I’m the mother of a beautiful little girl, who lives on the west coast of Canada with my partner. Aside from from writing and researching, I enjoy spending time with my family, doing stuff like hiking, bicycling, visiting friends, working in my garden when I have one going, and finding little ways to make “going green” and being economical just a little bit more accessible to the average joe.

We are constantly being bombarded with news about how the ozone layer is disappearing, our land and waters are being polluted, our resources are dwindling…. not to mention the state of our economy and workforce. It can get a little over-whelming, no? For some of us, our hearts are in the right place, but our means are not. So, we recycle, we turn off lights and appliances when we aren’t  using them, we make the stuff we need instead of buying it at the store. We all do our little bit.

The grocery stores offer a growing selection of alternatives in household goods, foods, cleaning chemicals, lightbulbs, etc. It’s true that there are shops that cater to the growing environmental trend, but let’s face it: many average families can not afford the cost. And so, they go to grocery stores, they buy the usual suspects: the stuff filled with chemicals, preservatives, genetically modified ingredients, carcinogens, etc, thinking that using them is better than having a filthy house.

Perhaps they ARE better than nothing, but only marginally so. The stuff you find in your cupboards is far better than the stuff you usually see at the stores, cost-wise, and every bit as good at getting the dirt off.

Perhaps you have a cupboard filled with standard general cleaners, window cleaners, degreasers, carpet spot-removers, something to deal with soap scum, some kind of chlorine bleach, throw-away dusters, aerosol polishes, and so on. Perhaps, being like millions of other people out there, you can not afford to dispose of all these and start fresh with better options. This is where the baby steps come in.

We can not always make drastic changes all at once. Especially not with a limited budget. I don’t know about you, but I could never justify disposing of a half-full bottle of cleaner, when it cost me $5-10 in the first place. Baby steps. When you run out of your standard store-bought cleaners, you replace it with a more cost-effective, environmentally friendly method. Bit by bit, your cupboard becomes non-toxic.

In this site, I offer homemade recipes for every housekeeping job out there. I also critique the more readily-available ‘green’ option cleaners available at the stores, and see how they stack up in performance and cost, for those of you who are still looking for better options but are perhaps not comfortable with using the stuff you have in your pantry. I will also eventually offer cheap dinner and baking recipes for the family, a ‘personal housekeeping’ section, and frugal arts and crafts for those of us who like to work with our hands!

Since I am also in the process of creating a recipe book for homemade cleaners, I encourage people to submit their own little tricks and recipes, along with permission to print these (emailed, at their choice) and information on who to credit. I intend to give mention to everybody who contributes, unless they wish to remain anonymous.

That being said, welcome to frugalfanny.ca, and enjoy!

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