The Great Shampoo Embargo of 2009

When life feels out of control, it's best to grab onto some small thing over which you feel you have some control. At least, that's my approach. Hence, The Great Shampoo Embargo of 2009.

With money tight and getting tighter, and my "old" life, with its easy, breezy approach to budgeting, looking ever more distant in the rearview mirror, I found something to focus on that has given me that sense of control: No buying new shampoo until all the old dibs and dabs of shampoo were used up. Every half-empty bottle in the shower, every little travel-sized bottle hiding out in the linen closet, every little freebie sample that arrived in the mail or with the Sunday paper. (Love free stuff with the paper!)

Well, here it is, June, almost halfway through the year, and I still haven't bought any new shampoo. It helped that we started the year with a nearly full jumbo, super-econo-sized Costco bottle. And that my husband, Ron, was out of town for a good chunk of time.

My husband just shakes his head at my insistence on using up what we already have. He argues that a new bottle would have cost just a few bucks, and that whatever we're saving doesn't change our overall financial picture.

I understand where he's coming from. Saving ten bucks on shampoo doesn't change our mortgage payment (and, living in San Francisco, it's one scary-ass mortgage payment), true. But, if I couple my shampoo embargo (which has the added benefit of getting stuff out of the house) with some other cost-saving measures (more on those to come), then everything starts to add up.

You can't save a hundred dollars without first saving one dollar, right?