*Warning* This really does qualify as potty humor:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/poop-soap-216106.php

Now if I haven't grossed out your morning, I wanted to hear some people's ideas on some savings in the bathroom. One concept that I could never really grasp was what to do with leftover soap slivers. Sure, the most common thought is to mush them all together into back into a gigantic blob, but that has never worked for me- the big blob simply starts disintegrating back into the individual chunks when I proceed to scrub myself.

I have thrown all the chunks into a soap dish and just kept adding water to it, but this is apparantly unsightly for guests and family. Another alternative is to throw slivers into a bottle, add water, shake the heck out of it, and use this as sort of liquid soap.

Any other ideas? Or do people find the price of liquid soap is just as cost-effective as chunka chunka bar soap?

I used to scoff at the aisle in the Asian grocery store that sold the cheap-looking household/kitchen stuff (who wants a waving Lucky Cat statue?), but recently, after my electric thermos died, I found myself skulking down that very aisle, glancing with envy at the Tiger, Tatung, and assorted Japanese versions that were out of my desired price range. I also discovered that, aesthetics aside, the aisle actually contains some rather useful kitchen gadgets and tools at very reasonable prices. They may be pink or covered with Sanrio (hello kitty!) cartoons, but they do the same job and cost less than those glistening versions at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Some useful/cool finds:
-splatter guard- a big round screen with a handle that you use to cover your pan when cooking to prevent grease from spitting out and ruining your nice shirts (my poor blue blouse when I was making pork chops)
-long handle wire basket "dippers"- I don't know what they are, but we use them for hot pot, to fish yummy bits of meat and veggies from a boiling broth. The bigger sizes are useful for fishing boiled dumplings out of the cooking water.
-I don't even know WHAT to call this thing, but it has expandable "claw" that you can use to grab the edges of a plate and lift it. My family used to steam things in the rice cooker, so we'd use it to lift the plate out rather than burning our fingers (more on improvised steamers in a future entry).

Let gravity work for you to help get the most out of your shampoo and conditioner bottles. Stand those suckers upside down on their heads. That's easy if the caps are flat, but if not, many of those shower organizers not only have space for your soaps or razors, but also unintentionally have nicely spaced bars between which you can balance your bottles and create a makeshift dispensing unit. Once your bottle is finally empty, don't throw them out just yet; unscrew the cap and look inside, there's usually a pool of shampoo or conditioner hiding inside. And if you're really frugal (like I am) then once you've attacked the cap, use your conveniently bendable finger to scrape up the amount that has gotten lodged around the actual bottle neck.

And even after that to suck out all the life out of that poor shampoo bottle, add some water, shake it up (surprise, watch it foam right up again) and use that for your hand wash laundry items.