These are a few tips/recipes that have saved me loads of money! Three products that we use a lot of in our house are Febreze, all purpose kitchen cleaner (Fantastic, etc.) and liquid hand soap. I used to spend at least $25 a month on these. Now I spend around $3.50 a month. This is how you can do it too!
Doing these things has saved me so much money! I hope you are able to use and enjoy them yourself. :)
Source: Needing to get my "bottom line" lower.
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A 22 oz. bottle of Clorox Spray Cleaner for hard surfaces costs about $3.00 per bottle. If you check the ingredients list, it will indicate 1% sodium hypochlorite (aka bleach) and 99% H20 (aka water).
Cleaning products: save from $25 a month to 40 cents. Grated, Ivory becomes Ivory Flakes, discontinued in 1978. I use a tablespoon in the washer. I use one bar over two weeks.
When purchasing household cleaning items, buy just a few things. In my home, bleach and vinegar works wonders.
Instead of buying the pricey spray room fresheners, I buy the refills for the automatic sprayers. They last nearly forever and are more economical. The same goes for the automatic shower cleaner.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have used US Advanage Wonder Cleaner in the past and it works like no other, but it is quite expensive and I am really into making my own products if at all possible. This product works so well however that I'm wondering if I can even duplicate it. Anybody know what is in this Wonder Cleaner?
where do you buy it? sounds like something i could use.
Mail order and door to door salespersons. Do an internet search, note the spelling "Advanage".
www.ripoffreport.com/
Thought this was important for others.
I just had a visit from one of their salespeople yesterday. I went to their website to see how to get my address on a 'do not disturb' list, and there is no way to contact them except to sign up as a dealer. The stuff is 'ok' for cleaning, nothing great, and their salespeople are the most AGGRESSIVE and obnoxious I have ever seen. This woman opened my gate and came singing loudly up to my door, and tried really hard to refuse to leave. She's lucky my dog was inside.
Ain't that the truth! But I still want to know what's in it. Maybe it's just mouthwash after all, lol.
Who cares? I stood there as the nice salesman rubbed the wonder cleaner on my shower door with his little steel wool sponge, and my crappy glass door with the worst case of hard water spots you have ever seen (I haven't been squeegeeing). Suddenly had a hole of clarity in the hard water spots. It worked. The only thing that has worked thus far is a razor blade.
I have had these guys come to my door for 3 summers in a row, the 3 I have lived in this home. I feel very uneasy when I see them in the area, they are extremely nice until I continue to say no to the purchase of the product, then they get very rude saying" how can I not help out a person trying to make an honest living instead of getting into drugs back in Ohio where he's from" etc. I got very scared and just closed and locked my door because he wouldn't leave and was getting very verbally aggressive. That was last summer, now they have come already this summer and come a few times each summer.
I have had these guys come to my door for 3 summers in a row, the 3 I have lived in this home. I feel very uneasy when I see them in the area, they are extremely nice until I continue to say no to the purchase of the product, then they get very rude saying" how can I not help out a person trying to make an honest living instead of getting into drugs back in Ohio where he's from" etc. I got very scared and just closed and locked my door because he wouldn't leave and was getting very verbally aggressive. That was last summer, now they have come already this summer and come a few times each summer.
I just had 2 guys show at my door today. They were really nice. The main guy kept asking the same questions over and over though and said he didn't have kids. Then said he had a 14 yr old. Kinda odd but let it slide. Then when we got to the part of buying I asked if there was any other way because I was broke and didn't get paid till tomorrow. The guy got very rude and asked if one of my animals were killed would I give money to someone who helped (something to that effect I stopped listening). But he tried putting me and my BF against each other. I was really interested in the product but the man wouldn't stop being so pushy. I will probably try it online but not gonna put their names down for commission.
The door to door sales people came to my house and were extremely pushy and being overly familiar with me like we were good old friends. The girl started cleaning everything in site at the front door and it worked. But then she walked in and started cleaning things in the kitchen. I got very uncomfortable with her assumption that she could just come in. Then her associate, a male, came to the door and stood there looking in. I became very uncomfortable and didn't want to buy the product and began to get an uneasy feeling. They left without me buying the product but then later she came back. I didn't answer the door. She stood there and rang my doorbell about 10 times until she got the hint I wasn't coming to the door. I looked these guys up online and have found several very negative reports on them and their sales people. I think they were casing my house and after speaking to some neighbors, they got inside their houses too.
I usually avoid door-to-door sales, because 10 times out of 10 they are overpriced, a scam, and a poor company behind the product. This situation is no different. I reluctantly purchased 2 bottles because I need to pressure wash my house. Salesman demonstrated the product. It cleaned everything, but he used a hard bristle brush and a steel wire brush to clean concrete. With these tools, almost any cleaner is going to scrub off the dirt. But I have to say the cleaner does work very well. And the 2 salespeople were very personable and polite, perhaps because I didn't say no thanks.
