I love bath and beauty products. LOVE EM'! I love hand soap (please note this anyone who buys me Christmas presents ;-) ) I love how nice and shiny it looks at the store. I love how it smells. I could literally blow my budget on scented soap.I don't like the cost. Especially the specialty store ones. (And you know the store I mean!)
And really, don't we all already have a lot of soap at home? (Well I do anyway.)
So, I play a game with myself. I tell myself that as soon as we use all of the other scented soap in the house I will buy myself WHATEVER soap it is that I want without worrying about the expense (provided I have the cash) But until that time, no soap buying. This means that I use up all of the baby wash that I have and can't use because my girl has eczema. It means that vanilla shower gel that doesn't really work for me goes in the soap dispenser too!
I use this trick a lot when I am tempted to buy something that I want but really don't need. I give myself permission to buy it when I really do need it. I know I'll get it. Sometime. Do you really need a new moisturizer before your old one is gone? Trust me, your wrinkles probably won't get THAT much worse in the 4 weeks it takes you to finish the jar. I'm just washing all that hand soap down the drain anyway.
Use it up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do without! I love that depression era slogan. I love applying it to my life in order to achieve my financial goals.
I know that I've been rather philosophical about frugality these past few days rather than offering a concrete tips that will save you money. Sometimes though, I think the philosophy of being frugal is even better than concrete tips as you can extrapolate that into your own life. I mean you may or may not want to make your own jelly, but I bet everyone has SOMETHING that causes them to part with money that could be better used on something else!
3 comments:
My weakness is footwear. Shoes of all kinds, but particularly boots. And it's not entirely a vanity issue either. It's that, when my feet are uncomfortable, I can't even pay attention to anything else going on, so I'm always on the quest for the perfect shoe.
So, my 'use it up and wear it out' philosophy has not worked so well there, because the minute the shoe starts hurting me, I toss it.
However, I have found that those sport insert insoles that you can buy for $10 really will help extend the life of a sneaker.
Well I can actually agree on the shoe thing (although I only really have a few pairs at a time.) If something hurts it gets discarded immediately!
I was going to mention in the post (but it was getting too long!) that if you have something that is clearly not working for you. (like uncomfortable shoes or moisturizer that gives you a rash) then I consider that you need a new one of said item and should toss the one you have. I am a big proponent of not having anything in your house that you don't love or can use.
It is too funny you mentioned putting the vanilla body wash into your soap dispenser because I just did that the other day! I ran out of kitchen soap and ended up refilling it with "rich citrus cream" body wash which I know I won't use on my body, but it's perfect for the kitchen! I hate when things are wasted so I am a huge fan of using it up and wearing it out.
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