Non-Food Consumables

[Leta]

Hi there, this is my first post at SS. I ended up here, in a roundabout way, from BYC.

I've been reading thru this section, but have yet found any threads that covered this.

We are working toward buying another house where we can raise more of our food, but even right now we have a very low food bill. (Me, DH, almost teen stepson half time, a preschooler and a toddler.) We spend around $300 per month eating 80%-100% scratch, organic, humane foods.

My Waterloo is the non-food portion of our groceries, though. I cannot seem to get this under $100 per month. This does not include any durable goods (which I classify as things you wear out rather than things you use up.)

Regularly, I buy:

toothpaste
toothbrushes
floss
first aid supplies and OTC meds
fish oil (our only supplement)
razor blades
aloe (hair/shave gel, burn cream)
qtips
toothpicks
ziptop bags in a bunch of sizes
parchment and/or waxed paper
borax
washing soda
fels naptha
generic oxyclean
essential oils
Magic Erasers
office supplies - pencils, pen refills, printer cartridges, tape, paper, kid art supplies
TP
contact solution
paper napkins/towels, whatever is cheapest
cat food (~$15 every 6 weeks)
dog food (ditto)

Once a year or less, I buy:

nail polish remover and cotton pads
3 new nail polishes
(boring, I only wear three colors, I get them from e.l.f. where they are $1 per bottle)
new makeup (Everyday Minerals, $25-$50)
2 big tubes Retin A micro (only ongoing rx, lasts at least a year, $100)
Food Saver bags
canning supplies (we are planning on getting some Tattler lids this year, and we try to buy jars for 25c/ea at the thrift store, but it still adds up as we seem to do more canning every year)
gardening supplies, not including seeds (potting soil, stakes, peat pots, bulbs)
aquarium charcoal (I've hacked and now reuse Brita filters, the charcoal is much cheaper than new filters)

I make:

dishwasher and laundry "detergent"
soap that we use for shampoo, shaving, and regular washing
sunblock
bug repellent
fabric softener (I go thru very little as I try to line dry as much as possible)
stain treatment (I go thru tons; I have three kids)
deodorant
lip balm
all cleaning products except for Magic Erasers
moisturizer

The prorated cost of the ingredients to make this stuff is pretty low. I buy stuff to make laundry/dishwasher powder roughly once a year, it costs around $40 for a year's supply of both. Cleaning supplies consist mainly of vinegar and baking soda, which run about $12 per month, but I am starting to homebrew vinegar and will buy a 50# bag of baking soda next month when the pool supply house gets it in, so that will hopefully trim those costs. I have a virtual lifetime supply of beeswax and sunblock minerals, the last time I bought this stuff was at least 6 years ago and I am maybe 25% through it.

We use cloth for almost everything. I do keep a supply of paper napkins/towels on hand for cleaning cast iron and for truly gross messes, but we only use about 1 pkg/roll per month. Same with TP- we use cloth wipes for pee, so this cuts down on TP considerably. We have massive restaurant size foil and plastic wrap. We buy environut handwash dishwashing detergent every four years or so, 5 gallons at a time, for about $60.

I do use coupons and watch sales, but once we move out of town, I don't know how practical this is going to be. I will probably lose my free source of coupon inserts, and in order to save on gas I will be giving DH a list of things to pick up on his way home from work, rather than being able to chase sales on my own like I do now. I would love to hear about any good internet/mail order sources of this stuff.

The only thing not included in this spending category is wood pellets. We use these for heating our house through the winter and for cat litter. We spend about $700 per year on these, but we don't include them in the non-food consumables category because they are more of a utility/energy cost. (We use the already broken down dregs in the bottom of the bag for cat litter, so it is essentially free.)

I have this goal of $50 per week for all grocery spending, food and non-food consumables, once we are producing most of our food and only have to buy things like oils, spices, coffee, olives, grains and citrus.

I would love to hear what other people are doing, and any ideas. I don't expect people to go into the same amount of detail that I have, unless you want to, of course.

