Dish Pan Hands

I haven't been using my dishwasher. It runs on electricity and uses hot water, so it's something of a double dipper in the expense department. Plus, dishwasher detergent costs more than dish soap.  Yes, I will pinch a penny till it screams and cries "uncle".  But washing dishes by hand, if your water is hot enough to do the job right, leaves your hands dried out and rough after a while.  I don't mind having working hands, but I don't like it when they're cracked and/or painful.

So here are a few cheap suggestions that you may or may not have thought of in addition to lotion:  cooking oil, and shortening. 

I buy cooking oil in jugs. When I pour some, a trickle always seems to run down the sides of the jug.  Instead of leaving it there to collect dust, or swiping it off with a rag or towel, wipe it off with your finger and rub it into your hands. It's such a small amount, it won't leave any more of an oily feel than lotion, and it would've just gone to waste anyway.

Shortening is some clingy stuff. There's always extra on a spoon or spatula.  You can do the same with the shortening.  Please do this *before* the shortening has been incorporated into whatever you're cooking. You don't want food bits smeared all over your skin.

For really intense moisturizing, put some cotton gloves  (like gardening gloves), or socks, or similar on your hands afterwards.

When I was younger, I had eczema on my legs. All eczema is is very dry skin. The doctor prescribed this thick cream that looked, felt, and smelled like vegetable shortening.  It cost $100 for a jar about the size of a small can of shortening.  When I ran out, I decided if it looked like a duck, swam like a duck, and quacked like a duck, it just might be a duck. So I bought a tub of shortening to try instead of coughing up another $100 for the prescription.  Wouldn't you know, the eczema continued to improve at a faster pace than it did with the expensive prescription?  If the smell of Crisco turns you off, save the extra stuff you wipe off in a dish, and mix a little perfume or essential oil into it, and make it smell like designer body cream.  No one else will know the difference, unless you tell them.