Don't buy from her, she's a piece of work.
OK, I'm Ronnie and you're listening to Clean With Me, the
podcast where I walk you through cleaning your house step by
step. When you clean along with this
show, you'll get more done in less time, so you can spend the
rest of your day doing what matters most to you.
In today's episode, I'm going to talk you through a few daily
minimums. There are certain things where
if you do them, it keeps you afloat.
Not every day is a deep cleaning day, of course, but doing these
daily minimums and getting into the habit of doing these daily
minimums can be a game changer. And I'm going to talk about a
topic that a financial supporter requested that I address on this
podcast, and that is budgeting during Hard times, maybe you
need to get presentable and fixed up for the day, put on
something you're comfortable in and that you feel good in, and
maybe even put on some shoes, especially if there are crumbs
or grit, dirt, whatever on your floors in the kitchen or if you
have hard floors elsewhere. It can feel a lot better to have
shoes on. I do sometimes clean barefoot,
but if I know that my kitchen floor has seen better days, I'll
put on some slides or even some comfortable tennis shoes to
clean in. Another thing you might want to
do to gear up for your cleaning session.
And this can be a daily minimum. Well, let me put it to you this
way. Even if you don't wash laundry
every day, you need to at least think about laundry and wash
something if needed, basically. So if you're in kind of survival
mode, you might need to do a load of towels and underwear or
uniforms, work clothes for yourself or someone else.
You know what needs to be done. Or maybe it's been more than a
week or two since you've washed your own bedding.
You can get those sheets into the washer.
Just basically, if you need to do a load of laundry that can be
part of your minimums for today. Or maybe you're in a state of
overwhelm and you have some clothes in the washing machine
that you forgot to put into the dryer.
You might need to rewash that load with some laundry detergent
and a little bit of white vinegar.
But of course, if you're trying to save money, set an alarm so
that you don't end up rewashing stuff.
I mean, do that anyway if you tend to forget.
Another thing you might want to do, and I'm not expecting you to
do all of this. Everybody has different things
around their house that need to be done.
But you might want to do something to get your house
smelling good. Something that cost you $0.00 is
opening the windows and letting some fresh air circulate
through. I often talk about lighting a
candle or starting some fresh wax in the wax warmer, but the
person who requested that I talk about this is in a tight
financial situation. So one possible way of getting
your house smelling good if you don't have any candles or or or
wax melts on hand is just kind of making it a homemade
potpourri out of things that you may already have on hand.
Basically boiling a small pot of water on the stove, tossing in
things like cinnamon sticks and orange peels, maybe a little
vanilla. Basically when money is tight,
you you wanna use things that you already have on hand rather
than going out and buying anything.
So that's an alternate way of getting your house smelling
good. I used to have a small like a
miniature slow cooker. I guess it was for like keeping
a cheese sauce warm or something.
I never really used it for that. I used it as a wax warmer and
then sometimes I used it as a potpourri warmer.
You know, sometimes you got to be creative.
Instead of going out and getting a new gadget, just use something
you already have around the house, whether it's a pot on the
stove or a little mini crockpot. By now you've had time to gear
up for your cleaning session. It's time to quickly straighten
up the front entrance or your main living area, whichever area
needs your attention. And maybe your your front
entrance and living area are one and the same, or maybe they're
two different rooms. Let's do a quick straighten of
these key areas, and then when you're done doing that, you're
gonna wanna gather up any dirty dishes from around the house and
get those to the sink. Dishes are always gonna be part
of your minimums. You've got to keep your house
functioning by keeping up on dishes and laundry, and then
keep it under control by picking up.
You'd be surprised what a 5 minute pickup can do, and that's
what I want you to be working on.
Right now is just a 5 minute pickup of your front entrance,
main living area, or whichever area of your home needs
attention. And sometimes you can go through
your whole house in 5 minutes depending on the state of it.
While you're working on that, I'll talk about cleaning
products. This person asked me about my
favorite affordable cleaning products.
