I just looked at my other plane (two planes, but only one hangar here) - it's covered in snow! So I decided to just leave it, and come and read PPRuNe.
I've just got done the recurrent exam on icing and the Cessna Caravan (a type found to be rather sensative to airframe ice). The proper de-ice fluid in a spray can is the way to go. You cannot convince me that sloshing the plane with plain water is a good idea. It is one thing if you fly through soaking condtions, then it freezes - that's a design failing. But, the plane was not designed to resist being sloshed by a pilot on the ground, who was unwilling to use the correct technique to deice a plane. You might get away with it for a while, but the time important things start freezing at altitude, and you have trouble controling the aircraft, the cost saving won't seem worth it any more.
Hands up, all those pilots who have suddenly found that the aircraft they are flying has had a control system completley jam, or found the stall speed is now 15 kts higher than you though it was.
Your effort as a pilot to keep the plane as close as possible to the configuration it was manufactured in, will afford you the least stressful flight. Looking at the plane safely tied down, waiting for another day, is also very low stress....