vacuum

My secret tip to saving money…

Abby H.

The number one secret tip to saving money that I love to share is: take care of your stuff.

It seems simple, but taking care of your possessions can save you time and money in the coming years. With prices continuing to rise and wages stagnating, taking care of what you have has become more important. Here are a few ways that I take care of what I’ve got to save money.

Keep clothes in good repair/mending them as needed. This also means laundering them appropriately and folding or hanging them up once they are clean. 

Shoes: clean/polish/scuff free, and stuffing them with newspaper when they’re unworn and living in your closet. Or, if available, utilizing shoe trees.

This also means taking your car in for routine maintenance like oil changes, mileage-based tuneups, having your tires rotated, and making sure that your tires are properly inflated and in good repair.

Laundering your blankets and linens per the directions on the tag.

Vacuuming/cleaning carpet/rugs/flooring frequently as directed with appropriate cleaners.

Purchasing quality products that will last. This might mean saving up to make purchases, but this is better than buying cheap stuff and constantly replacing it.

To facilitate this at my house, I use Google shopping, or coupon and deal sites, where I’ll help you find the best deals and coupon codes. I use Mypoints and Topcashback. I’ve also used Honey in the past.

The secondhand stores are a great way to save money. Recently, there has been an uptick in new with tags and like-new items in thrift stores because people like the time or energy to return items or when you purchase items online, sometimes retailers is no longer want the items returned. They’ll issue the refund and ask the consumer to donate or dispose of the item.

Weekly Reset- Preparing for the week ahead (family edition)

Abby H.1 Comment

This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything I do each weekend to reset, but it does hit all the major points.

On Saturdays, I do the weekend prep for the week ahead. This includes the following:

Laundry. I try to do a few loads of laundry during the week so that it doesn’t pile up, but Saturday is my day to fold clean clothes, hang things up, and make sure everything gets put away. And mate socks. I usually listen to a podcast or watch something on my phone while I do this. I keep my eyes open for deals on laundry detergent. One of my favorite deals is the Buy one, get two free Arm and Hammer detergent deals that happen every 6-8 weeks or so at Walgreens. The deal starts again tomorrow, May 4, 2025.

Put outfits together. I started doing this about a year ago, and it saves me time every morning. I can just go into my closet, pull off an outfit off the hanger, and I will have a top and a bottom already to put on. My youngest picks out their clothing before bed every night, and my big kid does not care what he wears to school. So most of his clothes are mix and match athletic shorts or exercise pants, and a funny graphic shirt or a sweatshirt if it’s cold.

Clean out the fridge. I was up this morning before 7:30, and I reorganized the fridge and pulled out the food that was starting to look a little beyond its days. I prep the fruits and vegetables that may expire or go bad first. For me, that means roasting vegetables, making a fruit salad, or making applesauce if we have some apples that are starting to bruise or go soft. Applesauce is super easy to make and does not take that long at all. If you have a lot of apples, you can make it in the crockpot. My crockpot applesauce recipe can be found here.

Restock the lunch/snack bins. I keep two plastic bins in my pantry full of lunch components for the kids lunches.  I tend to buy snacks in bulk when they are on sale, and then stash the extras downstairs in the garage in a plastic tote so they don’t all get consumed quickly.  For us that includes: Granola bars, goldfish crackers, bags of popcorn, gogosqueez pouches, lunch-size bags of preferred chips, freeze-dried fruit, dried mangoes, crackers, beef jerky, and individual bags of cookies. 

Restock the drinks and the protein shakes. I have a premier protein premade protein shake every morning for breakfast with 20 ounces of cold brew. Every weekend, I go down to the garage, grab enough for the week, and stash them in the fridge.  I will also put drinks in the fridge if we have premade drinks (that does not happen very often), and more juice boxes/Arizona iced teas in the fridge for the kids’ lunches for the following week. I will usually also make a pitcher of lemonade.

I make a batch of cold brew. Previously, I used my French press, but that was taking a while, and it takes up a lot of room. So I started making bundles with oversized coffee filters and cotton twine, but that just made too much waste. So this weekend, I’m gonna make some cold brew filter bags that are reusable. I’ll be using muslin and cotton twine, and I am hoping to make several of them. You can also buy cold brew bags online.

Clean out the kids’ backpacks. Usually, they will do it themselves, but every once in a while, I peek in there and find piles of crumpled papers and broken pencils and other stuff. This also includes pulling out their lunchboxes and making sure that their school iPads are charging. Once a quarter or as needed, I will throw their backpacks and lunch bags into the washer. Nothing is worse than a stinky backpack/lunchbox.

I clean the bathrooms each weekend. This includes taking out the garbage, sweeping, cleaning the toilets, and spraying down the showers. 

Vacuuming and sweeping. My cousin gave me a Roomba recently, and Roomba is currently doing its thing in the living room. And it does a really good job, much better than the Shark iRobot we previously had. Also, this Roomba has the cat on high alert. She sits and supervises to make sure that none of her toys get sucked up. 

Changing the sheets. I changed the sheets every weekend. I usually do one bed on Friday, one bed on Saturday, and one bed on Sunday. And put the bedding in the washing machine as soon as I strip it off the bed, that way I don’t have that much more laundry to do. These are my favorite sheets from JCP. They are on sale frequently, and cotton sheets are great for warm or cool weather!

I’m sure you are asking: What do the kids do? The big kid takes the trash and recycling down. The smaller kid helps gather dirty cups/dishes and gets them ready to load into the dishwasher. They both help with laundry. They pick up their belongings, and they keep their rooms tidy.

Home Maintenance: Cleaning your Vacuum

Abby H.

IMG_6712.jpgI know, I know. It’s hilarious to think that you should clean an appliance that is designed to clean, but really, if you think about it, if a vacuum cleaner is clogged with dirt and hair it can’t do its job.

And that sucks (see what I did there?).

After reading the manual that came with our vacuum, I set to work.

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Freshly Cleaned

First, I took the canister off, dumped it in the trash, removed the filter, and washed them both. I used the blue Dawn dishwashing liquid. For the canister, I used a brush like this.

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Strings, hair, and a PIPE CLEANER???

Then I removed the brush housing assembly, removed the soleplate, and clipped the hair and thread off the beater bar (that’s the thing that goes round and round and has little brushes on it). Once the beater bar was clean, I washed the soleplate and brush housing assembly.

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Before being cleaned, but after being de-fuzzed.

I used a smaller brush like this, and also a straw cleaning brush to get into the tiny nooks and crankies. I think for next time I’ll be ordering a set like this:

It’s got all the size brushes you’ll need to clean out vacuum cleaner’s various parts. 

After everything was clean (it took about an hour, that included interruptions from the kids who needed snacks, cartoons, etc. And of course, the cat was starving and needed food RIGHT.NOW), I set them out on the patio bench on an old worn out towel that I use for cleaning. IMG_6706.jpg

The next day everything was bone dry and I re-assembled the vacuum cleaner and took it for a test drive. It was like using a brand new vacuum!

I clean my vacuum about once every six months. It helps keep it in good running order, which means it will last longer. Our previous Dyson lasted us 11 years, and I’d love for this one to last at least 11 years!

If you want to try it, I recommend that you check the owners manual for tips and instructions!