On a roll: Obsessing over TP
Posted
Nov 10 2008, 01:57 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Last week the Boston Gal's Open Wallet personal-finance blog mentioned a Wall Street journal piece about American shopping habits. The newspaper article reported a new consumer trend: buying smaller packages of toilet paper right before payday.
In her short post, Boston Gal gave her opinion of the economic turmoil: that when people need to pinch pennies just to able to buy toilet paper, "this really is a recession with shades of a depression."
I don't know about that. But I'm thankful for the post because it shows that I'm not the only one obsessing over TP.
My current stash consists of 24 big rolls (1,000 sheets each) and 19 regular rolls of Scott tissue, plus 12 double rolls of Angel Soft. I'd have even more if I hadn't recently given a bunch to my daughter and donated some to a program that helps families get out of shelters and into homes.
Some say hoarding is a form of mental illness. But it's kind of impossible to hoard TP. Sooner or later, it's going to be used.
Paper or cotton?
The change in buying habits isn't limited to toilet paper, according to that WSJ article. We're also buying cheaper facial tissue and napkins, and we seem to be leaving our kids in diapers rather than buying the more expensive disposable training pants. A survey of 3,000 consumers indicated that 40% were choosing store-brand paper products over name-brand ones; of those, one-fourth say it's hard to tell the difference.
One difference that's pretty obvious: Store brands cost an average of 46% less, according to the WSJ piece.
Cheaper still are cloth napkins (which can often be found at thrift stores or yard sales), cotton training pants, cloth diapers and handkerchiefs. All four options also produce less waste, but a lot of people just can't get past "eeewww," especially as regards diapers.
We all have our sticking points. My mom was frugal as all get-out, but for some reason the idea of cloth napkins disgusted her. While I carry a cloth bandana to cover up asthma-induced coughing spells, I use paper tissues when I have a cold -- the ick factor trumps my desire to be eco-friendly. Which is silly, really, since there's a washing machine in the basement of my apartment building.
And there are supermarkets and drugstores less than a mile from my place, why this need to stockpile toilet paper as though I might never shop again?
The behavior is mostly price-driven. As I noted in a previous blog essay, "Sneaky coupon tricks," I've gotten four-packs of toilet paper for as little as 9 cents. At that price, why not stock up? Even the store-brand and generic TPs are well over $1 for a four-pack; in some stores, it's more than $2.
I'm always a little amused when news articles report that buying store brands is a hot new trend. Whenever the economy is dicey -- or even seems dicey -- consumers "discover" the cheaper brand.
Never mind that the no-name soup and breakfast cereal have always lived next door to Campbell's and Cocoa Puffs. Suddenly they're new.
How much is too much?
Here's the thing, though: I never buy generic toilet paper. This is not due to a fear of getting splinters from the cheap stuff, although "The economics of toilet paper" mentions that low-end (as it were) paper is "scratchy" and prone to tearing. Yikes. No, the reason I never buy the generics is that I don't have to: By watching for sales and clipping coupons, I get the brand-name TP for a lot less than the generic.
Of course, it usually costs more than the 9-cent price mentioned above. My general rule is that if I can get it for 79 cents or less per four-pack, I'll buy it even if I already have a bunch. As noted above, it will be used eventually.
This habit is 90% frugality and 10% insecurity. Sure, I want to stretch my dollars as far as possible, and it's not as though toilet paper has an expiration date.
But having been fairly broke fairly recently I do fret somewhat, and unnecessarily, about having enough. In mid-September I did a food inventory and was a little startled by how much I had hidden away in my cupboards. It was a wake-up call to stop buying.
Toilet paper is harder to hide, since my bathroom has little storage space. That means that every time I go into my bedroom I see packages of TP stacked in and atop a small wooden storage cube. Part of me is glad to see it: I won't run out anytime soon. Part of me wonders at what point this kind of behavior goes from frugality to fruitcakery.
I'm trying to keep it in perspective, i.e., I saved a ton of money on a necessary product. This is advice I would give to anyone: When you see a great price on something you use often, buy as much of it as you can afford (and store). The bonus for me is that if I have a lot of that product, I can donate it as needed.
Perspective, folks: Save money where you can without it turning into a mania. It's not, for me. Not yet, anyway. After all, I'm not spending my evenings unrolling two-ply tissue and turning it into two separate rolls. Nor am I, thank heavens, reusing the TP. Talk about an ick factor.