The cleaning products that I use when I'm trying to tighten my
belt, first of all, are just things that I already have on
hand. The cheapest cleaning product
you could ever use is something you already got have on hand
because that way you don't have to buy something else.
So I encourage you during times when you're trying not to spend
money to go through your bathroom cupboards, your
cupboard up above the refrigerator, wherever you keep
your cleaning products. Maybe maybe you have some extra
things out in the garage. Maybe you left some glass
cleaner out in the garage from when you were cleaning your car
windshield or something. During tough times, you gather
up those products that are scattered around your house and
garage and you use whatever those are.
But as far as buying products, if you've been listening to the
show for a while, you know that I encourage pampering yourself
by buying nice products that you enjoy using.
Whether it's an expensive spray in your favorite scent for
cleaning your countertops and table tops, or maybe a multi
surface spray that makes your cleaning easier because it just
works on every possible surface. A glass and surface cleaner
basically that works on every surface in your home.
But that having been said, if I was in a financial spot, I would
clean my entire house using Commodore Ajax, which is a super
affordable bleach powder. You know, if, if you're not in
the US, maybe there's a different brand that you use or
whatever. Most of you know what Commodore
Ajax is. I mean, I kind of think Windex
works better than generic, but when I'm trying to save money,
if I get some Ajax, some generic glass cleaner and some liquid
dish soap, I'm pretty good to go.
And of course, laundry detergent.
And that's another thing I kind of downgrade my laundry
detergent. I usually like to use the all
free and clear, but when I'm trying to save money, sometimes
I get the arm and hammer one that's in the white container.
I mean, it's, it's really hard to test them out and see which
one works better. I I feel like the all is a
little bit better, but I use the arm and hammer when I'm trying
to save money. If I had nothing in the house, I
would buy a container of Comet or Ajax.
That would be for cleaning out my sinks, bathtubs, toilets,
toilet bowls, etcetera. And then some generic glass
cleaner, of course, for Windows, mirrors and the liquid dish soap
would, would be what I would use on my kitchen counters and
whatnot. And I'd buy a large container of
the dish soap because it's more affordable when you buy it, you
know, in large quantities. I mean, those are the bare
minimum cleaning products. By now you've picked up your
house. I'll talk about some other
things you can use. But by now you've picked up your
house or at least those key areas.
It's time to gather up dirty dishes, if you haven't already
done so, and take those to the sink or next to the sink.
I I mean, if you have a huge sink and only a few dishes, you
might be placing everything in the sink.
But I normally place them next to the sink before I wash
because when I want to start with a clean sink, when I go to
wash dishes. So I want to clean out the sink
first 'cause sometimes people leave random things in the sink
and there's food or whatever. You want to clean out your sink
before you begin and then you want to start filling up one
side if it's a 2 sided sink with the hot water and dish soap and
then you might be pre rinsing on the other side and then placing
items into that dishwater. But you might have a sink with
just one basin. I'm not one of those influencers
that has that huge sink with a little protective grid in the
bottom. No, I've just got an old school
sink that's two sided. Maybe you're starting on that
for sink load, or you need to empty, reload and run your
dishwasher. Or maybe you need to get some
difficult items soaking before you begin.
Or you might need to empty your drying rack, empty your
dishwasher, or maybe a little bit of everything.
Lately I've been, I mentioned this in another episode, I'm not
sure if it was a bonus episode or regular, but lately I've been
doing a thing where I do the pre rinse of all the small stuff
that you know, like I've always done the cups, silverware,
plates. I get that stuff into the
dishwasher, but I don't start it immediately because I don't want
to compromise the water pressure while I'm washing other items in
the sink. So if you feel like your
dishwasher is less effective certain times than others, it
could be that you're running water at the same time as
running your dishwasher. So it's not going to hurt
anything to let that dirty stuff sit as long as you start the
dishwasher before you leave the kitchen.
