Don't forget to set aside $1/roll for toilet paper, Ed - unless you use a Sears catalog.

Oh, I've been using that 'go before you go home' method for many years now.

TP? It's a lot cheaper if you buy it in bulk at the janitor supply store--I pay .55 per roll for 1000 rolls (you have to buy 96 at a time), and they're the WIDER ones, not the narrow ones you get in the supermarket today. A side benefit? You only have to bring a carton home once a year, not lug TP home from the grocery store every couple of weeks. And less chance of running out.

Living alone, I guess that I don't "shoot the shi!" much ...

... 'cause i only need to buy a regular-sized pack ...

... once (or twice) a year!

For folks who have a sewage charge that's directly related to their water usage, and feel unfairly treated, because they water the lawn quite a lot, which results in no use of the sewers for that water (or only so in a miniscule fashion, if some runs down the street ... and gets as far as a grate prior to evaporation) ...

... there may be a possible remedy.

How would you like to take equally good care of your lawn ... but without getting charged for that sewerage that you don't use?

How about getting a rain barrel and letting the downspout from the roof of your house fill it?

After a year or so ... surely the reduced water cost should have paid for at least part of the cost of the barrel.

And surely, with the level of ingenuity/(frugality?) which you possess ... you should be able to finagle one from somewhere - for free? Ask around, among your friends - that's what friends are for, ain't it? (Well, part of the reason).

ole joyfuelled

buy Angel Soft TP
then unroll the paper one roll at a time equip yourself with three empty TP rolls
After you unwind the paper into two piles (about half a roll) then wind up on two of the rolls then finish by unrolling the rest of the paper roll half on he lat empty roll use the roll that is left to do the final wind. this will give you four rolls of tp strong enough to use and light enough to not plug up the toilet

I should have said split the paper it is a double roll it will separate nicely be sure the area is clean where the paper will fall on the floor, I haven't tried this wih some of the thicker paper. not doing it for saving money but for not using so much at one time and clogging

I should have said double ply the plys will separate

I'm curious Minnie - why not just separate the toilet paper while at the point of use? If you would normally use 4 squares of single-ply, pull off 2 squares of double-ply and separate it then. I do understand wanting a bit of "volume" in the hand for cleaning purposes.

That said, I have far more productive things to do with my time than separating and re-rolling toilet paper. That will never happen.

You could also just buy cheaper one-ply toilet paper.

well Mary this is something I discovered and I have the time
the cheaper paper is usually hard and rough This stays nice and soft.

to each his own

OJ, spot on! It irks me that we pay sewage charge for watering our lawn (restrictions to once a week during the winter) when we have a septic tank, AARRGGHHH --- guvment!

Yep, you are right OJ. I go a step further. I got rid of the dishwasher. Who really needs an automatic dishwasher when one lives alone?

I use a dishpan, and start with a very small amount of water. That increases, as I rinse my dishes. By the time I am done, my pan is full. I then dump it in my watering can, which resides in my kitchen. LOL

This water is used to water what ever I think needs it most in my yard/garden. During rainy days, I use it to flush my toilet.

I also have a juice bottle sitting by the sink to catch cold water running, waiting for hot water out of the hot water faucet. Same idea in the bathtub, but there I use a bucket. Now the fresh water is used to water veggies all spring summer and fall, but in the winter I use it to flush.

I want my water to give me the most uses each time it enters my house. :)

Moni

Totally agree with the water barrel idea--we installed 7 of them last summer and did all our summer watering with 'free' water. I'd further suggest buying your barrels at the end of the season--we found a Wallmart with stacks of them left in January. Was able to talk the seasonal manager down to $25 per barrel (they were orig. $90)! If' we'd been inclined to make them ourselves, I'm sure the fittings would have cost us that much!

As to the toilet paper? Seperating the plies does nothing to change the basic paper. You still have paper that will turn into concrete in your pipes. Having a FIL who was a plumber and always warned us of the dangers of the soft papers, I never bought them. ONCE DH brought home 1 - 4 pack of soft stuff that was on sale. It was a very expensive savings--I separated and rerolled the paper (don't recommend that, btw--it's extremely time-consuming)--and 3 weeks later we had a clog that Roto Router couldn't budge. They were out so many times that they told us we'd used up our 'guarantee' and refused to come back. So we had to pay a SECOND plumber who had to use special equipment to clear the pipes. Well, at least I got to tell DH 'I told you so', but it wasn't really worth it.

