I have a few little ideas about saving money, most of which are probably not startling or profound to my readers. All of them, however, will save you a few dollars, which in the long run is… a few dollars. 🙂 I can just see my brothers rolling their eyes.
Today I was mulling over towels. This came about as I was cleaning my basement with the help of my lovely young friend, Michelle. I had observed to her that nearly all our towels were wedding gifts. They are looking a little shabby, but eleven years is, after all, a long time for a towel to last. (We do shower every day, I promise!) Back when we were given these splendid, thick, oversized towels, we decided it was not necessary to wash them after every single use. So we put up hooks, and we use our towels twice before we throw them into the hamper.
Right there is your penny pincher tip! Twice the wear on the towels, half the laundry detergent and water. I also have a hunch that line drying saves a lot of wear and tear on stuff. All that lint? It comes out of something. What do you think?
I offer this tip tentatively, knowing that this totally grosses some people. Let me qualify: We do try to get clean before we dry off, and we do stick to our own towel. 😉
wocket in my pocket 
I agree with the double usage thing, especially with little guys that hardly wet half the towel! I’ve given up on the line drying thing though, here is South Dakota! My towels have gone to shreds on the line with our crazy wind, so most days they go into the dryer, much as I hate it.:( And yes, a few dollars really DOES count, in my opinion!
Ah, yes, Rhonda. We believe in frugality, you and I . 😉
And you didn’t even mention the time you save when you don’t have as many towels to fold on laundry day! I’d love to hear more penny pincher tips! 🙂
True that!
It is so good to live frugal, otherwise our children would become brats. Its totally ridiculous to be grossed out over using a towel twice. And my husband and I actually share towels freely. We even often retrieve it from the bathroom floor. Now granted our bathroom is huge, airy, and the children don’t hardly go in there. This is a great tip! And I would love if somebody figured out just how much money in soap and water and we save by doing this!?
Lol, this is an area where my husband says no way! It would not bother me to reuse but he thinks it is ….nasty! After taking a med micro class- that strengthened his argument which I won’t expound on- BTW Gabe took a med micro class too? I guess my husband was predisposed to thinking that way!
Yeah. Dead skin cells and stuff. I thought the illustrations in micro biology textbooks were totally gross. I would rather be happily ignorant of some of that stuff.
Oh yes, we always re-use towels. As my Mom would say, you ARE supposed to be CLEAN after a shower. :). And I love line dried towels, they smell so fresh and I think they dry better.