You Know You’re a Tightwad If…

I scoff at most tips for saving money. “Use coupons when things go on sale.” Hmph. Who doesn’t do that?!

I wasn’t born during the Great Depression. I just act like it. Here are some real tightwad tips:

*Cut the toothpaste or hand cream tube open to get out the last bit.
*Fuse the old soap scrap onto the new bar.

*Buy big boxes of tissue and transfer smaller amounts to cute little designer boxes, which you re-use.
*Use grocery store bags to line the trash can and waste baskets, and use newspaper sleeve bags for pet waste.
*Reuse wrapping paper, gift bags, gift boxes and tissue paper. But not ribbon. Life’s too short to use ribbon at all.
*Buy blank cards by the box and write your own “happy birthday” or “get well” message.
*When tennis shoes show signs of wear, trickle them down to walking in the woods, then to yard work.
*Make a quilt out of t-shirts with sentimental value (i.e. from Billy Joel’s Iron Curtain tour). Use the sleeves for cleaning the bird stuff off the car.
*Use the backs of “Page a Day” calendars for scrap pads.
*Slice out the unused paper from school composition books and spiral notebooks and use for first drafts and lists.
*Tap and shake the ink cartridges to get a few more pages of printing.
Are you shaking your head, saying, “Oh, please!” yet?
The best money-saving tip of all? Stay out of stores.

Contributed by Elaine Jack, Assistant Editor, Today's Family magazine.