Saving money by being wasteful

[disneysteve]

Yes, that title is correct. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to be wasteful.

We were out of town this past weekend. Saturday afternoon, my daughter had a craving for ice cream and DW and I were happy to oblige. Rather than finding a local ice cream shop, we instead found a local supermarket where we bought a carton of ice cream and took it back to our room. It was way more ice cream than we would possibly eat but it was also way cheaper than going to a restaurant and getting 3 dishes of ice cream.

The 3 of us had fun grabbing our spoons and digging in. When we were done, we had probably eaten barely a quarter of the carton with the rest going in the trash, but we had only spent $3.99 and the ice cream shop probably would have cost that much for each of us. Sometimes you need to think outside the box to save money.

[jeffrey]

This is often the case if you buy cola as well. You can get a 2 liter bottle for $1 - $1.50 while the 16 ounce bottles will be $1.79 - $2 right next to each other in the same store. They play to the convenience factor since it's easier to carry around a 16 ounce bottle than a 2 liter bottle.

[phantom]

It pains me when being wasteful is less expensive than not. I like saving money, but I really hate to see needless waste.

The lunch area at work has big round tables with tablecloths in our company colors. After a few weeks of use, they tend to get nasty. When this happens, the company just buys new tablecloths. Why not just wash them? Well, the laundering service we use (for people who wear suits and want a convenient way to get them dry cleaned) charges $30 a piece to clean them, and buying a brand new tablecloth costs just $15. Now that I know this, I hesitate to bring it up when the tablecloths are starting to get nasty because I hate to see them just thrown away.

It doesn't bother me enough to offer to start taking the tablecloths home and try washing them myself, but I'm close. I wish we could just stop using the tablecloths. The tables underneath are a little beat up, but they worked just fine before we started using tablecloths.

[creditcardfree]

We once bought a new printer because it was cheaper than buying new ink. This was before refillable ink and refurbished ink cartridges were as widely available. I think I donated the older printer.

[disneysteve]

I really hate to see needless waste.

Me too, especially needless waste of my money.

[disneysteve]

This is often the case if you buy cola as well. You can get a 2 liter bottle for $1 - $1.50 while the 16 ounce bottles will be $1.79 - $2 right next to each other in the same store. They play to the convenience factor since it's easier to carry around a 16 ounce bottle than a 2 liter bottle.

Good point. We buy cans of soda to reduce waste, and also to reduce how much soda we drink. When we buy a 2L bottle, we tend to drink more. Plus it goes flat in a day or two and gets poured out making it not as good a value. With a can, we drink less of it and none goes to waste so we prefer that even if it ends up costing a little more.

[btctony]

We once bought a new printer because it was cheaper than buying new ink. This was before refillable ink and refurbished ink cartridges were as widely available. I think I donated the older printer.

I've done that a couple of times. Ended up selling my old printers with no ink to someone who apparently didn't realize you could guy a new one for less than the cost of ink.

Now I use a laser printer. Personal laser printers have came down a lot in price. Toner is more expensive, but it doesn't dry up and you get thousands more pages out of it.

[Leraldo]

Did you know that companies like HP will give printer almost for free just to buy their ink? The fact is that ink is very overvalued and the actual value of 20-30 EUR cartridge is less the 1 EUR... Fortunately there are fake cartridges that costs significantly less and are not bad.

Good point for the icecream. I'm doing the same way

[LivingAlmostLarge]

DS the ice cream is a good idea, but then I'd eat it! Going to a store limits my intake since I won't order one and DH shares with kids. And they only get a finite amount. Sadly i think we'd eat most of the carton otherwise! Gotta know your bad habits and food is one of ours. We always buy big bag of chips and portion it out. BUT at the same time we try not to buy chips period because we'll end up eating the whole bag versus getting a little bag out. For example right now we have two bags of chips from a party for me and weekend trip for DH. We're finishing both bags rather than throwing them away. And it was cheaper than the smaller bags but it's bad for our waistlines.

[kenp11]

Yes, that title is correct. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to be wasteful.

We were out of town this past weekend. Saturday afternoon, my daughter had a craving for ice cream and DW and I were happy to oblige. Rather than finding a local ice cream shop, we instead found a local supermarket where we bought a carton of ice cream and took it back to our room. It was way more ice cream than we would possibly eat but it was also way cheaper than going to a restaurant and getting 3 dishes of ice cream.

The 3 of us had fun grabbing our spoons and digging in. When we were done, we had probably eaten barely a quarter of the carton with the rest going in the trash, but we had only spent $3.99 and the ice cream shop probably would have cost that much for each of us. Sometimes you need to think outside the box to save money.

Too bad you did not have a small fridge in your room. They are some portable ones in LV and are free for the asking. ( Medical reasons too). Of course you could also get cups for free from housekeeping!!

[disneysteve]

Too bad you did not have a small fridge in your room.

We did have a fridge, but not a freezer. Besides, we were leaving the next morning and wouldn't have been able to take it home.