I know a lot of us moms who stay at home with our kids or are starting our own business at home, are on budgets (sometimes extreme budgets!) Been there, done that, got the T shirt.
I am here to tell you that I am a frugal work at home mom and as such, I have come up with my own frugal tips over the years.
Below are 10 of them. Please be nice if some of them seem weird or extreme. What can I say? I'm a weird mama.
10 Frugal Tips for the Work at Home Mom
1- I bought the large economy size bottles of shampoo and conditioner with pump tops. I pour half of the liquids into jars and store. Then I add warm water to almost the top and shake to mix. Hair products are often way too thick and you will use too much if you use a squirt bottle. Pump bottles give you more control of the amount and the thinner product that has been mixed with water is actually easier to use.
2-I love the Dawn Foam dish detergent but it's a little on the expensive size. I found that when you are done with the detergent, you can take the cap off the bottle, refill about 1/3 full with regular dish detergent, mix with warm water, replace top and shake. It will pump out foam just like before for a fraction of the cost!
3-Same with laundry detergent. I have found that using half the detergent, works just as well.
4-If you like using fabric softener sheets, after they have been used; save them for dusting your furniture or wiping off the TV or computer screen.
5-To make liquid fabric softener last longer, you can also dilute this with half water. I also just pour a tiny amount of this diluted softener onto an old washcloth and throw this in the dryer. For a family of 5, I have had a small bottle last over 6 months this way.
6-When my kids were babies, I would save the long, clear bags that come off the newspapers (I also got my family to save theirs) and tucked them in my diaper bag. They make great bags for dirty diapers and are long enough, you can tie off the end to keep the diaper (and smell) in the bag. Now I use them when dog walking for doggy poops.
7-When my jewelry needs cleaning, I get an Efferdent denture tablet from my mom and put it in a bowl of water with the jewelry overnight. In the morning, the jewelry is clean and like new. (Don't use on pearls)
8-Baby wash makes a great makeup remover and is much cheaper (I buy the generic in a pump bottle and do the half water trick here too).
9-Bar soap lasts longer if you let it dry outside of it's package for a few weeks. You get a double benefit by putting the unwrapped bar in your linen closet, clothes closet and drawers to make them smell nice.
10-I save all my little slivers of soap in a jar. I do one of two things when I get a "bar of soap" worth of soap depending on my mood. Sometimes I will wrap a piece of netting & tie it off around the slivers to use in the shower. Sometimes I will put the slivers in a small flat microwave safe container & melt them in the microwave. When they cool, you have a new bar of soap.
And a bonus tip is to go around your house and get together all the products you love. Look on the back of the product and find an email addy or snail mail addy. Write and tell them how much you love their product and ask if they have any coupons available and to be put on their mailing list. You can get quite a few products this way. To keep track of who you contact and what they send, write the details in a small notebook and periodically repeat this process every 6 months or so with new companies.
Enjoy working from home and happy frugal living!