Things I’m glad I have during the lockdown

The lockdown has me thinking more and more about our journey to reduce waste and attempt to find reusable, non-toxic solutions for almost everything in our home. This approach has served us well in the lockdown and we are grateful we are not running out or needing to stock up on various items. Some of which are in short supply (hello toilet roll). This post will go through the items I’m glad to have during the coronavirus lockdown. In terms of financial independence, these alternatives also save us money as we no longer need to buy single-use items.

Before I get started though, I hope everyone is staying safe and maintaining social distance as much as possible during these uncertain times. I read a scary stat that if we apply the same stats from elsewhere, 60,000 Irish will need ICU ventilators and we only have 227 in the whole country.

We need to slow the spread so that we can keep the infections to a level the hospitals can keep up with. Otherwise hospital staff will be forced to decide who lives and dies. If a 40 year old and a 30 year old are vying for the same ventilator, the 30 year old will be treated and the 40 year old will not.

We personally are staying confined to our home, leaving only to get food and go on walks around the estate. Our son is desperate to play with the neighbours but they’ve been limited to making faces at each other through the windows.

All seriousness aside, here are the items we no longer run out of.

Bathroom

In the bathroom, we no longer buy:

• Toilet roll!!!
• Floss
• Feminine hygiene products

What do we use instead?

• Handheld bidet to wash and family cloth to dry. Believe me when I say, once you try this you will hate having to use toilet roll ever again! It is so much cleaner!
  • You simply rinse off, dry off with the cloths, rinse off the cloths and hang to try before you wash your hands
  • I do still buy about 1 pack of toilet roll per year for guests.
  • If you’re really stuck for toilet roll and can’t get your hands on a bidet attachment you can use an old squirt bottle. Fill it up with water and rinse yourself off. You can use old rags to dry off and throw them in the wash with your regular laundry.
  • I got my family cloth from a Cork woman who makes them on Etsy (link included above)

• Water flosser. Comes with different heads for more than one person
• Moon cup/re-usable pads

We still buy:

• Refillable natural, SLS free, paraben free shampoo
• Unpackaged natural bars of soap. I normally buy these loose from the local health food store but see now I can purchase in bulk myself for about 2€/bar. Now that I know which scent I like I will be doing this in future
• Razors. I haven’t swapped to a safety razor yet but is in my plans. Either that or I might just get laser hair removal and be done with it.

I tried the water only method of washing my hair for about a year and finally gave up. It was fine and worked ok but was a bit too much effort to sustain.

Buying minimal products also helps to keep our shower and sink very uncluttered! No more half empty bottles and half finished soaps cluttering up the shelves.

In the bathroom shower we have 1 bottle of shampoo which we refill from bulk, 1 bar of unpackaged soap and a razor.

By the sink we have 1 bar of unpackaged natural soap.

Kitchen

In the kitchen, we no longer buy:

• Bin liners
• Dish sponges/jade cloths
• Cling film
• Aluminium foil
• Paper towel/kitchen towels
• Sparkling water

What do we use instead?

• Nothing for bin liners as all of our wet food waste is composted and we clean all of our recyclables so the only thing left in our regular bin is dry soft plastics that can’t be recycled and other clean dry non-recyclable waste. This approach also significantly reduces bin weights. In 2019 we only threw out 42kg in our black bin. The average household throws out 367kg as per a study done in 2011.
• To wash dishes and wipe surfaces we use re-usable dish cloths, steel wool and a wooden scrubber brush
• Instead of cling film we use glass Pyrex Tupperware with lids to store food. These also double as baking dishes though the plastic lids are not oven safe (whoops). I got mine in the Range in Cork as well as some in Lidl if you keep an eye out for them.
• Instead of tin foil we use a reusable silicone mat which we wash off with hot water and soap
• Instead of paper towels we use reusable dish cloths
• Instead of sparkling water bottles we got a soda stream. We do still have to refill canisters of CO2 but it lasts us about 6 months. We got the one with the glass carafe as they do not need to be replaced like the plastic ones do

Baby

Baby wise, we don’t need to buy:

• Nappies
• Wipes
• Baby food
• Nappy cream
• Baby shampoo/soaps/lotions

What do we use instead?

