Once upon a time I bought far too much. I’d spot great bargains and buy them because I knew they were things that we would use, or that we needed - even if they weren’t really. I guess I overestimated what we needed and how much we used - maybe because I grew up in a large family and we always needed lots, or maybe I was duped by the two-for-one sales and the economy of scale.
It started with cling wrap. I scoffed at a comment I’d read online somewhere, someone saying they took a year to use a roll of it. So I wrote the date on the end of the next cling wrap I opened, and finished it almost 18 months later. I started to keep track of other things as well. 500mL of olive oil lasts me about two months. I realised we use less pasta and rice because we tend to bulk up on vegetables. We have used 9 rolls of toilet paper in the last month. I haven’t worked out how long deodorant and toothpaste last me, but I know I only need to buy them a few times a year. At the moment, the largest box of Weet-bix lasts us less than two weeks. This has revolutionised my grocery shopping. I stockpile less, I spend less, and I waste less.
Considering how much and how little we used food and personal hygiene items made me also look at how much I owned of non-perishable items. Clothes. Shoes. Books. DVDs. Recipe books. There are only 24 hours in a day, only seven days in a week, only 352 days in a year. I had enough recipes in books that I could cook something different every day for two-and-a-half years. A whole month of not having to wash clothes. Two weeks worth of shoes. Books that I was never going to read again. Did I really need all this stuff?
I started buying less clothes for the kids once I realised that I was packing away barely worn clothes when my eldest son grew out of them. I wash every few days, and he would always just take the clothes on top, so why not only have the clothes on top?
And I stopped buying craft and sewing materials at a faster rate than which I could actually use them, but that’s whole post of it’s own!
What about you? Do you tend to by more than you need, or only just enough?
I understand the whole thing about having so much stuff. After a month of wearing three jeans and four shirts and living out of a 38L backpack, the thought of going home to so much stuff actually freaks me out a little.
ReplyDeleteI stockpile gifts, but only a years worth. After Christmas each year just about everything is gone.
Sorry about any dodgy punctuation, Im using a czech keyboard which has all sorts of weird characters and I cant figure out how to get most of the normal punctuation marks that I need :P
9 rolls of toilet paper in a month! We generally go through a roll a day! At first (when we finally hit the one a day mark) I thought it must be me (8 months pregnant so going to the loo A LOT) but then Michelle went to Nepal and suddenly a roll was lasting us almost three days. I still don't get it though, cause she's BARELY here! It must have been a coincidence, cause it just doesn't make sense. Anyway, I'm sure once I've got 4 fully toilet trained boys we'll be back to the one a day :/ How cheap am I that I've actually gotten into the habit of "going" when I go to the shops. Well, that was while I was still going to places like the shops etc, but these days I just waddle about at home.
ReplyDeleteP.S. WooHoo it worked!!!!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping it might work for you to comment now that I'd changed my blog format!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I must be the only person in our house who uses toilet paper. Either that, or we had a low usage month lat month.