I like to be clean, which is certainly not a controversial statement.  My wife would say I’m a bit fastidious, and she might imply that I’m neurotically hygienic when she is peeved with me. However, I disagree. I’m not a “germophobe” guy; I like to smell nice. I may have a more sensitive nose than most, and I react negatively when encountering someone who needs a shower. Conversely, I like it when someone smells nice. That is just me.

Despite this propensity, I have developed some frugal hygiene hacks over the years. All of them came about for reasons other than being frugal. In most cases, they worked better than more costly options and became part of my daily routine.  

I have written several posts on ways to save money, so I am adding this one.  I had a little inner conflict when writing this post as it seemed too “personal” and a bit TMI.   However, if it gets someone thinking about saving money, my disclosures will be worth it.

I gave up body wash/shower gels.

Body wash became popular in the late 1980s, and I was on board when they hit the market. The stuff was modern, smelled great, and was often colorful. Body wash is mostly water combined with detergent, thickening agents, fragrance, and other additives like preservatives, colorants, and buffering compounds.  

Around 10 years ago, I was at a store and spied some bar soap that I bought primarily for nostalgia. The soap and I entered the shower, and it was love at second sight.  I liked holding the bar, the slick way it felt when I applied it, and the overall experience.  My wife and kids are still on the body wash bandwagon, but I’m now firmly back in the bar soap court. 

Bar soap requires a slight change in procedure. You will need some sort of soap dish, and it is imperative that you dump out any water in that dish at the end of your shower. Otherwise, your bar will turn into a slimy, gross mess.  

Body wash comes in a plastic bottle that is not earth-friendly.  Bar soap comes in a paper wrapper.  Both body wash and bar soap can be purchased inexpensively or ridiculously expensively.  High-end soaps are differentiated mainly by the shape of the bar or bottle and the amount and quality of the fragrance added.  Pro tip: no one will smell that fragrance on you within 10 minutes of leaving the shower. 

If you have sensitive skin, one brand may work better than another. The same can be said if you have especially oily skin or an unusual odor issue. I have dry skin and can use just about any soap as long as it isn’t heavily fragranced. When it comes to body wash and bar soap, the skin-irritating ingredient is usually the fragrance.  

You may wonder if an inexpensive brand will get you as clean as a high-end product. If I put you in a room with 25 people who took a shower the same morning, some using the most expensive body wash and others using the cheapest bar of soap, you would not be able to smell the difference.  All products get you clean.  You may prefer the luxury of an $95 bottle of Tom Ford body wash, but it won’t get you any cleaner than a $0.54 bar of Ivory soap.  

Is bar soap less expensive than body wash? Shower gels and soaps come in various sizes and price points, making comparison difficult. However, here is a reasonable examination:

Dove soap products are mild, quality products that many people like. As of March 2025, you can buy 16 Dove soap bars at Costco for $18.49 or $1.15 a bar. A 16-oz bottle of Dove Body Wash will last about the same length as a bar of soap (based on my usage habits). 

On Walmart.com, the 20-oz bottle of Dove body wash was less expensive than the 16-oz bottle (go figure), so I’ll use that price and recalculate it for 16 ounces.  

Doing some math: $7.97/20 oz = $0.40/ounce. $0.40 x 16 oz = $6.40.  So the calculated cost is $6.40 for 16 oz of Dove body wash. That compares to $1.15 for a bar of Dove. An over 500% difference! You can buy even less expensive bars, with brands like Irish Spring and Ivory selling for around $0.60 a bar.

I no longer use pump-liquid soap at the sink.

I don’t like using bar soap at the sink. You may be grossed out thinking about all the different people who used the same bar, but it is equally hygienic to use bar soap and pump soap. I don’t like it because people don’t drain the soap dish, and the soap becomes a goopy mess. Liquid soap has been around forever in public places but became popular for home use with the introduction of the Soft Soap brand in 1980. As soon as liquid soap became available for home use, I started using it. 

The COVID pandemic brought all sorts of shortages, including liquid soap and liquid soap refills.  I remember going to Target to find the shelves bare of these basic products.   

We had some foaming soap bottles on hand, and with a quick YouTube search, I discovered that it was simple to make foaming soap, which is just regular liquid soap plus water. This was the perfect way to stretch my dwindling liquid soap supply. Additionally, I much prefer foaming soap as it makes less of a “drip mess” on the sink while cleaning my hands just as well.  

To make foaming soap, fill an empty foaming soap bottle ⅕ with liquid soap and the rest with warm water. Add the water slowly, like you would add beer to a stein, to prevent over-foaming. Put the top back on and give the bottle a few shakes, and you will have a bottle of soap for 1/5th the cost of regular hand soap.

