A Real Life Meeting! And An Easy Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Photo by Denis Collette

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting one of my blog readers, Andrea, in real life! (and I totally should have taken a picture, but didn't, shoot!) Andrea contacted me through a friend of one of my friends from church because she was excited when she found my blog and realized that I lived relatively close (45 minutes) to her.  We met at a playground where our kids played and got wet and muddy because it was kind of cold and rainy, but we still had a great time. We had no shortage of things to talk about, everything from raw goat's milk to compost, square foot gardening and where to go for cheap u-pick blueberries. I even picked up a few great frugally green ideas from her! I really enjoyed talking with her, it's always so great to meet like-minded people, especially ones that live close to you that you can share local resources with!

It was also so encouraging to hear that my blog is an encouragement to others.  That is totally what I want this blog to be about - encouraging and inspiring you on your journey to living more frugally green.  I don't always know if what I do or write is making a difference, but if I can encourage at least one person, that is enough for me! And to also know that there are many of you who are new to reading Live Renewed, I am so thankful for you and honored that you have chosen read along with me!

Anyway, as we sat down to eat our lunches, Andrea pulled out a little spray bottle and sprayed her and her kids' hands to sanitize them before eating.  "Is that homemade hand sanitizer?" I asked.  "Yep," she replied, and shared some with my daughter and I. It was such a great idea, I just had to share it with all of you too!

Frugally Green Homemade Hand Sanitizer (Thanks Andrea!)
Super easy, portable, quick, frugal, and safe hand sanitizer.  Put several drops of Tea Tree Oil in a small spray bottle with water and shake to mix it up.  Spray on hands as needed, especially before eating, and don't worry about what kinds of chemicals or how much alcohol your little one might be ingesting!

I love when I get great new ideas like this.  There are probably many small things that each of us do and don't really think much of it, but to someone else is a total "Ah-hah!" moment, and, "Why didn't I think of that?!" Do you have a quick, easy, frugal, green tip or idea like this? Please share with us in the comments!  I'd love to get a good list of easy ideas to help us all be a little bit more frugally green!

Cooking from Scratch

Photo by nc_hiker

I have been cooking more and more from scratch at home then ever before.  Partly I'm trying to be frugal and save money by buying basic baking and cooking supplies in bulk and then using them to make stuff at home.

Also, I really like being able to control the ingredients and what goes into the food we eat.  After reading Real Food and watching Food, Inc. (more to come on that soon), I'm convinced that there's a lot of "food" out there that isn't really food, and that we shouldn't be putting in our bodies.  I'm also becoming more convinced that there is a lot of stuff that looks and sounds good for us, but when I turn the package over and read the ingredients I am unpleasantly surprised by what I find.

Another thing that's great about cooking from scratch is that I can make at home what I may have previously had to run out the store and buy to be able to make dinner.  Last night I was making Mexican Rice for our small group and realized I didn't have any taco seasoning, so I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and viola, homemade taco seasoning and yummy homemade Mexican Rice.  Or tonight we're having quesadillas and I don't have any tortillas.  No worries, I now have tortilla dough resting on the counter waiting to be rolled out and cooked and then I can use them to make our quesadillas.  With basic ingredients always on hand you know you'll be able to throw together just about anything you might need to complete a homemade meal for your family. 

I was recently reading an interview with the author Michael Pollan.  He wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.  (I haven't read either, but hope to within this year.)  I thought it was really interesting, because in this interview, Mr. Pollan talks about cooking at home as an important step, maybe the most important step to take, in beginning to change our eating habits and changing the food industry. He says that when we let a big company or corporation cook for us, they use less than ideal ingredients because they are cheap and we think they taste good.  They use way too much fat, salt and sugar, more than we would ever use if we were cooking for ourselves.  Companies are not in the food business to provide us with the healthiest, best food for our bodies. They don't have our best interest at heart.  I had never thought about it in that way before, and it's just one more reason for me to try to cook as much at home as I can.

Cooking from scratch doesn't have to be all or nothing.  Start by thinking of one or two things that you buy at the store that you could probably make pretty easily at home.  Take baby steps, make small changes and before you know it, you'll be making all kinds of things from scratch.

