Tightwad Diary October 15, 2014

While staring at the sewing station my hub set up for me in our bedroom, I'm thinking about what to blog about today.  I am really having a hard time purchasing garbage bags, why are they $400 each now?? Okay, I'm exaggerating, but they're going into the landfill! I've been reading a blog called Zero Waste and she's inspiring me to watch what I'm putting in the trash can in the kitchen including the bag.  One change we've made is the 13 gallon can is now exclusively for recycling, where the "go to the dumpster" trash is gathered in a small office trash can.  We use cloth bags at the grocery store as much as possible, but sadly the plastic shopping bags have made their way into our apartment.  We're using these in the small cans around the house until they run out.  My husband has offered to simply use no bag and he will wash out the trash can when needed.  I'm considering it.  We've started shredding as much paper as possible that would normally have been sent to the dumpster b/c it has the end of our debit card or our name on the envelope.  This has reduced out dumpster going trash by about 25%.  Since we go to the recycling center anyway, my hub had found a few 13 gallons trash bags that are clean and is trying to use them over and over until they're too dirty to keep.  We've also re-claimed some National Geographics from the recycling center that my hub reads and then takes to his dialysis center for others to read.  We cut off the persons name so we're not exposing them and we're surprised others would take the time to bring them to the recycling center but not share them with a nursing home or school? So, back to my topic, I haven't purchased trash bags in about 3 months with a savings of $6 (one box from Aldi's lasts about this long and costs $5.99).