Thursday, May 20, 2010

Too poor? Or too rich?

My sister in law once bought me a "rag mop" head made of strings. I guess she thought I couldn't afford to buy one, since I was using real rags, which lasted much longer and didn't come apart all over the floor.

Mom once bought me a package of paper napkins, since I was using cloth ones.

There are other examples, but I'm curious: do other people think you're too poor to buy wasteful products?

Then there are those who look at my cloth napkins and go something like, "Oh, my, we just use paper napkins; this is nice." I guess she didn't know that my version is cheaper than hers - buying disposable napkins over and over and over again.

So which is it? Poor or rich? I know one thing. I'm richer by using cloth napkins and real rags in the mop than I would be if I bought those things over and over and over...

21 comments:

  1. Well, I confess that my family uses paper napkins, but I haven't bought paper towels for years! However, my mother-in-law gave me an awkward look recently when she asked where I kept my paper towels, and I responded, "We don't use them." I gave her a real kitchen towel instead, but I don't think that's what she wanted to use. I also make my own chicken broth, which was a novel idea to her. She did want to have my recipe for homemade laundry detergent, though.

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  2. Course, these days you just say, "but it's better for the environment!"

    A story comes to mind: My late DM was a wonderful seamstress; made all her own clothes. One year, her sister bought her a dress, saying she should have something that wasn't homemade. That didn't go over too well ... that and the fact that the dress wasn't her style.

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  3. Oh, yes, I know that look. :) If she makes laundry detergent, maybe she'll come back for more. Who knows? Maybe one day she will quit buying paper towels, too.

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  4. DW, they just don't get it, do they??

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  5. I think I can explain why they buy us those things - although it's always a guess when you're speaking for someone else!

    They love us, and they want us to have things that THEY VALUE.

    We value our cloth napkins, our dustrags cut out of worn clothing, our washed baggies hanging up over the draining rack, and our homemade lasagna. These things represent what is important to us. We are happy to use them, and their quality is usually better than store-bought.

    Some of our loved ones don't value these things the way we do. They want to save us some time and work, so they buy us something that they think will make us feel pampered, so we will know how much they love us.

    We, in turn, want to show them how much we love them, so we give them gifts of frozen homemade lasagna, or a nice stack of homemade potholders. We feel that we are giving them the gift of time when we make things for them that they don't have time to make.

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  6. I think some people suspect that my husband and I are too poor to get cell phones. They can't imagine why else we would live without these "necessities"!

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  7. As mentioned in a previous comment I am an oddball to the outside world! I use cloth napkins too and those old torn up shirts and dare I say underwear for rags. We preach about carbon footprints and leave a huge trail! The world's idea of going green is to tell you how green their products are so you can buy them instead of making them yourself! At this point I am having issues on so many of these very subjects! Like a $15.00 Camping Workshop someone wants me to attend. Are they kidding? I've been camping my whole life since when do I need to pay for someone to tell me how to camp! It's something you just do! If you forget something you'll remember next time and besides most places have a store on premise or close by where if you really have to you can get to. Another person wants me to pay to go star gazing! Are these people serious? All I have to do is pull up a lawn chair in my own backyard and look up! If I really want to see whats going on up there I can research it for free on the internet! Why can't people just enjoy the simple things without getting all complicated over it! Gosh I swear these people would have a freak out if they got to actually catch fire flies! I so miss the old days when you enjoyed these simple pleasures!

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  8. You know, you may be right, "Anonymous." That makes sense!

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  9. Again... some people just don't get it when you don't use a cellphone or prefer to gaze at the stars from your own lawn. I suspect that some people would call a humane society if you tried to catch fireflies. :)

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  10. Pat,
    You are so right! I say what's there NOT to get? We have been so brainwashed into thinking that if we don't have the latest than we are with the dinosaurs! Really I can't believe how many people follow along blindly and wonder why they have to work 2 and 3 jobs to pay for it all!

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  11. "if we don't have the latest than we are with the dinosaurs!" How true that is. People think I'm old fashioned or worse. :)

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  12. We just have to stop filling these landfills and the companies keep creating more and more disposable products.... It is weird how they are marketed as cheap when they are clearly not :(

    Thanks,
    Forest.
    http://frugalzeitgeist.com

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  13. I agree, Forest. Cheap means different things according to what they want us to do, I think.

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  14. I home school my child and people think I live with the dinosaurs too! My 15 1/2 year old is old fashioned still collecting eggs from our chicken coop!

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  15. If you're 15 1/2 year old is old fashioned and still collecting eggs, I'd say you're doing a great job as a parent. I'm glad for "dinosaurs"! :)

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  16. I wash zip-lock baggies. Not just the big ones, all of them. Any given time you come over i may have them lined up across the counter drying out. Friends and family think i am nuts but i do it for two reasons, the price of continuing buying more and keeping them out of the trash.

    I like to tell people, "sure i can buy another box of baggies, or i can wash these out and spend the $1 for a bag of jelly beans. I like jelly beans a lot more".....

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  17. I wash zip locks, too. :) I also wash bags that frozen vegetables come in (they're freezer bags!) popcorn bags with a zip lock and so on. Too poor or too rich... I just got back from a spur of the moment 800+mile round trip, paid partly by washed plastic bags and cloth napkins. ;)

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  18. People say that about my cloth napkins all the time. They think they are being treated so special, (which I am actually, but the kids get cloth ones too) I just smile and say "You are special!" while grinning to myself about money saved.

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  19. Hi. My mom and I make matching sets for ourselves comprising of aprons, tablecloths, sm appliance covers, and cloth napkins.(Curtains would be fun too.)It's fun and easy to personalize or switch per season!

    My husband is a Mickey Mouse fan so we edge kitchen towels in Mickey fabric and do linen sets.

    My mom has been edging bath towels to match our themes for years. Combined with dollar store cutouts such as fish the bathroom looks custom very easily!

    My kids think everyone else is nuts for buying cookie-cutter Walmart stuff!

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  20. "My kids think everyone else is nuts for buying cookie-cutter Walmart stuff!"

    And so they are! LOL

    Great idea, by the way. I make a lot of things including napkins, aprons and so on, but never thought to make matching sets.

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