Here's a quick list of things I used to buy, but now make at home:
Yogurt
Granola
Tortillas
Dried beans (instead of canned beans)
Dinner Rolls
Vanilla Coffee Creamer
Brownies
Bread (I still buy bread for sandwiches, trying to find a good homemade sandwich bread recipe)
Hummus
Granola bars
Lemonade
Chicken Stock
Taco seasoning
Chicken Nuggets
Peanut Butter (I still buy natural peanut butter, but I do make it at home sometimes too)
*There may be more, but that's about all I can think of right now. 

And Things I still want to try making myself:
Pita bread - tried this once and it was a disaster - let's just say I set off the fire alarm!
Vanilla extract
Mayo and Salad Dressings
Sandwich bread
*There's lots more on this list too, but I have to keep it manageable and doable to not get overwhelmed.  Baby steps, right! 

Cooking from scratch at home gives us the opportunity to feed our families healthy, nourishing food that has not been processed beyond recognition, and not to trust our food to a company who cares more about their bottom line than about our waistline.  I encourage you to try cooking one new thing from scratch at home this week!

January Change Challenge - Homemade and Green Cleaning

Photo by Ernst Vikne

Welcome to the Change Challenge for January - Homemade and Green Cleaning!  I hope that you are ready to get started with cleaning your homes in more natural, safe, frugal and yet still effective ways!

Making your own homemade cleaners is a great first step to take towards becoming frugally green!  If you are new to this journey and just starting out this new year, this is one of those things that I think is pretty essential and foundational to being frugally green.  It's easy and cheap and doesn't require a ton of effort or commitment.  If you try it and don't like it (which I can't imagine you would) you can always use the items you bought for cooking and baking!

I challenge you to make the change to homemade and green cleaning this month! 

To begin with, there are a few different levels of homemade and green cleaning, so if you are ready to accept this challenge, first figure out which step you are on. Take baby steps and start out with just one or two and once you get the hang of those, you can move onto other areas.

• Baby Step #1 - Vinegar and Baking Soda - If you still have all commercial chemical cleaners in your home, this is the place to begin. 
  
• Baby Step #2 - Multipurpose Cleaners - Start making some different homemade multipurpose cleaners. 
• Baby Step #3 - Other areas of cleaning around your home

Baby Step #1 - Vinegar and Baking Soda
It doesn't get any cheaper or easier than this! 

First, get yourself some white vinegar and some baking soda, as well as an empty spray bottle.  (I bought a pack of spray bottles at Sam's, can't remember how much they were, but definitely cheaper than buying an individual bottle at Target or Meijer). And the next time you use up your parmesan cheese, save the container and wash it out.

Now mix vinegar and water in the spray bottle 50/50.  You can add essential oils to help it smell better if you want, but I don't bother.  Then fill up your parmesan cheese container with baking soda.  You could add essentials oils to the baking soda too, but it makes it a little bit clumpy.  You're all set to start cleaning!

Sprinkle the baking soda on any hard surface that you want to scrub - the toilet bowl, sink, bathtub, counter tops, cook tops, etc.  Use a rag, microfiber cloth, or one of those green scouring pads and scrub away (or your toilet bowl brush if you're cleaning the toilet, no need to use a rag on that! Yuck!) - no paper towels please!  You may need to get a second rag wet to wipe away the residue on the counter top or cook top, but in the bathroom you can just rinse it away. 

Or start spraying your vinegar and water anywhere that needs to be wiped down - sink, bathtub, mirror, counters, tables, floors, etc. (don't use vinegar on porous surfaces like granite). And again use a rag or microfiber cloth.

It really is that easy!

Baby Step #2 - Multipurpose Cleaners
Start making some different homemade multipurpose cleaners.  Make sure you label your bottles well, so you know which one your using.  You may find that you like different cleaners for different uses.

Here's a multipurpose cleaner that I posted previously.

And a new one that I have been using alot and loving recently: Water, Castile Soap, and Tea Tree Oil.
Fill a water bottle with warm water and add a few squirts of castille soap and a few drops of Tea Tree Oil. You don't need much of either, they are concentrated and a little goes a long way.  Use for all types of multipurpose cleaning.  I use Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild castile soap for this, which is unscented.  I'm not sure how a scented castile soap would mix with the scent of the Tea Tree Oil.  If you try a scented castile soap with this and it smells good, let us know! You can find both Dr. Bronner's castile soap and Tea Tree Oil at Target (the TTO is by the vitamins)!


