Saturday, May 28, 2011

A simple RIP can stretch your dryer sheet box twice as long!

I made the commitment to start documenting the SMALL things I do to save money every day. I had to stop what I was doing THREE TIMES in the middle of what I was doing to take pictures this last week! I don’t know when I will actually upload the “story” of all of them.

It doesn’t matter what room in the house, there usually is some way to stretch money the money. I was doing laundry and was transferring the wet clothes to the dryer-- absently mindedly doing my tasks. After I had gone through the motions, I realized I had done another small $$ saving “tip”. I rip the dryer sheet into 2—only using a half a sheet per load. (I have tried ripping into 3 parts, but was not happy with the results.)
My dryer sheets go twice as far!!

Happy Stretching Pennies...

Friday, May 20, 2011

Saving Money in the bathroom WITHOUT depriving you of luxuries!!

Most people seem overwhelmed with WHERE to start in saving money. They don’t want to overhaul their life and make it feel like the dreaded word “DIET” (financially speaking!!) So I have decided to post about the small things I do to save money. They may be small…but they add up to something BIG!

My pet peeve is a dirty bathroom. I like my bathroom to be a calm and enjoyable place. I like enjoyable hand soaps for when I wash up as much as the rest of society, BUT don’t want to spend ton on them! I have 2 solutions that can work for anyone.

In MY bathroom, I enjoy the soaps from Bath and Body Works. HOWEVER…I have a little trick up my sleeve that makes it LESS, LESS, LESS expensive. First, I go shopping for those hand soaps in January when they are clearancing their Christmas soaps. I don’t think “Vanilla Pear” only has to be used in December!! Even if the bottle is the wrong “festivity” that can be easily remedied by switching bottles!

My BEST “recipe” is:
1. Empty ½ the bottle into another empty bottle
2. Fill the remaining space with water
3. Shake!
(This is a picture of 2 bottles with 1/2 water 1/2 soap)

Believe me there is still enough soap to wash your hand thoroughly! It will last double the time!

In my CHILDREN’S Bathroom (or the main one—as we only have 2), I have an even more money saving idea going on!! I still like the sweet smelling soaps, but have watched my children easily use more than 3 times what they need in one washing! That seriously bothers me. And so my solution. We have a foaming soap dispenser in this bathroom. Why? Because it fills their little hands and they don’t use 3 squirts per wash! Then when it is time to refill I use another sneaky way to save money. I use bubble bath! All soap is there to kill germs and it doesn’t have to have “anti bacterial” on it in order to get rid of dirt and germs. Soap is soap!! And guess what? Bubble bath is soap gelled!

Foaming Bath Soap “recipe”:
1. I fill the dispenser about ¼ of the way
2. Then add water to the rest
(This is a picture of what the bottle looks like BEFORE I shook it)
3. Shake!
(Pictures of is shaken and being used!)
There are still plenty of fun aroma’s to choose from at more than ½ the cost!!

Happy Penny Pinching without feeling the “depriving”!