I’m really trying to “make things last” to the most extreme degree sometimes, even if that means reusing napkins that I dry my hands with to clean my kitchen counters after the napkins have tried.
- I would never do this with a napkin used to wipe dirty hands, but it still makes me feel terrible having to save something in a corner that I simply used to make my clean hands dry again.
When you’re on a fixed or limited income, you have to come up with unique ways to save money, and sometimes you have to get creative. Even if it means taking leftovers from a meal and using them to make a new meal altogether. I hate to admit it, but this is how a lot of restaurants that I worked for in college did to save money. Sometimes they’d stretch ingredients far past the recommended dates, always leaving me puzzled how all of their patrons did not come down with food poisoning each night. But there are far less dramatic ways to save a few dollars here and there. For instance, some people might mistakenly assume that HEPA filters are like HVAC filters and need to be replaced every three months at least. Some people will even replace their HVAC filters once a month. However, HEPA filters are nearly twice the thickness of a random MERV 8 HVAC filter, so they can be left in your air purifier for as long as six months. If you’re a smoker, you might need to replace your HEPA filter more often than six months, but I don’t have this issue. On top of that, the pre-filter is made out of activated charcoal and it prevents dust buildup in the HEPA filter, making the latter last longer.