Hand soap, body wash, and shampoo use the same ingredients with only minor changes. Hand soap may contain more detergent, body wash more fragrance, and shampoo may have an adjusted pH to reduce flyaway hair. You can use any of the above when making foaming hand soap. Body wash and shampoo are designed to suds better than traditional hand soap, so use those if you like suds. 

I found a better and cheaper way to apply body lotion.

I have dry skin, and when I was newly married, my wife would complain that my legs felt like the bark on a tree trunk.  She suggested that I use lotion after a shower, and I dutifully complied. 

My initial effort was to dry off after a shower and apply a hand lotion like Vaseline Intensive Care. That was a pain because it was slow and tedious, as applying the lotion dragged on my dry skin. 

I researched the rationale of using lotions, which changed my approach.  You may think that lotions soften skin like oiling an old baseball glove softens it.  That is not the case. The primary purpose of any hand or body lotion is to trap moisture (water) close to the skin.  A person’s natural oils are supposed to do this, but if you are a daily showerer like me, you wash those oils away.

I developed my method, which works better, is quicker to apply, and has cost savings.  This is what I do:

1. I switched from hand lotion to a body cream. A lotion is liquid because it contains alcohol and water (making the product more diluted). Body creams usually come in tubs and are significantly thicker and more concentrated. I have used many, but my favorite is Cerave Moisturizing Cream. However, the others work well enough, too. Because they are more concentrated, body creams are more economical in the long run. 
2. I apply the body cream as soon as I’m done with my shower.  I do NOT dry off, so all that water is available to make my skin healthy and soft.  Since my skin is wet, the cream glides on, and I’m done in a minute or two. I also use significantly less cream this way, so I don’t feel like a greased pig.  Since I’m pushing the water around, I’m dry enough to get dressed a few minutes after applying the cream.  I never have to “towel dry.”
3. I use much less body cream this way; a jar will last me months.  

I have used this method for many years, and my wife’s tree trunk complaints are long gone. 

I stopped using traditional deodorants decades ago.

Don’t say, “Eww,” I don’t smell bad; I just have an issue.  Antiperspirants work great for me. Unfortunately, after about a week of using them, My pores are so clogged up that I want to rip my armpits off. 

I can’t tell you how many commercial and “natural” deodorants I have tried. They just don’t work very well. Now, if you were sitting across a room from me, you probably wouldn’t notice anything, but my nose does, which bothers me.

Natural mineral crystal deodorants have been used in Southeast Asia for hundreds of years and came to America around 30 years ago.  I saw an ad in a magazine 20 years ago and bought some via mail order.  Mineral crystals are not an antiperspirant, so they don’t make me want to rip out my armpits. They work so well that  I don’t have the slightest hint of any offending body odor. 

My original purchase was a large mineral crystal rock in a little bag.  However, I have purchased it in a more traditional stick form for many years.  Don’t buy the spray or roll-on, which consists of the mineral salt dissolved in water.  They are a massive waste of money.  Buy the solid mineral crystal. Your skin has to be slightly damp so you can dissolve a tiny amount of the minerals on your skin.  This product lasts forever.  I had my last stick for over a year and only had to replace it because I dropped it, which shattered the stick into a dozen pieces.  

I rarely use toilet paper!

If the title of the last section gave you the ick, I’m guessing that this one gives you the double ick.  Let me assure you that all is good down there.

When COVID hit, people went nuts. Do you remember the TP riots? Someone hoards toilet paper, and then everyone has to. We are sheep. I remember going to multiple stores to finally score a four-pack of toilet paper that was more akin to sandpaper—and I was happy to buy it.

Several people I knew had installed bidets on their toilets during that time.  These were the fancy ones with heated seats and massaging water programs.  Soon, they sang the bidet’s praises, which caught my interest. However, to install one would cost me around $1,500 (bidet price plus a plumber and electrician).  I decided to go a more straightforward, less techy route and got a non-heating unit that could be self-installed (which I did with the help of a friend).  It cost around $60 and took less than 10 minutes to hook up.  I believed I would upgrade to a fancy unit if I liked the process.  That was around 3 years ago.

There is a slight learning curve, but using cleansing water instead of TP gets you much cleaner down there, and it is less irritating if you have a spell of frequent “visits.”  It is the best $60 I have ever spent, and I have no need to get a more elaborate model. 

I gave up shaving with a modern razor.

I made this change at least 15 years ago.

Like most, I would buy a razor starter kit and a couple of packs of razor blades at the drugstore. Eventually, I would need more blades, but when I went to buy them, there were so many different options that I could never remember which system I had.  I would then purchase another starter kit and more packs of blades. This cycle repeated in an endless loop. I felt ripped off buying blades at over  $3 apiece. Plus, I hated that the blades were mounted in plastic, which would remain in a landfill long after I was gone.

There had to be a solution, and it was right in front of me. I remembered my father shaving with a Gillette double-edge safety razor. As a kid, I would sit on a stool and watch him. I was fascinated.  

