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Frugal Tip: Dispose of the Disposables part 1
Babies, Frugality 3 Comments »
One way I am chipping away at the waste in our budget is trying to ban paper towels. No, not altogether...I think it's worth the money to clean up something particularly greasy or nasty. But for normal spills and messes, paper towels are a waste. I have tried to scrounge up some rags from our towels, but unfortunately we have so few that our "holey" towels are actually still in use, lol!
We're going through way too many of those paper towels. Now I admit to sometimes using them as plate substitutes for PB & J sandwiches, but when my husband uses three of them in one night to dry his hands after doing the dishes, when there is a perfectly clean, dry hand towel...something's got to give!
Then I heard rumors on other blogs about these microfiber towels available at Sam's Club. Found in the automotive section, they are sky blue in color, and come in packs of 25 for about $11.25. They are almost as big as normal kitchen towels, but square. Kind of an odd shape, and a little unwieldy for anything other than drying dishes. So I cut them into quarters. Brilliant!! They don't even need to be hemmed, just cut and use. They are just the right size for wiping faces (I admit to using baby wipes for this normally, yikes), wiping tables, counters, floors, chairs, etc. They catch crumbs great, and hold a TON of water. I originally heard about these on blogs and websites about cloth diapers, because uncut and folded into thirds, they're supposed to make great diaper doublers or inserts for cloth pocket diapers--and they do.
If you cut all the towels up, that makes 100 cloths, plenty for my family. A really large family may want two packs. If you think of the savings, it could really add up. It's almost $17 for a large pack of paper towels at Sam's. If you use Bounty. I don't know how long that lasts us. I think a month, maybe more. So the microfiber cloths more than pay for themselves in a month. And the cloths are so small that if you're using just a few a day, it won't add to your laundry at all. If your family would normally use one large pack of paper towels a month, this will save you around $193 a year, and a lot more if you use more paper towels than that,or if you buy them a roll or two at a time.
There are many other uses too, such as "cloth diapers" for dolls. ;-)
So I've asked my husband nicely if he might think of using the hand towels to dry his hands, and the cloths to wipe up spills, etc., so we can try to conserve money. Hopefully he'll remember. :-) If not, at least I'll save money using them myself!
We're going through way too many of those paper towels. Now I admit to sometimes using them as plate substitutes for PB & J sandwiches, but when my husband uses three of them in one night to dry his hands after doing the dishes, when there is a perfectly clean, dry hand towel...something's got to give!
Then I heard rumors on other blogs about these microfiber towels available at Sam's Club. Found in the automotive section, they are sky blue in color, and come in packs of 25 for about $11.25. They are almost as big as normal kitchen towels, but square. Kind of an odd shape, and a little unwieldy for anything other than drying dishes. So I cut them into quarters. Brilliant!! They don't even need to be hemmed, just cut and use. They are just the right size for wiping faces (I admit to using baby wipes for this normally, yikes), wiping tables, counters, floors, chairs, etc. They catch crumbs great, and hold a TON of water. I originally heard about these on blogs and websites about cloth diapers, because uncut and folded into thirds, they're supposed to make great diaper doublers or inserts for cloth pocket diapers--and they do.
If you cut all the towels up, that makes 100 cloths, plenty for my family. A really large family may want two packs. If you think of the savings, it could really add up. It's almost $17 for a large pack of paper towels at Sam's. If you use Bounty. I don't know how long that lasts us. I think a month, maybe more. So the microfiber cloths more than pay for themselves in a month. And the cloths are so small that if you're using just a few a day, it won't add to your laundry at all. If your family would normally use one large pack of paper towels a month, this will save you around $193 a year, and a lot more if you use more paper towels than that,or if you buy them a roll or two at a time.
There are many other uses too, such as "cloth diapers" for dolls. ;-)
So I've asked my husband nicely if he might think of using the hand towels to dry his hands, and the cloths to wipe up spills, etc., so we can try to conserve money. Hopefully he'll remember. :-) If not, at least I'll save money using them myself!
I really try to limit the amount of disposables in our home. It can really add up when you are buying paper everything every month! My husband stills laughs about when we were first married and he got a paper towel to dry his hands. I acted like it was the most horrible thing! And he just wasn't used to stretching things like I was. I still use paper towels, just not for drying hands or wiping tables, etc. He uses the hand towel now, and is glad for the savings.:-)
lol It sounds like I could have written that post. Baby wipes for cleaning faces and all. lol I am going to look into those cloths you mentioned. I belong to BJ's. I hope they have them there. I cut back to buying napkins only when we have company coming over. lol I have been trying to cut costs on things as well, by baking bread, etc. Great idea, thanks.
I'll bet they do have them at BJ's and Costco. If not, try online. They're so great for wiping little faces.