" Eat the Butt" and Save Money

While shopping, I compared bread costs to try come up with an educated guesstimate of the average price.  There was a wide range of prices depending upon type of bread, name brand, amount of "whole grains"or other specialized ingredients, and size.  Prices ranged from .99 cents for Stop and Shop brand basic white bread to $5.39 for Barowsky's Bread Organic Whole Grain 100% Whole Wheat. Obviously there is a huge difference between ingredients and quality, but, regardless of how much you spend on bread,  you can still create yearly savings for yourself by doing one simple thing: eat the butt!
I know, I know, most people, and children, have a huge problem with the end of the bread, or the butt, as most of us call it.  I used to think that crust was "poisonous" as a child, so that explains my fear until I finally saw that my friends who ate it were still living and breathing.
There are several uses for the butt.  I have children, who are not butt-eaters, who are unaware of my sly fox ways: they eat butt, but don't know it!  My tip is to turn the sandwiches outside in when you make them, meaning, put the butt on the INSIDE of the sandwich.  This works particularly well with grilled cheese sandwiches; however, I have also gotten away with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with my son.  He eats so fast that he doesn't even take a moment long enough to look at his food and figure it out.  I also make french toast out of them.  Once they are cooked, cut up, tossed about on the plate and covered in syrup, it is almost impossible to recognize the butt.
Of course, there is also the classic bread crumbs. Just ripped the slices into small pieces, zap in a food processor to blend until your desired consistency and then toast lightly in the oven.  Another classic use is croutons: cut your slices into small cubes, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and any other spices you like.  Then toast the cubes in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes, stirring to toast all sides.  In both cases you can store in a tight container in a cool, dry place for several days.
OK, now for the yearly savings.  For this example, let's use the average cost of $3.25 for a loaf of bread.  We typically go through 2 loaves of bread per week.  In our bread, there are about 12 slices of bread, so in 6 weeks of eating the butts, instead of throwing them away, we would create an extra loaf of bread. We save, $13.00 per year.
I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but what can you buy for $13.00? More food, gas, a couple of shirts on sale for the kids from Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or WalMart (some of my favorites--more on that later)?  In the savings game, every penny counts.

Save Money While Cleaning Up

In my experience, the job title "Stay at Home Mom" is synonymous with "Cleaner of All Things Dirty."  One way I have learned to "earn" money by saving money is by cutting back on my paper towel usage.

It is easy to whip through several rolls per week without even thinking about it.  Is this mindless wiping?  In search of MY most favorite paper towel, I would have to say the quicker-picker-upper Bounty wins.  One does lasts through several wipes and you can rinse it out and use it again.  I couldn't believe how sturdy this paper towel was! You simply save money by not using as many.  I like to use the select your size type so you can use the smaller ones for little messes.

Which leads to an additional way to save money and "earn" yourself a little extra cash:  use cloth napkins and kitchen towels instead of paper towels. I try not to use paper towels unless it is obviously something that needs to go straight in the trash cash or will completely ruin my kitchen towels.

Let's start with the cloth napkins.  There are several ways to save on these if you don't already have some.  You can buy them from a consignment store or garage sale, buy them in bulk, or make your own all you crafty ladies.  If there are several people in your family, you can do something so everyone can tell them a part and use them more than once if possible.  I've tried several ways and all of them work great:  have a different colored napkin for each person, or a different napkin ring for each person, or have each person keep their napkin at their usual seat at the table, or have the names put on them. You can get white ones and have the family decorate their own with Sharpies!  At Linen Table Cloth, you can buy napkins in sets of twelve for as low as $6.69 for a dozen.  I've also purchased mine at Target  and Home Goods when they are on clearance.  BTW: I never iron mine!  What's the point?

Use your kitchen towels for everything else until you drive them into the ground! By far, my most favorite type of kitchen towel is the flour sack.  It is big, absorbent, sturdy, inexpensive, and I can bleach them.  I have about 2 dozen and use them to pick up spills, dry hands, as place mats for the kids, for washing and drying dishes, and cleaning off counter tops and out refrigerators---just about anything I would use a paper towel for.  I purchased mine on clearance at Target about two years ago and they are still ticking!  I also just found a set of a dozen for $16.99 at Amazon and they come with free shipping for a purchase of $25, so it is a good deal if you buy two sets.  (I have not tried this specific brand, but it has a  4 1/2 star rating).

Once you wade all through that, here is your total yearly savings on papers towels:
A bulk roll of 12 costs on average (without tax) $14, so each roll costs $1.17.  So, if I cut back and only use 1 roll per month instead of 10, I would save approximately $140.40 per year!