Every family has certain expenses they are focusing on lowering. Once you’ve lowered your bills, reduced your grocery spending, and cut out superfluous spending, you can look more closely at even more specific expenses.
I don’t know about your family, but our family seems to go through a lot of toilet paper. When I look at how much we spend each month on toilet paper, it makes me cringe.
We are literally flushing that money down the toilet!
Even so, I’m not interested in the “family cloth” trend among the very green community (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about). I’m cool with cloth diapers, but expanding the concept to the entire family, just doesn’t sit well with me, even if it intends to save both money and the environment. We had to find another way to save money on toilet paper.
Since the beginning of the year, we have implemented some changes that have had a positive impact on our toilet paper budget. It’s so much better to save up for a fun trip instead of just flushing it.
Here are 5 things we’ve done to reduce our toilet paper expenses. I would love to hear your ideas and strategies in the comments.
1- Personal rations
We no longer keep a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. Each family member has his or her own roll to bring with them to the bathroom. Girls get two rolls per month and boys get one roll per month. We’ve noticed a drastic reduction in toilet paper use with our rationing policy. We only use seven rolls of toilet paper for the entire month.
2- Don’t save it for home
I had been noticing that when I would pick my kids up from school they would be on the verge of wetting their pants. For whatever reason, they weren’t going to the bathroom at school. Once we started to focus on lowering our toilet paper expenses, I told the kids they needed to be sure to use the bathroom at the end of the school day before coming home. I also encouraged my husband to do all his business at work before coming home.
3- Bring home the extras
When we get fast food (which honestly isn’t very often), I notice that they always give us plenty of napkins. I’m not sure if they do that with everyone or if they take a look at our little ones and figure we’ll need them. Either way, we don’t let those napkins go to waste. They’re not as soft to use as toilet paper, but if someone uses up their ration, they are allowed to use the extra napkins. Just for the record, we don’t fill our pockets with napkins or toilet paper with the purpose of taking it home to use. Honesty and integrity is worth more than saving money.
4- Offer your clean-up services
Every neighborhood has a house that always seems to be the target of teenager pranks. Those pranks often involve toilet paper strewn through the trees and bushes. We are very upfront about our willingness to clean up such messes. We started by just helping out our friends and family members who had been targets of wasteful TP-ing pranks, but the word got out quickly that we were the ones to call. Our kids actually think it’s fun to roll the toilet paper back onto the cardboard tubes.
5- Make your own
I’ve always been bothered by how much paper our elementary school goes through. I don’t mind when they use it for actual school work, but when a two sentence reminder comes home on a full-size sheet of paper, I get annoyed by the wastefulness. Lowering our toilet paper budget has allowed me to look at all that paper in a new light.
I take all the school papers that I would otherwise throw away and cut them down the middle lengthwise, making it the same width as a cardboard toilet paper roll. Then I let my kids wrinkle and crinkle it to their hearts’ content, which softens the paper and makes it almost comfortable. They love that part. Then I roll the sheets onto an empty cardboard roll.
This is the toilet paper we get out when we have company over. Not only does it give a homemade touch to something that’s usually so impersonal, but our guests get to see the beautiful school work that our children do. The kids are proud both that they got to help make the special toilet paper and that their work is being displayed for our guests. It’s definitely a win-win!
You can do it too!
I hope you’ve been inspired to find ways that your family can save on toilet paper. Seeing the numbers in the household budget category go down really makes it all worth it! I can’t wait to hear how you implement these frugal and creative tactics!
How about you?
- How much do you spend on toilet paper in a typical month?
- What ideas do you have for saving money on toilet paper?
For frugal people, we are actually slightly snobbish when it comes to toilet paper. We won’t have anything to do with that 1-ply stuff! We keep our bathroom stocked with toilet paper and welcome our guests to use as much as they like (well, maybe not in so many words, but it’s implied with our hospitality).
Need another laugh? Check out my past years’ April Fools Posts HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. Then share them with your friends for a good laugh!
