down to earth

Making some basics at home can cut costs and reduce many additives in food and cleaners. I make sauce mixes, drinks, laundry liquid, spray cleaners and I dry herbs and spices to use later. I love knowing what I'm using in my home and I can change my recipes according to taste or strength when I need to.

Lemon juice ice blocks, gravy mix, and flavoured vinegars are three things I make several times a year that help me save money and steer clear of preservatives and other potentially harmful chemicals. It shows how simple, homemade solutions can lead to small but lasting savings—and they’re healthier. Commercial lemon juice in a plastic bottle for instance, often contains preservatives like sodium metabisulfite, which some people can be sensitive to. Lemon juice is a natural deterrent to bacteria and by freezing fresh lemon juice, you’re not only cutting out preservatives but also ensuring you always have a natural antibacterial option on hand.

I use my gravy/brown sauce recipe with roast meats, in casseroles and, with mushrooms added, make mushroom sauce for steak. You can customise with herbs or spices for different dishes. It’s such an easy way to avoid the lengthy ingredient lists in store-bought sauces, which can contain fillers and preservatives. I make up a jar of this and leave it with my seasonings next to the stove. It saves going to the pantry and taking the ingredients out each time and then putting them back in.

Simple Gravy/Sauce Mix

I make a very simple mix of plain flour, salt, pepper and paprika. I also make one for roast lamb to which I add dried rosemary and one for roast chicken with dried sage - the paprika helps the sauce brown. When added to pan juices, it makes an excellent gravy or sauce. I make up about a cup of the simple mix at a time and that lasts a month or so. I use one or two tablespoons stirred into pan juices with enough water to make up the sauce. It's easier healthier and cheaper than Gravox or one of those packet mixes and it tastes much better.

Simple Gravy Mix - customise this to your own taste but start off with:

1 cup plain/all purpose flour
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

You can also make a spicier mix by adding a spoon full of chilli flakes, or a curry version by adding a tablespoon of curry powder.

Chilli Flakes

Wash and dry the chillies and only use those without rot or damage. Cut the top stem off and slice the chillies in half straight down. Place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper in the oven on about 40 - 60C. Dry in the oven until they feel dry, but not burnt - it will take a few hours. You'll have to watch them because some pieces will be smaller and will dry faster. Take small amounts out if you see that they've dried enough. When they're all dry, wait till they're completely cold and then blitz them in a food processor for a few seconds, until they're small flakes. Store in a airtight jar.

You can make chilli jam using fresh chillies or chilli flakes. Here is my recipe for that. How to make Chilli Jam

Sweet lemon/lime slices

This one makes sense particularly if you grow your own lemons or limes. I always have a jar of lemons or limes in the fridge over summer. When I have a drink I can add a slice of sweetened lemon to the iced water. It's suitable for iced tap water or carbonated water from a Soda Stream but also delicious in hot tea. When you get to the end of the slices, add the syrup to your drinks too, by then it will have a wonderful sharp lemon taste. A one litre jar will take three large lemons.

All you need to do is to add sugar syrup to your lemon slices. Sugar syrup is usually equal parts water to sugar. However, I use light syrup which is 2 cups water to 1 cup white sugar. Mix together in a saucepan and heat it on the stove. As soon as the sugar dissolves, cool it then add it to the sliced lemons, seal and store in the fridge.

Flavoured vinegar

Flavoured vinegar is another great idea, especially if, like me, you don’t like oil in your salad dressings. Infusing vinegar with your choice of spices and herbs adds layers of natural flavour. Store-bought salad dressings can be pricey and contain a surprising number of ingredients, so making your own is a healthier and cost-effective alternative. The effort is minimal, and the results are rewarding.

But vinegar is a good cleaner too. This is the spray I make up regularly that does a really good job and costs a few cents, not a few dollars like the supermarket version.

Surface Spray Cleaner

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon washing up liquid

Mix all ingredients together and then add to a spray bottle. You can clean hard surface areas with this - bench tops, fridge doors, glass stove tops, cupboard doors etc. Be careful if you have stone bench tops.

