The Great Household and Cleaning Challenge - Month 1

In addition to taking part in A Thrifty Mrs's Beauty Challenge, I have also started my own challenge to spend as little on cleaning and household products as I can, for the forthcoming year.  I don't intend to live in a filth pit doing this challenge, but I am hoping to keep costs down by keeping within a £125 budget and using up what I have already in my cupboards, as I did have a small stash to begin with.

The list of things covered in this group of products is pretty exhaustive and includes all cleaning products, toilet and kitchen rolls, laundry detergents and products, sandwich bags, foil, cling film, cleaning cloths, etc.  As a consequence, my first month on this challenge has been pretty expensive.  Partly due to using up certain things and having to replace them, and partly due to buying products for future use when on offer.  When doing the latter, I've been a bit unfortunate in one particular instance as the dishwasher tablets I thought I was buying for £5.99 for 52 ended up costing £7.50 and I just haven't had the heart to go and ask for the difference to be refunded.  The moral of this story is therefore obvious - ALWAYS CHECK YOUR RECEIPT AT THE TILL - but I rarely do.

Anyway, the list was also increased by having to buy the odd thing to clean up after our ratty visitor.  I had to go out and buy some latex gloves as I couldn't bear to clean up after it without them.  Other than this, buying a floor cleaner when I could probably just use washing up liquid and disinfectant and stocking up on a few regularly used items, it's been a pretty normal month of buying things you  have to use on a regular basis.

In total, I ended up spending £26.52/£125 which is way more than I should really have spent in a month on this challenge - £10 being nearer the mark.  Most of this excess was due to the dishwasher tablets and stocking up on laundry liquid from Approved Food, but I shouldn't need to buy either of these items again for a good few of months at least.

Here's a list of what I spent this money on;

Latex Gloves x 16 - £1.30
Bin Liners x 10 - 99p
Floor Cleaner - 99p - It had a lovely smell, Jasmine and Wild Berry.
Toilet Rolls x 36 - £5.78 - Always ASDA Smart Price or Lidl economy range for us.
Kitchen Rolls x 4 - £1.25 - ASDA Smart Price
Dishwasher Tablets x 52 - £7.50
Dishcloths x 5 - 99p - I completely ran out and had no old clothes to cut up.
Laundry Liquid 1 litre - £1.30
Brillo type pads - 44p - Smart Price at ASDA
Laundry Liquid 2 x 1L - £4
Multisurface Wipes x 4 packs of 50 £1.98

I did do a very thorough clean out of the two cupboards under the sink this week, where I keep all the cleaning products and found several bottles of tea tree oil and an unused bag of bicarbonate of soda which should come in useful at some point, especially if the budget runs out.  There were also some old laundry washing nuts lurking at the back there too, which I might get out again and use sometime.  I reorganised everything so that I can see what needs using before buying anything else.

Next month, I'm hoping to do a little better.  Well, I'm going to have to, to be honest, or this challenge is not going to last the full year.