I love foaming soap dispensers, but they cost too much to buy every month. I found a much cheaper way to have my favorite foaming hand soaps without spending an average of $1.84 for each one. For pennies you can refill your own dispensers with your favorite scented shampoo!

Start with an empty foaming soap dispenser. There are several pretty ones, but I just have the basic "Dial" brand dispenser that I bought with a coupon.

There are two choices for refilling a foaming soap dispenser:
  1. Use a liquid hand soap refill, like Dial Antibacterial soap.
  2. Use your favorite smelling cheap shampoo.
I fill the first 1/2 inch or so with the soap I want to use. This particular picture is using Dial Antibacterial soap from a large refill bottle I got on sale about 3 years ago. For bathrooms I often use a slightly less amount, about 1/4 of an inch of cheap shampoo that smells nice.

Fill up the rest of the bottle with tap water, leaving enough space for the plunger to be replaced without over flowing. Adding the water slowly will make less foam in the bottle. For most dispensers, the space needed for the plunger is about 2 inches.

Replace the plunger and gently swirl to mix the water and soap.



And, there you go! Foaming soap refilled for pennies.