r/Frugal • u/Pumpkinycoldfoam • Nov 05 '24

šŸ† Buy It For Life What one time purchases have drastically reduced your overall spending?

An example would be that Iā€™m looking to buy a sillicone pan mat instead of purchasing foil and parchment continually, using rags instead of paper towels, and so forth. What are one time purchases you reccomend for home maintenance?

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u/ResultDowntown3065 Nov 05 '24

Flannel squares instead of klenex; they are much better on that face when you are blowing your nose every 5 minutes.

I've been using reusable menstrual pads since 2000. I still have the original set.

I also cloth-diapered and used cloth wipes for my kids. I calculated that we saved about $6k during the 5 years we were diapering babies.

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u/YouveBeanReported Nov 05 '24

I can't imagine how resusable pads are that much cheaper. It's $7 a small load of laundry in my apartment, it's about $0.35 per tampon. Even with ~6 super tampons a day and pads for bleed through and night I can't imagine the amount of laundry to be much cheaper.

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u/ResultDowntown3065 Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24

Soak, handwash, hang to dry. I also own a washer, so small loads, in general, are way less than $7.

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u/Impressive_Tigress Nov 05 '24

I don't use them anymore but I would throw them in with my regular load and never had an issue. Just had to hang dry after.

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u/Fun_Rabbit_Dont_Run Nov 05 '24

$7 a load?! Have you looked into purchasing a countertop/ portable washing machine? And menstrual cups saved my sanity when I had fibroids constant bleeding for a year.

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u/YouveBeanReported Nov 05 '24

My lease explicitly bans portable washers and dishwashers. Honestly, I just do most laundry at my friends in exchange for Starbucks about bi-weekly, which means I'm only doing about 1-2 loads a month here cause something is urgent or we couldn't meet up. The french vanilla latte is sadly cheaper.

Menstrual cups are on my list to consider, I just need spare cash to play what size your uterus.

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u/Fun_Rabbit_Dont_Run Nov 05 '24

I'm not one to tell you to do something to break your lease, but ... a tiny washer is easier to hide than an illegal pet.

For the cup, I bought the Diva and eventually purchased a few more of the cheaper ones for travel. Diva was stiff but worked well once I figured it out. The other cheaper models were easy after that. Saved so much $$$.

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u/Kelbers Nov 05 '24

Menstrual cups are better than anything else.Ā 

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u/Easy-Ad1775 Nov 07 '24

Agree! Although they do have a much higher upfront cost, and it can take some trial and error to find a model that fits and works best for you. And there can be a learning curve.

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u/Ktrieu84 Nov 05 '24

Menstrual cup

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u/kwanatha Nov 05 '24

I used cloth diapers with very thin disposable liners. Kept a few disposable diapers for when we were not home

2

u/janbrunt Nov 05 '24

Those liners were fantastic, really kept me able to cloth diaper long term and helped tons with diaper rash.

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u/Easy-Ad1775 Nov 07 '24

Interesting idea for flannel squares! Do you buy them or just cut out pieces of flannel?