December Frugals

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Well, normally I wouldn't take anything home, but one of the two ladies who did coffee hour today (we only do it every six months or so) knows I'm addicted to her pasta salad, so she ALWAYS gives me first dibs on her leftovers.

[cdttmm]

I think that's a line of thought worth pursuing - thanks for the inspiration. On a similar note, I've been somewhat frustrated by the difficulty of doing a paper towel "apples to apples" comparison (not that I've quite made a serious mission of it yet). It seems that Bounty now comes in an infinite variety of size/quantity multi-packs, so I find myself pondering whether 12 jumbos for X amount is a better deal than 16 extra-larges for Y amount, and do we save enough with the "pick-a-size" option to instead go for the 8 gargantuans for Z dollars instead??? So we just buy the whatever multipack at Costco because it's easy, they tend to offer good values, and then we only have to think about paper towels every few months. I'm only willing to devote a certain amount of mental energy to paper towels!

I totally agree that this can take you down a life energy sucking path if you let it! To use your paper towel example, this is one item that I'll probably never spend time comparing prices. We prefer Bounty and we only use the select-a-size rolls. We buy a package of paper towels maybe once every six months. I'm not going to devote a lot of time and energy to something that is a <$20 purchase twice a year. The $4-$5 that I might save in a year isn't worth the effort it takes to do what is likely an elaborate price comparison. But cat litter, well, that's worth it to me. We have two cats and probably use a bag of cat litter per month, so we buy ~12 bags per year. If I can save $2-$3 per bag and not have to drive out of my way to get it, then bring it on, because that level of savings is worth it. Especially because we have plenty of storage space and I can buy a year's supply in one fell swoop if I want.

The last day of 2012. I have to work today, so that will hopefully help to keep this day frugal. My beloved and I are running a 10k race tomorrow morning so we're not doing anything too elaborate tonight. I bought all of the necessary ingredients to make Convicts' Macaroni and even splurged and bought some fancy little bottles of grapefruit flavored, carbonated beverages to have with dinner. Yes, I spent $6 for some flavored, carbonated sugar water -- I love that my life has simplified to the point that these are my splurges.

Used my Bodum teapot for the third morning in a row and I can now claim that I am hooked! I just need to dial in on the exact amount of tea leaves that I need to insure a tea that's strong enough for my taste, but doesn't use an excessive amount of tea leaves. I always feel like more = better when it comes to using loose leaf tea, but I know this is not actually the case. So tea experimentation is in my immediate future.

To keep the morning frugal, I ate up the slightly stale popcorn that we made for dinner last night. Yes, occasionally we indulge in less than well balanced meals around here. Which usually means popping up a huge batch of popcorn on the stove top. We can rarely eat all of it in one sitting, so I always feel compelled to finish it off for breakfast the next morning. A strange habit, I know, but waste not, want not, right?!?

My only other, slightly strange, frugal that I have to share with all of you today is our use of dryer sheets. My partner and I both know that traditional dryer sheets are horrible, chemical laden, smelly things. So we refuse to use them. I could happily line dry the majority of my clothing and skip the dryer sheets altogether for those things I use the dryer for, but my beloved...well, not so much. We buy the Seventh Generation dryer sheets, which are supposedly not horribly chemical laden and are even compost-able. We are now down to using only one-sixth of a dryer sheet per load. Since I am usually the one to take the laundry out of the dryer and fold it, I have taken to extending the use of the dryer sheets to an additional level of frugality. I leave the "already used" one-sixth of a dryer sheet in the dryer and use it a second time. So far, no complaints. I am looking forward to the day when I can wean us off the dryer sheets completely. Then I'll move on to weaning us off the dryer.

Ooooh, wait, thought of one more frugal I wanted to share with all of you! So...I'm committed to trying to run through the entire winter here in lovely New England. But I much prefer to run outside as opposed to taking to the treadmill at the gym. Well, this is going to require some warm running gear. I was starting to contemplate exactly what I needed to buy when yesterday my partner asked me to help him find a particular pair of long underwear that he wanted to wear while snowblowing. I was sure they were in a particular drawer so went to help him look and discovered that he has an entire drawer full of gear that could easily solve my winter running gear issue. Fortunately, he and I are fairly close in size so I'm going to raid his stash, which he said was fine (he has a whole separate stash of stuff that he actually wears!) and this will likely save me a decent sum. Woot!!!