Top 10 Products You Don't Need to Buy (Because You Already Have Them In Your Home) Most the stuff you mention is far from cheap. White vinegar and baking soda are food products, you can buy cleaning products that are basically the same thing for much cheaper. Rubbing alcohol is way more expensive than equivalent detergent products. And why would you want to waste fresh produce like lemons for a tiny amount of liquid when you can buy a box of citric acid for a couple of bucks with the equivalent of hundreds of lemons? I've been doing this a long time and, sorry, but your argument really doesn't hold. I guarantee you, just as one example, that I can make many times the window cleaning fluid with water and white vinegar for the same cost as prepurchased.
I can make up a big spray bottle of odor neutralizer using water, a little vinegar, a little baking soda, and a little borax for pennies compared to the $3-4 for a bottle of Febreze or the like. Rubbing alcohol is not more expensive than other detergent products because you use so little of it. And citric acid? How Seinfeld's Productivity Secret Fixed My Procrastination Problem. Life hacks. Shoe Lacing.