To ask why the hell teens use absolutely MASSIVE portions of everything?!

[Lex345]

Mainly light hearted but they are driving me mad!!

HUGE bottle of shampoo-gone in 4 days
Toothpaste, must be be hoarding a great white shark under the bath the amount we are going through
Seasoning-Salt Bae the crap out of it all over the kitchen. Do not even want to think about what happens to ketchup.

It cannot just be mine that are doing this! And to add insult to injury they put the EMPTY bloody containers BACK!!!

Put portion markers in black indelible ink down the sides of the bottle. It might be genuine cluelessnesses about how much to squeeze out.

You could switch to things that are harder to use vast quantities of: bar soap instead of shower gel; solid shampoo and conditioner; toothpaste tablets etc. Anyone who wants 'posher' things can buy them themselves.

Or bulk buy: Costco, Amazon etc.

But yeah, teens do have a tendency to think more is more and if they use half a litre of shower gel then they'll be cleaner than if they use a handful of (the same logic as using six tablespoons of mayo but leaving most of it on the plate, I suppose).
How they'll change when they have to pay the bills 😂

Watch them unwrap bottles of shampoo and toothpaste on Christmas Day xx

🤣🤣

I would do what PPs have suggested, tell them how often you'll buy shampoo, stick to it, and keep yours somewhere else.

I have an answer to the shampoo/shower gel/conditioner one!
Buy bottles from amazon etc eg 3 black pump dispensers, labels come with them, and decant into those. Have to pump quite firmly to get product out (so 10 pumps ish is about the right amount to use)
I've found stuff lasts way longer doing this
Originally bought the bottles for bathroom aesthetics and this was a side effect :)

I invested in pump dispensers for shower gel, shampoo, conditioner.

Definitely reduced the amount they use. Just a shame I can’t do the same with crisps, juice and snacks 😎

That wouldn’t last me a week…

I mean the ketchup would, but not the soap or toothpaste

I remember my Dad going on about us doing this. It’s amazing how quickly we stopped when he started charging us for it!

30p for a lightbulb left on etc.

I used to think he’s so tight but now I’m an adult I understand!

Don’t replace it. At least not quickly and swap to dirt cheap alternatives.
I grew up poor and this was exactly why I learnt to conserve and appreciate nice things, because they simply were not plentiful.

It baffles me now I’m middle class (married well- please don’t come for me) all these middle class parents I’m surrounded by constantly complaining like ‘Horatio just doesn’t appreciate anything and Margot wastes and breaks everything’ and I’m just biting my tongue thinking ‘well of course they do the moment they run out/break it/want it they get it what is their motivation seriously?’

I’ve e heard that turning light bulbs on and off makes them die faster than leaving them on?

I'm 53.

I remember my DM losing the plot when I was about 14 because our family of four was going through a pound of cheese a week.

That may have mostly been me...!

Because they don't pay for it. If it was their money they would use a minimal amount

Back in the day I used to hurl half a bottle of dewberry musk on my fruits of the loom sweatshirt each morning and go through 8 cans of hairspray a month (I was probably flammable 😆 ).

Not much changes down the generations lol.

@Lex345 why not get one of these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Szmst-Dispenser-Conditioner-Container-Restaurant/dp/B0D4DBW34F/ref=sxin_15_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.93da3305-d14f-4d5f-87fb-8c7df804f766%3Aamzn1.sym.93da3305-d14f-4d5f-87fb-8c7df804f766&cv_ct_cx=shower%2Bdispenser%2Bwall%2Bmounted&keywords=shower%2Bdispenser%2Bwall%2Bmounted&pd_rd_i=B0D4DBW34F&pd_rd_r=5035de10-76c3-483a-acb8-2e3c90f4fd37&pd_rd_w=hTF8k&pd_rd_wg=iSzEe&pf_rd_p=93da3305-d14f-4d5f-87fb-8c7df804f766&pf_rd_r=415FGJ9522PCSPSDHXJK&qid=1733515371&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-1-ad3222ed-9545-4dc8-8dd8-6b2cb5278509-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

This is my issue. Tell me when things have ran out. I don't automatically know, I don't particularly care that we are out if you tell me so I can buy more of it before it's needed.

When DS was a teenager he was getting through gallons of shampoo so I bought an enormous pump bottle. After only a few days he told me that he was running low. I asked him what the hell he was doing with it, a bottle that big should last weeks. He looked at me like I was in idiot and said “Well I don’t just have hair on my head, you know!” Turned out he thought that you were supposed to wash all your body hair with shampoo too, which was pretty much his entire body by the age of 15!

Lynx Asphyxia

Give them each a “hygiene allowance”. All shower gel, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner etc comes out of it. When they’ve run out of money and product they are just going to have to ming.

Should teach them the value of these things and how to make them last.

😭😭😭

Give them their own bottle of shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant etc etc and once they’re out they’re out. It might teach them not to be wasteful.

With pump bottles if you put an elastic band slightly below the pump tap it reduces the amount you can press it down and therefore the amount that comes out.
With loo roll if you squash the roll slightly it doesn't spin as easily on the spindle and they are therefore likely to use less.

But to be honest, I'd just be glad they were clean and not the shower dodger type of teen.

Give everyone their own bottle of shampoo, toothpaste, shower gel etc and if they use it all up before a given timescale then they either top it up out of their own pockets or go without.

SmalllChange · Today 18:54

Because we allow it I guess.
My parents had 5 kids and very little money, so we couldn't have got away with it.
We had to be mindful of everyone else in the house getting their share.

Not sure I agree. Early 60s child, older brother just 18 months ahead of me. Mum single parent by the time we were 10 and 11. My brother still drank the week’s milk and left us without, time after time. Ditto cheese, bread, whatever. Mum didn’t “allow it”. She was out of the house 14 hours most days working, couldn’t stop him.

Ds thought you were meant to just squirt the shampoo on your head.

He is 15. Has long, long hair but doesn't know/ care how to look after it. He's recently discovered the magic of my hairdryer. If he ran out, he wouldn't care. Probably use hand-wash.