Of all the things I buy at the grocery store, the things that make me cringe the most are the things I buy with the express intent of throwing away.

~Garbage bags

~Paper Towels

~Paper napkins

~Kleenex type tissues

~Bathroom Tissue

~Plastic food storage bags

~I’m sure there are others that escape me at the moment.

Aside from the environmental concerns, I always feel like I might just as well put a $5 bill through the paper shredder every week.

We have all but eliminated paper towels in our house. A couple of well placed baskets of cloth rags have taken their place. I’ve purchased one roll of paper towels in the last year and I can’t even give a good reason for that purchase. Moment of weakness, I suppose.

We do still use plastic food storage bags. But, as the chief lunch packer in our home, I’ve been able to minimize the use. I use reusable containers where I can and we reuse some bags that have only held dry ingredients like a cookie or bread.

Bathroom tissue is one we are stuck with. I know there are alternatives, but our family will likely never be that zealous about saving money or the planet. You do what you can.

Facial tissues are rarely purchased in our home. We’re simple people and make do with the type of tissue that comes on a roll and is conveniently located in the room where we also keep our germ fighting soap and water. 😉

I’d love to find a way to stop buying plastic garbage bags. I can think of many ways to reduce our usage of them. But I fear that elminating them altogether would be difficult.

I am committed to buying no more paper napkins. Before we finish up our current package I will make fabric napkins for our home. I’ve tried this before and I’m not sure why we didn’t stick with it. Time to revisit, I think.

The garbage can is no place for our hard earned grocery dollars.

So tell me, Dear Readers, how do you avoid buying things that are meant to be thrown away?