Never Pay for Shampoo Again
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: frugality
By Jon, the Master Tightwad
I am a lean, mean tightwad machine. My boss and I have a Monday morning ritual of comparing who got the best weekend deal, and usually I win. I once bought 38 cans of organic soup for $4.17. Since then, my boss has pretty much given up. My goal in life is to pay as little as possible to live as comfortably as I can.
I haven’t paid for toothpaste since 2005. Last week I had to give away 4 tubes of it to some strangers near a homeless shelter because the tubes were about to expire. Shampoo? I have 23 bottles. Seriously. And they were all free.
Scoring free hygiene products is easy, and anyone can do it.
- Step 1: Always buy the Sunday newspaper.
Most weeks I actually make money on shampoo, toothbrushes and various sundries. You’ll need to save ALL coupons until they expire. Tip: Write the publication date on the first page. I’ll explain why below. - Step 2: Using said Sunday paper, set aside the advertisements for every pharmacy.
Where I live, Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid are the major drugstores. I save each ad. In them, you’ll discover lots of “FAR” (free after rebate) deals. - Step 3: Find a reliable deal compilation site, like bargainshare.com.
Rather than find the deals yourself, start at a site where other users post their finds. At bargainshare, for example, I can quickly peruse the drugstores in the discussion forum to find products that are “FAR” or, even better, those products where I actually make money. Every Sunday, I scour my ads for freebies. Trust me, you will find them every single week. But then I cross check the coupons I have (Bargainshare will tell you which week the coupon was published. This will prevent you from paging through your archive of coupons). I have been most successful with CVS. I signed up to receive emails from their ExtraCare program, and almost weekly they will send me a “Save $4 off your next $20 purchase” offer. I print the email and bring it in. Combine that with other savings, and I often receive more than $20 worth of products at no cost to me. - Step 4: Managing inventory isn’t easy.
The biggest challenge I have is using everything I’ve got. I’m a single guy, so the feminine hygiene products don’t have much use. They go to my best friend’s fiancé. I also find creative ways to use products. Conditioner, for example, works as well as any shaving gel. Finally, the philanthropist in me loves to distribute excess products to others. Be sure to keep tabs on what you give away: Uncle Sam will pay you back when you file your taxes.
Combining these tips should get you started on the road to savings. And if they don’t, at least you’ll have some stories (or, like me, a few cans of split pea soup) to share with your boss. That, and really clean hair.
(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
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Jon, the Master Tightwad works in the non-profit software industry by day, and hunts for bargains by night. He’s a single guy living in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama.
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35 Responses »
1.
Tanya
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:32 am
This may be a dumb question… but *which* newspaper does one buy for coupons? The small local one? A large national one? Hmmm
2.
mapgirl
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Specifically, a lot of homeless and battered women’s shelters will take these products as well. Your post is kind of vague on what you mean by philanthropy.
3.
Jon, Master Tightwad
August 8th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Tanya,
As far as I know the Sunday paper for most any major newspaper has coupons in it.
Mapgirl,
You’re absolutely right. In fact, my company does this every now and then. We have a lot of travelers, so it is encouraged to donate your hotel toiletries to a box in the company kitchen. We then take them to a women’s shelter downtown.
4.
Dolores
February 19th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Wow! Impressive… I thought I was a bargain hunter but you top me big time!
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May 18th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
I always wonder how the stores win on these pay nothing after rebate deals. Staples used to be the best at it. You’d get free computer stuff after rebate.
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July 2nd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
You’re a genius! I haven’t thought about this. Whenever I see coupons and rebates, I just shrug it off never realizing you can save a great deal on these. Well, thanks for sharing your tips. I might check this myself when the Sunday paper arrives.
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November 9th, 2010 at 7:32 am
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December 19th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
This article is already excellent and worthy of appreciation and praise
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December 28th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
This is really beneficial for us. Good thing this information was shared. It would be great to have a free hygiene products just following this instructions.
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Love
February 5th, 2011 at 12:38 am
Most free product give aways have some sort of survey now days
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March 30th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
This is really beneficial for us. Good thing this information was shared. It would be great to have a free hygiene products just following this instructions.صبايا العرب
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May 19th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
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August 19th, 2011 at 5:40 am
I’m sorry but the theme for this article was entirely inappropriate. Shampoo is a serious problem and not something to make it forget.
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September 15th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
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October 13th, 2011 at 12:51 am
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October 21st, 2011 at 10:52 pm
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October 26th, 2011 at 10:33 am
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November 1st, 2011 at 7:42 am
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November 8th, 2011 at 2:03 am
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November 9th, 2011 at 12:58 am
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أدلة المواقع
December 8th, 2011 at 7:35 am
Make sure not to claim or donate much above what you can write off or you will have to submit more paperwork/information. Check your state to see what the limit is
26.
Catuaba
January 12th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Haha I love that you said you are a lean, mean tightwad machine. It’s kinda important unless you don’t care if you are buried in debt… but on the flipside I think that one has to be careful not to invest more time in this than it’s worth to save a little amount of money.
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February 13th, 2012 at 1:35 am
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February 16th, 2012 at 11:45 am
I wasn’t aware you could obtain shampoo at no cost, that’s great.
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John D
April 2nd, 2012 at 3:28 am
Conditioner as shaving gel? Yeah, that’s definitely creative, I would never have thought that. Be careful of those laureth sulfates though, they’ve been getting a bad rep.
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May 20th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
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