With a family of 6, I’m always looking for ways to save money. I spent some time refilling some of the bottles in our shampoo/soap dispenser in our bathroom earlier this week. (I love this product because it keeps us from having 4 different bottles balancing around the tub surround.) As I’m filling the dispenser bottle with baby shampoo, I found myself balancing it upside-down (propping it against the hand soap container) on top of the dispenser bottle, to let more shampoo run down to the opening. Oh, come on, you do this too - just trying to get every penny’s worth.

When the bottles became unbalanced, fell over, and left a mess all over the sink and counter top, I cursed under my breath and began the arduous task of cleaning it up. As I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, I realized that I was wasting a lot of time to eek out another penny from the stupid baby shampoo bottle. Certainly my time is worth more than that!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about doing my part to protect planet Earth - we recycle and try to minimize our waste (in fact, I recycled the baby shampoo bottle) - but I don’t have to use every penny’s worth of shampoo in the bottle (the same applies for ketchup, which I would have bought stock in before having children had I realized the impact our family alone would have in ketchup sales :)).

I’ve become penny wise and pound foolish, I’m afraid. I know where I get it from - my mother is completely to blame (and I would be willing to tell her so). She grew up in the depression era when you HAD to reuse everything (yes, she washed out Ziplock bags and reused aluminum foil too). But there comes a point in your life (and my mother has FAR exceeded it) when you have to put yourself (and your sanity) first.

Finish using what you feasibly can and throw away or recycle the container. Be done with it! Don’t mix water with the remaining shampoo and try to work up a lather on the next wash; don’t scoop out the remaining drops of ketchup with a baby spoon; don’t keep a plethora of cottage cheese and yogurt containers on hand to use for leftovers - go ahead and recycle them! (My mother has wasted so much energy on hand washing those plastic items and then struggling to find a place to store them all - which means struggling to find other things in her kitchen cabinets - when she could have just continued using the Tupperware containers she received as wedding favors more than 40 years ago!)

I begin wondering (especially when I’m overwhelmed with all that needs to be done around here), where else I am wasting my time trying to save another penny or two. I think I’ll start taking notice when I find myself frustrated trying to squeeze every last drop out of any number of bottles. I’m certain my time could be better spent - heck! I might even eek out enough time for another blog this week :).


Posted In: Ideas You Can Use, Time Savers