Brandy's thread about buying household cleaners like vinegar and baking soda with food stamps made me think of some other things one can do with "food" bought with food stamps:

Baking soda can clean, but it can also be a good facial scrub.
Baking soda in the bath will relieve heat rash
Baking soda  relieves heart burn - a half teaspoon to a half glass of
Baking soda also makes smelly shoes fresh
Use baking soda to brush your teeth
Olive oil is as useful as any bath oil.
Olive oil, mixed with sugar, is a good skin scrub
For a deep treatment for damaged or dry hair, rub olive oil into it, then put a towel around your head for a half hour, then shampoo
Cornstarch is a good baby powder or personal powder
Vinegar... oh, my let me count the ways:

• Laundry rinse
• Hair rinse
• Air freshener
• Window and glass cleaner
• Antiseptic
• Denture soak

I know there are other things you can do with "groceries!"
 

 I didn't realise that baking soda mixed that way helps heart burn. I do mix up my own toothpaste from it though. There is a reason I have spent less than $30 on groceries and supplies so far this month, heh.

A poster in another thread used flavored extracts from the spice section as essential oils.

I make simmering potpourri with apple cores, cinnamon and cloves in the cooler weather months. When someone finishes an apple, the leftovers go in a container in the fridge and I simmer it with the spices on the stove.

I use a lot of vinegar and baking soda for cleaning, but several of us do that.
 

LOL!  I never have apple cores in my house.  When I eat an apple, I eat seeds, core, & all -- the only left-over is teh stem!

You, Pat, have given a wonderful list of household substittues.  But I just need to say that generic olive oil costs so much more than baby oil.  A liter of oilve oil will set you back at least $6.50 here, while you can get 20 oz of baby oil for less than $1 generic.

It is fun to be resourceful iwth natural products, but I frankly believe that frugality & natural living do not always go hand in hand.

 They may not go hand in hand but I rather pay for the natural then have it come back and bite me elsewhere later on. (Going with the phrase: Garbage in Garbage Out).

To each her own, Deb, but olive oil has properties that baby (mineral) oil doesn't have. Olive oil is very close to natural skin oils, it's vegetable rather than petroleum based and it's safe around and in your mouth, nose and ears. It takes about a half teaspoon to moisturize your face and not a lot more than that for a whole bath, so a small bottle of olive oil will last a very long time. I consider that frugal as well as healthy.

Pat:

Vinegar... oh, my let me count the ways:

• Laundry rinse
• Hair rinse
• Air freshener
• Window and glass cleaner
• Antiseptic
• Denture soak

I use in the final rinse for my dish washer too. I also use it to clean out the humidifier, counter tops, grandson's high chair tray and it sanitizes it too. I use it to get rid of hard water deposits on water fixtures in the house.

I use baking soda to bake, clean the sink, teeth if needed, loosening burnt on food in the pan, etc...

I am sure I will think of more.

gardengirl:

I make simmering potpourri with apple cores, cinnamon and cloves in the cooler weather months. When someone finishes an apple, the leftovers go in a container in the fridge and I simmer it with the spices on the stove.

Cinnamon, cloves and orange peels work too. Just a wonderful smell in the house.

Ah, Pat, I didn't know all that, but I DO know that I can't afford to buy extra olive oil for cosmetic use.