Soap

While liquid soap is great, it can be expensive. Then there is foaming hand soap, which in and of itself is ingenious, but refills for that cost a lot too. Here’s what I do.

When it comes to dishes, I use Dawn. Currently I am using Dawn Advanced Power (ultra concentrated with added enzymes to attack stuck-on food) that I get at Costco. While I am a cheapskate, dishwashing liquid is one area I refuse to skimp on, mostly because I have never been pleased with the results from any other dishwashing soap I’ve tried.

For the shower, we use Ivory bar soap. It cleans and rinses off easily, and the best part is it is relatively inexpensive, depending on where you shop. Prices vary from store to store, so while shopping for other things at various merchants, I check their price on Ivory and compare, making sure to remember to pick it up at the lowest priced location on my next trip to that particular store. The only other soap I’ve used and would use again is Dove, which, I guess technically, isn’t soap, but considered a beauty bar. It has some cleansers in it, but acts more like a moisturizing lotion, which for someone like me who has chronic dry skin, is great. But the price is a deterrent, and Ivory works rather well at cleaning.

And finally, we come to hand soap, which while I prefer regular soaps, it is getting near impossible to find any that isn’t anti-bacterial, which is probably in and of itself worthy of a whole other post on the destruction it causes on your body’s natural defenses against harmful bacteria, and may be someday. But anyway, I buy store brand liquid hand soap, even though all of our dispensers are foaming. Let me explain.

Foaming hand soap is basically regular hand soap in which more water has been added to make it foam. Why, then, does it cost the same or more than regular liquid hand soap? Obviously, it is to make more money out of you, the consumer, and which conglomerate doesn’t want that? But don’t worry, I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing for years. To make your own foaming hand soap, simply fill your container with 1 part soap to 5 parts warm water leaving about a quarter of the container unfilled, put the pump back on, and slowly tip up and down a few times to combine then leave it alone. This can take anywhere from an hour to overnight, depending on the type of hand soap, and I find that giving a gentle rock every half hour or so helps. Alternately, you can do what I’ve recently done, which is take my recently emptied refill container of liquid hand soap, fill it about 1/10 with soap and filled the container a little over half with water to get about the same ratio, and tipping up and down to combine. This way, when the bottles need to be refilled, I can simply pour directly from this container.

Making your own foaming hand soap will save you a lot of money, especially if you’re someone who washes your hands a lot like I am. Between chickens and baking, I roughly wash my hands about fifty times a day, especially if the baking is for other people. The last refill bottle I bought lasted over three years using this method, and I anticipate that same amount of time before having to purchase another bottle. I did mention how I am cheap, right? And while there are things I won’t compromise on, I simply can’t justify spending two dollars on a new bottle of foaming hand soap, when it costs just over six cents to make your own, and with very little effort at that. This is also an excellent way to make your more expensive hand soaps last longer too, but be aware that it only works with clear soaps, not creamy ones that look more like lotion. If you can pick up the bottle and see through to the other side, it’s okay. If you pick it up and see only soap and nothing on the other side, it’s not.