Creamy Scrubber

To make a product similar to Gumption take a small container - about 500 mls/1 pint and add one cup of laundry liquid. Then add enough bicarbonate soda to make a paste. Mix with a spoon until it's mixed well. If you use a stained spoon to do that, your spoon will be sparkling when you finish.

This mix will dry out if you make too much. I make enough for about a month, then make a new batch. I use it to clean the shower, bath, ceramic and stainless steel sinks.

Don’t stop at these, there will be plenty of things you use in your home that, if you think about it, you can make up at home for a fraction of the cost of the supermarket version.

I enjoy housework because I love my home and want it to support me and help me live the life I've chosen for myself. A house is not an inconvenience, it's a home and safe haven, and possibly the largest investment you'll make in your entire life. So I believe the time we spend on house maintenance and cleaning as a good way of protecting what we worked hard for. And that, my friend, is a very good investment in the future.

Thanks for visiting me today. I hope everything is going well for you and your family. 😀

Very early on in my blogging life I wrote a post detailing a lot of green cleaners. It was ridiculous really, I was doing what the supermarkets do - having a different cleaner for each individual cleaning purpose. Over the years, practicality and good sense kicked in and the variety of my own green cleaners shrank to a handful of cleaners that would clean a lot of different areas and surfaces. It saved me time because I had fewer cleaners to make and it saved money. As the internet grew with householders offering advice, instead of the choice of cleaners decreasing, many homemakers developed their own recipes and choices increased, a lot! You don't need them. Forget the supermarket models where you shop for different products for every area to be cleaned, common sense and your grandma will tell you that a cleaner is a cleaner and if it suits the area, it will probably suit similar areas and surfaces in your home.

With the current cost of living crisis, now is the time to try making some of your cleaners instead of buying the pre-made products. They’re easy to make - laundry liquid will take about 10- 15 minutes but you only make an batch every few months.

The foundation recipe of most of my cleaners is laundry liquid. Not only will it clean your clothes with three ingredients, you can add to it to make a creamy scrubber similar to Gumption, you can use it as a stain remover or on greasy kitchen areas such as your stove top, range hood and sink.

I wanted to add the ingredients list from supermarket products such as Dynamo or Cold Power here but they don't have the ingredients list on their products anymore (hmmm, I wonder why 🧐) They refer you to their websites - but they aren't on the Cold Power site and you have to fill in forms to reach the Dynamo info but no matter what I did, I never found it. It's interesting that now, when people are much more interested in using less toxic products on their clothing, bed linen and skin, the ingredients lists to help them choose their products have gone.

Here are the recipes:

Laundry Liquid

I put this first because as well as being a laundry liquid, general surface cleaner and stain remover, it's also the foundation of another handy cleaner, similar to Gumption.

You should be able to buy the ingredients for all these cleaners at your local supermarket and on Amazon au if you can’t find them locally. Please note that washing soda is different to baking soda. Sometimes there are two types of washing soda on sale - washing soda crystals and washing soda powder Buy the powder, it's easier to dissolve.

When I make up a new batch of laundry liquid, I always make it up in a 10 litre bucket with lid that I use for laundry and various cleaning tasks around the home. It’s a cleaner that is perfect for cleaning metal - including stainless steel, porcelain baths and sinks, and spot cleaning on painted walls. It does a good job on appliances - like fridges, food processors and painted cupboards.

HOMEMADE CLEANING RECIPES

LAUNDRY LIQUID
Makes 10 litres - use ¼ cup per laundry load

You may add any essential oil of your choice to these homemade cleaners. Oils like tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender or rose are useful but are not an essential ingredient and will add to the cost.

Ingredients

1 - 2 litres water
1 bar Sunlight or generic laundry soap or any similar pure laundry soap, grated on a cheese grater OR 1 cup of Lux flakes which are now called Softly flakes.
½ cup washing soda – NOT baking soda or bicarb soda
½ cup borax

Tools

Saucepan
10 litre bucket
Slotted spoon or wooden spoon for mixing

The ingredients are measured into a saucepan containing one to two litres/quarts of water. Add one cup of soap flakes, half a cup of borax and half a cup of washing soda. Turn on the heat and stir. Bring the mix to the boil, stirring as it heats, and by the time the mixture is boiling, ALL the ingredients should be dissolved.

