A Penny Saved is a Penny...Lost?
Regardless of what my mother likes to think, I make a conscious effort not to squander my hard-earned money. However, sometimes I wonder if I scrimp and save in the wrong places.
I am a notorious collector of packing materials. I have a hard time throwing away things such as tissue paper, boxes (for moving, shoes, you name it), bags (plastic and paper), bubble wrap, and string. I’m convinced that I will need these things again in life, and the day that I will want them, I will not have any of them. So I am something of a pack rat.
There are a total of four closets in my apartment, but I cannot seem to find enough closet room. One of these closets is in the bathroom, so it does not count much towards storage since it is all shelved like a linen closet. The other three are all very useable for storage, clothing, or boxes. However, even with three closets, I have a hard time finding enough room to organize all of my stuff – mostly, as recently pointed out by one of my friends, because it is full of packing material.
Am I really that bad? Have I turned into my mother?
I am also quite the Ziploc bag re-user. No point in wasting a bag that was only used for a day or two to store a tomato, right? So I just turn it inside out, rinse it, and hang it up on some old wine bottles to dry. And the next day, it’s ready to go all over again.
Sometimes I wonder if all my effort in saving things like Ziploc bags and plastic bags and packing materials is really worth it financially. For example, on DrugStore.com a box of 100 Ziploc sandwich bags cost $3.19. So each sandwich bag really costs three cents. Let me repeat that. It’s only three cents. Now, if I average four sandwich bags a week, but I can use one of those bags over and over again instead of four separate bags, then I’ve just saved myself nine cents that week. Instead of using 100 bags in 25 weeks (still assuming the four-bag week), I can use 100 bags in 100 weeks. That means my one box of Ziploc bags can last four times longer than it would if I never reused a bag. How much does that save me? A whopping $9.57.
Does this really help me in the grand scheme of things? Just the other night, I went out for lunch and I had the option of bacon or no bacon on my cheeseburger. The difference in price was only 30 cents. Well, then it’s totally worth it to go for the bacon cheeseburger. But that 30 cents cost me nearly three and a half weeks of using one Ziploc bag per week instead of four. Puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it? Three and a half weeks of laboring, of washing the bag, or drying the bag, and reusing the bag amounts to bacon on my cheeseburger. Talk about food for thought.
So, maybe I am as ridiculous as my boyfriend likes to tell me I am, but doing stupid things like re-using Ziploc bags or bubble wrap makes me feel like I have some type of control in my life. I may be counting pennies, but at least I’m counting something.
I am a notorious collector of packing materials. I have a hard time throwing away things such as tissue paper, boxes (for moving, shoes, you name it), bags (plastic and paper), bubble wrap, and string. I’m convinced that I will need these things again in life, and the day that I will want them, I will not have any of them. So I am something of a pack rat.
There are a total of four closets in my apartment, but I cannot seem to find enough closet room. One of these closets is in the bathroom, so it does not count much towards storage since it is all shelved like a linen closet. The other three are all very useable for storage, clothing, or boxes. However, even with three closets, I have a hard time finding enough room to organize all of my stuff – mostly, as recently pointed out by one of my friends, because it is full of packing material.
Am I really that bad? Have I turned into my mother?
I am also quite the Ziploc bag re-user. No point in wasting a bag that was only used for a day or two to store a tomato, right? So I just turn it inside out, rinse it, and hang it up on some old wine bottles to dry. And the next day, it’s ready to go all over again.
Sometimes I wonder if all my effort in saving things like Ziploc bags and plastic bags and packing materials is really worth it financially. For example, on DrugStore.com a box of 100 Ziploc sandwich bags cost $3.19. So each sandwich bag really costs three cents. Let me repeat that. It’s only three cents. Now, if I average four sandwich bags a week, but I can use one of those bags over and over again instead of four separate bags, then I’ve just saved myself nine cents that week. Instead of using 100 bags in 25 weeks (still assuming the four-bag week), I can use 100 bags in 100 weeks. That means my one box of Ziploc bags can last four times longer than it would if I never reused a bag. How much does that save me? A whopping $9.57.
Does this really help me in the grand scheme of things? Just the other night, I went out for lunch and I had the option of bacon or no bacon on my cheeseburger. The difference in price was only 30 cents. Well, then it’s totally worth it to go for the bacon cheeseburger. But that 30 cents cost me nearly three and a half weeks of using one Ziploc bag per week instead of four. Puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it? Three and a half weeks of laboring, of washing the bag, or drying the bag, and reusing the bag amounts to bacon on my cheeseburger. Talk about food for thought.
So, maybe I am as ridiculous as my boyfriend likes to tell me I am, but doing stupid things like re-using Ziploc bags or bubble wrap makes me feel like I have some type of control in my life. I may be counting pennies, but at least I’m counting something.
posted by danielle at 1:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home