LOL, what a great story. How wonderful about your reunions, what a dedicated family to keep coming back. I will keep the recycling ideas in mind.

Ongoing report:

I've been away quite a bit lately - so the stash will likely last longer than I'd expected.

On July 1, our national day, at a celebration in a nearby city where my son was peddling his balloons twisted into "animal" shapes and inflatable plastic toys, after the fireworks and breaking down his display, I visited a portable toilet.

Fortunately, it was for the minor use, as that unit had no paper.

Four in a bank, facing one another, eight units in all. I checked other units (some were in a substantial mess) and there was no paper left in seven of them.

I should have taken my recycled stuff with me - probably would have found a market, if I'd been standing nearby, earlier.

What would one call that - business "on a roll"?

Remember to be thankful for your freedom (more or less), democracy (more or less), measure of prosperity, your family, your friends, your good health as well as the other benefits that you enjoy,

joyful guy

Further report:

I live alone and have been away quite a bit lately, so use of the aforementioned product has been lower than usual.

The stash is still going, though getting rather low. I'd thought it would be easier to use if I straigtened the strings out and re-rolled them on regular rolls - had about half a dozen part rolls to start, along with a number of single, double and short strings.

Down right near the last of the second last (part) roll.

Since June 21 has been something over 4 months, by now.

Maybe saving part of a tree.

We should go out to plant more trees.

The lungs of the world.

I just had a really great trip to help my brother celebrate his fortieth wedding anniversary - and his retirement from farming.

Have a glorious fall, all.

ole joyful

This project started on June 21.

Now, on November 21, five months later, I'm getting down near the end of the last roll of recycled paper. Only a few sheets left

I'd like to tell you that I've been saving up some of the product that we use that paper for, just so that my stash would last till the five month anniversary. But honesty compels me to be truthful and say that I really haven't been saving that way.

Of course - being able to "go" when at someone else's location has helped quite a bit.

Can you imagine - the roll that I was using prior to using the recycled stuff - has gathered a little dust?

Had you ever thought that you'd see dust on an open roll of toilet paper?

Have some fun with at least some of your savings projects, all.

ole joyful

Final report on the toilet paper re-use project.

I just used the last of the stash that I brought home from the family picnic and began to use on June 21.

Last piece used on November 28 - five months and a week later.

Now, I'm back to using the roll that had been sitting in the dispenser for so long - dust and all.

I'm feeling rather sad - heard of hardly any other uses for (slightly used) toilet paper. I was sure that the resourceful group here would have brought quite a number of such uses to our attention.

just joyful

At the college one of my sons was attending the students who lived in the dorms could only get a new roll of toilet paper from the floor monitor when they turned in the cardboard core from an empty roll. Well, my son saved all of our cardboard rolls during the summer when he was home. He took a garbage bag full up to school with him! Can't imagine what they thought when he got a new roll of TP everyday in exchange for his cardboard tubes!
LOL Kathy G in MI

Considering the size of college dorm rooms, where did he store the empty rolls prior to turn-in - hang the garbage bag out the window on a rope?

joyful

kathy, why one roll a day ??

I loved these stories. Thanks for posting them. And I thought I was frugal!!!

Latest update:

Just found another roll with some paper re-rolled on it.

Should last about a week.

Unless I go out a lot.

Maybe visit the library a few times - their computer sequences pages on internet much faster than mine.

Keep yourself clean in the New Year, all.

ole joyful

Anyone for a bit of (retreaded) fun??

(Note date of original post).

This is not a vociferous forum - this was on P. 14.

I'm copying some interesting money-savings tips, for my money management and tax savings newsletter and to print and put into a binder.

ole joyful

Hi OJ,

You sure stopped me dead in my tracks by the Subject Of Posting Line, and bringing it up front.

I enjoyed the ongoing saga.

Sue

I'm usually over in gardening but I started checking out other forums and I've been enjoying your posts. Yes, even this one.

macbirch,

It's a poor day that you don't learn sumthin'

o j

Actually, folks, I misled you.

I guess that I misled myself, as well.

"Recycling" is when we re-process some product into something else that's useful in another category.

This was actually "Reusing" ... as there was no reprocessing of the product.

Sorry for the misdirection.

I hope that you're having a lovely summer ... if you live in the northern hemisphere.

ole joyful

Mr. Joyful, I always look for your posts! You have such a wicked sense of humor that I always find at the very least a chuckle when I find one... Thanks, today you've been a delight! Nancy

I think this might win the prize for the most amusing post, definately a great chuckle!

Hi again everyone,

This is sort of a companion piece to another post that's on the top page again.