But I had so many problems I have to say avoid this company, say thanks but no thanks. First, it's overpriced. $36.95 for one bottle, you can get the same amount of simple green for about $10.00. Second, the salesman overcharged me. Two bottles are $64.95. Local tax is 9.75% ($6.33) for a total of $71.28. Salesman wrote $64.95 subtotal, left tax and total blank, and charged me $73.00. Dummy me should have noticed right away it was odd for it to come out to exactly $73. My neighbor also bought a 2-pack and was charged $73. Where is this extra money going? Into salespersons pockets, extra profit from the company? I called the company several times and left messages about the overcharge but no one ever answered and no one returned my calls. They said that part of the profits benefited children in inner cities but they were not clear how and the website only says "...helping young people, from the inner cities of America, learn discipline, learn how to cope with life's uncertainties, and learn how to make a living." To me, it sounds like the kids benefit from working for the company, and the company pockets all of the profits.
After purchasing it I went online and read the company reviews. People spoke of salespeople cursing and yelling if you said no or tried to return your product while they were still in the area. People said they shipped the product back and never received a refund. Those that listed their bank account number for an e-check found their bank accounts drained. Can't say if these are true but from my personal experience, I say avoid, avoid, avoid!
If you find yourself in this situation with any company, ask for a brochure or company website, and ask them to come back the next day or say you will order over the phone/web. You can say you always check a company's reputation before buying something. That way the salesperson gets the commission, and you can buy it if you want it.
The active ingredient in Advanage is called 2-Butoxyethanol. This chemical is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, does not build up in or harm groundwater, soil, etc, and is a very good dirt and grease remover. Also will polish brass (with a little elbow grease), and clean up a lot of other messes with various amounts of elbow grease.
Advanage also contains a couple of other ingredients (sodium metasilicate and d'limonene) which are fairly common and you can research them online for more information.
Advanage is extremely overpriced, and there are a number of other cleaners out there that are also based on 2-Butoxyethanol that are MUCH cheaper. You can find them at dollar stores, Walmart, etc.
My favorite is one called Super Strength MeanGreen, which is about $1.25 per quart where I live and is very concentrated. For instance, for general cleanup around the house, I add 3 TBS to a quart of water in a spray bottle. For really dirty stuff, full strength will remove it almost instantly.
The warning on the bottle says not to use it on paint, but I have been cleaning my painted walls and woodwork for years with it with no detrimental effect. I've never seen it to damage any surface and I've used it in showers, on carpets, walls, woodwork, stainless steel, porcelain, and even inside the oven.
It does have a fairly strong odor (which I find to be a pleasant scent) if sprayed on full strength, so, just like Advanage, you really must have good ventilation. I deal with that by leaving the room for a couple minutes after spraying, for example, a bathtub or shower in a small bathroom.
I've tried other products that also have the same active ingredient, but I've never found one, including Advanage, that works as well, regardless of the price.
I found this thread while looking for the active ingredient myself. I wanted to chime in that the sales guy who visited me was smart, polite, and funny. Theatre major, he said, and I believe it! I bought one quart of the concentrate because my shutters are horribly mildewed. I thought I was going to have to paint them, but apparently this stuff is going to clean them well enough that won't be necessary. I haven't decided yet if it is overpriced. It seems to me that the $45 quart will make 32-64 spray bottles full (24 oz). It seems like that is a fair price.
The actual ingredients are protected by a patent so can not be posted to public forums although Material Safety Data Sheets can be downloaded from the website: www.tbadvanagesales.com/
On Advantage 20x website you can find the Material Safety Data Sheets which list four ingredients for Advantage 20x. 1) Dipropylene Glycol Methyl Ether - I looked the chemical up on the OSHA website: industrial workers have experienced "liver changes" "Central nervous system depression - narcosis" "respiratory arrest" and other unpleasant effects after exposure. 2) Tetrasodium EDTA - On the Bubble & Bee Organic website I found the following: "Tetrasodium EDTA is a preservative made from formaldehyde and sodium cyanide. It is also a penetration enhancer, meaning it breaks down the skin's protective barrier, going right into your bloodstream." 3) Nonionic Surfactant & 4) Sodium Carbonate. If I was selling this stuff, I really, really wouldn't spray it into my mouth.
Where can I buy good quality cleaning supplies?
The grocery or dollar store. My best cleaning supplies are a bottle of white vinegar, a box of baking soda, a box of salt, and a bottle of peroxide.
I use these for 99% of my cleaning. I use the baking soda and vinegar for all basic cleaning (add it to a bucket of water).
I add salt if I need to get crud out of a pot (salt first, then let it soak with vinegar and baking soda in equal proportions.
I make a home made oxi clean for laundry stains from baking soda and peroxide (equal proportions of each).
I do use bleach for a few things, but I am really trying to get away from that because of the smell and the that it is not good for the environment.
There are a few things I clean with lemon (like the inside of the fridge) (squeeze a lemon into hot water), but you do have to be careful as it can pit porous surfaces.
What can I use to clean floors, ceiling, showers, and kitchen floors?
By Andy
vinegar and water works well
Can't say enough for Dollar Tree stores. I went today and found all kinds of Bissell cleaning products. When a mother can stock her cleaning shelf with 11 good products for $11.00 that's a bargain!
