Sometimes folks think natural remedies are out of their budget, but my good friend Jill from Jill’s Home Remedies shares how you can save money making your own medicine!

- How well natural remedies worked.
- There were no harmful short-term or long-term effects on health.
- How much money I saved by not going to the doctor!
Even with insurance, my co-pays 10 years ago were $25 a visit, plus the cost of medicine. Today, my co-pays are $45 a visit, plus the cost of medicine. Realizing I could purchase a bottle of natural medicine for $10-$20 that lasted us for several sicknesses, I really began to appreciate not only finding a healthy way to treat my family’s sickness, but a much more affordable way!
About three or four years ago, I began making my own natural medicines for my family. It used to seem quite a daunting task to attempt anything like making medicines. I thought a person had to have a science lab to attempt such a feat. However, after watching a few YouTube videos, reading a few herbal books, and making my own medicines, I was again struck with 3 things:
- How well my own medicines worked.
- How very easy and do-able it was to make my own medicine.
- How I could save even more money by making my own!
While I make more medicines than what is listed below, I’m going to highlight the savings on 4 remedies I make.
1. Elderberry Syrup
Purchasing: $19.75
Making: $10
Savings: $9.75
Here’s my favorite recipe for elderberry syrup:
Dosage:
2. Cough Medicine
Purchasing: $8.50
Making: $3.50
Savings: $5.00
Cough Medicine Recipe:
2 large onions
Raw honey
Directions:
Cut 2 large onions and place in a double boiler (if you have one).
Cover with raw honey at least 1/2 inch above the onions.
Simmer on very low heat until the onions become translucent {about 3 hours}. Strain the onions and store in a jar in the refrigerator up to 3 months.
Dosage:
Adults can take 1 Tbs. and children 1 tsp. of the syrup up to every 15 minutes as needed. Allow the syrup to slowly trickle down the throat as you take it.
3. Echinacea Tincture
Purchasing: $16.49
Making: $2.25
Savings: $14.24
My favorite way to make an echinacea tincture is to purchase Double E Immune Booster from the Bulk Herb Store, and make a with the herbal mix! You can click here to watch me make this tincture!
4. Calcium Formula
Purchasing: $11.04
Making: $1.40
Savings: $9.64
For the calcium formula, I use the recipe found in Herbal Home Health Care. This recipe uses equal parts of horsetail grass, comfrey {or nettle}, oat straw and lobelia. These herbs make an excellent, easy assimilable calcium! Once again, I made a glycerin tincture using the instructions mentioned in the video above.
Now I am one of those DIY, save-all-the-money-I-can kind of girls. Making my own medicines is so easy and so much fun! But, there are a lot of people that do not like to make their own things, but would rather purchase it already made. This is fine! Those of you that prefer this will still save a lot of money by treating your family at home with bought, natural remedies!
(As always, please remember that information on this blog is not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any disease. While many are able to use natural remedies in their home with success, please use your best judgment and seek medical attention if the need arises.)
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Thank you for posting this. I have been wanting to learn to make my own medicine and this is a great way to start.
It truly is easy and fun, Anne! 🙂
Thank you for sharing some of your recipes, Jill! There is also a future savings because you won’t be going to the doctor in 10 years from all the side effects given from heaps of pharmaceuticals in your system…
VERY true, Jes!! 🙂
This is awesome!! I just bookmarked it! Thank you so much, Jill and Sara Elizabeth!
M waiting for this cough syrup to come down / Life’s too short to even care at all oh / I’m losing my mind losing my mind losing control
Formula 3 Cough Syrup
Thank you so much for this. I have been wanting to learn more about herbal remedies for a while now. This makes perfect sense to me. I can’t wait to try some of these.
Another GREAT way to get calcium into your body is to soak a farm fresh organic egg in apple cider vinegar until the shell “releases” its calcium into the vinegar. Several hours. The shell will become very soft. Use the vinegar as you would normally, but now it is super charged with assimilable calcium.
Thankyou for sharing this, I love herbal remedies. Just wondering though about the Lobelia? I thought that was a practitioner only herb and a strong emetic?
cheers
Fi
This will definitely help…. I want to get well from a stroke and major thyroid problems. Thank you.
I mix raw apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper to make a gargle when my throat feels sore. Just gargle three or four times a day and your throat will feel better quickly. I had step and lyrangitis once and this cleared it up in about three days. It tastes rough but works every time.
This is so refreshing. I try to teach people to do this, thanks for the info
I think more and more people care about what we put in our bodies. Thank you for sharing.
My grandma made a cough remedy that my mom makes and i do as well. It very easy and it works.
-Organic is best, but non organic can also be used-
1 1/2 cups organic raw honey
1 organic red onion cut in slices
1 organic lime (i add up to two)
Mix lime juice with honey well. Add the entire onion, mix well and place in a tightly closed jar in the fridge over night.
*Take 1 tablespoon morning, afternoon and before bed.
This looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing! And I’m a big believer in a grandma’s remedy. 🙂