Hope some of you enjoy it who may not have seen it before.
Don't really have much to add.

Except ... Kathy G in MI,

I wondered earlier what plan you had for reuse of the empty TP rolls that you'd collected, up to and including a good share of the amount needed to fill a garbage bag??

I like to carry a little radio around and rather than letting the cord drag behind to get dirty and for the cat to play with ... I loop it a few times and stick it into one of those empty tubes.

It tends to stay in place better if you push the plug into the tube, as well.

I imagine that it would work better if one had an empty paper towel tube ... but I rarely have one of them, for I use various rags, pieces of old towel, etc. for most clean-up jobs. A roll of paper towels pretty well hangs forlornly on the dispenser for most of a year, I think, before it gets used up.

Hey - I just had an idea ... one could use some masking tape, duct tape, etc. to stick a couple of empty TP tubes together. That should do the job better.

Back in the summer I had a couple of garden hoses that I wanted to patch together in order to water some recently planted trees, for it was really dry around here for an extended period.

The best that I could do was arrange for a couple of male ends to meet. So I taped them together with electrical tape, but had to handle them very carefully to avoid breaking the joint.

It wasn't long till it did break ... and I taped a couple of short sticks along the two hoses to make a splint.

That worked great at the time.

But a couple of weeks ago when I went to use it, no water out the end, and lots of water out the splinted joint. Was there a kink in the second hose?

The ends had twisted and the tape parted.

Oh, well - one wins a few ...

... and loses a few.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

When you're retired ... every day is weekend.

Wouldn't it be great to have every day as weekend?

If you'd been saving and investing carefully since the day that you started work ... quite likely you'd be able to retire early.

Like I, many years a personal financial advisor did, right?

Wrong.

I worked part-time till I was about 70 ... but at a type of work where I worked about 10 minutes of an hour, usually, for the employer and their client, and had the other 50 min. or so to do what I wanted ... while getting paid for it. Usually for about 34 hours every two weeks, in three shifts.

Not too strenuous.

But I didn't get paid very well, either - about 15 cents/hr. above min. wage.

Subsidized my pensions. Plus (required payments) from tax-deferred retirement plan. Plus investment income - but I didn't need to use that.

As I said before - enjoy your weekend.

ole joyful

A tip for the camper, hiker, or anyone travelling with toilet paper in the car.

When travelling, squeeze a new toilet paper roll flat, so you can loosen the cardboard tube inside. Once you have that loose, remove it. Put your toilet paper roll in a resealable bag and search for the center of the tissue from the inside of the roll and pull that out enough to hold onto. Now you can use the toilet paper without it rolling around on you, and it'll stay dry in the
baggie.

Gardener - your message should be a dream fulfilled for a number of campers/travellers.

You wouldn't call that insider trading, now, would you?

ole joyful

My cheeks hurt from laughing .......!!! Ole Joyful .... your name fits you well !!

Some recent experience to share, if I may.

I've had a head cold.

One of the kind where you're looking for an absorber of liquid every few minutes.

I've been known, on occasion when with friends visiting the fast food places and someone has collected an unnecessarily large number of napkins, to take some of them home, to use as wipers, etc.

Give more than even a minor ... the most very minor ... of blows using one of those, and the paper falls apart in your hands, with liquid recently departed from your nose scattered all over the place.

Most toilet paper is somewhat better in the shattering department ... but only enough so as to be noticeable, but still not very useful.

The facial tissues, or whatever they call them, that come in the oblong box, offer somewhat better service. But more or less marginally so. A bit of soaking and they fall apart rather easily, as well.

Drat!!

I find that kitchen paper towels are about the best ... they do resist falling apart when confronted by a bit of liquid somewhat less than the other kinds.

And here's a secret that I find it a bit difficult to share, along the line of extreme frugality ...

... I find that I leave those papers all over the house, and in the early day or so of a cold, when the effluent is much like water, they dry up with little apparent residue, within a few hours, and one can reuse them fairly comfortably.

Now, when the blowing is much reduced in frequency, but fills the paper with quite a load, the paper gets pitched.

Yours in the interest of using our paper products as efficiently as possible.

ole joyful

I have a habit of grabbing extra napkins whenever I eat out, whether it's a fancy restaurant or fast food. I put the extras in my glove compartment. Good if you get hands dirty, need to clean your glasses, pick a bug off the windshield, have to blow your nose, get a small cut, whatever.

Just heard a great story - about a bride in New York who got married (in a public washroom?) in a finely detailed, white gown ...

... made of toilet paper!!

