When I was a kid I was astonished that the woman identified in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most extreme miser earned that distinction, at least in part, because of her habit of saving soap slivers! I didn’t realize that I was growing up in a family of misers!
My lifelong habit of saving used screws in an ever- growing collection of used plastic cups is perpetuated when, about once a year or so, I find a use for one of them. I really should transfer the ones with stripped threads or head slots to my “bits of metal scrap” bin…
Exactly. When my shower water is warming up I place a gallon milk jug with funnel under the faucet (takes about a gallon to warm up) and then heat that water in the microwave to wash dishes. I can get at least two dishwashings out of that gallon.
Soap. One of my favorite things. I buy and use many variations of soap products.
Yes save your slivers. You can chop this up in an old blender(when they are good and dry) get a block of gylcerin soap. Melt it in the micro. Add the chopped up soap slivers. Stir, carefully Pour it in any silicon mold. New bar of soap. WoOt!
I try to be really cheap with paper products. It’s not easy. Kids, and all.
My cheapest thing I do is make homemade dog and cat treats with chicken livers. Have you priced Pupperonis lately. You can buy actual people meat for that.
I also save the last sliver of soap, and yes, the reason I use bar soap is because it’s cheaper than liquid body wash.
On a related note, when I stay in a hotel I save all the little mini soaps, shampoo bottles, conditioner, and lotion. Not only that, but if I’m staying at a hotel for multiple days I will hide the partially used toiletries to prevent the maid from throwing them away, and to hopefully get the maid to leave more for me to take home. Although this is getting more difficult as many hotels are switching to bulk dispensers bolted to the wall rather than individual mini bottles.
I do that, too, except instead of using it to wash dishes I pour it into the toilet tank after I flush, rather than letting the toilet refill itself. Living in California I see it as a water conservation practice as well as a money saving one.
Not me, but someone I know would save a half-used ketchup packet from McDonald’s. Fold it in half, and clip and save it. Use it later. I think it goes back to a depression era habit.
I thought this was weird and odd, until I didn’t. I failed to see the bigger picture which was general wastefulness. She doesn’t waste anything, including money. It’s a mindset born out of a time when you could go broke in a moment. She is by any standard very wealthy. To stay wealthy, I didn’t appreciate that the money going out part (or lack of that) was just as important as the money coming in part.
we may be related! I thought my mom was the only one who would send her children to school with bread bags on their feet but apparently not.
We did all of the things you mention and more. One quite ridiculous practice was that, to avoid buying drinking cups, my mom used to use the plastic containers that frozen concentrated orange juice came in as a replacement. The problem was that the edge was actually fairly sharp, so even being careful, you would occasionally cut your lips as you drank out of them.
One of my pet peeves is Solo cups.
They never look ruined after a use.
I hate throwing them away. Then there’s a problem tossing them. Can’t burn them. We dont have trash pick up or recycling. We have to self motivate to haul to the recycling center.
I reuse where I can. Cat food, litter, or Dog food scoops.
My hair dryer showed me a blue sparkly while I was upside down blowing my hair. I stood up and ran it looking for the spark again. No. Didn’t happen til I flipped my hair over again and turned it on. There was a definite fiery looking thing. Eeek!
I asked a genius I know. They said don’t use it anymore. So this morning I tossed it. At the chagrin of my genius and my Son-of-a-wrek.
Son chopped of the plug end. Saying this could be reused.
I suspect there’s about a million plug ends in a box in the barn. Never to be reused. Gathering spiders and dust.
I have no cite but I recall a math thing that noted if Bill Gates stopped to pick up a dollar on the ground it would cost him more than ignoring it (as in the time taken).
I get that’s a bit iffy but I think it still illustrates the point of what is “questionable money.”
I use Dr. Bronner’s bar soap. It does NOT seem to last as long as most other soaps I remember previously using, so I do seem to accumulate the shards relatively frequently.
ETA: and $6 was for a 4-pack. I’m still on #1 after at least a year.
Umm. You can use a homemade mold, if it’s melt proof. That liquid soap is hot. Also thrift stores are full of silicon molds. By the dozens.
SOLO cups can be washed. We’ve actually went thru a write your name on the cup and use it all day routine. Not really successful. But, dang it, we tried.
This wasn’t our family, but the winning submission from a few years ago in a “cheapest family” contest: The father would buy two-ply toilet paper, then back at home he’d have the kids unwind each roll, separate the plies, rewinding them into two single-ply rolls. (I wonder if you’d end up using twice as much, though.)
For decades now, I’ve bought plastic wrap in enormous commercial restaurant sizes that last practically forever. But when my favourite kitchen-supply place went out of business, I started hoarding the remaining plastic wrap, using minimal quantities and reusing pieces.
I eventually ordered the equivalent humongous roll from Amazon, but I can’t shake the acquired stinginess. I still only use the wrap sparingly.
I used to do that. Considering the amount of travelling I was doing for a while I ended up with a huge bag of soaps, shampoos, and lotions. Eventually I ended up donating them to a homeless or woman’s shelter (I forget which).
Save your soap slivers in a container. When you have enough, add warm water until it liquifies, then use it to refill one of those liquid soap dispensers.
That’s what the liquid soap is really – you’re buying the same active ingredients as bar soap plus water.
