Pay-it-forward frugality: Take unwanted beauty products to a local women’s shelter for their residents

I have a medical condition, plus sensitive skin, plus wild unruly curls for hair, and it all adds up to buying a lot of hair/body/skincare products that I then end up unable to use. I shop carefully in the first place, getting the best prices I can, I return what I can, but I don’t have any friends of family locally who I can pass unused or barely used products to. It always really frustrated me to have to throw out nearly full bottles of products, and I wanted to donate them. Of course, places like Salvation Army won’t take them, but then it occurred to me- what about a local women’s shelter? I checked with mine and they said they will accept almost any personal care products (they won’t take makeup though), their residents can then have these items without having to deal with the possibly-incompatible stuff the shelter can afford to provide, or going without. The location I called said they can’t take women’s or children’s clothes at this time, but that the one a bit further away does, so that’s where I’ll be taking the fruits of my next closet clearout.

I know it’s not exactly frugal for us individually to do this sort of thing, but it at least makes me feel better than throwing them out. And if you’re someone who itemizes your taxes, you can write the entirety of the purchase price of the products off at the end of the year.