Baby Step #3 - Other areas of cleaning around your home
Try making one of these homemade cleaners:
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Homemade Spray Starch
Homemade Disinfecting Wipes

Take a baby step toward homemade and green cleaning in one of these areas this week!  And check back here over the rest of the month for more tips, tricks and how-to's for frugally green cleaning!

Have you made the switch to using homemade and green cleaners around your home?  Do you have a favorite homemade cleaner recipe to share with the rest of us?  Any encouraging words for those just starting out with green cleaning?

This post is linked to: 
Tackle it Tuesdays at 5 Minutes for Mom
Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom

Homemade Spray Starch

photo by get down

One of the ways that we have cut back on our budget is by eliminating dry cleaning. We used to have my hubby's work shirts dry cleaned every week. It was really nice to not have to worry about washing and ironing his shirts for work everyday.

But, dry cleaning, especially for dress shirts, is an unnecessary expense when you can easily wash and iron your own clothes at home. And now that I know more about the chemicals used in dry cleaning, I would still choose to launder his shirts at home, even if we had room in the budget for dry cleaning.

Dry cleaning uses a chemical called Tetrachloroethene (it also goes by tetrachloroethylene, perchloroethylene, or PCE) and is most commonly known as PERC.1 You can be exposed to PERC simply by bringing dry cleaned clothes into your home because the clothing can off-gas the chemical into the air, and even, though less likely, through your skin by wearing the dry cleaned clothes on your body. PERC is labeled as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency1 and must be handled as hazardous waste.2 Not something that I want in my home or for my husband to be wearing.

So, I have been washing and ironing Jer's works shirts for him. (That's love!) I used to use store bought spray starch, because he liked the feel of the stiff starched dry cleaned shirts. But then when I ran out, I just didn't buy any more. Just recently, as part of my homemade kick, I thought about making my own spray starch and found lots of recipes online. I mixed up a batch and used it to iron his shirts, and am really pleased the the results.

Homemade Spray Starch
2 cups cold water
1 Tbsp corn starch

Yep! It really is that easy. Mix it together and then put it in a spray bottle and shake it up until the cornstarch is dissolved. Make sure you shake it each time before you iron too. If you want it to be even more "starchy" you can add more cornstarch. I would be a little afraid of residue on my clothing though. This spray really does make ironing easier, especially when the shirts have been sitting in a laundry basket for a week (blush). And his shirts look nice and crisp without being overly stiff. Also, when I iron his shirts all at the same time for the week (which doesn't happen as often as I would like, but is ultimately my goal) the shirts stay looking nice and freshly ironed even after hanging in the closet for a few days.

Plus, could it be any cheaper?! Basically the cost of a Tablespoon of corn starch - for my box of corn starch was about 4 cents. Compared to the $2 can from the store that you often can't even use all of it because the nozzle gets plugged - you can't beat that! And no can to throw in the landfill when you're done.

If you use homemade spray starch along with homemade laundry detergent, you are well on your way to a frugally green laundry routine!

Happy ironing! (If that's even possible) :)


1. thedailygreen.com
2. Wikepedia.org

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Since I've been on such a homemade kick recently, it would make sense that I would try making my own laundry detergent. I wanted something cheap, gentle on our clothing, and safe for our family.
Did you know that most commercial laundry detergents are filled with enzymes, brighteners, softeners, fragrances and dyes (basically yucky chemicals) that coat your clothing making them appear cleaner by appealing to your sense of sight and smell? The colors look bright and the clothes smell good, so they must be clean, right? I don't know about you, but I don't want to be wearing all those chemicals against my skin all day, so here's what I've been using for homemade laundry soap. My friend Jenica gave me the recipe, and after doing a little more reading online I decided on the type of soap I wanted to use.

Update #2 - 2/26/10 - I was still having some major trouble with this laundry detergent leaving spots on our clothes, so I made the switch to using Fels Naptha, along with using the tips from the update below, and have had great results for the last month or so! 



Update #1 - 11/18/09: I was having some trouble with spotting on some of my clothing with this detergent. (Grrr) I made a batch without the baking soda and I also used the food processor to grind the soap into small beads (cut the soap bar into strips first). I also read that the detergent doesn't dissolve as well in cold water, so I've been starting my loads with warm water and then after two minutes or so, once the soap has been dispensed into the washer drum and has some time to dissolve, I switch the water to cold. These changes seem to have eliminated the problems I was having!




Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 cups of Borax, and
2 cups each:
Washing Soda
Baking Soda
Grated Soap - I use 1 bar of Kirk's Castille Soap  now I use 1 bar of Fels Naptha.  

I have a front loading HE machine and use about 2 Tbsp. per load. This is a naturally low-sudsing detergent, which is what is important for HE machines. The amount of detergent you use is something that you may have to experiment with and find out what works best for your washing machine.

I use white vinegar in place of fabric softener. I fill the fabric softener compartment in my machine with white vinegar. It does a good job of naturally softening the clothes and helping to keep them free of static.

You could also double the recipe to make more at one time. We've been using it for a few weeks and I'm happy with the results. Our clothes smell nice and fresh and just simply clean - no harsh chemicals or synthetic fragrances. I still pre-treat any clothes that have stains with Spray 'n Wash (love that stuff, but don't love the ingredients), but I am working on figuring out a greener, natural stain remover for when my bottle runs out.

Also, I found another similar recipe online, just without the baking soda. I may try that next, just to see how it works, one less ingredient means that it is just that much cheaper to make!

Do you use natural or homemade laundry detergent? What works for you? Also, if you have a natural, homemade stain remover I would love to hear about it!

Check out Grocery Chart Challenge for more great recipes, and Life as Mom for more frugal tips.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I guess I've been on a bit of a "homemade" kick lately. I just love finding ways to make things at home. To me it encompasses everything that it means to me to be frugally green. Homemade is cheaper than store bought, and when it comes to food, homemade is far superior in taste, and it's always nice to know exactly what ingredients are going into the food you are eating. The same goes for cleaners though too. Homemade works just as well, if not better, than store bought, and I like to know what's actually in the products that I use in my home and around my children.

Not to mention the fact that with two littles under 2 it is sometimes really hard for me to get out of the house - this way I can make things I need right in the comfort of my own home with ingredients that I buy in bulk and have on hand.

I read this great article on the benefits of making homemade cleaning products. I really appreciate that he takes it beyond the money saving aspects and includes the broader issues of mass-marketing and consumerism. He says it much more eloquently than I ever could!

So, I have been on a quest to find either a homemade or natural dishwasher detergent. I tried several different natural store bought brands as well as a homemade version. I was always less than impressed with the results. I would open my dishwasher to find dishes that were still dirty, or covered with a white film. It was such a pain to either pre-wash my dishes so much that they were pretty much already clean before I put them in the dishwasher, or have to re-wash them after they came out of the dishwasher. Besides being a pain, it is definitely not frugally green to have to pre-wash your dishes or re-wash them in addition to running them through the dishwasher!

Finally, I came upon a few different recipes online for homemade dishwasher detergent and combined them to find one that we have been using for the last month with really great results.

1 cup Borax (I use 3/4 cup because we have hard water and I'm experimenting with getting the right amount of Borax for our water. I read that this is the one ingredient you might have use more or less of depending on your water quality)
1 cup Baking Soda
2 small packages of unsweetened lemonade (or I have also used lemon-lime) Kool-Aid (the small packages ARE unsweetened in case you are like me and didn't realize that and we're looking in vain for the "special" unsweetened packs.)
1/2 cup Kosher Salt

Mix all together and store in either a glass jar with a lid, or a re-purposed 32 oz plastic container. Use 1 Tbsp. in the pre-wash compartment and 1 Tbsp. in the regular detergent compartment per load. This is something you may want to experiment with too, you may be able to use less, depending on your dishwasher and water quality, but I have found this amount works well for us.

Make sure you use White Vinegar to fill the Rinse Aid compartment. This complements the homemade detergent and helps to rinse your dishes and keep them clean and shiny!

Since using this detergent I really try to make sure that I get dishes rinsed and in the dishwasher before the food can crust or harden on the dish. A little bit of prevention goes a long way in helping this detergent to work well. But, I have also put dishes straight from the table into the dishwasher without rinsing just to see how they would come out, and I have been impressed that they come out nice and clean.

Now, I will say that this detergent has not always been perfect for us. Sometimes we have some little white flecks on some of the dishes. Some foods (oatmeal for example) don't wash off as well, especially if the dish hasn't been rinsed well. dish before we put it in, then it doesn't get completely clean. But, the results are MUCH better than any other natural detergent I have used. It is not Cascade... but it also doesn't have the harmful chemicals and phosphates in it that Cascade does. To me it is worth it to rinse ahead of time or have to re-wash a dish or two here and there afterward, to know that I am using something natural and safe on the dishes that we eat off of.

