A week ago, I asked one of my daughters, who happens to frequent Dollar Tree, if she could pick up a bottle of liquid dish detergent the next time she was there. She looked over at the current bottle and asked if she should go that evening. At that point, there was not much more than a green film at the bottom of the bottle. I said "no, this should last us another 4 days." Well, here we are, a full week later, and by adding water, we've been able to do all of the hand washing with that little bit. (We also use a dishwasher for most items, so it's not like we washed ever dish, pot, or pan with that tiny amount of detergent.)
I'm just amazed at how much more we could get from that bottle. I think we have enough for another day of those items that need hand washing.
I about panicked when I saw my favorite deep conditioning hair cream jar was about empty. I made a special stop by Walmart to pick up more as a result. Without even opening the next jar, I decided to add some water to the bottom of the current one. I've been able to get enough conditioning substance to get through another week.
I co-wash with cheapo conditioner on a regular basis. When I could no longer get conditioner to come out of the bottle with a squeeze, I downgraded this almost empty bottle to my hair detangler.
Sometimes, adding water can lengthen the time you have to replace a substance. Sometimes, it's diluted to the point that you have to use the substance differently from its original purpose. Take ketchup. When the ketchup bottle is about empty, I add water and save this ketchup-water to add to soup or baked beans.
Imagine all of the bottles, jars, and tubes that go into the garbage without this extra effort to rinse and continue using to the very last bit. Waste bothers me. But also, I feel sorry for those folks who don't get that same sense of amazement or satisfaction that I get, by using it all up. They're missing out. Not only is this a free satisfaction, but it actually saves money. Maybe this sort of thing isn't on their radar for fun times.
Back to the question -- are you ever amazed by how much extra you can get out of a jar, bottle or tube simply by adding water? Tell me I'm not alone in my frugal fun.
Recently, my husband started using a new bottle of shampoo because his old one was "empty". I use a different shampoo, but decided to us up the last bit of his. Between turning it upside down and rinsing, I got a couple of weeks of shampooing out of that bottle. And, yes, it was very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteI love this, Live and Learn! Sometimes one member in the family is more inclined to go the extra mile to get as much use from a product as possible. Good work on getting the lats of your husband's shampoo out. And 2 weeks is impressive!
DeleteMy dentist give us a new toothbrush and a travel sized toothpaste each cleaning visit. I "emptied" the small travel sized one but felt there was so much more in there. Since we all use our own toothpaste and I blew the tube back open and added water, shook, and had many more uses of toothpaste.
ReplyDeleteI have been know to add water to a half empty bottle of anything to thin it out and overall I got more uses out of the product.
I have a bar of soap in the shower that I put is a sudsing mesh bag and that makes the bar of soap last longer. I am still using the bar of soap from probably a year ago. Yes, I am still clean but I feel like it uses less soap.
Alice
Hi Alice,
DeleteThank you so much for sharing about your toothpaste tube. The toothpaste my dentist recently recommended comes in a plastic tube that I think I can do just what you do, re-inflate the tube and add a bit of water. I will remember this when the toothpaste is almost out. Great work on using every last bit of your bar soap and stretching its use with the soap saver bag.
Hi, Lili. I definitely do this, too, with dish detergent, laundry detergent, shampoo/conditioner, ketchup/barbecue sauce, etc. Like Alice, I also use my bar soap bits down to the very end, though I have a soap dish for bathroom and kitchen to corral the bits, instead of a bag. I get some funny looks, since it seems like everyone has pump-dispenser soap these days. (And our son does use that in the guest bath, using big refill bottles.) But a bar of soap lasts us a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time, and I was just marveling at that the other day, and patting myself on the back for the satisfaction of it. Sara
ReplyDeleteHi Sara,
DeleteI'm another one who prefers bar soap for hand washing over liquid pump soap. The commercial liquid soap dries my skin out terribly. Whereas I have no issues with bar soap. And yes, our kitchen sink soap dish does look a bit messy, with slivers over several different bars in the dish. And you're right, a bar of soap will last a really long time. We keep both pump liquid soap and a small bar in the guest bath. Some folks prefer the pump-style and others (with dry skin like mine) appreciate the bar soap. Those hotel soaps make good guest bath soaps, as they're small and I can put a new one out sooner and have soap fresh-looking more often.
Yes!!! We recently had a couple of small glass jugs of maple syrup that were empty except for a small bit that had chrystallized in the bottoms of the jugs. I finally gathered these together and poured a small amount boiling water into each to loosen/dissolve these stuck bits, using the sweetened water to steep some tea. Waste not, want not!
ReplyDeleteGreat work on getting every last delicious bit out of the maple syrup jugs, friend! I would hate to waste that deliciousness. Using it for tea water sound yummy! Waste not, want not, indeed!
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