If you're interested in learning how to save money by making your own products, LoveToKnow Save is here to help.
The Benefits of Making Your Own Products
In addition to helping you save money, learning how to make your own products offers the following benefits:
- You'll never have to run to the store at the last minute to pick up an item if you know how to make it yourself.
- You'll be able to completely control the quality of the products you use by carefully selecting your own ingredients.
- You'll cut down on the amount of packaging that ends up in landfills.
- In many cases, handmade products are more eco-friendly than commercially-prepared counterparts because they use natural ingredients instead of harsh chemicals.
How to Save Money by Making Your Own Products
The best way to save money by making your own products is to think about what items your family uses on a regular basis. Once you've made your list, focus on gradually replacing the most expensive products with homemade alternatives. Making every item from scratch may not be practical, but making two or three of the most frequently used products yourself is a simple way to add some extra cash to your household budget.
Household Cleaning Products
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to purchase large amounts of specialty cleaners to keep your home neat and tidy. Lemon juice, cornstarch, olive oil, baking soda, salt, white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and talcum powder can be used to clean almost any surface in your home for a fraction of the cost of commercially-prepared cleaning products. Our article on How to Make Natural Cleaning Products has a few basic tips to help you get started making your own cleaning supplies.
If you have a large family, laundry detergent is probably one of your largest cleaning product expenditures. There are many ways to save money on laundry detergent, such as using coupons and careful comparison shopping. However, you can also try making you own detergent. The Simple Dollar has an easy-to-follow laundry detergent tutorial, as well as an interesting demonstration of how well homemade detergent removes a mustard stain from a white t-shirt compared to washing with Tide.
Kitchen Mixes
If a large portion of your grocery bill includes Hamburger Helper, Bisquick, and other convenience food items, it's easy to save money by making your own products. Prepared mixes are essentially just various combinations of the basic ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.To start making your own kitchen mixes, check out the following helpful Web sites:
- Budget 101 has a large listing of convenience mix recipes.
- Allrecipes has several suggestions for making your own seasoning blends instead of cluttering your kitchen cabinets with expensive spice combinations.
- Recipe Goldmine has a collection of gifts in a jar recipes that may also be useful for saving money in your own kitchen.
Children's Art Supplies
If you're a parent with young children at home, you know that purchasing art supplies on a regular basis can get expensive. Save money by making homemade versions of your child's favorite artistic mediums. Check out the following articles to get started:
- Recycling Old Crayons into New Crayons
- Organic Finger Paints
- Recipes for Silly Putty and Play Dough
Cosmetics
The question of whether making your own cosmetics helps you save money is open for debate. If you normally purchase top brands from the fanciest salon in town, making your own products will definitely save you money. If you are buying your makeup at the local drugstore, however, your savings from making your own products might not be as much as you had hoped. But, if you'd like to try making your own products, the MakingCosmetics website has several different recipes for lip balm, makeup remover, hair conditioner, cuticle rub, and other beauty treats.
