That last half inch....?

I'm finding it funny that nobody likes pump-action bottles, like soap dispensers. I love them because they give a uniform quantity so that you can control how much you use. I find they save me a lot of money because I use so much less (for example, my bottle of expensive Clinique Clarifying Lotion with the dispenser top lasted 18 months. Without it, it would have lasted 10 months). All my toiletries get decanted into recycled soap dispensers: body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, etc. Sure, there is a bit that won't come out of the dispenser but then I just top them up from the next bargain bottle and shake well. I also water the conditioner down slightly and have noticed that it often thickens up a bit after a week or two (water quantity depends on the brand, as does its ability to thicken up. Tesco's Value is quite thin). And you don't have to use an entire squirt.

I also rip cotton-wool pads in half before I put toner on them, so that I get twice as many.

Also, we've got really hard water, so I mix 50:50 vinegar and washing up liquid in a soap dispenser and use that for the dishes. Two to four squirts per sink full, depending on how greasy they are. The vinegar counteracts the water hardness and stops glasses getting milky.

Well OP you clearly are not alone. I will turn shampoo / conditioner bottes upside down and then cut them open as there is usually a good dollop lurking there for me.

I use the plastic things that OH has in his shirt collars to scrape out my Clinique Turnaround concentrate bottle- as it is so expensive anyway.

I have paid for it so why waste any ?

My late ma-in-law was pretty frugal as well and used to save the linings of cereal boxes and loose leaf tea boxes to drain HM chips on even when she was older and had a bit more money .She was a pretty astonishing lady who was widowed with two small boys in 1937 and had very little to live on She spent all of her OH's insurance money after he died on buying a house back home on the Isle of Wight in Northwood and I have the bill for it somewhere it was two cottages that had been knocked together and it cost her £550.00 it had half an acre of ground which she kept chickens,grew virtually everything her and the boys ate and during the war managed to aquire a pig(neighbours had a bit of the pig when killed if they had helped to feed it with anything left over)My brotther-in-law sold the house in 2003 for £250.000.and moved to Leicester.She could make a shilling streetch until it squeeked.I think its great that folk are being a lot more careful and using everything up that they can

Yep, I'm a user upper of the dregs too, I use a rolling pin on tubes first, before resorting to the final cutting the end off.

Sue14 wrote: »

OH is always putting things in the recycling which he thinks are empty, I get them out and get at least a couple more uses out of them, I even use the last dribbles of his shower gel to wash the bath. He also tries to throw out the toothpaste tube, because it’s too much effort to squeeze the tube, so I save it and while he’s using the new tube, I usually use the old one for at least a couple of weeks!

My DH is exactly the same - I'll find mayo jars with a few portions worth of mayo still in them just left out in the kitchen when he is done with them because 'they are empty', and if I buy new bottles of shampoo/conditioner (maybe because I know we have nearly run out, or they are on special offer) he'll stop using the old ones even if there's a good few applications left in them - I've currently got 3 different half empty shampoo bottles kicking around my bathroom - think I might decant them all in to one bottle when he's not looking :rotfl: