Today, I’m excited to share a guest post from Heather of Golden Reflections Blog. Please give her a warm welcome!
Thank you Sarah for having me today!
I was recently blessed to attend a large homeschool conference and hear a talk by Crystal Paine at Money Saving Mom. My husband and I have been looking for ways to save money as I recently became a stay at home mom to take care of our 11 month old daughter. I have been trying to keep up with couponing for groceries and we have also been looking at cutting large bills out, such as recently discontinuing our satellite TV. So I knew this talk from Crystal would be exactly what I needed to get some more ideas of ways to save money!
Crystal outlined 25 ways that she has learned to save money over the years with groceries. Some of the ideas I have already done such as using coupons, shopping the sales, etc… Then she said one thing that stuck out at me: cutting out all paper products! My family is notorious for using a lot of paper plates and cups. To be honest, most of the reason is so I didn’t have to do dishes (yes I know, the lazy answer!). With a young daughter and trying to work and everything else on top of it, we had just gone overboard with it.
So I told my husband after the meeting, okay, so maybe I blogged about it and he found out that way! 😉 Anyways… we did end up talking about it and decided to try to cut out all paper products except for paper towels/napkins.
I was then on the hunt for some actual plates to replace our addicting paper ones. Yes, we do have regular plates, but they are heavy glass one and with our daughter’s reach getting a longer reach and stronger, we decided investing in some plastic, yet nice looking plates would be more reasonable for ever day eating.
I decided to try two stores in my search; Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and Target. Bed, Bath, & Beyond’s selection was nice, but all the colors were solids, nothing eye catchy or “cute!” And I have to have cute every day plates! 😉 The price was $2.99 each for a large dinner plate, so I went to Target to see what they had!
Enter, the cute durable, dinner plates from Target! Also $2.99
I was much happier with the designs at Target. So I bought 8 of them; in two separate trips because there were only 4 each time I went!
So now let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how much I am saving by using reusable plates as opposed to paper.
All numbers are based on 1 year of use for a family of 2:
| # Used Each Day | Replace every… | Cost for 1 purchase | Cost for 1 year | Total Savings | |
| Paper | 6 (2 each meal) | 17.5 days | $4.39 (105 plates total) |
$52.68 |
|
| Reusable | 6 (2 each meal) | N/A | $2.99 each
|
$23.92 for 8 plates |
$28.76 |
So just in one year, I am saving $28.76 dollars just in cutting out paper plates! Can you imagine how much you would save if you were a larger family, say 4 or 8?
I am also cutting out disposable cups and going to glass or plastic cups. I am guessing I will be saving at least $50 a year, just by cutting out these two paper products. That may not seem like much, but it could give you extra gas money or to put towards a credit card bill or a house payment! Once my daughter becomes older I plan on cutting out napkins too! And every little bit helps! Add this to your other ways you are saving money and it will all add up!
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Heather is a wife and mother striving to be the Proverbs 31 woman raising a Proverbs 31 daughter! She prays that her word is fitly spoken like apples of Gold in setting of silver.” Proverbs 25:11. She enjoys blogging, photography, cooking, homemaking (including organizing and gardening), homeschooling (she is a homeschool grad also!) and sharing tips from her professional field of Occupational Therapy. You can join her on her journey at her blog Golden Reflections Blog and also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, Instagram, Youtube, and Bloglovin’.[/box]
