Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which have changed as we've proceeded. (As things have settled down to a nice steady conversational pace, for example, I've deleted the rules about only one tip per person per week and about limiting the length of comments; I was worried early on about people flooding the forum with too much too fast, but I think we're past that risk.)

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Re: Soap

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect you'll end up going through your soap faster - cutting the bars in half increases the surface area per weight (and therefore the opportunity for "melt") and doubles the number of little chips of soap you end up with at the end of the life of the bar...

Re: Soap

[methylethyl]

It seems worth a try.

The biggest thing I've done to conserve bar soap is just be really careful about where in the shower is the designated soap spot. The actual built-in soap holder is the worst place becaue during a shower, water runs down the wall in that spot, and washes over the soap bar, dissolving it and washing it uselessly down the drain. It doesn't dry out between showers either, so it gets all mushy and gross. Just moving it to the back corner of the tub made a huge difference, because very little water reaches it there. Just that tiny change made bars of soap last waaaay longer.

Re: Soap

[(Anonymous)]

I also recommend getting a soap saver -- a little plastic oval with prongs on both sides. It sits right in the soap dish, holds the soap up out of any water that may drip into the dish, and allows the soap to dry fully between uses.