Thu 7 Oct 2010
Thrifty Thursday
Posted by Stacy under Uncategorized
[3] Comments
Living the thrifty lifestyle isn’t always about the huge money saving things (like no cable/satellite TV)Â Its about all the little things, that add up. Those mindless conveniences that we just purchase without even thinking about.
One of the “conveniences” We have eliminated in our home is paper towels. Went about the first 2 years of our marriage just purchasing paper towels as part of my normal shopping, mindlessly putting them in my cart. I would cost compare between brands and get the ones that are less expensive but that was about as far as it went. Then I really took a look at it.
The CHEAP (as in thinner, poorer quality etc) paper towels were $1.00 a roll. I have a dog, a (wonderful and amazing) husband and an Alex. We make messes. There is not a day that goes by that we aren’t mopping things up. Or wiping children down. We used a LOT of paper towels, which does add up. Â So we eliminated them.
I went to my local GW boutique and got 10lb of rags for $5. I use them to clean my bathroom, clean my floors, mop up spills (they are more absorbant anyway) and wipe down children =).
Is it any less convenient? Nope. Here is my process:
I have 2 drawers of rags. One in my laundry room and one in my kitchen. At each end of the apartment. That way they are always conveniently located.
When I use a rag I hang it to dry (to prevent mildew until I wash) in laundry room then toss into a 5 gal bucket I got at my local bakery (it was free and had a lid. Just wash weekly.
$5 and I have all the spill clean up I will probably ever need.
Just saw this in my blog feed and thought you might be interested. http://lifehacker.com/5663049/make-your-own-reusable-dust+trapping-cloth
I think I’m going to have to try all this out. I’m really tired of buying paper towels.
That is a great idea! Something my family did was to eliminate tissues. I know it sounds odd, but it works really great! We bought a whole stack of handkerchiefs (like the bandanna kind) and I cut them into 4ths and hemmed the edges. We have a cute cloth bag in our kitchen where the clean ones are kept and a basket right next to the bag for the used ones. When the basket gets full or just during a regular weekly wash of dark colored clothing, I toss the used hankies in. They dry quickly on the clothesline and are ready to reload the bag for the next round. If you don’t want to take the time to hem them, just buy the vintage hankies at thrift stores. This is really a great way to save money and also to eliminate the problem of a tissue going through the laundry and ending up all over your load of clothes.
Nicole: I checked that out. That sounds awesome, definitely going to have to start doing that.
Lisa: We use some of our rags for kleenex as well. I haven’t bought kleenex in months, but as we are getting toward winter it would be about that time. I like the hankie idea a lot though! I just might do that!