Friday, January 18, 2019

Toiletries & Saving My $$



When it comes to personal care I can easily claim myself to be a minimalist.  I honestly don't keep a lot of toiletries and my daily routine is pretty minimal.  So is my budget.  I try to keep nonfood expenses to about $25 a month.  This typically includes supplies and food for our cats too.  Even still I find this is more than enough to cover our needs.


I buy toilet paper and tissues when they are on sale and if possible I use a coupon to shave even more off of the final price.  We purchase our feminine hygiene products at Walmart and we find their store brand is quite adequate to meet our needs.


I purchase national brand bar soap, facial cleanser, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, lip balm and cotton balls at the dollar store.  Hair brushes, combs, hair bands and bobby pins too.  They often have name brand makeup as well which I will purchase for my girls as gifts, but as a rule none of us wears makeup on a daily basis.  We just prefer not to.


I pick up body cream, which I use as my face cream, lotion and shower gel at Bath & Body Works and I usually get it either for free (coupons and gift cards) or extremely cheap on sale.  It lasts a good long time and the shower gel pulls double duty when I mix a tablespoon of it with some warm water to make foaming handsoap refill solution for our soap dispensers.


We often give and receive toiletries as gifts.  The girls will give me a year supply of chapstick for my birthday and Santa always gets them toothbrushes and toothpaste in their stockings.  The Easter bunny brings it too.  Lotion and shower gel from Bath & Body Works are almost always a part of birthday and Christmas gifts.


The biggest way we save money is to not overuse products and that makes things last a very long time.  We also don't waste anything.  It only takes a nickel size dollop of shampoo and conditioner to get our hair plenty clean and we don't "repeat" despite what the bottle says.  A pea sized amount of toothpaste is more than enough to brush your teeth with.  And you don't need a giant wad of TP for your bum when a few squares gets the job done quite nicely without clogging up the plumbing.


I find I don't buy toiletries all that often and when I do I make sure that I find what we need at the best possible price.  And if something seems to be running low we aren't above standing it upside down, adding a little water and giving it a good shake or cutting it open to scrape out the last little bit before declaring something gone or empty.


Spending less $$ on toiletries means I get to save more of it for other things!




14 comments:

  1. I wish I could cheaper products but I’m so sensitive that I can’t.

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  2. I also cut open bottles to get the last of whatever is in that bottle. I have found that I can sometimes get up to another whole week's worth of product! The thing I am bad at is I only buy stuff when I'm out instead of picking it up when it's on sale. I need to work on that.

    Tania

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    Replies
    1. I try to plan ahead, but sometimes I get caught and run out. I'm really working this year to either wait it out or make do with something else to save $.

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  3. I do the same! I also fill up Christmas stockings with flashlights, brushes, etc. from the dollar store. I also make small sewing kits and first aid kits for stockings. I also use hairbands from the dollar store (12 for a dollar) to keep my paperback books closed nicely so they don't get bent and folded. All good for Easter baskets and birthdays.

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    Replies
    1. Those are all wonderful ideas. Never thought about using headbands like that. Smart!

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  4. My pet peeve is when my husband or kids (adults now) throw out a tube or bottle of something that I know can be cut open and used several more times. I squeeze the life out of toiletry tubes and bottles. I think where I could improve though is paper products. I'm the queen of paper towels. I must try to be better! :) ColoradoGirl

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    Replies
    1. My girls are much better now then they were. I gave up paper towels several years ago and made a bunch of rags out of old bath towels. I've worn them all out and need to make more now.

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  5. You truly are a savings queen! I wish we could rely on store brand feminine hygiene products but our periods are very heavy (sorry to get so technical here!) and we've tried cheaper brands. As a result, we have to buy pretty much the most expensive ones :(

    D.

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    Replies
    1. I find not all store brands are created equal to be sure. It took us a while to figure out which ones would work. For us Walgreens don't, but Walmart's do. They are just like the Always brand. But I don't like their pantiliners, but I like the Kroger ones.

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  6. I too have sensitive skin, so can't just use any brand/product. I make the most of my drugstore rewards and coupons to get my products for free or near free.

    As for the feminine products. Ibotta currently has a $1.50 rebate on Stayfree maxi pads. Combined with the $1 coupon, it costs 63c per pack. I've been stocking up. Over the weekend Meijer had the Stayfree B1G50% off 2nd. So I got 2 packs (they only allow 2 identical qs) and paid 21c each. Score!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not every brand or product works for us either. We are pretty particular about what we use. Sounds like you found some great deals.

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