$$Savings

I grew up in a frugal home. I can remember mom stretching her food dollar. She'd buy a small can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew...cheaper than buying beef and all the veggies...then she'd add raw diced potatoes, slices of carrot and enough water to cook the raw veggies and not water down the stew gravy. It was yummy.

I continued the tradition of frugality. I cross stitched my mantra and hung it in the kitchen on the fridge: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without". These are words I still live by. Mind you I do at times buy things I don't really need, but I keep these to a minimum. It is a very freeing way to live.

Now for the $$saving ideas....

1. Instead of spending $3-$4 on body lotion I get mine for $1. I use store brand baby lotion. I find the ingredients are more moisturizing and better quality than less expensive brand lotions made for adults.
2. Again with the store brand baby products. This time it's the bath wash. For a dollar you'll get a nice body wash or bubble bath. I've even found it is gentle enough to use as a face wash...and the savings is considerable. Most are formulated for sensitive skin...who'd want to irritate a baby? Actually I got the idea from my mom, who got it from her doctor. She'd had surgery and he told her to use baby wash so her incision wouldn't get irritated.
3. Instead of buying bar soap, shaving gel or foam for your legs, I've found 2 things that work better for me. One is body wash. The extra emollient ones are great. The other thing that is excellent to use is: hair conditioner! I was surprised at how well it works. I got the idea from an email. Had several small bottles of hair conditioner from hotel visits. If you use hair conditioner, you know it takes forever to use up a bottle in comparison to the same size bottle of shampoo. I saw a large bottle of Suave Hair Conditioner at Dollar General for 75 cents...can't beat that when you compare it to the price of shaving gel. And while the shaving foam is quite cheap, it doesn't work very well in my opinion. Likely, you've got a bottle or two of hair conditioner sitting around. Try it next time you shave your legs.
4. I've been using the children's chewable vitamins instead of adult vitamins for a few years now. After all, who'd formulate a vitamin that might harm a child? Plus, since they're chewable, you don't have to worry about them dissolving. I got this idea from my daughter. A few years later I read about it in Weight Watchers magazine. One of their board medical doctors was asked what she'd tell women to do if there was just one thing she could suggest. Her answer? Take a child's chewable vitamin every day. With the child size you don't have to worry about mega doses. And the price is quite reasonable compared to a name brand quality product.