I cancelled my Radio Times subscription when the email arrived in early January, telling me that it was about to go up to over two hundred and fifty pounds a year. It had been held at less than half that price for two full years and I was happy to pay that much.
I read it virtually from cover to cover, set my recordings up from it for the week ahead, I do most of the puzzles and then hand it over for Alan to have a browse though, so it does get well used. But I was not going to pay that amount.
I did without for three months and then an email pinged into my phone with a special offer for me as 'they had missed me'. Aww how sweet. 😉
I had a think about it, and decided that I would once again pay for a year long subscription up-front for the £104 that they were offering it at, I think it helped make my mind up that my last wage had just dropped into my account and the thought of not having to buy it week by week if I was tempted to, out of my soon to be drastically reduced income would be great.
So it's done and the second of my subscription issues has literally just landed on my doormat.
I have really noticed a difference in the amount of kitchen rolls that I have had to buy this year, since I've been making even more of an effort to pick up all unused napkins from our tray when we are out and about eating. I have to admit to also picking up the some of the large wads of paper napkins that some people pick up for themselves and just leave sat on their table when they go ... only if they are completely unused and clean of course.
I use them to catch the potato peelings, mop up spills on the floor and dry out the dog water bowl that I still put outside the house for passing dogs to have a drink out of after their walk along the canal ... they're with their owners of course. 😄
As for 'dating a toilet roll', I didn't actually go anywhere nice with it ... I was just furthering my toilet roll usage experiment by seeing how long an individual roll averagely lasted me, by writing the day I started using this one. Then Alan suggested as it was still going strong almost a week later I should actually write the date as well as the day.
So I did. 😁
More napkins picked up this morning while I had a coffee while waiting for Alan to finish at the dentist.
Gosh ... I'm on a roll.
Sue xx
You are impressively frugal!
ReplyDeleteIn some ways yes I am. But then that allows me to be a lot more relaxed about other things. After all if you're not buying kitchen roll, you can buy a plant for the garden with a clear conscience. 😄
DeleteI have saved the clean paper napkins from our free tea at Dobbies. I have a large crockery pot full of useful small rags cut from clean old cotton socks and T-shirts for many of the jobs where I used to grab paper towels.
ReplyDeleteI miss the free local newspaper, but some supermarkets similar papers, so useful for lining things and saving mess when cleaning shoes, etc.
T.P. is perforated into single sheets for a reason. Who remember Izal Medicated? It was sold in single rolls, not packs of 9, 12 or 24.
Oh yes, I remember Izal well, it was the only toilet roll that we had growing up. It's best usage was as tracing paper for my homework.
DeleteOxbow lakes lol
DeleteI am going to date my loo rolls and check this myself. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteIt's been an interesting experiment. 😀
DeleteWe had Bronco TP too. And some family members had loo paper in flat packets, single sheet dispensers. But always the hard tracing paper sort! We use 72 loo rolls a year. That's two of us and our many visitors!
DeleteThat's pretty impressive Angela for two of you and guests. 😀
DeleteThe 'Who gives a Crap' company with their extra long rolls, delivered in a box say 1 person uses between 40 and 48 per year. But I reckon it depends if you are at home most of the time or out!
ReplyDeleteI remember that awful Izal stuff mentioned above at grammar school - we pleaded with the head teacher for soft loo rolls but it never happened.
It's funny I don't know when we switched to the 'soft stuff', perhaps it was in 1973 when we moved to a house of our own, instead of living in my Nana's house. 🤔
DeleteI love, love love, your thrifty tips, as I do believe every bit of money saved makes a difference and any chance to reuse/recycle things also makes a collective difference. With regard to The Radio Times, we had the same problem this year with a massive hike. I think they were just trying it on. So what we do when the subscription ends is change the name for the subscriber from me to the mr and vice versa, so far it has worked. Even though we are at the same address.
ReplyDeleteOoh.. perhaps that can be my plan for next year. 😃
DeleteWe did same but just used a different email address.
DeleteThat's nice that the publishers of the Radio Times missed you and came up with a deal that appealed to you. :) Well done reusing the paper napkins and dating your toilet paper roll. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha ... yes. 😀
DeleteI feel if I write about toilet rolls just once more, I will be evicted from blogland ... or given a job at Andrex. 😄
Wow the full price of Radio Times is wicked!
ReplyDeleteYou have a very frugal way of using paper products. I know I use too much kitchen roll so I'm going to make a real effort to cut back. I did bring home some unused paper napkins from when we went for coffee last week and they came in very handy later on. I must make more effort ;)
Angie x
I found actually cutting a sheet in half as and when I need just one has made a big difference in how many I buy. I like Regina Blitz, always buy on offer but only using half a sheet to say, dry washed fruit or veg has really helped. Also, I'd got into habit of using couple sheets to dry my hands, back to a tea towel a day just for that purpose now.
DeleteIt really is Angie it's now £4.95 a copy at it's usual price. You get free delivery with a subscription, but I would only ever buy it on special offer. Definitely keep up with bringing home your unused napkins, I've not had to buy kitchen roll since the start of December. 🙂
DeleteHI, my Mum used to use Regina Blitz and my brother still does, but I prefer the white 'normal' rolls. I always use a tea towel to dry washed fruit and veg, and a hand towel from the bathroom for my hands, so my kitchen roll is predominantly for very messy things ... unless of course I have some free napkins on hand. 😀
DeleteYou've made me chuckle - I once 'dated' a loo roll to work out how many I might need to keep in the campervan for a longer trip, and then slapped myself upside the head realising that when I went into local shops for a food top-up I could also buy toilet paper!
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes the most obvious things that we don't think of straight away isn't it.
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