Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues. Like most of you probably are, I am spending the day recovering from a tryptophan induced coma. I refuse to go out shopping on this day. Although I love a sale as much as the next person (ok, more than the next person usually) today's sales combine three things I hate: getting up early, fighting crowds and buying things I don't really need just because they are tremendous bargains. So rather than go out shopping, I thought I'd stay home, join the Buy Nothing Day movement and turn the discussion to the lighter side of frugality. Prepare to be amazed and entertained when you follow me below the fold.
A while ago, I caught myself doing something that cost me a certain amount of time and effort, and probably saved me a grand total of seven cents. I started thinking of the various "frugal" things mr. sarahnity and I do that objectively could be termed a waste of our time and energy. I came up with a list of things we do day in and day out that probably all told saves us less than $20 a year. That $20 really isn't going to make or break our household budget, and yet we go out of our way to do them anyhow. Some of these I try to justify by saying I am reducing garbage that would go in the landfill, but all told they probably save less than a cubic foot of garbage a year, which I don't think makes any difference to our local landfill. Keep in mind that none of these are so time consuming that I would say they rise to the level of False Economy, and yet, I expect there will be at least one thing on this list that makes you shake your head in amused disbelief.
I'm not going into details about whether it is mr. sarahnity or I who is the one insisting on each of these practices. Suffice it to say that we are so well matched in our folly that I'm fully justified in using the editorial "we" in the description below.
Free Stuff
No matter how little we may actually have a use for something, if we are offered it free, we have a very hard time of turning it down. Our house is littered with promotional items (pens, notepads, magnets, etc.) from companies we never would think of actually patronizing. We have boxes of T-shirts from companies we may have once had some limited association with that we would never wear, but couldn't refuse when offered. We even have at least one shirt from Quizno's, a company we have never worked for and we have no idea where it came from. Not only could we not decline to accept it, but we can't throw it out once we have it.
Hotel Toiletries
Speaking of free stuff, I'm sure most of you out there take home those little bottles of shampoo you get in a hotel. Some of you (as we do) may even make a point to squirrel away the unused bottles each day so that the maid will replace them with fresh ones (and thereby increase your stash). However, it's our practice of taking home not only the unused bars of little soap but, in addition, the bar of soap we used during our visit that truly pushes this into the category of "folly".
Sample Sized Bottles
Speaking of travel sized toiletries, the new FAA regulations limit the size of liquid containers you can carry on to 3 oz. or less. I searched high and low for a cheap source for plastic bottles in that size (2 oz and 4 oz are easy to find; 3 oz. is not so popular) until I realized that I already had such things. I got a free sample sized bottle of body wash when I bought a multipack of soap that turns out to be just that size. Even though I didn't really like the body wash, I had to decant it into another empty bottle first to not waste it and with a bit of effort, I now have a free travel bottle of just the right size. And an extra bottle of body wash I still don't know what I'm going to do with.
Paper Napkins
Whenever we go to a fast food restaurant, or anyplace with paper napkins, we usually find we have a few clean napkins on the table at the end of the meal. Rather than throw these out, we make a point to keep them and take them home. We keep stacks of them stashed around in our cars, pockets, purse and backpack for emergency spills or to use as tissues in emergency allergy attacks. Yes, those little travel sized packs of tissues would be more convenient, and softer too, but those wouldn't be free.
Paper Towels
More often than not, if we have a small spill to clean up in the kitchen it doesn't need an entire paper towel. So we will tear off just a corner or a portion of a towel to wipe it up, thereby saving the rest of the towel for later. An even more thrifty practice we do is if the spill is small and just water, we may drape the towel on the counter to dry and then re-use it later. It's not that we have never heard of that even thriftier option: the cloth dishtowel, it's more that we are too set in our ways to learn any new tricks.
Expiration Dates
When it comes to both food and medicines, we tend to treat package expiration dates as advisory guidelines rather than hard and fast limits. We've been known to willingly eat foods well past that limit if we're reasonably certain that spoilage hasn't occurred. Really, I ask you, how can hot chocolate powder go bad? And as for sour cream, well, how much more sour can it get? We tend to be a little more circumspect when it comes to medications, but it's not unheard of for us to use aspirin a year past its expiration.
Uncanceled Stamps
Occasionally we will get reply envelopes with stamps attached from someone we have no intention of replying to. Rather than tossing the envelope with the stamp intact, we will carefully cut out the stamp, save it away and then glue it to another envelope when we need to send out something.
Whiting-Out and Re-doing Puzzles
This last one is all mine. Mr. sarahnity does not endorse or engage in this practice. Honestly, he thinks I'm pretty loony doing this. I enjoy doing logic type puzzles with paper and pen. Unfortunately, I don't always get them right on the first pass. If I make some mistake, rather than just moving on to the next puzzle, I will carefully white out all my previous entries and start over. Why don't I just do them in pencil in the first place you ask? Well of course that would be cheating!
How About You?
I was originally going to title this diary something like, "Can You Top This?" but I realized that for some people out there, these are probably minor compared to some of the frugal exercises they do every day. For example, there is this fellow who takes paper towels from the bathrooms at work to his home so he never needs to buy any. And our very own anotherdemocrat has already confessed that she won't throw out plastic bags without reusing them a t least once. I knew someone once who never bought envelopes. He would just save business reply envelopes he had received and not used and then cross out the preprinted address when he wanted to send a letter to someone. Please add your own personal Frugal Follies in the comments, so that we can all share in the camaraderie of thrift (or should that be the camaraderie of foolishness?).
Frugal Tip of the Week: There's only one week left to get the super discounted early bird registration rate for Netroots Nation 2008. You can sign up now for only $175. That cost will go up $75 to $250 on December 1 and will increase further as the convention draws nearer.