Save Money: Dilute.

Being that I now have SMALL places to squeeze things, I am getting creative and also learning to make one thing last LONG- so I don't have to buy them in bulk and store them somewhere. (Except for my Milk.. I've been sold on "Gossner's Milk" because A) It has years of shelf life and it's REAL milk, B) It tastes AMAZING and C) It costs SO much less than regular crap milk.) Anyway. I have found things that to cost money, but can be diluted with water to give great life and perfectly adequate usage. Three examples:

ONE: Dawn For Dishes

I don't know what house DOESN'T have this product. It's good for so many things... if you EVER have a grease stain on your clothes... here it is folks. But really, they say "only a couple drops cleans a whole sink of dishes" well guess what, I don't have the time to concentrate on how many drops I'm squeezing out of this huge bottle. So once my bottle was down to maybe a 1/2 cup of Dawn left, I topped off the bottle with water, and used my back up to refill the old bottle with a 1/2 cup of Dawn, and the rest water. It has been working just as well as it ever did. Not to mention that I haven't bought Dawn since August. Awesome.

TWO: Paul Mitchell, Thicken Up

I'm not sure what it is, but this stuff works wonders for my hair. I don't use it for it's purpose, rather, to make my curls stay together, stay SOFT and I guess yeah, make my hair appear thicker. But really, it's the only thing that works on my curly and I use it EVERY day. Amazing curls... to all you curly-heads out there, this is the secret. But, it's tricky to find AND it's $13 a bottle. The stuff itself is thick, like a heavy gel. So it doesn't go into the hair evenly. UNTIL- you DILUTE it. So it's about 1/3 gel, and 2/3 water. It actually works BETTER this way. It gets distributed more evenly. And saves me $26.

THREE: Juicy Juice

Jack likes juice. Bless his little heart. But he also just had a crown put in. He doesn't eat a WHOLE LOT of sweets, but he has been downing this juice for the past 5 years. Even though it's the "good sugar" it is still sugar. I've actually been doing this for a few years, but it still amazes me how much I save. I've probably diluted this up to 1/2 with water before. Jack likes Gatorade, which is already watered down, so I think that's why he tolerates it so well. But if he got a hold of the concentrate... who knows. But again, it's something that lasts me longer, saves me money and hopefully in turn, saves me Jack hyped up on too much sugar.

So that is my little lesson of the day. If anyone else has things I can dilute... please let me know, I would love to simplify even MORE.