I’ve noticed that the fastest way to spend huge amounts of money on common household items is to run out. If we run out of something, I typically stop at the grocery on the way home and grab it.
Two problems with this method:
- It’s hard to find an environmentally friendly product we like that is also chemical free.
- If I do find that product it is quite spendy.
How We Save on Everyday Expenses:
Our expense plan is a 3-part.
First of all, we decide the brands that we feel are good for both us and the earth. A product with clean ingredients that is bleach and chemical free is of top priority. We have tried a couple different brands to determine which work best as well.
Next we look around for the best prices. I’m not one to run all over creation for sales and bargains like that. I find a store or site with the best every-day prices and that’s where we buy our items.
Finally, things are put into a monthly rotation. Instead of suddenly running out of laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo and deodorant and toilet paper all in one month, I plan it so we never run out and each month we are buying something different.
The only exceptions are when a site or store is running a fabulous sale and then budget permitting, we will stock up.
So where do I find my products?
I find the best deals online.
Buying online with a subscription service is fast and easy. Once I figure out what I need, I can set it up and forget about it. This also makes my regular shopping so much easier. All I need to worry about grabbing before the kid loses his mind, is our groceries.
Sometimes the Amazon subscribe and save is good, but the prices seem to change from month to month and it’s a pain figuring it out each ordering cycle. Toilet paper is the only item I still order from Amazon.
We rarely buy disposable table-service, tissues, paper towels, cloth diapers and baby wipes. We use cloth instead of disposable and our real dishes.
My go-to site for years was Melaleuca.com. It is an MLM, so sorry it that turns you off. However I’ve found their cleaning products to be unbeatable in many cases. Their prices are very affordable on many items as well.
Since we order our vitamins through Melaleuca, it only made sense to order cleaning stuff and personal care items at the same time. Until recently.
I have fallen in love with ePantry!
I still buy certain items from Melaleuca, but ePantry has great prices on many other eco-friendly brands that I also love. Such as…
- Seventh Generation
- Alba Botanica
- Method
- Mrs. Meyer’s
- Dr. Bronner’s
- Yes To…
- And Many More!
With ePantry I am able to set up my “pantry” and list the brands and items I buy. Then I go in once a month and create my order.
I’ve set up the items I regularly buy from them on a 2-4 month rotation. Shipping is only $2.99 unless you are VIP and then it’s free. However, $2.99 shipping is killer!
So what items get put into our rotation?
- Seventh Generation baby diapers. We mostly cloth, but I use a pack of disposables every 2 months or so.
- Baby wipes
- Shampoo and Conditioner
- Dish soap
- Dishwasher soap
- Rinse Aid
- Toilet Cleaner
- Hand Soap
- Lip Balm
$20 total purchase gets me the free shipping (yes I’m VIP) so I basically have things set up in a way that around $25 monthly keeps us supplied with common household items from ePantry.
That’s it. My secret is simple. The method is simple.
How we save on everyday expenses is to find the best everyday price, and buy something (or some things) every month on a schedule.
Your local store prices are different than mine. But the online prices will of course be the same.
I contacted ePantry and asked them what they could offer you. 🙂 So here goes…
When you sign up with ePantry, you will get a $10 credit and a bottle of Mrs Meyer’s hand soap! That’s an $18 + value for you just for signing up! Invite your friends, and when they join, you will receive a referral credit to your account!
In addition you get 60 days of the VIP membership for free. 🙂 Yay for free shipping!
This offer is only good for 2 weeks, so now is the time to take advantage of it. Click here to start building your pantry!
Once on the site, you will customize a few things and the site will automatically put a suggested order together for you. Which is pretty cool and all, but I deleted everything suggested and then added what I wanted. 🙂
Charity says
September 7, 2015 at 10:10 pmi can’t get the link to work! Help please! 😊
Kendra says
September 7, 2015 at 10:23 pmOh dear… Try this one: http://epantry.go2cloud.org/SHJ copy and paste into browser. It should bring you to a page where it will say welcome and show you the free offer, then have you enter your email to get started building your pantry.
Hopefully this works for you. If it doesn’t maybe try clarifying what happens when you click it and I will look into it some more. Right now I’m going to bed 🙂
Jane says
September 8, 2015 at 5:30 pmWhat happens if you miss a months order?
Sounds interesting Kendra!