So, you've nearly finished and it's only taken less than ten minutes so far. When you're sure the ingredients are completely dissolved, pour the mixture into your bucket then fill to the top with water from the hot tap and stir it together thoroughly. You've made laundry liquid. And it's cost you about $3 Australian. Ten litres of laundry liquid at an Australian supermarket costs about $120! When you take into account the making, pouring and storing, it's taken about 15 minutes. I make this about once every three months. If you have a large family, you might make it every two months. And it will save you about $100 every time you make it. How long would you have to work to earn $100? Saving it is much easier and much better for the environment.

Once you have the laundry liquid in your bucket, stir it around again, then start filling your containers. Be aware that the liquid will split when it's cold - see the photos below. There's nothing wrong with it, it just needs re-mixing or shaking before you use it.

Above is the laundry liquid after it's been sitting for 24 hours. It's clearly separated into layers - the top layer is gel-like, the bottom layer is watery. You need space in your container to shake and mix before you use it. Or, do what I do and get your stick blender and give it a good mix. That will emulsify it and it's more likely to stay like that.

Don't think you've done anything wrong if your mixture separates, it's fine, it just needs a re-mix. This is safe in septic tanks but not for grey water. The borax in the mix might build up as boron in the garden and that is harmful to plants. If you want to use your grey water, don't add the borax.

This laundry liquid will not make suds and that's perfectly okay. The ingredients loosen the dirt and grime in the clothes and the agitation of the washing machine will clean them.

Sometimes you don't have time to make up the liquid, so here is the powder version:

LAUNDRY POWDER

4 cups grated laundry or homemade soap or soap flakes (Lux)
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and store in a plastic container with a lid. Use 2 tablespoons per wash. This powder will not make suds and again, it's perfectly okay.

Soaking

Soaking is a very good habit to get into with your clothes (and washing up in the sink). In the past, most people soaked their clothes before washing. If you have a top loader, just fill the machine and add the laundry liquid, let it run for a minute then turn the machine off and let everything soak for about an hour, or overnight. Then turn the machine back on and carry on as normal. If you have a front loader, you can set your washer to run for a minute, then turn it off for an hour or overnight and re-start your wash. Or you could pick out the very soiled items and soak them in a tub before washing.

Stain remover

I use laundry liquid and rub it on the stain, leave it for an hour and then add to the washing machine and wash as normal.

Surface Spray Cleaner

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon washing up liquid

Mix all ingredients together and then add to a spray bottle. You can clean all hard surface areas with this - bench tops, fridge doors, glass stove tops, cupboard doors etc. If your stove top is very dirty, use the creamy scrubber. Just spread some creamy scrubber on the stove surface, let it sit for a couple of minutes then clean off with hot water on a clean rag. Dry the surface with a dry tea towel to finish.

Creamy Scrubber

This mix will dry out if you make too much. I make enough for about a month, then make a new batch. I use it to clean the shower, bath, ceramic and stainless steel sinks.

Glass cleaner

Half bucket of water with ½ cup of vinegar added. Use newspaper or clean soft rags to clean and dry the glass.

Washing up Liquid

I've never been able to make a homemade washing up detergent that I was happy with. I use a combination of Ecostore - $4.80 and Earth Choice - $3.50

Cleaners shopping list

I thought I'd make a quick comparison here of the price of the homemade cleaners and all supermarket products. See what you think. 🤔

HOMEMADE INGREDIENTS

Washing soda - $5.00

Borax - $4.10

Soap that you grate or soap flakes that you buy. I use the soap flakes. If you make your own soap, grate it and use that. - $7.50

White vinegar - $3.00

Bicarb soda - $2.70

Vanish Napisan oxyclean bleach - This is a safe bleach which uses peroxide instead of chlorine bleach. It's much safer and easy to use. If your homemade stain remover doesn't work, this would be your next option. - $17.00 or buy it on half price special. It's on sale frequently.

