Life consists of little things, for each of which we have to pay.
Household expenses eat up the family budget the fastest (and most unnoticed!). Have you ever calculated how much money you spend monthly on running your household? Meanwhile, many spend all their earnings on food, household chemicals, minor repairs and paying bills. And some still don’t have enough. And how, in this case, can you enjoy life, save for a vacation and increase your finances?
Very simple! Having scoured the entire Internet and gathered together other people's and their own experiences, the HoneyMoney bee team discovered many incredibly useful tricks. For example, how to save electricity; stop falling for the tricks of chain stores; reduce the cost of detergents tenfold...
From hundreds of tips for saving money in everyday life, we have chosen the most practical ones, excluding calls to give up taking a bath in favor of a shower or to replace all cosmetics with bar soap. After all, Smart Bees are firmly convinced: saving in everyday life should bring joy, and not turn into a feat.
Read, save and enjoy life!
Purchases
| 41 | Before buying, think about it: do you really need this thing or has the notorious consumer instinct kicked in? If an old frying pan, mop or dinnerware still serves its purpose, purchasing new ones will not be justified. |
| 9 | Expensive plastic and bamboo containers, containers, and storage boxes can be successfully replaced with ordinary cardboard boxes. Don't like their appearance? Cover the walls with fabric or colored paper. |
| 17 | Buy household appliances only if the old one is broken or repairs will cost more than new ones. |
| 13 | It’s nice to buy a product on sale, but check its expiration date before purchasing. Sometimes goods that are about to go bad are sold at deep discounts. Such “savings” are of no use to you. |
| 15 | Create funds for each type of purchase: food, clothing, household chemicals. Give yourself the mindset not to go beyond the established budget, and the remaining money can be set aside for a vacation, renovation, or major purchase. |
| 12 | When planning your purchases, consider seasonal markups. For example, it is better to purchase air conditioners in October, when demand for them drops and sellers are ready to offer good discounts. |
| 9 | Before going to the store, find out about the discounts and promotions that are available in the nearest supermarkets. Go shopping where the best deals are available for you today. |
| 23 | Don't go shopping without a well thought out and pre-approved list. Buying “what you remember” is a sure way to spend much more than you need. |
| 3 | There is no point in purchasing separately a mixer, chopper and shaker - all the necessary accessories are included in most blenders, which cope with the listed tasks perfectly. |
| 20 | The most inexpensive and profitable products are located not at eye level, but on the lower or upper shelves of stores. They are also usually presented in small quantities. Don't be lazy to search! |
| 19 | Always go to the grocery store on a full stomach. Otherwise, the temptation to buy ready-made, unnecessary and, most likely, unhealthy food will be difficult to overcome. |
| 5 | Many things that you want to buy for your home (hot coasters, napkins, decorative pillows) can be made with your own hands. Or ask your grandmother, who has more free time and experience in needlework, about this. |
| 13 | Buy groceries once a week, and household chemicals once a month. If you go to stores more often, there is a great temptation to spend money on things that are not very necessary. |
| 9 | Always apply for bonus and discount cards, even if you rarely visit this store. This will give you the opportunity to buy cheaper or take advantage of a special offer at the right time. |
| 4 | Try sewing and knitting clothes for family members yourself. Firstly, significant savings, and secondly, exclusiveness. You can look for patterns and patterns not in shopping magazines, but on the Internet. |
| 8 | Choose good quality energy-saving lamps. Very cheap ones last no longer than an ordinary Ilyich light bulb, and products from a trusted manufacturer will help you save a lot on energy. |
Cooking
Try learning how to plan your menu for the week ahead. If, for example, you have to have cutlets on Thursday, then you need to remove the minced meat from the freezer on Wednesday evening. This way you can save time, because you don’t have to wait for the meat to defrost or go to the store.
When shopping for the week on the weekends, make a clear list. Create a menu for your family from inexpensive and healthy dishes that can be prepared fairly quickly.
