Mum of three divulges why her family STOPPED using toilet paper – “I just couldn’t wrap my head around why we were doing that.”
- Replies 31
As inflation rates soar towards all time highs, plenty of Aussie families are left with no choice but to come up with savvy ways to save an extra few bucks these days.
Every single dollar we spend counts and adds up in the long run… So, it’s best to narrow our shopping lists down to only the essentials.
And for most of us, among those essentials is toilet paper. We always dedicate a certain amount of our budget, no matter how tight, to stock up on fresh toilet paper rolls – but one family argued that it’s an unnecessary expense.
Amber Allen along with her family completely stopped using toilet paper three years ago and they claimed it’s one of the most effective money-saving manoeuvres they ever took.
Most of us consider toilet paper essential. Image Credit: The Edwardsville Intelligencer
“We’ve used cloth instead of toilet paper for the past three years,” Amber revealed in a video posted on her YouTube channel.
“We started not using toilet paper for several reasons. We were trying to get out of about $100,000 of debt, so we cut anything out of our budget that we could.”
The mum added that the other measures they took to save money included cancelling their Netflix subscription and completely stopping non-grocery shopping ‘of pretty much any kind’ as well as eating frugally.
“One day it occurred to me, why are we using toilet paper? We are literally throwing our money down the toilet,” she said. “I just couldn’t wrap my head around why we were doing that.”
Amber decided to look up alternative options to toilet paper and stumbled on cloth wipes online – although “not many people were doing it”, she admitted.
In an attempt to minimise their expenses, Amber thought it was best to cut up old clothes that she didn’t like or were already damaged, reusing them as cloth toilet wipes instead of buying new ones.
However, the thrifty mum eventually realised that they wore out ‘insanely fast’ so she opted for buying second-hand baby blankets made out of flannel.
She estimated saving between $1200 to $2100 over the past three years by doing so.
The thing is, the family still does buy toilet paper but mainly for guests’ use only.
“We used to have a BYOR (bring your own roll) rule in our house,” she joked.
But the family wanted to be more generous, now occasionally purchasing a pack of toilet rolls for guests to use.
Amber showcased her re-used cloths. Image Credit: The Fairly Local Family
As for the family’s used cloths, the mum shared that they store them all in a bucket filled with water “to keep things nice and liquidy”.
They make sure to wash the used cloths regularly, with Amber advising anyone who might want to adopt the same method to “please wash your cloth wipes in a separate load from your clothing” after her husband made that exact mistake in the past.
“There’s no coming back from washing your soiled cloth with clothing or bedding without soaking everything in the bathtub with baking soda,” she said.
But Amber doesn’t look down on those who still prefer to use toilet paper, saying: “Do what works for you,”.
She acknowledged that the entire process of using cloth wipes can be time-consuming.
“After using cloth wipes for years, we are kind of getting tired of it,” she said. “It takes work, but we’re going to keep going, for now.”
So, if you’ve been brainstorming new ways to tone down your expenses, you may want to give this one a shot – that is if you don’t mind the extra work.
Do you think this is a good way to save money? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
Watch Amber’s full Youtube video below:
Video Credit: The Fairly Local Family
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. I would not be visiting that house, the whole cleaning process blows my mind…wow, have they not heard of infection & sickness related to excrement???
. Definitely not for me.
