And so I find my Saturday expended in pursuit of the cheap roll of toilet paper. Here are my findings so far:
1. According to some commenter on Amazon, you can buy case lots of the Sam's Club house brand for $.42 per roll. Of course, you have to buy the Sam's Club membership first and, if you're us, you have to drive to Panacea Falls to find the Sam's Club, because there's not one in Fiat. On the other hand, we'd only be doing this three to four times a year, and we wouldn't be buying only toilet paper, so possibly the savings would be worth the fee, the gas expenditure, and the hassle.
2. The best deal I found via Amazon groceries today is a sale on 96-count cases of Windsoft, at approximately $.55 a roll. Compare More TP Prices at Amazon (sponsored link)
Advantages include good deals on shipping and -- I hate to say it, because it's not really a top frugal value -- convenience. Besides, as with a Sam's or Costco membership, we'd buy in bulk lots, buy more than one item at a time, buy only several times a year. Still, convenience costs. More. Sometimes a lot more.
3. I am not alone. Lively discussions about frugal toilet paper and other household supplies here and here (cloths and a diaper pail? Is there anyone out there who does this, and would admit it? As with the old cloth-vs-disposable-diapers debate, would you lose in hot-wash costs what you'd save in not buying toilet paper? And would it be worth it to you?)
4. Don't forget the salvage stores.
5. Funnily enough, the buy-quality-for-the-long-term axiom applies to toilet paper, too. I have tended, ignorantly and in haste, to buy the biggest pack of rolls for the lowest price on the grocery shelf and make my escape. If, however, cheap rolls are also skimpy rolls, and we go through my enormous pack of them in a week and have to go back for more, how much have I actually saved, in either money or hassle? (don't worry, I already know the answer to that question).
PLUS:
A frugal blast from the past: Money-Saving Mom's 2008 Two-Week Grocery Experiment
Go ask Alice: Are you better than Amazon? Better than Sam's or Costco?
Shopping tips for the student pauper
Want What You Have: Making a Master Grocery List
Little revelation of the week: The spices on the Mexican-food aisle are roughly half the price of the same spices on the spice aisle. Am I the last person in English-speaking America to realize this?
And now I must relinquish the computer to Epiphany, that she might finish the Scarlet Letter essay I assigned some time back. We would all get so much more done so much faster, I often think, if we didn't have to learn little things like patience and charity on the way.
8 comments:
Well, my opinion is that Scott Toilet Paper in 8-roll packages when they are on sale is the best deal. They are more expensive but last a lot longer.
AMDG
The people at Frugal Village like Scott tissue a lot, too. I'll have to check this out, though in truth, the Bi-Lo store brand on sale is also a good deal, and lasts reasonably long.
I had to sign out of a child's Google account and back into mine; the verification word at first was "shess," and now it's "avesseli," which makes me feel that the spirits of Blogger are trying to talk to me about toilet paper in some Baltic language.
What I'm really looking for, by the way, are good deals on bulk buys, so that I can stuff cases of toilet paper and things like that into my upstairs closet and not go shopping for a year.
Well, we usually keep about 3 or 4 big packages in the Harry Potter closet. That lasts us a good long time.
AMDG
I've been watching toilet paper prices for a long time and the best deal for me is Safeway's 2-ply house brand on sale: about 25 cents a roll, or 20 if it's a very good sale. This has been so consistently true, and the sales on the house brand are so frequent, that I've stopped looking at the name brands or clipping coupons for them.
But the REAL savings comes from teaching the little children that tp is not meant to be used by the yard.
Also very true. I am contemplating rationing it by the square -- better to embrace the extreme method, I find, and allow leeway in practice, than to adopt leeway as the method and spend your life buying toilet paper and operating the plunger.
My mom used to limit us to 3 sheets and I got so used to that that I never took 4 til I got out on my own. LOL Now my grandkids take a big wad to wipe their tiny weewee's and I wonder what their mom is thinking to let them do that? LOL
Yes= spices in the Latino section are a fraction of what they cost elsewhere in the store. Other products as well. If you shop at Hispanic stores and Afro-Caribbean stores, other items cost less as well and you can find bar soaps and body soaps cheaper.
As for toilet paper you have to see if the roll is 2-ply or 1-ply to determine the better value, and the number of sheets per roll. Scott tissue on sale is still the best. the regular 1,000 sheet with 2-ply. CVS has a store brand comparable to Scott. I buy this in volume when they have sales. A great deal!
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