Right, I wrote this earlier and lost it HOW??.
Anyway I've been reading this thread and have some ideas some of you might find useful, some of you wont.
I always have a bottle of pop/water etc in the car. Has saved me buying expensive water many times.
I park a few streets away from the main parking areas in town and get 30 mins free.
Everytime I take a packed lunch or park for free I write it in my diary and then at the end of the week I write it on the calender so I know how much better off we are for the week.
I use the smartprice/basic cleaning products.
SP Wax polish, 30p. I use it on the glass tv stand (they were fashionable when we bought it) and paintwork and wood with no problems.
SP washing bio powder, £1.79 for 2kg in sains. I cant see a difference from when we used to use persil from costco. I use three dessert spoons of it with two of soda crystals. Soda crystals in homebargains/savers are 65p compared with 99p in asda.
I swapped from using woolite from homebargains for £1.99 to Alur from homebargains for 89p (made by the stardrops people, again cant tell a difference).
SP multi surface liquid decanted into a spray bottle. If your cleaning the worktops/ cooker 2 or 3 times a day before cooking and after cooking you dont really need strong cleaners such as cillit bang, flash, or mr m. It cuts through the grease on the cooker after a sunday breakfast.
SP disinfectant for the bin, 30p decanted into a spray bottle. I do the bin weekly and use 2 bottles a year by spraying it on.
SP cream cleaner, 30p.
SP loo cleaner, If I put it down before work and clean the loo when I get home it stays clean and we live in a hard water area. I forgot a bit over christmas (too busy drinking) so it got a bit manky. Half a bottle of sp vinegar sorted that out though. I put the sp cleaner in a swan necked bottle so it's easier to use but I think the tesco sp one is in a proper bottle.
SP rubber gloves, about 60p for two pairs, they always go on my left thumb so no point buying expensive ones.
SP thin bleach in a spray bottle for getting stains out of white clothes/sheets etc and for spraying around the sink (butler sink, pita) 30p.
I swapped colour catchers for savers cheapo ones, £1 for 20.
Tesco daisy dishwashing powder, one dessert spoon per wash. Works just fine, no dirty dishes or streaky glasses.
Savers own brand rinse aid, £1. It has the same active ingredients as the Finish one does. I'm not brave enough yet to put white vinegar in the rinse aid compartment but I have read on the good housekeeping thread that people do with no ill effects or streaky glasses.
Half a cup of soda crystals for the monthly dishwasher deep clean.
Aldi shower shine, mr m copy, 69p. Works just as well as the mr m one I bought in asda. I bought both to compare (extreme sadness).
I started using all of these because I read on money saving expert last year that people who do the supermarket challenge are least likely to change on their cleaning products so I thought I'd give it a go and so far I havent been disappointed with any of them. I used to think they must be rubbish to be so cheap and that they wouldnt cope with grease etc but they do.
So I hope this is of help to some of you. I havent managed to convince MIL that they work but I think she would die a death if anyone she knows saw smartprice products in her trolley. Although she did buy basics grapes recently and told me there just the same as ordinary grapes. I just said " I know, I've been telling you about basics stuff for the last year". I think she was expecting rotting fruit tbh.