Semi-finished products are not an option for a thrifty housewife. Despite all the advantages, semi-finished products have one main disadvantage - they are very harmful to health. So make your preparations for the week on the weekend. For example, together with your husband, make dumplings or dumplings, prepare cabbage rolls, and hide the preparations in the freezer. This will solve the issue of time and effort, when after work there is simply no opportunity to cook something.
Learn to cook in a slow cooker, because this device allows you to save time and effort. Early in the morning you can prepare an inexpensive and healthy breakfast - oatmeal, spending just a couple of minutes turning on the multicooker. This miracle of technology will do the rest for you. A bread maker also helps save both time and money, because delicious hot bread or buns are prepared in it without the participation of the hostess. Expert opinion Lyubov Korshunova Experienced housewife. There must be a strategic supply of food in the house. Simple groceries are purchased for the month. These are canned food, cereals, sugar and salt, pasta.
Household chemicals
| 8 | Look not at the brand of the product, but at its composition. Well-known brands most often make markups solely on the name to cover advertising costs. |
| 11 | Sometimes it is better to wash dishes not with a special detergent, but with regular soda. It is many times more effective against soot and scale, and is also completely safe for the body. |
| 4 | Ammonia gets rid of many difficult stains no worse than an expensive stain remover. But you shouldn’t experiment with thin and delicate fabrics. |
| 16 | A large package of detergent or washing powder is cheaper than a small bottle. Chemicals do not deteriorate, so such an economical purchase for future use will definitely pay off. |
| 11 | An anti-scale agent for a washing machine and even a kettle can replace ordinary citric acid. |
| 4 | Dust and dirt can be removed from most surfaces with a clean, dry microfiber cloth. It is not necessary to use detergent. |
| 5 | You should not buy separate cleaning products for the kitchen, bathroom and floor. Their composition is approximately the same, so a regular chlorine disinfectant is best for dealing with dirt. |
| 7 | A clogged sink can be cleared with baking soda and vinegar, saving you on an expensive anti-clog cleaner with a tricky chemical composition. |
| 4 | Instead of air flavorings, you can use regular citrus peels or jars of essential oils. |
| 8 | If you have accumulated soap, put them in a glass jar and pour boiling water over it. In this simple way you can make homemade liquid soap. |
| 6 | Do not buy toothbrushes, toothpastes, shower gels and other products in pharmacies - the markups there are much higher than in chain stores and hypermarkets. |
| 1 | Grease stains on furniture, carpets, surfaces and clothing are easily removed by ordinary gasoline. By the way, don’t miss the most necessary tips on saving gasoline. |
Secrets of saving
Many housewives are interested in how they can save money while running a household. Every thrifty housewife should learn to save the family budget.
- When going to the store, you should make a list and strictly adhere to it. This way you can refrain from buying unnecessary things and unnecessary expenses.
- Promotions and sales are just store gimmicks. No successful seller will sell his product below the market.
- It is better to purchase washing powders, toothpaste, pasta and other goods in large, economical packages.
- It is much cheaper to prepare for the winter yourself - salt and pickle cabbage, make canned vegetables. It's both cheaper and much more useful.
- Wise housewives make major purchases only after thinking everything through. At the family council, they decide how necessary the item is and whether the family can afford such expenses.
- Some housewives keep notebooks where they write down tips on housekeeping and recipes for preparing cheap and healthy dishes.
Try to plan your family budget a month in advance. Part of the salary is put aside to pay utility bills, part goes to food, another part is put aside for vacation or in the family piggy bank.
