Paying Attention to the "Fill Line" Will Save You Money

When you do laundry, do you fill the laundry detergent cap up to the top and pour it into your washer?  If you do - you're not alone.  In fact, many laundry detergent caps have a dark line drawn in at the top of the cap, to make it appear as if that's where you should be filling up to!  The truth is, on the majority of laundry detergent caps, the fill line is actually about half-way for a standard load of laundry.  Why should we care?  When you use double the amount of detergent that's necessary to get a clean load of laundry, you get half the amount of washes from your laundry detergent.  You can stretch your budget by making your detergent last longer simply by filling the cap to the actual fill line rather than to the brim of the cap.

Simple, but offers real savings.

Along those same lines, do you pay attention to how much dish washer detergent you're using?  The amount of shampoo and conditioner you apply?  Using the recommended amounts instead of just loading up will make all of your soap products last longer, causing you to have to buy them less frequently, and therefore - save you money.

We prefer to use liquid handsoap in our bathrooms, but I have young children who like to pump the dispenser over and over to fill their hand up with soap and if you're not paying close attention, they can use half a bottle in a single hand-wash!  I found that refilling my soap dispensers halfway with soap and halfway with water saves considerably over the long term.  Shake the bottle up and with each pump of the dispenser, you get enough soap and water to lather up and clean your hands - but use much less soap than you did previously.

Sometimes, little things like these can offer big savings- especially if you consider the savings on an annual basis instead of a per-shopping-trip basis.  There are probably other areas you can easily cut back on to save a few dollars here and there, as well.  Just take a look at the things you do regularly in your home and see if you're using more than necessary to get the "job done".