I love paper products. I do! I love them. I love using them. I love stocking up on them. But I've decided we are going to try giving up paper towels and Kleenex. I was just kidding about the toilet paper. I'm not even going to go there! :)
We spend A LOT of money on disposable paper products. A lot. I am in budgeting mode at the moment. We aren't broke, but we have been very lax with our budget lately and hubby is not working as much due to the weather. So I have been thinking about how we are spending our money. We were more diligent about our budget while we were getting out of debt and saving for an emergency fund. Once those things were done, it was really easy to slack off and just float along and live. We really need to follow a budget all the time, not just when things get snug.
Paper towels...well, the one thing I was thinking I would really miss these for would be to clean up cat poo or puke. Yuck. I had contemplated keeping a roll on hand for that purpose, but I have decided that I can have old rags for this purpose that can just be tossed or burned, or toilet paper will work just fine for the cleanup. I bought a yard of gorgeous kitcheny thicker cotton fabric a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I made it into 4 tea towels. I want to make some more, but will probably go through my fabric stash before I buy anymore fabric. There will be a nice stash of those as well as my dish towels in the kitchen. But even going through a lot of kitchen towels a week isn't going to affect my laundry enough to matter. Toilet paper will also be the replacement for Kleenex. Toilet paper is so much cheaper! Savings....I'd estimate between $15 - $30 a month. Since I haven't been paying much attention to the budget, I'm not sure what we have been spending. All I know is we are out of paper towels and Kleenex every time I turn around and adding them to the shopping list!
Another budget friendly change is that when school starts back next week, my kids are packing their lunches. We can save at least $40 a month doing that. Hubby already takes his lunch to work.
I am also going to shop the store ads on Wednesdays and do my grocery shopping first thing Thursday mornings. I always make a weekly menu, yet it is always what sounds good instead of what is on sale. I have set a dollar amount and I am planning on using the envelope system with cash instead of the bank/debit card. While I love the card's convenience dearly, I think using actual cash will help me to stay on budget! I also plan to give some extra though to our menu and make cheaper changes when I can...like using dried beans instead of canned. I think the savings in this category will probably be substantial. By setting a budget and shopping the ads...I am guessing we will probably save an additional $25 - $50 per week.
Hubby and I also talked about cutting out little things. For example, last night he ran to the store with out youngest to get night night pants for her. In all of the holiday happenings, she ran out. But they also came back with Skittles and Sprite for her! Didn't need those! He has a much harder time saying no to her than I do. And it would be nice to get her out of the night night pants too!
So, these are phase one of spiffing up our budget! This all goes along with my last post about focusing. Our budget and money definitely need our attention. If we don't tell it where to go, we'll wonder where it went! :) Yes, we got out of debt. Yes, we have an emergency fund. But I'd really like to have an emergency fund for our emergency fund! Is that silly? The thought of using it really freaks me out. Really, it is odd...I look back to the days when we were in debt and had ZERO saved and the thought of an "emergency" (or an emergency fund) wasn't even on my radar. Maybe I am getting old! :)
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Not Old Just smarter!! My MIL volunteers for a Crisis centers and gets me bags of T-shirts I use for rags! Works really well for just about anything You would use Paper towels or Kleenex for. I do well with the Debt card and all of our change goes into a savings account. It has saved us a few times.. But Now that Kyle will be going back to work we are going to get caught up and Get the E-fund started!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was looking at different things for cutting back I read something to Kyle about replacing toillet paper with rags and putting them in a bucket... Kyle was Like NO NO NO... I will not do it!Lol I didnt tell him but neither would I... haha
We gave up paper towels awhile ago. I bought two packs of microfiber towels from the auto section at Walmart. We also have several tea towels and some bar type towels. I plan all meals and snacks and only go to the store every two weeks. You can do it :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize you guys were out of debt - congratulations! I can't wait to be in your shoes. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a stickler on paper towel usage. I do let myself keep them in the house but they are only for two purposes: a)pet messes and b)when I need to wipe something very clean without the worry of the stray hair that usually shows up on my kitchen cloths. I would estimate that we only use a roll every 2 or 3 months so I'm okay with that. It wasn't hard to adjust once I made a conscious effort.
It is so nice to hear about your cracking down on the budget. January will be our third month on a complete budget. They say it takes 3 months to get it right so I'm hoping we can nail it.
Congratulations on being out of debt, that's wonderful! I have not given up paper products completely, but we do use them sparingly. I buy recycled products only and it takes month for one roll to be used up. We still use Kleenex, but those are from my family in Germany. They use the little packs as stuffing in boxes they mail. We also use cloth napkins and I clean with rags and old washcloths. I found making my own cleaning products and laundry soap cut a big chunk out of our monthly grocery bill.
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ReplyDeletehttp://living.wallypop.net/wipes.html
Your ideas are great. I think we are all a little spoiled. There's always ways to be more careful about how we spend money. Seems I'm always buying more than I need. Part of it is that I live so far out of town that I dread having to run back in - burns gas - so I tend to try to think of everything I might possible need. Inevitably I get more than enough.
~Faith
We aren't getting old...just wiser with the years. You are right on about money...if you pay it no attention you never know where it goes, and it goes all to quickly. Great post to motivate me to take a look at my budget, thanks! Kim
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