Running a household efficiently and economically is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Listen to the advice of experienced housewives, and you will definitely restore order in the house. There are several ways to wash the refrigerator to remove odors. Each of them will be effective and, Cleaning the house is the responsibility of every owner. Everyone has the right to decide for themselves when to carry it out. The article discusses ways to get rid of the burning smell in the house. It tells you how to clean. The article discusses the main ways to bring comfort to your home. What to do, add
Services
| 2 | Try cleaning the item yourself before taking it to the dry cleaner. Sometimes the means at hand and a little patience are no less effective in dealing with difficult stains. Tips for cleaning at home can be found on the Internet. |
| 1 | Do you know a plumber? Do not hesitate to ask him for paid help: firstly, it will cost an order of magnitude cheaper, and secondly, you can be sure of the quality of the work. |
| 3 | If you need the services of a nanny or a cleaning company, do not contact an agency. It’s better to find a reliable person through social networks or friends. |
| 5 | There are many master classes on the Internet on repairing household appliances, replacing plumbing fixtures and minor home repairs. Before contacting specialists, try to figure out the problem yourself. |
Good evening: tips for organizing household chores
Everything is prepared for the morning, now spend 15 minutes cleaning where necessary. Immediately place dirty clothes in the laundry basket (the highest economic aerobatics is to store light and colored clothes separately). If enough things have accumulated, you can start washing without waiting for the next day. And finally, the final “household” chord - wipe all surfaces in the kitchen, including the stove and sink, and splash a little disinfectant liquid into the toilet - everything will clean itself overnight. So, the house is clean, the children are sleeping, the well-fed spouse is peacefully watching TV - it’s time to give yourself a fragrant bubble bath.
Here's a trick: if you go over the plumbing fixtures and stove on the fly at least once every two days, they don't require any serious effort at all.
Housekeeping
| 3 | Carefully care for household items, including furniture, household appliances, dishes and interior items. A careful attitude will prolong their life and save you from unnecessary and unplanned expenses. |
| 8 | Don’t put off cleaning until later: dried grease on the stove and countertops, old rust and carbon deposits will require much more physical effort and detergents. |
| 6 | Follow the washing instructions on the clothing label. Proper sorting of items protects against unwanted staining, shedding, pilling and the need for repeated washing. |
| 2 | Buy a battery pack. This will help you save not only on buying new ones, but also protect the environment by throwing away used items less often. |
| 3 | Moth repellents are cheaper than a new sweater, woolen coat or fur coat. Don't forget to use insect repellent tablets when storing winter clothes in the closet. |
| 5 | Twice a year, lubricate the rubber seal in plastic windows with a special product. Then it will serve for years without letting in the cold, and there will be no need for expensive replacement. |
| 10 | Regularly check the refrigerator for stale food that is nearing its expiration date. As long as they haven’t spoiled, a good housewife can make a delicious salad, pizza or other baked goods from them. |
| 8 | Dishwashing detergent is used more slowly and more economically if you pour it into a bottle with a dispenser. |
What does it consist of
Income
This is the salary of all working family members. This also includes interest on deposits, odd jobs and freelancing, gifts for holidays, pensions, social benefits and any other additional injections.
Expenses
Spending by all family members. This part of the budget consists of several categories.
- General expenses . Food, apartment bills, communication services, travel on public transport, car maintenance (if everyone uses it), family vacations, loans.
- Unexpected expenses . Breakdown of plumbing or gadgets, medical care or other expenses that cannot be planned in advance.
- Personal expenses . They are prescribed for each separately. This includes buying clothes and shoes, having fun with friends, scheduled visits to the doctor, getting an education, buying gifts, paying for classes and clubs for the child, and spending on pets.
Before the start of the month, write down approximate limits in each category so that you don’t accidentally spend more than you received.
Savings
Illustration: Fizkes / Shutterstock
Funds that remain after spending money on expenses. Savings may include:
- Airbag . Everyone needs it! These are funds that will save you in any financial difficulties: they will help you cover expensive treatment, survive dismissal, or repair a stalled car. The size of the airbag should be at least three salaries: to accumulate it painlessly, you can save 10% of your income every month.
- Money for large purchases . For example, a vacation, a car or a new home.
- Assets and valuable property . Investments, car, real estate - any options for values. Such savings have bonuses - for example, investments can grow due to interest and become sources of passive income.