As far as budgeting, you need to go through your bank account
history for the last month or two and start writing down how
much you spend on each item. You can also have a stack of
bills in front of you, but a lot of us go paperless with most of
our bills. So the best way to do it is to
look over your bank account. You probably have an app on your
phone. Go over your transaction history
for the last couple of months and jot down how much you paid
for your for your electric bill, your water bill, how much you
spent on groceries, et cetera. And then armed with that
information, you're either going to create a spreadsheet or you
can download the free version of the Every Dollar app or some
other budgeting app I use Every Dollar.
Also, spending more time at home will save you a lot of money, so
keeping a clean house can help keep your spirits high while
you're sitting around the house. Instead of getting together with
a friend. You can put in earbuds and talk
on the phone while you clean. Once you run out of these
episodes or whatever, be working on dishes, whatever that means
for you. And then of course, when you're
done with the dishes, give your countertops and stove top a
swipe. And to really get your kitchen
looking good, be sure to wipe the fronts of your large
appliances. That's where that, you know,
generic glass cleaner or your vinegar mixture would come into
play. And maybe you also need to wipe
down cabinets and stuff. But this is kind of your
minimum. So you're gonna wanna do your
dishes, clean your sink, the area around the faucet, the
stove top, countertops, tabletop if you've used the table
recently, and then of course, sweep.
Some of you need to sweep your kitchen every day.
If you hate it, get a vacuum. But you need to sweep or vacuum
your kitchen floor every day if there are a lot of crumbs.
It could be that you have dogs who are tracking in like sand if
you live in an area like my area.
Or it could be kids dropping crumbs.
Or a combination of both. But some of you might be
thinking I only need to sweep the kitchen like once a week or
whatever. Another reason you might need to
sweep the kit kitchen floor often is cooking from scratch.
You or your spouse is chopping and stuff flying, then that's a
reason to sweep daily as well. But while you're working in the
kitchen, I'll talk about some other affordable cleaning
products. You could cut your old bath
towels into rags instead of buying cleaning rags.
You don't absolutely have to have a sponge.
You can use just a scrub brush on a handle to pre rinse your
dishes and then a dish rag to wipe them.
The way I my husband and I like washing dishes by hand is we
like using the scrub mommy. Before we were using that, we
were using a Scotch Brite sponge, but we like using a
sponge that has a rough abrasives side for scraping
stuff off and then a soft side to, you know, get the greasiness
off. Basically, you you need both,
but alternatively, you can use a scrub brush on a handle and just
a a dishcloth or AKA dish rag. And those items last longer than
the sponges that need to be replaced.
So that's that's another way you can save there.
But again, saving money on cleaning products and cleaning
tools kind of goes against my philosophy of pampering yourself
when you're cleaning. But at the same time, we all
have those times where we're we're trying to tighten, tighten
our belts like do a do a no spend month where all we're
spending on is just food and nothing else.
And Speaking of using rags instead of disposable sponges,
this isn't really cleaning related per SE, but you could
quit buying paper towels for a while.
A while back I bought some reusable paper towel.
Well, not paper towels, but paper towel substitutes where
they were these cute little, I don't know how to explain them,
but one side had like a, a, a print fabric that had like
coffee and coffee mugs and the word coffee on it or something
like that. And then the other side was kind
of a Terry cloth like a towel. And then they had little snaps.
So basically you could create a roll of these towels and put it
on a tape paper towel holder and then use them in place of paper
towels. It was kind of a gimmick, but it
was super cute. And obviously when you get stuff
like that, like other people in your household don't really get
it and they're just kind of throwing those in the drawer and
using them for cleaning rags or whatever.
But for a while we did the whole cloth paper towel thing and it
was cute. I had a falling out with the
person, so I'm not going to be promoting it.
I might have promoted in an old episode.
Don't buy from her. She's a piece of work.
OK, but you don't have to get some fancy reusable paper towels
either. You can just use dish towels in
the kitchen instead of paper towels for cleaning up messes
and whatnot. And if you were buying napkins
or you were using paper towels as napkins like we do, 'cause we
just, you know how the paper towels allow you to tear off
like half of a paper towel? That's what we use as napkins.
