Desperate Housewives' Money Saving Tips

Only a few of us enjoy keeping close track of our spending and hold pride in following a strict financial discipline. Most of us fancy ourselves as smart yet reckless characters of the network TV series lavishly spending on designer shoes, exquisite restaurants and the latest gadgets. This pretend may have worked for some of us for years. The recent economy has sterilized our dreams a bit, forcing us to pay attention to where our money is flowing. Having been commissioned to write about the ways math could help us save in the current economy has made me seriously wonder where my own family's money is draining, unnoticed and often un-enjoyed. As I described before in my presentation, I have nothing against a $300 pair of winter boots as long as they are beautiful, comfortable, sturdy and you will get a great price-per-wear from them. But the $10-20 we leave daily on tchatchkes in the local pharmacy, various gift shops, snack machines or coffee shops - they do alarm me. Just a daily coffee and a treat that run $5 per day, would add up to $35 per week and $1,820 per year! It may be well-spent money if you savor and enjoy every sip of this precious coffee. Just be aware that making it at home may allow you to afford the Caribbean trip you had to skip this year. So, let's pay attention to such little daily spending and leave only those that are definitely worth it.

Photo by zazie, distributed under Creative Commons license

Turning the spending awareness on and imagining myself as a financially savvy Desperate Housewife, I realized the advantages of a liquid soap refills. First advantage is minimizing the vicious cycle of plastic manufacturing and recycling that we are paying for. Those small liquid soap bottles that were produced, packed, shipped, stored and sold, you use them for a month or so and then recycle, with many more vehicles driving it from your home to the dump, to the recycling facility, washing, melting and starting their life cycle all over again only to return to your home a few months later. Sounds like too much hassle for such a short life-span of a little bottle. And obviously, we are paying for every step of this process.
The second advantage is your direct saving with a surprisingly minimal amount of work. A 500 mL 16.9 oz plastic bottle of liquid soap that I bought in Marshall’s was $5, with its original price being $9. Costco is selling small size bottles of soft soap containing 7.5 oz for $2.23 as well as a gigantic size 1 Gallon (128 oz) bottles for $13.99. As usual, to compare we need to check the price for the same amounts - say 1oz. The liquid soap from Marshall’s as well as a small packaged soap from Costco were both $.30 per 1 oz. Surprise! Wholesale prices are not always cheaper. However, the gigantic soap from Costco was $0.10 per oz – 1/3 of the price I am currently paying. We could save 2/3 of the price and simplify our life by buying the soap only twice a year instead of monthly! So, consider refills. They are easy, green and hip nowadays, especially among desperate housewives.

Look for TheMathMom's article in September 2009 issue of the Boston Parents Paper on many creative ways math could come to the rescue of your family budget.
Click here to read this article online.