Owning your own home gives you a sense of stability and reduces your monthly expenses—you don’t have to pay a landlord. It is profitable to purchase an apartment in a new building in any region of Russia before July 1, 2022 with a preferential mortgage lending program. The rate for the entire term will be 7% or even less. The program allows you to choose an apartment both in housing under construction and in already completed housing. The only condition is that it must be the primary real estate market. The maximum loan amount is 3 million rubles, and the down payment amount is 15%.
Find out more
Ironing
You have no problem with this item if you like ironing. And if not? Just stop doing it - most things hardly need an iron.
Can’t look at your five-year-old daughter in wrinkled jeans and suffer from insomnia on an unironed sheet? Try ironing every day for literally 15 minutes while you watch TV, then the process will seem less hopeless and exhausting.
Here's a trick: modern washing machines wring out clothes so hard that they become too wrinkled. Use the “no crease” mode or set the spin power to a lower level. After this, the clothes need to be carefully straightened in the dryer so that you don’t have to iron them at all. If you dry things in the machine, take them out a little damp - it is better to iron shirts in this condition.
Remove the freshly ironed item before the children have time to jump on it, scatter it, or pour juice on it.
A few examples
If after painting work there is a brush left in the paint, so that it does not dry out, you can put the brush in a plastic bag and close it tightly. Paint on metal objects will crack less if you wipe the surface with a vinegar solution before applying it and let it dry. Washing knives with hot water is not recommended. They quickly become dull from this. But pre-soaking them for half an hour in a solution of kitchen salt will help speed up their sharpening.
When painting window openings, you can rub the glass surface with an onion or vinegar solution. Now paint that accidentally gets on this surface can be easily removed.
Distribution of duties
In modern society, a woman, just like a man, is engaged in socially important matters and brings home a salary. And it's unfair to put all the housework on her. In a family, responsibilities should be distributed evenly. If a woman cooks the best food in the family, then she herself will not yield this responsibility to anyone else. And a man or one of the older children can walk around the apartment with a vacuum cleaner. And any family member can load and unload the washing machine.
PHOTO: sun3-11.userapi.comWoman at home after work
PHOTO: mtdata.ruMan in the household
But justice requires an equal distribution of all household responsibilities.
PHOTO: avatars.mds.yandex.netWorking together in the kitchen
PHOTO: i.pinimg.comMan cleaning an apartment
Now, if a woman does not go to work every day, then she will take on a significant share of household chores herself. And among the many women, you cannot find two similar in their attitude to this activity. Each woman has her own criteria for “right and wrong,” her own methods for solving the same problems, her own experience gained from mothers and grandmothers. Therefore, no two apartments are identical.
Clothes and toys - cleaning
How much time do you spend on:
- neatly arrange children's things in the closet that the child has already outgrown?
- collect toys that have long been no longer relevant for the baby in a drawer?
It seems that in five minutes you are unlikely to be able to cope with these tasks. The solution is simple - you need to quickly get rid of the junk: less things - less problems. Sort through your children's clothing, wash everything that is out of season, and pack it in special boxes. Get rid of what has become small: if you don’t dare throw it away, distribute things to friends whose children are younger than yours, advertise on forums and communities like “I’ll give it away for free.” Ask your nearest church parish if they take clothing to distribute to those who need it. Try selling what is still marketable via the Internet. If your subconscious bombards you with arguments like “maybe we’ll give birth to another one” or “what if in five years your sister has a child?”, the things, of course, can be left, but in any case they must be removed from the shelves of the “current” nursery clothes.
Here's a trick: clothes packed in vacuum bags take up much less space!
As for toys, if right now you distribute among your friends everything that the child is already tired of, throw out what has long been broken, and hide half of the rest away, the nursery will become much freer! In a month or two, you will give your offspring “long-forgotten old things” and send to a well-deserved rest those cars and dolls that are in circulation now... There is nothing more gratifying for a mother than a child who dived for a couple of hours into a box of toys that he has not seen for a long time ! And what savings!
We need to get rid of the junk quickly. Fewer things mean fewer problems.
