Sneaky Household Solutions To Survive a Bad Economy

   By lorialcorn2006  Oct 23, 2011

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I have some sneaky solutions for a bad economy to share with all of you. We all like our modern conveniences, but the problem is some can cost a fortune. Today, I'm focusing on a few tricks I have implemented to save money on my cleaning and grocery bills. I warn you these are a bit radical and you might even laugh, but I found they work nicely.

First, we all know and love our neat convenient floor mops. I'm not sure if I can name names, but you know the ones with the bottle of fluid that snaps into the apparatus that uses pads to clean the floor. You pull a trigger and floor cleaning solution comes out. Yep those kind :)

We all know that it can get really expensive buying refills for the cleaning solutions, but I have a nice alternative to buying these that works very well. Here it is:

First, once the plastic bottle is empty, you use a sharp knife to cut a small hole in the very top (please see photo). Using a funnel, you can now add you favorite floor cleaning solution to the bottle. I use a mixture of fabuloso and water. I prefer the lavender scent. Now you may be thinking, Lori that's fine, but what about the hole that is now in the top of my container! Well what you do is get an old wine cork and fit it in. I had a really nice one from an old vodka bottle that also has a metal top. As you can see, it fits in snuggly and will not leak out even if the mop accidentally drops or falls down. Now you don't want to store the mop lying down, but than who would lol. You can refill your bottle as many times as you like, which will save you a boat load of money. Here is a picture of what mine looks like now.

As you can see this is not only cost effective, but you get to use the cleaner you like, make your own, or just use water and you're not constantly throwing away plastic bottles.

Next on my list are dryer-sheets. Do you know that after these are used, they will literally suck the dog and cat hair right off a floor or table? I have both a long-haired dog and cat. It is a constant battle to keep that hair off of stuff. Instead of throwing out these used dryer sheets, I use them like dusters and, believe me, they work a lot better than the kind made for the job.These are really good for touch ups and gives you a option to get 2 kinds of uses out of one product .

One of my favorite products that is also mighty expensive are the no-spill wood diffusers. They look like this:

Unfortunately, these puppies can cost a fortune, but you can keep the diffuser and refill it with scented oils from Walmart. These oils are found in the candle area NOT in the cleaning products section. Go over to where they have picture frames, look around that area for the candles, tea-light refills and potpourri aisle. These come in big bottles with lots of great scents and one bottle will refill your fancy wood diffuser for a while, saving you $14.99 per refill. I really love these diffusers, but the company does not make refills, so you have to keep buying the whole thing all the time. These cost between $12.99 to $14.99 depending on where you buy them. I have this one and I refill it with regular potpourri oil and it works just fine.

Next, have you ever been too late to snag one of the many free coupons offered on facebook or other promos? I know I have! It's so annoying to be told, "sorry you're too late to get this awesome free coupon for a free pizza!" Well, here is a solution. I discovered that you can bid on free coupons on Listia.

I found this out one day. I typed in coupons in the search box and low and behold, all the free coupons I missed out on are there up for bids. Sometimes people get free coupons they can't use or maybe the stuff is just not available in their area. Listia members list free coupons they can't use so they can get points to bid on free coupons they can use.

For instance, I received a coupon for some juice, My stores did not stock this kind of juice. I listed the coupon and someone who found this item bid and got it. They got their juice and I got the points so I can bid on that pizza I missed out on. It really is a win-win situation. This way I save on my grocery bill with lots of free coupons and my husband is very happy. You can't list cents off coupons though only free product coupons, but there are tons to choose from. Listia also has things like coke rewards, stouffers codes and other really neat stuff for very few points.

OK thats my short list of Very Sneaky ways to get by in this bad economy. Do you have any you can add? Leave me a sneaky solution comment :) Thanks for reading :)