If you try this, I would love to hear how it works for you! Or if you have another recipe that works well for you, please share, so we can all hopefully find a natural homemade dishwasher detergent that works for us to use in our homes.

Stay tuned for Homemade Laundry Detergent next week! (I told you I was on a homemade kick!!) :)

Check out Grocery Chart Challenge for more great recipes and Life as Mom for more frugal tips!

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Last week for lunch I made Kaelyn and myself some Homemade Macaroni and Cheese. I was desperate for something to eat for lunch, having not been to the grocery in almost 2 weeks. I kind of just made it up, but also know that it's something so simple and basic as far as cooking goes that it's probably the way that macaroni and cheese used to be made before the boxed neon fake cheese stuff took over.

It was really good, much better than the box, creamy and rich, and Kaelyn ate it up! It wasn't quite as easy as the boxed kind, but I think the more I make it, the easier it will get for me. I also think it shows how with all of the convenience, boxed foods available, that we have gotten away from the fine art of basic cooking. I want to work on learning these basic cooking skills as much as I can to continue eliminating convenience foods from our diet.


So here's my Homemade Macaroni and Cheese. The recipe for the sauce is from my Southern Living Cookbook and is just a basic white sauce with cheese added.

Use about a cup and a half to 2 cups of elbow macaroni, boil according to package directions.

While pasta is boiling, make cheese sauce:

2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
salt and white pepper
1 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar and monterey jack)
1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Add flour and stir until smooth. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly add milk while continuing to stir constantly and cook until thick and bubbling. Add salt, pepper, cheese and dry mustard and stir until cheese is melted.

Pour cheese sauce over cooked macaroni and serve. Yum!

I also think this would be a great place to sneak some hidden veggies in! Some pureed sweet potatoes, squash or pumpkin could be a great thing to add to the sauce when you stir in the cheese.

No more neon orange macaroni and cheese for us!

Check out Works for me Wednesday for more great tips!

Homemade "Clorox" Wipes

As I have been trying to eliminate paper waste from our household as well as clean our home using safer, more natural and frugal products there's one thing I have been missing - Clorox wipes. Having 2 small children, especially an active, independent, and potty-training toddler, means lots of little messes. Sometimes I just don't want to get out the cleaning spray and a use a big rag just to clean up a small mess. Sometimes I don't have the luxury of time to run to the cabinet and get the spray and a rag - I need to get something cleaned up quickly before it turns into a bigger mess. Sometimes I want to be sure that something is disinfected and not just wiped down with water. I love the convenience of pre-moistened wipes that are small, quick and easily accessible.

But I look on the back of my Clorox wipes and read, "PRECAUTIONARY STATEMENTS: HAZARDS TO HUMANS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS."

That is not something that I want to clean my home with, or use around my children (or my dog)!!

I've been thinking about making homemade pre-moistened cleaning wipes for a while, but just wasn't sure exactly how I would do it. Finally I took the time to make my own and I am really happy with what I came up with!

I used one of Jer's old white t-shirts and cut it up into squares. I got 24 wipes, some small and some bigger, out of one t-shirt. I'll probably cut up another t-shirt just to make sure I have enough wipes on hand at all times. I put them in a disposable baby wipe container that I kept to use for something like this. I didn't fold them or make them look organized, I just threw them in the container. I mixed about a cup or so of water with a good squirt of castile soap, some tea tree oil, and some white vinegar. I didn't measure, I just put kind of poured them all in, mixed it up and poured the solution over the wipes. Both tea tree oil and vinegar have disinfecting qualities and the castile soap is just for a little extra cleaning power. The tea tree oil and castile soap cover up any smell of vinegar, so Jer will use them too!! (If you've read any of my previous natural cleaning posts, you know that my hubby *hates* the smell of vinegar.)

When I use one, I just throw it down the stairs into the laundry hamper that I use for the rest of my rags. (Or really I just leave it sitting on the corner of the kitchen counter until I have a few rags in the pile and then just throw them all down together.) :) They get washed with the other cleaning rags, so it's really no extra work for me.