We are tricky: large baskets for toys are extremely inconvenient - in order to find some little thing at the bottom, the child will inevitably dump all the contents on the floor. Shallow (ideally with transparent walls) boxes are much more practical. Beautiful stickers on each of them will help the child figure out where to put the dolls, where the animals are, and where only the parts of the construction set or the railway. “Go and collect your toys” is too global and boring a task for a preschooler. Break it down into small, manageable components like: “Put all the toy soldiers in this box/park all the big cars under the bed.”
Once you've gotten rid of clutter in your nursery, the most important thing is not to accumulate it again. Every time, trying to bless the heir with a gift, ask yourself whether he really needs this thing. One simple rule saves you from excessive clutter: as much as it comes, so much goes out. Have you brought a new toy into the house? Put one of the old ones away!
Cleansing Items
Stains are unsightly. Any neat person, seeing them on any thing, strives to get rid of them. Well, this can be done simply. Here are some tricks:
- An old, yellowed bathroom curtain will look like new if all its dirty and unpleasant areas are washed with a solution of water and hydrogen peroxide (1:1 ratio).
- Toothbrushes can be cleaned of tea and coffee stains and germs by soaking them in vinegar for an hour.
- It is easy to clean the bathtub until it is white by spraying hydrogen peroxide over its surface. After 30 minutes, it should be washed off with warm water.
- You can also fill the bath with baking soda, and after a few minutes fill it with vinegar. After half an hour, any dirt can be easily cleaned with a brush.
- Unwanted yellowness can be removed from any surface using a solution of citric acid (1 sachet per 1 glass of water). Apply it with a sponge for 20 minutes and then rinse with warm water.
- Old plaque can be easily removed with a mixture of salt and vinegar (1:1).
- Stains can be removed from washcloths by soaking them in boiling water diluted 1:1 with vinegar for an hour.
The best thing about these recommendations is that almost everyone has the above ingredients in their home. And if you don’t have them, then it won’t be difficult to buy them - their prices are low.
Making useful things with our own hands
Any person enjoys looking at his own creativity, and it doesn’t matter what it may be.
The main thing is that it is done with soul and pleases the owner.
Useful DIY crafts can be made from scrap materials, for example, you can make an original shelf from used tin cans. You can use it to store small items. But the main thing is that you can endlessly fantasize about the size and shape of the future masterpiece. First, you need to prepare the jars, remove sharp edges if there are any, then drill holes in each at several points, depending on how they will be located. Fastening can be done with bolts or self-tapping screws to each other. You can screw it to the wall with a regular screwdriver, having first driven a dowel into it.
Useful homemade products are created by home craftsmen not only from various materials, but also for different needs.
These could be devices for a country house or a city apartment.
Useful tips for housewives, or Live and learn
It is difficult for modern young housewives to imagine how they could manage without the Internet before. As soon as a question arises or a problem appears, we immediately begin to look for answers on the World Wide Web. But how did our mothers, grandmothers and, especially, great-grandmothers manage the household without these instant tips? They found useful advice for housewives in newspapers, magazines and, surprisingly, wall tear-off calendars. Of course, everything was not written there about everything. Therefore, I had to rely on my own intuition in some ways, follow the experience of my elders in some ways, and learn others through trial and error.
Be that as it may, the experience of our predecessors is oh so rich. So you and I are in some way lucky. Naturally, it is impossible to fit all the advice for a young housewife into just one article. For this, probably, even one book will not be enough. However, we offer you a small selection of recommendations and everyday tricks - tips for housewives.
Home improvement
Every household has a lot of tools and equipment that are not very large in size, but very necessary for the job: all kinds of brushes, rags, slippers for guests, bottles of household chemicals, etc. So that they don’t lie around anywhere, and you can always To quickly find the thing you need, you should make specialized organizers. Organizers group things that are similar in purpose. Sometimes they can be mounted on the back side of a door. An ideal option when you can organize a small storage room in your apartment.
PHOTO: YouTube.com In a small, cramped apartment, it makes sense to acquire folding furniture, for example, a pair of folding chairs, a folding table (when unfolded, it will be useful for receiving guests).