I know when my mom comes over, she's super appalled.
Like, do you have any napkins? Like she doesn't really get the
whole using paper towels as napkins thing.
But whether your team paper towels as napkins or you buy
actual napkins, you can use real napkins to save money.
It's just not always practical in every family.
Everybody's lifestyle is different, but when my husband
and I first got married, he had two kids from a previous
marriage who would spend the night like once a week.
But for the most part, it was me, him, and then we had a had a
baby shortly after we got married.
So most dinners were just, you know, the, the three of us
basically. And so we had these blue cloth
napkins that went in the little napkin holders and then we had a
matching tablecloth. But I feel like later on when I
had a bunch of kids and I would try to do cloth napkins, they
were just kind of getting lost in the clean laundry pile or
something. So may not be practical for your
family, but if if you're just a couple or a small family and
you're not overwhelmed with clean laundry, you're putting
away laundry as you go, The the cloth napkins could be the way
to go and they feel elegant too. By now your dishes are probably
done and hopefully you're wiping down countertops.
Remember, you can just use dish soap and dish rag.
You know, dish soap, hot water in a dish rag.
That's the way my husband wipes down the countertops.
I never really see him using my little fancy sprays.
That's just something I like to use and I usually, truth be
told, I usually clean the countertops with dish soap 1st
and then I just use those sprays as a finishing touch.
And part of it is kind of an aromatherapy experience for me.
I like the way that that those sprays smell, you know like the
method or the Myers or whatever. This is not sponsored, but you
know, nice smelling products and you might even like the smell of
strong cleaning products like like some kind of Lysol or
Clorox spray. My point is though, that we
don't have to use those fancy sprays to get our kitchen clean.
We can wipe down the countertops, stove top, cabinets
with a damp cloth with dish soap on it, and then we can use a
generic glass cleaner to wipe down the fronts of our.
Stainless steel appliances and the windows on those appliances,
meaning like the microwave window, the oven window, all in
one fell swoop. And it doesn't take long to wipe
those surfaces. So as soon as you're done, I
encourage you to sweep your kitchen floor.
And Speaking of mopping, your mop fluid could be a mixture of
white vinegar and water. It could be a mixture of liquid
dish soap and glass cleaner. Just get creative with whatever
you have on hand. I don't always buy the pre
moistened swiffer pads or a special mop liquid, but I do
just fill my sink up with some type of cleaning product in hot
water when I don't have anything else to mop with.
So you can mop with whatever. Or maybe you have some other
minimums that you need to run and do, like make your bed.
Making your bed instantly makes your bedroom look better and can
encourage you to kind of pick up clutter throughout the day.
Or maybe there's a a clean laundry pile you want to work
on. I know after I record this
episode, I'm planning to run my kids to school and then come
back and tackle that clean laundry basket that I have in my
room. And it's a little more than a
basket. I did away with this like bin
that I had in there, but somehow my husband started putting clean
clothes into a large plastic tub that's bigger than a laundry
basket. So it's it feels a little
overwhelming and I want to get that stuff put away.
So your minimum might be getting caught up on those clean
clothes. And if it takes you a long time
to find something to wear and get out the door, that's your
sign to put away that residual pile of clean laundry.
I feel like it's not always one of my daily minimums, but it
should be. I definitely want to do that
today. I spent a lot of time in my
kitchen yesterday. So today is more of a laundry
focus. And sometimes there's just
something that your spouse's pet peeve, you know, if he wants the
TV remote to be, you know, on the side table in the living
room when he gets off work or on the bed, or he's he's hoping
there's a clean towel hanging up in the bathroom.
These little things that take minutes to do can help you avoid
a lot of arguments. And don't get me wrong, there
are things he should be doing for you too.
