All Things Hold Together

Yes, a third post and it’s not even noon!

For a long time, I have wanted to share some of the ways we make our budget stretch further, but the one time I did it, was the only time I did it.

I decided to give it another try by participating in Frugal Fridays, hosted here.

My tip on my maiden Frugal Fridays voyage is for glycerin soap on the cheap.

Sometime around a year-and-a-half ago, Bob and I decided to get rid of some of the bigger pollutants in our lives. One thing we changed was our soap. We started using unscented, glycerin soap.

(I tried making homemade soap, but it was a disaster. There was still enough free lye in it to irritate my sensitive skin.)

Glycerin soap in the store is very, very expensive. The least expensive I could find was still well over a dollar a bar.

So, I started buying Life of the Party’s Naturals melt and pour soap base at Michaels, the arts & crafts store. They usually have a 40% off coupon every week, which brings the cost of a 32 oz. block of soap from $8.99 to $5.39.

For eight 4oz. bars of soap, that brings the price down to 67-cents per bar.

The soap can also be bought in larger quantities for even more savings.

This is not as low price as some of the 3/$1.00 soaps out there, but if you are looking for a natural, pure vegetable glycerin soap, you can save a lot of money this way.

You can also add in colors or botanicals to coordinate with your bathroom or make gifts. (An added advantage: you always have an easy to make gift on hand.)

And if you are not in the mood, or don’t have the time, to melt it and pour it, you can just cut it into blocks right from the package.

Update: Non-detergent melt-and-pour resources here.