Water, water, water.

You can water anything down, even lotions and cream. Basically, they're emulsified versions of oil and water. When your hand lotion bottle is "empty," add just a little water and shake vigorously. You'll have enough lotion for a few more application. You can mix water into creams, too, to get more from them.

Make your own bowl covers

Make your own bowl covers from old vinyl table cloths or shower curtains. To be extremely frugal, use elastic cut from old clothes. Cut a circle, using a dinner plate for a pattern, and cut a piece of elastic an inch or two shorter than the circumference of the bowls you'll be using (a little more or less won't matter much). Sew the elastic around the edge of the plastic circle, gathering as you go. Make larger and smaller covers while you're at it.

Save on dish detergent

It happens to everyone who cooks: You need just that bowl or pan to make something in and it's dirty! Instead of using a squirt of dish soap to wash just one or two things, keep a squirt bottle or soap dispenser on your counter filled with half dish detergent and half water. It just takes a tiny bit to wash one item and using it straight from the detergent bottle almost guarantees overuse.

Coffee grounds

Ok, so who wants a bucket of used coffee grounds? Well, you might if you garden, because coffee grounds make excellent compost, especially if your ground is mildly (or atrociously) alkaline. Coffee grounds are good for worm beds, too. It stands to reason that the worms in your garden will like them just as much as the worms in a controlled worm bed. They'll put them to good use, making good dirt for your garden.

Napkins

Cloth napkins beat the price of paper ones that you have to buy over and over again. Don't buy cloth ones, though... make them yourself. And if you want to save another half penny, hem them by hand instead of using the electric sewing machine. If you really want to save, use thread taken from the hem of the old shirt, dress, sheet or tablecloth that you're making napkins out of!

Free pot and dish scrubber

Take a nylon or plastic net produce bag and roll it back on itself until it's formed a ball of sorts. Tuck the ends under and secure if necessary. Alternatively, twist a bag into a small ball and insert into another net bag, then twist this bag closed and turn the ends back over the ball. That makes a free dish scrubber. Make one for the car windows or other outdoors scrubbing chores, too.

Cheap window cleaning

Don't use cleaners, just water. Unless your windows have bird stuff or grease on them, plain water will do the job just as well as "cleaners." And if you just have to use a cleaner, for heaven's sake don't buy it. Use a little vinegar or a drop of dish detergent in water. Why pay for something you don't need?

Milk substitute

Use water in which you've boiled potatoes (peeled) instead of milk when you make bread or gravy. Potato water gravy doesn't look exactly the same as milk gravy, but it's close and it tastes good. For yeast breads and most quick breads, you won't know the difference.

Sweetened condensed milk

Don't pay that awful price for sweetened condensed milk! Make your own this way: Mix one cup of powdered milk (dry) with 2/3 cup of sugar, then add 1/3 cup of boiling water and 3 TBS of margarine or butter. Mix it until it's smooth. (This makes the equivalent of one can.)

Saving soap

Every time you put a bar of wet soap on a dish that drains away the water, you drain away soap, too. Put it in a dish with a solid bottom and when the bar is finished, use the "sludge" in the bottom of the soap dish. It's soap and you paid for it.