TOTAL $235.80 - I estimated I would buy these six times a year (approx)

SUPERMARKEY PRODUCTS

Ajax Spray and Wipe spray cleaner - $3.50

Ajax Spray and Wipe glass cleaner - $3.50

Duck Deep Action Gel toilet cleaner - $7.00

OzKleen Shower Power Bathroom and Shower cleaner - $7.35

Earth Choice floor cleaner - $3.35

Gumption multi-purpose paste - $5.40

Elbow Grease air fryer cleaner - $5.00 (I laughed when I saw this. It didn't take long for air fryers to get their own cleaner.)

Cerapol Ceramic Glass and Induction Cooktop Cleaner - $6.45

Dynamo Laundry Liquid - $12.00

Pinoclean Disinfectant - $8.00

Vanish Napisan oxyclean bleach - This is a safe bleach which uses peroxide instead of chlorine bleach. It's much safer and easy to use.

TOTAL $615.50 - I estimated I would buy these 10 times a year (approx)

The difference is $379.70 a year. So in ten years of grocery buying, that would be a saving of $3790.00.

Who knows what the health benefits would be.

I’ve spent many hours recently thinking about living here in my home. I’m reading Wendell Berry’s inspirational and powerful book, The World-Ending Fire, about living in ‘his place’ in Kentucky. Wendell - one of America’s most thought-provoking writers, never bought a computer, a mobile phone, or even an answering machine. He wrote all his books with a pencil and notebook, and with his wife, maintained fields with horse and plow, grew his own vegetables and meat, preserved food, collected water and became content and settled because of it.

This is the tastiest tomato I've ever grown. Medium in size and a flavour bomb.

I’m eight years younger than Wendell but I strongly hold on to “my place’ too. In fact, now I recognise that it’s one of the things that’s made me who I am and which has given me a solid starting point every day.

Homemade laundry liquid costs $2 - $3 to make 10 litres. It does an excellent job with three simple ingredients and none of the chemicals in the supermarket products.

These flowers are native Iris.

Gracie, doing her daily rounds.

When I was much younger, Hanno and I lived in Germany for two years. We travelled there so I could meet his family and intended staying for two months. But we ended up staying two years and towards the end of our stay, I was yearning to return to Australia. We returned married and with our first baby. When I stepped on my homeland again, I told myself I’d never leave again. And I haven’t.

One of my new linen aprons.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t the wide brown land of Australia I was yearning for. It was this specific parcel of land at the end of a dead-end, one-lane street in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. When I walked onto this land, I knew I was home. We bought the house and land and moved here a few years later when I was 49 years old. I’ve lived here longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere else. I know every inch of this land and I am part of it. This week, when I brought in my bins from the street, I stopped to close the gate behind me and a local butcher bird, a bird I see every day, flew towards me, circled me and flew towards a baby bird already sitting in the closest tree. I hadn’t seen it until the mother bird introduced me to the baby. But, as I walked away from that wonderful encounter, I realised I’m part of the nature of this place and I have no doubt that on that day, the baby bird was introduced to many other living creatures who live on this land.

Everlasting spinach.

When I first set foot here in 1994, I didn’t understand that I had discovered my true path and I was walking towards the mother load of happiness and contentment. I recognised a feeling of excitement but I didn’t know why I was excited. The house was a drab slab house with absolutely no other features. I loved the creek and the remnant rainforest in the backyard immediately but there were no fences, gardens, tanks, or verandas. All that was still ahead of us and, as it turned out, would help shape the people we became.

I will stay here until I die and my sons will inherit my home. It will then be sold and another family will come to live here. I hope they see how special it is and how it can help them slow down and live well. Not everyone can see those things, but in the words of Wendell: “Slow down, Pay Attention, Do good work, Love your neighbours, Love your place, Stay in your place, Settle for less and enjoy it more.” We created a life like no other here - it was a new way of living, an example for us and others of what could be done with work, attention, fewer expectations and reaping the ample benefits of happiness and contentment.

