March
30th,
2012
Dave Ramsey recently posted an article about the 7 things that are worth splurging on. I agree with some of them, like running shoes, but I think my list would look different. I’ll revisit that in another post, because today’s post focuses on the opposite: 7 things we don’t buy! This was inspired by a list Money Saving Mom shared earlier this week. A couple of mine are the same as hers; we also don’t buy shaving cream, dryer sheets/fabric softener, or pay for cable. But to add my two cents (seven cents?) to the conversation, here’s a list of another 7 things we don’t buy:
- Milk I have never been a big milk drinker, and neither has Andy. I typically keep light vanilla soy milk stocked in our fridge, and that's what we use if I've found a good sale and bought cereal. But as for regular milk, it only graces our presence if it's needed for a recipe, and then only a small bottle. (I know this would likely be different if we had kids...but we don't, so for now it stands.)
- Bottled Water We have several nice re-usable water bottles and have a fridge-sized Pur water filtration pitcher. And honestly, at work I just refill from the tap water. It saves money AND plastic, and I've yet to get sick or cringe too much at the taste of any tap waters.
- Tissue Paper I save every possible reusable scrap from gifts I'm given, including sometimes the wrapping paper itself. I'm not always able to re-use that, but I smooth out and fold tissue paper to save in a box. I still have tissue paper and ribbon from wedding gifts we were given two years ago! It doesn't take up much time or space but it saves having to think about supplies every time I need to wrap a gift.
- Small Trash Bags Rather than buying the small sized trash bags for our bathroom trash can, I simply use plastic grocery bags. I usually take my own tote bags to the store, but whenever I forget I save the bag for this and other purposes!
- Text Messages Andy and I are both signed up for Google Voice, and rather than receive text messages on our actual mobile numbers, we use the number assigned to our phones by Google Voice. We save money on our cell phone plan this way.
- Batteries We recently switched to using re-chargeable batteries. While even those don't last forever, it saves us a bundle on replacing them in things like the remote control! Plus it saves the hassle caused by needing a fresh set of batteries and discovering there are none in the house and having to buy them without a coupon. :-)
- Disposable napkins/plates/cups/utensils I grew up using cloth napkins and never thought anything of it, but I've come to find that they're less common than I imagined! In fact, I now have some of my favorites from my childhood that I use as cleaning cloths. I bought a pack of paper plates over a year ago when we were preparing to move, and we still have some left (though they were a wonderful help when a tornado struck our area the week we were moving and we were without power for a few days). Even for a large group of people, I'd just as soon use fun plastic ware or a mish-mosh of plates and glasses.
So there you have it! What are some things you don’t buy or pay for that might surprise other people?