I am loving this convenient, natural, homemade, reusable, and frugal alternative to Clorox wipes!!

This post is a part of the Natural Housecleaning Carnival at Passionate Homemaking. Check it out for more great natural cleaning ideas and tips!

You can read more of my natural cleaning posts here.

What do you use for natural cleaning around your home? Do you have any convenience cleaning products that you just can't live without? Have you come up with alternatives for any of them?

Homemade Fruit Snack Bars

As I said in my meal plan post this week, I am on a quest to find frugal homemade alternatives to convenience food items. And, one of the results of my garbage inventory was that I want to try to reduce our waste from food packaging.

Snack bars, like granola bars or Nutrigrain bars, are so convenient to pack as snacks or to take for lunches. But, they are full of high fructose corn syrup, enriched (white) flour, white sugar, and lots of other things that really aren't good for you. Also, because they are individually wrapped, they create a lot of packaging waste, and are pricey for an individual serving.

My wonderful hubby saw an article in the paper with a recipe for homemade fruit snack bars, and cut it out for me, and I was so excited to make these. We used fresh peaches that we picked ourselves, and frozen store bought raspberries. I'm really bad at calculating the cost of making things from scratch (I need my math genius sister's help with that!), but I'm pretty sure that these would be cheaper per serving than a Nutrigrain bar.

Oatmeal, Raspberry and Peach Snack Bars
1/3 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp., plus 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh peaches
1 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. baking soda
1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a medium saucepan whisk together the orange juice, cornstarch, and 2 Tbsps. of the brown sugar. Add the raspberries and peaches and stir over medium high heat until the mixture is simmering and thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350. Add the oats, flour, remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar, butter and baking soda to a large mixing bowl and mix together with a fork until the dough is crumbly but beginning to stick together. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture.

Mix the egg into the remaining dough. Transfer the dough with the egg to a greased 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish and press it evenly over the bottom.

Spread the fruit filling on top, then sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over it.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until lightly browned and bubbling. Place dish on a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into 16 bars.

These did turned out pretty well. The fruit filling is really good. The bars were a little dry on the bottom and not as firm on the top as I thought they would be. They need to be refrigerated if not eaten right away (learned that the hard way!). All in all, I think they were a good alternative to nutrigrain type bars. They are really not anything like a granola bar, so I'll still have to work on finding a recipe for homemade granola bars. I will definitely be making them again - maybe cooking for a little less time to keep them from getting to dry on the bottom. Also, I'm thinking it would be fun to try them with different fruit combinations - maybe blueberry/raspberry or strawberry/blueberry. Yum!

Do you have any good recipes for homemade snack bars or granola bars? Please leave a comment with a link or your recipe!

Visit Grocery Chart Challenge for more great recipes and Life as Mom for more great frugal tips!

Homemade Multipurpose Cleaner

Yesterday I finally made a homemade green cleaner, other than just vinegar and water. I got the recipe from the book Homemade. I made this as an attempt to have a multipurpose cleaner that Jer can use because he *hates* the smell of vinegar and refuses to use the vinegar and water cleaner. I used apple cider vinegar in attempt to make it as "un-vinegary" as possible.

Fresh Smelling Multipurpose Cleaner

3 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Borax
1 teaspoon washing soda
1 teaspoon liquid castile soap
1 32 oz. spray bottle

Fill spray bottle with hot water first, then add vinegar, borax, washing soda and castile soap. Shake well to mix ingredients and then shake well before using each time.

I'm not sure it is really "fresh smelling", although it doesn't smell like vinegar at all. In fact, it got Jer's approval!! I sprayed it all around on the kitchen countertops and stovetop last night and had Jer come in and smell it. He said it smelled like a science experiment (not sure exactly what that means), but he agreed that he didn't smell any vinegar, and agreed that he would be willing to use it as a cleaner. My counters were not that dirty, so I can't really attest to how much cleaning power this has, but I am excited to have a cheap, homemade, green cleaner that doesn't smell like vinegar and that my hubby will actually use!

The directions in the book say to spray on countertops, kitchen appliances and fixtures, and tile or painted surfaces. I'm sure you could use it in the bathroom too.

I'd love to hear if you have recipes for homemade cleaners that you use.
Happy "frugally green" cleaning!

For more thrifty ideas visit Tightwad Tuesdays at BeingFrugal.net!