Friday, December 26, 2008

Who Cut Open the Conditioner? I Did to Save Money

The bottle of conditioner was turned upside down and tightly squeezed, but still nothing came out. But looking through the plastic, I could see the conditioner within. To toss out the bottle seemed frustrating and wasteful, especially since several applications of hair-softening lubricant were on the bottom, sides and cap.

So I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the plastic in half. My daughter was puzzled.

"Who cut open the conditioner and why?"

"I did," I responded with a frugal explanation.

That was several days ago, and we're still scooping out conditioner from the bottle.

Coming Soon:
How to get the most out of near-empty containers.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea, I do that too. I buy expensive products so I don't feel too frugal cutting them open to get them all out.

Anonymous said...

I cut open my lotion to save money and my friends thought I was nuts.

Marcus Aurelius said...

Long time no comment!

However, I have written on this topic myself: http://frugal.framnett.net/2007/12/07/cutting-shampoo/ and I have done this for a long time now.

We have an old shampoo bottle on hand and being a guy we purchase whatever is most inexpensive (yes, I will calculate per unit costs, my wife uses a different shampoo than I) bottle of shampoo and then we pour in some of the uncut shampoo into the old bottle and top off with water.

I noticed years ago in the same way you describe your discovery that there is shampoo in the bottle when it seems "empty" and if you pour in some water and shake it up you can extend the bottle's life.

Teria Rogers said...

Been doing this for years

Anonymous said...

Love it! I did the same thing to a squeeze bottle of Philosphy product - only after days of banging it on the counter to get the product down to the cap (it was thick!) Nice to know I'm not the only one. LOL!

Emmy said...

We cut open our first toothpaste tube last month - it took us 2 weeks to scrape it dry! Awesome tip!

moocifer said...

Plastic ketchup containers and toothpaste tubes are good for cutting open.

Those big olive oil cans--take a can opener and punch a hole in the very bottom corner, then set it at an angle to drain into a bowl.

You'll get a good 1/3-1/2 cup of extra olive oil out this way.

As to shampoo and such, I'm running out and planning on just buying a gallon bottle of sodium lauryl sulfate and ammonium lauryl sulfate, the primary surfactants in toothpaste, shampoo, and many household cleaners.

Mixed at various concentrations with water (and preservative if you're mixing a lot) they will provide a lifetime of cleaner mixes in the right combinations. Payback time will be four or 5 years, though.