Kendra says
September 8, 2015 at 5:35 pmThey email you and remind you to check your pantry and order. Because they suggest items for your future orders based on previous ones, you don’t really “miss” an order. So if you don’t need anything that month, I believe you just cancel that month’s order. I’ve not had to do that since I just do small monthly orders anyway and always need stuff.
Jane says
September 9, 2015 at 8:12 amSo, your order does not go through unless you go in and complete it? Or does it automatically ship every month?
Kendra says
September 9, 2015 at 12:38 pmSorry I didn’t clarify. The truth is, I don’t know.
I think something will ship from the “suggestions” list if I don’t clarify, but not sure since I’ve not ever missed a month myself.
Jane says
September 18, 2015 at 6:59 amGot my order yesterday from E-Pantry and I like it 🙂
Jane says
September 18, 2015 at 7:02 amBTW—your Sign up with E-Pantry link isn’t working this morning, just noticed that and throught you would like to know!
Hannah@SeeingtheLovely says
October 29, 2015 at 2:17 pmThanks for the tips, Kendra! I’ve heard a lot about ePantry, and you’ve made me really consider trying it out! How do you find the prices compare to Target or other common stores?
Oh, and thanks for the tip about planning for things to run out certain months so that you don’t have to buy it all at once, so simple, but such a great idea!
Kendra says
October 29, 2015 at 2:27 pmI don’t shop Target often as it’s quite a drive and I have to want something particular. However Meijer always seems to have similar prices and ePantry tends to run cheaper than Meijer on most stuff. 7th Generation is definitely cheaper at ePantry on most everything. I really like to get diapers from there. Even though we use cloth I still go through about 50 disposables a month as we don’t cloth when we are traveling/out etc.
Hannah@SeeingtheLovely says
October 29, 2015 at 2:41 pmThanks, that’s good to know. With ePantry, do you have to order every month, or would every 2-3 be okay? My husband and I don’t have any children yet, so I’m not sure that I would need to order every month.
Kendra says
October 29, 2015 at 2:47 pmI think it’s every month, but even childless we spent $30 or more a month just on stuff for us. ie dish soap, laundry soaps, personal care, household stuff and more. It really just depends on what you buy. You can start your pantry without committing to making a purchase if you want to look into it more. That’s what I did at first.
Hannah@SeeingtheLovely says
October 29, 2015 at 9:58 pmSounds like a good idea. Thanks for the help, I’ll definitely be looking into it!
Pamela Smith says
October 29, 2015 at 4:39 pmI just signed up for ePantry a couple of days ago. I’m excited to give it a try!
Kendra says
October 30, 2015 at 9:21 pmAwesome! I know you are going to love it 🙂
Tiffany says
November 1, 2015 at 2:12 pmGood tips. I’m always looking for ways to save money AND stay out of the stores. :0) Thanks for sharing with us at the Merry Monday Link Party! Hope to see you again on Sunday night!
Mrs. Mandy says
January 20, 2016 at 4:48 pmCould you tell me how you do your rotation so it is so affordable. Like what you buy and how much when. I just don’t know where to start. We are moving into our own home after staying with family for 4 years and we still will be on a small budget. I signed up but it seemed expensive still. I am thinking I just do not remember what prices were like before we combined 2 households. I really love this idea!
Kendra says
January 20, 2016 at 5:02 pmI will try 🙂 Right now it’s kinda a mess though. I potty trained my toddler for daytime and stripped/sized down all my cloth diaper for the new baby coming soon. However the toddler still needs diapers at bedtime so I’ve had to start buying sposies for that which equals around $18 a month.
The best place to start for creating your own rotation is to keep track of how often you need more shampoo, detergent, personal care stuff etc. This is easily done by writing the date on the bottle when you open it.
For us, the laundry soap I buy (melaleuca kind) I know we will use an entire thing in a little over 3 months. My shampoo needs replaced every 2-3 months but I use two different kinds so that adds in a little more confusion. I tend to use more lip balm in the winter than in the summer. Other things like hand soap and tp now need purchased more frequently since I’m home all day instead of working.
I wish there were an easy way to do it, but most of my saving quirks are those I’ve tuned and fine tuned over the years and as the family grows I see I will need to continue fine tuning. It’s just a work in process, but learning approximately how often you need these items can really help.
psst! tip on ePantry: They will match and even beat prices. I’ve emailed them with price differences and they will apply a credit to my account for that item. They often beat the price by a dollar or more.