Why You Should Try Making Your Own Cleaning Products & Cosmetics
Nearly two years ago we made the decision to limit the groceries to $100 a week and stick to it. Even though our family-size has increased by one adult person, we managed to cut that budget again to $75. The outcome is we are eating more fruit and vegetables and way less processed food. Wastage (food scraps) in our household is minimalised and due to us choosing less pre-packaged consumables our rubbish pile has shrunk to next-to-nothing. My grocery list mainly consists of ingredients such as flour which we purchase from a bulk store (Bin Inn), where we can fill our own containers.
So not only are we healthier and richer, we have significantly reduced our impact on the environment from a rubbish point of view. These changes make life so much easier, grocery shopping is no longer a time consuming, money draining chore and the products we buy now do not create piles and piles of packaging to dispose of. There is no down side.
Making your own cleaning products and cosmetics has also proven to hold many favourable spin offs over time… my teeth, skin and hair have never looked better and they have not had a branded product near them in 2-years. Knowing what is in the products you use is very empowering especially when they out shine ‘the bought stuff’ in price and quality.
The strong perfumes in purchased cosmetics and cleaning products have started to repel us and we are overwhelmed by the chemical smells in the cleaning aisle in the supermarket. It took about 18-months of making our own before we started noticing this which just shows how desensitised to strong chemicals we become after exposing ourselves and our families to them for years. Women in particular have a big responsibility to make good choices for their families and mainstream chemical based cleaning and cosmetics to me seem an expensive and unhealthy choice.
Making your own stuff is NOT time consuming, in fact I’d say quicker than buying, which involves a trip to town. We are so addicted to the supermarket habit and constantly bombarded with advertising for ‘branded’ products that steal all out hard earned cash, changing your ways is not easy nor does it happen overnight BUT if you are committed to change and want to be better off financially, healthwise and to the betterment of the environment, then sussing out home made products and cutting back on your grocery spending is well worth the effort.
Check out my earlier blogs to see how we started off 2-years ago and how it got us to where we are now. The positive changes are phenomenal.