I’m pleased with the familiar way every day unfolds here. I grow the same foods, I cook the same meals, I talk to the same people and I never crave for new, better or more - I want fewer choices not more of them. I want old and familiar. Especially in these unstable times it suits me to be in my place with the gate shut, picking roses for the house, staking foxgloves, reading, writing and getting to know the baby birds.

In our fast-paced, consumer-driven world, we are constantly bombarded with the idea that convenience is key. The allure of shiny, ready-made products - quickly purchased with a swipe or click - seduces us. And yet, there is a deeper, more fulfilling way to live: making things at home rather than buying them. It’s an act of defiance against waste, excess, and the relentless push of consumerism. But more than that, it's a reclaiming of control, a celebration of simplicity, and a mindful exercise in frugality and time management.

At first glance, making things at home seems daunting. "Who has the time?" some might ask. "It's so much easier to buy." These thoughts are born from a culture that equates ease with value. But what if we flipped that equation? What if, instead of measuring value by the time saved, we measure it by the skill earned, the money conserved, and the creativity sparked?

Frugality is often misunderstood as deprivation, but in truth, it’s the art of stretching resources without sacrificing quality of life. It’s not about skimping, but about finding alternatives that enrich your day-to-day existence without spending. Making things at home allows for this kind of smart economy.

The weekly grocery bill can easily spiral out of control if we rely on pre-packaged, pre-made meals. But when we return to the basics, learning to cook from scratch, we find the key to living well within a budget. A loaf of bread, fresh from your own oven, costs a fraction of what you’d pay for a plastic-wrapped loaf, and its aroma fills your kitchen with warmth that no store-bought loaf could deliver. A simple stew, simmered slowly with seasonal vegetables and leftover cuts of meat, stretches ingredients far beyond the limits of fast food.

The same can be said for cleaning products. Store shelves overflow with specialised sprays, powders, and wipes, each promising miraculous results for a price. Yet, with a few household staples like vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils, you can create a multipurpose cleaner that costs pennies, is free of harsh chemicals, and is just as effective.

This is the hemp I used to use for my dish cloths. It was great to knit with but it didn't suit dishcloths - the knives easily cut it. My go-to yarn is organic cotton. That is easy to knit, it dries quickly and it's soft to the touch.

The satisfaction I feel when I make something for my home far outstrips the feeling I used to get when I bought everything I needed. What I make suits my home better than most commercial products and as a bonus, I feel the warm embrace of self-reliance when I make them. I know it can be difficult to disconnect from the ease of buying pre-made everything but once you settle into to it, home production, moderation and self-reliance delivers long-term, constant contentment.

These are my organic cotton dishcloths.

Making things at home requires an upfront investment of time but it also encourages mindfulness and creativity. When we dedicate time to preparing a meal, mending a piece of clothing, or knitting a dishcloth, we are fully present in the moment. These acts become meditative, pulling us away from the frenzy of daily life and into a slower, more grounded rhythm.

One of the most significant benefits of making things at home is that the skills you develop compound over time. The first loaf of bread may feel like a laborious task, but by the tenth, you’ll have refined your technique and cut the time in half. You may begin by knitting simple scarves, but soon you’ll move on to sweaters, hats, and mittens. The satisfaction that comes from honing a craft and mastering a skill is unmatched by the fleeting joy of purchasing something ready-made.

There’s a profound shift that occurs when you start making things at home. When you’ve invested your time and effort into making something, it holds greater value. You care for it differently, knowing the energy that went into its creation.

In this way, making things at home is a practice in gratitude. It teaches you to honor the resources you have - time, money, and skill - and to use them wisely. It’s a path towards simplicity, sustainability, and self-reliance, where the things you surround yourself with are not just objects, but symbols of care, creativity, and intention.

In the end, making things at home is not just about frugality or time management. It’s about living with purpose, finding joy in the process and crafting a life that values quality over quantity, creativity over consumption, and mindfulness over convenience.

What do you regularly make to use in your home?