Hints that could help fight growing inflation
Inflation is one of the major problems facing the people in our country. Prices for everything keep going up and up. This affects every person, young or old in our country today. As a retired person on a fixed income, I must find ways to cut my expenses. I cannot do without heat when it is cold, air conditioning when it is hot and my medications. Therefore I must find other areas where I can reduce expenses.
The first place I can start is my bathroom. Toilet paper is expensive and at times hard to find. I can use a substitute. I subscribe to several newspapers that are printed on a softer paper than the Sears Roebuck catalog when it had its place in the “privy” or “outhouse”. I subscribe to one “farm type” newspaper that has several pages, so it will be very helpful in cutting expenses as well as keeping me up to date on all the farm news. I will definitely be getting my “money’s worth” from that subscription. If that “special area” is extra sensitive just make a fold of some of the farm paper, then fold just a couple sheets of toilet paper on top and wipe away! You will still save some money.
Another bathroom expense is toothpaste or denture cleanser. Years ago people brushed their teeth with baking soda and some toothpastes still contain it. Most of those “special” toothpastes are higher in price. At my age no one cares whether or not my teeth are white, cavities are not a major problem and a cup of coffee eliminates the bad taste in my mouth and bad breath and for those of you who wear dentures, they aren’t “sensitive”. So you can either select a plain old type toothpaste with nothing in it (if you can find it) or check the price of baking soda.
Soap and shampoo are other bathroom necessities, however there are some cheap brands in both that, according to the experts, do just as good a job as the higher priced ones. Is it really important that they smell like sun kissed raspberry or lavender and vanilla. Do people you come in contact with make a point of sniffing your hair? I only know one person who does that!
And then there is the bath or shower and either one requires hot water. That requires gas or electricity that is very expensive. It takes a lot of hot water to fill a bathtub, much less for a shower. Why bathe so often? In the good old days, when hot water had to be heated over an open fire or on the coal stove, throughout the week you did a “sponge bath” (unless you were into a really dirty job). Saturday night was “bath night” when the tub was filled up and everyone took their turn. If you are not in contact with people very often, skip taking a bath or shower every day! Just use a little extra deodorant if you have it. In hot weather you can just take the kids out in the yard and turn the hose on them, but remember the pump is running.
After a bath or shower there is going to be wet towels, a bath mat and some dirty clothes to be laundered. The washing machine is a necessity, we don’t want to have to go back to the washboard or beating clothes on the rocks at the creek. In this day and age they say you can wash all clothes in cold water and that the well-advertised laundry soap will get them clean, however I have never understood how you can get grease, grime and manure stains out of clothing without hot water! Laundry soaps are very expensive and there are recipes for making old fashioned lye soap on the internet. I am not sure I want to try it, as it can be dangerous and you might be accused of making something else!
The cost of using a clothes dryer to dry the clothes can be eliminated by putting up a clothes line between two buildings or two posts and hanging the clothes out to dry. You can still buy wooden clothes pins. The only drawback with that is that you have to be on the lookout for rain! You don’t need softener, as the breeze (hopefully there will be one) will blow them all around and make them smell good. Don’t worry about wrinkles and the need for ironing. You probably can’t find your iron or ironing board anyway. Just take a picture of a good looking person wearing a wrinkled outfit and put it on Facebook. It will quickly become the “new thing to wear” just like the jeans with the holes in the knees!
These are just a few hints that could help to reduce expenses in the bathroom and laundry. We will discuss expenses in the kitchen at another time. Why do these ideas for reducing inflation costs remind me so much of my childhood? Those were the “good ole days”! Is that the direction this country is headed?