Yes, we should overlook certain things, but we all have things
that are fairly important to us. I I watched a video online where
a husband just wanted his wife to wipe the kids faces like
before he got home from work. I guess he didn't like the whole
buggery situation where their noses are running and there's
food and whatever. Like he, he wanted her to have
started dinner and wipe the kids faces off or something.
And really that's not a lot. She might have felt like
overwhelmed with housework or whatever, but she probably could
have let some of the housework slide to do like those two
things. They were in marriage counseling
or whatever. So of course there were a couple
things that she wanted him to do.
I just don't remember what they were.
It didn't really stand out to me.
It wasn't really relatable, but there were certain things she
wanted him to do and then so it was like he had to start doing,
you know, 2 two things and she had to start doing two things.
And it made a huge difference. And when I'm at work and my
husband's at home, I'm wanting him to at least have a plan for
dinner or to have started dinner.
I don't really ask for anything else, but I do like it when the
beds made, the bedrooms picked up, the the living rooms picked
up. I mean, of course I like coming
home to a clean house, but it's not one of those non negotiable
things that I have to have. Like I'm more worried about the
food. That could be your spouse.
I don't know. So maybe you're cleaning a room,
making a bed, sweeping, vacuuming, you know, some, some
husbands had a mom who like got up early in the morning and
vacuumed every day. I had a grandma who did that.
My mother-in-law did that. Some husbands expect that just
be working on whatever else needs to be done, whether it's
something that you like to have done or that you're doing for
your spouse because obviously you want to do it makes you feel
at peace as well. But relationships are about
compromise. So sometimes you have to do
something that you don't think is important to make the other
person happy. And then hopefully they'll do
the same and you can negotiate about that like, hey, I'll start
doing XYZ if you'll just do this.
The person who wanted to know about cleaning products during
during hard times also talked about saving money on food.
I'm really big on the stockpiling method, where you
leave a little room in your grocery budget, whether it's
1015 or $20, to stock up on something that you normally buy,
but it's on sale because as you do that, you develop a stockpile
and over time you'll stop paying full price for the products you
buy on a regular basis. The key is that you're not just
stocking up on every single thing in the store that's on
sale, because then you're going to go over your budget.
The key is just allowing some of your budget to go towards
stockpiling. And also, like Dave Ramsey says,
you know, eat beans and rice. And maybe you need to learn to
cook beans and rice. But, you know, some people
picture a certain meal when they hear beans and rice.
It could be Spanish rice, Pinto beans and tortillas.
And if you made that, you could freeze burritos.
You can make burritos and freeze them for easy lunches for the
kids. This person who requested this
episode is homeschooling. I went through a phase where
when I would make burritos for dinner, I would make a bunch of
extra ones and then freeze them individually for easy lunches.
And I was home schooling back then too.
Being on beans and rice could be making baked beans with hot dogs
in it. I try to limit processed meats,
but sometimes, you know, hot dogs can be part of a, an
occasional struggle meal. And it's super good, you know,
in the, in the beans, another struggle meal with hot dogs that
I like. That's just a serious comfort
food. You, you cut, you get a pack of
you get a pack of hot dogs, you cut them in half.
And then you get a package of biscuits and you wrap the
biscuits around the hot dogs and cook them in the oven like that.
And then you dip them in a mixture of ketchup and mustard.
Super yummy, but it it's a rare treat for me that I don't do
that often. But yeah, I love it.
I mean, I'm usually making biscuit, homemade biscuits and
stuff, but sometimes you can get those cheap biscuits on sale and
hot dogs and that would be a really cheap struggle meal.
I also went through a phase where I was watching a YouTube
channel of a lady that did like depression era cooking and there
was a meal she made that was just potatoes and hot dogs and
that was super delicious when I made it.
But don't eat hot dogs too often.
It's not healthy. Another thing that you might not
know about is that in a lot of areas, you can basically stand
in a line for free fresh produce and regardless of income.
And they, they, a lot of times they have trouble getting rid of
this stuff. So like, you don't have to feel
guilty like you're taking it away from the less fortunate.