Besides, the cheap stuff doesn't 'melt in your hand' the way the soft paper does. I find I can use a lot less of the commercial stuff, and we never get clogs with it.

Rainbarrels are nice, if you get rain ever once in a while. Here, in the bad drought, rainbarrels are worthless to say the least.

However, I did take them with me from the former marital residence, and plan to install them as soon as winter is over. Freezing rainbarrels are likely to bust the drain connections, and that would be to expensive to replace.

Moni

Each barrel sits by itself, no holes in the side ... can move whenever, wherever one pleases (as long as it's empty.

Dip water out of the top to use.

o j

Store earlier magazines in a pie/cereal box - probably a year or two per box.

I do that with the main financial one, and my church denomination one.

Appliance cords in tp/paper towel roll when not in use.

Pens, pencils in a soup can.

We get milk by the quart in a coated cardboard square tower carton. I cut the "roof" off, then down the middle of one side of two cartons, slide them together and staple to make a box/tray with open top.

I put the papers that come related to income tax in the box, Christmas or birthday mail in another, etc., with a label card sticking up in the end, then store them with just the end showing on a shelf.

o j

An easy way to check if your tp is biodegradeable, is to put a few squares in a jar of water and shake. It should instantly dissolve and turn the water cloudy.

I use Cascades recycled tp, as well as Kirkland and they both instantly dissolve.

Moni, I save water too.....waiting for the water to run hot, etc. I use it to water my houseplants.

I do flush the toilet with it, when I get enough.......we have the old style toilet (it's mauve) and it takes a lot of water to flush. 1/2 of a 5-gallon pail will make the water go down, but not enough to have water come into the bowl. I flush it for real the next time.

Oh, a plumber came to Mom's house once and he said Kleenexes (tissues) were the worst thing to put down the toilet. They don't dissolve.

This post was edited by jasdip on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 14:53

To even go further with the savings... don't eat, don't drink; then, you won't need the restroom. Not only you'd be saving with the toilet expenses but also saving on food and drinks as well! ROFL

Sorry, I know you guys are serious... I just couldn't help being a bit funny.

Hi New Testament t_hou,

Could you perhaps consider that some of our tongues may have been placed at least part way into our cheeks ... just possibly?

o j

Oh really???

Sorry again.

Could be.

o j

We would really like to have rain barrels, both here at the house and out at our camp. But in this part of the country, snow and ice buildup is so bad in the winter that you can't use gutters on the houses. I guess you could, if you removed them every fall, but that is a lot of work. We have (and still are) considering doing that at our camp, where it's a single level and the edge of the roof is within reach (with a short ladder). We have a lot of plants at the camp and a well that doesn't produce a lot of water, so we usually have to haul at least some water every summer. Rain Barrels would fix that problem for us. We have a lot of 7 gallon buckets and some other containers (one huge steel one that is about 3 1/2 feet wide and 4 feet deep) that we have sitting out in the open at camp that collect water whenever it rains.

Hi jel48,

I see that you're in Michigan ... weather much like ours here in southern Ontario: I live about 15 mi. nortrh of Lake Erie, more or less across from Cleveland.

Everyone here has eavestroughs and downspouts.

Some using warming cable installed like a lot of continuous "W"s, WWWW, along the overhang edge of the roof, that gets colder, which they turn on from time to time to melt the ice build-up. At the time of a melt, for when it re-freezes, liquid could back up under the shingles and might leak into the house.

But many don't follow such a plan.

But ... you spoke of the situation as your camp, which may experience heavier cold, but probably not so much more that it would provide a much different situation.

ole joyful

Since we're on the topic of small scale savings by using other peoples'/businesses' money, while you're out there, grab loads of napkins and condiments. Fill your purses each time you're there and you won't have to buy those expensive condiments for cooking.

Shop friends and neighbors too. When you stop over to mooch a cup of coffee, excuse yourself to the bathroom. There's usually a linen closet there. Maybe they have linens that will fit your bed. If you do it right you can bring the dirty ones back and exchange for clean while you're stocking up on toilet paper and such.

