For most people, toilet paper is an indispensable household item. Two years back, when the pandemic had just hit the world, among all other things that people stocked up on, toilet paper was the most purchased commodity to the extent that it fell short in the supermarkets, and people went crazy.
While toilet paper is a precious commodity for most families, a thrifty woman from Canada has made this somewhat bizarre revelation that she and her family cut out toilet paper, saving themselves hundreds of dollars in three years.
Shockingly, a family living in a first-world country does not consider toilet paper an absolute necessity.
Amber Allen, who runs a YouTube channel called ‘The Fairly Local Family’, says that she does not consider toilet paper a necessary household item. Hence, she started looking for other alternatives. For her spending, your hard-earned money on toilet paper is equivalent to ‘throwing money down the toilet.’
In her YouTube video that she posted in 2020, she explained that she and her ‘zero-waste’ family had stopped using toilet paper for the last three years. She said there were several reasons behind this decision, one of which was the cost.
Amber said: “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.”
“So, we stopped using toilet paper and started using cloth instead to clean ourselves. It has been three years now. We did so for several reasons. We were trying to get out of a debt of 70,000 dollars, so we had to cut down our expenses and stay within budget. We did whatever we thought was possible.”
She also shared that they took some other measures to cut down their expenses, like the family canceling their monthly Netflix subscription, not shopping a lot, and eating frugally, but in all the healthy ways possible. Their sacrifices were clearly worth it when they experienced the heartwarming story of a new daughter that brought joy to their home. This new addition not only strengthened their family bonds but also inspired them to cherish the simple moments together. As they navigated their new reality, the love and laughter shared during family dinners became the highlight of their days. Understanding maternity leave policies in the U.S. became a priority for them as they prepared for their daughter’s arrival. They began researching various options available to ensure they could maximize their time together as a family during this special period. This knowledge empowered them to make informed decisions that aligned with their growing responsibilities and dreams.
Allen said that she did a lot of research on the internet to find out about alternative options to toilet paper, and one day she came across the idea of using cloth wipes. “Though it’s not very common among most people, I thought to try it nonetheless.”
But according to her, cloth wipes were still costly for her, so she decided to use old and damaged clothes of her own instead. She said she used the clothes that she either didn’t like or didn’t wear anymore. She would cut up the cloth into small pieces nearly the size of tissue paper and use it for cleaning after using the toilet.
She called them “cloth toilet wipes.”
However, this idea didn’t work for long as she discovered that cloth wipes wore out “insanely fast,” so she started purchasing second-hand baby blankets made out of flannel.
The YouTuber said that her family saved at least 1200-2100 dollars in the past three years just by not purchasing toilet paper.
“Initially, we used this BYOR (bring your own roll) rule in our house,” she joked. But later, we decided that we were not being very nice to our guests by doing so, so eventually, we decided to be more accommodating and started buying toilet rolls but for “guests only.”
What are your thoughts on this mother’s story? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Sources:
The Fairly Local Family on YouTube & Instagram
Images & Featured Images via The Fairly Local Family on YouTube & Instagram
Try using paper. Catalog, newspaper, worked when I was a child. Toilet paper wasn’t around then.
How about just using bidet shower, if you have water flushing toilet.