Would I even think of leading you astray??

ole joyful

Here is a link that might be useful: Bride's toilet paper gown

I heard about the bride too! He is not kidding- I could not believe it. Apparently Charmin or another TP company paid for
the "extravaganza". Do you think she "recycled" her dress?
Ole Joyful Thanks for the giggles.

It was Charmin' (and don't squeeze it, please!).

If she tried to keep it for 25 years, as some brides do ... it might become a bit holey.

ole joyful

"Holey gown"

Would that be good for a female clergyperson on being wed?

o j

In my post of Oct. 30, '03, I told of attending my brother's fortieth wedding anniversary.

On second weekend of October, this year, Thanksgiving (Canadian style - before the snow) ... I attended his fiftieth. Thought that I really should be there ... as I'd married him?/them?

It helps to keep life (more or less) sane ...

... if one can find some humour in some of life's apparently commonplace events.

ole joyfuelled

The post of No. 4, `07 was titled. ÃÂn the go`.

I`ve heard that ... `Whèn ya gotta go ... ya gotta go!`

o j

While it's been slightly over five years since the most recent contribution to this thread that was sent skyward a hair over 15.5 years ago, there's something in the most recent post that rocked me back on my heels somewhat!

When I referred to having heard that, "When ya gotta go .... ya gotta go!" ... I find that it makes a bit of a different impact on my consciousness now ....

... expecting as I am to celebrate my 90th birthday within the next couple of weeks!

I've been rather hoping that I wouldn't be called upon to make my departure right soon!

ole joyfuelled

I am somewhat disappointed in the Home Forums crowd!

I've thought that many/most? of them, being a sensible crowd, would be interested in saving money!

This thread was begun in 2003, and in 2013, when I retreaded it following over 5 years of no contributions, I think that I found it on something like page 14, of the 25 or so list of threads per page. Now, after over 8 months, it was sitting at No. 10 on the first page, and the most recent thread, initiated last March, now in early October was only a couple of topics down on the first page till a couple of days ago.

Many people SAY that they want to use their money wisely ... but it appears that not a large number follow through on that desire/claim.

Think that it might help if we could find a way to make it more of a fun-related topic, inject some humour into it?

How?

And how get them to become aware of such a new, more attractive/interesting viewpoint/image?

ole joyfuelled

I'm sort of frustrated - and sad.

My most recent post, two years ago ... has only moved down to eleventh location, on page one.

Hey, folks! Learning how money works is an interesting hobby!

And it PAYS WELL!

(Taxes, too!).

Having celebrated my 96th birthday a couple of weeks ago, and broken my 12 or so year old car beyond repair more than 3 years ago, when, requiring a driver test, I did not replace it, my friends advised moving from my old step-uncle's farmhouse which, following his death 20 years ago, I'd moved from a 2 bedroom townhouse in the city costing over $750./mo. , renting from the new owner at $450./mo.

Rent had increased over those years to $675./mo., and I'd have to pay triple that for an apt. In the city, but, though I could afford it, I like it here.

I'm thankful to have health to hitchhike to the village, near to the farm where I grew up, and the city about 12 miles away and this is my third winter here without a car..

Son moved in over a year ago, rent has increased to over $1,000./mo., moving to town would cost well over double that, so figure that if getting a car would allow us to continue living here for 6 mos. to a year or two - that would pay for the car.

I'm thankful that I could afford to live in the city for 10 - 15 years or so at least - and when you're starting from 96, that seems like a reasonable timeframe.

Sorry - can't think of something humorous to offer, at the moment.

ole joyful

While I've heard that most of the millions of the trees that we cut is used for timber, lumber, plywood, etc., with the minimally useful scraps used for paper, including that used in toilets, I think many trees are mainly used to make those many types of paper.

I've heard that less than a thousand years ago the population of the world was about a billion, and currently is over 8 billion, and growing rather rapidly.

While the climate change deniers say that the world has undergone major warming and cooling periods over many centuries, they choose to ignore the major polluting effects of our massive industrialization in recent centuries. To claim that cars, which have been around for less than 150 years have not produced major pollution ... is mainly horse manure.

Do you think that those who claim that if we continue our current ways of life that humankind is getting close to being an endangered species?

Don't have grandkids!

What does this have to do with toilet paper?

Earlier generations saved corncobs for such use.

We've been harvesting corn from our garden - anyone need some corncobs, before we add them to the compost pile?

ole joyfuelled ... who fuels also by being corny

I am so sad - another six months on the calendar, and this story is still at the top of the "Money Saving Tips" list, meaning no new ideas offered, or even additional offerings on earlier messages.

With food and other prices dancing skyward, as they have been recently, come here, folks, to learn how to make your dollars, or other currencies, go farther - provide more service!

ole joyfuelled