Friday, September 30, 2011

more hints from Lizoise

I don't know about you, but I have a particularly hard time paying retail for shampoo. There's just something about how expensive it is that makes me feel used as a consumer to the point of fighting back.

One way I've managed this for a long time is to only buy shampoo on sale/discounted/from clearance/with tons of coupons. I try to have more than one bottle "going" at any given time.

The other thing I do is make sure I have an old, wide-mouthed shampoo bottle on hand in the shower. When a current bottle of shampoo gets down to the bottom and I begin wrestling with it to squeeze that last 1/4" out, I just flip it over onto the old bottle and let gravity do the work. I let the shampoo drain for a day or so, then just cap the old wide-mouthed shampoo bottle and shake it up. You end up with a fruity melange of shampoos that works well, but mostly it's satisfying knowing you've gotten all of it out of the bottle. I am determined to get that last $.03 worth, you know? Especially when most of what I'm paying for is packaging and shipping.

With this technique you never are too dependent on one bottle of shampoo, or on having to pay full price for a bottle of shampoo, or on struggling with the last dregs to get enough to wash your hair. I've had my "drainage" bottle for a long time. It's like those legendary sourdough starters from the 19th century: never runs out.

Yours in nerdery, frugality, etc.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011