Like, not everybody's willing to stand in that line for that
produce, and it can definitely save you a lot of money.
Sometimes there's potatoes, cabbage, fruit.
Speaking of potatoes, another friend of mine uses potatoes in
almost everything she cooks to make it go further.
And I especially like it when my husband makes beef burritos and
he chops up potatoes little into little tiny pieces and mixes
those in with the ground beef. I don't think he's doing it to
save money. I think he just does it to make
it taste good. And it does.
So you can add potatoes to your ground beef for your tacos or
burritos. You can also even, you know, add
it to soups, homemade soups. I also recommend making
spaghetti or American goulash at least a once a week.
Most people like pasta. And you can use just a small
amount of ground beef to save money there.
And some of you are probably saying, well, the way to save
money is to have some meatless nights.
Yeah. But my husband wouldn't go for
that. So I use small amounts of meat
and soups when I'm trying to save money and soups and
spaghettis and stuff when I'm trying to save money.
Speaking of chicken soup, you can cook a roasted chicken one
night, you know, maybe with mashed potatoes as a side dish
or rice, whatever you like. And then you boil that chicken
carcass the next day and make it into soup rather than having to
use like 3 chicken breasts or chicken thighs to make the soup.
Or like I talk about when I cook that bone in Turkey breast in
the crock pot. Last time I made that, like a
day or two later, my husband made Turkey tacos with the
leftover Turkey. And if you don't want to eat the
same thing two nights in a row, you can freeze your leftovers
and then bring them out like a week later.
That way it doesn't feel like you're eating the same thing.
So definitely use your leftovers.
And the person who requested this episode was also talking
about lunch ideas for homeschooled kids.
A big thing that I did when I was homeschooling is I would
make large portions for dinner and then we would reheat the
leftovers for lunch the next day.
Another way to save money is having breakfast for dinner
sometimes. And I know eggs are expensive
right now. We have chickens so know our
eggs aren't free. But at this point, it's cheaper
to buy chicken feed than it is to buy eggs in the grocery
store. But when I say breakfast for
dinner, your main dish could be pancakes or biscuits and gravy,
you know, and just, you know, maybe 1 egg per person or
something that that would be an affordable meal as well.
Homemade chili is another meal that I like to make that's
pretty affordable. And I serve it with saltines.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, before you vacuum, you
could sprinkle some baking soda on the carpet.
Baking soda is technically a food if you have those type of
benefits. You could get that using your
EBT card. But even if you're just paying
cash for for groceries, baking soda is cheaper than the special
carpet sprinkles or whatever and can serve the same purpose.
I hope you got a lot done during this episode.
Again, get if you're trying to save money, get you some comment
or Ajax. Some generic glass cleaner or
Windex and a spray or white vinegar and a spray bottle.
Cut some rags out of old towels. Use a scrub brush to pre rinse
your dishes. If you can't afford the sponges,
use dish soap to clean virtually everything in your house.
You could even get the antibacterial.
There's soap if you need to clean your bathrooms.
We have episodes for that. Special thanks to our financial
supporters who unlock those bonus episodes.
Definitely subscribe to those if you can.
But since this episode is about saving money, I went ahead and
made it a free episode. But even just listening to this
show helps me. So be sure to click follow or
the plus sign on whichever app you're listening on.
Subscribe if you're on YouTube, but I'll put a link in the
episode notes for my website, cleanwithmepodcast.com, so you
can learn more about unlocking bonus episodes if you so desire.
Oh, and one last tip for cleaning the bathroom.
If you've ever heard of Fly Lady, she says to use your
unwanted shampoos to clean the toilet bowl.
Also, I've been known to wash my clothes with dishwasher
detergent. Sometimes you got to just
substitute things you have. Never use a lack of funds as an
excuse not to clean. You've got something around your
house you can clean with, I promise.
And again, the cheapest cleaning product is something you already
have. Happy cleaning and I'll talk to
you in the next episode.