15 Unusual Uses for Cheap Vodka

Step 16: Infuse it

If the filtered vodka doesn't do it for you, remember, vodka makes great infusions!  Just add fruits, herbs, bacon or skittles to round out your liquor cabinet with specialty home-brewed custom liqueurs.

Comments

[louis.m]

No more weird mysterious chemicals, with flamboyant names, I am making my own cosmetic products for years now. !

I use vodka with ordinary kitchen herbs and/or spices added as an aftershave.

One of my most successful recipes is with a combination of parsley nutmeg cloves and lemon. I add a bit of alum to take care of little shaving cuts and just a pinch borax to prevent spoilage (both of which I purchased at a local pharmacy, and dissolved in some hot water).

I even use vodka with nettle tops (Urtica dioica), as a lotion for my scalp and hair.
Boil young tops (Urtica dioica), picked just before flowering (use gloves or just plastic shopping bags over the hands when picking), with a little water, then pour through a cloth, add borax (see above) and vodka to the liquid, ready.

Very refreshing!

[Pilgrimm]

Ordinary Isopropyl alcohol purchased at the drug store for 78 cents per pint (16 oz) consists of alcohol at 70% by volume, or 140 proof. Your cheap vodka probably costs $3.00 per pint, and proofs out at 80 proof, or 40% by volume. So buy a bottle at the drugstore (isopropyl alcohol), add an additional 16 oz of water, and use that for anything in your 'ible' that is NOT for human consumption. Your end cost will be about 78 cents for a whole quart! Seems like you went to a whole lot of trouble..... Only difference is that you can't drink isopropyl alcohol, but you can use it for everything else!

[clevernonsense]

Denatured alcohol is even cheaper, 90+%, and much more guaranteed not to leave residues. The iso 70 often leave a film. Iso90 is relatively pricy.

The other point being: It's pretty easy to pick up a handle of vodka for $6 or so in many states, which comes out to 42 cents a pint.

[smckendry-smith]

I've been using cheap vodka to disinfect reusable water bottles for some time now. Swish and rinse. Effective, cheap, and (relatively) non-toxic.

[lucek]

Keep in mind you are probably not disinfecting them. Alcohol doesn't really work well as a disinfectant below 70% or 140 proof. If you are buying the 40%, 80 proof vodka then you're just wasting money.

[wastubbs]

Which is why I keep some 'shine around for my Nalgenes. You can drink it, after, or use it to light your charcoal grill!

[molchmensch]

There is also a thing called "Wodka-Filter" for biological filtration of aquaria. You need a second pot-filter for this. In this second filter you have to get an anaerobeous environment and then you add some wodka, as food for the anaerobic bacteria. This is how you can remove ammonia from aqiariumwater and run the tank much longer without waterchange!

[79spitfire]

This is a great use, I've made homemade liqueurs for the holidays out of cranberries and crab apples. Simply awesome!

[tfarner]

Anyone that would waste perfectly good vodka 15 different ways needs their head examined.

[79spitfire]

Use the cheap stuff..

oh and no worries, they'll make more!

[lug big lug]

"like"

[marymac]

All of these ideas for cheap vodka is yet another reason to the store to buy vodka...one for the house....and another bottle for the purchaser. Might as well! The ideas might come much freer if there is a sip before coming up with each idea. LOL.....don't take me too seriously, please. Honestly, infusions are a GREAT idea. Do one with garlic as an antibacterial and something to fight virus. Use it as a medicine carefully. That might be a good birth control since the user might smell so bad from the garlic that no one would come close.

[DreamTheEndless]

Perhaps the birth-control benefits might be overridden by the other effects of the vodka... I would argue that two people consuming garlic-vodka might be more likely to achieve conception if they consume more than a few ounces...

[marymac]

*laughs* So true as long as that consumption doesn't go too far and cause the opposite reaction.

[jongscx]

Yeah, I was gonna say that after a few shots of garlic vodka, you probably wouldn't care what the other person smelled like...

[paulijames]

...or even looked like for that matter. :)

[maltesergr8]

Love the birth control comment!! Too funny ;D

[Eternal_Tristan]

Great ideas. I love them all, especially the dry cleaning one. One thing to let people know is that you can save a lot of money if you use denatured alcohol or rubbing alcohol (from the drug store) in cases where you aren't ingesting it, like in the case of putting it in your shoes etc. Alcohol that we drink like vodka has taxes and various other overhead costs due to regulation. Denatured alcohol has a small quantity of poison added to it to keep you from drinking it, thus avoiding taxes and regulatory expenses.

[novaprime]

Yes, it would seem that you could use Isopropyl Alcohol for most of the cleaning and other non ingestion based uses. We use alot of Isopropyl Alcohol and vinegar around the house for cleaning.

[cpetrucci1]

Overproof rum is also a great alternative and will get you super messed up too! (16 uses)