We are FREQUENT hand washers in my family and we used to go through soap so fast, until now.
(The short story)
If you are looking to save money on liquid hand soap, invest in a soap dispenser with a "foaming nozzle." (really it's just a fancy aerator...but that's another story...) Then when the dispenser is empty, refill half of it with normal liquid soap and the other half with water. And then watch your soap usage get cut in half OR MORE! (I personally have seen our usage drop by 75%!)
(The Long Story)
It is interesting how most soap pumps are made. They actually dispense way more soap than you need. You don't need that much to get a nice lather. I had adjusted my own personal dispense uses to be accurate, however when it came to my son--he was "no holds bar!" In fact, I would find soap all down the side of the sink and the counter. He used WAY too much. Not to mention, he would struggle getting a nice lather with his little hands. Then one day he broke our nice soap dispenser, so off to the store I went.
I planned to get a cheap dispenser, since I didn't want another broken one and settled on a Dial "foaming" soap dispenser. This WAS the solution! The soap use was less, he didn't have to work so hard to lather, and I didn't find soap all over my sink. It was wonderful. That is until we ran out. No way was I going to spend $1.75 on another dispenser or $4 + on refill soap! That's insane! (and of course the bottle says "only refill with Dial foaming soap".)
Well, I am a girl to break all the rules and so I did. I took my normal liquid hand soap and filled the dispenser half way up with soap and the other half with water. Put the nozzle on, shook, and VOILA!--Foaming soap. And I only used half of my normal soap! These companies are trying to get you to pay more for water! (Look at the ingredients! They are pretty smart!) But I figured them out and now you have too!
This is a great tip! I taught handwashing in the Peace Corps in villages that could not afford to buy soap. I learned that the friction of rubbing your hands together is actually more important than using soap. I still use soap of course, but now I know that it's not quite as critical as we think it is. The same goes for toothpaste and tootbrushing.
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