I'll try that, with old contact lens solution. I wear contacts but only in summer when I'm going to the beach every day. But I'm sensitive to preservatives, so I can only use sterile saline near my eyes.
Because of that allergy, there are very few cosmetics I can use. I'm OK with powder eyeshadow, kohl eyeliner and lipsticks, but if I'm having a difficult day I do not wear any eye make-up. Most of the time I wear nothing, except mainly lip gloss. I never wear foundation and do not use expensive moisturisers. Instead, I use vegetable oils. Some are perfumed. I have my own box of essential oils; old 'perfume oils' or 'aroma oils' I use a drop inside the cardboard tube of the toilet paper roll to perfume it, instead of buying room deodorisers and perfumed rolls.
When I'm cooking, I use olive oil which I buy in bulk tins. If a drop is running down the side of the bottle (which I refill from the tin - pour with the tin spout at the top, it lets the air into the tin as you pour and prevents the 'bloop bloop' accidents) then I wipe the drop of oil into my hands, face or arms. Or legs, if they're looking particularly reptilian... and all those anti-ageing creams make absolutely no difference. I can't use them anyway, because of my allergy, but even when I could - NADA. I use enough olive oil (or coconut oil, or almond oil, or sorbolene) to stop my skin from feeling drum-tight and to moisturise after I've been sunbaking, and people keep telling me I do not look as old as I am. I know people much younger than I am, who have much drier, older-looking skin.
And it is NOT the vegetable oil, it is my genes. Somewhere in there is a Mediterranean mix which not only gets me mistaken for a slightly ageing Greek goddess, but also keeps my skin looking supple despite the abuse I give it.
So another money-saver - stop buying expensive creams for your skin. Moisturise with the ordinary stuff like oil and sorbolene and you will look just as good and save a lot more money.
We DO buy flour, rice etc in bulk but we store it well. I have a large tub, it used to contain pool chlorine from a warehouse. We cleaned the tub thoroughly and use it to store our bulk flour sacks and rice sacks. It seals hermetically, no vermin can get in. I fill smaller containers every so often.
Potatoes - I keep them in the fridge. Our weather is too warm, we don't have air-conditioning (we open windows instead, or close curtains to keep out the heat) so keeping them in the fridge keeps them firmer and also stops them getting attacked by various beasties.
We store rainwater. We have a solar hot water system. We do need to turn on the electric booster most days in winter, but we have free hot water from spring to autumn.
We're now using those energy saver light bulbs, the old incandescent ones will soon disappear from the shop shelves.
And leftovers - when I buy a chook to cook, the neck is often tucked inside. I pull it out (most people forget and it is then thrown away with the carcass, after everyone has eaten their fill) and I put the neck in a small bag in the freezer. When I buy another, then another neck gets frozen. When I have six or so, I cook them into chicken stock. I've even picked the meat off the neck bones and used it to make chicken supreme, or put it into chicken soup or risotto. One extra free meal (apart from the rice, or the four, I've used, and a bit of electricity). And the kids love it, too. I've even done tihs on holidays - we had a leftover barbecued chicken carcass after the kids had picked all the meat off it (they thought) which I cooked up to make another full meal, with some rice, some carrot peel, celery tops, onion skin and some salt from the shaker. Of course I strained it all, then made risotto with it, it tasted fabulous.
Leftover mashed potato - add egg and flour, you have difficult child 3's favourite food - gnocchi! It's wonderful comfort food in winter, I've made that while on holiday, also. It takes a little practice, but it's well worth it.
This is fun!
Marg