23
Sep

Waste Not, Want Not

   Posted by: MotherHen   in Extra-Categorical

30 Day o’ Nuthin’ is chuggin’ along without too many difficulties.

I haven’t made a single purchase besides groceries and gasoline.

Plenty of “spending opportunities” have come along.  And by “spending opportunities” I mean items I would have purchased without giving it a second thought, before this experience.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please take a minute and read my post explaining the plan Mary at Owlhaven came up with.

I told y’all before, we have lots of super-frugal habits already in place.  This last week, I had the opportunity to have one of those habits reaffirmed as really, really worthwhile.

Several weeks ago, when my good friend, Faith, was here, she attempted to teach me how to shop at CVS.  And in so doing, I scored a healthy stash of smaller bottles of Dawn dishwashing liquid.  If I paid any money for these it was very minute.  But still, I don’t intend to waste what I have.

For years and years I have used a pump bottle for my dishwashing liquid.  I have enormous portion control using the pump bottle. I only need to refill my 8 oz pump bottle about once every two weeks or so.  And that’s using it 3 times a day, every day.

Just last week, my Very Dear Hubby and The Cap’n were in the driveway engaging in the super-frugal activity of replacing the brake pads on our van.

As they always do, they shanghied my pump bottle of Dawn from the kitchen sink to take out by the hose to wash up, because that Dawn really does cut the grease.  Even the car grunge on their hands.  Then Hubby took it to the shower.  He was really dirty!  So, I was without my pump bottle for a good while.

No worries, I have like a million bottles of Dawn under my sink.  So I just grabbed one of them and went about the business of cleaning a mountain of dishes, applying the Dawn, straight from the bottle it came in, to my scrubby-sponge.  By the time I was done cleaning up my kitchen (one time) I had used HALF of an 11 oz. bottle of Dawn!  Wow!  What a difference!

Well, never again.  I rummaged up a spare pump bottle for just such situations.  Next time they repair the van, I’m ready!

To learn more ways to save a bundle fo money in our daily lives, go visit Biblical Womanhood to check out Frugal Friday.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Extra-Categorical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

10 comments so far

 1 

Very good tip. Thank you. :)

September 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 pm
 2 

Well, the pictures are fabulous! And, I also use a handy little pump, but ours is built into the sink, and hubby isn’t the car handy type, so there isn’t any wandering dispensers around here! It is great portion control, though, isn’t it?

September 24th, 2008 at 12:11 am
 3 

Very good idea! I have a pump that’s almost empty so I’m going to do this. I haven’t heard of the 30 days of nothing until now. I need that for the month of October!

September 24th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Faith Marandola
 4 

I have a million bottles of everything in my house now! Woo Hoo CVS! Now I am gonna see how long I can make it all last! I found an extra pump under the bathroom sink, and put it at the kitchen sink (we do dishes by hand too)…Now, lets see how long the dawn lasts…

September 24th, 2008 at 10:18 am
 5 

Great idea! is that a regular pump or do you have a foaming pump bottle? Have you tried those or is that overkill?

September 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
 6 

I learned this tip in the bathroom & if it’s foamy soap, the kids use even less!

September 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
 7 

It’s just a regular pump that hand soap came in. I have tried the foaming soap and have mixed feelings about it. The refills are expensive, I know you can just use regular soap and add water, but to add water to something that is gonna be there a long time (like a bottle of hand soap) you really should boil the water first, and that kills any bacteria in the water. It also kills my interest in actually getting that done. Also, I have found that little hands think the foaming soap is way too fun to play with. I have a several very tactile children.

September 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
 8 

Perry was replacing brake pads last weekend, too. No better time than during 30 days of nothing, huh?

September 24th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Caroline
 9 

Good tip. I’m cracking up at the pics of that pump bottle!

September 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
 10 

Great idea! I knew the hand soap lasted better with a pump, but will have to try the dish soap too now. Thanks for sharing. (And congrats on blogging at Frugal Hacks!)

September 24th, 2008 at 10:05 pm