(bolding mine)
Please tell me you’re joking! :eek:
I’m getting ready to buy new flatware. This thread has given me the courage to throw out my old flatware when I get the new. Once I have a nice matching set there is no reason to keep the old. Thank you SDMB!
That reminds me! My measuring spoons have come off their ring and gone through the garbage disposal. I only know where the 1/4 tsp, 1 tsp and 1 TBS are. They’re all rusty and bent, so their measurements are probably completely inaccurate.
That’s it! I’m splurging on a new set!
I only have three pairs of shoes:
Timberlands (day-to-day comfy)
Crocs (warm weather)
Work shoes
I cannot for the life of me work out why any man would need more than that.
As for the rest of this thread - I am astonished and somewhat depressed by most of it, as much of the behaviour exhibited seems based on cost and convenience, rather than plain common sense.
Yeesh, I just throw it in the washing machine.
Your wife is brilliant! Best idea ever.
I think the point of the thread is that “cost and convenience” and “plain common sense” are not mutually exclusive.
One more I’ve thought of…
Floor mats for your car.
Why spend hours trying to vacuum/wash out ground-in stains and dirt?
Toss them and buy some replacements at your local auto parts store.
Spend a little more and you can get custom fit with embroidery if you like.
How were you able to narrow the bolding down to just one part!
Handi-Wipes? I re-use them, but just for a short time, when it falls apart anyway.
I can’t imagine washing and ironing them. How much is she really saving, when you add up the cost of washing it and ironing it, plus her time wasted?
I can’t imagine throwing away Teflon pans. I bought two nice Teflon skillets years ago (a small one and a large one), and they’re in great shape. Take care of them and they’ll last forever.
Socks - I understand a bit. I would never wear them once and toss them, but I do buy plain white socks in large bunches and then I can just toss one if it gets a hole. There will be plenty of mates left.
AuntBeast, I also suffered from the “I might need that” disease.
I just moved a few months ago, from a 4-bedroom house (with a full basement, attic and garage) to medium-sized 2-bedroom apartment. I was amazed at how much crap I’d accumulated over the previous 13 years. I was ruthless, and pared down my belongings.
I have those in brown and in black, and I wear one or the other almost every day. The other day, though, I accidentally put on one black one and one brown one. :smack: I noticed before I got too far down the road (I was walking to class) and was able to go back and correct my error.
I do have a few other pairs of shoes (two pairs of sneakers, black dress shoes, a pair of sandals I never wear because I prefer wearing socks, a dying pair of black boots), but I could easily survive with just those two, or even just the black ones.
I told my mother to do something like this when she went to Turkey last year. The trip cost about $4,000 (it was my birthday present to her) and so I told her to just buy some ultra-cheap t-shirts and whatever that could be abandoned along the way. She’s got a bad back and is limited to what she can carry. As she bought souvenirs she would lighten her clothes load.
The whole one- or two-pair of shoes thing is about to give me hives. I’m terribly devoted to my shoes and probably have 50+ pair. I wear them all too; in fact I just gave about 12 pair I wasn’t wearing to a girl I work with who had weight-loss surgery and went down a couple shoe sizes. (So 50 is my post-gift total!)
I’m not criticizing or looking down on the one-pair crowd … just amazed at how different we all are! 
Another point, though – I think some of us here are having a conflict between being thrifty to the point of absurdity (which is what I thought this thread was about) and the very real need to not participate in the disposable society phenomenon. “Reuse” after all is one of the three R’s – Reduce Reuse Recycle – and when it makes sense, do it. But if you’re losing your eyesight trying to read a crudded-over, inaccurate measuring cup, it’s time to face reality and buy a new one.
I bought two pair of shoes (one brown, one black) last weekend. With luck, beside buying an annual pair of tennis shoes, those will last me for several yers so I don’t have to buy more. I do have barn boots both mid-calf and ankle high and a pair of warm hikers that I wear in the winter doing farm work, but shoes just don’t interest me. I want comfort and durability.
StG
I know. This thread is cringe-a-rific. But I’m guilty of my own variations - bath mats and towels. My mother washed the same bath mats and towels for decades, even going so far as buying Rit dye to re-dye the same ones several times. I buy new (inexpensive) towels about every three years - when they start dangling threads - and new cheap bath mats about every year. The cat sleeps in there, you see, and likes to shred towels and shed on the bath mats (and occasionally pee on them for good measure.) Plus, it’s a great way to make-over your bathroom without having to actually do anything hard, messy or very expensive. It’s certainly the most impact for the buck, and I feel like Martha freakin’ Stewart, getting my nesting/redecorating itch scratched for less than $150. Much cheaper - economically and environmentally - than, say, redoing the living room that often.
But I have to admit, I’d plant something in the old measuring cup, or throw it in the kids’ toybox, or use it to mix paint in or something. It might not be worth it as a measuring cup anymore, but chances are it’s good for something. BUT, the real challenge is doing something with it. If I don’t have a plan for it, out it goes. That’s how I’ve (mostly) cured myself of my packrat ways. I have to love an item, use an item regularly or have a specific plan for an item within 12 months, or it goes to the thrift store or the trash.
I remember reading a book once about a woman raised in West Africa who was astounded, upon moving to America, that we’d throw out the perfectly good glass jar that pasta sauce came in, and then spend money on Rubbermaid storage containers.
Oh I know! I can’t imagine having just one pair… but I can’t imagine having fifty either! I have… 9. Sandals, a couple pairs of flip flops, slipppers, work boots (steel toes, required), winter boots, ankle boots, dress shoes (to go with my suit) and sneakers. For different weather and different requirements of my life, but I have the minimum I need.
There is a line to straddle I think. The socks? That just strikes me as over it, but most of these it make sense.
Oh FINE - I’ll wear them twice. Does that make you guys feel better?
Only if you wash them between wearings. 
I bought some Dannon brand water in 1-gallon jugs awhile back because they were on sale for 99 cents and the jugs are really nice - I knew I could re-fill them and keep them under the counter for when the power goes out (we have a well, so no power = no water). My husband saw me filling them up and said, “You know, if we were in the Phillippines you’d practically get mugged for those containers.” Having spent quite a bit of time there, he saw how poor so many of the people were and how pretty much nothing went to waste - an item many of us here would consider useless and toss away without a second thought could have many uses to someone whose situation isn’t as fortunuate. Being really poor can make you pretty creative.
Yes. Aerosol oven cleaners and WD40 are bad for the environment.
My SO and I talk about this all the time! Both sets of my grandparents were pathologically thrifty and my parents were also extremely thrifty (a necessity, being poor with six kids). As an adult I rarely replace things like: towels, sheets, pillows, underwear, socks, bras, etc. I wear t-shirts until they literally rot off of me (I have one on now).
I also have to struggle to replace household things like nasty old toilet seats, shower curtains, curtains, and rugs. Since my parents didn’t ever buy these things, to my mind they must cost hundreds of dollars. I have pushed myself to replace these things as they wear out.
It nearly killed me to buy a new mattress set!