You can also ask for the old newspaper and when they go to get that, check the freezer for an extra couple of steaks, roast or the odd lobster to enjoy an odd surf-n-turf. And of course ask when they fill their cars to know the best time to siphon.

Little things can add up! :)

Come on, cynic ... there's a limit!

Even were I in such deep distress as to be crying while visiting my neighbour's bathroom ... no way would I "steal" even so much as a crying towel!

There's a limit, after all!

o j, o.k.?

Here's another way to make money work harder.

If you're interested in saving dollars, this may not work, so you may want to quit reading, right now (though doing so might cause you to spend more, as well).

As I like to get good value for my dollar, I like to buy large bananas, as we throw the skin (that we paid for) ... out into compost.

So, buying big bananas means that one gets more (nutritive) banana meat and less (expensive garbage) skin per pound (i.e. dollar).

Around here, milk comes in coated paper towers, and a more or less quart one is 2.75" per side. Add just an inch ... and the tower contains twice as much! If you find that hard to fathom, draw squares on a sheet of paper, and note how the area is doubled with just a slight increment per side.

However, one gets fewer bananas per pound, and as we seldom cut a banana in two two serve two people, it means that, though we get more meat per dollar ... we get fewer servings per dollar.

So, dollar wise, an equal number of servings may be more costly, even though we got more food per dollar.

The guy who got more banananas per dollar may have the laugh on us.

However ... if the hungry kid needs more food to make up for the shortfall when s/he eats a tiny banana ... the anticipated "savings" may be more apparent than real!

Just some thoughts to occupy a slice of your precious day.

ole joyfuelled

Joyful...just curious. Who are you going to leave all that money to that you have scrimped and saved? If you don't have anyone in mind, you can adopt me. I will spend it on my 40 feral cats. :))

Hi Marilyn,

Well ... I have one feral cat, that's been around for a long time. She loves to be petted ... but won't let me pick her up and hold her.

Don't know what happened to them all - ten years ago when uncle's wife died and I spent a couple of months with him till his cattle went on grass, he had about a dozen, and after his death two years later there were a few less than that.

There was one old gray one that probably died.

Some folks several years ago left four little white kittens in a box by the mailbox, and in the morning their all-white Mom showed up, as well. The kittens all had an extra claw, and landlord found homes for all, but I don't remember what happened to the mom.

One had four kittens, I found one lying in the driveway, and its head was squashed, so it appears that it got run over. The final two of that litter disappeared together, so possibly a fox or coyote got them ... if they'd been out on the road, it's doubtful whether both would have been hit together.

There have been some visitors temporarily around for a while, on occasion, the latest being a few months ago, and now the remaining female is getting rather large around the girth, so expect that there'll be some more, soon.

As for the money ... have you heard what residential homes cost per month ... let alone the fees at nursing homes?

The idea is to use up the last dollar on the last day of one's life ... and can you tell me how to arrange that? (Apart from suicide ... which gets difficult, when one gets seriously disabled ... and a friend who's willing to help ... goes to jail!).

And one presumes that one has arranged for the cost of the funeral. And the burial plot (if not scattering ashes on the river ... a nearby field ... a woodlot, etc.).

It's rather important that one has arranged for enough to pay for one's final income tax bill: those folks prefer that.

And for many, there's a spouse - I avoid that situation.

And one would like to leave some to one's kids.

And there are worthwhile charities, that suggest that one think of them when making one's will.

What else can you suggest - oh, yes - you put in your $0.02 worth of request, as well, didn't you?

Up here, soon, that'll need to be one's $0.10 worth, what with the demise of the penny. But I guess there'll be some of yours, floating around, for a while.

ole joyful

Joyful, if you arrange it right and have frugal friends, relatives and/or beneficiaries, they can bring you down to the cemetery and find a fresh, yet unfilled hole, drop you in there and shovel you over. Put up a quick gravestone and when the hearse pulls up they can be asking "Who put all this stuff up here by OJ's grave????"

Alternately, they can drop the body in a casket somewhere after they've closed the viewal. :D

Sometimes Cynic and be ... 'drop-dead funny"!

ole joyfuelled

LOL LOL