Beyond the first litre of shampoo base i still have plenty of ingredients to go again for another year. 

Compare this to the $216 a year i would have spent on a monthly daily shampoo at $18 per bottle and we have a savings of $127 the equivalent to:

• one tank of fuel
• half a grocery shop
• another term of kids sport
• a mobile phone bill

Every little bit goes a long way.

2. SOAP NUTS FOR THE $34.25 IN SAVINGS WIN

Anti-bacterial, planet saving and wallet saving? Yes please! 
We all love soap nuts. I'm on the wagon, are you? 
Naturally anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-microbal they're a 100% pesticide free (originated from certified organic producers) eco friendly wonder cleaner.
Once the nuts have been used up simply pop them into your compost or bury them into decompost. Further Soapnuts are grey-water and bio-septic approved.

Now onto the penny pinching part:

500gm of Soapnuts can handle 75 loads of laundry at $19.00. That’s a cost of only $0.25 per wash. As a comparison the #1 rated Laundry Powder as reviewed by Choice.com.au costs $22.00 for 31 washes. That’s $0.71 per wash. Switching to Soapnuts will save you $34.25 across the equivalent number of washes.

In my household of 3 + dog we go through maybe 5-6 loads of washing a week. Towels, sheets, reds, colours, whites, under-things. So I'm spending $22 per 31 washes if I'm using the number one choice reviewed laundry powder from the local supermarket. Let's say that's per month with my 5-6 washes per week.
By switching to Soap Nuts i'm spending LESS upfront and it's lasting me well beyond two whole months. So i've cut my spend in half.

Across a whole year with store-bought i would spend $234 ($0.75 x 6 washes per week x 52 weeks).

With Soapnuts i only spend $78 a year. That's a $156 saving!

Want more? Not only can soap nuts can replace almost any cleaning product in your house! Have a read of some recipes here.

ANTIBACTERIAL SPRAY AND KITCHEN FRIEND

Our Starter Sets have all your basics to cover health, home, body and mind, and in this includes Eucalyptus! Can we get a cheer please? Diluted eucalyptus with water or vinegar will clean everything? Got a stain on the bench? Eucalyptus will get that. Need to freshen the floor? Eucalyptus will do that. Windows need a clean? Eucalyptus will do that too!

My picks for the most effective and anti-bacterial of the Eucalyptus lot (because we currently have 6 varieties available) include Eucalyptus Peppermint Gum for a slightly menthol like twist, Eucalyptus Blue Mallee for that "i mean business" Eucalyptus smell, and finally, Eucalyptus Narrow Leaf Peppermint - in my view a nice balance of the previous two in aroma.

Right, onto the savings part. Each of these bottles start at $10/$11 for 17ml. 2-3 drops of Eucalyptus in a tablespoon of vinegar or water will do a bench top. Or use it straight on non food-contact surface areas. For eucalyptus oil typically 1ml is the equivalent to 10 drops. So in a 17ml bottle there is approximately 170 drops. If we're using 2-3 drops per cleaning exercise that's the equivalent to between 56 and 85 cleans.

Lets flesh this out a little further. If we're putting 2-3 drops in a tablespoon (20ml) of water for cleaning and we're getting 56 to 85 cleans, that's 1.12-1.7L of cleaning liquid from only $11. 

Compare this to Pine O Clean's all purpose disinfectant at $6 for 400ml. That's a saving of $5 just on volume only.

Not only is it cheaper than store bought options, it's better for you than the toxic chemicals you get exposed to.

Right now is the time to keep your chin up, take back control where you can and feel better knowing that you didn't have to go to chemicals just to be cheaper. These three tips alone have saved you over $160 at least.