31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Stop Using Paper Goods

Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in  Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.

Here’s my little Happy New Year gift to you. I am happy to bring you a simple, concrete and easy to put in place tip to fuel your efforts to Save Money, Pay Off Debt, and Be Awesome this year. Looking for a quick plan? Well this might not to be the right place for you. Most things done well take time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t begin to implement systems in your life that will help you achieve your goals. I’ve said it many, many times before. Paying off debt isn’t complex. It’s just not easy. You have to punch the clock daily and do the hard work. Here’s another way to make that happen.

Day 29: Stop Using Paper Goods (and other stuff you think you need)

Kicking Debt in the Teeth requires a complete lens change. The more success we had in our journey of paying off $127K, the hungry we began to get to make waves in our finances. While the best changes are made gradually, an overall attitude shift does wonders to help you create cash-flow in places you never know you were splurging.

One simple area where we scaled back on a regular basis was in purchasing paper goods. Let’s begin with a bit of background, shall we? I hate, HATE, H-A-T-E doing the dishes. It is my least favorite chore of all. While many of you have been rocking the frugal green lifestyle for years, eschewing all forms of paper plates, plastic cups, paper napkins, and paper towels, I am a big fan of consumables. Sure I get a little eco-guilt occasionally tossing out dishes after a meal; however, I’m not depleting the world’s water supply by washing all of those dishes right?

While we were paying off debt, I quit buying paper plates, napkins, plastic ware of any kind. No bowls, no spoons, no Red Solo Cup! We did still purchased a limited amount of paper towels (a roll per week) and toilet paper (we just couldn’t go there, friends). We purchased the generic brands and stretched them as thin as we could. I was actually kind of shocked how not purchasing the other items freed up our budget to purchase food. I was never happy about washing more dishes (you should see the load currently sitting in my sink that I’m avoiding). However, it was a necessary temporary change to yield long-term results.

I’d love to tell you that once we were debt free, I never went back to purchasing paper goods. We have a bit more flexibility in our budget to “splurge” (that’s right, paper plates are a SPLURGE folks) on such items now. I still hate doing the dishes, too. That wasn’t magically transformed during the process, either.

Maybe you’ve already eliminated purchasing paper goods? Maybe you haven’t? Don’t tell me you’re doing everything you can. Instead, examine items that you might think are needs and have an honest conversation about whether or not you can cut back. I was SO encouraged by a Money Saving Lord and Lady who told me just this week that they had cut all television and internet out of their budget. Friends, that is counter cultural. We think we need such things but we simply don’t. Do the dishes, even if it’s not your favorite chore, full well knowing that 30 minutes of your hands in the suds will be more than worth it on the other side of freedom.

Have you missed other 31 Ways Posts? Check out:

• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Streamline Your Monthly Bills
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Don’t Tell Me You’re Doing Everything You Can
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Keep Excellent Records
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Pray
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Don’t Quit Even When You’re Weary
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Shop at ALDI
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: No More Excuses
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Knock Off the Pity Party
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Stop Freaking Out!
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: You Can’t Buy From Every Fundraiser
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: It’s an Emergency!
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Clean Your Room!
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Be Careful the Company You Keep
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Visualize Victory
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Get Your Coupon On
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Work It
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in The Teeth: Move It
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Communicate with Your Spouse
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Set Limits
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Dream On
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Quit Eating at Restaurants
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Read a Book, Why Don’t Ya?
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Change Your Mind About Budgeting
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Plan Yo’ Meals
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Use CA$H
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Sell, Baby, Sell
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Stop It
• 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Introduction

Want to be sure you don’t miss a single one of the 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth? Be sure to subscribe to my daily newsletter! Look for the bar that looks like this in the upper righthand corner.

You’ll receive another e-mail to confirm and then daily around 5 pm all of the money saving, debt slaying posts I write will come right to your e-mail inbox!

I’m so looking forward to sharing this month of challenge and inspiration with you. Together, we can show debt who’s boss and give it a swift kick in the teeth this January and throughout the year in 2014. Away we go!

Gain inspiration to pay off debt! Check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free on Kindle.

This post contains affiliate links. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!

Related posts:

31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth in 2014: Use CA$H 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Quit Eating at Restaurants 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Work It 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Clean Your Room!