Frugal Febreeze

I’ve always been a dog person but I’ll be the first to admit that no matter how clean you keep them (and mine are admittedly not bathed regularly) they carry a certain smell. The kind of smell that permeates even the cleanest household. I can walk into a house without knowing anything about it and immediately determine whether or not they have pets. It’s not necessarily a bad smell…but it is distinct!

I don’t like ‘distinct smells’ in my house.

I have heavily invested in candles, air wicks, febreeze, febreeze knock offs, fabric softener sheets, those candle chunks you melt on a hot plate, scented oils, and those little wooden stick things you put in a vase filled with oil. My house smells pretty good. But it is an expensive, and often space consuming, past time. Febreeze is my favorite…especially after I vacuum (holy crap spell check just had a seizure when I tried to correctly spell that).

But febreeze, despite its wonderful scent, is friggin expensive. I last paid $5.95 for a bottle. Seems like a pretty good deal until you calculate that you might go through 2 bottles a week – not to mention if you have pets during a ‘rainy season’ – so you’re looking at forking over around $12 a month…PLUS whatever you spend on candles and whatnot. Us women love candles ß Take note, Seth!

So let’s add that up:
2 bottles of febreeze/month @ $5.95 = $11.90
For one year = $142.80

Jeeze!

So I surfed around on the net and found some interesting referrals to homemade Febreeze. As far as I can tell the original creator is lost in the Internet machine…I traced it back to Homemade Mamas. I don’t like giving her credit because she lists specifically that she got it from somewhere else…but I got it from her so I’m giving that much credit to her!

Fake Febreeze

2 cups warm water
¼ cup fabric softener (your favorite scent/any brand)
1 tsp. baking soda

- Mix all ingredients into a spray bottle and shake well. Spray on any surface.
- Shake well before each use

Makes 14 fluid ounces!

The average febreeze bottle is 27 fl. Oz (I think at least) so you need to roughly make 2 batches to equal out a single febreeze bottle. I only made one batch, sprayed it all over my house, and barely used half an ounce so I’m just sticking to one batch at a time. But let’s do the math on that! We’ll use what I bought.

1 (4 lb.) box Baking Soda - $2.12
1 (44 fl. Oz) Purex Ultra Fabric Softener, Lavender - $2.98
1 (24 fl Oz.) spray bottle - $1.00
Water – Depends on my monthly usage =D

Total: $6.11 for starter supplies

Divided into batches possible

[96 tsp. in 4 lbs. x 4] 384 tsp. of Baking Soda
[2 fl. Oz. in ¼ cup] 22 ¼ cups of Fabric Softener
Unlimited free use in spray bottle
Unlimited free use in water

= At least 22 batches of fake febreeze

Compared @ $5.95 for febreeze it costs $0.27 per batch

Savings

2 bottles of febreeze/month @ $5.95 = $11.90
For one year = $142.80

2 bottles of fake febreeze/month @ $0.27 = $0.54
For one year = $6.48

Total monthly savings: $11.36

Total yearly savings: $136.32

WOW huh?!

I have read over concerns comments from other blogs where people are raising the red flag on fabric softener containing a link to pancreatic cancer and other maladies. While I appreciate their concern I justify it by saying I use this stuff on my clothes anyway…and I am in no way saturating surfaces or spraying it directly on people/pets. However! I have heard rumors that you can make your own homemade fabric softener!

Homemade Fabric Softener

2 cups of hair conditioner
4 cups of white vinegar
6 cups water

-Mix and use!

I hadn’t discovered this recipe until after my grocery trip…so it’ll have to wait for me! Until then I’m going to keep happily spraying my pancreatic cancer on the carpet. Btw I sprayed it about 1.5 hours ago and the place still smells fresh. And I texted the tip to my Mom and she made it within 5 minutes of receiving it…and gave it a glowing review =D

So keep your head up high, pet lovers! Keep that ‘distinct smell’ at bay another day!