Squooshpaste.

I tend to be the cheapskate in the family, but when it comes to toothpaste, my wife has got me hands down. 

Seriously, about the time I am ready to throw out a used tube, she's settling in for another week out of it. 

This one's good for another month.

And this is not because she hardly uses the stuff, no no. I don't care how many times a day you brush, she has you beat. Her dental hygiene is exceptionally good. If she eats one peanut she's off to go brush. Seriously, I don't know anyone who takes better care of the pearlies than she does. She has done since childhood.

Yet somehow she manages to squeak about a week's worth of paste out of a flat tube. 

It's not like she's particular about getting the last out of everything. If she eats enough at dinner and there's nothing worth saving, right into the trash with it -- no Clean Plate Club with her. If her coffee gets cold, she throws it out and gets a fresh one; she doesn't knock it back like I do, or nuke it up. When the ketchup bottle runs low she doesn't waste her effort pounding the bottom or squishing it; she opens a new one. But the toothpaste tube is good to the last drop.

Well, after all the years I finally asked her, and found out why. She came from a bigger family than I did, and she was the baby. With the whole crew using the same tube of toothpaste, there was always a danger of running out, and her mom put the new tubes on a high shelf that she couldn't reach. So from an early age she learned there was always a little more in the tube if you put in the work. Waste not, want not!

There's always something new to discover about people if you ask the right questions, isn't there?