Drip Dropping Away
Losing my income has made me clingy. I'm trying hard to hang on to my house, my car, and my SPF 30 sunscreen. With so little cash in my wallet, I need to flatten the tube to get a few more squirts of sunscreen out, just like toothpaste. Each night, I turn the shampoo and conditioner bottles upside down, hoping to extract a couple more drops the next morning. I violently snap my wrist with roll-on in hand, hoping to force the remaining liquid to coat the roller ball yet another day. Styling products in rigid plastic containers get severe bottom spankings when seemingly spent as I to try and release stubbornly clinging globs.
Waste not, want not is a wonderful proverb for all to follow, no matter our economic situations. But the coiner of that phrase was never in my bathroom and didn't have to deal with the dreaded pump moisturizer that spurts forth way more than I need while I create new compound curse words, and probably didn't waste time wondering if that straw-like pump component can be pinched to get out the last few drops of hand cream. Regrettably, I've had to stop cutting metallic containers looking for secreted remnants of balm as that practice quickly used up my bandage budget, but I'm relentless in using my pinkie to coax a few more applications out of tubs of cream and tubes of lipstick, and in scraping the sides of pans to liberate the colored make-up beads hiding beneath the rim.
Though I admit to shallowness, cosmetics and toiletries were trappings of my middle class comfort. Shinier hair and longer lashes were easily achievable, and herbal tea held no sway over my smile's vibrancy in the face of whitening strips. I always used products fully but never before injured my palm badgering a bottle to release its last few drops. I've had to learn that if I roll a tube really, really tightly and grind the heel of my hand onto the flattened layers, I can get at least one more application to spurt out (aim is crucial unless your make-up mirror needs exfoliation). My bathroom countertop is currently cluttered with almost empty tubes and jars I'll continue to flatten, twirl, pound, squeeze, scrape and shake until each resists my efforts to yield more. I know the day is coming when the counter's surface will be clear, bereft of all the goodies I can't afford to replace. On that day, it won't really be the cuticle cream and the firming masque I'll yearn for, but the security that came with my obviously mistaken faith that I'd never run out of anything money could buy.
As I left the glow of youth behind, I never once doubted I'd have the economic fire-power to wage war on wrinkles with the newest advances in nano-encapsulated, antioxidant-laden, solar blocking, ultra-tightening creams and lotions. Yet now I am equally certain that when they formulate the potion that actually reverses the signs of aging, I'll be choosing to pay my mortgage and phone bill instead of scooping up this miracle in a pump bottle (or tube).
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The best beauty products I found are exercise, sleep and eating less junk. I refuse to pay the outrageous gym costs so I either walk or follow an exercise show on tv and I try to get 8 hours of sleep. This also has greatly helped with stress. Since I've been doing this, I've noticed an improvement in skin tone in my face and body. I guess this is obvious but it took me years to actually commit to a healthier lifestyle.
I'm with you about exercise and avoiding junk. I wish I could get more sleep!
At the end of the day, it's how you look on the inside that really counts. Your commitment to animal rights and the environment significantly outweighs the occasional wrinkle.
My own personal craziness (probably more about obsessiveness than saving $) is the toothpaste tube. My wife squeezes it in the middle of the tube and I regularly use the bathroom cup to squeeze the paste up to the top of the tube flattening only the bottom.
B
Oh, if only wrinkles would show up occasionally! But I understand what you wrote and concur--some of the most beautiful people I have ever known never cared one whit about the lines criss-crossing their faces.
I once heard a story about a woman who used one of those key-thingies to roll the toothpaste tube flat and forward. One morning, she opened the wound-tight tube, and the entire remaining contents promptly squirted across the bathroom mirror! There may be a moral in that, but I'll leave it for others...
Another tip is to save those paper-thin soap scraps and when you get enough, wet them and mold into shape and let them dry for another bar of soap. I grew up poor. These things work!
Thanks. My Mom had some kind of home-made creation she slipped the slivers into, making it a washcloth-soap combo.
When breaking in to those pesky metal tubes, try a sturdy pair of scissors and a cotton swab. It'll save you a few bandages.
Sometimes the obvious eludes us! Thanks for the cotton swab tip.
Well, instead of smacking bottoms to dislodge those last truculent globs try adding a bit of water. I habitually water down my liquid potions by 50%. Sure it's a bit thinner but it still manages to do what its meant to do. The trick is use diluted contents sparingly. Thick and creamy, like surfactants added to produce suds, are ingredients designed to be marketing tools. Thus these plumper, richer, better smelling, sudsy superficial attributes have become consmer expectations when purchasing emoliments. You don't have to lower your standards to remain squeaky clean and smelling good. But you will lower your bill. Less is more should become our personal economic ethos in both lean and fat times.
I agree about "less is more". I have always tried to purchase green and cruelty-free products, but realize now that neither of those labels ensures initial affordability or economy of use. The change in my circumstances has forced a changed in my awareness as a consumer, and in the long run, I think both the planet and I will be the better for it.
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