 

[valmom]

I don't know if I have any solutions, but it is amazing how fast the non-food category of "food shopping" adds up. Sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on anything I might suggest. What about a free membership trial to some place like BJ's or Sams Club (we have BJ's around here) and really stocking up on huge volume? The annual membership makes it not too worth it, but they periodically send out free trials in the mail.

 

[keljonma]

Recommend you think about which items on the list you definitely could not dispense with. For instance, borax, washing soda and fels naptha are used to make laundry soap, [I'm guessing - that is what I use] so those imo are not disposable items. It costs us $12 a year to make liquid laundry detergent.

A number of us don't use any paper products anymore...some are even using washable reuseable cloth instead of tp all the time.

Personally, we haven't used paper toweling in years, even for the grungy stuff. I usually wash and line dry the rags and keep them for grungy jobs.

For toothpaste, there is the baking soda, hydrogen peroxide option. And I seem to remember threads here on SS for making your own deodorant, toothpaste, oxyclean, soaps, shampoos and animal foods. Of course, it depends on how much you want to do for yourself; but I see from your list that you are very willing to go extreme in what you will do to save money. I sincerely applaud your efforts. I am not *that* good.

Aloe you could grow, which, depending on your usage, might be the way to go.

Could you use saline water instead of contact solution? I used to wear contacts and used plain saline because I was experiencing issues with the preservatives in the cleaning solution.

As for coupons, it will depend on your area. Maybe you could check this out when relocating. The stores in my area will not accept any coupons that aren't from a newspaper or magazine. So computer generated coupons are not accepted. I even had two coupons that were emailed to me from Ball Preserving that had my name and address printed on them and the store manager would not accept them! And only one store in our local area doubles coupons, but then only on Thursday for up to 75 cents.

I try to use large canning jars for storage instead of plastic. But, of course, it is hard to do sometimes, when a flat bag in the freezer takes up less room than a jar. But I try to avoid plastics whenever possible.

For the first aid and otc meds, we use generic whenever possible. But you want to be prepared, so you can't cut them off the needs list, imo.

As for Magic Erasers, I use the generic. But aren't they a "necessity"? They just seem to do it all.

I could write more, but I am sure you will lots of other responses; this is a pretty helpful, ingenious crowd.



edited for typos

 

[Leta]

You can make oxyclean at home? Do tell!

Call me a dingbat, but is there a difference between saline and contact solution? I honestly don't know, I thought contact solution was just sterile saline.

 

[Leta]

Oh, and I would ditch all plastic in a heartbeat, but I'm still working on DH. He doesn't ask for much, but he's the chef around here and keeps telling me that I'll get the cling wrap from his cold, dead hands.

 

[FarmerChick]

today I bought 6 tubes of colgate toothpaste for FREE

coupons baby!

and 6 toothbrushes for FREE


oh yea I will be a no retail pay person from here on LOL

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I think it is good to remember that it is impossible to be a true island. We do need each other, so those few items that are a must that cannot be created at home, should not be a worry.
Essential oils for instance. Those require a huge amount of fairly expert work to create.
Find a contact for them that you want to support.
In turn, find an outlet for a product that you enjoy creating, that you can sell to others.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

How do you make your own sunblock?

 

[Sunny]

Coupons are great. But hard to find ones for stuff that you really need and not stuff that is highly processed..

I go to www.mojosavings.com I get tons of samples. Shampoo, conditioner, pet food, toothpaste, and many other things.. Actually during the winter when money is even more tight. The shampoo, toothpaste, and feminine products lasted us for 3 months.

They have coupons on there too. Ones that you cant find in the newspapers and magazines. I dont have a printer, so those are no good for me.


About the Aloe.. You could grow aloe plants indoors.. Or if you are in a climate where you can grow hens and chick plant. The liquid from those plants are just like aloe. It is also knows as the poor mans aloe.. It grows faster and better in many places than aloe.. I read this in a herbal medical book. Sorry cant remember which one right now..

Thats all I can think of right now..

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

How do you make your own sunblock?

psst...I take fermented cod liver oil and I no longer burn, tan or anything in between Even with being in full sun all day.