Stretches are good for you!

One of my easiest frugal tricks is ‘stretching’. I use less or combine with lower priced items to get more use for my dollar. Now some ‘experts’ (*snort*) will tell you that doing little things is a waste of time and doesn’t add up enough to matter. I say: “horsesh*t”. I despise those arrogant so-called thriftyness experts who look down their noses at some forms of savings as being beneath them. Well, lah-dee-dah! You can kiss my tightwad backside! (But let’s save that for another post, shall we?)

Anyway my little stretches are easy once you get used to them and really do help. Take clothes detergent. Did you know that you don’t need a whole scoop? Just because there’s a cup-sized scoop in there doesn’t mean it must be brimming to get your clothes clean. Read the directions. It might even say this.

Here’s what I do: I automatically go with half as much as the manufacturer recommends. If I don’t like the result, I increase it slightly next wash, and so on. Using too much detergent just leaves detergent in your clothes. A waste … and do you want that next to your kid’s skin? Experts recommend that you wash your clothing occasionally with just plain water to get out the excess detergent. What the heck?? To me, that means that we’re using too much in the first place!

This tip applies to toothpaste and shampoo as well. Just because the commercials show the actor gobbing on a huge inch-long wad of paste does NOT mean that you should. It’s the act of brushing, not the toothpaste that gets your teeth clean, folks! Just squeeze a large pea sized dab on your brush and brush twice as long. I guarantee your teeth will feel great!

Do you ‘lather, rinse, repeat’? Don’t do it anymore. Not only is this a colossal waste, it’s damaging your hair. That advertised ‘squeaky clean’ feel means that you’ve just stripped your hair of it’s natural oils and made it dry, unmanageable, and weak. Then you’re forced to run out and buy yet another product to combat it: conditioner.

Did you know that you shouldn’t wash your hair every day? Now, before you jump up and scream: “But you don’t know my hair!”, let me assure you that my waist length mass has its own problems. I have oily hair and dandruff (ugh!). Washing daily, using too much shampoo, washing repeatedly, etc causes your hair to overproduce oils and makes it a nightmare of crispy dry right after washing to limp and greasy half a day later. Try going a day (over the week-end, say) without washing and stop washing twice and look at the improvement.

These little stretching tricks can be used with dozens of things. Dish liquid (use less), hand soap (try diluting it with water and only use 1 squirt!), coffee creamer (mix your favourite flavoured brand with a package of dried milk), milk (dilute whole into twice as much ‘skimmed’ or mix with dried milk), etc, etc.

Try these little trick and see. I hope they’ll help you. My savings on laundry detergent and coffee creamer alone were enough to make me sit up and take notice, lol!