Those same razor styles exist today and remain popular in many other countries. I bought one and started using it.  There is a learning curve when transitioning from a multi-blade system to a safety razor.  With a multi-blade cartridge, you apply a little pressure as the force is distributed over all the blades.  With a traditional safety razor, you let the razor’s weight do the work. Additionally, a cartridge razor is designed to connect with your face at the right angle, but you are the one who angles a safety razor (at around 30 degrees).  Use a safety razor for a week or two; it quickly becomes natural.  I can’t remember the last time that I nicked myself.  

When you use a safety razor, you get a close shave and are less likely to deal with bumps and ingrown hairs. A gigantic community of safety razor enthusiasts is out there to answer any question. Shaving with a safety razor can be dirt cheap or expensive if you want to use exotic shaving creams, limited edition razor bodies, and such.

I love shaving this way. Ninety percent of the time, I use a German-made razor from Merkur that is built so well that it will last a lifetime. I sometimes switch out that razor for others I own, including a Gillette Speed Razor made in 1953. Why 1953?  That was the year that I was born!

This form of shaving is extremely earth-friendly as the steel blades are entirely biodegradable.  Instead of paying over $3 for a cartridge blade, typical double-edged razor blades cost between 5 and 50 cents and are universal for all safety razors.  Most blades are now made overseas in the Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, China, India, and Pakistan.  They come in cool-looking packages.  Most newbies buy an inexpensive “sample pack” of different razor blades to determine a brand that works for them (some blades are milder, others more aggressive).  My favorite blades cost less than 10 cents each and do a great job.

If you get into “wet shaving,” you can buy all sorts of shaving soaps, creams, and brushes at various prices. However, a regular can of shaving cream works just fine, too. I could continue, as I enjoy shaving this way, but I’ll stop now. Check out videos on YouTube if you want more information.

I stopped going to the barber.

I’m a guy with typical male pattern baldness.  I also have a ridiculous tuft of hair in the middle of my forehead. I decided I was not going the “comb over” route.  Many years ago, I told my barber to give me a close crop, which he did. I continued that way for some time until an “incident” happened.  I had a rare extended break between two workplaces and spied a “Super Cuts.”  Only one stylist was working, but I was told I was the next customer.  I signed up and waited, and waited, and waited.  It turned out that the stylist was cutting her friend’s hair, and they were deep into gossip.  Finally, I got up and left. Irritation is sometimes the mother of invention. I went to the store and bought an electric hair clipper and never looked back, as my particular haircut is easy and straightforward.

I’m not sure that I would tackle a more complicated cut. However, I know people who do. I have a talented sister who always cuts her husband’s hair, but she went to an expensive salon for her cuts. When COVID hit, she was housebound and decided to give it a try. She did a fantastic job, and her hair looks no different than when she was spending a fortune to have someone else cut it. Only you can decide if such a bold move is right for you. 

I can make my own cologne.

The freshmen in the high school I attended were housed in an annex building that lacked typical high school amenities, including gym showers. As young boys dealing with puberty and girls, most of us were overly conscious of our post-gym smell. Our solution was to splash on cheap drugstore colognes, a habit that I quickly adopted. 

I have worn cologne every day since, the only exception being when I hike in bear country, as those buggers think cologne smells delicious. I know some people don’t like others wearing cologne, but I am the opposite.  When someone walks by me and I get a subtle whiff of a fragrance, it leaves a positive impression.  I think, “This person took an extra step to smell nice today.”  I want to do the same.

The most expensive part of a bottle of cologne is the cap, followed by the sprayer and then the bottle. The liquid contents are relatively inexpensive. Spending $60 for a bottle of cologne is common, with many popular scents costing significantly more. 

A while back, I wanted to make my own, and indeed, it is a simple process involving perfume alcohol and scenting agents in the form of essential oils and commercial concentrates from scent houses.  

I currently have several bottles of store-bought colognes, so I do not need to make any homemade stuff. However, it’s fun to do and only costs pennies on the dollar. 

I am brand agnostic.

As a medical resident, I made little money.  Yet, I had to pay child support, and because of my daughter, I needed to rent my own apartment.  Money was very tight.  I quickly went from preferring certain brands to buying what I could afford. That included hygiene products.  For instance, I purchased whatever ADA-approved toothpaste was on sale.  That action became a habit that I continue to this very day.  Costco always sells one brand or another of toothpaste on sale.  When we need toothpaste, I buy one that is on sale. Likewise, I don’t care if I use brand-name or house-brand mouthwash.  I don’t get hung up in advertising hype.  

Well, there you have it, nine of my hygiene savings hacks. None were started to save money, but they all do. Saving a few cents here and there may sound silly, but it all adds up.  Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, became one of the wealthiest persons in the world, a few pennies at a time.

Peace

Mike