Have you notices that many items are made to get you hooked so that will have to purchase it regularly or buy refills? There are also some items that you think you need to replace all the time. The consumables are rarely budget priced because we feel like we can’t live without them.
I am sure there are alot of people that you can’t live without like milk, toilet paper, and bread. You can however avoid buying consumables that you can do without. Here are some items that I have learned to stop buying by being clever.
Swiffer Sweeper pads are the ultimate consumable. You have to purchase new pads to clean your floor just about every week, and these costs add up quickly. I have found a substitute however that works equally as well. Put a microfiber cloth in the place of a swiffer flat and watch how well it works as a dust mop or mop. The microfiber cloths can be washed over and over.
Cat litter is something you have to buy if you have a cat, right? Wrong. If you shred papers regulary, cut coupons, or get lots of junk mail, make that paper useful and throw it in the litter box. Newspaper eliminates odor so you can forget you even have cats in your house.
Batteries are one of the items I hate buying the most. For this reason I prefer purchasing rechargeable twice a year A set can last six month and are well worth the investment.
Printer paper is an item that we used to go through quickly as we are homeschoolers. Instead of printing each and every thing, I had my kids set up Google Doc accounts so they could do their writing and other school work in a word doc that I could access. Now I only print pieces for their portfolio. Even than I make the purchase by trading in a used ink cartridge.
Andrea Hermitt writes for parenting (specifically teens), the home blog, and also the frugal blog, and homeschooling at families.com.
Also read: Introducing Frugal Cleaning!
Calculate the real cost of an item
Reuse from A to Z! (B Continued)
Reuse from A to Z! (C-En)