With the risk of people thinking I am some kind of extremist, I’m going to continue the napkins tip with a few more reusable tips. The general idea is that things you can reuse will probably save you money. I’m going to cover some things that we’ve gotten used to using… one of which is cloth tissues! (I realize I will lose approximately 19.7% of my friends every time I post one of these blogs. Please… I have cloth AND paper tissues in my house!!!)
I love my cloth tissues. I should take a picture of them. They’re made out of a cotton knit fabric with cute polka-dot or stripe patterns. They haven’t been hemmed or anything; I just cut them with zigzag scissors. Pinking shears? I’m crafty, but not that crafty. I don’t know how to sew and don’t have room (or time?) to make a sewing corner. Would love to, but not going to go there right now. For now, I mend things poorly with a needle and thread by hand and only create things out of fabric that only need to be cut to size. 🙂
Anyway, I digress. The Dollar Tree sells (or sold) these hanging plastic bag dispensers. You stuff tissues in through the top (or plastic bags) and pull them out one by one at the bottom. I don’t fold the tissues… I just stuff them in when they come all warm and soft out of the wash. I also don’t double-use tissues. That’s kinda gross. I just use one and toss it in the laundry. We have lots of tissues.
Think they won’t get clean in the wash? I have knee-high children. I know this is how high they are, because every year about this time, my knees have the shiny, stiff sheen of toddler snot. Too much information? Sorry. But I don’t do anything fancy with my own laundry to get it clean… I don’t do anything fancy with the tissues either and they come out clean.
To the calculations. The cheapest tissues I can find are $.006 each. That’s about half a cent apiece. Cheap. But somehow, we go through boxes and boxes of them!!! A box of 160 usually costs $1. This is when these are on sale!!! You can more consistently get tissues at about $.01 each. (They get more expensive! Check out fancy puffs! Or kleenex in tiny boxes!) We have a box of kleenex in each car, by each side of the bed, in the kitchen, and we used to have one for the kids. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY TISSUES A CHILD GOES THROUGH!?!???
So, conservatively, we went through 2 boxes per month at about $1.50 a box. That’s $3.00/month. I think we were using more, but let’s see if cloth tissues are worth it even at $3/month. That’s really not much. But… it’s for KLEENEX! Who wants to spend ANYTHING on tissues???? That’s $36 a year you could have spent on groceries, Christmas presents, orphan donations or going out to dinner! Not for blowing your nose! And if you prefer softer tissues or certain brands, you are spending more.
Free tissues can be made with old t-shirts. These are not as cute. Your guests will make ugly faces if they see you using them. But over half my supply is made out of old, ugly t-shirts of Brian’s. The others were made out of pretty print knit fabric. You don’t have to use pinking shears if you don’t have any. But they do look more cute that way.
What else do you do to avoid spending money?
We have a drawer of white cotton towels that I bought at Costco. We use these as an alternative to paper towels. We wipe counters, floors, tables, hands with these cloths. We keep a laundry basket on top of the washing machine and dump the dirty towels in the basket. When it is full we wash a load of white towels and put them back in the drawer for use again. Yes, we also have a roll of paper towels that get used for the messes and spills that need a paper towel instead. LOL.
i love penny-pinching fridays! you are a kick! i appreciate the awesome ideas, and i really appreciate that i don’t have to do the math, thx to you rachel! 😉 btw, we do the kitchen rag system too. paper towels are pricey! i also try to avoid buying any kids’ clothing retail (at ALL costs, unless it’s a very low clerance price). everything gets traded for store credit at children’s secondhand clothing stores. i really like children’s orchard. i find nice brands (better quality fabric, softer textures) for next to nothing! love saving money i can put to better use elsewhere! i do look forward to fridays on your blog!
I love you two! I already have a post scheduled (for two weeks from now) about paper towels… hope it lives up to your expectations. You two are obviously already penny pinching queens! Thank you for the tips… it’s so helpful to hear other people’s processes and techniques.
Rachel, cloth tissues are certainly not extreme. Now if you want to move a little more on the edge, have you considered cloth toilet paper? Not that we have implemented it here (I still haven’t even gotten around to cloth tissues) but while you’re replacing paper products with cloth you could check out this link:
http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2010/06/reusable-toilet-paper-family-cloth.html
Hee hee. Curious what you think. 🙂
Oh Carol…. would YOU still be my friend if I told you about our family cloth? (the word for cloth toilet paper)
Of course!!! Your coolness actually goes up in my books. 🙂 Thanks for explaining the proper lingo. I’ll really have to do some more research. Or are you going to provide a helpful post… Uh, oh. gotta go. Only one bathroom in the house has led to one child pooping her pants while waiting for her brother to exit the bathroom…