How not to lose your mouthwash to the TSA
Posted
Mar 26 2008, 12:43 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
My grandmother is now under hospice care. Because I'd rather go for a visit than a viewing, I traveled to New Jersey last week to see her.
As I went through security, I watched a couple of bottles of moisturizer being confiscated. Their owners had run afoul of the Transportation Security Administration's "3-1-1" rule for carry-on luggage: liquids and gels in 3-ounce containers, stored in one quart-sized zip-top bag, one bag per passenger.
What "3-ounce" means is that each container can hold no more than 3 ounces. For example, if someone were carrying an 8-ounce bottle of hairstyling lotion that was only one-third full, it would still be taken away. Ask me how I know this.
Paying more for less
I made that mistake a year ago, and learned from it. Now all my toiletries are in Lilliputian containers.
Major retailers have learned something, too: You can make big bucks off small products. What used to be called "trial size" toiletries are now marketed as "travel size" or "sized right for flight" in drug and department stores. They seem inexpensive until you do the math and realize you're paying $1.32 an ounce for toothpaste.
Do an online search for "travel sized toiletries" and you'll find items like the "Grab and Go Toiletry Kit," which contains seven items of 3 ounces or less, "ideal for busy travelers."
Those travelers had better be successful, too, because the cost of those toiletries works out to at least 80 cents per ounce. By comparison, a quick scan of the Sunday newspaper ads turned up prices like shampoo for 19 to 52 cents per ounce and toothpaste for 16.5 cents per ounce. (You could even get free toothpaste if you were willing to do a single-check rebate deal at Walgreens.)
Staying clean and exfoliated can get much costlier. An article in Forbes touts a "BeautyBox" of six 3-ounce fancy toiletries for $29.50 (about $1.64 per ounce) as well as the "Men's Grooming Travel Set" of seven products, including a brushless shaving cream and a "pre-shave oil," for $80.50 (about $3.83 per ounce).
Business types apparently are unwilling to rough it with a bar-soap shave or a hotel-provided shampoo. That would probably be considered adventure travel.
Putting toothpaste back into the tube
You can also buy tiny containers and fill them with your goops of choice. The "Pack-It Liquid/Gels Set," four bottles and ID labels in a polyurethane zippered pouch, costs $15 plus shipping. Those are empty bottles, mind you. The bag looks sturdy, but if the zipper breaks you’ll be back to using a Hefty OneZip.
There's also the "Nalgene Travel Set," for $9 plus shipping: six containers in a resealable bag. Anyone who's owned a Nalgene water bottle knows this is pretty sturdy material.
But why buy at all? Doesn't anyone keep those little bottles after using up the hotel shampoo? And if not, then why not hit the discount drugstore once for travel-size stuff and then refill as needed?
You can even refill travel-size toothpaste tubes, according to personal-finance blog Five Cent Nickel. Beats paying $1.32 an ounce for the stuff.
What price convenience?
It's your right to pay $3.83 an ounce for pre-shave oil, if that's the sort of thing that makes you happy. Personally, I have no trouble refilling bottles.
Another thing: Be sure to put your toiletries in a quart-size zip-top bag, not a gallon-size one. For a while the TSA provided free bags to travelers who messed up. These days we're expected to be responsible.
Think of it as just one more way to reuse plastic bags. Whether you wash them is up to you.
