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Home > About/Contact Us >> Being Scrooge
"Being Scrooge" or Crunching the £££ numbers
— *UPDATED
Siew-Peng's been number crunching #1 - Flannel Hankies
When hayfever season starts it was not unusual for me to go through three boxes of paper tissue in a week. Hayfever usually lasts about six weeks for me. In a year it would not be unfair to say we went through (2 boxes per week x 6 weeks of the hayfever season) + another 6 boxes for the rest of the year = 18 boxes.
The recycled paper tissue are about £1.50 a box (dearer if you want balm and all that). The annual paper tissue bill could come to £1.50 x 18 = £27.
The bill for paper tissue in the last 3.5 years alone (as I write) would be about £94.50. This would buy nearly 7 Refill Packs at £13.99 each (2008 prices). In reality my son and I share three packs (£41.97) between us, meaning that I have saved some £52 just by switching. (Husband still has a great big supply of old hankies.)
*Check out our NEW Value Packs of made-in-UK (miUK) Flannel Hankies!
Click here to buy.
Siew-Peng's been number crunching #2 - Cosmetic Squares
I do not personally use make-up, so please read the following with a large pinch of salt when it comes to the estimates.
Organic cotton wool pads and balls (the disposable kind) are about £1.99 for a pack of 100. Assuming that one needs three (or 4) a day, one goes through one pack of 100 disposables in 33 (or 25) days. In 365 days, one goes through 1,095 (or 1,460) pads. This would be equivalent to 10.95 (or 14.6) packs of 100 disposables.
At £1.99 each, 10.95 (or 14.6) packs are £21.79 (or £29.05) a year. That's £43.58 (or £58.10) in two years. Or £65.37 (or £87.15) in three.
The reusable Cosmetic Squares on this site are £15.49 (two packs of ten, including P&P, 2008 prices). I think we can safely call this a great saving.
Time to make the switch? Or help someone make the switch?
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*Check out our NEW made-in-UK (miUK) Cosmetic Pads at only £6.00!
Click here to buy.
Siew-Peng's been number crunching #3 - Table Napkins
We used to go through at least one roll of paper kitchen towels in a week. The cheap recycled ones average about 50 pence a roll. In 52 weeks we would have spent about £26. Multiply that by 3.5 years (since we went cloth, as I write) to get £91.
That would buy more than 10 packs of Fairtrade Table Napkins (at £8.50 each, 2008 price). We rotate the use of four sets of napkins (£34), giving us a saving of £57 during this time alone. They would probably last another 3.5 years, at least.
July 2010: My cotton table napkins are still serving us well. Granted, the colours are a little faded, but they have been good value for nearly five years of use.
*Plain Organic Cotton Table Napkins £5.00 for a set of four.
Click here to buy.
Siew-Peng's been number crunching #4 - Cloth Gift Wrapper
On the shelf underneath our coffee table is half a piece of a gift wrapper. I can't think why I still have it, apart from the fact that it reminds me of the last time I actually bought a paper gift wrapper.
Even before I started making and selling the Gift Wrapper Bags on this site I've been 'making' our own wrapping paper. My son and I would -- at messy play time -- do all sorts of painting, with sponges, with strings, with combs, etc on large pieces of paper (try re-using/smoothing out scrunched up packaging paper) and turn these into 'gift wrapper'.
Still these home-made paper gift wrappers could only be used once. So the cloth versions are grand. We have a set at home -- various sizes and colours -- of organic cotton and silk. We keep using the same ones. We don't mind.
Three birthdays a year, one wedding anniversary, Christmas presents for us three and the extended family, birthday presents for our son's classmates, godparents, grandparents, close friends, nieces, nephews, etc. Even if I bought the 20p a piece paper from the lady at the market, that is still a lot of money to spend on some very nice paper that can be used only once.
I can't say I have exactly saved money on this one ... yet. I guess I want to convince myself that I am investing in the future.
If I were to save that 20 pence for the 20 presents (a very low estimate indeed) that I need to wrap, that will save me £4 a year. Except that most gift wrappers are at least 50 pence each. That takes the cost (or saving) up to £10 a year. The Gift Wrapper Bags are probably going to be usable for another 30 years as they are only used at gift-giving times.) That will be £10 x 30 = £300.
I definitely have not paid £300 for the bags I am using. So do think about the money you could save from not using paper gift wrapper.
Could I just say it's a bit annoying when friends and family who have received these bags do not send these back to us when it's our turn to receive presents? Our presents still come wrapped in paper. The reason is people find these bags too beautiful to part with. They find all sorts of uses for them, other than as gift wrapper bags. But at least these bags are not being landfilled.
*Check out our lovely NEW colours.
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These have saved me loads of money - this is my second order! The other bonus is that I don't get bits of cotton wool in my eyes as I inevitably did when using cotton wool pads to remove mascara. They wash very well and all my existing ones are still in perfect condition after at least a year's use. I wash them in the washing machine, in a net bag, and hang them up to dry on the clothes airer with mini pegs. I did 'lose' a few in the early days because I was so used to using cotton wool pads then throwing them in the bin I must have done the same with these squares.