• Cloth nappies and elimination communication to catch pee/poo in a potty. Our son has been potty independent for poos since 6 months old. We only missed about 1 poo per month since then. Now at 18 month he does sign language to tell us when he needs to go. We are now working on trying to get him to signal for pees. We bring a portable potty and reusable insert with us when we are out an about.
  • This is the brand of nappies we went with and is the cheapest site I found that stocked them (believe me I searched!)
• Reusable cloth wipes for bums and face cloths or muslin cloths for face/body
• No baby food. We followed baby led weaning where baby eats small bits of what you eat and I’m still breastfeeding
• We are still only half way through the first tube of nappy cream that we got 1.5 years ago. With elimination communication our son doesn’t poop in his nappy which significantly reduces nappy rash. He still gets a bit red from teething so we do use it but only very rarely. We like the weleda brand as you can understand all the ingredients and are the most natural we could find
• We only wash our baby with water and a face cloth. We did buy some shampoo/lotion when we were trying to clear up an eczema outbreak but have stopped using them since we managed to get it cleared up

Out and about

Things I no longer buy for when we’re out and about are:

• Kleenex/tissues
• Water bottles

What do we use instead?

• Handkerchiefs. This may seem gross but once you use cloth nappies you kind of get over the washability of bodily fluid. Best ones I found are actually in Marks and Spencers
• Re-usable water bottle. I never leave the house without a full bottle of water. My mom got us a stainless steel one as a gift and I take it everywhere. Even in the airport, just make sure it’s empty before going through security and fill it up on the other side

Cleaning

Cleaning wise we no longer buy:

• Glass cleaner
• All-purpose cleaner
• Floor cleaner
• Wood polish
• Oven cleaner

What do we use instead?

• Micro-fibre cloth with water and squeegee to clean windows, mirrors and shower doors. This actually works amazing! This was surprisingly hard to find in shops. We managed to find one in Argos but seems to be out of stock at the moment.
• We never used all-purpose cleaner or floor cleaner. We mainly clean with water.
• I make my own wood floor polish with olive oil, vinegar, lemon essential oil and hot water. Recipe here. Works a treat
• I make my own oven cleaner with baking/bread/bi-carbonate soda and water. Make a paste, spread it on, leave it sit for at least 12 hours and wipe it off. Most effective and elbow grease free solution I have found!

The only cleaning products I still buy are:

• dishwasher tabs. We get the Winnie’s brand from Dunnes in cardboard
• laundry soap (eco-egg and e-cover refills)
• washing up liquid (e-cover refills)
• toilet bleach (though I’m trying to find less toxic alternatives for this)

I tried making my own dishwasher, laundry and dish soap for about a year and finally gave up due to ineffectiveness.

We use eco-eggs to wash the nappies but switched back to either non-bio in a cardboard box or liquid refills for laundry and refillable natural washing up liquid for dishes.

I took a few snaps of all of the things mentioned and posted them on my instagram if you want to check them out and give me a follow for the more human side of my posts! https://www.instagram.com/mrsmoneyhacker/

Cost savings

We don’t track our expenses at the line item level for groceries which is where we’d buy the majority of these items but for 2019 we spent an average of 440€/month on everything bought from a grocery store and off-license. This includes food, toiletries, alcohol and the odd tools and things you can’t resist from Lidl etc. You can see our full 12 month spend here.

The average spend for Irish households as per the 2015 survey done by the central statistics office showed the average spending for these same items was 483€/month.

Detailed breakdown from the survey below:

Urban	Monthly cost	Annually
01 Total food	€ 481	€ 6,247
01.01 Total food consumed at home	€ 373	€ 4,848
02 Total drink and tobacco	€ 120	€ 1,557
02.01 Drink consumed at home	€ 45	€ 591
06 Total household non-durable goods	€ 65	€ 849
06.01 Detergents, washing up liquid and washing powder	€ 7	€ 90
06.02 Disinfectants, polishes and other cleaning materials	€ 6	€ 73
06.03 Non-durable small household articles	€ 6	€ 80
06.04 Toilet paper	€ 5	€ 66
06.05 Toiletries – disposable (e.g. toothpaste)	€ 8	€ 101
06.06 Toilet soap, liquid soap, shower gel, etc.	€ 2	€ 28
06.07 Toilet requisites (e.g. toothbrush and comb)	€ 3	€ 43
06.08 Hair products	€ 6	€ 72
06.09 Cosmetics and related accessories	€ 18	€ 235
06.10 Baby toiletries/accessories (e.g. nappies)	€ 5	€ 61

If you increase that by the average inflation of 1.9%/year to 2019 that comes to 530€.

A savings of 90€/month or 1,080€/year compared to the average.

Future investment savings

In order to sustain that expenditure in financial independence we need to have almost 27,000€ invested in order to draw down 4% to cover that cost.

Think about how long it would take you to save and invest 27,000€. That’s how many years you could shave off your time to financial independence if you make a few of these cost cutting changes now.

Some food for thought!

If you have any questions about how we made the switch or if you have any other suggestions please do let me know in the comments below.

*If you haven’t guessed already, this post contains some (but not all) affiliate links which give me a small commission if you purchase, at no cost to you. This helps to fund my time to keep this content free!