That trick only works if you have lots of money. And lots of space.
Do you apply it to other things too, like garbage bags? Or olive oil? What about hand soap?
All of a sudden you're spending 2x normal for a while. Not a lot of people can do that.
Do you apply it to other things too, like garbage bags? Or olive oil? What about hand soap?
All of a sudden you're spending 2x normal for a while. Not a lot of people can do that.
Then stagger it—an extra box of dishwasher tablets this paycheck, an extra box of garbage bags next paycheck. Overall consumption doesn't double.
The space concerns are very real though and probably harder to solve…that's my bottleneck
This makes it trivial to spot cases where the bigger bag is actually more expensive per-unit when you’re at the store.
I guess to compare between different stores you’d still need to make note of the per-unit prices that are listed but still it is helpful even if you went as far as that. I usually buy everything I need at the store closest to my home because they are very competitive on average even if one or two items might be cheaper downtown.
I listed garbage bags specifically because I've noticed recently that the "good" ones (like, large, or strong) are actually quite pricey and often only are available in large quantities (40 count or something). So the price to buy trash bags might be like $20 or something. Buy 2 at once? $40 on garbage bags while grocery shopping? I mean that's a lot, no? To get the good version of something, twice? Not exactly an item for the poor to double-up on.
And suggest the poor buy the less good trash bags that are cheaper? Well then we have shown that garbage bags can indeed be a luxury item even today.
We buy the big store brand box ($15 - $20 for 200). The box is a bit too big to put under the sink, so we put half in another smaller container under the sink. When we refill that container and the box is empty, then it's time to buy more.
Nothing is forcing you to go buy double everything each time you shop.
If cash is tight but you want to implement this scheme, buy an extra unit of one household item (e.g. laundry detergent) your first trip. Hext time, choose another item (e.g. trash bags).
Eventually you've got a backup unit of every item, and you're now just buying your one item on the same consumption schedule, except now instead of replacing the item you're replacing the backup.
When you start, buy one. You assume its good for 20 days. Buy next one on Day 10. Voila, you have the backup now. Now buy next ones, one at a time on 30th, 50th, 70th day. You are 10 days ahead of usage, you always have at least 10 days of runway ahead of you.
Yes, I do it for Grocery, Ice cream, Watet, Olive, Garbage Bags, Dryer Sheets & anything I use regularly.
The ones in use are required in their place. The spare ones can be stuffed at upper shelves, under the sink, under bed or such.
I have seen second toilet roll in many offices & homes, almost every car has a spare tyre, & many other things.
No, detergent is cheap nowadays, and detergents are way more compact now (thanks chemistry) than they were 50 years ago. So space should hardly be an issue.
After the eggs, don't forget space for wind-up travelling salt servers.
(We actually have one of the latter. Not as fancy as the ones in the Hermitage by a long shot, but then again, we're intending to come to a better end than the Romanovs, so we're certainly not going to just cargo cult their flexes.)
As far as I can tell, this HRE example is so posh a salt cellar that it's even useless for actually holding salt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Galleon